Using Today's Meet with my Post 16's

https://todaysmeet.com/

What is Today's Meet?

Before half term my students had a deadline to complete work for their visual diary and 4-6 images to go with it. The students needed to critique each others work and give constructive criticism. If it's your first time it can be quite hard to think on the spot and give your response straight away so I decided to use Today's Meet.

WHY?

Today's Meet gives the students a minute to think before they answer. They have a chance to write what they want to say, see if it makes sense, then send. It definitely helped, the students felt more relaxed and enjoyed the activity. 

After they finished writing I would go through each response and ask them to expand as they are only given something like 140 characters to respond in. The students were already prepared with what they are going to say and feel more confident to say it. 

When I first thought of using this I was nervous, it has lots of benefits but it is also a tool to cause distraction. I was worried about them not concentrating and writing silly things. 

Ok, I admit they did write silly things. But it wasn't as distracting as I first thought. Yes sometimes I would get the odd silly comment, but it was never anything negative, which was important for me. My students need to feel safe in the classroom environment. 

I would recommend others to use it in their classrooms. I know you will get silly comments, but as long as their positive and may even get a little giggle out of the students, it doesn't really matter. It makes it enjoyable and theirs. As long as the work gets done I don't mind having a giggle with my students, I think it's an important part of being a teacher, being able to enjoy your lessons. This is one thing that makes me think I would never enjoy teaching solely online. I would miss the teaching experience too much.

The start of my VLE (virtual learning enviroment)

The website I used to create my VLE is Weebly. I tried a few different websites but I found them very limited with the design, and very limited with the amount of space. I used Weebly to build my photography website, and I find it extremely easy to use, it has plenty of space and it is well designed. So I was very happy to find out that Weebly had another website builder for education.

I hadn't seen this website builder before, so I had to do a bit of research to see if it would work as a VLE. With this version you can add a class to your website, each student gets a log in, and they each get there own basic web page. I'm not sure if I am going to get the students to use their own web page as part of the class because I don't think I will have enough time to go through it with them, as they have a lot of deadlines coming up. But I will encourage them to use it in their own time. 

I kept the design for the website quite simple at the moment as the students are still getting used to it. But for the home page of the website I plan to have a gallery of the students work. 

 The builder has a two or three different ways of displaying images, I am hoping to have something like these two on the front page, but with the student's work. I haven't quite decided which one I prefer.

The website also allows for students to submit their work online and you get it in an email. I have recently tried this with my students. The only problem we encountered was that you could only upload one submission at a time. Since I was getting the students to upload between 4-6 photographs, this proved difficult. I have suggested from now on that the students create PDF files and upload them instead of each individual image. 

 I am looking forward to adding more resources to this website and to see how it develops!

Pinterest has become my best friend

I show a lot of photographs in my classes, and I mean a lot! I think I have used Power point once out of all of my lessons, as it's just so much easier to use a photo friendly site like Pinterest. 

 Where I am placed they don't use Pinterest as a teaching tool, because they never really had too. There isn't a lot of 'chalk and talk', because that's the nature of the course. I don't do a lot of 'chalk and talk', but I am aware that I need to introduce the students to different photographers, and I like to show video clips or articles to go along with the subject. The other lecturers have been doing this for years and don't hesitate to just bring up the videos or websites during the session, but this is because they have the confidence to do that. I am very new to this teaching malarkey. Having all my resources in one place makes my planning and my life easier. 

 In my more recent lessons, when I have been looking at photographers, I have put a lot more work on the Pinterest board than I'm actually going to look at. I leave this page open on the Interactive whiteboard and during the lesson if the students want to go up and look at some other work, they can do so. Just by clicking directly on the board. This gives them more access to resources if they want it.  I have circled the images I actually used to present the lesson.

The last great thing I'm going to say about Pinterest, is that my students have instant access to all the resources I used in class. All they have to do is go to my Pinterest page and all the lessons are there! This helps them find exactly what they are looking for when doing visual diary work. Of course like other colleges and universities they have a virtual learning environment (VLE) that they use, Moodle. But in my lessons I am mainly showing photographs and videos, Pinterest is a much easier platform to look at images and video rather than Moodle. Pinterest is for me, the most useful teaching tool out there.

How technology has changed the way we learn

There is nowhere to hide from technology; it is everywhere. It's in our homes, in our work and in our classrooms. The advancements in technology are designed to improve our lives, and we should embrace this. Especially as teachers. 

Some of the strongest pressure comes from students asking ‘this tutor puts stuff online for us – why don’t you?’(Hill, 2008)

 Hill discusses how students expect technology to be used in their education, and they have the right too. I am still a student myself and I expect to use computers through my learning. I expect to be able to go onto my universities virtual learning enviroment (VLE) and have access to all the resources. The use of technology through education should improve the way we learn. 

(Petty 2009) Poses the question, nevermind the dazzle of the technology, the glittering images, and the clever graphics and funny animations – what about the learning? If you don't know how to use the technology to improve learning, then it can just look like a gimic to get students involed, but it's not. The use of virtual learning enviroments allow students to have access to their academic resources whenever they need it. Students no longer need to be in a classroom enviroment to learn. Technology should improve the learning, but it should be a tool that aids the learning, and it's a powerful one. It becomes the question of selecting the appropiate tool for a praticular aspect of the learning. Sometimes this is an e-learning tool, sometimes it's not. (Hill 2008)

If we don’t teach our students how to find trustworthy computer resources, and how to learn from these, then we are not preparing them for real life, or for ‘lifelong learning’, or for progression on to their next course. 

(Petty 2009) 

Petty is telling us that learning doesn't stop in the classroom, or after education. People learn everyday, and as teachers we are supposed to encourage 'lifelong learning'. How can our students become lifelong learners if they are not equipment with the right tools for the job. People learn everyday; using Youtube tutorials to learn how to cook a meal, or reading resources for a new software package that has been installed at work. Students need to know how to progress with the developing technology, and they need to know how to use it for their own benefit. 

 

Hill, Chris  Teaching with e-learning in the Lifelong Learning Sector, 2008 Accessed at: http://www.uk.sagepub.com/books/Book238394?siteId  Accessed on: 24/11/2014

  Geoff, Petty ‘Students learning with computers: e-learning, ICT and ILT’ in Teaching Today: A Practical Guide (Nelson Thornes 4^th Ed, 2009)

The value of mobile technology in teaching and learning

 

Using mobile phones in the classroom isn't something I really thought too much about before joining my PCET course. Without realising it, I have been learning through mobile technology throughout most of college and university. It just seemed like a natural progression so it wasn't anything I ever thought about. With the ever growing advancements in mobile technology and the cost of portable devices constantly becoming more affordable, it seems that everyone has a mobile these days. I would also go as far to say that the vast majority of people would own more than one portable device. Mobiles, IPads / Tablets and laptops are a common site in modern colleges and university class rooms. With the many uses of mobile technology the progression of integration between mobile devices and the classroom seem to be irreversible. (Keengwe 2013) But I don't think it should be reversible. If you walked into a lecture theater laptops and mobile tablets would be a common sight. Mobile technology allows the students to have access to all the learning resources but only needing one object.

 Technology when it is used in education can lead to some unintended consequences, and challenges. (Keengwe 2013) These challenges can be that students could end up relying on technology to solve the problem for them. With search engines like Google and pages like Wikipedia, the internet can't always be a reliable source of research and information.  Another challenge of using mobile technology in the classrooms opens up the possibility of students using them as a distraction from actual work. Providing them an opportunity to procrastinate. Mobile technology needs to be used in an appropriate manner. Technology should be integrated to improve the learning; if there is no need to using mobile technology in one of your lessons it shouldn't be forced.

The system must be developed from a learner-centred approach, providing mechanisms for automatic or manual adaptation in order for the system to meet the needs of different learners as much as possible. (Male 2011) 

As the quote above states, the use of mobile technology in learning should be centered around the students. Mobile technology is only as useful as you make it. E-learning should allow the students access to more resources than the teacher can provided. The use of this technology should give the students more opportunities to improve their learning through new resources. Mobile technology has support for multimedia information and access to different applications, including access to the Internet and high speed data allowing video and communication technology available to your students anywhere (Male 2011). This allows the students access to educational resources whenever they need it. This is a huge development for classroom learning. Students can contact their tutors or teachers via email for help on assignments. They can have access to resources that the teacher used in class, they can revisit work after a lecture if they weren't clear about it. Mobile technology is giving people more out of their education. It is hugely improving the way students learn. 

The use of mobile technology in learning has it's challenges. But designing the technology around the students and as long as it is used in a positive educational context, it is an important tool for teaching and learning today. 

Keengwe, Jared (2013)  Mobile learning and integration of mobile technologies in education, Avalible at: https://www-swetswise-com.v-ezproxy.smu.ac.uk Last accessed: 22/11/2014

Male, Galamoyo (2011) Enhancing the quality of e-learning through mobile technology Avaliable at: http://swanseamet.summon.serialssolutions.com Last accessed: 22/11/2014