Lecture 5: Educational Comics

Today in lecture we learnt about Educational Comics. We discussed the ways they can be used in the classroom.
Comics are a type of literature that students enjoy and they encourage hesitant readers to engage. Educational comics are also valuable for visual learners. They can easily be used for educational activities in English, Media/IT and The Arts.
We also used the Comic Life program to create our own Educational Comics. I made a comic called 'Get Moving' and it was based on healthy eating and exercising.
Although this program was frustrating to use at times, I'm glad we used it today as the students in my Internship class use it regularly. So it'll be helpful for me to be more familiar with it!

In reference to other Educational Comics:
I found this website that discusses an organisation called 'Reading With Pictures' who are researching the use of comics in the classroom.
 http://www.graphicclassroom.org/2009/08/major-comics-in-education-research.html

I also found this site that has some interesting comics on Educational topics
http://educationalcomics.wordpress.com/

Lecture 4: Multimedia Stories and Presentations

This week we learnt about Multimedia Stories and Presentations. We discussed what is needed to make a good presentation and critiqued some power point slides. We participated in an interactive presentation from www.m.socrative.com. When we answered questions on the socrative website it counted the classes' answers and presented them in a graph. It was interesting to see how this interactive presentation could be used in the classroom.

We then explored different ways of presenting our own interactive multimedia presentations. I made an interactive power point show based on the children's picture book 'Giraffes Can't Dance.' I added interactive games and links to websites and you tube clips.

Lecture 3: 7 Things You Should Know About Blogs

- Blogs evolved from the publications of online personal diaries.
- Blogs are easy to use as they don't require coding HTML.
- Readers of a blog can provide feedback on the page or on their own blog and link it back to the original blog - this is called trackback. (Not that I know how to do that!)
- Blogs are significant as they engage people in sharing, reflection and debate.
- The downside to blogs is that they can often include inaccurate and biased information. This is because they are commonly produced by individuals.
- Blogs are extremely popular with an estimated 50million people participating.
- Blogs can be used as an instructional technology tool in classrooms as long as the benefits and limitations are understood.

Lecture 3: Podcasts

It was great to learn more about podcasts today. I enjoyed having some free time to explore various podcasts and listen to them.

I listened to some live gig recordings from a segment that Triple J do on Sunday nights called 'Live at the Wireless.' The podcast of Two Door Cinema Club's gig was great.

I also listened to some movie review podcasts that Mark Fennell (aka 'that movie guy') uploads on the Triple J website. I like his very honest and humourous reviews!