Reflective Synopsis

In the beginning God created man and he was well pleased. Then we evolved to want to be closer to God; we want to know it all. We now think we do know it all, well not really, but we do have access to all the information we need or could ever want; as well as the things that we really don’t need, or want to know. As Smith Lynch and Knight (2007, p. 44) tell us, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have grown at a very rapid rate in the last twenty to thirty years. Therefore, we need to be teaching students how best to use the abundance of information so readily available to them, by making it work for them. Lynch and knight (2010, p.46) explain how web based learning is so effective and versatile that it is “commensurate to the computer resources available to the student and the quality of their communications link”. With all this new information and ways of utilising it we as Learning Managers (LM) need to be ahead of our students as much as possible.
In the beginning of this course I felt like I was lost. I know how to use online gadgets, but have never really gone too in-depth with the creating of meaningful content in any of them. At first I was a bit sceptical of how ICTs would be of any use to me. After looking through all the suggested online tools I have been able to find a number that would be valuable for use in the Manual Arts Department.
Firstly I realised the use of YouTube would be valuable as you can read in my blog reflection there is quite a big difference between how schools deal with mobiles in the classroom there are quite a few arguments in either direction as seen in the mobile wiki exercise. Also the structure of how to teach ICTs can be just as varied as the resources themselves, as you can see from this list of styles. So the big question is how best to go about teaching the tools to the students. Well like I just said there are just as many ways as there are tools, so you need to find the one that best suites you and what will best suit your learners.
The mobile phone can be utilised in a varity of ways. The ability to record video to create a YouTube clip is one way, calling someone who has more knowledge when you get stuck with with a problem is another, taking photos to show others what you have built; and the list goes on. All these things can be put into a practical understanding such as when you are on site and need to know how to do something, calling an experienced person to get ideas, Taking photos as samples of your abilities, so as to build up a portfolio so others can see what you are capable of creating. Access to YouTube also allows students to use their higher order thinking to look for and assess other ways of doing things; such as alternative ways of marking out or cutting a dove tail joint.
Next  I thought, how can I best use these clips, photos and information to help the students learn, plus, show me what they are learning. A Blog or a website would be a great place to centralise all the information. I have set up a website as an example of how all this information could be used. In my website Manual Arts Projects my hope was to set it up, so that each year has a page and they can submit their photos, videos or text to the page so that everyone can see what the department is doing plus what has been made in previous years. The website would be more of a viewing port than an interactive tool. The use of a blog would be more accustom to recieve input from all students, a wiki would be another interactive group sharing tool but as I said in my blog about wikis, I don’t feel it is an appropriate tool for collaboration in this context, as it would be too much of a temptation for some, to alter the content to be destructive or inappropriate. It is these types of possible activities that are stiffleing the leap forward needed by the education system (Knight and Lynch, 2010 p. 49). Knight and Lynch also reveal that the one way method of teaching is becoming more and more irrelevant, this includes the use of on line tools. Now, interaction is the key to successful engagement with the students.
Before we start to look at learning online interaction; we, as Learning Managers (LM), need to understand the rules of online engagement. As a LM we need to ensure that all students know and understand the rules before we ask them to go online. The rules can be a made up as a part of the classroom lesson, letting the students guide the rules or they can be accessed online (Safe internet surfing. n.d.). Examples can be used such as I have done for my forum.
Another great online tool is the forum this is a great way to collaborate with others. There are forums set up for most things you can think of. The use of a forum can be another tool that will help the students to work on and evolve their higher order thinking. There can be a lot of bad information on a forum, but generally they are set up so that we have a way of helping each other out with what ever problem we have, or just to share things we have learnt or created. The forum can be confined to particular members only or open to the general public, plus the teacher can have complete control of the content. If there is any inappropriate content the teacher will know who put it there and is also able to remove it.
The next tool that I found usefull is the timeline. This is another tool that can be utilised to enhance the thinking of students, by getting them to think through the process of building something and possible deviations. It can also be used to plot their progress on a job, so that they can be made aware of the difference between how well they think they are progressing and their actual progress. This can be used to develop their Habits of Mind, such as, being accurate, restrain impulsivity (falling behind from going off task), Persevere (keep to timetable or make up time), Plan appropriately (have a realistic timeframe) and evaluate the effectiveness of your actions (Marzano & Pickering, 1997).
Finally I created a prezi. This was not as straight  forward to use as the other tools but I was impressed with how engaging it was. I could see this tool being of use in a number of ways; as a presentation of what is to come in the lessons ahead. It could also be used as a sum up of the journey through the production process, similar to my example. It can also be created in conjunction with a blog and used as a progress presentation for their construction piece.
In conclusion all these tools that are readily available on the net can be of great use to help the LM to engage, encourage and build up the learner through developing their Habits of Mind and getting them excited to use tools that are relevant; and a medium they are intouch with. The real challenge is for us, as digital imigrants, to teach those who are digital natives; and not lose them,
for lack of knowledge on how things work in the new information age. 

If you need a break there is always a distraction online, this is another problem with using the internet. So lets see, can you resist or will you come back later.

References

Knight, B. A. & Lynch, D. (2010). Applied learning management: New approaches for the new millennium. Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Australia.

Lynch, D & Knight, B. A. (2010). The theory and practice of learning management: A text for the student of learning management. Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Australia.

Marzano, R. J., & Pickering, D. J. (with Arrendondo, D. E., Paynter, D. E., Blackburn, G. J., Brandt, R. S., … Whistler, J. S.). (1997). Dimensions of learning teacher’s manual (2nd ed.). Alexandra, VA: ASCD. 

Safe Internet Surfing. (n.d.). Tips for safe surfing. Retrieved from http://www.safesurfingkids.com/tips_for_kids.htm

Smith, R., Lynch, D. & Knight, B. A. (2007). Learning Management: Transitioning teachers for national and international change. Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Australia.

Appendix
http://mark-hodge.blogspot.com
http://www.dipity.com/BlueElephant/House-Contruction/#timeline
http://prezi.com/mdncy-p_vqg3/the-process-of-creation/?auth_key=73745aec3bdc8c167a10ffe2485df15e3127aa6b
http://manualarts.lefora.com/
http://manualartsprojects.weebly.com/
http://fahe11001gladstone.wikispaces.com/

Time to draw a line in the sand and take a step forward.

Bring it on. I am just constantly learning new programs that i can use in teaching my students. I like how this timeline program works. Being able to add pictures and descriptions of the projects or events. This could be used in the class by letting the students document their progress on a project. Hopefully this could let them see that they are progressing at a good rate as well as comparing to those in another class. It even has the possibility to be used with another school who may be working on a similar project and compare how each class is progressing. Students could use this to research how a project would progress and the stages of a project before they start doing the practical part of the project.
This is a very easy tool to use and would take no time at all for the students to work out how to use it.
I have started progressing the timeline of building a house. Students could do a similar project and have to talk to builders and search the internet to get an understanding of timeframes for processes.
Here is my time line. It's progressing very well which is very unrealistic.
My Timeline

A Prezi for you. Happy Birthday!!

I just finished having a play with the Prezi program, very interesting. I think with a little more time to play with this and it wouldn't take long to get good at it.
I can see how this could be used in the classroom very effectively. The whole things is quite engaging and easy to watch. Students would be less likely to find it boring; unless you used them all the time. I would even encourage students to use it as an alternative to powerpoint for presentations. It's great that it has the versatility to be shared, downloaded and editable by everyone, viewable by everyone or only for personal viewing only. It can be linked to the website or downloaded, a copy can be saved onto your account page, it's very versatile.
Picture, video, tables, charts and much more can be added into the Prezi. This was not a program that could be just walked straight into and do a great job but there are good tutorials and help pages. I would like to use this sometime with a class. It's amazing how much great stuff there is out there that we can use in our classrooms to help engage the students and hopefully get some higher order thinking and researching skills.
If you're interested here is - My Prezi
 As with most of these things it's a work in progress and i hope to finish it in the not too distant future.

It can only be good Forum.

I've been thinking about how a forum is useful in Graphics as there is a community setup for users of Autodesk software; where anyone can go to find answers for any, well at least most, of their questions about using the program. It is also possible to upload any designs you've created that you would like to share with others.
At first i didn't see how this type of ICT could be used in the area of Manual Arts. Then i realised that it would be a great place for students to go to add their ideas about what projects they would like to work on. This enables everyone to post an idea and give an opinion on what they would like to do after considering all the other suggestions. Guidelines can be set and the discussion monitored quite easily. This can be used to guide class discussions and a good way of getting everyone to try and work together and learn to compromise.
Please check out my forum and add what you think would be a good project while still following the criteria.
My forum - 207904

A bit Weebly on my feet

The weeblies are a step up again from the blog. There is a lot more control over the layout and more content can be added. Better layout, with the ability to put different things on to different pages, is a great advantage of the website over the blog. In a learning situation this could be used for setting up class examples of work, a different page for each class. This allows one class to see what the other classes are doing. Younger years can see what what they could be doing in the next years class, something to look forward to (or maybe a reason to change subjects), this gives them a bit bigger scope of understanding where the subject will lead.
I have just found out that pages can be password protected, this would be very usefull for restricting information to a specific class or group of learners.
I found the setup of the website a very easy thing to do. The variety of layouts and the versatility of being able to add pages and protect them from viewing to be a great asset.
Also i just found that a page can be on the site but hidden from view on the main menues, only accessable with an address accessed by typing in the address or using a hyperlink.
Here is a basic website for a Manual Arts Department Hope you enjoy.