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!