Course Reflection

Wow! I have made it to the end! I have found the course to be extremely interesting and enlightening. The big challenge has been fitting it into a busy life!
Reflecting on my Web2.0 journey I have discovered a whole new range of applications that I never knew existed. Having a variety of resources such as Flickr, podcasts, Scootle and Bubbl.us available to me means that I am able to engage the students in their learning.
It was an insight to me to find an educational use for YouTube, as I thought it was just for posting music videos or people doing peculiar things!
I love knowing that there are online communities of like-minded individuals out there to share resources and experiences.
I think that this course has shown me that we have to keep up to date to keep our students engaged and make our teaching relevant to these digital natives.We have to keep moving forward so that we don't get left behind.
I have seen Google docs, Bubbl.us and Glogster in use at our school and the students are so enthused about using them.
A blog that I commented on was http://fran67blog.blogspot.com
Thanks to all my colleagues doing Web2.0 for their support and great blogs.

Module 10

From an educational perspective I think that wikis and nings keep us in touch with individuals with similar experiences and challenges. By sharing thoughts, resources and ideas it can often help us to look at the way we may do things in a new light. Web 2.0 can assist us in improving learning outcomes by keeping us in touch with a great variety of educational resources and also by introducing us to new ways of teaching. Online communities help us to feel that we are not alone in our learning journey.

Module 9

I absolutely love Scootle and can see that this is something that I will use continually for educational resources. What a great idea to have all these fabulous resources in one place for use by all school staff. I think that particularly when working with children with specific learning difficulties it is wonderful to have access to new and interesting teaching resources.
I'm not so sure about Second Life either as an educational tool or for private use. I find it a little bit creepy. Call me old fashioned but whatever happened to actual social interaction? I can see the use for Facebook and Twitter but once again, not for educational purposes. However, having an insight into these sites makes me more Web2.0 literate!

Module 8

I think that a RSS feed would be useful to keep both teachers and students up to date with subjects being covered in class. For example, the Stage 3 class have been looking at weather so if a RSS feed was set up they would have access to a large range of weather related articles which they could then look at and decide which ones would be relevant. I would use Google reader to subscribe to useful websites that I can then browse through. Great site to organise your favourite websites!

Module 7

I loved that this type of organisational tool exists. How many times have you visited a website and then been unable to find it again? Particularly now that the educational system is so reliant on technology a site like delicious is invaluable for organising our resources. You could also save a website that looked interesting and then read it in depth later and assess whether it would be useful. Incidentally I'm feeling very lonely here in cyberspace, only one comment on my blog so far - is anybody out there?????

Module 6

I thoroughly enjoyed using Bubbl.us. This would be a great tool to use for mind mapping in the classroom or as a pre test activity e.g. "what do you know about multiplication".I had some difficulty importing the image - I originally saved it as a jpeg document and then had trouble finding it. So I had to save it as a png image to enable me to import it to my blog page. Glogster would be a great tool for primary school projects - a fun and innovative way for students to create their work instead of the old coloured cardboard! I can't stop thinking about all the ways these many web tools could be used to enhance the learning of our special needs students for whom many traditional pen and paper methods of learning are too challenging and cumbersome.

Module 5

I had no idea that YouTube could be an educational resource. I thought it was just a site with music videos and people doing crazy things. Using this site to access educational videos to support classroom learning would reinforce the effectiveness of lessons. It would also make the subject more relevant to the student, particularly students who find it difficult at times to remain focussed in the classroom. I also thought Teachers TV and School tube were good resources for school staff. I particularly liked the section on Teachers TV for teachers assistants. There were lots of tips from other TA's regarding working with small groups and behaviour management. A great way of getting new ideas and feeling connected.