Course Reflection

eLearning with the iLearn model (2009 CEO Position Paper)

Contrary to popular belief, computers are not the focus in eLearning. While eLearning embraces the use of computers and technology, the “e” in eLearning relates to learning that is engaging, evolving, enhancing and examining emerging practices, rather than simply electronic.

The focus is to develop engaging, challenging learning environments, in which students want to learn. Effectively incorporating and integrating Web 2.0 tools into teaching and learning will support engaging learning environments for students, in which students learn best. The use of such tools encourages innovative, creative, student-centred learning, in which students can learn anything, anytime, anywhere. This empowers and inspires students and gives them ownership and full control over their learning.

It is important to be aware of the iLE@RN skills that need to be addressed before students begin using Web 2 tools:

▪ communication and collaboration skills

▪ questioning skills

▪ reflective skills

▪ creative thinking skills

▪ critical thinking skills

▪ multimodal literacy skills

As educators, it is our role to teach children how to become reflective and responsible learners. This requires teaching and modelling a range of skills to children. We cannot simply send our students off into the wide world of information technology and assume that they will know how to interact with it successfully and appropriately. Students need to learn and develop the necessary skills to become reflective and responsible citizens in their local and global online learning communities.

As educators, it is also imperative to “remember, it is not about the technology. It is about good learning and teaching first. The technology is merely a tool to enable us to reach our goals”.

Bloom's Revised Taxonomy

The following version of Bloom's Taxonomy is extremely relevant to planning teaching and learning experiences in the classroom. It outlines the thinking process, by relating it to a series of verbs, which progress from lower order to higher order thinking skills. As teachers, we must encourage and provide opportunities for students to move through this taxonomy and become confident, engaged learners who have developed high order thinking skills.


Bloom's Digital Taxonomy

The elements included in the above taxonomy cover many activities and objectives, but they do not address the new objectives presented by the emergence and integration of Information and Communication Technologies into the classroom and the lives of our students. Of course, to be successful 21st century learners, students need to become confident and competent in the use of ICT. Therefore, moving through this digital taxonomy of thinking and learning is essential for our students.

The following diagram includes the existing elements from the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy (coloured in black) as well as the new digital verbs that have been included in the Bloom's Digital Taxonomy (coloured in blue).

These new terms are explained in more detail on the following website:

http://www.techlearning.com/printablearticle/8670

Final Thoughts...

I thoroughly enjoyed undertaking the Web 2.0 course this year. At our school, a group of teachers met regularly to discuss and work through the modules together. The support of other staff members, and our course facilitator, Amanda, created a wonderfully stimulating and supportive learning environment- the kind of environment that is so important for us to create for our students. I would definitely recommend this style of learning model to others who are interested in completing the course.

I believe Web 2.0 has been a highly informative and practical course that has made a range of engaging and interactive technology tools easily accessible, to both teachers and learners. It was affirming to realise that I was already using a range of Web 2.0 tools such as Flickr, podcasts and vidcasts, both personally and professionally, before beginning this course. After exploring the various modules in the course, I have begun to incorporate other tools into my teaching and learning experiences, such as bubble.us, glogster and delicious. The results so far have been so positive. I know I will continue to use these tools with students, as well as explore other tools with students and colleagues in the future, such as blogs, wikis and google docs.

Undertaking this course has introduced me to a fantastic and varied array of technologies, that when used effectively, can support students in becoming confident, independent and successful 21st cetury learners. It has begun a professional dialogue among staff about how to most effectively incorporate these technologies into teaching and learning experiences in the classroom. This is a dialogue that I'm sure will continue over time.

Throughout the course I have also enjoyed following and commenting on a range of other blogs, both at my school, e.g. http://stkamanda.blogspot.com/ and other schools, e.g. http://easyasabc-anna.blogspot.com/

Module 10

Learning Communities: Constructing Knowledge Together

Wikis

Wikis are a great and simple way to coordinate group communication (as opposed to sending numerous emails back and forth- which I find really frustrating and time consuming!) Wikis enable all users to easily edit and save information on a wiki website. Links to other relevant websites can also be added to the wiki. Wikis can be set up at the following websites:

www.pbwiki.com

www.wetpaint.com

www.wikispaces.com

The opportunities for Wikis in the classroom are endless! Students could work collaboratively in groups to create joint construction text types, research projects, presentations etc. The beauty of wikis is that students access them anywhere, anytime! Students can access, contribute to and edit Wikis easily and collaboratively, at school or at home. Students will no longer have to huddle around one computer screen to complete their work, save multiple copies of their document on memory sticks, email updated work back and fourth or be “locked out” of a document because another user is currently working on it- this can be so frustrating, especially when you are working to a deadline!

Nings

www.classroom20.com

http://education.ning.com/

Both of the above websites look like interesting and practical educational social network sites which will support teachers who have completed the Web 2.0 course in utilising these tools within the classroom. It is definitely important to continue the professional dialogue that has been initiated while undertaking the Web 2.0 course. Continuing to ‘keep your finger on the pulse’ by staying in touch with other educators will be highly beneficial, both personally and professionally.

Module 9

It's all About the Networks...
!

!

Scootle is an amazing and very comprehensive directory of digital resources which are ideal for classrrom use. It requires quite a bit of time to work your way through the site initially, but in the long run I think Scootle would be a wonderful time saver and support for teachers! A variety of digital resources can be found on numerous key learning areas and topics, which are suitable for all ages. You can easily search for the topic and type of digital resource you would like, as well as the age group the resource is for. This is definitley a website I'd like to come back to, to explore further.

I had a quick look at the learning path options on Scootle, which are individualised online learning programs for students. These looked great, but again would initially be quite time consuming to set up. However, many learning paths have already been created and shared on the website, so you may actually be lucky enough to find the exact one you are looking for!

I found a couple of useful online activties that could be used with Stage 3 in Maths and Reading. They are quite fun and interactive and would b good educational activities for students to work on in group computer rotations in class. I have included the links below:

Maths-Time (Stage 3)

http://www.scootle.edu.au/ec/viewing/L7842/index.html

English- Comprehension (Stage 3)

http://www.scootle.edu.au/ec/viewing/L6194/index.html

A social network service is an online service, platform or site that focuses on building and reflecting on social networks or relations among people who share interetsts or activities. Popular social network services inlcude Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. These services offer an easy and efficient way to communicate with others about anything and everything! It is important to note that while blogs, wikis and nings are suitable social netwrking sites for students, sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace are not. However, the majority of our students use one or all of these sites socially outside of school.

While I think these sites offer many advantages, I have personally decided not to use them myself- primarily for privacy reasons. However, my husband recently set up a Twitter account for his business and I promised I would follow it, as he only has 3 followers to date! So, here goes...

Yay! I just set up a Twitter account! This was relatively simple, however, I'm still learning how to navigate the site. I did manage to follow my husband's tweets, as well as my friend's tweets, and post a couple of my own. I definitley need some practise though!

!

Module 8

RSS and Google Reader

RSS (Rich Site Summary) was a totally new concept for me...or so I thought. I have actually been using it for weeks while completeing this course without actually realising I was using it! I have been following many blogs and regularly reading new posts in Google Reader, which I have accessed via my Blogger dashboard. I found it so much quicker and easier than actually going into each person's blog separately to see if they had published a new post. I now understand how this all works...

RSS is a new, fast and efficient way to keep up with what's happening on the web. Instead of constantly checking to see what's new on your favourite websites and blogs, RSS enables you to have the information from these sites sent to your own home site, e.g. Google Reader, every time the information on these sites is updated.

It only takes two easy steps to get started...

1. Create a "reader" account, such as Google Reader. (This was done earlier in the course when we set up an iGoogle account).

2. Set up a connection between your reader account and your favourite websites. You can do this by choosing to follow a blog or subscribe to a website feed via the RSS icon (usually an orange and white square, like the one pictured below).

I had a quick look at the Directory of RSS feeds listed in the Module 8 activities and added one of these feeds to my Google Reader account, which was super easy. The directory includes lots of great resources that I'd like to peruse in more in detail.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/_/rss-directory.htm

Module 7

Mmm...Delicious

Delicious (www.delicious.com/) is a powerful and dynamic social bookmarking tool, which provides many opportunities for users, both personally and professionally. Delicious allows you to:

• access your online bookmarks from any browser, anywhere

• discover great handpicked websites (that others have discovered) with less spam than other search sites

• share the bookmarks you love with others, or hide bookmarks that are private

I think one of the biggest advantages of Delicious, for me at least, is that it allows you to store all useful websites that you have heard about, found or used, in one central location which you can access anywhere, anytime. I have been a regular user and lover of ‘favourites’ and ‘bookmarks’ on my personal and work computers. While this has been great, when you move from computer to computer, get a new computer, (or gremlins get into your computer!), this wonderful collection of useful websites that you have been building, organising and using for so long is lost! I have been very disappointed when this has happened to me, on more than one occasion! If only I knew about delicious...

Well, actually, I had heard of delicious, but didn't really know much about it. A work acquaintance recommended this online tool to me years ago. I thought it sounded great, but unfortunately, I never got around to looking into it, and then completely forgot about it. Until of course, I was reminded about it in this Web 2.0 Course!

I enjoyed watching "Social Bookmarking in Plain English" - Parts One & Two, and felt they provided an excellent introduction to Delicious. After viewing these videos, I successfully, and relatively easily, set up a Delicious account, added quite a few bookmarks to my account, organised them according to a range of "tags" (or keywords), added a few people to my "network" (a collection of people whose bookmarks I would like to view and follow) and browsed their bookmarks. What an absolutely fantastic way to find great, practical websites and resources to use in the classroom- without having to spend hours looking for them yourself! Delicious has also been an excellent way for me to store some of my frequently used websites, as well as all the tools covered to date in Web 2.0. I will therefore have no excuse for forgetting about any of these tools and not using them!

Following other people’s delicious bookmarking (through the online network that you build), and allowing others to follow your bookmarking (by making your bookmarks public), are what makes this bookmarking tool “social". I found that it can be a little tricky to find people and add them to your network. You can search for the person, however people may use different screen names to their actual names. Therefore, if you want to add a particular person to your network, it is probably best to ask them what their delicious bookmarking name is. As well as searching for network users, you can also carry out general searches for bookmarks on a particular issue/topic.

How could this tool be used in the Classroom?

You could create Delicious accounts for students to use at school, so that you can also sign in and contribute to the accounts, e.g. add bookmarks that you would like students to refer to when working in the classroom, or instruct students to add bookmarks to their account. If the teacher sets the user name and password for these student accounts, it should make it much easier for the teacher to monitor the students' use of these accounts, e.g. make sure students are using the account for school purposes and using it appropriately. The fact that students know you can access their account, is also likely to make them more responsible and accountable when using this online tool. The issue of monitoring students' use of Web2.0 tools covered to date has been an area of concern for me. Perhaps this is one way around this issue.

Module 6

Creative Communication
The technology tools bubble.us and glogster are fantastic examples of a "non-traditional, fun way for kids to learn". They are free, user friendly, interactive, collaborative and are a great way for students to develop their skills and express themselves.

Bubbl.us is on online brainstorming and mind mapping application which enables you to organise thoughts/ideas/information logically and clearly into a main idea bubble and various related ideas bubbles (termed a "child" or "sibling", depending on their placement in the mind map).

Glogster allows you to create a glog (not to be confused with a blog!) which is an online poster in which you can easily incorporate graphics, photos, videos, music and text. It is a multi-modal tool that is very open ended and creative. A great way to differentiate learning tasks and products for students.

The technology tools introduced in this module were both completely new to me. I enjoyed exploring these tools and having a bit of a play with them, but even after spending quite some time doing so, I feel that I have just scraped the surface! I would love to use these tools with my students, but need to become a little more familiar with them myself first. However, I have to say that our students, probably most students, are so technology savvy that they would soon be teaching me how to use these applications!

Often when we introduce new technology to our students in Stage 3, we simply show them the basics, then give them time to "explore" the technology. They are then invited to share their learnings with each other and present their new found skills to the class. What they can master in a short time is amazing! Once students become more comfortable and familiar with the new technology, they can confidently use it in other areas of their learning. I think this would be a great way to introduce bubble.us and glogster to the children, especially as they are new tools for them. Showing examples of possible uses of these tools would also be beneficial.

We have actually programmed some learning experiences for next term to introduce and explore these tools during our whole class weekly Technology Centre lessons. We would then like the students to use these tools to carry out and present work in other key learning areas. For example, concept maps about bible passages in Religion (bubbl.us), presentation of an autobiography study in Reading (glogster) and a poster outlining their political party's policies in HSIE (glogster). I'm sure students would also love to present a range of other things on these tools.

These tools are a great way for students to organise their work and understandings on an ongoing basis. It is easy for students to access their work (at home or at school), add to or edit their work and invite others to view or contribute to their work. These tools are also a great way for students to present their learnings at the culmination of a topic or unit, and could therefore form part of their assessment.

A few areas of concern...

• At times, I found it quite tricky to edit in bubbl.us and became pretty frustrated! I'm not sure how students would go with this- they would probably figure it out! I may just need a little more practice. Watching the instructional video again would probably also help, and would be a wonderful way to introduce this tool to the students.


• Glogster also has so many options and resources, which is fantastic, but is something that the students may get bogged down with. They love making things look "pretty" and in doing so, sometimes don't actually get to the task at hand. I think allowing them time to purely explore the tool first, will make it easier to use the tool for a different purpose at a later date.


• Lastly, I'm not sure if we can simply just get students to set up a bubble.us and glogster account. While it is super easy to do so, I'm not sure of the ethical and privacy issues surrounding this. Are we required to supervise and monitor items created using these accounts? And if so, how could we successfully do this? It would be quite difficult, as students can access them at home also. It would also be quite time consuming, as there would be so many accounts to monitor! I'm also concerened about whether it may become a vehicle for cyber bullying. Perhaps we need to address these things with students and have them, and possibly also parents, sign an agreement about responsible use of this technology. These are things that would need to be discussed at a school level before proceeding.

Module 5

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Digital Storytelling

While I enjoyed this module, it seemed to take quite a while to get through it all. It explored a range of practical technology tools including:

Podcasts

The definition which was provided clearly explained what Podcasts are and how the term "Podcast"came about. Podcasts are Portable (you can listen to them on your computer or transer them to a portable audio/video device, e.g. iPOD, iPhone, MP3 player) and On-Demand (because you can listen to/watch them when you want and where you want). The file is sent to you over the Internet, in the way a broadCAST comes to you over the radio or TV airwaves. The 'Podcasting in Plain English' video raised an interesting point about podcasts:

We no longer have to depend on traditional medium to communicate.

Everyone can now have a voice that shows their true colours.

'Podcasts in the Classroom' emphasised that podcasting is handsfree, portable, informative and engaging. It is participatory, interactive and great for group dynamics. It also allows students to become "minor celebrities" and to take more responsibility for their online work. This link thoroughly explained how to access, subscribe to and create podcasts. It also discussed the educational value of podcasts and gave some great examples of how to use them in the classroom environment, e.g. students created audio tour style podcasts about artworks in a gallery.

Vodcasts or Vidcasts
These are simply podcasts that contain video content. The terms "vodcast" and "vidcast" are derived from the combination of the words "video" and "podcast". I am a very visual learner, so personally, I generally prefer these to podcasts. I actually found it quite difficult to listen to the above podcast without any corresponding visuals. At other times, however, such as when driving or cleaning the house, a podcast is a fantastic option!

iTunes

iTunes is a digital media application used for playing and organising digital music and video files. I am quite familiar with this application and use it quite regularly outside of work. (I have downloaded a very substantial music library! I have also used iTunes from time to time to download electronic books, TV shows and movies). However, it is not really an application I have used at work as we currently don't have a school account or system in place for downloading and using files from this application. It is something we have been discussing and will hopefully find a solution for in the near future.

Video Sites

I have used the You Tube video site quite a lot within the classroom. I have found it to be an excellent, informative and highly engaging technology tool among students. It is something that I would like to use and integrate more in my lessons though. For example in Religion, I have been used the Animated Children's Bible videos. It helps to bring the stories to life, put them into context and make them easier for students to understand. I recently used the following video in a Year 5 lesson about God's new covenant with the Israelites. The video also gave great background about Moses and the enslavement and freedom of the Israelites in Egypt- all in less than 7minutes!

A downside to the You Tube website is that it often takes quite a significant amount of time to find the video that is "just right" for your particular teaching need. There is often also quite a substantial amount of inappropriate material for students that pops up during searches. For these reasons, I always conduct searches and select the desired video when planning for my lessons, i.e. when students are not present! Other sites listed in this module such as Teachers TV, School Tube and Teachers Tube may help to eliminate some of these issues.

Phew! A mammoth blog! I hope I haven't bored you to tears! I almost forgot to mention our breakfast today-a scrumptious array of croissants, muffins, fresh fruit, yoghurt (delicious, but 100% fat free of course!), muesli and fruit toast. Thanks for looking after us, nana!

Module 4

Let's Get the Flickr Party Started!
I am familiar with the Flickr website and have enjoyed using it both personally and at work with my students in the past. However, I have only used Flickr to search for photos which have been uploaded and publically shared on the website. This module introduced me to the other uses of Flickr, including:

• uploading your own photos onto the website,


• sharing your photos with others (either with the general public (everyone) or privately with selected people or groups (e.g. family and friends)


• creating a range of items using your photos, e.g. cards, calendars, photo books, canvases
  

I took the Flickr Tour to discover more about how to do the above, and then had a go at uploading and sharing my photos. I also had a look at the other fun and creative things you can do with your photos.

Within the classroom, students could be invited to view a range of school related photos, e.g. of a school assembly, excursion, classroom activity, work sample/artwork. Students could also upload and share their own photos, provided that the content is appropriate and that they have permission of people in the photo (if any) to upload the particular photo(s). To begin with at least, it may be best for students to only share their photos privately with other students or teachers. If students do not have a Flickr account set up, there is the possibility of using a guest pass to access and view uploaded photos.

An Important Note About Copyright

The Flickr website may contain photos and images that are copyright (C). Flickr states that it respects the intellectual property of others and asks users of the website to do the same. In order to use copyright items, you need to obtain permission first.

What are Creative Commons?

Creative Commons is a non-profit organisation that aims to make it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, in line with copyright legislation. Creative Commons (CC) are items, e.g. photos, songs, where permission for use has already been granted. However, some CCs have certain restrictions, e.g. if used you must include the author's name. Please check restrictions attached to the CC licence before using it.

The following website allows you to search for Creative Commons:

http://www.searchcreativecommons.org/

Some other websites containing Creative Commons are:

www.geograph.org.uk/ (images)

http://openphoto.net/ (images)

http://www.freeplaymusic.com/ (music/sounds)

http://www.ccmixter.org/ (music/sounds)

http://www.opsound.com/ (music/sounds)

http://www.magnatune.com/ (music/sounds)

By the way, for breakfast today, I decided to whip up some fruitspelt sourdough, along with fresh strawberries, and a dried fruit and nut mix.

Module 3

This module was a fantastic introduction to Google docs! I learnt so much...

So, to begin with, what is Google Docs?
* Google docs provides a new "home" for documents. Instead of attaching documents to emails (often to numerous emails) , it allows us to instead attach email addresses to a single document.

* Google documents converts offline documents (spreadsheets or presentations) into online versions which are much easier to access, view, edit, manage etc, especially when a few people are involved in the process.

* It enables you to avoid sending numerous emails (with attachments) back and forth. Also, with Google docs, since there's only one document, there's never confusion about updates or versions.

How could Google docs be used in the classroom?
* At schools, Google docs allows all students to particpate in one assignment at the same time. This is great for online peer editing and reviews. It also allows students to become publishers on a worldwide level, which generally also raises the level of their work.

* For example, in my classroom we have been working on a group script writing project. It was difficult for all group members to contribute to and edit their script, both at school and at home. Many students also had trouble keeping track of the most current version of their work and where it was saved. Google docs would have made this project much more collaborative as well as a lot easier to manage.

* This concept could be extended to so many student learning experiences, such as joint construction and editing of various texts, preparation of assembly items, online discussions and debates etc. There are so many opportunities!

How could it be used by staff?
* I think there are endless uses for Google docs among staff members. For example, we could collaboratively write teaching programs with our colleagues online. We could even discuss a range of other issues and topics online and cut down significantly on our face-to-face meeting time!

Now, let's put it into practice!

* After viewing some tutorials on the Atomic Learning website I took the plunge and created and shared my first document on Google docs. I decided to start an online book and movie review of 'Eat, Pray, Love' with a few of my colleagues. I have included a link to the movie trailer below. It looks great!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZzmqHJ0gPU

I was also invited to collaborate on a friend's document about breakfast preferences for our Breakfast Club. In case you haven't noticed, we really enjoy our food here! We feasted on crumpets and cheese and bacon rolls this morning...yum! It's my turn to whip up some magic in the kitchen next week. Hmmmm... I wonder what it will be...Perhaps I should carry out a survey...I could share it on Google docs!

Module 2

Let's Get Blogging...
Today I learnt that the term "blog" originated from the term "web log". I thought the you tube video, 'Blogs in Plain English', clearly and simply explained what a blog is and how this form of technology has dramatically changed the way we communicate with others about a wide range of topics that we consider to be "news", either on a professional or personal basis. This you tube video would also be an excellent resource to use in the classroom with students.

I began creating my own blog...which I have continued to play around with. On the whole, this task was much easier than I first anticipated, however, there are still a couple of things I'm yet to work out... I'm sure I'll figure them out soon with a little help from my friends.

For brekkie today we enjoyed homemade muffins, fruit and yoghurt...mmm.

Module 1

The Journey Begins!

Hi there. My name is Malinda. I teach Stage 3 and have recently begun the Web 2.0 course with a group of friends from work. We meet once a week to discuss and work through our course modules, while enjoying a delicious breakfast together ...hence the title of my blog! I am really excited about taking part in this course, and I think this is going to be a really fun, supportive and motivating way to complete it!

Module 1 was a great introduction to the Web 2.0 course. Our course facilitator, Amanda, also gave us a great overview of the course, where to locate course information and modules and how to get started. She even gave us our own little books and templates to organise and record all the user names and passwords we will create throughout the course. I added my first entry today when I created my gmail account. I then had lots of fun formatting and adding various gadgets to my igoogle page. My students were later introduced to my pet turtles and hamster and very much enjoyed feeding them!

Speaking of food...what's on the menu for breakfast this week?