Reflection 3 - Week 4

Digital Images, Podcasts and Digital videos. 

Source: www.coetail.com

Images are an excellent way to attract the attention of students. Images can be used along side verbal and written text to help explain a concept to students. Having a visual is very beneficial in helping students to learn. Visual literacy is an important skill for students to master, as they will require visual literacy outside of school. ‘Visual literacy is the ability to see, to understand, and ultimately to think, create and communicate graphically’ (Thicault, M. & Walert, D. www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/675).

Source: www.kidsmathgamesonline.com

Images are an essential part of mathematics. Having a visual diagram, whether created by a student or given to the student assists with understanding and learning of mathematical concepts.

Source: www.97634.blogspot.com

When using digital images I did not like the idea of using flickr in a classroom setting. I believe this tool is more for students to use in their own personal time. I do not like the idea personally of students publishing photos on a social media platform for classroom activities. I feel that there is too much risk involved of students misusing the tool and also for the reasons of child and cyber safety.

After looking at podcasting I can see how they can be a great benefit to a classroom. By recording a lesson student that did not get a full understanding of the topic taught can be listened to again, gaining further understanding. It is also beneficial to students who are away from school due to illness or injury. They will be able to access the podcast and keep up to date with school work, resulting in less falling behind.

I attempted making my first movie using Windows Movie Maker. I actually found it to be quite easy to do. This would be great for students to use when putting together photos from an excursion. Below is a quick look at my movie making attempt. It is a movie on the recently completed renovations of my house. 

SAMR

In the enhancement stage of SAMR (Substitution and Augmentation) digital images can substitute handouts. Now with students having laptops at school they can save the images to refer back to at a later date.

In the transformative stage (Modification and redefinition) students can use digital images to create their own images and diagrams of a topic showing their understanding. 

Important Considerations: Cyber Safety and Permissions

All these tools bring up the question of cyber safety, permissions and students using the tools correctly. I do believe that some students whom participate in unsolicited behaviour on online tools do not know or do not comprehend the consequences to their behaviour. If I was to use any of these tools in the classroom for student assessment I would create strict guidelines that are given to the student and parent. These guidelines would need to cover correct use of the ICT tool, copyright information, referencing of work, online etiquette and behaviour and consequences of using the ICT tool for purposes other than the task allocated. If these are not followed it would result in removal from the student participating in the assessment and ultimately failure of the assessment. I would anticipate that schools have rules and policies already in place when it comes to using this type of ICT tools. If an image of a student was to be used for a lesson, for example, an image of a student participating in a class activity it is extremely important to have up to date permissions from parents/guardians of students to be able to use images on any format. 

References:

Thibault, M & Walbert, D. Reading Images: an Introduction to Visual Literacy. Retrieved 01/04/2015. www.leannc.org/lp/pages/675.

Circle Basics Diagram. Image Retrived 01/04/2015. www.kidsmathgamesonline.com

Visual Literacy. Image Retrieved 01/04/2015. www.coetail.com

Cyber Safety. Image Retrieved 01/04/2015. www.97634.blogspot.com

Cyber Safety Meme. Image Retrieved 01/04/2015. www.googleimages.com