The slide show I first put together 3 weekk ago, was a great success at the school I am working at this year! Since then I have put together 2 more children's classic story books for the children and staff to use.
THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR and WE'RE GOING ON A BEAR HUNT.
The particular children we are aiming at, love the books on the big screen. At this stage we are struggling to get the responses we need so we can measure a response. They just seem to enjoy the experience!
Lou

The Voice Thread connection is to be found in my BLOG. It will not allow anyone to access it without my password. I have tried, several times to open it without my password; but have not succeeded. Have no idea; but it's a great 24 frame slide show.
Lou

I am uncertain as to why I have lost the description and questions for questions 1, 2 and 3. The message that I got at the completion of all 3 sections was that everything had recorded. Very frustrating. I was also not able to get back in the the system and verify anything.
Lou

These questions, or similar were posted in Q., 3 of my assignment. Some how they seem to have "got lost" somewhere.
SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU TO PONDER...
The children that I'm putting this together for range in age from 5 to 12 years of age. These children come under the general calssification of SPECIAL NEEDS CHILDREN. This is what the "experts" call them, not the classroom teachers.
1. What sort of animals, creatures capture the imagination of children?
2. Does colour play a role in holding attention?
3.What is the maxium attention span of these special needs children?
4. How do we measure what these children learn?
We have never done this sort of thing with these children and we are looking forward to trying to measure some response.
Cheers,
Lou

Description of 2nd assignment

Hi folks,
this is my description for my 2nd assignment. I am going to record, orally and visually the children's story book called, WHERE THE WIDE THINGS ARE. I am gearing this lesson to a small group of children that come under the general banner of SPECIAL NEEDS CHILDREN. The purpose of doing this activity is to investigate whether a virtual learning environment is a suitable means of teaching this small group of children. Thes children have very little oral skills and almost no written skills.
The classroom teachers have asked me to put together a lesson and a report as to whether this learning activity will enhance what they do in the classroom.
All of the instructions will need to be given to the children orally and I am relying very much on the striking visual character of this classic children's book as a prompt in capturing their attention. I am hoping the the use of a VLE program will help. I will be using VOICE THREAD and the written instructions, questions and evaluation, will be posted on my blog site.
Hope this is enough information,
Cheers,
Lou

How much is VLE

Just a few thaughts about how much do we need to do before we call a learning environment virtual. Can we use this technology,just a bit or can we get stuck into it.
At present, the VLE, at my school, encoumpasses about 30 minutes per/class/per/week. Some of the children I work with come under the heading of SPECIAL NEEDS. Some of these children find the VLE far to difficult in a class environment. Hence, the 2nd assignment is going to focus on some of these children. It will be intresting to see just what, if any benefit, these children get from this environment and how much we can do for these children with this technology.
It's going to be intresting!
What sort of games, programs and activities are suited SPECIAL NEEDS children?

Is podcasting the way to go

When looking at my 2nd assignment, the first thing that I looked at was using podcasting and did it fit into the school's VLE. I put this question to some senior teachers, i.e., teachers of grades 5 and 6 and they quickly told me, no. They argued that podcasting was a far to "wide" a tool for the children to use. They all thaught that it allowed the children to wonder far and wide and that the question of security came into play. They were not prepared to monitor their activities, as we have over 100 senior students. I selected Thread Voice as the principle means of view my 2nd assignment because of their concerns. Therefore, podcasting cannot be part of my PLE. My PLE, is dictated very much by the environment I work in. I think that people are restricted by the environment they work in.
Cheers,
Lou

Where The Wild Things Are.

Hello Ted, I think that my final task will involve setting up a reading session for a group of SPECIAL NEEDS CHILDREN. The book I'm using is called WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE. I intend to download the book and use Voice Thread to put together a lesson where the children can sit and listen. I'm hoping that this little group of children will be able to respond to some very basic questioning by drawing pictures. I would like to use some of these pictures as an evaluation of how successful this type of lesson can or cannot be.
Lou
What do you think?

PLE and VLE'S

Hi folks, just jotting a number of thaughts that come to mind as I do some reading. This term, I have been exposed to a lot of tech., and I have put in under the heading of PLE. My understand is that we take only we want and use it how we need to. There are a couple of pieces of tech., that will fit into what I'm doing with my present contract very nicely.
That is, I think is what makes the whole thing personal. The definition seems quite simple and self expalanitory, it is virtual and personal to the degree that I want to make it so.
The problem that I have is with the definition of VLE is, that at first reading, the implication that I got, was that the whole environment put the learner in this area of study and learning and only this area. That is all learning took place in a virtual area.
I have a short term contract right now that requires me to create a VLE to the degree that it supports the teacher's work in the classroom and while it may be valid to call it a VLE, it is only a small part of a very large traditional learning environment. My PLE is used only to support the very narrow VLE that I need to use in my efforts to support the classroom teacher. My job description is the teacher of " A SKILLED BASED COMPUTER PROGRAM."
Cheers, Lou

2 great programs from Lois

Hi Lois, hope you are well! Have been following you blog since we started. Don't really know where to start. Had a look at TUX the other day and I think that I'll be able to use some of the 3 programs. But what really impressed me was SCRATCH. It's great. Have down loaded multiple copies of the coloured cards, laminated them and as soon as I can go with it, I will. Has to be the best free program I have seen in a couple of years. Am slowly reading through your blog and can't believe the amount of information you have on it.
Hope you don't mind; but it's great value.
Cheers,
Lou

Some thaughts about Jenny's blog.

Hi Jenny, hope you are well! I have been reading your blog since the start and I have to say that it is packed full of information. All of which I have used to get going in this course. Firstly, and I am repeating myself here, your video on RSS and the definiting you posted really helped.
I also found the video on the history of blogs a good starting point. I can see how everything started and how one thing led to another.
The definition on PLE and LMS, although a little dated, is a good definition.
I'm teaching on a short term contract at present and the place I'm at, wants me to set up a SKILLED BASED, learning/teaching program. Basically, I find programs that support what teachers teach in the classroom. Then I introduce the students to the program and guide them through, therefore supporting classroom activities.
Wiil continue to follow your blog,
Cheers,
Lou

Hello Jenny...Great blog

Hello Jenny, have been following your blog since we started and I have to say that you and Lois have been a great help. The video on RSS made the whole thing ver clear. Am still having troubles connecting your blog to mine; but will ask for some help if I cannot work it out.
Lou

Some thoughts on my 2nd assignment.

Hi folks, have spent some time thinking about my 2nd assignment and I think I will do something connected with children's literature. There are 2 books that I carry around with me when ever I am in an infant class and that's most of my days. The first one is THE VERY HUNGRY CATTERPILLAR and the other is WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE. Both are visually striking! The first tells the story of the life cycle of a butterfly, with lots of different foods and words repeated. The 2nd is the story of Max who is sent to his room for behaving like a wild thing. Whilst in his room he dreams of travelling to the island of the wild things. Here is made king of the wild things and he enjoys being wild. Both books are geared towards the prep., and grade 1 grades. Not certain how or where this will lead me; but I like idea of doing SOMETHING with one of these.
How does it sound so far?

Starting again

Hi folks, have had some great tech., experiences over the last few weeks and I thought I would share some of my better moments. Have exposed all at school with everything I have picked up. Most people thought that blogs were a good idea; but only the senior teachers spent time thinking if we could it at school. The end result was that maybe not.
Voice thread was a great hit. From preps., to grade 6, lots of people are going to take it onboard and I'll do some PD, very soon. Ninging, I was told we could put aside for now and comeback to it later on. The Reader a/c., most people found pretty intreating and a few people are playing around with it. Overall, I think, people were happy with their seperate links. I think I am also.
Podomatic was introduced late last week and I think many people found it rather difficult and we will need to explore it further before we take the step. Will need to do much more PD, with people.
Cheers,
Lou