Microsoft Publisher - Let the fun begin

Microsoft Publisher or Microsoft Office Publisher as it is officially known is a ‘desktop publishing’ application from Microsoft. It is an excellent application for creating pages and designs using templates that help a person to create his/her own brochures, booklets, certificates, visiting cards, invitations, etc.

What can this do for a teacher or for a student? That’s the question that always pops into my mind whenever Greg shows us a new application or software that can be used to create stuff.

The Microsoft Publisher can help a student to improve his/her presentation of material. I have just completed the creation of a ‘Web Quest’ along with my colleague. Our topic for the Web Quest was from the ‘Civics and Citizenship’ domain and we concentrated on learning standards pertaining to the government of Australia.

I am so glad that we got to learn about Microsoft Publisher because we have included it in our Web Quest as a means to complete one of the activities. We believe that it is possible to use this application to improve the creativity of students.

Each time, I am impressed by the immense possibilities that computers have in facilitating knowledge. At the same time, I am appalled at how little we use them as teachers.

Are we afraid of computers? Is that why we allow our students to play games on them without really using them as a means to teach a lesson or ‘earn time on the computer’ if they have been good? Or, are we afraid that our students will be smarter than us when it comes to using technical gizmos?

We live in a world that is more digitalized than ever. Though computers cannot take away the aesthetic appeal of paints or crayon or any of the other art materials, they can help students to get over their fear of creating and presenting material for their assignments. It is easier to use a template in the beginning than starting from scratch for those students who find it difficult to ‘put pen to paper’ so to speak.

I am not asking teachers to computerise every activity that they introduce in their classrooms. At the same time, I believe that it is time for us to embrace the immense possibilities of the internet and the applications of computers. I believe education is a means to making learning independent of teachers. We are only facilitators. We are not there to molly-coddle our students. So if that means using computers to generate more independent work, then so be it.

Though I have not mentioned the various templates and possibilities of Microsoft Publisher and instead have spent more time talking about the importance of using applications to facilitate knowledge, it is of primary importance that the reader understand the importance of using applications to improve learning in his/her classroom.

I hope that I have not only enumerated on the use of Microsoft Publisher but also made teachers understand the importance of being more tech-savvy.

"Food Danger" - Using food to learn about Microsoft Excel

Have you ever thought of using food to teach Mathematics? Maybe not! I never thought that I could ever use M&M's so as to teach Data to my students. In my country, we call them Gems and they are only manufactured by Cadbury's. The good news is that most students in India don't have food allergies and we have still not reached the stage where parents would sue us if something untoward were to happen to their children.

There are various stages to using food in a mathematics class. Each stage is explained as follows:

Tuning In: Give one M&M packet to each group. Students look at the packet and answer questions such as “what colours are there in the packet?”, “how many will be there in each colour?”, “which colours will have more and which colours will have less?” This is a prediction exercise.

Finding Out: After the prediction exercise, the students open the packet and find the answers to the questions asked. They compare their speculative answers with the real answers.

Sorting Out: Once the students have determined the answers, they are asked to create a bar diagram using the information that they have. Students will have to create two bar diagrams, i.e. one that will show the ‘before’ information and another one that will show the ‘after’ information.

Going Further: Students are then asked to discuss amongst themselves the reasons for why certain colours have more while others have less. Also, students could find out why there is only ‘n’ number of colours instead of a larger choice.
I found that talking about ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ colours along with the difficulty of creating a wider variety of colours in food production helped students gain an insight into the notion of ‘profit’ in food production. (A little bit of Humanities – Economics)

Making Conclusions: Once students derive the answers to the above questions, they discuss and arrive at a consensus on the topic. Most often students realise that primary colours are more common while secondary colours are lesser in number. Indeed, red is the most common followed by teal/blue. Talking about the cost of food production helped the students to understand why these colours are more common.

Taking Action: Based on their findings, students then moved on to working on using MS Excel to create bar diagrams for other data based on Natural Disasters in Australia.

Using food to learn about the use of MS Excel for creating bar diagrams is an excellent method to introduce the mathematical topic - ‘Data’. However, as a teacher I had to ensure that my students had no allergies before I could do this. Indeed, I found that I could use biscuits and wafers M&M’s especially while teaching ‘tessellation’ to the students. From this exercise, I learnt that it always helps to teach using methods that students will relate to rather than attempting to force them into understanding concepts about data.

Inspiration and Aboriginal Stories

Today, we will be looking at the use of aboriginal stories and how to incorporate that into Inspiration.

Greg asked us to visit the following website where there was a plethora of aboriginal stories: www.abc.net.au/dustechoes

However, he did state that we needed to be careful about the stories since some of them might not be acceptable to all age groups. Some of the stories involved children either being eaten or murdered.

So, I realise that as a teacher I will have to take a call as to what is relevant for my students. Here on I will be talking as a teacher and reiterating what Greg asked us to do in the class.

Based on the stories, the students need to use Inspiration to create a 'Concept Map' as to what they understood about the story. The teacher only gives them an over-view of what is expected. This will enable students to work on their creative skills. It will give them an insight into the fact that not everyone thinks the same way and that it is good to be different.



As can be seen from the concept map that I have created, my view of the story is more literal. I have chosen to use the same characters as in the story and have used clip art instead of the original graphics from the story board.

However, a colleague of mine chose to use the characters from the story board and created a concept map that is a 'visual treat' to the eyes. Another colleague chose to create a concept map that was a combination of the characters from the story board as well as the clip art from Inspiration that is very colourful.

Inspiration tools are excellent for enabling a student to 'go wild' with his/her imagination. The possibilities are immense especially when they discover the use of the 'Print Screen' button on their keyboard. This button helps them to paste a 'Screen shot' of their work onto any Microsoft document and then 'Copy-Paste' it onto their Inspiration document.

Limitations to working on Inspiration are based on the individual and not on the software. However, as a teacher I notice that once a person has figured out the possibilities of Inspiration, he/she will stretch his/her skills from then on.

www.quia.com

Quia is pronounced as 'key-ah' and is short for Quintessential Instructional Archive. The website provides a variety of tools including:
* Templates for creating 16 types of online activities using our own content.
* A complete online testing system with automatic grading, immediate feedback, and detailed reporting.
* Online surveys for gathering student and teacher feedback.
* A class Web page creator to share Quia activities and class announcements with students and parents.
* Access to millions of shared activities and quizzes in over 300 categories.
* ...and more!

The website allows teachers to either subscribe for an annual membership or take a 30 day trial package that is free. I believe it would be great if teachers were to buy the product since it is absolutely mind-blowing.

The product allows for kinaesthetic learning that includes other learning styles such as visual, auditory, inter-personal, intra-personal, etc. Also, the activities can be graded up or graded down depending on which 'Higher order' or 'Lower order' skills the teacher's targeting.

What I found fascinating was the fact that it minimises 'Teacher Talk Time' since students can interact with the computer and learn online. The product can easily be incorporated into various streams of learning irrespective of the subject that is targetted.

I did work on creating various activities but I have to say that they are woefully unprofessional. I did attempt to create another activity on 'Cultural Awareness' but even that seems like the work of a child who is just now learning how to use the Web. I believe constant playing with the tools in Quia will help in improving my skills in creating relevant activities for my lessons.

I would suggest this website to all teachers and will ask them to incorporate it into their lesson plans since it is relevant to the 'New Age' generation of learners who are more proficient than us in the use and usage of computers and their jargon.

Design Briefs - why use them; and how to use them effectively

'Design Briefs' help teachers, students and other users to provide solutions for problems.

Previously, design briefs consisted of a four way process, i.e. Investigate, Design, Produce and Evaluate. However, it has now been simplified into a 3 way process, i.e.
- Investigate and Design
- Produce
- Analyse and Evaluate

In order to understand how to use this, Greg got us to first work on 'problem solving' on paper. The challenge was to create a frog that could jump using cardboad, a picture of a frog, sticky tape and rubber bands. The clinch was to use all the materials in order to achieve the desired result.

Behnaz and I had to follow a series of steps before we could arrive at the solution.
1) Brain storm possible solutions to the problem on the A3 sheet
2) Create the prototype using the materials given
3) Test whether the prototype achieved the desired result, i.e. whether the frog jumped or not
4) Ensure that all materials were used, especially the rubber bands
5) Change the prototype if necessary to achieve the desired result
6) Ensure changes were noted in the A3 sheet
7) Successfully launch the finished prototype before the entire class, explaining the changes instituted using appropriate and relevant terminologies

As stated by Greg, doing the experiment enables us as teachers to realise the importance of using right terminologies so as to expand our students vocabulary. Based on Greg's statements, I realised the following while doing the experiment:
- The design brief on A3 sheet will help students to mindmap on the task for the day.
- The use of A3 sheets helps them to look at ICT beyond computers. ICT is more multi-disciplinary than imagined.
- The activity helps students to realise that there are more than one ways of doing things. There is no just 'one' right way. Students realise that the exercise is about discovering different or a variety of approaches to solving an issue.
- Part of the reflection will help students to realise the importance of rough drafts before creating the final copy.

During the 'Show and Tell' stage, I realised that it is important for us to sign-post our work in such a manner that others can realise how important it is to us. In the same manner, I realised that we could add value to our students' work if we were to display them prominently in the class. However, I would ensure that students realise the importance of taking pride in their work through submission of work that is not sloppy or haphazardly completed.

Another important issue that I would be looking into in terms of 'Classroom Behaviour Management' is when students are explaining their work or rather when they are presenting their work, I would get the entire group to talk since it is a collobarative effort, especially if they have more than one solution to the problem. Allowing everyone to talk will help students to work on their presentation skills.

Also, as a teacher, I would ensure that students do not change their opinions at the last moment after having taken a look at other people's work. This will result in a de-valuing of the students work. I will reiterate the fact that there are no right or wrong ways. All ways are right as long as the frog jumps.

I liked what Greg said about looking into extensions for the activity. I've seen that happen during my practicum as well as during my field work. My mentor teacher has always been ready with extensions if students were to finish their work early. Based on what I saw, I learnt to be pre-prepared for my own lessons and had extensions ready while taking classes.

Using 'Design Briefs' helps a teacher to work on the following areas:
- Safety issues: How to use scissors so as to not hurt others
- Technological issues: How to use the computer effectively or how to use a photocopier, etc.
- Scaffolding techniques: Before getting students to work on the design briefs, it is important to scaffold the activity by explaining what the A3 sheet is for. Though design briefs are used for Years 4 -6, it can also be used in the lower years as long as the activity is well-scaffolded.
- Learning Outcomes: Explain the various areas or domains of VELS that this can be used in.
- Higher Order Skills: Design briefs help students to work on their higher order skills.
- Problem Solving Skills: The activity helps with problem solving too. For example: you can tell the students that they cannot use more than 3 cms of sticky tape. So, students start working on problem solving the issue.
- Verbal Skills: The activity helps in improving their language too. The students have to use the right vocabulary if they have to be understood by the others.

Design briefs are fantastic for positive and holistic problem solving techniques. The process is circular as there is no 'right' or 'wrong' answer. The process helps students to continue working on the activity till they achieve the result required. So, all students have the ability to continue working on the activity till they achieve the required result.