Final post

My first assignment submitted. 

This is my final blog post. I have enjoyed doing this project as I enjoy doing different things rather than normal assignments and exams etc. It has been a good chance for research and to find out new information. I'm looking forward to what the year ahead brings.I know the work load  will increase a lot but I know I will have to adjust to it and concentrate and get my head down.  I feel I am used to uni life now as I know what is expected of me (work load wise) and I feel I have fitted in well to the university way of life. My first assignment has been handed in and I am waiting for my mark back. I was very apprehensive of this as it was my first assignment and to be honest I wasn't too sure what I was doing.  But we had a lot of help off the University in classes to do with referencing and what to actually research to put into our assignment. 

21st century student

What is it like to be a 21st century student?

Howard Gardeners multiple intelligences

Each person is born with a unique blend of intelligence , but  they are not developed fully so they are not used effectively  Howard Gardener identified eight main categories for multiple intelligence. He argued that every person posses's each of these intelligence's in varying amounts. For example some people excel in one of these areas , while others have a more balanced profile. 

Howard Gardeners multiple intelligence's

• Linguistic- Are good with words, they learn best through writing, listening, reading and discussion. They are usually good listeners and are good communicators orally and in writing. 
• Kinesthetic-This involves skillful use of the body. They have excellent co-ordination and balance. People that excel in this area are sportsmen and women ,dancers and surgeons who are 'good with their hands' 
• Musical- Musical intelligence is associated a well-developed sense of rhythm and ability to pick out individual instruments in a music piece. People with musical intelligence often experience strong feeling and emotion when listening to music.
• Intrapersonal- This intelligence refers to the ability to know ones self   They are highly self motivated and understand their own feelings and self thoughts very well. 
• Mathematical- This is a very logical form of intelligence and people that posses it are able to work sequentially and enjoy and excel at problem solving activities. 
• Naturalistic- People who have a naturalistic intelligence are able to understand the way nature works, seeing patterns in and and classifying things. 
• Interpersonal- This intelligence refers to the ability to get on well with other people.  They work well in teams, are good listeners and generally can build relationships and keep them. 
• Visual- People who are strong in this area can visualize easily. They have the ability to create and imagine and recreate scenes in their minds. They will be comfortable with maps,graphs and other forms of visual representation. They learn well through visual observation. 

How can technology help with multiple intelligence's in classrooms?

As we know, each classroom will have children with different types of intelligence  for example one child may excel at solving mathematical problems yet might not be so capable at musical issues. However another child may have a more balanced profile of intelligence and may not excel at one certain intelligence but be able to write,read, work well with others and also on their own and be kinesthetic and have good balance and co-ordination. 

So it must be hard for teachers to find a balance in all their classes to satisfy all of their children's different multiple intelligence's. It would be hard to get all aspects of multiple intelligence's into a classroom, but there are different ways to try and integrate as many as possible through technology. 

For example, interactive whiteboards are very popular in classrooms nowadays, these provide visuals, pictures, sounds , the children can use them themselves (for kinesthetic learners). They can show mathematical problems , show videos etc. 

Laptops/computers are used in classrooms also for children to find out information themselves,  music can be played, videos can be watched etc . iPads have now also been introduced in some classrooms as they are high-tech and have many apps on them to help learning. 

Education of the past

What was education like 10 years ago?

Education has changed drastically in the past 10 years. I remember being back in Primary School and can remember the following things. 

• We didn't have up-to-date computers or laptops like schools would have now. To each classroom there would be one large computer in for the pupils to do research on,play games and print etc and they were hardly used. Also in the school there would be one or maybe a few computer suites with large , old computers in for ICT classes.  
• Classrooms had basic blackboards , that you write on with chalk and rub off with a large sponge. Then they progressed to standard whiteboards and flip boards. 

edutopia-interactive whiteboards

In the link above, it states that interactive whiteboards were brought out in 1991, however i can't remember having an interactive whiteboard until in Junior school. Around 2001 the Welsh Government issued one to each school in Wales. 

• In music lessons or whilst singing hymns, sometimes projectors were used to see the musical notes or lyrics of hymns. 
• Classrooms were mainly open plan with big windows,very colorful with lots of posters and children's work on. There were also files with each pupils name on to put their folder/work in. 
• Lessons were also strutured so either Maths or English was first on the timetable (morning time ) 

TEDtalk- Ken Robinson

I have decided to do a second blog post on Ken Robinson's TEDtalk about creativity and education. I can remember one of my lecturers showed my class this video and we all had to think about his points and say our opinion. I found this video very interesting and he makes some very clever points.  He argues that we have been educated to be good workers, rather than creative thinkers, which he believes, is just as important. 

He states that " creativity is now as important as literacy in education". If he never backed up this statement i would have completely disagreed with him.  But as he proceeds in his speech he gives a few examples of children answering questions in class but being wrong, but he explains that children aren't afraid to have a go, and they are not afraid to be wrong. They are original and creative. And as we get older, we are more frightened to be wrong, I agree with this now , because I remember being in class, and if no one knew the answer, the teacher would say "have a guess". Yet still no one would as they are afraid to be wrong in front of the rest of the class. 

He talks about about being 'educated out' of creativity. For example in junior school we have regular sessions of art,dance, gym and music, yet as we progress further into secondary school, we have less and less 'creative classes'. We are meant to be more focused on classes such as Maths, English and Science. He talks about this in a cultural context and says that it doesn't matter where you go in there world all the subjects students learn are in the same heir achy. First, Maths, English etc, then languages and humanities and at the bottom are the Arts. He explains we are steered away from these subjects as people are not as likely to get jobs with subjects such as art, music, dance. So we are taught less of them. He says that we now wont get to see what the future for them will be like when they are at our age. So we must so something about it and cultivate children's creativity and their ability to be original.

Blog review

The Guardian-blog review  (click to view site) 

I have chosen to review an educational blog that has been written by students.It would be a blog that I would be more interested in as they will talk mostly about topics of everyday student life and education.  Even though i see The Guardian as a very formal website/newspaper, i thought that if the blogs have been written by actual students, i can find them very relatable and will find their information very helpful.  

One of the blogs that I found interesting was the blog " How your brain likes to be treated at revision time" 





It talks about tips that students are advised to undergo to help with their memory to help with their study's and revision etc .. e.g taking regular breaks and sleeping well. It also looks into scientific ways to revise - called 'spaced repetition . This is you should wait longer each time you revise something to see how long after you can retrieve the data. 


Also with the actual blogging website  students have to send in their ideas first to one of the blog makers to validate them and approve of them. So you know the points that are put up are going to be reasonable and apply about education and students in some way.  The blogs also have links to Facebook and twitter, to share these blogs and ideas with friends. 

I have also looked at the Guardians blogs for Higher Education network, and to be honest, they are a lot more academic and challenging to read and understand. The topics are more political and based around the government in my opinion. That's why i would rather the students blogs on  my blogger site because they are more relatable to students such as myself. 

New Years Resolutions

I am a strong believer of making new years resolutions and keeping to them. I believe that the new year is a new chance to start fresh whether that be doing something new or committing to not doing something.

 1.Stay in touch with friends from home Since finishing secondary school, i have realized that a lot of people from my old friendship group never talk any more. Its just so weird to think that we were all best friends a few years ago and then within a few months you dont speak. So now i have started University, although i have a small handful of good friends back at home. I insist that I will always make time for them, even though I'm not living home, I will always speak to them and catch up when im actually home. Even though I have made more friends up in University, the friends I have back at home are friends from when i was a young child and i hope to keep them!

 2.ALWAYS go to lectures I am a self-admitted lazy person. I have a very weird body clock as it is and I am a genuine night owl. Its surprising if i go to bed and sleep before 11pm. I have tried a lot of things to try and get me to relax to get ready for bed early, such as a hot, relaxing bubble bath, even reading a book. But my mind is just so active at night, so this means.. i am NOT a morning person. I hate mornings! I can be left in bed till gone midday and i will still not move. So this means i struggle a lot to get up for early morning lectures, I will admit I have missed a few already. But now this year, this is why I had to make a resolution, and try to stick to it!! If i was motivated enough to do exercise, my 3rd and final resolution would be to go to the gym , but as it doesn't interest me , I wont jump on the band wagon.

Happy New Year!

web 2.0

I am going to write about the pros and cons of using a web 2.0 application in everyday life. Web 2.0 is the use of integrating social media into websites such as Twitter,Facebook or blog pages e.g Blogger.com.

  Facebook

Facebook is a social networking website that was launched in February 2004, and to this day, there are around 1 billion users, and this number is still increasing as more people are gaining access to computers and have knowledge of this website. Facebook helps people keep in touch with friends and family, even if they are on the other side of the world. 


It is very useful as you are able to post pictures, videos, URLS for other websites for example you tube, and not only can you do this on your own Facebook page/wall, but you can do it to others too! It is also convenient as you can see when friends/family's birthdays are as it comes up on your homepage. Also, you can be invited to events by people and also see other peoples events if they have made them public. However, Facebook is known to be a main website that is known for cyber-bullying. So many people are very cautious about who they accept as friends. 


However, younger children are most vulnerable in this case , so parents must be extra cautious about their child when using Facebook. Also Facebook has been known to carry virus' as you can send them to people through direct message (inbox) or to their actual Facebook page. One of the main concerns for Facebook is it is highly addictive, I will be one to agree with this as i know how hard it is to actually go on your laptop and do an assignment without logging onto Facebook. This is many teachers concerns as they know their students are very likely to be distracted by websites such as Facebook or twitter and not putting 100% concentration into their task/assignment.

Web 2 app- education

For this web post, i have decided to do a summary of the web 2 page www.voki.com

At a first glance , it looks hard to understand and navigate around. However, after a play around with it , I understood the concept. Basically, both teachers and students can sign up to this web 2 page and access resources and teaching plans set out by the teacher themselves. It is an American site as when i searched in what grade the work could be set at it said 'kinder garden,elementary school' etc.

 Nevertheless, the site is very useful to teachers in the aspect of lesson planning. As they can simply search a topic and for what grade , and some sort of lesson plan or help (from other teachers that use this website) come up! Even though signing up is not free, I think it would be beneficial as you can create class accounts and even have your own avatar and set it to speak and look a certain way to motivate children to learn. They can also make their own, which has an element of fun in it. It also has a blog, so you can interact on that and look at ideas from others. Students can have their own log in username and password for their work and when they sign in they can clearly see updates given by the teacher. It makes working online more fun! In my opinion its more for children in Junior school however as some of the avatars and scenes are more for younger children.

TEDtalk - Michele Obama

  For this blog post i have decided write about a Ted talk that Michelle Obama has done on education mainly for women and young women of the world. Not only is her speech inspirational, but she talks to the audience on their level, she doesn't want to show her authority, she is merely giving them advice through a brilliant speech.

 She starts talking to them about her background, and she explains that there was nothing going in her favor to determine that she would be stood in front of them as the first African american first lady of the united states of america. She wasn't born into wealth , as neither of her parents went to university. But both her parents were grateful for what they had, Michelle and her brother were just raised with love. She goes into great detail about all the positive influences she has and still has in her life now, for example her mother who lives at the white house with her and helps look after her two daughters. 

 She then begins to talk about when she met her husband Barack Obama and as she speaks about him you can clearly understand how much she values his opinion and respects him. She explains how he has mentioned the idea of 'the world as it is' and 'the world as i should be'. For me, this concept makes me think a lot, because there is much distance between the two. However she explains that we all know that we need to close the gap between these two ideas, and that's where the further community comes in to try and help. Michelle then puts an emphasis on how important it is to get an education, as we are the pieces that will close the gap between what the world is now and how it should be .


 She goes on to say "by getting a good education , you can control your own destiny". I strongly agree with her that it doesn't matter whether you come from a council estate or a country estate, if you have the determination to do well and get an education, that is what you will do and you will strive and go far. In summation, when i watched this speech, i was amazed. Her way with words and her wisdom are outstanding and truly inspirational , how she uses examples of women such as Florence Nightinagale etc and how they have made a change in the world. They have showed women that the sky is the limit and to get to our dreams we must work for. them.