Evaluation of The Multimedia Room - Continued

Most weaknesses I thought of for the Experimental Classroom were to do with the older technology, and could be fixed just by updating (like adding touchscreens, drawing pads, and so on). However, one weakness that I want to focus on more is that the design of the room does not seem to take physical display space into account. Students want a place that stimulates them all the time (Theimer, 2009). Classrooms need student work and display materials all over the walls, in as interactive a way as possible. A classroom itself, including all of its tables, chairs, etc, is a teaching tool and should be moveable. The experimental classroom seems too formal for K-12 education, and I would argue that even university education needs rooms with colour, display, and physical interactivity.

Compare the look and feel of my classroom (though far from perfect as well) with that of the Experimental Classroom:

(I grabbed the embed for the experimental classroom via the MITE moodle)

My Classroom from Malcolm Drew on Vimeo.

Please feel free to comment if this post stimulates your thoughts.

Theimer, James E. "DesignShare: Education by Design: Part III A Design That Inspires All." DesignShare Home. 17 May 2009. Web. 16 Oct. 2010. Retrieved from: http://www.designshare.com/index.php/articles/education-by-design-part-iii-a-design-that-inspires-all/

Evaluation of the multimedia room

Every tuesday we gather for three hours in this multimedia room. What are the advantages of this room? What are the disadvantages? Some of our thoughts are expressed below.

Fun with Toondoo - A Working Memory cartoon

I was just playing around with the Toondoo website, looks like a fun way to make some illustrations. Here's the cartoon I made while playing:

Short and Long term memory and other links to design, learning and teaching.

I had looked at this website a few weeks ago when researching on Long and Short term memory (LTM and STM). The link directs to the actual section on LTM and STM (with some reference to their limitations). However on the navigation bar there are many other useful links to other issues related to instructional design,teaching and learning.

I have found that the topics on instructional design can be helpful in making me "think twice" about what it is that I am actually doing with technology in the classroom.

In addition, for general interest, some of the other learning theories are explored and ideas / links to activities are provided throughout the website.

La Gestalt Book

A link to an old but useful book that covers the basic Principles of La Gestalt theory.

Voicethread presentation on Vuvox

These are our views on applications, affordances, limitations and possible uses of the learning tool Vuvox. We used voicethread to compile our opinions.

A Vuvox for a simple topic

Just wanted to share this Vuvox presentation I put together to explain a simple topic. Still have a bit of issues not being able to "download" the Vuvox presentation, but I suppose the whole embedding should be good enough...the problem with this is the necessity for an internet connection, something not always THAT reliable at school!