Final Course Refelction

I have found that doing this course has been very reaffirming for me. It was great to find out that many of the software and tools discussed throughout the course were things that I was already using in my classroon and encouraging my staff to use. These also lend themselves to what is good quality teaching. On the other hand it was equally good to find out about new things and to refresh and reignite my passion for providing students and staff with the most up to date ideas and technologies for use in the classroom
As it says in module 10 students need to have a range of skills before using Web 2.0 tools (ie iLE@RN skills - communication and collaboration, questioning, reflection, creative thinking, critical thinking and multi-modal literacy skills). and certainly resources explored throughout the Web 2.0 course will benefit students learning and enhance their understandings.

A key part throughout the course was communication and collaboration - technology provides a fantastic was to develop and increase communication. As teachers we need to encourage our students to use communication and collaboration in their learning to develop their knowledge, understandings and comprehension.

I liked the Blooms digital taxonomy map.  Might use that with the staff during my next PD session.

Over all I have enjoyed working through all the different modules. I feel renewed in my belief that this is the way forward in teaching and am looking forward to trying out some of the new things I have learnt.  Another bonus of doing this course is that I will be able to keep returning to the clips and articles to share with my staff or to simple refresh my understandings and skills.

I suppose a final comment would be to wonder if there will be a follow up to this course where one can delve more deeply into some of the ideas presented.

I am going to continue to Edmodo (and Thinglink) for this term and next term try to use Twitter with my parents.  Only time will tell how successful it will be.

Module 10 - Learning Communities, Constructing Knowledge Together in Wikis

I love using Wikis.  They are great for kids to be able to work through at their own pace and for making learning interactive. I have created three Wikis so far. By far the best one is the Australian Goldrush Wiki, followed by the rainforest wiki and I have also made a reading wiki for my grade

Google Sites: great for education and is yet another way of creating an online space (very much like a blog) in order to communicate with others. Here is a Google site I created for my students when we were learning about Antarctica.
https://sites.google.com/site/antarcticasite/

Virtual classrooms and the whole concept of the Flipped classroom is fascinating and is I am sure going to become more common in the future. 

I really believe that in today's world teachers have no option but to adopt technology and make it work for them in he classroom.

Module 9 - Networks on the web – professional and social - In particular Scootle and Facebook

Scootle: I introduced my staff to Scootle when it was first launched and have been using the 'Learning Federation for many years now.  There are many excellent learning resources that are made available to teachers in the Catholic Sector through Scootle.  It is great that they are linked to the National Curriculum and that you can create a learning path etc.  However I find Scootle clunky and time consuming to get into although I have heard that it should be easier with the onset of ICON?
 I particularly like the fact that students can discuss their learning in real time. Using a Learning Path within the classroom could have heaps of educational benefits.

I use Facebook in my personal life, mainly to connect with family and friends. My son uses it as a form of advertising for his business.  He reminds his customers of up and coming events and vacancies etc.   I don't believe Facebook has a place within the classroom, having said that this term I am experimenting with using Edmodo in my classroom.  I do know that there are schools who do use Facebook in the school. Privacy and safety worry me with Facebook.  Also you must be 13 years to have a Facebook account - much to the amazement of my grade!!!!!

Twitter. I have never been into Twitter.  However as a couple of teachers are thinking of giving it a go I think I might join them and learn as I go along!! I can see that as all parents have a phone, it will be a way of instantly communicating with parents - and that can only be a good thing.

Module 8 Managing your flow of information on the Internet - RSS feeds

Although I have heard about RSS feeds before this module, it is not something that I have particularly looked into. I know that RSS feeds are where you can collate information from different websites that are of interest to you. In Module 7 I learnt about saving websites into the one place that you can access similarly an RSS Feed looks at storing links (like blog links, news links) in the one place. It makes it easier to access the information, without having to go check each place individually.

By subscribing to different websites you are able to view new and updated information from these website, easily and all in the one place.

Some ways of using RSS feeds in the classroom are
to create an information resource that could be used for the whole class.
Students could access the latest news
Students could subscribe to a blog or article about their Inquiry topic etc.


By creating a Feedly account I have been able to search for education and computer technology sites that I have found very interesting.  A couple of these are We are teachers and Share My Lesson, Rememberthemilk.com and the ed tech crew.
Should be useful in the future for planning and ideas.

Module 7 - Building Online communities

This Module was all about Delicious, Diigo and how you can  book mark on the web. I already have a delicious account but have never used Diigo.  I love bookmarking. Makes life so much easier. I am always looking for new ideas and now I can save everything I find in the one spot and free up my favourites.
I can  see how social bookmarking is a very effective way of collaborating by sharing useful websites. It is great that I can access my favourite websites from any computer.
Perhaps it would be a good way of saving bookmarks so that my students can use them too.
Have decided that I will try to find out more about Diigo - though I will probably continue to use delicious for social bookmarking

Module 6 - Exporing photos and videos on the web

Picasa is a great tool for editing photos online. I love that you can create collages and videos of your images.  It is good that there is the copyright facility and this could be something to talk about in class. 

This will be a great tool to use in the classroom when creating folios of the children’s learning. I think it will be great to use the collage facility to put our camp photos together. Collages and videos could present the ‘photo story’ of a our trip to camp.

I look forward to incorporating it into my teaching and learning.

Module 5 creating and communicating online

Yes! All three of the featured tools I have been using in my classroom for about 3 years.  Love bubble.us.  At school we have Inspiration and my students were always asking for a mind mapping tool they could use at home. bubble.us is a tool that students can easily use and share with the grade.

I have been a fan of Glogster for a while.  All my students learn to use this programme.  It is a great tool for students to showcase their work.  This year I am also using Thinglink and the kids are loving that too.

Prezi is a great alternative to PPT especially as it can be used to collaborate with each other.  Although many of my students still like to use PPT there is a definite move towards using Prezi  among the older students at school.  It offers a different layout for presenting information and is very engaging for the students.
This module has been very affirming to me. This is a prezi I used with my students last year.
http://prezi.com/d-qcuae2bca6/present/?auth_key=0ni7bgk&follow=vsxmmku2cbnx