When I am not working or studying, I spend my time fishing, camping, or staying active at the gym.

I also enjoy watching the footy on the weekends, and occasionally a game of golf or cricket if I have some spare time.

Throughout my previous and current employments, I use and have used a range of technology systems and databases daily. I am quite interested to study and learn more about the importance and benefits of incorporating digital pedagogy within the classroom.  

I am interested in how I can incorporate digital technologies into classrooms, especially English and History as I believe that these subjects may be more limited with the use of ICT in the classroom. I am looking forward with how this unit can support my understanding, knowledge and application of ICT in the classroom. I look forward to learning creative ways of applying ICT in the classroom.

I look forward to learning with you all this term,

Regards, Michael

This mini unit of lessons is based off the Australian Curriculum Geography year 7 unit.

The unit focuses on the following;

·       Focuses on concepts of place through investigations of liveability

·       Factors that influence liveability and ideas of the places that provide services and facilities to support and enhance livelihoods

·       The unit focuses on developing a student’s ability to evaluate, and investigated whether liveability can be improved by conducting studies and planning

·       The unit has two strands consisting of geographical knowledge, understanding, geographical inquiry and skills

Source: Australian Curriculm and Assessment Authority

^{Australian Curriculum Links V8.4 and V9.0}

^ACHASSK188

^{·        Factors that influence the decisions people make about where to live and their perceptions of the liveability of places}

^ACHGK043

^{·        Factors that influence the decisions people make about where to live and their perceptions of the liveability of places}

^ACHGK045

^{·        The influence of environmental quality on the liveability of places}

^ACHASSK189

^{·        The influence of accessibility to services and facilities on the liveability of places}

^ACHGK044

^{·        The influence of accessibility to services and facilities on the liveability of places}

^ACHASSK192

^{·        Strategies used to enhance the liveability of places, especially for young people, including examples from Australia and Europe}

^ACHGK047

^{·        Strategies used to enhance the liveability of places, especially for young people, including examples from Australia and Europe}

^AC9HG7K05

^{·        Factors that influence the decisions people make about where to live, including perceptions of the liveability of places and the influence of environmental quality}

^AC9HG7K06

^{·        The location and distribution of services and facilities, and implications for liveability of places}

^AC9HG7K08

^{·        Strategies used to enhance the liveability of a place, including for young people, the aged or those with disability, drawing on studies such as those from Australia or Europe}

^{I like the lesson idea where I may be able to change students from creating a map into digital tools. At first research to identify a possible digital platform it appears that Canvas may be a possibility which allows students to sketch, draw and allows collaboration between students to comment ideas together.}

Canva is an interactive design tool which allows for an unlimited amount of creativity allowing students to create and choose the many different way in which the digital tool can be used. Canva allows students to draw, create documents, whiteboards, presentations, videos with hundreds of different templates for students to create, evaluate, analyse and present ideas and skills. The best thing about Canva is the ability for students to corroborate with one another and it is ideal for flexible lesson planning, team led work and allows students to create and explore their own learning which is crucial to higher order of thinking processes. The digital platform was created in Australia and has data encryption, security, in app permissions and account safety features which makes this artefact a great opportunity to be utilised in the classroom.

How does Canva Deepen and Enhance Learning Outcomes?

There are several ways in which Canva can enhance and deepen the knowledge of students. The first thing that I noticed is just how much collaboration and exchange of information can be conducted between students. Canva is suitable to group activity work by allowing students to read other discussions, evaluations and analysis of related classroom topics. This program allows students to communicate these ideas by sharing and collaborating and most importantly provide feedback with one another. The ability for students to inquire with others work and provide feedback can provide more learning enhancement over a teacher provide the classroom with instructions.

Canva has so many options for students it allows for not only creativeness but teachers can also differentiate learning and change lesson outcomes due to its unlimited amount of option and can be based in conjunction with other learning materials such as Geographic Maps, creating ideas to support liveability and place unit.

Students in a Geography classroom setting are able to create relevant work that displays their understanding of geographical content through an array of modification and redefinition works such as PowerPoints with voice overview, videos, whiteboards, presentations, statistical graphing, posters, websites and social media.

The visuals interaction of Canva is probably one of my favourite aspects as it allows students to modify and redefine their own learning with different colours, fonts, texts, layouts to support their knowledge, collaboration, evaluation, and analysis of classroom activities. Canva is not just another “digital tool” that merely creates interaction, it is a learning tool for the 21^st Century Classroom and allows students to develop the skills and knowledge they need in a visual and authentic environment in line with today’s workforce.

How Would I Integrate Canva into a Lesson?

I would initially start the lesson with the overall content that students are expected to work on throughout the lesson. This could be supported by creating a lesson criteria which places the emphasis on the students at the start of the lesson. At the end of the lesson I like to inquire and reflect with students to test their knowledge and reflect whether the lesson criteria was met, questioning whether I can improve the lesson for next time.

As per my first lesson idea of ‘designing a neighbourhood in twenty minutes’ I would let students create this ideal neighbourhood by any of the drawing features available to them as the first part of the lesson adding visuals and creativity.

 The second part of the lesson would be a researchable task of three critical services that their neighbourhood needs so that it would be a liveable place for persons to reside. Students would be able to complete this extensive creation and explaining, justifying, and evaluating their reasonings for adding those services to the neighbourhood. Students are then able to collaborate with one another’s ideas by marking other students work through the Canva platform.

How to Support ICT use?

There are several steps that I would achieve before fully integrating the Canva platform in the classroom. The first step would be to introduce the Canva platform to the class and its unlimited amounts of creativity. I would allow students to use the platform so that they can visualise which allows them time to getting use to the range of features available for use. I could allow students to create their own chats to talk about and reflect on the Canva platform particularly positive and negative things they like about the interface.

Why Canva?

Canva is fantastic for the geography classroom I believe that a large majority of tasks can be created by students on this platform obviously in collaboration with other lesson plans and digital tools. I would like to create a lesson plan with Canva being the base tool utilised for my mini unit. Its interface, visual appeal and ability to make an array of texts, numerical data, statistics and collaboration with endless other opportunities is why I believe this will make a great ICT platform for my mini unit.

• ^{ACHGK043-Factors that influence the decisions people make about where to live and their perceptions of the liveability of places}

• ^{ACHGK044-The influence of accessibility to services and facilities on the liveability of places}

• ^{ACHGK045-The influence of environmental quality on the liveability of places}

• ^{ACHGK046-The influence of social connectedness and community identity on the liveability of place}

• ^{ACHGK047-Strategies used to enhance the liveability of places, especially for young people, including examples from Australia and Europe}

• ^{ACHGK065-The perceptions people have of place, and how these influence their connections to different places}

Geography:

• AC9HG7K01 – classification of environmental resources and the way that water connects and changes places as it moves through environments

• AC9HG7K02 – the location and distribution of water resources in Australia, their implications, and strategies to manage the sustainability of water

• AC9HG7S03 – interpret and analyse geographical data and information to identify similarities and differences, explain patterns and trends and infer relationships

Years 7 and 8, Digital Technologies

• AC9TDI8P02 – analyse and visualise data using a range of software, including spreadsheets and databases, to draw conclusions and make predictions by identifying trends

Year 7, Mathematics

• AC9M7ST03 – plan and conduct statistical investigations involving data for discrete and continuous numerical variables; analyse and interpret distributions of data and report findings in terms of shape and summary statistics

AC9HG7K06

the location and distribution of services and facilities, and implications for liveability of places

AC9HG7K08

strategies used to enhance the liveability of a place, including for young people, the aged or those with disability, drawing on studies such as those from Australia or Europe

ACHASSK189

The influence of accessibility to services and facilities on the liveability of places

ACHGK044

The influence of accessibility to services and facilities on the liveability of places

ACHASSK192

Strategies used to enhance the liveability of places, especially for young people, including examples from Australia and Europe

ACHGK047

Strategies used to enhance the liveability of places, especially for young people, including examples from Australia and Europe

The source focuses on focusing on data sets, using a range of spreadsheets, databased to draw conclusions and making predictions by identifyign trends (AC9TDI8P02).

(ACHGK047)-Strategies used to enhance the liveability of places, especially for young people, including examples from Australia and Europe.

(ACHGK065)-The preceptions people have of place, and how these influence their connections to different places.

(ACHGK043)- Factors that influence the decisions people make about where to live and their perceptions of the liveability of places.

Numeracy:

Students interpret maps, models, diagrams, and remotely sensed and satellite images.

Students learn to analyse numerical data to make meaning of the past, to test relationships in patterns and between variables

Digital Capabilities:

·       Students access and use digital literacy, including spatial technologies, as an investigative and creative tool

·       Students critically Analyse evidence and trends, and critique source reliability