Course Reflection and Feedback

Here begins my course reflection for what has been a challenging yet highly rewarding journey along the web 2.0. I hope to be able to take what I have learnt and use these tools to help make my teaching / learning experiences more exciting, engaging and relevant to today for the students I teach. An important point to remember for me is that it is not what we teach that is changing but rather the tools with which we teach it.

As the i@learn model states we learn best when we are engaged and challenged to learn, when we have the necessary resources and skills to take control of our learning. Good teaching and learning is of the utmost importance and the use of technology is a tool that will enable the students under our care to achieve beyond what they believe they are capable. The use of the web 2.0 products allow us more flexability to teach in a style that is more easily adapted to our students learning styles. For our auditory learners the inclusion of podcasts, for those who need to see we have the use of bubbl.us, glogs and flickr and for those whose learning styles include both, you tube & itunesU. Google docs and blogs will enhance the collaborative learning in any classroom. Blooms Digital Taxonomy is about using the tools and technology to facilitate learning. It is a great way for teachers to view the updates made to a model to bring it into line with the 21st Century. The verbs used relating to technology are more likely to be foreign to teachers than their students as they use such terms as blogging, googling, networking and tagging etc as part of their everyday lives, among the many social networks they have absorbed into their lives. As an educator I need to manage my resources and structure lessons that enable all student's to develop higher order thinking skills - to create, evaluate and analyse. The use of digital tools in our teaching practice help to keep students motivated and prepare them to adapt to change. 

The Educational Origami site is excellent for both teacher's and students of 21st century learning and teaching.The site offers resources following the model of Bloom's Digital Taxonomy with a link to a tool, technology or activity that can be adapted for use in the classroom.

After years of teaching it is easy to become complacent. If we expect our students to want to learn we also have to be willing to learn. This hasn't been easy both in terms of time and content, but has been well worthwhile. I do hope that the modules and their links not only stay in the my classes page - but that they are checked regularly and updated.  As stated in previous posts I have been disappointed when I was unable to acess a couple of sites. 

There has been so much ground to cover and so many new skills to learn I am sure I will not be alone in returning to revisit the modules to refresh the memory when using an application I haven't touched in a while.

In this course the CEO have definitely provided an 'engaging learning environment' they have allowed us 'anywhere, anytime' to become a part of a 'reflective international, no boundaries global' community of learners.

Throughout the course I have created my own blog at http://ktfweb2.blogspot.com

I have commented on  Donovan Cheung's completed blog - module 3 at http://adventuresinawesomeness.blogspot.com

I also commented on Lucy Valenti's ongoing blog - module 3 http://schoolcomputercourse.blogspot.com

Module 10

More unfamiliar tools today with Wiki's & Nings. 


A Wiki is a collaborative website which can be directly edited by anyone with access to it, while Wiki's offer the opportunity to share knowledge & information collectively. My visit to the wiki's with books - http://bookleads.wikispaces.com/ebooks+portals, has me hoping to access a wider range of books for some of our sight impaired students to use not only for pleasure but to enhance their studies. My visit to wetpaint did not inspire me greatly, I suppose I am not their target market of 'young women who love TV & fashion' but I did appreciate the professional manner in which the site was presented. I was very disappointed to find that I was unable to join the CEO wiki at http://ceosyd-web2.wetpaint.com - apparently I need an invitation, so I guess its off to e-mail to ask for one.


I had never heard of a Ning before this morning. Nings such as 'classroom 2.0' & 'ning in education' are very valuable resources for educators. I am waiting for my full acceptance to both sites and will definately be back to join in many of the forums. I was impressed how well organised both these sites are and their desire to keep 'hackers & spammers' out by requiring an actual application and request to join, rather than let every Tom, Dick & Harry join up.


As educators of the next generation it is our responsibility to continually search for and take part in, personal development that will expand our knowledge of what is available in the rapidly expanding web. Being members of and regularly taking part in the forums available in such nings as mentioned above, allows access to educators from around the world, a sharing of resources and a valuable insight into what is happening in classrooms everywhere.

Module 9

Networks on the Web, both professional and social. 


We were introduced to Scootle by our curriculum coordinator at the beginning of last year. I had never thought of it as a 'network' before today, rather as a site to access for some great ideas & resources. 
The arguments for and against social networking sites will continue....there are no right or wrong answers. With all the dangers of talking to 'strangers' on line, the argument that exposure to social networking helps otherwise 'shy' students socialize is met with the bullying isue - both cyber and face to face. Which ever side you take - web 2 is here to stay and grow. It is up to us to be aware of what is happening out there.
It is true that the underlying skills we teach today are the same - its just the way we teach it that is changing. As educators we need to take advantage of the tools available to us.


Second life: A virtual on line world, definatel a social network. To me it is the 21st century version of a series of games known as 'The Sims' while after watching all the film clips provided I can see what a great education tool it could be, especially for students in remote locations. What worries me is its addictive nature. I remember many a 'discussion' with my son as to the 'right amount of time' to allocate to 'Sims' vs his homework.


I was disappointed to find that the link to 'a directory of social network sites for educators' doesn't work. If you modify the address that does appear you can get to the www.c4lpt.co.uk site, but I'm not sure I finally made it to the intended page.


I have finally taken the plunge & opened a facebook account, basically to see what all the fuss is about & keep updated on photos of my family who live overseas. 


I also added a twitter account to my growing list of digital footprints. Just for the exercise I am following 3 foodies. I know no one will be interested in when I go to bed or whether I decide to drink Green or Jasmine tea, so time will tell how long I last. I'm not sure how interested the average student is in twitter, nor can I see any educational benefit. I am tending towards the belief it an outlet for the 'beautiful' people with too much time on their hands.

Module 8

RSS or Rich Site Summary Feed.
I have seen the orange symbol on many sites, but until today I have not understood what would hapen if I clicked on it.
A great tool for staying up to date with the latest information posted on any number of sites of your choice. What a time saver to be able to go just one site to see whether anything new has been posted. 
I can see many uses for RSS feeds for both my personal use and in a school setting. I am already looking froward to checking the reader section of my igoogle page to read updates - especially those from my favourite chefs.

Module 7

del.icio.us 
I had never heard of this social bookmarking web site before today. I have spent a delightful 3 or 4 hours creating an account & bookmarking my favourite websites. I can see this as a valuable tool for n and out of the classroom. Need to remember to mark as private for home! Great to think I can access these from wherever I am. 
I also imported my delicious home page link onto bookmark bar on my mac & added a bookmark from the bar onto the delicious site. 
Completing this on my own (and on a weekend) I found it difficult to find someone to add to my network - must ask at school for people's user names so I can search - or is there an easier way to search for them that I have missed? Thank you for the CEO suggestions of people to add. After a search I found and commented on a couple of blogs.....hope my comments help

Module 6

Well I did it - not only have I created an online mind map, I have exported it into my blog -
 I then tried to return to my bubbl.us site & it was there no more! - Did I CUT not export? Where did my web 2 mindmap go?? All that hard work has vanished!!
Beware - there are 2 'bubbl.us' sites - the original & a 'bubbl.us/beta' site - they are not linked & DO NOT transfer info between sites.
Clicking on the link in module 6 to create the account takes you to the beta site - but when you use the template provided by CEO in the 'preparing for the course' section - that takes you to the origional 'Bubbl.us' site - Has anyone else been caught?? 
Blogs - This mindmapping tool is a lot of fun -   there are many students  areas within each KLA to use such a tool, from brainstorming, assessment to presentation of work to name a few. Ideal to use with Special Ed / lifeskills students who find it very difficult to or are unable to record their ideas by writing, but will be able to record their ideas as single words or phrases in the mulit coloured bubbles.
Then its on to the Glogster site to create my own 'glog' or on line poster or web page.
The glogs are a tool students especially those who are creative will love, they may spend too much time playing with the images, text and videos available. Gologs are a perfect tool to incorporate into programs across all KLA's, they will blend perfectly into assignments and homework tasks.

Module 5

I have played around a little with podcasts and vodcasts before this module but  no means feel expert enough to create and upload one worth sharing at this time. I still have my Garage band L plates firmly attached. 
The podcast links supplied were all easy to navigate and very informative and I will frequent the WA det site (www.det.wa.edu.au/education/cmis/eval/curriculum/ict/podcasts) & http://recap.ltd.uk/moodle for their extensive list of podcasts. 
I see http://storynory.com as a great discovery  & will be back to download stories for some of our students, especially those on the reading program and from ESL backgrounds. The broadcasts are clear and our students can only benefit from listening, a great way to introduce new vocab and correct pronounication.
Moving from here to itunes is territory I am at more comfortable with, I have created playlists from my itunes library for everything from 'walking tunes' to listen to as I exercise to a 'car music' list for this current trip to Canberra. I have also current subscriptions through itunes to a variety of sites such as ABC's 'enough rope ' with Andrew Denton, NASA & The Metropolitan Museum of Art. I just don't have enough time in each day to watch all I'd like. As our children gain greater access to the web, their exposure to sites such as itunes U will only enhance their learning experiences, especially those who learn through visual & auditory modes. My only disappointment is that podcasts sometimes disappear as their owners move on.
We have all used 'you tube' to search for information, but following the suggestion on web 2.0 I now have my own you tube' account where I will be able to search, rate, comment on & eventually upload videos......the one saving grace with creating this account....I could use my gmail email account!!