Amanda Chalmers

Task 3a is a group task where the groups  are to design an authentic learning environment to share with teachers. I was lucky enough to have been placed with 3 other external students that are already part of our study group, for me this has been an extra bonus as I am still growing with the use of technology so to have that face to face contact and time to sit and discuss issues is still what I need  to help me understand. The topic we have chosen is healthy eating, as we are all mothers and Education assistants we are aware of the bad nutrition trends that our children are faced with. After  our first brainstorm of the topic and how we thought the lessons should be planned we divided up the task into separate areas, my first task was to find the resources for the children to help them plan the production of their research,either in the form of a play, song or poem. This was really interesting but extremely time consuming, I wanted to find ideas to stimulate our target year 7 age and that took some researching as lots was not appropriate. I found Youtube a great social resource, lots of fun videos and clips, and this healthy food rap song was a example on what I thought the children could relate to.This site Poetry for kids also had easy to follow ideas on many different poem structures. I can see how  this task is helping to build up our own  resources for teaching as I have come across many that I will definitely use as I further my career. It also helps to make understanding clearer of just what authentic learning is and how to approach it , we need to guide not instruct...Using Skype has  been an excellent add to my communication technologies it is becoming as easy to work with as being on the phone. I also had a good look through different strands on the Australian Curriculum site and the Learning Federation, these are great to get a feel for just what topics come under what strand.. .  

This video is a great example of using technology to enhance learning in the classroom .