Course Reflection

After completing the web 2 course it is easy to become overloaded with the idea of digital applications and the demand to utilise them in the classroom. Although some of the applications have great benefit, others seem to be impractical or not offer much substance compared to their traditional teaching and learning counterparts. Despite this, the course has been helpful in pushing me not only as a teacher but as a learner.

The introduction of Blooms digital taxonomy is a great way to conclude the course. It is an effective way of synthesising the use of the applications that have been presented thus far. After weeks of Blogs, Flickr, Glogster, Nings etc. it is easy to become inundated with digital applications and feel overwhelmed by the push to incorporate them into your own teaching. The digital taxonomy asks you to ‘think outside the box’ when planning lessons and see if a digital application could be a constructive option.

Teachers are always seeking effective ways to engage students with the content they are presenting. I know I am constantly trying to find creative and interesting learning activities for students to gain more meaningful learning. Now that I have completed the course I will use the digital taxonomy to choose the best learning activities possible, digital and traditional. It will also serve as a good reminder of which applications are beneficial for teaching a certain key learning objective.

It is important not to overuse digital applications or use them as a ‘soft option’ instead of challenging students to create meaningful and high quality work- especially written work. However, if they can be used to enhance learning and make tasks more seamless for teachers they are invaluable.

Module 10

Wiki’s:
I had previously seen wiki’s used in another school with great success and have recently experienced a few excellent wiki’s designed by fellow colleagues. After completing the reading in this module I am convinced that wiki’s are an excellent way of sharing and editing information for teachers and students alike. Wiki’s are not only beneficial for professional development uses, as seen in the Web 2 wiki, but also as a tool for monitoring and sharing student work. They also allow you to collect samples of student work very easily.

What role do I see for using Web 2.0 tools (the wiki) in your own life as a learner and in the classroom?

Wiki’s provide a user friendly layout and are a great tool for collecting student work. I can see that they are particularly useful when keeping track of homework and assignments. Another plus is that students can interact with one another and critique each other’s work. Now that I have completed this module, I really need to bite the bullet and get a wiki up and running! I may try one with my yr12 SOR class on Christian Bioethics. I could get them to answer some research questions and then collaborate with each other on them. By the end they would also have a good lot of summary notes.

Nings:

Nings- another platform for creating a social network. I say another, because there seem to be so many social network sites popping up at the moment. I hadn’t heard about Nings before but they look like a good way of creating a social network between like minded individuals.

Thanks to Nick Phillipson’s blog I was able to find an excellent example of a Ning in action- The Floating World. This style of Ning would be a fantastic educational tool for students and the format could be manipulated and used in many subject areas.

Module 9

I had been introduced to Scootle by Ben last term when adapting our current music programs. With the day to day rush of school, I hadn’t returned to the site until now. It really is a great site full of interesting useful resources. There were a number of good resources for music eg. ‘Making Music’ an application which explains how sound is made and lets you create your own composition. There are very little resources for Religion, however, as Paul O commented in his blog we are lucky enough to have a very good quality interactive series Understanding Faith on our school intranet.

As for social networking I think twitter is an interesting phenomenon, however, I find I don’t have the time to follow it. I had an account but it remains pretty much unused as I really don’t find I get that much out of it.

I much prefer to use a networking site like Facebook. Facebook does bring up a number of privacy issues yet it is a very good tool for keeping in touch, sharing experiences and information extremely quickly. In terms of having a professional dialogue with colleagues or students email and the forums set up on sole are definitely the ways to go. After reading Jay M’s blog I agree that Facebook really is beneficial in keeping in contact with former colleagues. I am able to share resources with a former colleague at present mainly due to facebook.

Check out the following blogs for my comments:
Jay
Gillian

Module 8

I was interested in this module immediately. I had recently, curiously, peered over a colleague’s desk to see what Google Reader was all about. On further inspection I must say I think it’s great!

I have a number of blogs I like to follow, including the wonderful web 2.0 blogs and have always found it frustrating checking each one individually. Who knew that I could have been using Google reader all along? Having the most current information from your favourite sites, filtered into one place, is invaluable.

Apart from the application being practical for filtering teacher’s resource websites, this application would be excellent to use in the classroom if you were completing an ongoing blog project. The students would be able to view each others blogs regularly, all in one hit. It would also make it easy for them to comment on a number of blogs. Lastly it eliminates the laziness that comes with having to check blogs individually.

Module 7

I had never heard of the bookmarking site Delicious, only the food magazine.
I have a long list of web site favourites on my computer at home which I find handy to use, although they aren’t very well organised. Using a favorites list on your own computer is very quick and easy but it can be frustrating that these favorites are then not available any where else.

Delicious is a little time consuming to set up (not as quick as a click from your mouse on your home computer) but would be rewarding in the long run. Having all your favourites in one place is a very good option. In terms of its use in the classroom, I think it would be beneficial for students to build and keep a good list of resource websites for their subject areas. As a teacher you could easily build your own list of quality educational websites and easily share them with your students and colleagues. It would be beneficial for them to have a bank of websites available at the click of a mouse. I guess we already have a similar set up on sole with website links for student and teacher use, however, this would be a more refined version of that.

Looking for my posts on other blogs……go to the following lovely blogs.

Jay
Paul

Jay M – A belated thanks for helping me set up this blog in the first place!!

Module 6

Luckily Paul had mentioned bubbl.us to me a few weeks ago so I had already looked into and used the application before embarking on this module. Thanks Paul!

Creating mind maps is a teaching and learning tool I use regularly but have always asked students to just draw them up in their books. I have tried using some applications on the smartboard software to create mind maps but it is quite time consuming and bubbl.us was far easier to use. I was also very surprised at how much students enjoyed using the application in class.

The task I set was something that they would normally find quite dry, however, when they were told to use bubbl.us to present their knowledge they worked very well all lesson. They also had no trouble printing out the mind maps for homework. There really isn’t much difference between doing a mind map activity with pen and paper or bubbl.us but student’s engagement is certainly increased with the online application.

As for Glogster…. I think it would be an interesting tool to use in both my subject areas. Both subjects already set a number of tasks that require students to make posters and visual representations to demonstrate their understanding of key concepts. I may well try glogster instead of the traditional pen and paper next time.

Module 5

I have been a fan of digital storytelling applications for quite a while. I am a user of itunes and You tube and also listen to podcasts and vodcasts, on specific topics of interest, from time to time.

Digital storytelling in the classroom has been a great tool to engage students in tasks they ordinarily struggle to find interest in. I have asked students to create vodcasts when assessing students knowledge of historical content as it seems to not only bring greater understanding of the content, but introduce a ‘fun’ element to presenting their knowledge. I have also used existing good quality vodcasts on topics relating to the syllabus to solidify student knowledge on a certain topic. I usually use a worksheet in conjunction with students watching a chosen vodcast.

Podcasts could also be useful in a similar way although I find that junior students don’t find them very engaging.

Youtube has been a great tool in the classroom for not only for finding good vodcasts but also for showing students small sections of documentaries that would ordinarily be difficult to source.