Web2.0 and the eLearning with the iLE@RN model.
The final video on eLE@RNING further developed my understanding of the whole concept. We are not just talking about the use of computers and technology in the classrooms .The"e" doesn't represent electronic but e for engaging students in their learning. We live in an information rich age. We have greater control over learning and not just through lecture type experiences.We have a responsibilityto develop reflective and responsible learners by providing the structures that removethe walls around the classrom and link students to local and global learning. Students need to become aware of how they learn best and they contribute to 21st century learning.Activity 1 has bought to the forefront the iLE@RN skills the teachers need to address prior to students using Web 2.0 tools.
communication and collaboration skills
questionning skills
creative thinking skills
reflection skills
critical thinking and problem solving skills
multimodal literacy skills.
We learn best when we are engaged and challenged to learn and when we are equiped with the necessary skills and resources.Then we can make a valued contribution to physical and virtual learning communities. I feel as though I have discovered a new mantra one which will be physically displayed in my classroom as a reminder of my adventures in this Web 2.0 course.
Web 2.0 and Bloom's Taxonomy- Bloom's Digitally
This certainly takes Blooms to another level! As I am at presently designing and resructuring units of work based on a variety of HOTS approaches not just Blooms I feel a little overwhelmed that now I am being pulled in yet another direction. I will certainly keep an open mind and will refer to and use this new model if I feel it will enhance the students achievement of the learning outcomes as set out in the Foundation Statements which is my focus of the students learning in my classroom as well as endevouring to develop the eLE@RNING skills as stated above. I will be implementing one aspect of eLE@RNING at a time and view this journey as a continued learning experience for both myself and my students.
The Web2.0 course has certainly opened my eyes to the huge array of programs and applications that exist out there and I am sure that the ones that I viewed were a mere drop in the ocean! It has been fun to engage and ponder the educational use of these tools e.g Scootle,Ning, Kidblog, Wordle etc. and how I can effectively use these amazing programs to engage and challenge each student but particularly the underachievers in my class who need to be reawakened to learning as exciting and interesting and " a can't wait" experience. I feel it important to assess the place of eLE@RNING in the overall education of students keeping at the forefront the catholic values that underpin our very existence and the students' digital footprins..
I feel a sense of achievement in the completion of this course and as a teacher of over 30 years of experience have learnt that change is not always at the expense of teaching practices that already exist that work but change for the good of the students and their learning now and in preparation for the world of the future they are entering.
Thankyou to all those reponsible for making this course possible.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Module 10 - Learning Communities, Constructing Knowledge together using Wikis
Wikis
A Wiki is a website that allows the easy creation and editing of any number of web linked pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language. The Edit , Save and Link functions allow easy access to all group memebers to make changes instantly that all can see. This eliminates the email system which is not good at organising a groups input. This is reminiscent of Google Docs are they one and the same or am I still limited in my understanding and knowledge of how it all works???? This tool has great possibilities for classroom use for students share and collaborate anywhere, any time.Also for Teacher use when writing reports and programs.
Absolutely loved the Booklead Wiki. Particularly interesetd in Boys reading and all the great articles, videos and approaches suggested.
Ning in Education
Ning is the leading online platform for world,s organisers, activists and influencers to create their own social network. It appears to me to meet the needs of those in a profesional froum rather than a personal forum as does MySpace.
The attainment of learning outcomes for all students is what it is all about.That is why I am here completeing this Web 2.0 course. For students to attain success with their learning I need to become more aware of the various tools to assist each individual's learning style preferences. Particularaly those strugglers who for the most part of the day find learning boring and difficult. Completing tasks that they are totally disengaged from or that to them are meaningless and a waste of time. Setting up Blogs for students to collaborate with each other, with me and me with parents to share affirm and encourage student learning further develops the students accountability and ability to articulate in another forum the learning that is taking place.Immediately they see their successes and parents are able to monitor their child's development and confidence and learning experiences in a particular area. for me. Baby steps..... first, set up Blogs and Wikis for each student. Onwards and upwards!
A Wiki is a website that allows the easy creation and editing of any number of web linked pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language. The Edit , Save and Link functions allow easy access to all group memebers to make changes instantly that all can see. This eliminates the email system which is not good at organising a groups input. This is reminiscent of Google Docs are they one and the same or am I still limited in my understanding and knowledge of how it all works???? This tool has great possibilities for classroom use for students share and collaborate anywhere, any time.Also for Teacher use when writing reports and programs.
Absolutely loved the Booklead Wiki. Particularly interesetd in Boys reading and all the great articles, videos and approaches suggested.
Ning in Education
Ning is the leading online platform for world,s organisers, activists and influencers to create their own social network. It appears to me to meet the needs of those in a profesional froum rather than a personal forum as does MySpace.
The attainment of learning outcomes for all students is what it is all about.That is why I am here completeing this Web 2.0 course. For students to attain success with their learning I need to become more aware of the various tools to assist each individual's learning style preferences. Particularaly those strugglers who for the most part of the day find learning boring and difficult. Completing tasks that they are totally disengaged from or that to them are meaningless and a waste of time. Setting up Blogs for students to collaborate with each other, with me and me with parents to share affirm and encourage student learning further develops the students accountability and ability to articulate in another forum the learning that is taking place.Immediately they see their successes and parents are able to monitor their child's development and confidence and learning experiences in a particular area. for me. Baby steps..... first, set up Blogs and Wikis for each student. Onwards and upwards!
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Module 9 - Networks on the Web Professional and Social
Scottle
Wow! what a great resource the applications are limitless. This is the most exciting webtool for me so far!!!! Can't wait to use it in Year 4. The possibilities for setting up collaborative workspaces that are secure and relatively easy to access for the students are so valuable. Linking digital curriculum resources with tasks and questions for individual learning styles will engage students to a far greater degree than the old pen and paper tasks! The Student PIN will allow individual students to access their own learning tasks and follow there own learning path at their own rate. Today I only browsed Scottle as I was unable to find how to join up. My user name and passsword was unacceptable. What am I doing wrong? Also how do I set the students up with a PIN? I am really exciting about getting Scottle up and operational as soon as possible.
Social Networking
Single user
Users interact over the internet using email or instant messaging. Facebook BEBO and Twitter are to name but a few. There are many variations across the world who provide services and community to individuals with shared interests. Use of collaboration tools such as blogs, wikis and nings for learning with students is recommended. Personal social network sites such as facebook and myspace are not. I venture to look at theGovernment guidelines for ESafety but was unable to access the site.
Second Life
Wow! Wow! Wow! What next ! The use of avatars for student learning I can relate to this application and its interest to students who are experiencing online games for recreation and enjoyment pass times. However, the time it would take teachers to design and set up learning tasks would be mind blowing. More research on this one needed but I stay open to all new approaches and will watch this one with interest to see if it catches on!
FaceBook
Facebook is the now way of communication definitely not suitable for younger students with all its implications and definitely not to be used a s a communication tool between students and teachers.
Twitter
Helps peole stay connected to each others lives between the lengthy application of Blogs and Emails. Twitter uses under 140chracters and therefore is a great way to communicate meassages to and from friends and relatives about day to day happenings. It is the real world between blogs and emails.Would you be bothered????
Wow! what a great resource the applications are limitless. This is the most exciting webtool for me so far!!!! Can't wait to use it in Year 4. The possibilities for setting up collaborative workspaces that are secure and relatively easy to access for the students are so valuable. Linking digital curriculum resources with tasks and questions for individual learning styles will engage students to a far greater degree than the old pen and paper tasks! The Student PIN will allow individual students to access their own learning tasks and follow there own learning path at their own rate. Today I only browsed Scottle as I was unable to find how to join up. My user name and passsword was unacceptable. What am I doing wrong? Also how do I set the students up with a PIN? I am really exciting about getting Scottle up and operational as soon as possible.
Social Networking
Single user
Users interact over the internet using email or instant messaging. Facebook BEBO and Twitter are to name but a few. There are many variations across the world who provide services and community to individuals with shared interests. Use of collaboration tools such as blogs, wikis and nings for learning with students is recommended. Personal social network sites such as facebook and myspace are not. I venture to look at theGovernment guidelines for ESafety but was unable to access the site.
Second Life
Wow! Wow! Wow! What next ! The use of avatars for student learning I can relate to this application and its interest to students who are experiencing online games for recreation and enjoyment pass times. However, the time it would take teachers to design and set up learning tasks would be mind blowing. More research on this one needed but I stay open to all new approaches and will watch this one with interest to see if it catches on!
Facebook is the now way of communication definitely not suitable for younger students with all its implications and definitely not to be used a s a communication tool between students and teachers.
Helps peole stay connected to each others lives between the lengthy application of Blogs and Emails. Twitter uses under 140chracters and therefore is a great way to communicate meassages to and from friends and relatives about day to day happenings. It is the real world between blogs and emails.Would you be bothered????
Module 8 Managing your flow of Information on the Internet
What is an RSS Feed?
A format for delivering regularly changing web content. You ensure your privacy by not needing to join the website email newsletter.
The youtube hs explained to me that there are two ways to keep up with what is happening on the Web. The old way of of visiting my favourite sites e.g. favourite blogs and favourite news sites, checking to see if there is anything new and then wasting time when there is nothing there. The new way is far more efficient as it brings the new information to me rather than me going to look for it. First I need a home for all this news.I can achieve this by signing up to a Google Reader which is free. - www.google.com/reader - Second I need a connection from the reader to my favourite websites. I can subscribe by locating the orange button on my favourite sites and copying the URL to link the reader. Easy!!!!!
Setting up an RSS Feed on Google reader
I decided to use my new found expertise with google reader and link to as many Christmas recipe sites as I could happily navigate to. Never too soon to get organised for the festive season. Looking forward to using this application for classroom purposes.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Module 7 Building Online Communities
Blogs are another great source of information, links and learning from others. Why is Delicious so popular?
- keeps links to your favourite articles, blogs, music, restaurants reviews
- Share favourites with friends,family and colleagues
- Discover new things that others have found
- Organise bookmarks by tagging them with keywords
In Activity 1, I explored Delicious for bookmarking and sharing on the Web by viewing the site About Delicious A text based tutorial for getting started with delicious. It states that Delicious is an eclectic social mix of peoples browsing habits that could be considered the finest internal directory on the planet. With Delicious tagging involves adding key words to your bookmarks that would help you retrieve them in the future
I have just been supportive and used my best blog manners in commenting on oe of my colleagues blog pages. qQite sereal as she is sitting beside me completeing her latest module!!!!
Module 6 Creating and Communication on line
Bubble.us is a simple and free web application that lets you brainstorm on line. Bubble.us can be used to record and organise ideas about the use of Web2.0 tools to enhance learning. A glog is an online poster of web page. Users can combine texts or pictures, graphics, video and audio to create an interactive online poster that you can embed into a wiki, blog or school/class website. I have just tried to embed my bubble.us into my blog and I was able to save it to my documents but no one in the St Kevins breakfast club was able to assist me in putting it into my blog and they weren't able to do it either!!! Any suggestions?????? Anyway I had a go at creating a mindmap bit fiddly might take time to master.
Go Nana Jan perseverence pays off! I did it!!!
Mindmapping is an integral part of the primary classroom the uses for this tool are endless and far more interactive and interesting for children. I will be uses this tool often.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Module 5 - Digital Storytelling - Pod, Vods, videos and Web2
Well my learned friends as written my Leslie Rule - Digital storytelling is the modern expression of the ancient art of storytelling. Digital stories derive their power by weaving images, music, narrative and voice together, thereby giving deep dimension and vivid colour to characters, situations , experiences and insights.
This module I leisurely breaststroked through the sea of Podacasts- an audio or video file available on the internet. Pod meaning listen to on your computer or transfer it to your portable audio/video device. It is therefore portable and on Demand. Cast meaning the file is sent over the internet.
Vodcasts came in on the next wave and informed me that it is simply a podacst that contains video content.I explored the iTunes links from Module 5 and will sit on my towel and watch as the application becomes more able to be used and relevant to our StKevins learning community.
My favourite review was done on visiting the video sites. As I am an avid user of Youtube and have been for some time I will now happily explore the other video sites to widen the resources that I have linked to the various flipchart pages in my use of Activinspire for programming my classroom units of work. I find it a great tool for engaging those visual learners and making the content of lessons real for students. Digital storytelling is an essential part of the 21st Century classroom. Thanks for Module 5 I,m really strating to swim strongly now!!!!!
This module I leisurely breaststroked through the sea of Podacasts- an audio or video file available on the internet. Pod meaning listen to on your computer or transfer it to your portable audio/video device. It is therefore portable and on Demand. Cast meaning the file is sent over the internet.
Vodcasts came in on the next wave and informed me that it is simply a podacst that contains video content.I explored the iTunes links from Module 5 and will sit on my towel and watch as the application becomes more able to be used and relevant to our StKevins learning community.
My favourite review was done on visiting the video sites. As I am an avid user of Youtube and have been for some time I will now happily explore the other video sites to widen the resources that I have linked to the various flipchart pages in my use of Activinspire for programming my classroom units of work. I find it a great tool for engaging those visual learners and making the content of lessons real for students. Digital storytelling is an essential part of the 21st Century classroom. Thanks for Module 5 I,m really strating to swim strongly now!!!!!
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Module 3 Taking the first stroke!
Just starting to come out of the fog of the initial information overload and making some sense of Web 2.o! As I viewed this module's videos and became aware of the educational applications my interest is beginning to take hold.
Google Docs the free web based word processor, spreadsheet,presentation and form application site amazes me in that its applications are limitless. Unfortunately it is limited by the lack of ability that I can bring to it. Others astound me with their ability to apply this tool. I think I will observe quietly in the background and get swept along in their tide.
The fact that we now have the tools to create and edit documents online while collaborating in real time with other users is highly motivating to those facing a deadline while not having to wait to read emails and reply to them. All students are able to participate in one assignment. Teachers then see which students are doing the lion share of the work. Learning can happen at all times of the day without meeting and from the comfort of your own home.Students become publishers on a world wide level now publishing for peers,parents and teachers. Far more accountable than ever and as a result raising their own standards as their accountability becomes clearer.
The benefit of its use in my own classroom would be from the interactivity of daily lessons. The excisting class page could now be put to better use not just merely a tool for the spread of information by me to bothe students and parents.
Onwards and upwards as we launch into Module 4!
Google Docs the free web based word processor, spreadsheet,presentation and form application site amazes me in that its applications are limitless. Unfortunately it is limited by the lack of ability that I can bring to it. Others astound me with their ability to apply this tool. I think I will observe quietly in the background and get swept along in their tide.
The fact that we now have the tools to create and edit documents online while collaborating in real time with other users is highly motivating to those facing a deadline while not having to wait to read emails and reply to them. All students are able to participate in one assignment. Teachers then see which students are doing the lion share of the work. Learning can happen at all times of the day without meeting and from the comfort of your own home.Students become publishers on a world wide level now publishing for peers,parents and teachers. Far more accountable than ever and as a result raising their own standards as their accountability becomes clearer.
The benefit of its use in my own classroom would be from the interactivity of daily lessons. The excisting class page could now be put to better use not just merely a tool for the spread of information by me to bothe students and parents.
Onwards and upwards as we launch into Module 4!
Monday, August 16, 2010
Module 2 Treading Water!
Well, Activity One engaged my brain in learning about Blogs.I previewed the video " Blogs in Plain English" which began with a contrast of the news in both 20th centuries and now. I learnt that the news has changed from being general and limited to the fact that now anyone can be a reporter and publisher. That blogposts can be like newspaper articles but they can be up for discussion and that you can build relationships with bloggers with similar interests.In 2003 70million blogs were created, the number is mindblowing!!!
I then continued the module and created my own blog - I'm learning!
The google privacy tips reassured me that I can send visitors to my blogs and set permission for blog readers to follow my ramblings.
I really enjoyed visiting the links with the "Educational use of Blogs" particularly the "Art Projects for Kids" as this is a passion of mine and gave me some great ideas to use and adapt to my own class. Mrs Turnbull's classroom reinforced for me that students who lack reading and writing skills and that lack motivaton to practice chat virtually with friends making the ir audience more credible and less intimidating for them.
All in all this Module has been informative and interesting.
I will keep treading water and hopefully tackle a stroke or two next time. CU
I then continued the module and created my own blog - I'm learning!
The google privacy tips reassured me that I can send visitors to my blogs and set permission for blog readers to follow my ramblings.
I really enjoyed visiting the links with the "Educational use of Blogs" particularly the "Art Projects for Kids" as this is a passion of mine and gave me some great ideas to use and adapt to my own class. Mrs Turnbull's classroom reinforced for me that students who lack reading and writing skills and that lack motivaton to practice chat virtually with friends making the ir audience more credible and less intimidating for them.
All in all this Module has been informative and interesting.
I will keep treading water and hopefully tackle a stroke or two next time. CU
Monday, August 9, 2010
Module 1 - Here I go in at the deep end!
Hello fellow Web 2.oers my name is Janeen Towers another member of the infamous St Kevins' Eastwood Breakfast Club! I feel as though I am entering a brave new world here one where I have little knowledge, expertise or control. Feelings that I don't come to terms with very easily.So as a result I am moving forward very slowly and cautiously!
Module 1 has introduced me to the new terms Blogs, Wikis and Twitter Podcasting and Social Networking. I'm sure as time goes on that all will be revealed and this lingo will become a second language but for now I reflect on the issues that arose for me out of the weblinks that I viewed. The positive gains of using Web 2.0 are obvious: the user created content, applications, social interactions,the authentic audience,collaboartion, the development of 21st century problem solving skills and ownership of the work. Alas there is always a dark side and for me a side that must be weighed up and considered carefully. The quality and credibility of the content.Can everyone be an expert?Privacy and sharing of personal information are always an issue.Copyright and reliability of sources.
In conclusion I feel that Web 2.0 is a very powerful web based tool that will heve great educational advantages when used correctly.
Module 1 has introduced me to the new terms Blogs, Wikis and Twitter Podcasting and Social Networking. I'm sure as time goes on that all will be revealed and this lingo will become a second language but for now I reflect on the issues that arose for me out of the weblinks that I viewed. The positive gains of using Web 2.0 are obvious: the user created content, applications, social interactions,the authentic audience,collaboartion, the development of 21st century problem solving skills and ownership of the work. Alas there is always a dark side and for me a side that must be weighed up and considered carefully. The quality and credibility of the content.Can everyone be an expert?Privacy and sharing of personal information are always an issue.Copyright and reliability of sources.
In conclusion I feel that Web 2.0 is a very powerful web based tool that will heve great educational advantages when used correctly.
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