Aurasma (Android, iOS)
Star Walk (Android, iOS)
Quiver (Android, iOS)
Google Star Map (Android)
Augment (Android, iOS)
Layar (Android, iOS)
Thursday, June 11, 2015
AUGMENTED REALITY
Aurasma (Android, iOS)
Star Walk (Android, iOS)
Quiver (Android, iOS)
Google Star Map (Android)
Augment (Android, iOS)
Layar (Android, iOS)
VIRTUAL FIELD TRIP
It could be costly and difficult to take your students to a field trip, but you can use sites that allow you to take virtual field trips in your class when needed. This way, the universe is literally at your fingertips. Below are some websites for virtual field trips.
Arounder
Airpano
Nineplanets
3dpanoramik
Smithsonian Museums
NASA
Polarhusky
World Wonders
GAMES
The use of games is crucial in classrooms as games are both enjoyable and a good source of information. Below are some of the games that you can use in your classroom.
Kahoot
Kahoot is a game-based response system. You can create a quiz on the site, display the questions in the classroom and your students can answer them using their smartphones or tablets. At the end of the game, we also have a winner. It is a highly engaging game to use in the classroom. It's also simple to use.
Socrative
Socrative is also an online response system. Teachers create quizzes and polls, and get response from your students. Another good point of Socrative is that students get instant feedback.
Plickers
Plickers allows you to get feedback from your students like Kahoot and Socrative. However, unlike them, your students don't have to have any devices for you to use Plickers. Each student is given a card with a unique visual code. Students hold the cards in a way that the letter they chose is at the top of the card. Then the teacher scans the classroom to get their answers.
SOCIAL BOOKMARKING
In today's world, we do almost everything on the Internet. However, it's not easy to remember or go back and find everything we found useful. But don't worry. Social bookmarking comes to the rescue in those situations.
Diigo is a website that allows you to bookmark, highlight and tag web pages. All you need to do is make an account on diigo, and then you can have access to your bookmarks on every technological tool.
QR CODE
You can also create your own QR codes on sites such as qrstuff. This way, you can redirect people to your website, e-mail or any kind of data.
SOCIAL LEARNING
When we say social learning, social networks might come to mind in today’s world; however, social learning is not just limited to social network. Social learning is learning through interaction with people. Those people may be friends, classmates, colleagues, teachers, you name it. Social learning doesn’t mean just listening to someone giving a lecture. You should be engaged in it to learn socially.
Here are some varieties of social learning: Feedback from other learners, dialog with an expert, collaboration on a project etc.
Like all learning types, social learning also requires an effective
design. But designing social learning is not about creating content. It is
about making social processes happen.
The
designer should decide when to use social learning define target learners,
clarify the objectives, decide what forms of social interactions are best to
teach, monitor and guide social learning, design templates so that learners can
create content.
Social learning can make learning more enjoyable. When learners are not
alone and work together with someone else, they might have more fun while
learning. It is also advantageous because it requires less time and money
compared to conventional e-learning. Teachers can also handle larger classes with
social learning.
In
social learning, there are some requirements for the learners as well. They
should read and write the language used in discussion forums. They should speak
and listen effectively. They should be able to make themselves understandable
through audio and other media. They should ask and answer questions because
social learning occurs through questions as well. They should think deeply and
efficiently. They should be open to new and different information and also
share their information with others. There must be a spirit of cooperativeness
in social learning. Competitiveness doesn’t have a place in social learning.
They must act according to a common purpose. And of course, learners must be
able to use social media tools. Each learner should offer something to the
group.
The
patterns of social interaction are as follow (I think their titles are quite
self-explanatory.):
Tutoring interaction, presentation pattern, question-and-answer pattern, post-and-comment pattern, collaborative-document pattern, group-discussion pattern, small-group pattern, panel-discussion pattern, symposium pattern, ask-expert-community pattern, ask-peers pattern. When you combine these patterns in an activity, you can make a great comprehensive learning activity.
Tutoring interaction, presentation pattern, question-and-answer pattern, post-and-comment pattern, collaborative-document pattern, group-discussion pattern, small-group pattern, panel-discussion pattern, symposium pattern, ask-expert-community pattern, ask-peers pattern. When you combine these patterns in an activity, you can make a great comprehensive learning activity.
You
should facilitate social activities so that teams will be encouraged to take
responsibility. Monitor them and interfere when needed. Make use of technology
to provide the learners with discussions.
GAMES AND SIMULATIONS
You can practice tasks, apply knowledge and infer principles and have fun while doing all these with games and simulations. They entertain you; however, their priority is teaching. Learning games are such as quiz shows, board games and video games. With simulations, you get to experience with work-related context and verify that you can do a certain task.
- Games are an effective way of teaching. Here are some of the advantages of games:
- They show consequences that are not normally visible.
- They let learners make mistakes without suffering permanent consequences.
- They provide a laboratory where learners can test different hypotheses.
- They simplify complex situations.
- They give opportunities for practice and feedback.
We can use games when learning with real
systems is not practical, tasks are complex, and many people need to be
educated.
The types of learning games are quiz show
games, word games, jigsaw puzzles, branching scenarios, task simulations,
personal response simulations, environmental simulations, and immerse
role-playing games.
We need to do our best to design games
effectively. We should make clear what the game wants to accomplish from the
beginning and design according to it. We should express the goal as a specific
task in the game so that the learners will acquire what is necessary to be
acquired. We should emphasize learning, because games in our case are not just
for fun. Our aim is to learn. We should also provide multiple ways to learn in
the game. The design of the game should engage the learners in the game.
Providing feedback is also crucial in games. We must give feedback that
educates, informs and motivates the learners.
Making games easy to understand and play is
important. You should explain the game clearly and give instructions to assist
the learner. Manage complexity to keep the game simple to learn and play.
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Monday, March 30, 2015
CONNECT ACTIVITIES
"Knowledge is like paint. It does no good until it's applied."
Connect activities help learners tie what they’ve learned with their lives. We learn things through Absorb and Do activities and we link those with our lives through Connect activities. Here are the types of these activities:
Ponder Activities: These activities require learners to think deeply and answer rhetorical questions, summarize learning, brainstorm ideas etc. Questioning Activities: They enable learners to fill gaps by asking questions of teachers, experts. Stories by Learners: Learners remember events from their own lives. This will make it easier for learners to connect information with their lives. Job Aids: Learners apply learning to real-world tasks via these tools. Research Activities: Learners use their own sources. Original Work: Learners perform real work.
Applying what we’ve learned to other things that are relevant to what we know is crucially important. It will make the information more permanent and help us succeed. Connect activities don’t teach knowledge or skills; however, they make knowledge and skills that already exist more useful.
DO TYPE ACTIVITIES
Do-type activities help us transform information into knowledge and skills. While we get information in Absorb activities, we discover, analyze, discuss, evaluate and apply knowledge in Do activities. Do activities include some types of activities:
Practice Activities: These activities allow learners to information, knowledge and skills. Some practice activities are drill-and-practice, hands-on, guided-analysis and teamwork activities.
Discovery Activities: They lead learners to make discoveries. Some discovery activities are virtual laboratories, case studies and role playing games.
Games and Simulations: They include quiz show games, word games, jigsaw puzzles, adventure games, software simulations etc.
We should use these activities to provide encouraging and safe practice for learners so that they can apply learning in the real world; motivate learners; prepare them for Absorb activities; enable learning by exploration and discovery.
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Friday, March 13, 2015
ABSORB-TYPE ACTIVITIES
Absorb activities consist of and give information. During these activities, learners are usually passive but they actively get, process, consider and judge information. The content is really important in these activities.
There are four common types of Absorb activities.
1) Presentations: These are slide shows, demonstrations, videos etc. that learners watch or listen to. They give information and demonstrate and explain things to learners. They have a sequential structure. They usually consist of introduction, body parts and summary. In the introduction part, the topic and its value are explained to the learner. In the body parts, each segment explains a concept, answers a question or makes a point. In the summary part, most important parts of the presentation are gone through again. Presentations also have several types. They are slide shows, physical demonstrations, software demonstrations, informational films, dramas and discussions. All these types enable people to get information. Slide shows give us information through text and graphics and they can be really effective if the designer knows how to make them. Physical demonstrations show how a physical procedure such as doing push-ups or wearing contact lenses is done. Software demonstrations show how to use a software program or do something with it. Informational films give information about something as their name suggests. Dramas are also similar to informational films but they have a storyline which makes the learners interested. Discussions can show people other opinions and allow them to have their own opinion after that.
2) Readings: These activities enable the learners to use printed or electronic documents. Learners get important information from these. We can use these activities when learners need deeper information and they are motivated readers. There are different types of documents that could be useful in e-learning such as text books, reports, data sheets, diaries and journals, newspapers, blogs etc. You can also create an online library and/or provide useful reading links for your learners.
3) Stories by a Teacher: Stories that someone ─ in this case, a teacher ─ have a great impact on people. They have happened and usually carry a deep and meaningful message. And listeners remember them. They are effective in classrooms, and they would be effective in virtual classrooms, too. We can use them to make a point and encourage and motivate the learners.
4) Field Trips: Online field trips enable the students to observe examples of what they are learning. Students learning geology can examine various types of rocks through online field trips. They can give the students a break from the lesson but more importantly, let them see the concrete examples of the abstract things they are learning. This can be really effective in their learning and motivate them.
Absorb activities can be even more beneficial if they are combined with Do activities. In this way, learners can practice what they’ve learned and the information they got will be more permanent.
Thursday, March 5, 2015
DESIGNING E-LEARNING
Standalone Courses: Those are courses that are taken by just one learner. There’s no need for interaction with a teacher or classmates.
Learning Games and Simulations: This is learning by performing simulations which require you to explore and also lead you to discoveries.
Mobile Learning: This is learning even when you’re moving in the world. You can do this using your smartphones and/or tablet devices.
Social Learning: This is learning through interaction with a group of experts or other learners. The communication between the learners happens on discussion blogs, forums or via texting.
Virtual-classroom Courses: These are online classrooms which are like real classrooms. You have reading assignments, presentations, discussions, homework via forums and other social media.
Now we move on to the design of e-learning. Design affects a lot of things ─ and it definitely affects e-learning, too. In order not to fail the e-learning process for the learners, we should pay great attention to the design. First, we should start with good instructional design. Things should be organized and specified. The instructional design should be in a way that:
a) You won’t be teaching too much.
b) You will be able to teach what people really need to learn.
c) You won’t bore the learners.
d) You won’t force people to learn in ways that are uncomfortable for them.
We should design all parts of e-learning (i.e. curriculum, course, lesson, topic, activities). To design effectively, we should identify the goals of our teaching. We should be aware of the people we’re teaching and analyze their needs and abilities, why they are learning this, their preferences, background knowledge about them etc. We should identify the prerequisites. Those prerequisites specify the abilities, knowledge, feelings the learners should possess before accomplishing the main objective. We should decide what we need to teach or things can get out of hand and become a mess. We should determine the hierarchy of objectives so that we’ll know in what order to teach and the learners will learn more effectively. We should search learning activities because they can help accomplish learning objectives.
And lastly, we should start with a big picture and go on with little details.
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