course reflection and feedback

So much information! It is easy to be  overwhelmed and intimidated  by the vast array of tools and resources that are available to educators in C21. But clearly the age of technology is here  to  stay what we have see in this course is truly inspiring (and quite scary)
Almost all of the units offer ways to engage students. Not only to intellectually and visually stimulate our classes but also to develop their  creativity and critical thinking which is vital in History. I have already made use of glogster and one group has successfully used prezzi. Other groups have created their own websites. The opportunities to be more organised using tools like Delicious and Flickr are very attractive.
 Students are able to work at their own place  and style. Quieter and less confident students can really find their voice working in a digital format rather than in the traditional classroom. In working through Blooms taxonomy skills in a variety of creative ways from simple identification of items/pictures/short answers to using podcasts/interactive pages like glogster offer an enormous canvas on which to perform. Our students are so technologically savvy that this can only make learning more relevant and engaging. However despite the range of options it is important to remember that these ARE only tools.We should not sacrifice form over substance.
Personally I have been amazed at the wealth of options available. Making greater use of these tools will make me more flexible and able  to personalise learning styles to cater to the full range of students in my classes. While I still have a way to go I am sure that this course will encourage me to experiment , bring my subject alive and not fall back into focussing on one comfortable style of teaching
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MODULE 6

This unit focussed on flickr which offered great ways of uploading and sharing photos. Photos can be organised in all sorts of ways: creating collections,galleries,  chronological order, thematic etc. It offers a very efficient way of organising what is often a very chaotic resource. The provisions for privacy and eliminating inappropriate "trolls. The  copyright guidelines seem more than reasonable and fairly standard.  Although "artistic works" is a somewhat elastic term it seems quite workable when using historical photos, political cartoons, documentaries .
flickr is very useful for the visual learner working along the lines of "a picture tells a thousand stories". Using clipart and teachertube aslso offers additional options for students.
Creating photo galleries would be great for use in competitions or activities e.g. identifying who is in a photo, what's happening in the photo, adding captions/heading/speech bubbles  or for use as publicity and as records of excursions.

Current events, The Commons and Site tours of photo galleries provide very engaging ways of viewing "history iin the making"

MODULE 10

This unit showed us 3 different digital sites (Wikis, blogs,nings) that can be used for students to work collaboratively,adding to others' work and commenting/giving suggestions. They have the additional advantage of being able to link to videos, other files etc  It is particularly useful for developing extended responses and showing typical band 6 answers. The opportunities for collaboration and discussion are enormous and very exciting.    We looked at one  example of a wikispace which had been used successfully at Bethlehem (http://ulearnceo.wikispaces.com/Bethlehem+College) and we made tentative steps to creating our own. Nings seem to be precluded by the cost factor but would be useful as contributors can be readily identified
We were also shown a range of other WEB2.0 tools not covered in the course. Of these www:snappywords.com, www:visuwords.com and www:fakewall.com look terrifc and will be very effective in making history come alive and extending student performance

module 9

The educational portal Scootle appears to have a great deal of potential as an educational tool for engaging students. This will be especially useful as it has thousands of resources directly relate to the Australian curriculum. The learning paths that are created offer a wide range of interactive activities, video,podcasts and collections. I like the information as it appears to come from "expert" sources and reputable organisations such as Powerhouse Museum.

The second part oft this unit seemed to be the est useful to me as I have minimal interest in the whole social networking scene. I do understand its usefulness and immediacy but feel there are too many pitfalls associated with it. I am not on Facebook or twitter privately Twitter does have some useful aspects as a kind of bulletin board.

On the other hand, Second Life was fascinating and very compelling. To create an imaginary world e.g. a medieval village and ascribe different roles to students would be great. Not only in connecting students in a global way but also enabling students to have some "think" time and giving less confident students an opportunity to express themselves through an avatar.

MODULE 8

RSS seems to be very useful as a time saver. As it provides updates of various websites/blogs without having to scroll through the originals. Google reader is needed to provide the interface needed to access RSS. However there do seem to be rather a lot of sites that do not provide RSS access.
Being able to monitor events/current affairs has a great potential for teaching History esp. through the use of sites like Sydney MorningHerald, ABC. However, when looking at the SMH site, we saw that such searches need to be refined and specific otherwise yoy get a huge amount of unnecessary information.

module 7

Being able to refine the bookmarking process would be very useful. Instead of having to continually copy useful sites, these will be now more accessible and easier to share with students. It is very useful to be able to categorise topics more effectively according to topics. This is especially helpful for topics that have huge amounts of documents like WW1 and WW2. Otherwise it is easy to get lost in the detail.  Often the students find other sites and they will be able to share with me and other students. This will encourage more interaction and collaboration.
This is y delicious link:www.delicious.com/fiswil

Module 5

Today we looked at brainstorming This would be very useful and flexible as bits can be added easily Can see this as being used with students

We also looked at twiddla which was lots of fun because we could all be on at the same time. Could be useful as a homework that requires collaboration. I already use mind maps quite a lot with my classes so this would be very useful. For example looking at something like the reasons for a historical event/development (e.g. reasons for failure of Weimar Republic).  would be very applicable to this.
I have used glogster with a Year 10 History class. The girls enjoyed using this application but there were a number of "teething problems". Firstly the site crashed  for the entire weekend before the task was due so there was a number of very stressed students. The task was based around an investigation of the 1960s and the social and cultural impact on Australia.  Students were able to access avery wide range of material, including you tube videos, newspapers, photos, magazines, tv shows, ads  and secondary sources. One unforseen problem was that the girls' glogs were very detailed as they were able to include loads of information; this made it quite time consuming to mark. In future we will need to refine marking criteria to make more specific requirements. The biggest problem was the difficulty in viewing video and you tube links. I will use this again. My 1st sample is here but very roughhttp://fiswil.glogster.com/my-1st-glog-web-20/. 
My Year 7 History class used prezi as part of a presentation on "Contact".  This feature could be used in subject selections talks, showing the progams offered in a more dynamic way. It would also be helpful as a revision tool for HSC  students and possibly as a tool for more effective essay writing (although it may be a bit too complicated for that purpose) The website is http://www.prezi.com


Site is www.twiddla.com

module 4

Today we began looking at making podcasts. Up to now this has been a closed book to me although I have heard the term many times. We recorded our voices and played around with sound effects and jingles. Lots of fun.

While I now know how to record commentaries etc. I think I will find downloading podcasts from the radio and video sources will be of more use to my specific needs.  There is a huge number of broadcasts that are potentially of greay use to History.

module 2

My first impression on looking at examples of others' blogs was confusion at the vast array of them. Many seem to be just lists of points that I didn't find particularly useful. However I can see that blogging could be a useful tool for students to share ideas/questions/reflections with me and classmates. It is also a  helpful way for students to practise their writing and expression skills.
The section on privacy was reassuring as I do have some concerns with regrd to being on call 24-7 and privacy.  I am quite excited about being able to add images to make my work more creative and egaging. A lot of what I viewed was "too American" to be useful to me but I realise there is much more to be explored.

module 1

Hi My name is Wilma Fisher. I teach History across the curriculum from Year7 to Year 12. My great passion is for Modern History. I hope the Web 2.0 course will
enable me to access the enormous range of historical material available on the net and be able to create more exciting and relevant ways to assist my students.  As an older teacher I feel rather intimidated by the technology and would like to be more confident in its use.  Module 1 gave a clear introduction to what a blog is and took such clear steps that it made me think I would be able to benefit from it.