Week Four - Presenting our Movies

The day of the premiere of our movies had finally arrived!

However, before the movie premiere, Sharon discussed collaborative blogging with us.
We were shown a Google Document which she had set up and we were all able to choose one aspect of handheld learning using iPads and iPhones.

Our task was to each write a small paragraph about one way in which handheld devices could be used for learning in the University - this included both the advantages and disadvantages. The following is what we ended up with on the collaborative document:

iPhone Collaborative lecture
Advantages: Tutors can receive instantaneous feedback from us during lectures, using poll4.com for example (like Sharon used the other day). With it being anonymous students are more likely to participate rather than having to put their hand up and share their ideas in front of 90 other people.
They can also be used to contribute to collaborative documents while information is fresh in your mind, even just placing a reminder there for expansion (by yourself or others) at a later stage.
Disadvantages: They can be quite fiddly to use and may result in you losing concentration on the content of the actual lecture.


iPhone Personal lecture
A way in which the iPhone can be used in personal lectures is by using QR codes. Lectures would create QR codes which they will display on their Power Points in their lectures. These QR codes would link to articles and websites relevant to the lecture they are presenting. Using the iPhone, students will be able to scan the QR code and will be linked straight to the relevant article or website. This will be useful because it will give the students instant access to the information and they will not have to spend time typing in complicated URL’s. It will also be effective because the students will be able to view the relevant information whilst the lecture is talking about it. This will also save the lecture time when creating their PowerPoints because they will not have to spend time selecting examples of information from the websites or articles to put into their PowerPoint.

Keira

iPhone Collaborative tutorial - Tamar
iPhones can be hugely useful in a tutorial for personal use and collaborative uses. I initially thought i was looking at personal uses so here are how you could use it for your own individual use.
One obvious use for it is to take notes. There are a variety of apps you can use to take notes on and edit them at a later.  I really like “document” apps because it is very simple to use and use can create different folders to keep your lectures organised.
Another use for an iphone in tutorials is to use the internet. By having the internet on the iphone you would be able to bring up any relevent web pages, useful link and resources online.
Another app that I personally use is the “stickies app”, I find it very useful for recording all of the work I still have to complete and any other notes I must remember. This app would allow you to write anything relevent and tasks you need to complete for your tutorial.  

iphones can be used to help encourage collaboration in tutorials. One very useful app is “bump”, personally I think this is a very useful app that allows people to work together, share ideas annd then gather them all together on the main device. Bump allows you to literally drag information across from one device to another. The app I mentioned earlier, “stickies” is useful to use along side bump. It means that people can write their thoughts and ideas down on the post it’s and gather them together on another device.
Using google docs on an iphone would allow everyone in the tutorial to simultaneously add their ideas and opinions into one document.

Although I have only mentioned a few ideas of how to use an iphone personally and collaboratively. I feel that an iphone can be a very useful resource to have in a tutorial.

iPhone Personal tutorial


IPad collaborative lecture (Lyndsay)

For this collaborative task I chose to look at the IPad and how it can be incorporated into a collaborative lecture. I selected this area to reflect on as I have used the IPad in lecturers previously and have an understanding of how they can be used, but using them as part of a collaborative lecture is something I needed to research further.

There seem to be many different advantages of using the IPad in this way which could enhance learning. The first advantage that came to mind was using the device, so that lecturers can receive instantaneous or real time feedback. Tools such as Poll4 can be used for simple questions or to elicit deeper responses and are quick and easy to set up. Google Docs is another collaborative tool, which can be used to create and edit documents in real time by a number of people. I believe that by having this anonymous exchange of information, alongside verbal, can encourage interactions from the students. Anonymity may encourage more students to have a voice and be supported in their learning. Many students have answers to the questions being asked or have extra information, but never put their hands up. Lecture theatres can be a daunting place for some people.

An app I would like to discuss is Dropbox. Dropbox is a web based file hosting service, which enables users to access and share files on different devices using ‘cloud computing’. Using this app, lecturers could drop their power points into the Dropbox or students could download them from Blackboard dropping them into their own Dropbox. The IPad can then be used in lectures to pick up the power point and add notes. Students can not only add their own notes, but the lecturer may wish to add extra notes as well to enhance the lecture, personalising the learning to the particular class.

Good Reader used along with Dropbox is another tool to encourage collaboration. This app allows pdf files to be annotated, highlighted and drawn upon. Once this has been done the document can be shared among the lecture theatre. E books can also be highlighted and shared in a similar way giving access to more information.

There seems to be many advantages in incorporating the IPad into a collaborative lecture and am aware I’m just scratching the surface, however, it is important to look at the negative side too. As with most technology once you get used to using it it’s hard to live without. It is inevitable that at some point there will be some sort of fault and for this reason it is important to have a backup plan.

Changing the structure can be a good thing, however, it also means that time and effort must go into training and figuring out how to use everything. This will be easy for some people, but others may struggle or lack of time may be an issue and let’s not forget the people who don’t like change.  

Using new technology is always exciting, but I feel that some may become distracted and lose focus on the lecture. Students could be looking at their Face book, checking their email.... instead of paying attention to the lecture and it could go undetected. Some students may be one step behind and miss out on important information while they are concentrating on something else.

There are always two sides to a story, but I think in this case the positive would outweigh the negatives. There are always going to be people who don’t want to pay attention in lectures, however, people need to take responsibility for their own learning.

By Lyndsay

iPad Collaborative Lecture
Nicole
As I have previously blogged about in my post “iPads – How exciting!”, I am very interested in the educational value of the iPad, both for us as university students and for our future practice in the classroom. I found the Apple In Education website to be very informative whilst completing my research on the subject. Through this I found out more of the educational benefits of the iPad, and the features programmed to aid the teaching process. For example, the clip shows students in Seton Hill University, Greensburg, Pennsylvania, attending a lecture where each student has their own personal iPad with them. As the lecturer goes through the of the slides on their powerpoint, each student can add their own personal notes on to their iPads. The key collaboration aspect comes in to place as the lecturer is also able to add key notes onto their powerpoint, and these will also show up on the students screens. Whilst watching the video, I was intrigued as to how this process would work and showed an interest in finding out more about this area. Sharon then took this on board, had a play with various apps to find a solution and incorporated it into our next input.
We used Dropbox, an online program in which you can save your files, to test this function. As the video on the website states, Dropbox allows you to hold all of your files in one place, so you can access them wherever you are – very handy when you need a powerpoint, ebook or journal whilst sat in a lecture theatre! These files can then be opened up on your personal iPad and annotated with your own notes, or by the lecturer. I think this is a very useful function of the iPad as it allows you to have any file you may need at your fingertips, all within the space of one small gadget instead of carrying around folders or individual sheets of paper.
Another useful function of an iPad in a collaborative lecture, is the use of sites such as Poll4, which allows the lecturer to share a question on the screen, and receive responses from the crowd through their handheld devices. This system allows contributors to submit their answers anonymously, therefore encouraging those who may not usually speak out in class, to do so with confidence. The lecturer will then receive a wider range of responses displayed on their screen, which is also useful for them to look back over, rather than forgetting answers submitted orally.
I am interested in testing out the other apps available for the iPad in the future, as the Apple In Education site has a number of apps built for teaching here, which I will hope to test when I next borrow a device.

iPad Personal lecture - Kirsten
An iPad can be a very useful tool to support our learning. With access to the Internet, users are able to access online documents or lecture notes for example.
One piece of software on the iPad which I was impressed with was ‘Good Reader’. It allows you to open a document and annotate. The following are just some of Good Reader’s features: it allows you to write your own notes straight onto your P.D.F. file, use different shapes and lines to annotate your work and to use a highlighter tool. One feature in particular that I liked was how you are able to attach a sticky note to your page if you needed to leave yourself a reminder or just some additional information.
To me, this would be very beneficial as it is easy to use and is much more efficient than having handwritten notes.
When you have finished annotating your document, it can be transferred and stored on your own personal computer. One recommendation that was made to us was to make use of Dropbox, a website which allows online storage. By using this you are able to access your own personal documents when you need them no matter where you are, as long as you have Internet access.
Another benefit of having an iPad for personal use in a lecture is that if something is mentioned that you are not entirely clear about, again if you have access to the Internet, you are able to do a quick search to help your understanding.



We each used a different colour so we are are now able to see clearly who has written each part and we have ended with a very detailed account of the advantages and disadvantages of using handheld learning devices.

We then went to a lecture theatre to watch each others movies. Each group told everyone a little about their movies before they were shown and both Sharon and Carrie gave feedback at the end in terms of the foreign language aspect and the technological aspects.

Ager, R. (2003, pg. 84) stated the following regarding digital movie making:   "Many digital still cameras are able to produce short sections of video as well, and there is software downloadable for free from the Internet that is able to edit together video shots on a computer.
Because of it's relative simplicity, compared with even a few years ago, and the fairly minimal costs involved, primary children can easily be encouraged to put together short digital videos, rather than, for example, being asked to produce two pages of writing, as a means of recording some aspect of their work."

The book, Information and Communications Technology in Primary Schools can be found by clicking here. This quote demonstrates the simplicity of using digital filming devices in the classroom. It also demonstrates the benefit - rather than children constantly doing written work, they are able to develop their language skills through technology in the upper stages of the primary school.

We were also able to implement technology into the movie premiere too - we used our mobile phones, iPads and iPhones to allocate the movies a score using the website, Poll 4.

This could be used in the classroom in numerous different ways. It is similar to using the specific voting systems which can be good for when the children are taking part in a quiz or questionairre.

Here is our movie: