Module 10

Our school IT advisor has been pushing the use of Wikis for a while now and I have noticed that alot of staff have jumped on board. I was always curious as to what they were and how they could be used in the classroom and with your class. It was not until recently when we started looking at module 9 and 10 that the concept of Wikis came into our discussions and we were able to have a detailed discussion about there multiple possibilities.

After a lengthy discussion on wikis I decided that it was time to attempt to set up a wiki for one of my classes. So with the help of our IT specialist I successfully set up a wiki for my year 9 class who have laptops and are familiar with wikis from other classes.

Creating the wiki and discovering the many opportunities involved turned out to be fun.

I found that setting up this wiki is going to allow me to make use of the many tools that I have become familiar with throughout the web2.0 course. I feel that this wiki has the potential to initiate a more student centered approach within the classroom. It will allow students to post and share work with the whole class as well as more productive eLearning activities, especially when the activity is connected to an outside source. Recently I have found that when trying to use outside sources to assist in learning that students get off task and learning becomes unproductive due to everyone trying to reach the same destination. By using the wiki our learning can become more productive because I will be able to put the sources up onto the wiki, which will allow the students to access the activity/resource/site from within the schools server.

At present I have not done alot of class work with the wiki but I am hoping that by slowly encouraging students to access the class wiki for different task that they will take the initiative to use it more frequently, especially for discussion as they have a difficult time generating productive discussions within the walls of the classroom.

How can Web 2.0 assist in improving learning outcomes for all students?

I believe that after having gone through each of the 10 modules within web2.0 that I will be able to use the tools and strategies learnt to assist all students within my classes to learn to the best of their abilities. The strategies within this course provide for people of all learning abilities and learning types; however it is up to the instructor to use those tools and strategies to best suit the learner. These strategies have enormous potential for improving the outcomes of students, not just the outcomes of students with learning difficulties. Web2.0 can be used to engage those students who lose interest quickly, to encourage an interactive classroom, to assist in collaborative tasks and to provide students with a variety of learning tasks and activities.

Module 9

For a long time I have heard the words social networking being thrown around. Up until now I have not really understood what that has meant. I understood that they were sites where people could interact and converse about common interests, however I did not understand the extent to which they could communicate. Having read through the suggested links, I now understand that social networking is more than just talking to people. It is about developing friendships, communities, cultural tolerance, understanding and learning. With the variety of social networking sites available people are able to just jump online and off they go. Social networking sites allow individuals to communicate common interests but they also allow individuals to find out information about a common interest.

Social networking sites are not just used personally by individuals, they are also used professionally and by businesses and companies. The professional use of social networking sites means that individuals can now develop relationships and communities with other professionals outside their current employment. I know that I have benefited greatly from the many educational networks that have been developed and used by teachers and educators around the world. These networks have guided me to useful resources, tools, websites and advice. I feel that by using these sites I can gain knowledge and experience from other educational professionals as well as helping others. These networks are give and take. Each individual will benefit differently depending on what they are looking for.

As a teacher I feel that scootle is a valuable social networking site to be a part of because it provides valuable resources and activities that can be used in class, not only for science but for all subjects and ages. This networking site allows you to teach students of all abilities because there are activities for all learning and ability types.

Twitter is very public and open to everyone. It makes it hard to monitor who is following what you say, but it also allows you to follow who ever you like. It also has the function of delivering automatic updates, so when someone you know updates what they wish to say you can receive notification.

The idea of social networking sites appears to have a very useful purpose for gathering information to improve my professional portfolio, however I feel that it may not be overly useful within the classroom. While there are codes that can allow you to restrict the flow of conversation, there are still many avenue that allow this work to be viewed publicly. Also some students may take advantage of the network and not use it appropriately.

I think that social networking is an avenue of the web2.0 course that I would like to explore further and in more detail, particularly in how I can use this resource in the classroom because today's student's are more dependent on technology and technology related learning.