Uni Workshops

In the course of our ICT subject, we have undertaken a series of workshops. At the start they were lead by our instructor Paul, but then we got into group assignments so the tutorials became student lead. This page is a record of the different things that I have found new/interesting in the course of this semester.

WordPress

Our first workshop presented an introduction to the idea of blogging, specifically using the website ‘WordPress’. Already familiar with blogging from my high school years, I found this was a simple task to set up. I was a little disappointed with the lack of layouts available on wordpress, but I suppose those die hard bloggers would just pay the money and create their own unique layout using CSS. I am pretty good with html after maintaining a myspace for years, but CSS is incredibly complicated to learn, particularly at this point of my uni life with many different things to do for a variety of subjects. Weill just stick to my pretty pink and blue layout for the moment. We also worked on our blogs during Week 3′s workshop and cleared up any points (such as the difference between posts and pages.. which I don’t think some people still understand).

iPhoto/iWeb

We took photos of lollies in our second workshop, then manipulated them using iPhoto. It is a pretty simple program to use, and I like the way that you can make a slideshow straight from it. We added some effects to the lollies then created a site using iWeb with our pictures. It’s a shame PCs don’t have those easy to use photo or web design programs, but I suppose Macs are giving them ideas and creating a bit of healthy competition so maybe something similar/better will come out standard on a PC.

Artrage

Week 4′s presentation consisted of Megan, Sarah and Lisa telling us about a downloadable program called Artrage. It’s like paint, but has cool effects. I love the way that if you use a paintbrush, the paint actually blends, fades and blobs like real paint with different tones, not just one generic colour. For those who are artistic, it has great potential. The free demo had certain restrictions, but it was still pretty good. The website link for anyone interested is http://www.ambientdesign.com/artragedown.html

We also spent some time looking at how to convert documents to PDF files. I’m pretty lucky in the sense that I have adobe on my laptop, so I just do it straight from Word. It was good to learn how to do it via free sites where you upload the file, in case I need it someday.

Blogging

Myself, along with Renee, Kate and Susie, presented Week 5′s presentation on the topic going online, based around blogging. I had experienced blogging as a classroom tool great for communication, so that parents at home could read about what their kids were doing at school, and children could respond to each other about their particular posts. Within classrooms it is difficult to find the time to appreciate the work of classmates, but when it is online anyone can read it at their own pleasure. Of course this introduces privacy issues, but incorporating blogging into the classroom helps to combat issues before they come up later on in life.

I enjoyed looking into a site other than WordPress for blogging, except we were advised at the end that blogger wasn’t the best choice. Guess the only way you learn is through making mistakes!

Ebooks

Kate, Clare, Alexandra and Gemma presented a great workshop on ebooks in Week 6. Before the presentation I had thought Ebooks were scanned books online, but I had no idea there was such a variety of ways they could be presented. They made a very creative ebook using powerpoint and I’d love to give that a go, I learned about different ways to use effects which was good. I’m not sure how confident children in Stage 1 would be in creating their own ebooks, but I would love to present the task to Stage 3 or maybe even Stage 2 someday, because there is alot of potential for creativity.

Databases/Spreadsheets

Today Michael, Anthony, Aleesha and Erin taught us about the usefulness of spreadsheets and databases. It was pretty interesting and relevant, I like the website that they chose us to look up. We transferred some data from a website into a spreadsheet then linked the title of the picture to the actual picture file, which I thought was nifty because I didn’t realise I could do that. I suppose I was hoping to learn something more about spreadsheets at an advanced level (like how you can add an equation and one cell is the average or range or something of certain others, then use the information in graphing.. I knew how to do it once but not anymore) but then again it is something you learn in high school so the basics should be focussed on in the younger years. Kudos for brightening up a topic that could otherwise be incredibly boring.

Adobe Fireworks

Today Allira, Kerrie and Leanne guided us through a presentation about Fireworks. It is a great tool but pretty complicated for animations, I don’t think I would introduce animations using it till Year 6. I was a little confused during the task and it took quite some time to work on such a short animation, I think powerpoint can be effective in the same way, but I guess it just depends on what you want to do.

I didn’t realise fireworks was capable of so much, and it would be something good to explore sometime if I have the chance. Don’t think I would be confident to teach it though, probably stick to movie maker or powerpoint to do that kind of thing.

Simulations

Today Cristy, Nicole, Danielle and Rosemary presented a fun workshop on simulations. We became familiar with the process of trading through buying and selling different kinds of fish on a bright and fun site, the link is http://econtent.thelearningfederation.edu.au/ec/viewing/L768/index.html

I had a great time on this website, and we were all competing to try and get the most money. It raises many questions such as what influences prices to change and why do some people pay more for things than others, which of course we can link to our everyday lives. Online simulations are a great idea for classes if they have enough computers to share around, as you can learn so much by putting yourself in someone elses shoes. There are many other simulations on that website appropriate for different ages, so check them out too by clicking here.