Reflection - ALL DONE!!

I Think to Myself...What a Wonderful ...Journey!

The collimation of many different ages and expertise has been a wonderful experience at St Kevin’s. Completing the Web2.0 course as well as facilitating it with 12 other staff has opened up a wonderful world of shared and collaborative learning. All participants have enjoyed coming together on Thursday mornings (and one day in their holidays) for the St Kevin’s Breakfast Club. We have worked through the modules at individual paces allowing for each individual to experience and explore at their own level and convenience. Having a group to work with has made the experience ‘safer’ for many who were not comfortable with using web2.0 tools or even knew what they were.

By completing this course I feel that I have been exposed to a large variety of web2.0 tools that I can incorporate into my teaching and learning. It has opened my eyes to many aspects of the Web2.0 world that I did not know about like Bubbl.us, Glogster and who can forget the wonderful world of GOOGLE DOCS and GOOGLE READER!!

Most importantly this course and the iLearn framework have once again highlighted the need for teachers and educators to stay connected with their students and the technologies that are out there. I like the fact that the emphasis is still on the pedagogy and not the tool. It’s important as teachers that we remember that these web2.0 devices are just tools that we can embed in our teaching and learning to help our students in the acquisition of knowledge and learning. They are not the be all and end all and we need to continue to ask ourselves ‘what we want the students to get out of using these tools?’ Are they aiding in the achievement of an outcome or just filling time?

The iLE@RN skills that need to be addressed prior to my students using Web 2 tools are:

communication and collaboration skills
questioning skills
reflective skills
creative thinking skills
critical thinking skills

multimodal literacy skills

The most important skill I feel they need to learn and be exposed to is what it means to be part of an ever growing online, global community. What are their rights and responsibilities when working and sharing online? How can they surf safely and work within a secure framework? The reality is that we as teachers can not monitor all that our student do online out of school hours. They need to be taught how to be responsible members of the online community and be aware of their digital footprint.

I was exposed to Blooms Digital Taxonomy early this year at an E-Learning day. I think that this is a great framework and model for implementing web2.0 tools as many tools can be used by students to ‘Create’.

Having the opportunity to facilitate the course has been a terrific experience and allowed me to further develop my skills in leading and facilitating professional development sessions with a range of teachers. I am confident that each member of the STK Breakfast Club is walking away from the course with their back pocket filled with a range of new and exciting web2.0 tools to share with their students!

I am looking forward to the next instalment!

Thank you to Diane, Greg and Peter!

I have commented on a range of blogs including all member of the STK Breakfast Club and http://web2-0matthewf.blogspot.com/

STK Breakfast Club

http://web20andthebreakfastclub.blogspot.com/

http://mrswsblog-mandy.blogspot.com/

http://chrissweb20travels.blogspot.com/

http://janine-livingthedream.blogspot.com/

http://suzieqonweb2.blogspot.com/
http://c-mac2.blogspot.com/
http://web20rosa.blogspot.com
http://daycarole0.blogspot.com
http://towers-janeensweb2.blogspot.com/

TILL NEXT TIME... HAPPY BLOGGING WITH AN ITCHY WIKI!

Module 10 - Wiki What?

Wonderful World of Wiki's and Blogs

Wiki's and blogs are super exciting tools to use in the classroom with students as well as for use as teachers. I have used Edu-blogs with year 6 and found it a fantastic way for students to share and collaborate anywhere, anytime, anyplace. It also allowed parents to share in the learning experiences that their children where undertaking in the classroom. One issue I did have was the initial set up. Having to create login's for 50 year 6 students was a little challenging. This is when I created 'Expert' students. I would teach them how to do something on the blog and they would then go and teach other students. This generated a very relaxed, open and collaborative work environment, where the students where the knowledge creators and maintainers.

Ideally I would love to set up individual blogs for myself and the students in my class. They would then use these as online learning portfolios, showcasing and sharing and reflecting on their learning journeys with other students and parents and of course ME! I would then be able to access their work samples, give instant online feedback as well as track their social networking (through blogger) and peer feedback/editing. If they also had delicious accounts I could then feed them websites to use for research assignments and tasks. Oh.... the possibilities are endless... I love web2.0.... now I just need the time to implement these tools!

I am interested to hear how others are using Wiki's and Blogs in the class room as well as the other web2.0 tools.

Happy exploring!

Module 9 - Social Networking Anyone?

Scootle is a wonderful tool for teachers to access. This is not the first time I have been introduced to Scootle or explored the different online resources it has to offer. I feel that it has a great bank of tasks and activities for teachers to access and share with their students.
Scootle allows teachers to set up collaborative workspaces that are secure and relatively easy to access. To set one up all they need to do is add selected digital curriculum resources to the workspace and then set tasks and questions for their students to respond too.

Scootle also offers teachers a workspace to create and organise learning path: A learning path allows you to integrate selected items of digital curriculum content with learning tasks for students. Students are provided with a unique PIN to allow them to view and use the content and activities online.

I found some great mathematics tasks (including a fun little Bridge Builder game!) that I can use next term with my students as well as some fantastic language based activities. One thing that I am still a little confused about is how my students can access the learning paths that I set up. I know taht they need a pin. Where do I get this from???

SOCIAL NETWORKING

Secondlife...Facebook...Twitter... OH MY!


The rise of online social networking has brought a new dimension to social interaction and a whole new world of worry for teachers and parents. With the rapid rise in online social networks and web2.0 tools many acceptable use policies have to be re-addressed and revised. Many people communicate using digital tools and toys. I am sure most of us are guilty of sending a text rather than calling and speaking to someone on the phone. The fast paced, online and rushed nature of society has allowed for social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to really take off. They are easily accessible and extremely easy to use. Students are able to access information and share information at the click of a button to people all around the world. With this new found networking tool comes a variety of new risks and responsibilities. Once again we as teachers need to equip our students with the skills and tools to be safe online users and members of a every growing global community. Whilst we do not promote the use of sights like Facebook, the reality is that many of our students are using this social networking tool at home.

I know that many secondary teachers use Twitter and Twitter Reader with students. I am interested to see/hear about how and what teachers are doing with Twitter in the classroom.

Happy Networking!

Module 8 - RSS me happy!

RSS

I have always wondered what that little orange button with the letters RSS was!

RSS feeders are new and efficient ways to keep up with all of the new and exciting information that is online. Our energetic friend at Techonrati once again comes to our aid when trying to discover more about the different Web2.0 tools and move from the 'old slow way' to the 'new fast way'. I have spent many minutes visiting sites to see if they have been updated in the past as many of us have. With RSS this eliminates this time wasting by getting the websites to send you any updates or changes that have been made on the site. This is a great way to monitor students blogs and see what they are doing and how their ideas or work is progressing.

Google Reader

Once again Google has the answers! How did I not know about Google Reader?? The first great use I can think of for it is the Web2.0 Course. What a fabulous way to keep up to date with all of my fellow St Kevin's Bloggers! What is even better is that because Blogger and Google are online 'buddies' all the blogs I follow on Blogger automatically appear on my Google Reader! I must admit that a life without Google would not be pretty!

Take a look at my print screen!

What will they think of next?

Module 7 - Keep, Share, Discover, Organise!

I have heard this 'delicious' term many times over the last few years, although I have never really understood what it actually was.... until now!

This module really made me think about how and what knowledge is available on the great wide world of the web and how collaboration and communication is the way of the future... particularly in Education!

At the beginning of the module the following questions are posed. I think we as teachers continually ask ourselves and each other these questions;

• How do you find the good stuff?
• How do you remember where you found it last week?
• What great things are out there that you haven't discovered but another teacher has?

Thank goodness enough people have asked these questions leading to the development of tools to help locate, record, organise and share information such as Delicious.


Basically Delicious is 'favourites' online... a handy way for you to keep links to your favourite articles, blogs, music, and more from any computer on the web. It also allows for you share your favourites with friends, family, and colleagues. I think that delicious is a great tool in education as many of us spend hours surfing the web to find articles, blogs and information. By sharing favourites at a school, cluster and even organisational level this would eliminate allot or rummaging through useless sites and articles. I also love that you can access your bookmarks from any computer, gone are the days of being frustrated and saying... 'Ahh, I have that bookmarked in my favourites on my home computer'.


Ben Bishop’s online tutorial was a great introduction to Delicious and refers to it as "the finest internet directory on the planet." His instructions and handy hints were definitely helpful in setting up my account. I agree with Ben when about the sharing and social aspect of Delicious and the benefits it has for teachers and other industry experts. It provides the ability to share and find bookmarks easily and as stated before melinite unnecessary browsing. Being a visual learner I did find the video link was a great resource in helping understand Delicious. Once I had my account and added the delicious tool to my toolbar, I was off and away. I am sure Scott will be happy to know that the first bookmark I made was to the Web2.0 Myclasses Page and my second was my google docs page, and thrid was Glogster!. I am truely embracing my new found web2.0 tools and cannot believe it has taken me soooo long to make a delicious account. I beleive Delicious will be like the iphone... I didn't know what all the fuss was about until I got one and now I have one I don't know how I survived without one :)

I wonder how others are using this wonderful tool???

Module 6 - Creative Communication

This module we were introduced to two great online tools.... Well at least one great online tool.

Where do I begin with Bubbl.us??? FOr me this havs been a frustrating process as I have been unable to access this tool both at school and at home. As a local administrator at school and as facilitator of this course I found it frustrating trying to upload lastest versions of flash to access this online tool. In the end we are still waiting for the update to come from a higher power. From watching the videos on Bubbl.us I can see that there are many benifits to this tool and how we could use it in our classrooms. Any online mind mapping tools are always helpful in organising ideas and opinions abotu a topic..... IF ONLY I COULD ACCESS IT! :)

Glogster

What an amazing tool!
A ‘glog’ is an online poster or web page. Not to be confused with a BLOG... Glogs are online posters that users can combine text, pictures, graphics, video, and audio to create an interactive online poster. It can be embed into a wiki, blog, school or class web site.

This is a wonderful tool that can be used by children of all ages to display knowledge in new and exciting ways. Glogster allows for a multi-modal approach to literacy, offering a domain for teachers and students to express their understanding of reading, writing and comprehending using different technologies. Glogster also allows for students to become knowledge creators, a key component of the iLearn Model and Blooms Digital Taxonomy.

What a wonderful tool for students.... and teachers!




I had a great time playing with this tool and I can't wait to introduce it to the students next Term... after I get married that is! :)

Module 5 - Podcastings... Vodcasting... YouTubing... and more!!

What a fantastic Module!

Once again we are moving from the world of 'I can't, because I don't have' to a world of 'I can because I have access too..."

As the course continues the STK Breakfest Club continues to move forward and delve deeper into the wonderful world of Web2.0!

This module has definately given us mich to discuss... Podcasting, Vodcasting, Using YouTube and onther online video sharing networks as well as how we can use iTunes. St Kevin's teachers are active users of YouTube and have been incorporating this wonderful tool for some time now. We use th clips to help us develer content in a more 21st century way as well as as a tool to help us cater for students needs and diferentiate tasks. One example of this happened just last week to me in my Year 6 Religion class. We have been exploring the Bible over the last few weeks and in particular looking at significant people and stories in the Old Testement. The students were asked to select a person and story from a list given to the by myself. They had to read the passage, take notes and then create a speech. One of my students has ADHD as well as a few other special qualities (I am sure we all have a student who falls into this catergory) The student was unable to sit and read the passage let alone comprehend the story, know what was happening and take notes. So I found a few versions of the passage on YouTube. The student was able to sit at a laptop, with headphones and watch two clips that re-enacted the passage. The student was able to make some notes and focus on what was tkaing place in the story. When the student presented their speech they was able to explain the story, what had happened, who was involved and most importantly what we can learn from the story. I am certian that the student would not have produced this level of understanding if they had not had had access to the short videoclips.

Having access to tools like Youtube allows us to cater for a range of learners as well as present information in a new, exciting and interactive way. Antoher occasion that I used Youtube was when we were looking at Democracy last Term. We were discussing the term 'absolute power', something that in previous years has been hard for the students to understand. I found a few clips from Alice in Wonderland and add them into our unit of work. The students viewed the videos of the Queen of Hearts and then we discussed 'absolute power' and how the queen was demonstrating this. Straight away the students connected with the idea and concept. It was amzing to see the difference the videos made in their understanding and the discussions that followed.

Having the ability to use videoclips as teachers is a priceless tool.

One thing that did come up was COPYRIGHT! Many discussions have taken palce and continue to happen around the idea of copyright and Youtube. It is my understanding for the last Module and discussions I have had that Youtube is a creative commons video sharing site, so as long as you link the video or embed it where possible you are not breaking copyright.

As far as iTunes... we at St Kevins are still trying to figure out how to set up a network iTunes account that all teachers can access and use in order to roll out the use of iPods (that we do have) effectively! Any help with this or ideas would be great!

Happy Blogging!

YAY... HALF WAY!!

Cheers

Amanda