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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Monday, 18 July 2011
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"
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
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
Sunday, 17 July 2011
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.
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.
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.
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