Module 9

 I have never been a user of online social networking- I guess it could be disinterest, as well as having kids who keep me up with the latest gossip!! It has opened up new avenues for my family as I now keep up with family overseas and know what is happening. It has also reconnected me with overseas cousins I haven’t seen for years- funny how relatives catch up with you!!  I think Scootle from the Learning Federation is a great website to use in the classroom, especially with a Smart Board. I have not used it much in my classroom but I definitely think I will start using it more.

I had not heard of Second Life before, so I was unsure of the education benefits of it. It reminded me of Sketchup- maybe because of the graphics and colours. The videos showed how Second Life can be used for a variety of things such as a modern way of role playing and visiting places from the past.  I can really see the benefit of using it in High School for creating a “virtual world” for Visual Art and  for drama (just imagine creating design sets, costumes, etc). It could also be great to use in an upper primary classroom and I think the students would really respond well for themed work.

This year Facebook has come up as a concern at IEU meetings as some teachers share experiences of others accessing their “private” space.. Although according to Facebook’s privacy policies, it seems that a lot of information can be accessed. I find that my kids share lots of gossip with me about people we know- for example, who has split up with whom, status of someone etc. This is quite scary due to the public nature of the site and it is obvious that the media has found it a great source of information and pictures of suspects and people who have died. Apparently because a  picture is on Facebook, it in the public domain and therefore can be used without gaining permission.

Twitter is fun and appears very frivolous to me and perhaps a source of light relief. I signed up to follow Danny Devito’s twits!! Ha, ha. It seems good for a laugh, although politicians seems to take it quite seriously with Barry O’Farrell being a constant user I am told. I will reserve my options as to its use at this stage (hey, I sound like a politican!!).

 secondlife_1.jpg (JPEG Image, 320×341 pixels)

Module 8 Reflection

Prior to completing this module I was not familiar with the term "RSS feed"- Rich Site Summary. Through trawling through this module, I have found that RSS is as vibrant as the web itself- it allows me to be constantly informed- from news to blogs using a very time-efficient method of accessing websites that are regularly visited. I had no trouble in setting up Google Reader, but I still need to play around with the RSS feeds to make sure that I have linked then properly to Google Reader. I also want to have a go at using the image generator- but I will save that until I have some more time. How can I use these with my students in the classroom? Firstly, I have access to Google Reader and heaps of blogs with an educational perspective and feedback as well with some good Australian content as well and secondly, the blogs give me a way of communicating with others to share ideas and opinions.  Students could use Google Reader for tracking the blogs/wikis that they are a part of as well as news updates. Google Reader could be used to subscribe to a number of different news websites and allow the students to sift through these and perhaps find articles relevant to a range of  topics, as well as weather information for the Science unit we are doing called Monster Storms which is based on the Jason Project. I now know what that little orange icon means too!

Go Bart

Module Seven Reflections

 I have known about Delicious as an online central book marking tool through discussion with other people, but I had not investigated it to use personally. Previously I have used ‘Favourites’ to save my favourite websites and have created a monster to navigate through! After watching the video clip and exploring on my own I don’t think I’ll ever use ‘favourites’ again to mark sites. Delicious allows me to save all useful websites in the same bank and it is sooo easy to check other people’s preferences, which is usually an indicator of a worthwhile site. I can access my favourite websites from any computer that I log into NOT just the computer I was using the time- this is especially frustrating when checking sites on release time at another computer at school, or at home although I have used MyClasses to book mark and categorise links in the past. Now I can access sites easily at home and at school on any computer.  The feedback on pages and sites is also useful as it allows me to gauge a site and save time- trash and treasure I guess. I have used tags from other people to access sites and have tried to import links from my favourites, without success as yet- I always find I need to “play” with these. I think that just copying and pasting the web address is where I am going wrong, but I don’t know what to do yet. I enjoy reading other peoples’ blogs and to see the great way others share their ideas and insights. It is good to read some of the ideas that people have on integrating Web 2.0 technology into their classroom simply yet effectively. I thought I would include a Dire Straits link for you- great music of the past!!

http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/all/watch/yapi-ObzXL0p7t1E

Module 6 Reflections

I was really excited about Glogster- it has so many applications that I think could be applied in a very creative way in the classroom. I has loads of fun playing with the different profiles, colours, backgrounds, videos and sounds and styles of writing. I think that using Glogster would allow creativity in a different way for students. They are used to creating avatars and personal profiles on Smartkiddies and other sites, so I think it will lend itself to creative poetry writing, personal response activities and IT art tasks. I'm sure that is only the tip of the iceberg- I always  find that through discussion with others, you come away with  new ideas and that someone else can open your eyes to fantastic learning opportunities.
I have already tried bubbl.us with mind mapping for a new unit of work  using Jason Project  "Monster Storms" and programmed it into the next RE unit too. It is easy to use and the  visual structure is predictable for students to use. I intend to use bubbl.us for group tasks and as an easy visual display model for differentiated activities- it will allow the groups to organuise ideas and to keep focussing on these, rather than going off on tangents, which can happen!!
More to learn and lots to use in creative ways- all suggestions gratefully  received from those who happen to read my ramblings!!