Using Dipity Timelines
Well, I had a weee tinker with 'Dipity' which enables the user to create a timeline of events ie. a murder, a moment in history etc. Once again I tried to use my Dinosaur theme to create a timeline of their history: Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous
When I did history at school it was all about reading textbooks, creating presentations using pictures glued to cardboard and slowly putting the rest of the class to sleep. That is why I think utilising an on-line resource like Dipity would enhance and engage learnings in this subject area.
Dipity transforms the mundane history lesson into something that students can connect with. This brings me to the interesting article from earlier in this course, Prensky's 'Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants'. If we want to 'engage' students and not 'enrage' them, we need to rethink our pedagogy, and Dipity provides a platform to present a history in todays 'native' language.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths - Easy to use, can incorporate sound, vision, video; students can use collaboratively or individually; will appeal to range of learning styles: able to interact with history in a format that is engaging
Weaknesses - Teachers need to be across the application in order to effectively teach it
Opportunities - Increase engagement using a medium that students are familiar with; teachers can create stimulating lessons that are relevant to students.
Threats - Because connection problems, downloading issues, policing software and other difficulties can cause road blocks when implementing a lesson in the technology based classroom, teachers sometimes shy away from using it simply because of lack of time. (http://www.ehow.com/about_5435887_disadvantages-technology-classroom.html)
When I did history at school it was all about reading textbooks, creating presentations using pictures glued to cardboard and slowly putting the rest of the class to sleep. That is why I think utilising an on-line resource like Dipity would enhance and engage learnings in this subject area.
Dipity transforms the mundane history lesson into something that students can connect with. This brings me to the interesting article from earlier in this course, Prensky's 'Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants'. If we want to 'engage' students and not 'enrage' them, we need to rethink our pedagogy, and Dipity provides a platform to present a history in todays 'native' language.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths - Easy to use, can incorporate sound, vision, video; students can use collaboratively or individually; will appeal to range of learning styles: able to interact with history in a format that is engaging
Weaknesses - Teachers need to be across the application in order to effectively teach it
Opportunities - Increase engagement using a medium that students are familiar with; teachers can create stimulating lessons that are relevant to students.
Threats - Because connection problems, downloading issues, policing software and other difficulties can cause road blocks when implementing a lesson in the technology based classroom, teachers sometimes shy away from using it simply because of lack of time. (http://www.ehow.com/about_5435887_disadvantages-technology-classroom.html)
