Has been interesting going through some these activities, although, I must admit most of it I was already fairly familiar with. However, it was interesting looking at some of my colleagues blogs and helping them with different issues as they worked through the course and I did pick up some new ideas and some new friends on twitter and more bookmarks for my delicious page. Thank you for putting the course together.
(My eLearning coordinator is aware that my blogs were largely posted on the same day - having completed these activities quickly as I was familiar with most of the info I only recently realised I never finished my blog updates - sorry)
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Module 10 - Learning Communities, Constructing Knowledge Together in Wikis
Wikis - I find Wikis can be quite useful for staff and students when ground rules have been firmly established. In terms of staff it's more about collegial sharing and EVERYONE sharing not just a few while everyone else just reads and reaps the benefits. With students its more about acceptable behaviour, using positive language, constructive criticism and like the staff ensuring everyone participates. Some of the Wiki sites out there are terrible and some of the better ones have gone private (need to pay money) but generally they are fairly user friendly for most people.
Nings - Great with staff but I generally find they don't work as well with students. Back when nings were newer (and more free) a colleague did a pilot study with some top students and it worked well. But when it was expanded into entire classes it became too facebook like - and facebook is the bane of pastoral teachers everywhere. The Gifted Education ning is a good example of one working well - a lot of time has obviously gone into it.
Nings - Great with staff but I generally find they don't work as well with students. Back when nings were newer (and more free) a colleague did a pilot study with some top students and it worked well. But when it was expanded into entire classes it became too facebook like - and facebook is the bane of pastoral teachers everywhere. The Gifted Education ning is a good example of one working well - a lot of time has obviously gone into it.
Module 9 - Networks on the web, professional and social
Scottle - Have been aware of scottle since someone from a PEEL group introduced it to me a few years back (on a side note what happened to PEEL? Died a very quiet death it seems). Anyway it is a useful resource with some good activities for students particularly the learning objects - there is an excellent photo-story type one on the great depression which worked really well with year 9. I have found it hard to navigate from time to time though (think it could be more streamline).
Social networking sites - I must admit I am becoming a very reluctant convert to twitter. I always thought twitter to be the most useless part of facebook given its own pathetic life. However I am now starting to see that the very small number of people who use it in a purely educational function are equipped with a great sharing resource. Especially when you begin to follow enough of these people you get exposed to a wealth of info that you may never have come across.
Social networking sites - I must admit I am becoming a very reluctant convert to twitter. I always thought twitter to be the most useless part of facebook given its own pathetic life. However I am now starting to see that the very small number of people who use it in a purely educational function are equipped with a great sharing resource. Especially when you begin to follow enough of these people you get exposed to a wealth of info that you may never have come across.
Module 8 - managing your flow of information
I have been subscribing to many feeds and regular podcasts for many years. The biggest issue I have is actually getting time to look, listen to or watch the many feeds that I receive. Some of the best feeds that I use regularly are from the ABC site http://www.abc.net.au/ especially those from the AM radio programs which often have very valuable lectures, interviews and in the case of 'Self improvement Wednesday' on the Drive program with Richard Glover lessons complete with tests!!!
Module 7 - building online communities
The best thing about delicious for teachers is accessibility and availability. It makes someones results from hard, long hours of Internet trawling right there for you. Once you get the contacts going it just saves you a lot of time and effort looking for the resource you need. Also the availability is just as important, where ever you are you know you can find the site you need by simply going to your delicious page.
As with all digital communities whether it be twitter or delicious the more you share with others the more you will reap the rewards. It's all well and good to use other's finds but you also have to give back and provide some of your own.
As with all digital communities whether it be twitter or delicious the more you share with others the more you will reap the rewards. It's all well and good to use other's finds but you also have to give back and provide some of your own.
Module 6 - exploring photos and videos
Getting students to be aware and concerned about their ethical use of digital material is a real challenge for our day. I know that at Aquinas we have tried to inform and persuade students to use sites like 'creative commons' and 'flcikr' but it's not always easy when google images is just so easy and bountiful.
With my e-learning project a few years ago I made it a mandatory part of a formal assessment that for their video presentation they had to use material from digitally ethical sources. However, this caused a number of issues mostly centred around availability of the right type of sources. The assessment was eventually amended with only aspects of the presentation needing to come from ethically correct sources (some being better than none).
With my e-learning project a few years ago I made it a mandatory part of a formal assessment that for their video presentation they had to use material from digitally ethical sources. However, this caused a number of issues mostly centred around availability of the right type of sources. The assessment was eventually amended with only aspects of the presentation needing to come from ethically correct sources (some being better than none).
Module 5 - creating and communicating online
Have been using bubbl for awhile now - it has some really good uses for introduction and revision mind maps. I find it also very useful for creating food chains and webs in Geography and the students really like using their laptops for these type of activities (especially year 7).
Glogster is a cool tool but is really draining on the bandwidth and is often slow to load and refresh, especially when a large class (or a number of classes) are all trying to use it. Can have some excellent uses though in English.
Prezi is definitely the coolest thing to come along for awhile. The students and I love using it and some of the graphical presentation ideas that others put up are a great resource. I often borrow layout and graphical ideas from public prezis - even when the topic has nothing to do with what I am doing, I find ideas from their layout and movement.
Glogster is a cool tool but is really draining on the bandwidth and is often slow to load and refresh, especially when a large class (or a number of classes) are all trying to use it. Can have some excellent uses though in English.
Prezi is definitely the coolest thing to come along for awhile. The students and I love using it and some of the graphical presentation ideas that others put up are a great resource. I often borrow layout and graphical ideas from public prezis - even when the topic has nothing to do with what I am doing, I find ideas from their layout and movement.
Friday, November 18, 2011
Module 4 - digital stroy telling
Massive fan of using videos, podcasts and vods in the classroom, already effectively doing this in all my classes.
Some great videos out there (no sense re-inventing the wheel) that are really good to use for History and English.
Some of the best are:
- Historyteachers (youtube) - these guys put together funny music video clips based on famous songs but use historical info as the lyrics. Really good for introduction lessons - big variety of topics.
- Advertisements - when we look at advertising in English youtube is invaluable for the amount of great examples that are readily available.
- Podcasts - http://www.abc.net.au/ the ABC site is a great resource for podcasts - shows like the conversation hour on 702 ABC Sydney make for great listening tasks.
Some great videos out there (no sense re-inventing the wheel) that are really good to use for History and English.
Some of the best are:
- Historyteachers (youtube) - these guys put together funny music video clips based on famous songs but use historical info as the lyrics. Really good for introduction lessons - big variety of topics.
- Advertisements - when we look at advertising in English youtube is invaluable for the amount of great examples that are readily available.
- Podcasts - http://www.abc.net.au/ the ABC site is a great resource for podcasts - shows like the conversation hour on 702 ABC Sydney make for great listening tasks.
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