Final Reflection

Well I certainly feel I have seen so much this term when it comes to technology. Our Web 2 course at St Kevin's has been made possible by the enthusiasm of one person... Amanda Smith, who thought it would be a good idea to work together as a group. Time, like in any school is very tight and precious and I know I have struggled throughout the term but the support has made all the difference to be up to my final reflection.

There are so many things I could discuss. We are living in a different age. It is an information rich age and we need to use this to our best advantage. I do agree I probably thought that technology was just learning how to use a new application but I do see now that elearning is not about the electronic as such but about Engaging our learner and we still have a lot to learn about this. I like all the E words.... Evolving, Examining, Emerging ...but there are still a lot of questions and as a principal I need to think about do I Engaging learning environments, am I giving enough time to this whole area to help really get teachers on board..... have I considered how our school will embed Catholic values into elearning? and what priorty am I giving to a whole school plan for elearning.

The course has certainly highlighted the wonderful world of sharing (which certainly wasn't emphasised when I started teaching and I'm not THAT old!!!!) All the modules held interesting applications. Google docs, glogster, I love my blog and I have enjoyed seeing many others, flickr is great and I think the whole set up of the course is excellent, easy to navigate and highly informative and supportive... an outstanding resource for all. I have to say I love my iGoogle page... my husband asked how to feed the turtles the other night!!! Google reader is very handy etc etc. The scariest part was in module 10 when you go to the 50+ tools and just see what you still dont know about!!!!. Having Blooms Digital Taxomony on the site is great and something we need to incorporate into our documents.

I was reading an article from Education Today about Moodle (Term 3 2010) and the author talks about students processing at "twitch speed' which means they are not used to waiting and wondering. They are always testing and trying. They enjoy random access and can jump from page to page. They believe learning is interactive, fun and challenging. They stay connected and are used to finding information they want or need.

We need to be aware of this and stay connected to our students. Teachers matter.. we need to challenge our students to be reflective and creative and responsible. If we share together we will build powerful learning communities.( I believe we have done that in a very simple way by all working together to support each other through the course)We need good teaching and learning!!!! Technology is just the tool.

I have enjoyed the course. I am not a digitally confident person but I have certainly developed my skills and understanding through this course. I am a firm believer that we need to have a strong understanding of technology to continue to support teaching and learning. The information isnt going to go away or get any less!!!! I remember watching a "What if" youtube at least three years ago and the information on that was pretty amazing. I have been following the blogs from people at St Kevins, one such blog is stkamanda.blogspot.com and I have looked at a couple of others, but i have also commented on Kathy Barkers from Holy Spirit, Kathy-journey.blogspot.com. I havent commented on it yet but I have become a follower of Mark Rix blog for the Cannonisation!!!!!! I was most impressed with myself for that.

Module 10 Elluminate me with Wikis and Nings!!!!

Well, the last module certainly has some interesting parts to it. I have to say I have enjoyed the "Plain english " youtubes... very simple and clear. Has he made a fortune making them??????? I liked the bit about wikkis are the new way, better to coordinate things etc and email is the old way (OMG..... I have just mastered emails!!!!) It did make great sense being able to edit and save and link.... slightly similar to google docs . Elluminate looks interesting too. Got a little shock when the man spoke could see this as being a wonderful way to share best practice, stop reinventing the wheel. Tried to join ning but was more of a ning nong couldnt get past the verification words may need new glasses.. my two dollar shop ones are driving me crazy. Once again potential sharing here is invaluable. I was most amazed at the 50 tools when I went onto the story about Domino. It just shows the amazing amount of information out there that could be used in any classroom. I was amazed and there were plenty of headings that i had never heard of before (many i did know thanks to this course). I am going to go back to that site and go through the unknowns. There has been so much to take in but really amazing!!!!!

Module 9 Scootle, Twits and a second life!!!!

The Learning Federation objects have some great learning tasks and have been recommended for years by the LFTT team. I remember them being difficult to work out which ones were suitable ...it was all to to do with the way they were catalogued (I think!) It is a great resource. It is like so many of the items/applications you look at ...there is an endless supply and it is using time wisely to find out whats good and worthwhile. I have to say I am in information overload with what I have read and seen and i feel time is a major factor and being able to wisely discern as well.

I believe on the social networking side of life that we have to ensure that we use the technologies that our students are using ... it is part of their lives...so we need to look for meaningful tasks. I have two constant facebook users in my house. The issues that may arise with using social networks will arise without it as well. Bullying has existed over the years... this is where we may need to step in regarding digital footprints, responsibility etc.

Twitter I find fascinating!!!!!! I think its great that you can have a bit of a "what you doing???" style message in 140 characters (its like news feed on facebook) they say its the "real life" between blogs and email.. I say get back to work and DO something REAL!!!! I wish I had the time to be able to spend on twitter!!!

As for second life I thought it was a bit tragic when I first heard about it ages ago but after listening and seeing some of the info about it I can see that it could be worthwhile to get a feel for life in different periods of time.... First Fleet for Primary???? It could certainly lead to some interesting pod or vodcasts.

Bottom line..... good things can be found in all these applications.... it is our job to make them worthwhile and powerful in the classroom setting.

Module 8 RSS Feed

With 50 million blogs I can understand why we will need to continue to find efficient ways to deal with the ever increasing volume of "stuff' on the internet. If you are really interested in something/topic by using Google reader to connect with those little orange icons would be a wonderful way to be constantly up to date. I can see it happening with some of the people in my course's blogs coming up as soon as they happen as well. I will now be conscious of those little icons and will be looking for them as I go. I would also like to recommend the "Zombies in Plain English" Youtube. It is also very informative.

Module 7 Building Online Communities

Delicious is yet another amazing sharing site. Though friends and workmates you can organise a great array of bookmarks on absolutely everything. Amanda has shared her bookmarks with me and you can see the things that interest her . I think to organise your bookmarks through tagging is a great way. I have about 600 scattered bookmarks in no particular order so I know I will be busy getting that sorted. As a teacher I can see this as a really great way to share great sites and in turn resources. Its all about sharing !!!!!!!!!!

Module 6 Bubbl.us and Glogster

Well I have had hours of fun just trying to sign up for Glogster!!!!!! Do love the visuals and you could lose hours choosing from all the bits and pieces... one thing had 51 pages of (Text, graphics etc) Fill I could use this as my weekly news .It is certainly visual enough to grab everyone's attention!!! I could imagine students using it to display their learnings in a really clear and visual way. One of the teachers I am sitting next to at the moment just keeps saying I love Glogster!!!!!! Because you can select from a series of selections it means you are not creating from nothing . Very worthwhile. Bubbl.us is good too. Mindmapping is such a common teaching/learning activity...just must say I was fascinated in the gentleman using Ferrets as his example????? Is he Richard Gere's cousin????

Module 5 Digital Story telling

Digital storytelling is certainly the modern way and a wonderful way to capture students. I created a very "tiny" podcast!!!! at the Principals conference a few months ago and it was great fun. Children love to hear themselves so you can imagine their enthusiasm. The Manager from Mac who was showing us how to create a podcast told us the word was only created in 2005. iTunes, Youtube, Garage band and imovie are all great in different ways. I really believe schools should have both Macs and PCs for students to experiment with. One of the Schools in Adelaide (Seaforth I think) had this great demonstration of how laptops in Year 7 have changed the way students are learning. They had wonderful demos of vodcasts created by the students. It is their way of telling and sharing their story and others.