Final Reflection- At last

It has been a long, frustrating (at times)and exciting (at others) journey into the world of Web 20. The course has been very engaging and VERY challenging at times, but it has shown me how to cater for and allow my students to grow in this digitial world that they are fully immersed in. After all the most important point of elearning and ALL learning is that students are engaged and challenged.

We as teachers have a duty to develop in our students the skills of being responsible and reflective learners in a global learning world using Web 2 tools. It is also important that we, the teachers are competent users of these tools.

Bloom's taxonomy has been around for ever and is very relevant to the way students learn. It acknowledges the higher order thinking skills and the Bloom's Digital Taxonomy Map certainly encompasses the Web 2 tools. I will certainly keep this in mind when planning units of work in the future to further enhance the learning outcomes for my students using the Web 2 tools that I have encountered during this course. It is important to remember to adapt and set tasks that challenge each student at their own level,-not too easy and not too hard. This is necessary so that all students are engaged and challenged and attaining their optimum learning outcomes in all areas. Referring to the Bloom's Digital Taxonomy in our planning will allow us as teachers to guide our students to this end.
My travels through the Web 2 course have been very rewarding for the majority of the time and then again equally frustrating when the technology for what ever reason, (including operator failings) doesn't deliver. It also doesn't help when ICT policy doesn't allow all the applications needed for different tools eg iTunes into the primary schools.. It has exposed me to a number of wonderful sites and tools that I will be able to comfortably use in the future with my class to ehance both my teaching and more importantly the learning outcomes for all my students. I have already begun a mini blog for my Kinders through Myclasses page in relation to the our work with Bee Bots which has had some success. I can also see Glogster as being a tool that they would embrace enthusiastically. As teachers in Catholic schools it is important to keep our values in mind at all times and to constantly remind the children of their responsibilities in this digital world that they are well and truly apart of.
I am very lucky to have been able to do this course through school and would not have completed it without the support of our Thursday Morning Breakfast Club and Amanda . Thank you all.
Thank you also to the team at CEO who have made this course possible as it has been a very worthwhile and rewarding experience.
I have l;isted a comment on the following blogs towers-janeensweb2.blogspot.com, daycarole0.blogspot.com and web2sue.blogspot.com

Module 10- To WIKI or NING?

WIKI -What a fantastic tool! It is a website that allows the users in a group to create and edit

any number of web linked pages in one place. It has two buttons - the EDIT and SAVE. The EDIT button transform the wiki page into a document ready for editing, by changing or adding words and /or by changing the way it looks etc. When a member of the group has finished their changes the SAVE button is clicked and it becomes a web page again. It enables everyone to collaborate and coordinate more easily. A third button - LINK when clicked will create a new page and allows the group to edit, write and save as on previous page/s. This certainly saves all those emails going back and forth!

NING is an online platform for users to create their own social websites and social networks. I found the Ning in Education site extremely interesting.
Both forms of technology offer a place for collaborative learning that can be implemented successfully and benefit both teachers and students.
The Web 20 course course has allowed me to become more aware of how it can assist in improving the learning outcomes for all students especially as we live in a digital age. It allows students to exercise their learning strengths and preferences and to complete tasks in many different ways. Web 20 allows for social collaboration which will encourage communication and cooperation and therefore improve learning outcomes.

Module 9 Scootle

I found the Scootle website very interesting and will explore it further to find resources to use in my classroom. Scootle stands for Schools Online Teaching and Learning Environment. It provides access to a wide range of digital curriculum resources. It allows you to to set up collaborative workspaces that are secure and easy to access using digital interactive learning objects. It would be great to use this tool schoolwide, but all teachers would have to be inserviced to use it. Scootle also allows you set up learning paths for students and is a great way to organise tasks /workspaces for individualised programs.


Second life allows users to become immersed in a 3D virtual world that can provide and deliver a unique educational setting. It allows you co create, collaborate and exchange with other people near and far in self paced tutorials. Great for older students, but not my kinders.





Social networking is the way to go for the youinger generation. It is a very big part of their social lifes, the older generation no. I can see the benefits of social networking for shy people as it enables creativity, boosts confidence and enables them to represent themselves on line. My concern is with those people who represent themselves falsely and pray on others. Cyber bullying continues to be a major concern. As teachers we need to teach our students to be safe online users with the right skills and tools. With the rise of Web 2 the acceptable use policy/ies needs to be revised. Many of our students are already using Facebook and Twitter at home so it is important that we as teachers are aware of the policies etc and instruct our students accordingly.

Module 8 RSS and Google Reader

RSS is a format for for delivering regularly changing web content. It saves you from searching your sites individually and updates them all in one place. Great, and saves you TIME. You can read them all in one place. It is easy to subscribe to and all the new things come to you in the one spot.
Subscribe to feeds through your favourite websites. Once you have subscriptions in place you can automatically see what's new and you are able to share and comment with friends. Items are marked as read as you pass them.
A great thing for us busy people.

Module 7 Delicious but not my cooking mag

Another 'Delicious' topic to explore. I found this an exciting little site to explore. It enables you to keep links to your favourite articles, blogs, restaurants, music etc on any computer, anywhere.
It is a free service, but it does mean you have yet another sign on and password to keep track of.
Allows your network to follow each other and keep in touch. It can be made public or private and having good tags is benefical.
Great for social networking and for searching Delicious to find bargains.

Module 6 To Bubbl.us or Glogster
I found Bubbl.us an interesting and easy tool to use. It is a free tool and a great way to get what's inside your head down in a useable format . You are able to create mindmaps on line and therefore able to share and work with friends on line. You can also embed your mind map in your blog or website, email it, print it or save as an image. I love how it blows up when you delete the bubble!
I can certainly see its advantages when for example grade planning . I have found it very frustrating in that it can't be used at school, no access to flash!!! So there goes , at this point in time any chance to use it for grade planning next week.
I found using Glogster a great tool to use. I could see its use in the classroom, but I would be very worried about it being used by some as a form of cyber bullying. It creates an online poster or web page. You are able to combine text, pictures, graphics, video and audio to creat an interactive on line poster that can be embedded into a myclasses page, wiki or blog as I have done. A great way to while away the hours. After many unsucssessful attempts, I found it difficult to download my glog. One of the many frustrations of completing this course in a primary school.

iTunes,You Tube and others Module 5

Once again we are off on another adventure into the world of the Web. I now know how my brother gets his 'Blues Music' from the States every Sunday night. That's right he Podcasts! I also know that it means Portable, On Demand, and that Cast means file sent over the net in the way broadcast comes as radio and tv airwaves.
Any one can do it. Even me!!! The great thing is that you are then able to transfer it to MP3 players or iPods to enjoy anywhere.
Vodcast on the other hand are a podcast that contain video content. These can also be referred to as Vidcast.
iTunes was another little discovery this week. I thought you just downloaded from this site, but it also syncs all your media with iPod, iPhone and Apple tv. All that you need to be entertained.
I have frequently used You Tube and has been a great resouce in the past. I am now going to delve further into teacher tube and see what it has to offer.
I am very happy to say that my Kinder class at this point in time are telling a digital story about the Bee Bots. Bee Bots are robotic bees and we have been using them in Maths to explore position, 2D shapes and number stories. In our technology time the children are preparing power points to tell others about the Bee Bots and what they can do.
Well that was a fun module! I hope the next one is just as exciting!

A flickr here a flickr there. Module 4

Yes another week has gone and I'm getting more attached to the internet and all it has to offer. This week sees me playing with Flickr. Because what might be ok for me but not others it is important to filter my content. At a safety level it can be safe- suitable for a global audience, moderate- if unsure whether the content is suitable for global and restricted, which speaks for itself. Content type , whether it be photos, videos etc. It is up to me to choose where my things fit. It allows others to apply filters to their searches and to see what they want to see.
Safe search allows me to control what turns up in my searches on Flickr and is always on.
Tags are keywords or labels that you add to a photo to make it easier to find later. What a great idea! I can also share photos witha group as long as I am a member of the group pool through the "Add to a group" link. Only people in the group can see photos.
Craetive Commons is an organisation that provides free licences for creators to use when making their available to the public. It helps the creator to give permission for others to use their work in advance under certain conditions of course. The creator is able to select how they want others to use their work. as a result us teachers and our students can legally freely copy, share or sometimes modifyand remix a CC without having to seek the permision of the author. It's a whole new world to explore !

igoogle all the way Module 3

What an easy way to share work that needs to be done collaboratively! Once again I love the person behind the plain english videos we have been watching. He speaks at my level and if I am lucky I can follow it too.
I am very particular about sending things over the net, so I am very happy to know that google docs sends emails with secure links directly to the document.
It is also very impressive that a few people can be working on the one document and that all additions/revisions are there for each to see. All saved on the web.
I can see the advantages for older students to work with google docs as it encourages learning to happen at all hours of the day. It enables people to work together without being in the same room. saves on travel time alone.
The fact that this enables a wider audience to see the work makes the standard higher and the lessons more interactive. I would like to try this with other teachers when we are working for eg in SRI groups.
See ya, Chris

Module 2 and away we go.

In this module I was introduced to the wonderful world of 'blogging''. I learnt that a blog website can be maintained by one or several people with regular entries of commentary. (what I'm doing now!) In other words an online diary.

I am finding the accompanying videos to the modules very goood. They are in plain english, and yes I can inderstand what is being spoken about. I need to spend more time exploring the many opportunities that this course is opening up to me. 'Blogging has given the ordinary person the power of the media.' Scarey heh!

My posts are uploaded in reverse chronological order and I can invite people to comment.
I have found the need to set aside aspecific regular time to write up my blog, and I am hoping that the more I do the easier it will be.

Bye Chris

Reflection on Module 1

I'm Chris, one of the kindergarten teachers at St Kevins Eastwood. As well as being invovled in the Web 2 course I am also invovled in an ilearning project using Bee Bots with my class. The children are very excited.

Wow! where do I begin. Info overload. There is so much to discover and learn about the web. I am now more aware of the fact that we are palcing more things on the Web for others to see and use. The "Y" generation are certainly leading the way. But us oldies like myselfvalue our privacy and don't feel the need to tell all who will read what they are up to.
The videos in Module 1 were very user friendly and explained quite well the mystery surrounding Web2.

• Web 2 - interactive/collaborative
• Social networking, but what is wrong with actually meeting up with people and speaking to them face to face?
• Duiscussion forum
• Provides many educational resources
• Concerns over privacy and reliability of sources. Definition - Web 2" A collective term for a set of powerful web based tools that provide many educational opportunities