Background+Information

Beginning......

Before classroom integration could even begin, my first weeks were mostly consumed by research and practical issues that had to be solved. Research factors included not only background information about the advantages/disadvantages of digital storytelling, but also research into what technologies would be most appropriate for my needs. In addition there were the ‘housekeeping’ or the technical aspects of using many of the web tools and how to use them effectively to integrate into my classroom activities and my eportfolio.

Roblyer & Doering (2013. p65) refer to essential conditions for effective technology integration as compiled by ISTE ([|http://www.iste.org] ) image taken from p65

  Some of these include access to resources, shared vision, skilled personal and technical assistance. Does one wait till all these factors are in place before proceeding, or like me and probably millions of others, do you go ahead and work with the resources you have? Whilst many of these conditions are present to some degree in my school environment, the lack of technical assistance was the most difficult to address as my room has no wireless access and very slow internet. These issues, impacted greatly on the decision making process for integration. In the future, if I become a mentor or ICT co-ordinator, I will push for a shared vision and more effective technical support.

An exercise I completed from my early module readings was to make a Powerpoint presentation. However, I soon found it was not able to be accessed online easily so this led to a further range of learning activities as I tried out Prezi, slide share, and Jing. Through the forums I met several fellow students who were all teaching the lower grades. Since a lot of the textbook gave examples all related to upper primary or high school I decided to create a wiki to help us share related findings. You can find the wiki at www.ballina53.wikispaces.com where fellow student Louise and I have added pages of information that has helped inform my learning.

In addition to this I was working through some of the steps in my action plan:- 1.check availability of apps and online tools on the school computers and ipads. Ascertain feasibility of adding additional apps to ipad sets. Result: in the end, I chose to use Sonic Pics as it was the only storytelling app loaded on all ipads and there was going to be no opportunity to add extra ones. It is quite a good app and I was able to complete the requirements for the task. 2.check out availability of internet access for ipads Result: no access to wifi unless we borrow another room when it is unoccupied. Since this is too unsettling, I opted for the non-wifi dependent Sonic Pics 3.sort and label ipads for ongoing access each week- Result:-As mentioned on my forum posting on 28th August, "This was great and worked well except becomes a difficult management issue when ipads are returned randomly to the carry boxes and have to be found again each time. Some of the number tags on the back have been removed after only one week!! For this to work need a more permanent numbering system" 4.buddy up with grade 6 class to support my Grade 1/2 learners and select a meaningful task to train buddies in use of app/ online/ presentation tools <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">Result: this did not happen