Lightening the Load of Carrying Textbooks

Photo courtesy of Shena Macdonald

USING GOOGLE DRIVE TO HOST LEARNING CONTENT

Over the years Mrs Moore has built many wonderful powerpoints that were saved on our school server and as I mentioned previously we would have days when we couldn’t access our material, so we began using Slideboom to host Powerpoints. This meant that when the server was misbehaving we could teach off the internet. It also meant learners could view class PPTS (powerpoints at home). However Slideboom does not have a edit function so we were delighted with the Google Presentation functions on Drive. Uploading PPTS to Google Drive allows you to convert them to Google Presentations which can be edited online and shared with learners. Learners can also make copies of the presentations which they can edit and add to. There is also the comment function on Google presentations which facilitates online discussions. Enabling learners to access learning material at home assists them with studying for exams.  Sharing content online, also allowed us to share colour resources with the learners as well as provide links to research articles that we felt would broaden their understanding of the visual art syllabus.


Thus our Google Presentations function as digital textbooks. The immediacy of producing online content means that we can create content on current events, but I will write more about that in another post. 

So the first step to enabling learners to access online content is to place it your Google Drive Cupboard. You can do this by uploading existing content from your computer onto Google Drive.

Link to Tutorial on Uploading Presentations

Remember that the file size needs to be small so that content loads faster online. One way to reduce file size is to compress images or break a large powerpoint into smaller sections.

 Link to Tutorial on compressing images on Powerpoint 

You can also generate content online by creating new documents in Google Drive.

Link to Tutorial on creating Google Presentations

 Link to Tutorial on adding content to Google Presentations

The next step is sharing the content with the learners.

 Link to Tutorial on sharing settings on Google Presentations 

And finally how would you like the learners to access your content?

We like to use a blog to host the links, so the next few posts will be about that and I will add some links here once they are done.

Link to PPT on creating links in Blog Post

Organising your Google Cupboard

Photo courtesy of Shena Macdonald

One of the advantages of Google Drive is that it is wonderful place to store information. In fact it look similar to My Documents on the computer hard drive, but it is online which means you can access the information from any device so long as you have internet connection. Also Google has wonderful facilities for sharing folders which means others can access your content. This opens wonderful opportunities for collaboration with learners as well as format for creating online learning resources, which learners can access at home but I will write more about that in another post.

ORGANISING YOUR CUPBOARD

Something to think about is what names will you use for your folders? Mrs Moore and I like to share folders so we decided on names together so that we now where to find things. Also some shared folders have our surnames in the title so we know what belongs to who. Also some folders can be private and some can be shared.

Link to PPT tutorial on cupboard organisation - this link is under construction.

 Link to Tutorial on sharing settings on Google Drive this link is under construction.

Signing in to Google Drive

Indian Drive by Shena Macdonald

Google Drive is a wonderful place to store and generate online content.

Link to PPT tutorial on signing in to Google Drive

Link to Tutorial on creating Google Presentations

The Joy of Online Mindmaps & breaking the Parrot tradition

Photo of Indian Door by Shena Macdonald

Once again, producing content online seemed like a door that should be opened and so we began experimenting with prezi to create digital mindmaps.  We had already been experimenting with getting the learners to produce mindmaps of their theory syllabus instead of writing practise essays. Many of our learners are kinesthetic and visual learners, so the process of creating the mindmap and presenting their theory in a visual manner helped them learn better and the mark improvement was radical. Another reason for the learners improvement was the fact that producing their own content improved their understanding of the content. They were no longer able to parrot learn facts from the teachers handouts and were forced to process information. One of my matric learners almost failed theory in her June exams because she was copying and pasting her mindmap information off the internet. We had an intervention meeting and she began creating infographics that transformed the information into her own words. The result was incredible- her theory mark went up by 50% in the Trials exam.

So engaged learners produces improved understanding!

Part of why I enjoy online forums is the fact that learners are able to collaborate with you on a project. By creating online prezi's the learners were able to share links and editing rights with us.  Our girls spend hours on presentation and they loved the professional aesthetics of using prezi. Thus their theory projects improved their presentation skills (these skills are vital for preparing them for the world of work), creating learning content improved their understanding and they were able to share their knowledge with other people. They also loved doing homework and studying for exams! (this is a huge plus for a teacher).

I was also able to help them with their homework from home if we (the learner and I) were online simultaneously. We (the visual arts department) have since started using Google docs to collaborate with learners so I shall write more about that soon.

Below are is the post that introduced the Grade 9s to Prezi.
Link to Grade 9 Post on using Prezi

Here is an example of what one of the Grade 9s produced: 

Janae Lorenzo's prezi on illusions of Space

Here is an example of a Prezi I created for my university project:
Link to Prezi about my MTECH proposal

Early Discoveries: Online Discussions using Blogger Comments

During 2012 and 2013 we (Neith Moore and Shelanna Sturgess, visual arts educators at Durban Girls high School) began posting  briefs and links online and testing various hand in formats.  We wanted the learners to interact with our blogs so we experimented with using the comment function on Blogger to create online discussions.  

This photo by Carey-Anne Dooley captures my mom laughing as she engages with an Indian lady on a bus in Jaipur. It brings back many happy memories of our India travels and reminds me how important is to engage with people around you which is something we have tried to increase in our visual arts classrooms. Sometimes it is online conversation and other times it is in the here and now.

Link to Project using Comments

How our journey into online learning began

Photo Courtesy of Shena Macdonald 

Sometimes the best journeys in life are the unexpected ones- the little pit stop you had at quaint coffee shop because a monkey stole your padkos or the magnificent storm sky that broke open a landscape while you sheltered under a bridge.  Our experience of blended learning feels something like that.  It was something we (Neith Moore and I) had heard  about and were vaguely considering but most of the discoveries feel like we stumbled upon them and were surprised by the view.  

In 2011 Moore was invited to a Microsoft presentation and they happened to mention Skydrive. Our school server was giving a lot of trouble at the time so we started saving things online.  In that same year Moore also built a website (theopenstudio.co.za)  as part of a web design short course she was doing through UNISA (University of South Africa). 

Thus in Term 3 2011 we taught the Grade 10 Jewellery project off the website and the learners seemed to enjoy the concept of accessing work online. However Moore found that it was complex to alter projects on the website so she decided to try a blog at the end of 2011.  I had thoroughly enjoyed handing in my assignments online at DUT and Moore was encouraging me to create a blog so I created my first online teaching experiment at the beginning of 2012. 

Moore and I decided that it would be better to each have our own online classrooms as we each have slightly different styles and often work on different projects to facilitate sharing of physical resources within the Fine Art Department.

Introduction to the Blog Author

Hi my name is Shelanna Sturgess (nee Macdonald).

 I am an art educator at Durban Girls High School,

 who has been experimenting with online education since 2011. 

 You can view my Visual Arts classroom blog at:

 studio2-41.blogspot.com 

In 2009, I returned to my former High School (Durban Girls High School), as a young art student intent on understanding the world of teaching.  Part of our third year of the Durban University of Technology's Fine Art Course included a month’s work experience at a location of our choice. I was excited about the opportunity to continue exploring the art-making opportunities that DGHS's art studio had to offer. I will also excited to work with high school art teacher Neith Moore, who is a highly accomplished Visual Arts and Design Educator. Mrs Moore has an deep love for sharing knowledge and exploring new ideas and the art studio seems to acquire new disciplines each year. I thoroughly enjoyed my work experience and realised that a month is far too short a time to glean all the wisdom that Neith Moore and the staff at DGHS had to offer. Thus I was delighted to return to DGHS as an art educator in 2010. Since then I have spent a lot of time eavesdropping on Mrs Moore's lessons and rushing in to share information with my classes.

Mrs Moore loves to start new things so she began experimenting with an educational website in 2011. Her passion for education is infectious and her experiments generally have amazing results, so I found myself joining in the online world when Neith migrated from the website to a blog. Thus we having been using blogs as online classrooms since the end of 2011/ beginning of 2012.  

We have since began experimenting with Google Apps For Education (GAFE) and are hoping that some more teachers will join us so that we can add lots more content to our GAFE site and hopefully launch it soon at Durban Girls High School.

I had no idea how much I would enjoy blogging and I have since created a blog for my life orientation classes (dghslife.blogspot.com ) as well as blog showcasing some of my Tech art work (shelannakhethiwe.blogspot.com).  

This blog (ictschoolexperiment.blogspot.com) is the next in my online journey.... I have so enjoyed teaching online that I decided to register for my MTech in Fine Arts with a focus on Visual Arts Education. Part of my writing and practical work explores creating online educational resources. Some of the other teachers at this school as well as friends at other universities have asked for help with setting up their online classrooms. Thus this will blog will document some of the things we have learnt about working online, as well as tutorials on various aspect of online education. I will also include some articles and reviews on online education that I am reading for my MTECH studies.

When I am not exploring art or education, I love cooking so one day I may start a food blog about how we sometimes turn my parents house into a restaurant and enjoy all the deliciousness of friends and inventing recipes...but for now I think I'll stick to education...

Photos Courtesy of Shena Macdonald (my darling mother)