Module 4

In Module 4 we are learning about Flickr. Learning and doing are two different things!!. Being a private person I have never had a great urge to go on Facebook or anything similar and the only photos I take are usually left in the camera only to be looked at on rare occasions by myself or family members. Having said that, once I got my head around Flickr I could see what I had been missing.

The Flickr Feature Tour explained a brief overview of the features of Flickr and to be able to add a label, description, a comment and a tag to your photos if you wanted was interesting. If you wished to get really creative you could make a photo album or a coffee table book using your own photos and give them as gifts.

Creative Commons enables authors, musicians, artists and all creative people, to make available to the public the right to use their work without payment, but, at the same time retaining control over their copyright material.

The use of Flickr in schools would be useful for subject such as Geography, Art and Woodwork. Students could show their work, as well as adding a label and a description of the work. This way they are sharing and giving others the chance to comment.

As we go through Web 2.0 sharing, communicating and commenting is what it's all about.

Module 3

How many ways are there to communicate? By working through Web 2.0 I can see that the list just keeps growing and growing!!!.

Google Docs is just one way and is a fun, innovative way to share documents. Google Docs allows multiple people in different locations to work simultaneously on the same documents from any computer with Internet access.

How big an advantage is using Google Docs for pairs of students, or groups doing assessment tasks set at school. Students who in the past had to organise a meeting place and time out of school hours can now work on their tasks at home or where ever and when ever they choose.

While writing this I realised how great it would be to set up a Google Docs with some of our Special Needs students. Normally in class they might only take down a small part of the work and at the end of the day when it comes time to answer questions from the work, they realise that a large amount of information is missing, so frustration sets in and they give up. By using Google Docs the boys can work at home, comment on each others ideas, suggest some changes and know that they have put in a bigger effort than normal.

It would allow students to maybe take more control over their learning in class and as a result they could put more effort into their presentations because they will know that it will be viewed by their classmates, parents and teachers.

Because Docs is a collaborative tool how will teachers know, when it comes time to mark the completed work, who did what on the assessment task?

Module 2

The task this module was to create a blog. This, I found not to difficult because to instructions were easy to follow and the video links were instructive and clear. For students the use of blogs is unlimited, not only in the classroom but also in their personal lives. No more of the student who arrives at school with the excuse of not knowing what was the homework for the night before, hence, no homework done.

For those students who lack confidence or are shy, it is much easier for them to put their work, ideas and comments on a blog, where there are not a lot of eyes on them. They have the advantage of being able to edit work and to give and receive comments from other classmates.

I found a couple of web links which could be invaluable for assessment tasks. These were; Sea Ice Physics and Ecosystem experiment and the Australian War Memorial Blog.

Blogging is part of technology today and I think it's great. Whatever will be next!!!