Learning Management System

The following is a definition of a learning management system.

A learning management system (LMS) is a software application or Web-based technology used to plan, implement, and assess a specific learning process. Typically, a learning management system provides an instructor with a way to create and deliver content, monitor student participation, and assess student performance. A learning management system may also provide students with the ability to use interactive features such as threaded discussions, video conferencing, and discussion forums.

(SearchCIO.com, 2003)

I discovered that I have actually used two learning management systems, Blackboard and Moodle which both support my university study. “Blackboard provides the instructor with the tools to easily present class material on the Web, communicate online with the entire class and track what students are learning. The Blackboard system allows for complete integration with other collections of information and data such as enrolment in courses or course registration (Southworth, 2006)”. Moodle, on the other hand “is the largest open source Learning Management System sponsor and supporter. Moodle supports millions of students and courses, and the number keeps growing (Chao, 2009)”.

References

Chao, L. (2009), Utilizing Open Sources Tools for Online Teaching and Learning, IGI Global, United States of America.

SearchCIO.com, Learning Management System (2003), viewed 1st September 2009
<http://searchcio.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid182_gci798202,00.html>

Southworth, H., Cakici, K., Vovides, Y. & Zvacek, S. (2006), Blackboard for Dummies, Wiley Publishing, Indianapolis.

PowerPoint

I have been using PowerPoint for years now and feel comfortable with this technology. PowerPoint can be very versatile depending on how much time you can put into a presentation. I recently put together a presentation explaining a travel itinerary of an around the world trip for year 2’s. They really enjoyed it.... Here are a few slides to give you an idea.

What is a PowerPoint?

PowerPoint is the most widely used presentation software in the world. It provides a way of displaying information visually so that a group of people can easily see the information whether it is in a classroom, a university lecture theatre or a presentation that a teacher has posted up on the internet for viewing. PowerPoint presentations can also include audio and animations making them engaging for viewers. PowerPoint presentations can easily be printed out so the information is in a hard copy if the reader prefers. They are much more interesting than staring at a boring black and white piece of paper with, if you’re lucky, a black and white picture on it.

Theory and classroom uses for PowerPoint

PowerPoint is often used in classrooms as a way of engaging students in a new topic. However, allowing students to create their own presentations to show understanding would better student’s knowledge of the technology as well as engaging students.
Kearsley & Shneiderman’s (1999) Engagement Theory discusses making learning creative and purposeful under the second principle, “Create”. “”When students have a sense of control over their learning (Kearsley & Shneiderman, 1999)” such as creating their own PowerPoint they are participating in this phase of the Engagement Theory.

References

Kearsley, G. & Shneiderman, B. (1999), Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning, viewed 31st August 2009 <http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm>

Voki Avatars

I used the Voki site to create an avatar. It was easy enough to create a free account and after fiddling with the site for a few minutes I was able to create my own Voki Avatar fairly quickly. What do you think?

Get a Voki now!




What is a Voki Avatar?

Voki is a free service that allows you to create personalized speaking avatars and use them on a blog, profile or in email messages. These animated characters or avatars enable users to express themselves on the web with a voice.
You can customize your Voki to look like you or take on the identity of lots of other types of characters--animals, monsters, anime etc. You can even have your Voki speak with your own voice by recording yourself with a microphone or by phone and uploading it.

Theory and classroom uses for Voki Avatars

I can see many uses for Voki Avatars in the classroom. They could be used to aid in instructing those who are more audio/visual learners or even as a means for those shy students who struggle with presenting information to the class. Since Voki Avatars read out whatever is typed they could also be an engaging tool for english instruction, helping students with spelling and sentence structure.
Once the students have created a Voki they can post it on a blog created specifically for them. When students upload projects onto the world wide web they are participating in Kearsley & Shneiderman’s (1999) Engagement Theory framework under the third principle, “Donate”. Students realise that everyone is going to be able to see their work, not just the teacher, so they produce work to the best of their ability. Avatars provide an excellent way to engage students in their work and ICT's, and they can be used for just about anything.

References

Kearsley, G. & Shneiderman, B. (1999), Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning, viewed 1st September 2009 <http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm>

e.Portfolios

I created my e.Portfolio using Mahara. I found it relatively easy to create an account and over the past few days I have started to explore this technology.
Mahara – which means ‘think’ or ‘thought’ - is a digital e-portfolio, weblog, social networking system and résumé creator, all in one. Mahara was developed in the effort to create a lifelong learning application that with the use of ICT’s would promote more collaborative, interactive, media-rich and personalised learning (Brown, M., Anderson, B., Simpson, M. & Suddaby, G. 2007).

What is an e.Portfolio?

"In general, an e.Portfolio is a purposeful collection of information and digital artefacts that demonstrate development or evidences learning outcomes, skills or competencies. The process of producing an e.Portfolio (writing, typing, recording etc.) usually requires the synthesis of ideas, reflection on achievements, self-awareness and forward planning; with the potential for educational, developmental or other benefits (Cotterill, 2007)”.

Theory and classroom uses for e.Portfolios

Setting up a class e.Portfolio which contained a collaborative task would agree with Kearsley & Shneiderman’s (1999) Engagement Theory, which underpins the concept of e-portfolios as a technology that can facilitate engagement in a worthwhile task as well as allowing interactions with others. This is due to the nature of an e-portfolio being a learning task, involving technologies, authentic tasks and collaboration.
I know from my experiences in prep classrooms that portfolios are a popular way of demonstrating students learning progress. Learning managers could use this technology as a way of documenting the growth of students over the year and highlighting their strengths for both the student and parents to see at any time on any computer.

References

Brown, M., Anderson, B., Simpson, M. & Suddaby, G. (2007), Showcasing Mahara: A new open source eportfolio. In ICT: Providing choices for learners and learning, viewed 30th August 2009 <http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/singapore07/procs/brown-poster.pdf>

Cotterill, S. (2007) What is an ePortfolio? ePortfolios 2007, Maastricht, viewed 30th August 2009 <http://www.eportfolios.ac.uk/definition>

Kearsley, G. & Shneiderman, B. (1999), Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning, viewed 30th August 2009 <http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm>

WIKIs

WIKI is a technology I have previously heard of but never really experienced. To further my understanding I have I used WetPaint to create a WIKI.

When you log onto WetPaint.com you can select “3 easy steps GO” to create a WIKI. This proved to be very simple and straightforward. You simply complete the steps and it creates a WIKI page for you to edit and create.

I found the WIKI to be a fun tool that was easy to navigate. I started to create a weather journal for my prep class to record daily weather observations (these were previously written in a scrapbook). Take a look - http://e-learningweatherwatchers.wetpaint.com/

What is a WIKI?

A WIKI is a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser. WIKIs can be used for a large variety of tasks, from personal note-taking to collaborating online, creating an internal knowledge base, assembling an online community, and managing a traditional website. The possibilities might make WIKIs seem like a daunting system, but commitment to simplicity makes WIKI tools a breeze (Matias, 2003).

Theory and classroom uses for WIKIs

WIKIs fit into the Engagement Theory perfectly as they are "providing an authentic setting for learning" (Kearsley & Shneiderman, 1999). WIKI's provide for collaborative learning, as many people have access to them and individuals are able to contribute their own understanding on the WIKI topic.

Students using WIKIs are planning and managing, as well as exercising social and communication skills. The creation of the WIKI itself means that students are taking control of their own learning and have the opportunity to use decision-making, problem solving and reasoning skills. Finally, students would be utilizing the ‘donate’ component of the Engagement Theory by publishing their WIKI and knowing that an audience is going to make use of it or even add to it.

References

Kearsley, G. & Shneiderman, B. (1999), Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning, viewed 30 July 2009 <http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm>

Matias, N. (2003), What is a Wiki?, viewed 14th August 2009 <http://www.sitepoint.com/article/what-is-a-wiki/>

RSS Aggregators

I used Google Reader to create my RSS aggregator.




After watching the YouTube video on the blackboard site (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU) which explained step by step how to set up an account, I found creating my own account a simple task. Since joining I have found the RSS aggregator to be a time saving tool, linking me to my peer’s blogs and other websites of interest. It’s just a simple cut and paste of someone else’s blog URL or website URL and your monitoring their activity from just one website.

What is an RSS aggregator?

RSS stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’. Many people describe it as a ‘news feed’ that you subscribe to. I found the following explanation at, www.problogger.net/what-is-rss/ really easy to understand.

I find the ’subscription’ description helpful. It’s like subscribing to a magazine that is delivered to you periodically but instead of it coming in your physical mail box each month when the magazine is published it is delivered to your ‘RSS Reader’ every time your favorite website updates.

“RSS is the key to staying informed and preventing information overload (Farkas, 2007).”

Theory and classroom uses for RSS aggregators

This web 2.0 technology fits well into Kearsley & Shneiderman’s (1999) Engagement Theory framework under the first principle, “Relate”. The “Relate” principle “emphasizes team efforts that involve communication, planning, management and social skills (Kearsley & Schneiderman, 1999).”

In the lives of today’s children the web plays a vital role in terms of acquiring information. Classroom teachers could subscribe students to relevant websites for classroom activities or create a class blog page, then by using an RSS aggregator all students would receive constant updates when a new entry is posted on their subscribed websites. This eliminates the need to check each site frequently and effectively shares all information with all subscribed learners.

References

Farkas, M. (2007), Social Software in Libraries: Building Collaboration, Communictaion and Community Online, Information Today Inc., Newark, NJ.

Kearsley, G. & Shneiderman, B. (1999), Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning, viewed 30 July 2009 <http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm>

ProBlogger: What is RSS? (n.d.), viewed 13th August 2009 < http://www.problogger.net/what-is-rss/>

My 1st ever blog!!!!

Hi everyone...

And welcome to my first ever blog entry. My name is Leanne Hines and I'm 22 years old. I'm currently in my 3rd year of uni studying a Bachelor of Learning Management through Central Queensland University.

As part of my study I'm completing an e-learning course which has led to this post!!! I'm not very confident with the whole concept of blogging just yet... but give it a few more weeks and I'm sure I'll have it sorted!

Look forward to receiving your comments on my posts.

Leanne