Learning Engagement Activity (PowerPoint) - Week 5

PowerPoint are the most over-used way of presentation. There advantages are continually matched with their overwhelming disadvantages. Everyone knows and understands powerpoints and as such everyone has been exposed to them so the excitement level has been lost both for students or teachers themselves in professional development days. Powerpoints though are an easy tool though to engage students into presentation technologically in their earlier years of learning. It can be used as a stepping stone from paper based or oral presentation to allow students to convey their ideas through technology. PowerPoint has the advantage of being very simplistic to use, creating ease for a teacher to start with this ICT to incorporate into their classroom. PowerPoint work in the way of highlighting the key facts or features about a talk or lesson whilst the teacher is explaining, this provides students with a summary of each art of the lesson. A lot of people who use PowerPoint make this mistake of adding all the information onto each slide whilst leaving out pictures/diagrams to better illustrate an idea or concept. A few things to remember when creating a PowerPoint, make sure it is visually appealing, a picture does say a 1000 words and less is more when people are viewing it and trying to read it in a time-frame.

Learning Engagement Activity (Interactive PowerPoint) - Week 5

Example of Interactive PowerPoint: Interactive PowerPoint    Scroll down to Learning Engagement Activities - Week 5
Interactive PowerPoints have given a new spin on an old classic. Students are able to use this to create flash cards, field trip slide shows, autobiographical stories, interactive book reports, music class recitals, group slide shows, poetry readings and science presentations to just begin with.
Students can do a lot more then just present information.

Learning Engagement Activity (Prezi) - Week 5

Example of a Prezi: http://numeracygroup2012.wikispaces.com/E+-+Learning scroll down to Learning Engagement Activity (Prezi) - Week 5

Prezi is the new form of the PowerPoint, it is the 21st century of presentation. Students can express creativity in a 3D format, easy to use and demonstrate their understanding on a topic through an arrange of resources and ways to include information, the landscape or canvas is unlimited with only the restraints being on your computer and its capabilities. This ICT also engages students more intently then most of the other ICT's being mention from what I have found, they are in constant amazement in which understanding how it works like that and how it can 'bounce' from topic to topic making it seem interactive and enjoyed whilst learning information. Students are also able to work from this Prezi at their own pace with explicit step after step instructions allowing them to work at home ensuring results on their own. Students will also be able to see the time and effort which it must have taken in order to create this and a motivator for students can be that they can learn this ICT when presenting or for field trips and for any other means necessary. Prezi is an eccentric way of presenting information to students which pays off in the end.

Learning Engagement Activity (Glogster) - Week 5

<iframe src="http://www.glogster.com/glog/6lbhv6prhnkufjvb3070ba0" height="758" width="560" name="glogster-embed-glog" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" style="overflow: hidden;"></iframe>
http://www.glogster.com/benjeh/learning-engagement-activity-glogster-week-5-labrynth-last-time/g-6lbhv6prhnkufjvb3070ba0  - example of a glogster made by myself for the purpose of this blog.


This learning device is very intriguing, especially for a first time user. Glogster provides the opportunity for students to create their 'own space' whilst working - it could be a 'facebook' page but for education. Glogster would also be interactive and engaging for student presentations, with a template to suit any purpose. It just isn't that though, it is more for the students, students can express creativity, a new and fun learning experience held by students, it is a safe and private virtual classroom monitored by teachers, it cane bring a new interest to subjects that may have been deemed boring by the student beforehand. Glogster also provides students and teachers a chance to be up-to-date with technology -being everchanging that it is. It also incorperates teamwork and collaboration amongst students to produce a glog that can cater for multiple ideas from the students and lastly it provides audio visual aspects to what is considered to be a text only topic.

Glogster though, is still restrained by not having the internet means you can not use it, also requires a computer or a piece of technology which can access the internet and lastly, ensuring that it is safe for students.


Learning Engagement Activity (Google Earth) - Week 5

One of the subjects that I find particular to teach is Geography. I felt as though this tool could help immensley with the implementation of geography in an education context. This will allow myself to also be better acquainted with the subject as well. The educational purposes in which helps kids to learn geography with use of Google earth is being able to explore with the National Geographic layer and other content finding out about the animal kingdom and endangered species. Along with that, students are also able to create annotated place markers by interpreting the maps on Google earth and then pin-pointing places of interest for example places in their town like fire and police stations, their school, parks etc, this can be all done with Google earth. As for the slightly more advanced part of geography, Google earth can help students with studying the effects of global warming and climate change along with creating tours of their school or community or even creating their own tours. If the class is more advanced, Google earth allows the students to track earthquakes in real-time as well - which is surely to engage the students interests.

As for learning managers, this program allows teachers to create a scene in geography, history, literature, astronomy and other lessons within the classroom in order to engage students, so as a teacher with poor delivery can focus on content. This program also involves students to become pro-active in a lot of Google Outreach projects. Lastly, it provides teachers with lesson plans that engage students in a real - life context by having students interact with virtual real - time data such as weather, earthquakes, elephants migrations, etc.

Example of Google earth being used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3buBchSLk1U
Example of Google earth in an educational setting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ4GqU3PKQ4
Being able to use Google earth for teachers and students: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F9fVUm-rTM
Other things you can do with Google earth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guwHbvM1Reg&feature=relmfu , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STG41Pti2-Y&feature=relmfu