Web 2 course reflection

Well it's that time I have come to the end of the course but not the end of my learning.  In fact this course is only the beginning of my learning.  to be introduced to so many online tools is amazing.  I feel that many of these tools will be useful in my class to help with students engagement and learning.  I think I would use twitter to contact kids about information I find or even feedback to what they are doing in class.  Obviously being very selective about the type of feedback they are getting.  Also the Google docs and drive would be great not only for teachers to use for contacting and planning but also for student's work and for editing their work.  Rather than spending so much time in class editing work while they are there with you, you could edit their work in your own time so time isn't wasted in class.  This is of course referring to writing lessons.  Also you can use it for homework for kids and they can submit it online rather than paper.  Again you get it quicker and if they forget you can twitter them.  Connecting their work to the class blog would be great to as it means their work is already on line therefore easier to upload to the class blog.  Or in fact they have their own work so in effect it is like a digital portfolio on the child's work.  Bubbl.us would be good for child work presentation as well as teacher use for brainstorming ideas for children and they can their add to it as well.   I'm in a junior class so some of the tools wont be relevant but if I move to middle school and senior primary school then more tools are available and appropriate.  Delicious and Diigo will be great for my own personal research and for my lessons to find appropriate content with.  the scootle blog will be great as great is a resource sharing opportunity.  Linking Pintrest to it would also be content enhancing as there are a great many ideas on that as well.  All in all I know I have a lot of learning to do still.  After reports will be a good time to start and experiment.

New Website

After I completed Module 10 I thought I would have a go at completing my own Web site using Google sites.  It was fairly easy but at the moment it is very simple until I have more time to research and add to it.

https://sites.google.com/site/carolseducationallearning/

Module 10

Google Sites
WOW!  After discussing the amazing capabilities of Google apps and Docs as well as all the book marking sites with other colleagues I feel quite enthused to use them as part of my teaching both for the children to access and learn from as well as for my own Professional Learning.  I am definitely going to set up my own Web Page and link it somehow to my Class Blog.  That way the children can access the activities I put on my Web Page as well.  I will probably use the experts at school to help if I get stuck.  But I could see the whole school having each class with their own web page linked to the main school web page.  The parents may see then the importance of these Online Learning Tools and allow their children to use them and be competent in using them so the time in class is used for supporting their learning. 

I found the Video clip about Google sites and how to set up a class web page very informative.  It didn't look hard so I think I will definitely explore this a lot more.

Module 9

Wow! this was most informative.  Firstly I've used Scootle in the past and loved it.  I have my own learning paths but I found I could spend hours and hours looking up the activity I would like to use in my classroom.  As a result I stopped using it as I often found other websites like Teach this or Teach it etc were quicker and easier to find activities to use in the classroom.  Its probably a couple of years now since I have used it.  However I had and am still having trouble, linking the activities into my learning path folders.  I will need more exploring on  Scootle. This is my challenge.  However I discovered the new learning Blog which is part of the Web 2 features. This is a great teacher resource as it is a  way that teachers can share their ideas about resources and sharing learning paths.  Once I overcome my challenges I think this would be a great way to collaborate with other teachers.  I could link my Twitter and Google account to it so that if I find a great resource or Professional research I could add it to my blog on Scootle.  I will definitely use this more.

I had trouble accessing a number of the videos.  some of them I could access through my own search in Google some I couldn't.  I completed a Master in Teacher Librarianship in 2007.  Many of the  articles in this I remember reading and doing in the course.  Access to these online sites depended on schools capabilities and beliefs in its usefulness.   Today schools are now seeing the importance.  Now it seems what I learnt back then is now being made available to teachers and students. And here I am relearning what I learnt back then.  But it is very refreshing to know those skills may now be built upon and able to be used. 

I don't think I would use Sound Life in ,my classroom with 1/2's as I think it is definitely too advanced for them.  But I can se the possibilities for secondary students.

The directory of Social Network Sites for Education was not available.

I could see Linked In would be a great way to go to establish a Professional collaboration with other Educators around the world to share ideas.  Perhaps having an account would be worthwhile.  I will explore this avenue as well.

With Twitter linked to Scootle, Linked In and Pintrest as well as Delicious and Diigo there would be so much collaborative learning that the ideas from these can then be used in the classroom to identify activities that enhance the children's learning. 

My only concern is with all these sites checking them regularly for updates and  research when do we as teachers have time to plan, assess, and other administrative task as well as have a personal life?
I would certainly need to spend more time exploring all these areas.  Maybe incorporating Google docs may save some administrative time.  But a discussion would need to made with other teachers in the school about what could and couldn't be edited.

Module 8

Module 8 was very interesting.  I had never heard of RSS feed.  I still don't know what are OPLM uploads however this may not be important but if someone out their is a whiz with all of this stuff maybe they can enlighten me.  I have found creating an account with Feedly has allowed me to search for education and computer technology sites that I could be interested in.  In fact by searching these I found some great educational sites that I could refer to when planning or thinking about a topic in the curriculum such as We are teachers and Share My Lesson.  It also enables me to link in with up to date educational research that is being undertaken that in turn can improve my teaching knowledge and strategies therefore enhancing my skills. the challenges with this is I could spend hours on it researching and reading the interesting information out there and hence not getting down to the business of teaching.
When finding interesting articles or research this can then be shred on the Google account, twitter  and other social media accounts for others to see.  this becomes good collaborative sharing amongst other teaching colleagues.

Module 7

In this Module I have learnt about Delicious and how you can  book mark on the web.  The only problem is when I set up my Delicious account that page didn't look like the one on the tutorial so I couldn't work out how to save it to my tool bar as their didn't even appear to be a toolbar on my computer to save it to.  I think at one stage many weeks ago when I was doing something on the internet I couldn't see the page I was needing at the bottom so I think I have deleted the tool bar on the Internet Explorer page.  But I have managed to save some links in my delicious account.  I think I have a lot of learning to go.  The students could use this to bookmark important sites they need for research in the classroom.  My biggest challenge is using all the new tools and being competent at them.  I feel I'm learning so much that I have information overload and that I won't pick up sufficient skills in any of these tools as I fly past these modules.  Time is so limited at the best  of times I feel I won't do justice to any of it.  However,  I may have to revisit some of these tools at the end of the course for a refresher.  Perhaps if I use them all regularly I will feel more comfortable with them. 
I wonder do we need to use all the tools we are learning?  Or do we just pick out the ones we feel will be the most useful?

Module 6

My Picaso Album link  https://plus.google.com/u/0/
I had trouble sharing from my Picaso Album to this Blog page but it went to my Google account.  I couldn't access the tutorial it said it was unavailable.

I found this Module very challenging and took a long time to complete.  Some of the editing of the photos I could not do due not being able to access the tutorials and the access on the side of the photos where they should have come up.  So if anyone has any comments feel free to explain.  As I said in Module 5 I feel the Picaso is the same as Media Windows and I feel it easier accessing my photos from their than from Picaso.  It just seems to keep downloading all my photos every time I access it.  I have several copies of all the photos I had on my computer now.