HASS

Week 5 Embedded Task 3

On review of the various digital tools presented this week, as always approximately 90% of the literature and educational concepts introduced are new to me, and as always therefore I am continuing to ‘stockpile’ my repository of pedagogical content and ideas for future use.

In this context, although I am very familiar with Microsoft Power Point, where I use Power Point regularly in employment, I did enjoy observing and playing with enhanced use. However, for my reflection I have dedicated my exploration to Prezi. Why?

When we consider that one of the key expectations of pedagogy is to create a meaningful learning experience for students, the functionality of Prezi presents as being contemporary and highly interactive and engaging for both the user and the student. Equally, where I have never used Prezi, I wanted to spend adequate time to move from a basic use and understating, to progressing in my fluency in the utilisation of Prezi for my future career in Teaching. I was also impressed by Prezi’s corporate commitment including contributing $100 Million in software licenses to Schools throughout the USA, as part of former President Obama’s Connect ED policy (wolfgang 2014).

I signed up for basic Prezi use; however once I attempted to commence with Prezi (after watching multiple You Tube clips, and with the power of deduction), my current web browser did not support any editing of Prezi. As a result, I loaded Google Chrome on a number of occasions as my default browser, and at one stage this seemingly fell out, and I was required to re-install and commence Prezi again. When completing my first Prezi, I pictured myself within my teaching context of Civics and Citizenship, regarding Australian Political Parties and forming Government (ACARA 2016), therefore I chose the use of ‘newspaper’ as the template.

In a not too dissimilar way to using weebly, I found Prezi highly intuitive (whilst having training wheels with a You Tube tutorial running concurrently), with the tools and functions mirroring that of word, including inserting of pictures and videos (including being able to embed You Tube videos and links – which I have included in my Prezi), change of font type and colour, and importantly an ‘edit undo’ button.

Given it’s ‘relative’ ease, moving forward in my career I do think I would sign up to the ‘Edu Pro’ (Prezi for Teachers), at only $4.92 US per month, with the first months use being free. I would then progressively build a repository of content, that could be edited and refined on an ongoing basis to build in contemporary issues. For me this is a key factor, in effect each presentation therefore can become a living document, to ensure relevancy to students lives.

This is my presentation here:

https://prezi.com/view/mmIe3fPIjaJwqYJ12f2M/

In the context of Prezi through the SAMR model, I would suggest the following:

Substitution:

Rather than presenting the Australian Curriculum, role of Political Parties and their role in forming Government ACHCK075 (ACARA 2016), through a text book or handouts, I would ‘substitute’ this through the presenting of the content via a Prezi presentation.

Augmentation:

Students would then be split into small groups, and each group would be assigned a political party and/or independent; that makes up the current Australian Parliament (with one group representing each party or independent).

Each small group, would then jointly create a Prezi Presentation, that would capture all the relevant details of the party, such as their history, how many times they have formed Government, noteworthy achievements, their current composition in the Australian Parliament etc.

Teams would have to necessarily draw on higher order thinking skills, including ‘how are they going to present their Prezi’, as well as ‘soft skills’ such as working in a team etc.

Modification:

After the students then present their Prezi’s to the other groups; the groups ‘swap’ each other’s presentations. At this point each group is now required to research and then synthesise the key policies of each political party; and update the Prezi in a manner that succinctly captures these policies and the importance of them, presenting why this party should win (or be part of, in the case of independents and minor parties) the next election and form Government.

Redefinition:

Students then make their Prezis live; linking them to established blog pages. (once the relevant logistics had been work through); students then make contact with both the ‘party office’ and the ‘closest’ Member of Parliament representing this party. The students request that this Member comment on, after review of the groups Prezi presentation including the students synthesis of policy to win the next election, with the Member or party office then comments to this (which might include part validation of the work, or even augmenting and refining the content of the synthesis).

References:

Wolfgang, B. Obama to announce $400 million in private-sector technology grants. Retrieved from:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/feb/28/obama-announce-400-million-private-sector-technolo/

Australian Curriculum and Assessment Reporting Authority. (2016f). Foundation to Year 10 Curriculum, Humanities and Social Sciences, Introduction. Retrieved

http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/humanities-and-social-sciences/civics-and-citizenship/curriculum/7-10?layout=1