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The Net Generation Mindmap

When we begun our assignment we used the program Inspiration to help brainstorm our ideas. Once we had brainstormed our ideas we decided what type of media we would like to include in our blogs and formulated this list:

*Video

*Interview

*Survey

*Pictures

*Comic

*Mindmap

*Vodcast

We wanted to vary the medium we used to present our information to ensure that the blog was engaging for the responder. This also allowed us to experiment with a variety of programs and operations.

We then decided what posts we would like to do and how these posts were going to cover all the information we raised in our brainstorming. We decided that we would continue to organise our information under three sub headings; Digital Natives, Games Culture and Typical activities of the Net Generation.

We believed it was important to understand who the Net Generation are and how they are different from other generations. We presented this information by showing a short video and giving a summary of the relevant literature so our responders could understand what we were referring to. We then elaborated on this information by creating a slideshow which we published in Slideshare. This Powerpoint Presentation explained not only who the Net Generation is, but their expectations in the classroom, how research says they learn best, and the implications of this research for teachers. This allows our responders to gain a deeper insight into the current pedagogical practices suggested for teaching digital natives, and also an understanding of digital natives views on teaching and learning.

We then chose to discuss the debate on using electronic games to aid learning. We both found this topic extremely interesting and relevant to our teaching. We found an extraordinary amount of information on this topic and decided to seperate this information into two posts. One discusses the social implications that can occur when children play computer games, and the other discusses games as stimulants in the classroom and how electronic games can be used to motivate students.

We then held a group forum with seven primary school students to find out their opinions and experiences with electronic games. The results were very interesting and we referred to current literature and newspaper articles to try and outline the implications these student opinions have in an educational setting. We also found it interesting to visit and review some popular online games sites to see what is available for students.

Finally we explored social networking online. We thought it would be a good start to find out what social networking is, and review some of the worlds most common sites to see what students in our classes are exposed to. We then interviewed a high school teacher who uses Facebook and other virtual spaces to communicate with her students. We filmed this and uploaded it as a vodcast so we could share her experiences with others.Similarly we created a post outlining our personal experience creating a class website and a class blog.

We experienced some challenges along the way. Edublogs would not let us embed videos into our blog due to spamming. We had to become creative and use hyperlinks and pictures to ensure that people were able to easily access the things we were discussing. It was also time consuming to learn to use a new range of programs including; Inspiration, Slideshare, and Blip TV.

Overall this was an extremely positive experience and we feel that we have learnt so much from doing it. It is really interesting to learn more about the type of students we will encounter in the classroom, and we can already see how the theoretical information correlates with our personal experiences. We are both eager to have the opportunity to incorporate all the different strategies and activities we have learnt about into our classrooms.

References

• BlipTV, 2005. Blip T.V. Retrieved on 10.10.10, from: Blip T.V., www.blip.tv
• Edublogs, 2010. Edublogs Retrieved on 10.10.10, from: Edublogs, www.edublogs.org
• Facebook, 2010. Facebook. 10.10.10,  from:Facebook,  www.facebook.com
• Inspiration, 2009. Inspiration. Retrieved on 10.10.10,  from: Inspiration, www.inspiration.com
• SlideShare, 2010. Slideshare Retrieved on 10.10.10, from: Slideshare, www.slideshare.com

Twitter and Facebook. Do we really know what they are? And more importantly how our students are using them?

Twitter

Twitter is a commonly used online social networking site where people can communicate with others around the world. “Twitter is the most popular microblogging application, with almost one million users called twitterers, who can send and receive messages via the web, SMS, instant messaging clients, and by third party applications. Posts are limited to 140 text characters in length.” (Grosseck & Holotescu, 2008) Posts are instantaneous so need to be edited and reviewed carefully before being published. Twitter allows users to upload their thoughts and feelings to the world and is ” a real-time information network powered by people all around the world that lets you share and discover what’s happening now.” (Twitter, 2010) In Twitter’s short time online it has become extremely successful, “officially launched in October 2006, Twitter was developed by Obvious Corp. (Grosseck & Holotescu, 2008)

Twitter is commonly used by businesses and corporations to keep their customers educated about their current initiatives and programs. Twitter can be anonymous and can be accessed on a number of devices including; phones, computers, and ipads which means it is extremely accessible for students. “Most Twitter profile information is public, so anyone can see it. A Twitter profile contains a profile image, background image, and status updates, called Tweets. In addition, the user has the option to fill out location, a URL, and a short “bio” section about themselves for display on their public profile.” (Twitter, 2010) Twitter, although social, is not an instant messenger service, instead Twitter is more about sharing thoughts and ideas. Each user is able to monitor the notes of other users, who will be listed in the profile, under the following. Thus the user becomes Follower for them. (Grosseck & Holotescu, 2008)

Twitter has been proven to be an extremely successful tool for encouraging class communication and discussion. An educator comments on the positive sharing they witnessed when students were able to use twitter to communicate about class topics outside the classroom. “Because the students had the shared classroom experience when something came up outside of class that reminded them of material from class time it often got twittered. This served as a reinforcement/connection between the material and the “real world.”” (Academhack, 2010) Like all online usage, students need to be educated on safe ways to use the web and their digital footprint.

The above video depicts an example of how twitter can be incorporated into the classroom setting. The video shows an American College classroom, through these same principles could apply to a stage three class. Have a look to find out more.

Facebook

Facebook, unlike Twitter, is a more social website, where individuals post comments on each others profiles called “walls”, this may consist of photographs, text, links and more. “Millions of people use Facebook everyday to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet.” (Facebook, 2010)

Facebook has a specific page devoted to helping educators use facebook in the classroom. “To serve as an ongoing resource for information about how educators can best use Facebook” (Facebook in Education) Ideas for using facebook in education include, but are not limited to the following applications available on the site:

Books iRead: Share the books you’re reading, and see what others think of books with this application.(College degree, 2010)

Flashcards: With this application, you can create flash cards to help you study on Facebook. (College degree, 2010)

Facebook Questions: Facebook Questions gives users the opportunity to ask questions just by clicking the “Ask Question” button on the homepage. (EdudDemic, 2010)

Facebook, which was originally meant for college students, can be useful in the classroom to show students the impact social media has had on the way people view others. (Anderson, A, 2010)

The following Slideshare explains how to set up a class Facebook account and some ways that you can effectively use Facebook to develop belonging and engagement in the classroom.

References

• Academhack, 2010. Academhack. Retrived on, 10.10.10 From: http://academhack.outsidethetext.com/home/author/dave/
• Anderson, A., 2010. Using Social Media in the College Classroom. Retrieved on 09.10.10 From: http://www.suite101.com/content/using-social-media-in-the-college-classroom-a262401
• College degree, 2010. The Facebook Classroom. Retrieved on, 10.10.10 From: http://www.collegedegree.com/library/college-life/15-facebook-apps-perfect-for-online-education
• EduDemic, 2010. How to use Facebook Questions in the classroom. Retrieved on, 10.10.10 From: http://edudemic.com/2010/07/how-to-use-facebook-questions-in-the-classroom/
• Facebook, 2010. Facebook. Retrieved on 03.10.10, from: Facebook, www.facebook.com
• Ferenstein, G., 2010. How Twitter in the classroom is boosting student engagement. Retrieved on 10.10.10 From: http://mashable.com/2010/03/01/twitter-classroom/
• G. Grosseck & C. Holotescu, 2008. Can we use Twitter for educational activities? Retrieved on 04.10.10, From: http://www.morsmal.org/documents/members/admin/Can-we-use-Twitter-for-educational-activities.pdf
• Slideshare, 2008. Drive Belonging and Engagement in the classroom using Facebook. Retrieved on 10.10.10 From: http://www.slideshare.net/inigral/drive-belonging-in-the-classroom-with-facebook-presentation
• Twitter, 2010. Twitter. Retrieved on 03.10.10 from: Twitter,  www.twitter.com.

The following slide show is a collection of ideas that are extremely helpful when trying to gain a deeper understanding of the Net Generation. Question and issues raised include: Who is the Net Generation? How are they different?  How do they learn best? What are their learning expectations? What are the implications for teaching this generation? Take a look to find out more!

References used in the slideshare are listed on the last two slides.

The video below outlines the technology use of a range of students. The video asks you to seriously consider students technology use in and outside the classroom. The video gives students a platform to express their thoughts and pleas for an education system that recognises their needs and interests and targets their learning experiences to make them more beneficial.

This video  urges teachers to train and understand technology better and adjust their pedagogy to suit students preferred learning styles.

Reference

Jnesbit, 2007. YouTube – A Vision of K-12 Students today. Retrieved on 01.10.10, From YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf8

Below is a summary of a discussion i held with some primary aged students.

What conclusions can we draw from this discussion, and how are the student’s opinions supported by relevant research?

The government is often keen to distribute new electronic devices for classrooms. They are constantly providing funding for new computers and smartboards in schools.  For example, “A year ago Education Minister Carmel Tebbutt said: “The $84 million e-learning rollout of more than 1.3 million email accounts is the largest delivery of its kind in Australia.” (McDougall, 2007.) This $84 million dollar initiative provide resources to schools, but did not provide enough support and technitians for it to be used. This is a common problem in schools and results in a negative view of technology held by many teachers in the school system today.  “Some teachers say the system is a dud, with one public school source saying: “Teachers are tearing their hair out because of its unreliability.” (McDougall, 2007.) If a system is implemented it needs to be supported in order to be effective or it can have a negative effect on the school environment. It is clear from the discussion I had with the students, that teachers at their school were suffering from this technological stress and had not had adequate training to teach them how to effectively integrate technology into the classroom. They seemed unaware of the programs they can use on the Smartboards or not confident enough to implement them. This resulted in student dissatisfaction and ultimately a lapse in learning.

Contrastingly, the students seemed extremely motivated and positive about the program they used for homework, Mathletics. Mathletics has some extremely positive initiatives that ensure students are supported and engaged. This is why it is one of the most popular educational games around the world. Some of these positive characteristics as outlined on the Mathletics website include:

* Step-by-Step animated support is like having a teacher 24 hours a day.

*Courses contain essential material for school students in Australia from Kindergarten to Year 12.

*It is easy to use.

*It tailors questions to the ability level of the students.

*There is a weekly report emailed to parents/teachers.

Although this is such a successful program according to the students, the teachers did not seem to support this by educating students about other educational websites that the students can visit.

References

Teacher Reflection: School web page.

Since I started a position as a full time year 3 teacher, I was faced with developing the year 3 class page as a part of the school web server. Although I have developed a web page before this was a challenge however I saw the benefits and persisted. The page allows teachers to communicate with students and parents through a notice board. I use the notice board to post the weekly assignment and resources for parents e.g. grammar terms and spelling rules. The has been received with great praise.

Additionally, I look up suitable web sites for the unit of study we are doing for the term. I upload these to the site and students are able to research these sites for quizzes, news research and assignments. The site also has a calander with any specific information on upcoming events e.g. assembly presentations, class excursions, book week and many more. The web page has connections to the school web page, school church, and even the coles sports challenge!

The page also consists of a journal writing space and discussion board: this allows students to write reflections and responses to chosen topics. For example, we are studying ‘Rainforests’ in term 4, a focus question for discussion is ‘How can we save our rainforests?’

The site is a very good tool to organise the content in which students and communicate to both the parents and students at home. Although this came to a surprise when I started teaching I have very much seen the benefits it brings for the students.

I mage Reference: ‘Blue Glow‘
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37718156@N00/2399403962

Many people might look at computer games and see them as  very antisocial. Although computer games can have more than one player there is still growing concerns that computer games are a real problem for society.

Issues such as mental health, sexism, racism and consumerism raised by Gummow, (2004) are “scrutinised from researches and game developers but are yet to be controlled” (p.1).

Studies by Newman (2004) show that mental and physical health risks are associated with computer games and their grades at school are falling as an implication of this. This is largely connected to the amount of time children spend playing the computer game.

Gummow, (2004) and State Government of Victoria, (2010) both state that due to high levels of time spent playing computer games, this can result in significant health prblems. Common problems include backpain, wrist and eye straints (muscle), other more serious implications are epilepsey, hallucination, nerve and muscle damage as stated by  Gummow, (2004). Although health problems are clearly an issue social problems can also be signigicantly another issue.

Social problems can also be an affect of playing computer games. Athalie Mathews (2001) states from the daily telegraph that children who play computer games for extended lengths of time risk “stunted brain growth, and a loss of self control”

A review on ‘The effects of computer games on young children’ written by Jessica Harris (2001)   highlights that computer games not only contribute to social problems but encourage addictive behaviour, children are less sociable. Voilent games are know to create violence and antisocial behaviour in adults. The playing of violent games according to some researches does affect children in a negative way with increased levels of aggressiveness in the short term. Gummow, (2004) believes that it can make young men especially aggressive. Some children cannot determine the difference of killing someone on a computer game to killing someone in reallife. They may not understand they cannot come back to life as in some video games.

Social problems can be a major issue in connection to computer games, not only does it affect the person playing the game, the problem social behaviour  also extend to affect the family and possibly even friends. The game can somewhat take over what would normally be real life social interactions, which may lead children into a false sense of reality.

References

Gummow, J. (2004). Computer Games – Social Implications. Retrieved 29.9.10, from M/Cyclopedia of New Media: http://wiki.media-culture.org.au/index.php/Computer_Games_-_Social_Implications

Harris, J. (2001). The effects of computer games on young children – a reviw on the research. Retrieved 9.9.10, from http://rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs/occ72-compgames.pdf

Mathews, A. (2001). Computer games make children anti-social. Retrieved from Telegraph.co.uk: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1337971/Computer-games-make-children-anti-social.html

State Government of Victoria. (2010). Better Health Channel. Retrieved 30.9.10, from Computer Games – health issues: http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Computer_games_health_issues?open

This is a video of a school teacher who uses social networking sites with her high school students. She explains some of the benefits and implication of using these sites.

To have a look at the facebook page go to www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=193102324250

A teacher will say, class we are going to play a game. The class jump around in excitement. If only they would do the same when you mention we are going to have a test. One of the benefits of games in education is its motivational and engagement magic, as soon as you mention the word game, students automatically presume they are in for some fun. Iverson, (2005) highlights that E-learning games engage learners, at the very first click they are hooked and keep coming back for more. However we ask the question, are games educational? In addition, what are some of the issues and implications associated with games? Most teachers would say that there is not enough time in the day to have games, teachers have so much content to fit in and according to Klopfer, (2008) teachers need subject-matter and fact based materials that are easy to teach to students.

Firstly, what is ‘educational’? Moreover, what is classified as a ‘game’? Salen and Zimmerman (2003); Juul, (2003) refer to games as something that is fun, contains some rules, outcomes and goals. Klopfer, (2008) defines a game as something “purposful, goal-orientated, rule based activity that the players percieve as fun” (p.14). However the term is described, games can seem threatening. For instance, the media  (Sydney Morning herld)  see some games labelled improper or unflattering context, such as for allegedly “inciting violence, portraying pornographic images, or causing addiction” (Klopfer, 2008). Some teachers are detered and fear that calling something a game would be very undesirable and cause problems between staff and parents at the school. Possibly if teachers refer to them as simulations or activities this may be more appealing and avoid the media steopying of technology based ‘games’.

According to Klopfer, (2008) students see games as a less informal way of learning or not really learning at all, games can be seen as a compromise of valuable learning time, or that employing games would indicate that teachers do not take learning seriously. Or it may be that teachers value the educational processes in which games can bring, but still struggle to fit them into the curriculum.

As a teacher, I see games as very beneficial not only as a motivation tool but games also build valuable skills as stated by Kirriemuir and McFarland (2004) in Review in Games and Learning:

• “strategic thinking
• Planning
• Communication
• Application of numbers
• Negotiating skills
• Group decision making
• Data handling”

This highlights that games are educational. Iverson, (2005) concurs that games facilitate skills of  collaboration and interaction, putting the learners in control of their development. Games can be very beneficial in the classroom. They can bring many skills to students: “transferring of knowledge, testing hyotheses and understanding of complex systems” and spatial awareness (Klopfer, 2008; State Government of Victoria, 2010) , skills that cannot be learnt through a pen and paper activity. Although this is clear, teachers still face the struggle on convincing parents, staff and the community of the benefits computer games can bring to the classroom.

References

Iverson, K. (2005). E-Learning Games Interactive Learning Strategies for Digital Delivery. New Jersey: Pearson Education.

Klopfer, E. (2008). Augmental Learning: Reasearch and Design of Mobile Educational Games. USA: MIT Press.

Video Games for parents and their children can become a social struggle in the home. What can parents do to change their views of video games and learning in the classroom?

Do parents want the game?

Children become immersed in computer games which at times can drive parents mad. It not only keeps children from being  inactive which is leading to a nation of obesity, but it can also stops children doing their homework. Parents constantly have the challenge of having their children on the computer for hours at a time. Alternatively, parents need to see what benefits games can bring to their child’s education.

Understandably the concern for obesity is commonly known, according to Better Health Channel

“researchers believe that electronic games are associated with an increased risk of childhood obesity and can cause overuse injuries of the hand” (State Government of Victoria, 2010). Additionally children can get joint and muscle problems, back and neck pain and headaches. “Other health risks include:

• Overuse injuries of the hand
• Obesity
• Muscle and joint problems
• Eyestrain
• Photosensitive epileptic seizures (rarely)” (State Government of Victoria, 2010).

However, according to ‘Click A technology Guide for parents’ (DET, 2008) games can improve reading, writing and enhance how children understand stories, help with maths skills (counting, addition, subtraction, and mathematical concepts).

Furthermore, parents may still hold a strong argument. According to ‘Click’ children may get a strong emotional attachment to the game and that games are expensive and end up taking up a lot of their child’s life. This may be true, which is why parents need to set rules around games at home. And allow special time allocations so children to get a balance of activities so children will develop emotionally, socially, physically and cognitively.

NSW Department of Education and Training. (2008). Click A Technology Guide for Parents. Sydney: Neals.

State Government of Victoria. (2010). Better Health Channel. Retrieved 30.9.10, from Computer Games – health issues: http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Computer_games_health_issues?open

Cartoon made at Toon Doo http://www.toondoo.com/View.toon?param=2185521