Module 10

Web 2.0 is the now and future of the Internet. I can see it playing a growing role in my own life as a learner. Through this course I have learnt how to use and incorporate many new applications, which allow me to be a part of various online communities- many of which are relevant as a teacher. Exploring Wikis and Nings made me aware of how many online educational communities there already are, such as ‘Classrom 2.0’. I think these are such valuable resources to teachers as there is much to learn from each other’s experiences and ideas. I really like the creativity that Web 2.0 applications such as Digital Storytelling through wikis. These could be used in the classroom and for personal use. I created a slideshow of a few photos of the Special Olympics Dance Group that I teach which stars my big brother John.

Module 9

I feel quite naïve admitting that despite daily using a social network (facebook) I had never thought of the idea of professional networks. It makes so much sense and is typical of Web 2.0. Scootle is an example of a teaching network. It has 8,165 digital curriculum items. It involves collaboration, sharing, communicating and various media (audio, visual, video). It looks easy enough to navigate through with the search bars allowing you to search by grade, topic or time. The ‘learning paths’ are typical of Web 2.0 as they are a sequence of lesson content and teacher comments. I had never used Scootle before and kept coming across needing a username and password which I don’ t have…..
While I use facebook and think it is a great way to keep up with your friends and family and share photos, I don’t think it has any place in the classroom. I also have a twitter account but rarely use it- mostly because most of the people I care about are on facebook and the people I “follow” on twitter are mainly celebrities. Most of the time I don’t care about their microblogs but occasionally they can have quite witty or humorous things to share. Again I don’t think twitter has an educational purpose.
Second life was something else I had never heard of and was quite amazed to see. It reminded me of a game version of “Avatar”. It is like stepping into a virtual world. I couldn’t see my Year 1 students using this program but for older students it would be a good way for them experiment with 3D modeling, design and sharing with other students. I could see the benefits of this sort of program for gifted students to extend them, but also see it as a concern- as a lot of recreational games for children these days are virtual (eg. Wii) so we definitely need a healthy balance between the virtual and real life social experiences.

Module 8

An RSS feed is again another term that I have heard of but never known what it meant. I learnt that it is a big time saver for people who regularly use the web. Instead of having to visit each website yourself to find updates, through an RSS (Rich Summary Site) this information is fed to you. An RSS provides the delivery of constantly changing web content. I guess it makes keeping up with the World Wide Web easier.
Already having set up a google account, I found getting a “home” or a “reader” for these feeds easy through Google Reader. Subscribing to various websites so that these feeds or updates show up in my Google Reader was also easy. There are however SO many websites out there, you could get carried away with subscriptions and find yourself constantly trying to keep up with your feeds. It is great how it automatically marks updates as “read” once you scroll over them.

Module 7

Before this course I had never heard of the term “social bookmarking”. It took me a little while to get my head around the application Delicious and it’s usefulness. The three key things about Delicious are:

KEEP- links
SHARE- favourite links/ websites
DISCOVER- new things

I found the first one (keep) the most beneficial so far. Having somewhere to store all of my most commonly visited websites is very useful. In fact I used it today as I went from using my mac at my place to my parents computer at their house. Storing your own bookmarks in one place on the Internet definitely makes sense now. The Internet links us no matter what computer we are at. At first tagging each link seemed like a waste of time but I definitely see the benefit of it now that I have a lot of sites bookmarked- it makes them easier to categorise and search for. I haven’t quite got my head around the sharing part of delicious as I don’t know anyone who has it. The discovery factor of Delicious is great as like Flickr, you can search through other people’s links. It is all about a community sharing resources online…..it saves re-inventing the wheel!

Another part of the ‘community’ aspect of Web 2.0 is through blogs and how you can comment on what other people have written. At first it seemed a bit weird posting comments on other people’s thoughts but once I thought of it as an online conversation I got more used to it.

Module 6

Bubblus is a fantastic way to interactively create mind maps in the classroom. We are lucky to have interactive whiteboards in our classrooms so I will definitely be applying this in our classroom brainstorming activities. It is really easy to use and clearly show how ideas are linked.

It looks like old school posters are out and “glogs” are in. Glogster is an application where glogs can be created. A glog I have learned is an online interactive poster that can combine text, pictures, videos, podcasts and graphics. It can be used in the classroom to create a class page on a topic/ unit of work. It can be added to throughout the unit. Students can also create glogs themselves on any topic. Glogs are a great way for students to creatively present and share their ideas in an interactive way. Their traditional paper posters are taken to another level where they can incorporate their skills of creating podcasts and vodcasts within them too.

When I had a go at creating one I found that there is a lot that can be done and no limits!

http://cathyhansell.glogster.com/web-20/

Module 5

Before starting this unit I had used youtube and itunes quite regularly. As a dance teacher, I use itunes and garageband (music editing program on mac) to source and edit music for various lessons and performances. I was pleased to discover teachertube as a more specific educational branch of youtube- which helps when searching for things to use in the classroom (reducing the chance of coming across inappropriate content). While I already use itunes, I had never noticed or known about itunes U. I was amazed at how much educational information there is on it from reputable world wide cultural institutions…..and it is all FREE. I couldn’t believe it. I had also never really known much about podcast or vodcasts. They too can be downloaded from itunes and some for free too. Podcasts and vodcasts can also be created from original material by teachers and students. The content from itunes U, podcasts and vodcasts can be downloaded by students and listened to whenever and wherever they want. These applocations provide for “mobile learning”. I can definitely see this as a way of the future…..I wouldn’t be surprised if by the time I have kids they are listening to podcasts/completing their homework at the bus stop on an application on their latest versions of ipod touches.

Module 4

I was very interested in learning about the "worlds best online photo management and sharing application"- that is Flickr! Watching the Atomic Learning tutorials, setting up my Flickr account and exploring the application was easy in some ways and hard in others. It was easy in that I already have experience in editing, uploading, and organising photos through using i photo and facebook, though it was hard because I am so use to these other applications that it was a bit of an effort to re-learn similar processes using a different application. I love all of the things you can do in the "make stuff" section, however it was very similar to the things that I have already created on i photo previously (calenders, photo books, slideshows etc), so I didn't spend too much time on it.

At first when I found out that you have a limited amount of photos you can upload and only can create 3 sets with the free account and that no-one I know actually uses Flickr, I was a bit put off. But when I learnt about joining groups and how to search for photos it became more clear to me what the benefits of Flickr are. I have joined teaching and dancing groups that have photos I am interested in (hence the photo). Using Flickr- through advanced search and choosing 'only creative common licensed content', we are basically able to access so much image content for free. I have often gone to use images off google for various things in the classroom but couldn't due to restricted access/ copyright. Flickr can be used in the classroom in many creative ways like as visual stimulus for writing, or students using it to create photo stories or posters without child safety or copyright concerns . I really liked the "interestingness" tab in the image search as well.

Module 3

My Learning Experiences

I enjoyed watching the video tutorials about Google docs on Atomic Learning. They were step by step and easy to follow. There were however HEAPS of them. I mainly focused on learning the basics of creating a document. I created one around a lunch time dance program that I am co-ordinating next term with another teacher from my school (who is also doing this course) and shared it with her. I made her a ‘collaborator’ so she can add and edit the document. This actually took longer than expected, as it wouldn’t work at first. It took me a while to realize that you can only make other people collaborators who have google accounts, so once I put in her gmail account it worked. I now look forward to having a go at creating more Google docs including Spreadsheets, Presentations and Forms.

Google docs in the Classroom

There are so many things about Google docs that make it easy to use in the classroom and accessible for students:
-It is available 24 hours 7 days a week globally- so students can access it at home or school
-It saves work automatically
-There are various kinds of documents that can be used/ created
-It allows for online edits in real time, which is great for
1. Student collaboration in group tasks
2. Teacher/ peer/ student feedback
3. Makes the lesson interactive
4. Teachers can easily monitor what students are doing- who is putting in what percentage of work in a group task

Finally, I think the biggest benefit of Google docs in the classroom is how it could motivate students to improve the quality of their work, as they are no longer producing work just for one teacher to see, but their peers and parents. It allows students to become publishers on a world-wide stage.

Module 2

My Learning Experiences

I have always found the idea of blogging quite fascinating but never really got into it- as a reader or writer. I have found out though that I have been “micro-blogging” without knowing the technical term, through twitter and facebook already. So it is finally good to have a push (this course) to have a go at creating a proper one and researching others. I found the process of creating a blog surprisingly easy, however reading other blogs overwhelming. To find out that there were 184 million blogs world wide in 2008, so clearly even more now, was surprising. Where have I been for the past few years while teachers around the world have been discussing and sharing their thoughts and ideas through blogs?! As a member of ‘gen y’ I definitely feel behind the game. Reading through educational blogs really reiterated how as teachers we are life long learners.

So many areas are discussed in these blogs including new technologies and web applications, which is great in a way but also concerning in that once we master a new program it is quickly replaced with an updated one as technology so rapidly advances. So while being exposed to new technologies is daunting, I guess we as teachers need to keep up for our students sake. So now that I know how to create and read blogs, what impact do I think they have on classrooms?...

Blogs in the Classroom

Reading through various blogs (by teachers, students, parents and professors) I learnt that they basically create a collaborative learning space. They enable the learner to be in the middle of a connected network, where the teaching and learning is connected, collaborative and reflective. Blogs can be used by teachers to collaborate and share resource and lesson ideas. Teachers become “teams of connected educators” that “replace solo practitioners”- (from ‘Connected Teaching’ blog). Blogs can be used beneficially by students through class dialogue, class admin, group discussion and as a personal diary. Blogs are a way for students to publish their work for an audience beyond their teacher and allows for reflective practice and critical thinking. Blogging can incorporate video posting and podcasting in a free web space. Blogging can be used effectively in the classroom and best of all, the students are motivated by it.

Module 1

Hi my name is Cathy Hansell and I have been teaching Dance and Drama 2 days a week at Holy Spirit School North Ryde since 2003. In my beginning years I did casual teaching and other dancing work for the rest of the week. I have had varied teaching experiences across different schools. I am now working full time at Holy Spirit, still teaching Dance and Drama K-6 2.5 days a week and also across two Year 1 classes 2.5 days a week.

We are fortunate to have an executive team at our school who are aware of the impact that technology has and will continue to have on education. They have introduced Interactive Whiteboards and Data Projectors into most of our classrooms. Our ICT Co-ordinator is always introducing us to current Web tools like blogging (each grade was encouraged to create one last year) and motivating us to explore them......hence me and quite a few other teachers signing up to do do this Web 2.0 course!

I would rate myself as O.K. with computer technology but by no means a wizz. Before this course I had email, facebook, twitter and I have used Skype with my husband on his account. I have an i phone and a macbook and have gradually used some creative tools on it- garageband and i photo. I have heard about a lot of other Web 2.0 tools like wikis but had little idea as to what they are and how to use them.

I enjoyed setting up and personalising my igoogle page and found reading about our "Digital Footprints" quite interesting and concerning. I was then quite motivated to finally set up a more "professional" sounding email account with gmail than the hotmail one I have been using since I created it at 16 years old!... Reading about all of the tools available with Web 2.0 is exciting and daunting and I look forward to gradually learning more and applying it to both the classroom and my life.