The Morning saw Lee present a pair of stunning presentations on Understanding Digital Kids and Living on the Future Edge. Both of these were brilliant. The content was exciting and dynamic. The afternoon was mine.

My focus was looking at Learning styles and then matching this to learning tools. I discussed briefly what I believe are the 4 aspects of a person that contribute (there are more than this) :

• Sensory learning (I use Neil Flemings VARK Model)
• Personality type (Myers-Briggs)
• Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences
• Technological learning style – Neo-millennials, digital Natives or Net Gen

The Model I focused on was Fleming’s VARK because it is a manageable tool for the classroom. VARK stands for

• Visual
• Auditory
• Read Write
• Kinaesthetic

However, for me the hardest part of this process was developing this for an Audience that was exclusively Apple. This was fun and there are some great toys for Apples. But its worth noting that there are also a large number of tools that I use on a PC that are also available for the Macs. I take my hat off to the developers of FOSS tools that create both PC and Mac version.

Source: http://images-1.redbubble.net/img/art/size:large/view:main/3082851-2-eye-collage.jpg

The URL for this Voicethread Tutorial is http://voicethread.com/share/558435/

I like the simple GUI, the fact that I can produce media that contains, images, documents, video, voice and text. This is a rich tool for teaching and learning and one well worth using. I love that students can comment and reflect.

Starter Sheet – voicethread

The only issue I have with it is the limitations of the free version – you can only have three voicethreads. However, a quick look at the pricing plan provides a cheap and reasonably priced alternative. There is a free educator plan (by application) but for a one off fee of $10 you have access to their Educator Pro plan – 10GB of storage and unlimited voicethreads. This is worth the investment.

Worth reading is their classroom guide.

http://voicethread.com/media/misc/getting_started_in_the_classroom.pdf

First step – Load google and run a search. Then Select Show options

Then Select Wonder Wheel

Having done that the results page transforms to include the Wonder Wheel. The wheel appears on the Left and on the right are the search results. (See Below)

Clicking on a branch from the wonder wheel will change the focus to be based on the selected node. (see below)

A useful tool and a benefit to the visual learners amongst us.

The site is eyeplorer http://www.eyeplorer.com/eyePlorer/

You start by entering your keyword into the keyword field – then start the search.

The search returns and as you hover over the keywords you can drag the explanations to the note pad. Pretty cool really.

You can drag the search results to the keyword field to search for that term or click on the + button to do a boolean and search

This is a nice tool for the visual learner

There is an introductory video on youtube at this URL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJiSy7Bvsos

The first event was the opening of the new block at school by John Key. My part in this was running a video conference with my Year 13 class. We were lucky enough to have a colleague to conference with who works in Google in San Francisco. The VC was a collaborative presentation on collaboration. 2 of my students collaborated with our colleague to prepare a joint presentation. The medium we used was the google suite of tools including:

• Google documents
• Google scholar
• Google alerts
• Google sites
• Google calendar
• Gmail and gtalk

We all enjoyed the presentation and I was impressed by range of tools available and free. Two tools that did impress me a lot were:

1. Google alerts – this is a cool – its like an RSS feed on steroids. Select your subject area or keywords, select your alert range (what you want want the site to look at – news sites, blogs journal etc) and set you report frequency. Each time an article is published within your reporting criteria google alerts lets you know.
2. gTalk -free video conferencing built into your gmail account

In the also very cool category is google scholar -  a search engine that only looks in academic or scholarly sites.

The kids did very well and considering the whole collaboration period was 48 hours from concept to delivery it was very good indeed.

The second event was the learning styles and learning tools workshop I ran at Tahatai Coast school. Man, those guys were good. Its Saturday morning, a voluntary event and 22 out of a staff of 35 turn up. Great turn out and these guys worked right through. Its great working with motivated people who contribute and want to be involved. There personal contributions, experiences and suggestions made it a great workshop. We covered some favourites of mine – Sensory learning and Multiple Intelligences and then linked these to learning tools.

They also understood that while we were talking about tools, the tools are just the medium the kids work in to achieve the educational/learning outcomes. They are a mechanism of engagement. Good day and lots of fun.

We also made a wiki which the staffa re going to use as a repository for learning activities.

So all in all a busy week.

Next week is also busy as I have sessions to present on robotics, Web 2.0, Open source software and digital kids.  Yehaa

The First paper on learning styles and learning tools is looking at VARK and Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences. I have had resources on the Edorigami wiki for VARK for a while, but I have not had any resources for Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences available until now.

As always I would appreciate comments and suggestions (Some elements are still being constructed including references and resources).

Introduction

This page is not about defining the different facets of Multiple intelligences, there are enough sites that do this far more adequately than I can. Rather this page is about linking the traditional approaches to the Multiple intelligences we possess and matching these with complementry digital stratergies, tools and activities.

Visual Spatial “Picture Smart”.

Definitions

These are people who are aware of their environment and think in terms of spaces. They think visually and spatiatially

Like to learn by:

Drawings, imagery, to create pictures, read maps, Do jigsaws

Traditional and Digital learning

Bodily Kinesthetic “Body Smart”.

Definitions

These are people with a good sense of body awareness

Like to learn by:

Physical activity or experience, hands on tasks movement, making things, touching

Traditional and Digital learning

Musical Rhythmic “Music Smart”

Definitions

These people like music and rhythm they study with music and are sound sensitive.

Like to learn by:

Listening, turning lessons in to music, raps etc. Like rhythmical speech

Traditional and Digital learning

Interpersonal “People Smart”

Definitions

These people like to understand and interact with other people. They like to know motivations and intentions.

Like to learn by:

Interaction, discussion group activities, talking, dialogue, co-operative work and social activities

Traditional and Digital learning

Intrapersonal “Self Smart”

Definitions

These people understand their own feelings and goals. They work well and comfortably independently. They are self reflective, self motivated and sometimes appear to be shy.

Like to learn by:

Independent study and introspection, self reflection and analysis, personal goal setting

Traditional and Digital learning

Linguistic “Word Smart”

Definitions

These are people with well developed auditory skills. They learn best through language. They like written and spoken language. They like to express themselves, convince others both orally and in written format.

Like to learn by:

Reading, playing word games, writing, creating story & poetry

Traditional and Digital learning

Logical Mathematical “Number Smart”

Definitions

These people like logic, numbers, reasoning, analysis and calculating. They like to analyse problems mathematically and scientifically. They employ deductive reasoning and like patterns and process.

Like to learn by:

Experimentation
calculation and measurement
mathematical investigation
scientific process
organising, manipulating and processing data

Traditional and Digital learning

Naturalist “Nature Smart”

Definitions

These people like nature and the outdoors. They enjoy interacting with nature and work well in the natural environment. They observe and see natural patterns.

Like to learn by:

Doing and touching
field trips
Observing and watching

Traditional and Digital learning

http://www.search-cube.com This is a visual and kinaesthetic search engine. The search results appear in the form of screen shots of the pages in a manipulatable cube. You use your mouse or cursor keys to orientate the cube and select the page you want to open. Hovering over an image will bring up a preview of the page or image beside the cube.

Mindmeister is free in its basic addition and allows the users to collaborate on the map. The interface is simple to use and quick and easy to learn. Users are required to register.

Download the PDF version of this starter sheet here

Tool or technology:

Mixbook – an online publishing tool that allows the user to create, edit, share and publish their work in a digital or hard copy format.

Curriculum area:

English

Synopsis:

Students use Mixbook to create their own portfolios of poetry in a variety of Genre, styles and forms, enhancing these with images, backgrounds and layouts thatsuit the purpose and audience.