Reflection

I can't believe I have actually finished the course. It's been a massive learning curve for me. I have really only used the computer in class as a glorified whiteboard until the arrival of an Activboard a few years ago. Even then I tended to make some cool flipcharts, but did not utilise the tools available to me to really enhance the learning of the children in the class.

The course has opened my eyes to the number of possibilities and options available - it's up to me to make it happen! The way I learn best is by doing, over and over again until I fully understand. I have definitely found this to be the case throughout all ten modules. I need to constantly go back over the links to remind myself how to do things. The only way to learn is to do! This will be how I approach the introduction of various tools in the classroom. Luckily, children are much braver than I am. As digital natives, they only need to be steered in the right direction and off they go! I'm sure I'll learn a lot from them. I just need to help them open that door and let them go.

The implications are enormous. As outlined in the iLe@rn paper, children need to more involved in their own learning. They need to develop the skills to be critical thinkers, and combined with Bloom's Taxonomy, Web 2.0 tools are designed to do just this.

Apart from learning new skills, I have also learnt a whole new language! I laughed as Jackie, Sharon and I sat down to complete the last few modules and said things like, "Do you think you can add a blog to your Ning?" Sentences that would only have been incomprehensible a few years back.

I posted comments at http://jackiesweb2.blogspot.com  Module 5 and at http://shangrila-sharon.blogspot.com Module 2.

The challenges lie ahead, but as Confucius said, "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

Here comes my first step .......

Module 10

Wikis have been introduced to me previously, but I have not really made much use of them, as I was a little unclear about their purpose and how I could use one educationally. Through the module I have explored the possibilities for using a wiki in the classroom and also joined a wiki. I will try to use wikis when a collaborative effort is required in the classroom or as an assignment set for groups for home study. I joined the wiki 50 Web 2.0 Ways to Tell a Story in order to continue my education about the endless possibilities. I can really see the value of joining professional online communities.

A Ning is a new concept to me and I see it as a valuable tool for connecting with people with a common interest. They also seem to be a great way to share information through their discussion and forum pages. I think they are quite similar to the myclasses pages already used in the classroom.

Web 2.0 will definitely improve the learning outcomes of students by opening a the world up for them. They will be engaged in 21st Century technology, creating things and learning about things I would never have imagined twenty five years ago when I first started teaching. The professional sharing of teachers and the directions taken by the students make a classroom a very exciting place to be at present. Onward and upward!

Module 9

I am very familiar with Scootle as I use it quite extensively in my classroom. It supports all KLAs and can be used in a number of ways. I spend a lot of time searching for appropriate learning objects and saving them to my learning paths. I also find it a great tool for differentiation as you can set different learning objects for different groups of children in the class. I discovered through this module that you can share with people in your school. I had not previously used that tool and I will in future share my learning paths with people at my school.

I enjoyed looking at the Second Life site where you can enter virtual worlds and learn by being immersed into other worlds. However, I believe it is not an appropriate site for primary school children as you must be 18 to use the site or even 13-17 to enter Teen Life.

I understand that twitter and facebook are immensely popular social networking sites among people of all ages, but I am wondering how they relate to primary school education. Many children, even in my Year 4 class, are on facebook and I do often have discussions about the merits of this. I explain that they are supposed to be too young to hold accounts, but some parents have set up accounts for them, or they have used false information. This has lead to some cyber bullying (at a minor level), but we really need to do something to address this issue.

Module 8

Wow, I am just learning about RSS feeds - a single website which provides a home for news from my favourite websites which can be sent to my computer. I need to sign up to google reader in order to see all new posts, then subscribe to sites I would like to receive updates from. The directory of RSS feeds will provide a menu of different feeds. I found many educational sites to subscribe to eg NASA pages which will be a great tool to use with my unit of work based on Space.

I found it a little difficult to navigate as I didn't quite understand the free dictionary. The Podcasts Directory enables you to find links that are educational and can be added to my Google Reader. I particularly liked the "Cool Teachers" and "Where the Wild Things Are" podcasts.

By wallyg

Module 7

I can see that I will be using Delicious as a bookmarking tool as I often save files to Favourites. It was only recently that I discovered that these were only saved on the computer you use at that time, as I saved most things on the computer in my classroom! (I told you I was very knew to this!)

This will be fabulous when I change classrooms or use the computer lab to show the children a site I have saved. It will also be useful when I change grade or schools as all my favourite sites will be accessible from any point. I see great value for professional sharing with friends and colleagues as it make a great difference to the time spent researching valuable sites - always great to share a burden and share exciting finds. A valuable asset to the site is the fact that bookmarks can be made public or private.

I am having a little trouble setting up my account, but will persevere and share with my friends. I have posted a comment on Sharon's blog - I love her cartoon! It reflects how I feel, a little overwhelmed. I have also visited amny other blogs and am blown away by the nature of some - still feeling overwhelmed!

Module 6

More new avenues to explore! Bubble.us will be an exciting tool to use. I use mind mapping quite a lot with my class and this has loads of potential. It's a great way to both pre-test and post-test children's understandings of a topic. Initially I will use it as a full class brainstorming tool via the Activboard to model how to use the site. It's a fantastic tool for teaching the children connections in their learning. As a teacher I can see not only how they think, but how they believe concepts are connected. I particularly like how you can save and export it to My Documents to keep after saving it as an image file. I will use it for collaborative mind mapping, possibly in pairs, and as an assessment tool.

Glogster looks like a heap of fun for the children What an exciting way to present learnings using an interactive poster in which videos, pictures and sounds can be inserted. I like the fact that I can add my class to my site and allow them to work on Glogster while also sending messages to individuals. I will probably start using it as an alternative to presenting research, summarising chapters of novels or for setting small group tasks or homework. This will be a highly motivational tool - out with the pen and paper, in with glogster!

Module 5

I'm not sure where Term 4 went, but my goodness it is almost over! It's been quite crazy trying to complete Web 2.0 in between writing reports, teaching etc. However, as I have worked through the modules, it's time to start posting the rest of my blogs. Well, here goes!

I found this module very interesting. I have not used podcasts in my teaching before. I have heard of them and have inherited some MP3 players for my classroom, but have been a bit scared of them and haven't used them. From completing this module I am quite inspired to try using a different media. I can see great potential for use with story telling, listening post activities and most definitely in Mathematics. I can differentiate counting tasks with groups and the children can work at their own pace.

Similarly, I am keen to explore methods that are more engaging for the children in story telling. Teachers TV had some inspirational ideas for story starters using digital media and I loved the section on Storynory. I would like my children to investigate digital story telling through the use of photostory, audacity and movie maker. They have written some great narratives this term and it would be great to have them published using digital media in the last few weeks of the term.

Youtube is an amazing site and I use it quite extensively in my classroom. We have learnt scientific raps, watched man walk on the moon and looked at a variety of digital presentations making oour learning much more interesting! End of Term 4, here we come - new media to explore!

Module 4

It was very interesting experimenting with Flickr and reading up on copyright issues. The Smart Copying link is an excellent resource and it will be worthwhile to revisit it whenever a copyright question arises.

Creating a Flickr account was easy and it's a great way to collect and store your own and class photos, only to share with those you will allow. The photos available through Creative Commons will be useful when the children are publishing their work. I always talk to the children about online plagiarism when they are undertaking research, but have neglected the photo/video component to date. I will endeavour to educate the children about the importance of this when they are presenting their work. Together, we can create class pages of photos after excursions or other important events, comment on them and then run a slideshow.

I have been on a cruise this year and have attached a photo of the beautiful Sydney Harbour on our entry into the heads. What a beautiful city we live in!

Module 3

The tutorials on Atomic Learning were very helpful and I find that I will probably go back and read through them again and again as I try new things. I am trying to power through this course and found much of this module quite frustrating. I started to create a form which could be used as a pretest for my Term 4 HSIE Unit. Creating the form was self explanatory, but I ran into some trouble when sending and sharing the form with Jackie. She answered my survey promptly and the results were immediately at my disposal. However, I soon discovered that I hadn't shared it with her and she was unable to edit my form.

I moved on to creating a document which could be edited and shared between the two of us. This was great and I can see how this could easily used in the classroom, with children collaborating on a piece of writing eg a joint construction, which shows all drafts and edits. Being quite "technologically challenged" I found it rather amusing to see Jackie's comments appearing on my screen as she typed - no I don't have Facebook or haven't used msn! I think that I will need to spend a lot more time exploring google docs as I feel that I have only scratched the surface and haven't really internalised it yet!

Module 2

I have created  my blog and written my first post. Not hard at all! I am working through the module with Jackie and she had trouble putting her name and blog on the mywiki page. We managed through my page, but now it looks like I don't know my alphabet as my name comes up as creating an account in the wrong alphabet letter! Sigh! While looking through the various recommended blogs it was a little disappointing that some of the blogs were not able to be found ie In Mrs McNamara's Class, Library - You Blog, We Blog.

However, many of the blogs were fascinating, especially the reflections posted in  Weblogg-ed, discussing the place of technology in the classroom - or should there be a classroom? There were also many valuable blogs showcasing their value in the classroom. I believe they will be a great tool for student and teacher reflection, as well as a source that allows the children to tap into other people's insights. In particular, the War Memorial blog for our Yr 6 students studying Australians at War, and the Sea Ice Physics blog while studying Antarctica. It does motivate me to start my own blog with my children this term, maybe around our Literature unit. I'll give it a shot and see how I go.

Module 1

Hi, my name's Mary Anne. I currently teach Year 4 at St Luke's, Revesby. I feel very brave tackling the Web 2.0 Course as most of these tools are very new to me. I enjoyed watching the youtube videos in Module 1 as they gave me a clearer indication of what the whole course is about. My aim is to experiment with a variety of these tools and learn how to apply them in my classroom. We have great resources at St Luke's and I am happy to try to make use of the technology and improve my students' learning. I'll try to do as much as I can these holidays because before I know it Term 4 will be upon us and over!