SNOW, SNOW, AND MORE SNOW!

Since Monday, our Education course has had a reading week in order for us to study for our up and coming exams!
However, it has been quite hard to study when the rest of halls have been off due to the amount of snow that has been brought upon us in Townhill.

I did use the snow to my advantage though! There were no distracting outings to the cinema or shopping due to it being too treacherous to walk down to town. I also wouldn't allow myself to join my friends in the snow until I had done a substantial amount of revision. Therefore, the snow is one of the reasons why I have been doing a significant amount of revision.
The pictures below of the snow around Swansea Metropolitan University.

Learning to play outdoors

I chose to follow the learning to play outdoors blog because I agree with the views that the blogger has put forward.
This blogger believes that play based learning is an asset to education. I also believe this because I think that learning through play, especially at a young age is essential for developing young children’s key learning skills.

As Jenny the blogger says, these milestones are ‘underestimated by adults in favor of skills like reading and writing’.
Even the simple outdoor activity is developing all combinations of skills like teamwork, creative thinking and feeling successful.
Outdoor activity play is extremely important to a child, because it ensures fresh air, vitamin D and fun, as well as learning.

Although learning through play is extremely important for a child’s developmental skills, it still isn’t seen as important as reading writing and arithmetic’s. When the children become juniors in their primary school, learning through play is forgotten and replaced with rows of tables and books. However, I believe that both should be incorporate into their everyday learning in order to provide a substantial foundation to their learning.

This is the link for the Learning to play outdoors blog - http://progressiveearlychildhoodeducation.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/learning-through-play-outdoors.html

What learning style do I prefer?

My first exam is only a couple of days away, and I am quite apprehensive about them. I don't particularly like exams, I'd rather an assignment to do as I can take my time and thoroughly proof read my work.
I learn by writing the information in a mind map form, colourfully and tidily. Then, I keep copying it until I can write the information again off by heart. By the end of the revision session, I try to write all of the study notes that I have learnt throughout the day, without looking at the notes that I have made.
Mainly, I believe that I am a kinaesthetic learner, due to memorising the work by copying the information through writing. However, I do believe that I am also partly a visual learner too, because I can visualise the information on the mind map in my mind. I also use different colours to differentiate the topics within the subject.
The website below states that everyone learns differently. Some learn kinaesthetically, others visually, and some auditory. Although, most people learn at best, by combining the three learning styles together. Even though they combine the three styles together many people still have a preferred learning style.

http://www.learningrx.com/types-of-learning-styles-faq.htm



Some of my study notes.

Summative and Formative assessment

Although exams are a part of life and growing up, it doesn't mean anyone likes them! Personally, I’d rather a formative assessment rather than summative assessment.
A formative assessment is being assessed over a long period of time, for example course work. Whilst summative assessment is assessing through examinations. I prefer the formative style of assessing because I believe it is much more fair. I don't believe that the exams show your full capability. What if you don't understand the question? Or accidentally misunderstood the question? (Of which I have experience of).
In the video I have embedded below, Rick Wormeli says that many teachers spend most of their time on designing summative assessments which would insinuate that teachers think that it’s the most important type of assessment. Though, as Rick suggests, children can do well even without grades (summative assessment) but they cannot progress with their learning without the formative assessment because of the feedback that comes with it.


However, formative assessment is not without its disadvantages, for example, when feedback given for coursework that has been influenced by a parent does not directly relate to pupils work. Though, verbal feedback between teacher and pupil can be greatly beneficial when communicated well.

Exam time!

It is now that time of the year again! Exams! Halls are now quieter, and life is less active than normal due to exams and assignments. I have two exams this month, one on the 28th of January and the other is on the 31st of January. However, I am looking forward to finishing the last exam, because I will be returning back to Cardiff on the weekend of the second of February to watch the Welsh v Irish game in a bar, in order to relax after a stressful week.

Blog? Website? What's the difference?

Many people in the modern day are confused about the differences between a blog and a website.
Web log is the formal name for a blog. Therefore a blog is a type of website and a website is just a general term.
There are a few technical differences to blogs and websites, in the way they are presented to the readers.
In my opinion blogs are rather informal compared to websites. For example, the language they use is much less complicated. This might be because the blogger is trying to broaden their audience around the world through using simpler language.
In a blog the major topics can change and blogs often cover several articles as they are updated often.
Unlike blogs, the major content of a website often remains the same, although the creator of the website can add other pages to the website to increase the content, therefore developing their website further.
I found this quote on a blog-
'Website is a Web page which provides any Service (Like Facebook) and a Blog is a Web page which gives Information and Articles on daily basis (Like Youtube, Twitter ) "

Creating a Video on the ipad

In our seminar last Friday, my assigned partner Natalie and I created a movie on the ipad app moviemaker. We created a video to show aspects of our life in Swansea Metropolitan University. The video only took approximately thirty minutes to create and ten to fifteen minutes to edit. We had decided that it would have an interesting effect upon the audience if we did not speak throughout the movie so they could concentrate on the main visual aspects of University life, which we ourselves have experienced. Also, we incorporated a subtle, beat in the background to give representation to the University nightlife.
As a way to communicate with the audience we typed certain words on Word.
For example

The mini movie was extremely simple to create, but Natalie and I found the editing a little difficult, as we hadn’t used the chosen app before, therefore, we took our time making sure we were doing everything correctly. In the end, creating the video with only a little help was satisfying because the video was a success.

The Internet Movie Database (IMDB) Web 2.0

IMDB (The internet movie database) is a popular example of a Web 2.0 website. IMDB is a website containing information about past, present and future films, television programmes and celebrities (within reason). On the website you can find out who plays what characters in films and television programs. It also has an up and coming section on the website which shows the newest trailers for the latest films that will shortly be released. You can also find a must see list of films which are in the cinema, and can be very helpful if you are undecided between seeing two films. I find IMDB extremely helpful especially when I recognize a character but cannot remember where I have seen the person before thus why I regularly use IMDB.
Another positive to using this website is that you can download the IMDB app on a smartphone for usage of the website on the go.

There are a few downsides to IMDB, for example, not all films/television programs are on the website. Also another disadvantage of the website is that sometimes when an actor or actress isn’t well known, they do not have a picture with their name, which makes it difficult to connect the characters together.

http://www.imdb.com

Web 2.0

The term Web 2.0 was first used in January 1999 by Darcy Dinucci, a consultant on electronic information design, in her article ‘Fragmented Future’.
http://creativementors.in/web-technologies/
Web 2.0 is closely associated with Tim O’Reilly because of the O’Reilly media Web 2.0 conference that was held in 2004.

The Web 2.0 is seen as the new World Wide Web, although the creator of the original World Wide Web Tim Berners-Lee, has said that it is complete Jargon that people believe that the Web 2.0 is substantively different from prior web technologies.

It is not the technical specifications that have been changed; it’s the way the software developers and people use the web has changed. Examples of Web 2.0 include, Facebook and other social network sites, blogs, wikis, video sharing sites and many more.

Ted - Adora Svitak

This talk is by Adora Svitak, a twelve-year-old child from America.

I enjoyed Adora Svitak's talk on 'what adults can learn from children' as it was in my opinion accurate, as well as being extremely inspiring. I agree completely with Adora when she rightly states that children should deserve higher expectations, because children work as hard as they are expected to. I know this first hand, because when I was younger a teacher told me I wouldn't be able to get above a C grade at the most, therefore I studied only a small amount because I was told I wasn't capable of doing any better. Even though expectations of children should increase, sometimes adults' expectations can be too high resulting in children feeling under pressure regarding their academic or even life achievements.
I believe that society frowns upon childishness, as being called childish is an insult to most people. As Adora says being called childish or childish thinking isn’t a bad thing, because children are creative, optimistic and have dreams. Dreams are like goals, some are extreme, but others for example; making the world a safe place for everyone, is something to work towards as a way to make the world a better place, for future generations.