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