P
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M
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I
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Blog
· Very polished look
· Lots of professional people use this (great for students to search their heroes)
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Blog
· More difficult to setup
· Layout difficult to understand
· Only suitable for older students to use
· Password access needed
· Not many fonts to choose from
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Blog
· You can see how many people view the site
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Wiki
· great for collaborative work
· easy to follow instructions
· easy to edit
· suitable for all ages
· teacher can see who has posted or edited in the log for assessment
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Wiki
· Not as polished look as weebly or blogger
· Editing at the same time can be overwritten
· Students need to be educated about inviting to participate
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Wiki
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Web site
· Setup easy
· Editing easy WYSIWYG
· Polished look
· Easy to customize for personal look
· Easy to insert images, YouTubes etc
· Students can create credible valuable sites on specific subjects for other schools, students to utilise
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Web site
· Possibly more suitable for older grades
· Other people accessibility
· Credibility of other sites
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Web site
· Interesting to note how many people use these sites for showcasing everything from hobbies to businesses to art.
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Creating a Blog reflection
http://debselearning.blogspot.com.au/
Creating blogs seems to be fun, challenging and sometimes frustrating. Initially, I approached this task with childlike enthusiasm, however this enthusiasm quickly turned to frustration when I was unable to execute my ideas. Fortunately in the twenty-first century we have YouTube and Google; without whom I would not be here today. To create blogs, wikis and weeblies I believe we have to transform our thinking into a binary thought process. It either works or it does not. As I add to my blog I have realised I have become less self-conscious and am more prepared to post my thoughts. Is this why many people are so focused on posting everyday life occurrences onto social media networks? It happens with automaticity.
I noticed my spell check tells me that YouTube and Google have capitals. This sent me on a quest to see if blog, weebly and other such terms warrant the capital. Sadly no, however I found that blog comes from web log. Now, I am on a quest to find a list of site terms that may assist this topic. Found a tech search site and have added this to my left hand column in my blog.
In the classroom, I envisage students using blogs for most homework activities. There will be no need for exercise books and the excuse, ‘I forgot my homework’ will no longer exist. The downside of this concept is students without internet access or computers at home will not be able to complete the tasks in this manner. Alternatively, these students may have to access their blog at school. All year levels may participate in a homework Blog as lower grades may have the assistance of parents. Blogs can include links to educational games, spelling lists and assignment tasks for students to complete. The blog can include templates for printable graphic organisors, criteria sheets and exemplars for example cursive font charts. The homework blog can also include a weekly newsletter for parents and carers to help them to understand the student’s current learning, future activities and excursions and how to help their children to complete tasks. When schools adopt a holistic approach including community and more importantly parents and carers, the students will benefit with a more rewarding rounded learning experience (Education Oasis, 2011).
I have created a wiki before to use for planning, preparation and participation in presentation work at university. This style of site really resonates with me and it was with gusto that I created my site only to realise I had not read the Moodle instructions correctly and had used my own account. This meant no one else could access the site. (I think there is a lesson in there for me.) I changed the wiki address and created a logo and added content. The content text images, YouTubes and links are easy to add and the site itself gives easy instructional steps to follow.
For this reason, in the classroom, Wikispace allows for collaborative work, where students of all year levels can work on tasks relating to their subject. The groups can be in mixed abilities groups of three or four students to allow for opportunities to peer teach (Tomlinson, 2001). An example of this may be: Year 3 students are asked to research and report on the types of native animals living in their local area.
The homepage will give a brief overview of the task including a template for students to complete as they research. There will be a series of pages for students to plan, research and elaborate on the tasks. They may include a list reasons a particular animal may be endangered. Students can include the introduction of a species or other elements that may be the cause of the endangerment. Finally, students can make recommendations for a more sustainable future for the native animals. Students will also develop their planning skills and for assessment purposes, teachers will be able to mark students work based on the log page.
All students’ websites and participation in online technologies must be password protected to respect their privacy so they can interact safely with their research and peers.
Creating a website reflection
http://debselearning.weebly.com/
Weebly, a web-hosting service was used to create my website. I found this to be the most engaging and easy to use tool to date. The drag and drop and WYSIWYG display made this task enjoyable in all aspects. For this reason, I have decided to transfer my hard copy visual diary from my other current course (Visual art and innovation) to help me to make meaning with this site (Gutherie & McKracken, 2010). I like the fact that this site is autonomous and I alone have the power to choose all the content.
In the classroom this web site may be utilised to create a whole subject, for example Geography with links to webstories, YouTubes, images and sites. The website may show all links in the left hand column to the units of work. Students may participate in their inquiry based learning at their own pace or with assistance from the teacher. during classtime, the teacher can show students this site using an interactive whiteboard to show students how to navigate their way around the site.
The students can be shown the link to the Tree Octopus. This site can be used as a teaching tool to show students that although the site looks good, it is not credible nor does the tree octopus exist. This will allow students the opportunity to develop an understanding and the importance of the exploration of their research. Students can discover that their research will require more than one source to validate their inquiry and that not all web sites are trustworthy or credible.
Another unit of work may be with a webstory link that explores a geographical inquiry into their local area, in particular an area that was settled in the 1800’s to log the native trees that no longer exist at the Mill Point Site. With many links, the students can do their own investigation in small collaborative groups of mixed ability students (Tomlinson, 2001). The students then have the opportunity to discover and elaborate using their own wiki as they progress through the units within the website. The assessed work would be in their wikis. This would assist students learning with making meaning when they use these technological tools (Gutherie & McKracken, 2010). Students are more likely to remain engaged in their learning when they are using technology (Prensky, 2005).
References
Blog. (n.d.). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved November 14, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog
Education Oasis (2011). Working with Parents - Teaching Resources for Educators. Retrieved from http://www.educationoasis.com/resources/Articles/working_with_parents.htm
Guthrie, K. L., & McCracken, H. (2010, July). Reflective Pedagogy: Making Meaning in Experiential Based Online Courses. The JEO. Retrieved from http://www.thejeo.com/Archives/Volume7Number2/GuthriePaper.pdf
Prensky, M. (2005) Engage me or enrage me: what today's learners demand. Education Review, 60-62 Retrieved from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky_Engage_Me_or_Enrage_Me.pdf
Tomlinson, C.A. (2001). How to differentiate instruction in mixed-ability classrooms (2nd ed.). Alexandria,Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
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