Module 10

We already have a Wiki (via Wetpaint) for our Year 9 class (set up by my clever job share partner). It has proven to be a valuable learning tool as both ourselves and the students can add and edit content to the wiki. The Scope and sequence of the course was loaded onto the wiki and information on topics and concepts has been added in different forms via text, links, powerpoints, embedding, videos, slide shows, bubbl.us etc. By way of the discussion forum, the students are able to ask for assistance for concepts or homework that they may be having problems with. Around assessment time, there are many hits and we almost feel like we need to be checking it 24 hours a day and feel sometimes we have no break from them! They also can answer each other’s problems. The wiki is wonderful from the point of view that everyone is working collaboratively. However, of course, some students are far more active and make more contributions than others, whilst some had to be encouraged several times to accept their invitation. We even have a Twitter feed onto the wiki, so that the students can check on work that needs to be caught up on while they were absent or away on holidays. Some of the more active students have become a little bored and would like to have more interaction with other students, so we may add students from other schools next year. It is good that we can control and watch the input from students who have to be invited to join. On a whole, the wiki has been a useful tool to enable the students to communicate and work together with us and each other to enhance their learning. They have been challenged to find new resources which are appropriate for relevant topics and have learnt new skills such as embedding, Googledocs, slideshare and bubbl.us, just to mention a few. This has enabled them to acquire knowledge by different learning methods and add it to the facts already learnt in the classroom.
I found Blooms digital taxonomy map to be fairly helpful in planning my curriculum. Some of the tools could fit into several categories: Flickr into Applying and Creating; Mindmapping into Analysing and Understanding and Second Life into Applying.

Module 9

Scootle is a tool that I have been using in the classroom via the Smartboard, for some time now. Whilst there are many great resources on this site, I find it time consuming, browsing through the search outputs, to find something appropriate for a particular lesson. The search problem is made easier using the shared learning path, however there are no shared learning paths from colleagues at my school and only a few for the topics in my subject area under the National Catholic Education Curriculum Shared Learning Path. When time permits, it is something that may need to be looked at by our staff.
For this module we also looked at three social networking sites – Facebook, Twitter and Second Life.
Facebook
I am already an avid Facebook user and find it a wonderful way to keep in touch with friends and cousins both locally and overseas. It is an easy tool with which to share photos, send private messages or messages on the wall which all of your friends can see and the chat feature is a cheap, instantaneous way to have a conversion with people with whom you would not otherwise converse very often. However, I cannot see the value of Facebook with students as an educational tool. I imagine as a teacher you would need to create a different user name from your personal one, so that your personal information and friends are kept completely separate.
Twitter
Twitter is a tool which I have been using for a while now, so I gave the demonstration on Twitter to staff at our school. I began using Twitter to keep up with the news on genealogy and travel sites, and then ventured into looking for educational, particularly Mathematics related twits. I follow several that I find useful, even though many are American based, there is still a lot of value to be gained by clicking on the tiny Url and perusing their webpages further. I have found several interesting sites, which also had a RSS feed, so their updates also go into my Googlereader.
Second Life
Second Life is amazing, being able to put yourself inside another world and pretend that you are part of it! However, for my KLA area, I can see no benefit for my students at this stage – I do intend to investigate further over the Christmas holidays. I imagine it would be motivational in the areas of History, Art, Geography etc
Finally, I cannot believe that there are over 100 social networks for learning professionals! Whilst I have looked at some of them, I will have to again make time during the holidays to look at many more. (How long will that take me I wonder? I won’t have any free time at this rate!)

Module 8

Prior to this module, I had always wondered what that orange icon on webpages was and why it was becoming more and more common everywhere. I now know that it stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and by using RSS, I am saving myself so much time checking each of the pages that I constantly read, for new updates and new content.
Googlereader is another amazing tool which was easy to set up for all of my subscriptions and RSS feeds. It is wonderful to have my Googlereader, on my iGoogle page, as a centralised point to go and look for all new updates and latest news at one time. I have so much content coming into my Googlereader from news, blogs, etc, that I feel that I need two – one for educational purposes and one for personal updates and news. That is something that I will investigate further down the track when I have time.

Module 7

Delicious is a tool that I have previously used. Whilst it is a good way to share favourites with others and thus save time looking for new resources, there are several features that I do not like about it. To begin with, I do not like having the extra toolbar on my computer even though it is a quick and easy way to access your bookmarks. Secondly I find the tags a little confusing especially in the way that they are bundled. I would prefer to use a directory style setup, as is available in Internet Explorer.
After reading the blogs I am envious about the way that some people can express themselves, but I guess that is why I am a Mathematician – we all have different talents after all! Reading other blogs also motivates me and demonstrates other ideas and means of using and applying Web2 tools into my classroom.

Module 6

Two more awesome tools, which at first I thought would have difficulty in integrating into my area of Mathematics. Brainstorming is a concept which is not widely used in Mathematics lessons, so the thought of using Bubbl.us was really catching my attention until..... My Year 9 class had just begun a unit of Geometry work and we were looking at key basic concepts. I was concerned that by using their newly acquired laptops and using software called Geometer’s Sketchpad, that they were not retaining the knowledge that they needed. Brillant idea ............let us use Bubbl.us to draw together all of the information that they had hopefully learnt. The students were all shown how to open an account and the basics of how to use it and then required to use it to bring together the important concepts. Of course, they did this in varying degrees, some were fantastic but others showed that they had missed out on some key points. After each student had shared their Bubbl.us with me, we looked at several on the Smartboard and discussed the information that was good and that which was missing – a wonderful learning experience for all of them. Students then went back and completed information that they had missed or put in incorrectly. Some of the better ones were printed off to hand on display in the classroom. I also tried to embed some into our class wiki page, but realised that I could only copy it in as a jpeg. One the students embedded hers into the wiki at home. These have provided the students with a valuable revision tool which is easily accessed at home.
Below is a student’s work on the Introduction to Geometry topic using Bubbl.us.

Glogster, I feel, would be a great tool to use to keep students interested in the course content in a fun way. Eventually, I intend to use Glogster, not only to enable the students to make their own interactive posters, but as a poster for an assignment or for revision purposes. For Mathematics topics, I would be able to add links to formulae, powerpoints which review work, videos from Schooltube/Teachertube which the students could watch and relearn concepts and I could also insert other Web2 tools.

Module 5

I thoroughly enjoyed this module, as I have not had much experience with ipods, except via my children, so a lot of this information was new to me. Initially, again I thought I would have no use for podcasts and vodcasts in my area of Mathematics. I soon realised, however, the advantage of subscribing to sites and downloading a podcast/vodcast that I was interested in for use later on. I have found via a Google search some useful sites ( mathgrad.com, ipofeed.net, screencast.com) which have Mathematics related podcasts and vodcasts, which would be useful, in particular, for my Applied Maths class. These students are more difficult to motivate than most, so a tool that they enjoy using would be most beneficial.
I have already discussed with my Year 9A class about making videos and creating powerpoint presentations on topics that they have learnt and on areas which could be presented to junior classes on basic key areas, and they are very keen to begin work on these projects. They also want to upload them onto Youtube.
I have used sites such as Youtube and Teachertube quite extensively already in the classroom on the Smartboard, especially when introducing new concepts or breaking up monotonous work. The students love watching them, even if some of them are corny and it amazing how much they do learn from them. So many times I have had requests to watch them again several times or in the following lessons. My non teaching friends and family cannot believe that I do can use them and am allowed to use Youtube in the classroom as an educational tool! I love it, but it is very time consuming to find decent ones.

Module 4

Flickr was easy to set up, and is convenient in that way that you can upload photos via uploaders, plugins, email, from your phone etc. I felt comfortable doing this as I already use uploader on Facebook and frequently send photos taken via email from my phone. The edit feature is easy to use and I was glad to see that you could also organise your photos into sets and collections before sharing them. The means by which you can share photos (and have them commented on) and the privacy settings also made me feel better about protecting my digital footprint. Looking at photos from specific places (and adding your own) and being able to create posters, cards, calendars etc is also a wonderful feature.

Above is a photo which I added to Flickr was of the Church in Hallau, Switzerland for which one of my ancestors was the stonemason.
Content filters are used for the safety level of photos (for whom they are appropriate) and content type (such as photos, videos, animations etc).
Safesearch enables you control your search results and this varies according to whether you are a member and can change your settings or your age or what part of the world you live in.
It is easy to share a photo with a group that you are a member of by clicking on the “Send to Group” button. You cannot do this if you do not belong to a particular group. You can send the same photo to 10 different groups and also embed photos in group discussions and post comments on group photos.
Tags are words or labels that you add to photos to make searching for them later easier. However, if add a very general tag, your search results may be quite large. You can add up to 150 tags per photo, although I am not sure why you would want to do this!
Flickr is a great source to find images that you can’t find on Google images. I use these a lot for workbook covers for new topics for my students, so that they can used them for title pages at the beginning of a topic.

I also found my image which I use on the CEO wiki on Flickr.
It is important that we do not add images obtained by other means from friends or websites and then upload them onto Flickr. It may be a good idea to store these images in separate directories or tag them appropriately with source information.

Module 3

At first when I was introduced to Googledocs, I really thought it was amazing, but as a Maths teacher, I would have no use for it. My first thoughts were that it was a wonderful tool for English and HSIE teachers and how lucky they were!
We (my jobshare partner) and I wanted to get our Year 9 class to share some presentations, and Googledocs was perfect! They were given a list of tools and instructions to use. For some it was just too hard or they couldn’t be bothered, but the ones that did work found it easy and a successful way to share their work.
When our KLA were discussing new area of work for our year 9 on laptops, everyone was a little scared and not sure how to approach it, so I took notes and had the brilliant idea of putting it into a Googledoc and sharing with my fellow colleagues, so that we could make changes as we needed to. A much better way to share than by typing up a word file, attaching it to an email and then having to make changes manually and resending the changes.
As a parent, I always found that group work for my daughters was a problem outside school/uni was a problem because of our geographical isolation. It is a shame that Googledocs was not available for them at that time. I think it a wonderful way to be able to work with others, at any time, in any place on any computer and be able to see the changes made immediately. So I have told my daughters and husband al about Googledocs and the benefits of Googledocs to them. Instead of sending emails out to several people and receiving them back and making changes, they can have everything on hand in one document – how easy is that! Of course, some of them heard what I was saying and probably never thought of it again!

Module 2

I found it very easy to create my blog page and can see plenty of uses for it in the future, both educationally and for personal use. It would be interesting to set up a class blog and get feedback and view comments from the students. This could be most useful for my Year 11/12 Applied Maths class, who do a lot of research tasks online and a blog may be a good place for them to share their ideas with each other and me.
Likewise, next time I travel, instead of sending group emails, I will set up a blog, so that people can easily keep track of where we are and I could also add photos as well. I have been inspired to find other blogs written by travellers from whom I can gain great ideas for my next trip. I have also been following a blog for a reunion of students whom I taught for several years in the 1980s, and found it interesting to see my name mentioned in the “favourite teacher category, with a photo included!
Finally, I have also come across whole communities of bloggers who are blogging about my subject area and technology ideas – I can join in and learn so much from these blogs and find new methods and new resources easily.

Module 1

I found this session a bit slow but it was still fun doing it with everyone else.
We created an igoogle account and then the fun started making our igoogle page the most unique. I added so many gadgets and found some of them useful and some completely useless, so these were later deleted. During the days after, some of us made our own gadgets and emailed them to each other. We thought we were all so clever. Now looking forward to the next module