We had a fun excursion today at radio Kronehit. Our tourguide was enthusiastic and showed us the radio studio’s and told us what they do at Kronehit. We also made our own intro and how it would sound on the radio. I thought that was really cool. When we came back at the PH we did a little quiz about the ORF excursion last time.
See you next time,
Marjet
Today we had a different MEKO meeting than usual. We used the app Zooming as classroom and worked through the app on MEKO. It was fun to do a Zooming conference and I think it fits in the course because it’s about social media and how we use it a lot. Also I never worked with Zooming before and I think it’s really easy to use it.
The task for today was that we had to watch a little bit of the serie Black Mirror. The serie is (I think) how we are going to be in the future with social media. In the serie they work with ratings through there mobile phones and when something happens for example someone is unfriendly to you you rate them a 2 and then their ratings are going down. They do everything with these ratings even with going with an airplane or buying a house. I think the series represent it good how it can be in the future with social media. I found the serie a bit cringy with the fake laughing and the ‘I’ll do everything for a good rating’. But I also think that is the point for the serie makers. I found it interesting and it made me realize that social media and being on your Phone not everything is. I sometimes catch myself on being too long on my Phone and I really want to change that.
The Zooming conference was learningfull and interesting. I learned how to use Zooming and I had something to think about after watching Black Mirror.
See you next time,
Marjet.
Today we went to the ORF zentrum in Vienna. The ORF zentrum is situated on a hill called Kuniglberg. It is a huge building and I think it’s not weird because there are working almost 2.000 people! When we went into the building we got a tour through the building. ORF is making national television and also has radio stations. So during the tour we saw some studios and were they make the scenery. It was very interesting because when I came there I thought we would see like real studio’s and so on. We saw some studio’s but in my mind studio’s are so different than they are in real life.
It was cool that we also jumped in a testing studio to test ‘making’ a weatherforecast by our own. Also the dresses from Dancing with the stars were really pretty! I thought it was a little bit dissapointing that we didn’t go in to the ‘Schminkräume’ haha. Also I was really curious about the (I will call it the ) dress up room.
This excursion was very nice and I really enjoyed visiting the ORF. It was a nice expercience.
See you next time,
Marjet
In this lesson we could choose to make our own comics or we could make our own Actionbound. We have chosen to make our own actionbound because te comics sites weren’t working that great and making a actionbound is super fun. We made a actionbound for a scavenger hunt through Vienna. It was cool to make it and to learn how we Actionbound works and I must admit I think Actionbound is really cool! I will definitely use it when I am back home because you can make so many different Actionbounds (also for history).
See you next time,
Marjet
Today we learned a lot about the influence of social media on your life. We talked about cybermobbing and other things what comes around the corner when you use social media. I thought it was very interesting because I don’t know a lot about this subject. While I of course I knew the consequences you may can cause when you use it. I think it’s important to learn our pupils the power of social media and how they can deal with it. And I think it’s not only for our children, pupils and students important but also for young adults and grown ups.
We didn’t only talk about such things as cybermobbing and stuff but also about fake news. I thought it was fun to create our own fake news. I also find such subjects not really interesting and I don’t know why because it is fun to learn about it. Also you can also make fake news with your pupils or students.
See you next time,
Marjet
Today we were introduced to different kinds of tools which you can use in your lessons. For example a quiz in Quizlet or Kahoot. We learned about Plickers and Socrative. Together we made a Quizlet about William of Orange a very famous historical person from the Netherlands. I find the lesson quite interesting because I didn’t heard of Quizlet before and I sure want to use it in my future lessons. Please found our quizlet through the link below.
https://quizizz.com/invite/5cc1a96a4b35f3001d9680c4
See you next time,
Marjet
Today we had a very fun lesson! We did an interactive scavenger hunt in the Hochschule. At the beginning of the lesson we installed the app action board. In this app you can create an interactive scavenger hunts to lead the player on a path of discovery. The program quite literally augments our reality by enhancing peoples’real-life interaction whilst using their smartphones and tablets.
At the beginning of the hunt we needed for example to sing or names and make a selfie of our team. Then we read the task and we started the scavenger hunt. It was really fun because we did a lot of interactive things and we made a lot of photo’s and video’s as proof. Therefor we had so much fun to do this and exploring PH Wien.
I think you can do a lot with an app like Action board. You can use it as a introduction for a new schoolyear or you can make an interactive scavenger hunt for in a (historical) museum. There are so many ideas for using the Action board app. I am glad that we did this and that I learned how to use the app by doing a scavenger hunt myself.
See you next time,
Marjet Withaar
Today we had an very interesting lesson about virtual reality for in the classroom. The lesson was given by mr. Gatterer. Mr Gatterer told us about a lot off apps we could use in our lessons and he showed us how the apps worked. This was a lot of fun and very learningfull. In this blog I am going to talk about one app what interested me most and what I learned from the lesson.
Augmented reality
Augmented reality is something different than virtual reality. With augmented reality most of the time you use a smartphone, where you look through the camera. The information were you searched for appears on the screen of your Phone usually in 3D. A so-called marker is often used for augmented reality. This is a bar code, QR code or other unique image so that the app knows which data or animation should be shown. The software analyzes the marker and retrieves the desired data. This can always be the same information or information that needs to be updated in real time. That is why the smartphone must have a good camera.
Quivervision
Quivervision is a app were children can colour a colourpage and when they scan their colouringpage with their phones the page turns into a 3D figure. I found this very cool because in this way you can learn small children how to use things like this. But you can also use it in a geography lessons, biology lessons and for me as a history teacher you can also use it in history lessons. I think it’s not for pupils older than 13 years because it would be a little bit childish. But for younger pupils it’s nice to use it.
See you next time,
Marjet Withaar.
At Thursday 21 march we went to the Technische Museum in Vienna. The museum itself was a beautiful building. Just as all the buildings in Vienna haha. In the museum we were given a tour by an employee from the museum. The tour was about media development and to show remains of the various periods. Very interesting but than the following happened.
At the beginning of the tour the man started talking about media in the Stone Age. This upset me a little bit. I am becoming a history teacher and what he told there was not right at all. And I don’t want to be negative but it really hit me in the chest. Because media in the Stone Age… what?! No the people didn’t used cave drawings as media and no the Stone Age people don’t used their drawings as grocery list. Media doesn’t fit in the Stone Age at all. It’s totally a anachronism to think that. But okay the man was just doing his job and I forgave him and we went further.
Then we arrived at the Middle Ages. The claim that there were no images in the Middle Ages really made me upset. Everybody always think that the people in the Middle Ages were stupid or something but they were not stupid at all! Okay not everbody could read or write. But the artistans were so talented. Look at the paintings they made, the stained glass windows in churches, the churches themselves. It’s was not about media in the Middle Ages (again a anachronism) it was about religion and spreading the word! I just can’t see it as the media we use today. It’s such a different spirit of times and it just wasn’t right….
When we finally arrived at a time where media, propaganda and communication were so important. We just skipped it. What?! Again. How did we not talk about the use of media in World War II. I saw that there was a corner about the Holocaust and there were books about WOII. Well, maybe it’s hard to talk about it or it’s not important enough. And that even made me more upset. In media-history World War II can’t be skipped. You just don’t do that, period.
Please, understand that I am not negative about the museum or our guidetour. The remains of media were super cool, the guidetour did his best and I really appreciate that. However, this kept floating around my head after our excursion because it suprised me how upset I was about it. Sometimes you have to be honest I think. It really was a relieve to write it down in a blogpost and know that I learned a lot that day.
See you next time,
Marjet
Today there was a E-Bazar at Padagogische Hochschule in Vienna. There was a sort of live conference you could watch at the sportshall. Sadly enough the speaker spoke German very quick so I didn’t really understood what he was telling but we went to the different workshops upstairs and it was really cool. Below you will find the two workshops that appealed to me most.
BBC micro: Bit
The first workshop we looked at was one set up by children / students. They had taken several things with them that they had made themselves. They were not ordinary crafts but there were microbits incorporated. The micro: bit is a small computer board, specially designed for students by the BBC. With the micro: bit you can create applications with physical interaction; In addition to the sensors and actuators on the board, you can also easily connect other components to it. The built-in radio (Bluetooth LE) allows a microbit to communicate with smartphones and other microbits. Using the BBC micro: bit, students acquire digital competencies and learn how to use digital applications. The things they made were for example a guitar. Which played through the microbits. They also had microbits with a game on it. So you could play rock, stone or scissors. You had to shake the bits and then the there appeared a symbol for a rock, stone or scissors. Super cool! And also very interesting for the future because everything is going to be digital sooner or later.
Fairy Fone
My favourite workshop was the Fairy Fone. The fairy Fone is a really old phone from the 50’s/60’s. Which can record audio’s. When you choose a number it plays the audio. I think that’s so cool because I really saw the option to use it in my history lesson. You can record like short historical facts or short historical stories and let your students listen to it when they are done or as a beginning for the lesson. There are so many opportunities with the Fairy Fone I think it’s going to be big.
Today was a educational day. I learned new educational tools and a lot about digitization. I am curious what the future brings for the education.
See you next time,
Marjet Withaar
MEKO blog Marjet 