MTOOLSforGEOG

Some ‘Mindtools’ for Geography (Wikis, BLOGS, BOTS et.al) WikipediA – The Free Encyclopedia Source: en.wikipedia.org by Terry Fogarty – The Pittwater House Schools, Collaroy

Isn’t it fascinating. Something can be staring you in the face and you don’t even notice it. I had been using WikipediaA web site for a couple of years before I realised – I can edit the web and make a contribution. The dream of the WWW
 * Well I’ll be!**
 * When Tim Berners-Lee conceived the WWW, one of his dreams was for on-line collaboration – building and sharing knowledge in real time. As it turned out, for most of its existence the WWW has predominately been used by authors to publish information there has been little true collaborative opportunity.

A Wiki is a website on which anyone can contribute. Simply click the EDIT link on the page and presto – there is the page content. Add to it, change it, delete it if you want. Click SAVE and presto – you have just become a web author.
 * WikiWikiWeb**

More importantly, now your voice can be heard. You have added to the font of human knowledge.

According to Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia, a wiki pronounced ‘wee-kee’ or ‘wick-ey’, also ‘why-kie’is a group of Web pages that allows users to add content, but also allows others (often completely unrestricted) to edit the content. A wiki is a very effective way to exchange information through collaborative effort.


 * Class Wiki
 * A wiki can be used as part of many class projects or activities.

One way is for the teacher to create the initial wiki with a series of topics or questions, then ask the students to contribute.

You could pulish the syllabus topics to a wiki and have the class develop a knowledge base.

A wiki could be used as an alternative to a dicussion group. It is more flexible in that out-of-context postings can be moved to another page.

Wikis are good spaces to host a debate.

A wiki is well siuted to a Blended or Guided Learning pedagogy. The teacher can establish the framework or scaffold for learning allowing the students to construct their own knowledge within it.
 * Wiki pedagogy**

Research tells us that whilst boys love ICT, it is usually for the wrong reasons (games, hacking). We also know that many boys lag with literacy development

Wikis provide a highly collaborative and creative environemnt.

The communciation within a Wiki is asynchronous. This means someone can post new information at any time and someone will see it next time they visit the site.

Wikis are a great mdedium to address syllabus Key Competencies: wiiki particiapnts need to colllec, analyses and organise information to communciate their ideas and information. They provide students the opportunity to work with others and in teams using technology. It also likely that students will need to develop strategies to solve problems that emerge on the site.

In David Jonassesn’s terminology a Wiki is a ‘Mindtool’ – a simple computer applciation used in a new way to engage learners in critical thinking. In this case the computer application is a simple text editor used in a new and exciting way – to create a collaboritve information speace on the world wide web. Pedagogically a wiki can either be integrated as ‘open’ software – a tool for tsudents to use or ‘closed’ software where content is provided by the producer (or ‘semi-closed’ software where a scaffold or frameworh is provided).

Wikis are inherently interactive and great fro problem-solving.. A wiki can perform a dual role: as a publisher of student work; as a commucnations device.

A wiki is also a great example of a Rich Environment for Active Learning (REAL). According to Dunlap and

Grabinger (1996:212-222) a REAL “ecourages student responsibility, decision making and intentional learning in an atmosphere of collaboration among studnets nand teachers.” REAL are also useful for “participation in activities that promote high-level thinking processes, including problem solving, experimentation, original creations, discussions,a nd examination of topics from multiple perspectives’.

Wikis are great for implementing Multiple Intelligences (MI). They can be adapted for:
 * Linguistic learners (wiki can be predominately text)
 * Logical learners (solving problems, reasoning)
 * Spatial learners (use graphics diagrams and maps withinin the Wiki)
 * Kinesthetic learners (keybaording)
 * Interpersonal learners (collaborative knowledge construction)
 * Naturalist (by topic selection)

When used with a BLOG for Synthesis and Evaluation Wikis cover all levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy of learning abstraction.

Wiki projects can also be used to explore most of Costa’s Habits of Mind: Persisting; Thinking and communicating with clarity and precision; Managing impulsivity; Listening with understanding and empathy; Creating, imagining, innovating; Thinking flexibly; Thinking about thinking; Taking responsible risks; Striving for accuracy; Questioning and posing problems; Thinking interdependently; Applying past knowledge to new situations; Remaining open to continuous learning.

Used within a Blended Learning framework Wikis support constructivist, socio-cultural and cognitive approaches to learning. Typically, I cast my blended learning within a modified traditional framework such as Gagné’s 9 Events of Learning.

Wikis present students with the opportunity to engage and deal with many social and ethical issues. Foremost is the issue of e-vandalism. If anyone can edit a wiki page, will not they be defaced or corrupted?
 * Social & Ethical Issues**

//Censorship:// should there me a moderator who removes inappropriate postings? //Copyright:// Do you have the owner’s permission to post the intellectual property you have published in the wiki? //Plagiarism:// Have you appropriately referenced sources? //Power:// Is someone dominating the content? //Misinterpretation:// Have you expressed yourself clearly and succinctly? //Authenticity:// Has the information been posted by who it is claimed? Emerging technology: what is the best/appropriate way to use a wiki? Wikiquette: what is/is not appropriate? //Safety:// Who is the audience? Who might read what I have written? //Privacy:// I exposed another person to harm or embarrassment?

For REALs, Dunbar and Grabinger (1996) suggest:
 * Some wiki strategies**
 * Allow students to determine what they need to learn through questioning and goal setting
 * Provide sufficient scaffolding to help students with prompts, examples, modelling and collaborative support
 * Enable students to manage their own learning activities
 * Enable learners to contribute to each other’s learning through collaborative activities
 * Keep collaborative groups small
 * Make sure each student in a group has a role. Rotate the roles.
 * Provide continuing trainin in being part of the collaborative effort
 * Vary the learningt activities. Do not rely solely on group activities
 * Group projects should be assessed by both the teacher and group members. Maintain individual accountability
 * Help students develop metacognitive awareness skills – what learning strategies are they employing?
 * Create a safe climate


 * Teacher Perspective
 * Wikis also make great spaces for collaborative knowledge construction by teachers. With the assistance of a colleague in my Teacher Association who happens to host a wiki_engine on his website, the night of our HSC exam I published some of the examination questions with some possible answers. I could only do the multiple choice questions as I didn’t have an OCR scanner handy. Within 48 hours, someone else had scanned most rest of the paper to the wiki and another had suggested some alternate answers. If you are interested take a look at http://bettscomputers.com/wiki/index.php?FrontPage and follow the link from NswHscIptExam2005.

I can see Wikis being used by textbook authors to prepare content; by teachers to populate a syllabus or from sharing program ideas.

There is any number of free wiki hosting sites on the Net. I set up my first one at http://wikihost.org/ Geography WikipediA
 * WikiWhere?**

In case you didn’t notice, WikipediA has a section dedicated to Geography. You can visit and collaborate at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Geography


 * BLOGS
 * A BLOG (weBlog) is a personal journal kept on the Internet. An unedited voice – available on the Internet for all to see and read (and comment on if they wish).

BLOGS can be used as a Mindtool to support learning. They are particularly suited to the synthesis and evaluation phases of a typical Bloom based learning sequence.

BLOGS are also great for implementing MI. They support most of the intelligences (as do Wikis). Just substitute ‘Intrapersonal’ for ‘Interpersonal’.

You can hear more about BLOGS on the Geography Teachers’ Associations of NSW website at http://hsc.csu.edu.au/pta/gtansw/ or read the GTAs BLOG by following the link on the Home Page. You can get your own free Educational BLOGSpace from http://incsub.org/2005/free-education-blogs-edublogsorg. I set up my first BLOG using http://www.blogger.com/start

What does robotics have to do with Geography?
 * BOTS (Robotics)**

BOTS are fantastic Mindtools. Seymour Papert (the inventor of LOGO and a small robot use d in primary schools known as the Turtle) took Piaget’s Constructivist approach to learning in a new direction. Papert’s Constuctionsim is a real ‘learn by doing’ approach.

According to Savage et.al. (2003), constructionism ‘encompasses two complementary ways of thinking: the abstract and the concrete….This constant duality (abstract-concrete, understanding-artefact, learning-collaborative knowledge building) is further reinforced by a dual manner of thinking proposed by Norman: experiential and reflective.”

The Stage 4/5 Geography syllabus includes the study of Natural Disasters. The GTA Blog site has some great graphics of the recent Lane Cover Tunnel sink-hole collapse. What it doesn’t show is the robot that saved “Tweety’ the cockatiel. Robots are often to be found lurking around natural disasters. They go down into volcanos to take the temperature; worm under the rubble with a camera after earthquakes. Take photos during hurricanes and tornadoes. Can be seen swimming down flooded rivers rescuing all and sundry (well maybe not yet, but there is no reason they couldn’t). They certainly are used to explore the deepest oceans. They are also used on farms for harvesting and to milk cows.

It is quite likely that somewhere in your school there is a LEGO Robotics Kit. The kit I like is LEGO MindStorms Robotics Invention. It includes an object-oriented programming language that any can use. Perhaps get an IST teacher to develop a task where RoverBot has to go to the volcano, pick up a rock sample and bring it back to ‘exactly’ the same spot from where he set off. At the same time have the class complete a WebQuest on how robots are used to explore the environment.

You can find out more by visiting: http://mindstorms.lego.com/eng/default.asp?domainredir=www.legomindstorms.com

According to Dodge (1995), the inventor, a WebQuest is an inquiry-based activity where most of the information is collected from the World Wide Web.
 * WebQuests**

Anyone can develop a WebQuest. There are six steps involved:

1. An introduction that sets the stage and provides some background. 2. A task that is doable and interesting. 3. A set of information sources needed to complete the task. Many (though not necessarily all) of the resources are embedded in the WebQuest document itself as anchors pointing to information on the World Wide Web. Information sources might include web documents, experts available via e-mail or realtime conferencing, searchable databases on the net, and books and other documents physically available in the learner's setting. Because pointers to resources are included, the learner is not left to wander through webspace completely adrift. 4. A description of the process the learners should go through in accomplishing the task. The process should be broken out into clearly described steps. 5. Some guidance on how to organize the information acquired. This can take the form of guiding questions, or directions to complete organizational frameworks such as timelines, concept maps, or cause-and-effect diagrams as described by Marzano (1988, 1992) and Clarke (1990). 6. A conclusion that brings closure to the quest, reminds the learners about what they've learned, and perhaps encourages them to extend the experience into other domains.

WebQuest variations include allowing advanced students to wander in cyberspace looking for information. Setting up a GroupQuest using a Wiki. Having the students use a BLOG to record their journey and outcomes.

There is any number of Geography sample templates and examples on the WWW. Just type ‘Geography WebQuests’ into Google.

You can download Picasa from http://picasa.google.com/index.html
 * Organising maps and pictures
 * Picasa is software that helps your instantly find, edit and share all the digital pictures on their PC. Every time Picasa is opened, it automatically locates all the pictures (even ones you forgot you had) and sorts them into visual albums organised by date with folder names you will recognise. You can drag and drop to arrange your albums and make labels to create new groups. Picasa helps make sure your students’ pictures are always organised.


 * Organising music
 * I’m hoping that some Geography teachers out there are planning for the Musical Learners and others in their classes: encouraging students to include sounds of running brooks; howling storms; earthquakes and breaking waves in for multimedia media requirements of the new syllabus. The software the students can use to organise the digital sounds on their computer is either iTunes or MusicMatch Jukebox. These programs do for sounds what Picasa does for images.

Download MusicMatch from http://www.musicmatch.com/ or iTunes from http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/

Concept Mapping software Cmap available from http://cmap.ihmc.us/
 * Semantic Organisation Tools
 * These Mindtools help learners to organise and analyse what they know or what they are learning. Two of the best known semantic organisation tools are databases and semantic networking (concept mapping) tools.

Source: http://www.kesgrave.suffolk.sch.uk/learningzone/subjects/geography/Alevel/Essays/AShazardsconceptmap.jpg
 * Hazards Concept Map**

Another Semantic Networking Mindtool option is Inspiration – check if someone in your school has it.

There is a requirement in the new Stage 5 syllabus for students to design and create simple database from student research. There are two databases available with Microsoft Office. MS Excel or MS Access.
 * Using databases**

MS Excel is both a spreadsheet and a database. MS Excel can be used as a Mindtool for amplifying mental function. It allows you to make the underlying logic obvious to learners. This improves their understanding of the interrelationships and procedures. Building an MS Excel database requires abstract reasoning by the user. Technically, MS Excel is a ‘flat-file’ database i.e. a single table. However, using the built-in LOOKUP function in MS Excel and multiple ‘sheets’ of the Workbook, it is possible to use MS excel as a simple relational database (you can create multiple related tables in the various sheets).

MS Excel also supports a number of problem-solving capabilities such as decision analysis reasoning requiring learners to consider implications of conditions or options which entails higher order thinking.

Plus MS Excel as a Dynamic Modeling Tool has heaps of ways for students to display their data: charts; graphs, scatter diagrams etc. using the built-in INSERT CHART function.

Students can organise and analyse their data in MS Excel using the DATA SORT function

Alternatively, MS Access can be also used to create a simple flat-file (single table) database. Students can just follow the built-in wizards. MS Access is a simple Relational Database Management System (RDMS). This means it has a number of additional built-in features such as Input Data Forms and Output Information Reports. MS Access allows higher order analysis of data using queries.

A computer program that simulates the way human experts solve problems, an artificial decision maker. There is an expert system shell available for download from http://www.mcgoo.com.au/html/es-builder.htm
 * Expert Systems**

You can create an expert system for any classification system – types of settlement, intensity of cyclones, landform or vegetation types

The most common system modelling tool for Geography is a GIS. There is a host of available tools. A useful site is: http://freegis.org/
 * System Modeling Tools**

Microworlds are exploratory learning environments or discovery spaces in which learners can navigate, manipulate and create objects, and test their effects on one another. Whilst you may not be able to do all these things on Google Earth this is one micro world worth having a look at with students. Download from http://earth.google.com
 * Microworlds**

Stage 4 also requires students to collect and use a range of multimedia elements and to develop a Multimedia Presentation. Unless your school has specialist software, and many may not, one way to complete this task is using MS PowerPoint.
 * Multimedia**

Multi (three or more) media of text/numbers; images, sound or movement (animation/movie of vide). The trick is to have a look at the file compatibility listed in the Help pages for MS Media Player. If the format you have isn’t listed – don’t waste your time. CD files are easy enough to use as a background track on PowerPoint but you cannot easily ‘grab’ a track from a CD and use it within a PowerPoint presentation. The other thing to watch out for is that some image and sound types do not get ‘embedded’ within the .ppt file that PowerPoint creates. It can be much like a web site, where you need to transfer the .ppt file plus the images and sound you have used as separate files to the target PC.

Alternatively, students can produce a multimedia web site to meet this syllabus requirement using MS Frontpage.

This is another easy to use multimedia Mindtool. Text using titles and credits and sound and movement. I also get the kids to include some static graphics for special effects.
 * MS Movie Maker II**

This really simple little Mindtool, allows students to create simple little animations. They can use a digital camera to obtain the sequences then load these into the animator to render then as an animation. Download from a number of sites. Just type: ‘Microsoft Gif Animator’ into Google.
 * MS Gif Animator**

There is endless possibilities using animations – volcanoes erupting; earthquakes, faulting. You don’t need expensive software to make a simple animation. The Mindtool for this is MS Powerpoint. Make a slide. Then make a duplicate. Move part of the image in the direction of travel, then repeat the process over and over again. To create the ‘animation’ use PowerPoint’s built-in function SLIDESHOW REHEARSE-TIMINGS. The faster you can click the slides forward the more realistic your animation.
 * Animations**

Stage 4 requires students to create a desktop published document fro a specific audience. I often give my students a four page complex document and get them to recreate it using firstly MS Word then MS Publisher. Then get them to create a reflection (any way they like – in music, as poem, in a table – of the experience). To cut down typing time you can take a desktop published Word documents and simply remove all the formatting and provide the students only with the text content and separate image files.
 * Desktop Publishing**


 * Search Engine
 * For Stage 4, students are required to develop and refine search techniques using the Internet. A good place to start is with the Advanced Search page on Google which allows searchin for ‘exact phrases’ or for pages ‘without’ specific words and filtering by various file types, time periods, occurrences or by sites or domains (such as edu.au). Also get them to check out ‘cached’ pages. This is often useful if the current site is off-line. Also get students to explore the advanced search tips for other stratgeies.


 * Conversation Tools
 * According to Jonassen et. al. (1998) “newer theories of learning are emphasing the social as well as the constructivist nature of the learning process. In the real world, we often learn by socially negotiating meaning, not by being taught”.

In Stage 4 Geography there is a requirement for students to use email (an asynchronous communication Mindtool). Read more later about the conversation tools available with LAMS.

There is even a neat tool to manage your Mindtool projects. Macquarie University has developed a Learning Activity Management System (known as LAMS).
 * Managing Mindtool Projects**

According to the folk at the LAMS International (http://www.lamsinternational.com/), “LAMS is a revolutionary new tool for designing, managing and delivering online collaborative learning activities. It provides teachers with a highly intuitive visual authoring environment for creating sequences of learning activities. These activities can include a range of individual tasks, small group work and whole class activities based on both content and collaboration.

Whether you are a long time user of current e-learning tools, or new to the area, LAMS will release you from administration and propel you and your students to a new level of interaction and satisfaction that has the potential to dramatically increase student learning.” I have started to use LAMS. It has a number of really neat features such as:
 * You can design your learning sequences as simple or as complex that you want.
 * It’s simple to create self-marking multiple choice or short-answer topic tests
 * Really easy to create student surveys and evaluation forms
 * It has a closed online Chat and Discussion Boards providing safety for your students – you invite students to join. No one else can access the space

Other functions built into LAMS include Submit File (for work samples); student Journal; Noticeboard for posting course and activity notes and directions.

Once you release your course, you can monitor student progress. So LAMS is ideal for differentiated learning as well.

More information on LAMS is available at: http://www.lamsfoundation.org/ There is a UK case study of LAMS for Year 9Geography available at: http://www.lamsfoundation.org/CD/html/resources/casestudies/LAMSCaseStudy_Geography.doc


 * A word about Conversation Mindtools.
 * I find Chat (a synchronous Mindtool) is fine for small groups but becomes unwieldy as the group size increases. Plus it is difficult for everyone to stay ‘on task’. This is where an asynchronous Discussion Group can work better. These are ‘threaded’ so that the response posts are linked directly to the original post. Not all over the place like in a Chat.


 * Yahoo Messenger
 * Yahoo Messenger (the like) are great little conversation Mindtools for electronic chat between two or three people. Like all electronic chat activities the bart is to keep it meaningful and the students ‘on topic.’ All electronic chat is pretty ‘unnatural’ and ‘impersonal’. Fi yuu cn’t tipe fsat and accuately mlike me, it can be a problem.

I have a neat little USB VOIP Phone handset that cost $45. Using the service that used to be called Skype (before it was bought recently by e-Bay for US$4+ billion) you can also make calls to a landline or mobile phone for a fraction of the cost charge by the Telcos.
 * Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP)
 * Why bother with electronic chat when for the cost of a microphone ($15) and some speakers you can call any computer in the world over the Internet (for free) and talk for as long as you like. This is great for socio-cultural projects across geographies (if you can get the timezones to work for you).

For another $30 you can hook up a USB WebCam to Yahoo Messenger. It isn’t video or TV quality, but at least yo0ub can see slow moving picture of who you are talking to if the other party also has a WebCam connected.
 * WebCams**

LAMS is available for free download and use under the GNU General Public License (GPL) scheme. Community of Practice
 * Guess What? They’re all free!!**

It can help if students have access to a USB Flash Memory Drive. Windows XP will recognise most digital cameras and allow you to view the images/transfer the images. If you have an older model analogue video camera or don’t have a firewire connection, there is a neat $100/$200 USB gadget available from D-Link that allows you to connect the camera to the PC via USB. It converts the video stream from analogue to digital. You can download from a camera or a VHS video directly into MS Movie Maker. The resulting movie is quite small (you have no trouble putting a 1 ½ movie onto a CD – no need for DVD). Watch out for DVDs. Even if you have a DVD burner you may need to get software to create output in true DVD-format. Most DVD burners ship with simple software that allows you to record to the DVD but not in DVD format. Digital Projectors: 1500 lumens projectors are now available for less than $1,000. . Try Harris Technology or Office Works.
 * Some Hardware Tips**

Berners-Lee, T. (2000) WEAVING THE WEB: The Original design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by Its Inventor New York: HarperBusiness Costa A.L and Kallick B.(2001) Describing 16 Habits of Mind accessed 5th November 2005 from http://www.habits-of-mind.net/pdf/16HOM2.pdf Dodge B. (1995) Some Thoughts about WebQuests, accessed 6th November 2005 from http://webquest.sdsu.edu/about_webquests.html Dunlap J.C.and Grabinger, R. S. (1996). Rich Environments for Active Learning in the higher education classroom. In B. G. Wilson (Ed.), Constructivist learning environments: Case studies in instructional design. Englewood Cliffs NJ: Educational Technology Publications Jonassen D.H., Carr C and H. Yueh (1998) Computers as Mindtools for Engaging Learners in Critical Thinking, TechTrends, v43 n2 p24-32 Accessed 5th November 2005 from http://tiger.coe.missouri.edu/~jonassen/Mindtools.pdf Norman D.A. (1993) Things that Make us Smart: Defending Human Attributes in the Age of the Machine, Basic Books: MA Savage T., Sánchez I.A., O’Donnell F. and Tangney B. (2003) Using Robot Technology as a Constructionist Mindtool in Knowledge Construction, Proceedings of the 3rd IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning technologies (ICALT’03) access 5th November 2005 from https://www.cs.tcd.ie/crite/publications/sources/Mindtool-july-03.pdf Wikipedia (2005) The Free Encylopedia: accessed 5th November 2005 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki http://www.cofc.edu/bellsandwhistles/research/retentionmodel.html
 * References**

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