Course Reflection and Feedback

So here I am finally doing my last post... Yay! The real challenge now is to put into practice all the things I have learned and to somehow work the various tools into my teaching practice. I have to be honest and say that I will probably only use a third of the different tools that we have looked at. Partly because I feel like I will really have to master them before I can attempt to introduce it to my students in the classroom.

As I mentioned in another post I had trouble leaving comments on people's blogs but was finally able to leave one on Jake Degeling's... here is the link:
http://jacobdegeling.com/2011/10/18/module-10-ningin-wikis/#comments

Web 2 and the iLearn model - I'm loving the idea that learning can be done anywhere and anytime! The thing that rings true to me most is a quote from the iLearn video is that "people learn best when they are engaged and challenged to learn". But I am going to play the devil's advocate here and say what about the students who don't have the basic foundations for learning? ie literacy and numeracy. I only say this because the majority of students I work with don't have these basic skills. So would it be possible to engage them and for them to learn using blogs and Delicious if they can't even read properly??? Tools like podcasting, vodcasting, school tube etc, have merit for students that have trouble reading, but again, do we engage them in learning with things like these or do we go RIGHT back to basics and teach them how to read and write the old school way??? I think it might be a bit of both...

Web 2 and Bloom's Taxonomy -
Do you find this adaptation of Blooms to digital technology helpful in planning your curriculum? I like the examples that are given for each of the key terms of Bloom's taxonomy. I can already see several examples of where I might be able to slot in activities that are sepcific to my subject area. But I would want to sit down and really nut out a whole unit of work based around this rather than just come up with random stuff.
Where would you place other tools such as Second Life, Flikr or Mind mapping on this map? I think Second Life would fit best under the "creating" heading as it is largely based on designing and constructing, Flickr would be best suited to "applying" as it involves uploading and sharing while Mind mapping and Bubbl.us would fit into the "understanding" and "analysing" areas as it involves summarising and deconstructing.


I'm happy that I got the chance to give this a go and I hope my entries made sense (they were done late at night between nappy changing and feeding my 4 month old!). Like I said, the challenge now will be for me to remember everything and apply it in a meaningful way to my lessons. That and keeping up with the ever evolving and changing approaches to learning! 

Module 10

The "Wikis in Plain English" video made it pretty clear that emails are the old way of sharing info... And after viewing the video this was very obvious to me. I'd be keen to set up a wiki for one of my classes but I'm sure I would need to give a few introductory lessons so that students would be able to confidently navigate their way through...
With regards to Nings am I right in saying that a Ning is basically a website that has a theme with lots of useful resources and groups within that webiste that have a specific goal? Is Ning just a fancy word for a website?
How can Web 2.0 assist in improving learning outcomes for all students?
Look in any class and it's blatantly obvious that the students in it are as varied as snowflakes! They each have their own strengths, weaknesses and learn in VERY different ways. Web 2.0 takes this into account and pretty much squashes the whole "chalk and talk" approach to teaching and learning (not that I ever taught like that!). Previously students have had to approach learning in a way that was very "black and white", Web 2.0 means that learning is all the colours of the rainbow and students are given a sense of ownership over their learning. They can choose to be as different and creative as they like while still remaining engaged in their learning. As long as they still reach the same end point I guess it doesn't really matter how they get there hey? :-P

Module 9

Second Life has alot of possibilities though I'm unsure whether I would utilise it properly in the classroom. It has merit with regards to adding dimensions to learning. For example, if you teach History you can get students to wander through Ancient Egypt or Colonial Australia. My question here is that if it doesn't exist can you create it? My learning area is PDHPE so could I potentially get students to design a gym or sports stadium? I like the idea of having online tutorials. Again, the main difference with doing it on Second Life as opposed to just posting links to documents on a blog would be that another dimension is added, you know, students walking into a virtual library, sitting in a virtual classroom, etc. It seems like it would be alot of work to set something like that up and monitor it properly...
I don't know how much merit Facebook or Twitter would have on an educational level. But having said that I did stumble upon the blog of a PE teacher in Victoria and he set up a Facebook page for one of his senior subjects that was accessible not only to his students but to anyone studying that subject. He'd posted a heap of resources and study notes on there. A good idea in theory but I'm sure I read in the CEO Sydney's Staff Use of Social Media Policy. that this was a no go.
Linkedin - from what I know about this it would be more useful to us as educators, not our students. If I was wanting to get in touch with other teachers in my subject area I guess this could be of use...

Module 8

I had never heard of RSS feeds before today. Being a bit of a bandit for adding websites to my favourites list (and then forgetting that I have them there) I can see the merit of using an RSS feed.
In terms of using one in the classroom I would probably be more inclined to set one up for students or at least give them a list of websites and letting them choose which ones to add to their feed. In a world where time is precious, things like RSS feeds and Delicious means that time spent trawling the web and sifting through sites is greatly reduced. I have noticed that often when you get students to do a google search for something, they can spend a fair bit of time just trying to find meaningful information and before they know it the period is over! Having RSS feeds available to them would mean having more time to do constructive work.

Module 7

So I'm having a fair bit of trouble commenting on other people's blogs... Does anyone else have this problem? I've tried on about 4 different blogs but as soon as I press the "Post" button it says that my current account doesn't have access to view the page... What's that about?!?! How annoying.

Anyway, the idea of social bookmarking seems like a really good way of having access to particular websites from any computer. I have heaps of favourites on my computer at home that are perfect for my subject area but always forget them when I'm at work... Problem solved!

I think it's amazing that we can have access to all these different types of technology and services in the "cloud". My husband told me about it a while ago but I thought it was just a thing for big computer geeks... Looks like I've just joined the club then! Hehe.

Module 6

I had never used Flickr before but once doing a bit of exploring it seemed pretty straightforward. In terms of uploading and sharing photos I think it is very similar to Facebook and the "Make Stuff" page is very similar to the Harvey Norman Photo Centre. The only difference here is that it is all centralised on the one website.
Copyrighting is always one of those dry issues that you don't really want to know about but need to be aware of (considering the amount of photocopying that goes on in schools!) The Creative Commons video on TeacherTube and the "Get Creative" video link gave clear and easy to understand explanations.

Module 5

My mindmap on bubbl.us was easy enough to create, but I haven't figured out how to get it on this page! I can see it's advantages on a few levels. Firstly, it would help students to map out what path they need to take when doing a research task eg: come up with a topic, where they get their research from, when it's due, etc and secondly it would be a good platform to share class or group ideas. It would be of particular use to visual learners.

So I had a go on glogster and came up with this...
http://melpainter.edu.glogster.com/Web-20-Stuff/
It's a good tool if you have the time to spare and even more engaging to use if you're the creative type. I like to think I am but clearly don't have the patience! (My bubble.us mind map had alot more tools than this poster).

Prezi seemed simple enough to use and would be a good alternative to using Powerpoint.