Module 4

I reckon I must have about 7 different email accounts now. Yahoo being the latest. Makes you wonder how many people/companies around the world know your details...

Flickr was pretty straightforward to set up and use. The database contains a huge number of pictures which is great when looking for resources on a certain topic. I like the idea that many of the photos are not copyright. This makes for a valuable school library. I have searched on Flickr before. It can be a little tedious opening each picture and downloading it or going back to look at the next one. Does anyone know if there is a quicker way to do this?

I'm not sure if I would use Flickr for my own personal photos. I have friends travelling the world who keep their friends up to date by posting photos on Flickr- so I do see benefits. I guess another reason to use Flickr might be to have a back-up of your own photos in a secondary location. Time will tell if the program becomes more useful to me down the line.

Module 3

Wow! Some great possibilities have been opened with Google docs.

The videos were both insightful. I really liked the first one with the illustrations moving around the page and the arrows being drawn as you watched to see how everything linked up. I hope I can use that idea with a class some day.

I've had discussions in the past with my principal about having the documents on our server available to teachers outside the school so that they could be edited/viewed on holidays/weekends. Google docs is one possible solution. It would make it so much easier to program when on holidays and liaise with a grade partner from a distance. Also if you forget something, there's no need to drive back to school- just log on and access all of your documents!

It was pretty straightforward to both create and upload an existing document. Sharing is just a matter of entering the email address of the person you want to view it.

There were a couple of drawbacks. One was that you have to have a Google account to edit the documents (which can make it hard with primary children as parents may not be happy with them having one of these accounts). Secondly, there is the chance that someone you share your documents with could accidentally delete something you have put a lot of work in to. Obviously backups can be kept- but, the idea of the Google docs was to eliminate the need for numerous copies of the same work...

Working collaboratively with students is fantastic. Surveys, petitions, brainstorming ideas, multi-authored texts and group assignments/projects are tasks that could be made a lot easier and a lot more fun- once the hurdle of having every child have their own Google account is gotten over.

Module 2

Lucky me! I have used blogger previously which made module 2 a little easier to get through.
I set up a blog for my Year 3 class in 2009. You can view it at http://excellentblogsite.blogspot.com/
The purpose of the blog was to encourage the students to share their views and knowledge on different subjects. I deliberately didn't make the blog's focus too narrow in order to get them used to using a blog in general. I tried to emphasise the importance of taking pride in how they wrote and also opened them up to the usefulness of blogging as a communication tool.
Topics included 'My Favourite Websites', Favourite Sports, Japan (as I was doing a unit on Japan, I set blogging as a homework task) and Holiday News. I also set up two posts where children could keep in touch with 2 students who had gone overseas for an extended period of time.
I spent some time reflecting on the use of blogs and thought their best uses are as a news broadcasting website or diary system. Being able to share information with a variety of people can be beneficial as physical location is no longer a barrier and the type of responses you can elicit are much broader due to the size and backgrounds of the potential audience.
Finally, using a blog for the purpose of this Web 2.0 course is a great way to stay organised and keep a reasonably permanent record of what has been learnt.

Module 1

Well I was a little overwhelmed with the number of videos available to view in the first module.
But... I did find them quiet eye-opening. I can see that despite the size of information available through Web 2.0, the possibilities are forever growing and are quiet endless.

YouTube itself is a great channel for learning- the amount of educational videos (and entertaining ones) is fantastic. I have often used YouTube to add to a lesson via the SmartBoard. I have heard of some schools banning YouTube, but it is such a valauble tool, I think it just needs to be moderated.

After looking at the 25 Tools, I felt pleased that I am already a frequent user of many. However I'm looking forward to exploring some new tools.

Instant messaging, social networking, email and web browsing are things I use on a daily basis.
I enjoyed creating my iGoogle page and attempting to match the appearance and content to my personality. I can see how people get carried away and spend so much time on computers- it could definitely become a workplace hazard... be warned! :)

I wasn't sure if we were to create our own gadgets or just add some gadgets that were available. I couldn't find a place to make my own so have added several from the many available.