Final Reflection

The Web 2.0 Course was definitely an enriching learning experience for me. I agree that Web 2.0 tools can have great potential to engage our 21st century learners. Tools such as wikis, nings, You Tube, blogs, Scootle and others, if used properly, can definitely enhance learning and make teaching more entertaining. I think that these tools will make catering for the varied learning styles of our students easier as they allow children to learn at their own pace.
The big difficulty will not so much be in teaching students the technology as they are often a lot more knowledgeable than us when computers are involved. The trouble will be in teaching students the necessary skills (communication and collaboration, questioning, reflection, creative thinking and critical thinking) to use these technologies and I believe that these will have to be explicitly taught.
I agree that Web 2.0 tools can help make students responsible for their own learning but teachers will still have to model HOW to be a responsible and effective learner.
Collaboration is always a great way to learn, especially in a girl school. With web 2.0 tools collaborative learning is brought to a new level and I hope that students will appreciate that they are able to learn anything, anytime and anywhere. These tools definitely made my professional development a lot more enjoyable.
As explained in Blooms Digitally Web 2.0 tools can be used to access students’ higher order thinking skills. Our year 9 students worked on an iMovie assessment task where they needed to collaborate to script and film a movie about a scientific topic for a specific audience- working at the "creating" level.
I am aware that we should not just use technology just for the sake of it…technology is just a tool to achieve some of our educational goals. However Web 2.0 tools will encourage teachers to release a bit more of the responsibility to learn back to our students!!! Let’s stop spoon feeding our students…
I really enjoyed reading the blogs of other teachers especially:
My Chemical Journey by Gary Molloy (comments made on modules 2,4,5 and 6)
Web 2.0 by Rachel Noonan (comment made on module 5)

Module 10: Wikis and Nings

The last module asks us to investigate the educational use of wikis and nings. First of all I have to admit that I did not really know what a wiki was. I have of course been on wikipedia numerous times. I have noticed that students also often go on wikipedia as a first port of call when they are asked a question...a bit like we would go to the Encyclopedia Britannica when I was at school.

I went on wikipedia to read about wikis :-) and found out that a wiki is a "website that allows the easy creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language". I also discovered that Wikispaces is a hosting service launched in 2005. I also read that since 2010 Wikispaces have cooperated with web 2.0 education platform Glogster EDU and that Glogster EDU now embeds Glogs into Wikispaces services.

I am interested in the use of wikis especially after reading the information on Wikis in the classroom and also the Wikis in the classroom presentation.

I like that it is easy for visitors to easily add, remove and otherwise edit and change some available content which makes it really interactive.

I had heard the word ning but had no idea what it meant. I found out that ning competes with social sites like Facebook by allowing people to create their own social networks around specific interests with their own visual design, choice of features and member data.

I think that wikis, nings and other web 2.0 tools can make teaching more engaging and interactive and will definitely appeal to learners. I think that some teachers including myself find the web 2.0 tools daunting for several reasons:
- you need a fair amount of time to learn about all the new tools and find ways to include them in your lessons.
- you need to "let go" of some of the control and trust that your students will learn without you being necessarily in charge 100% of the time.
- you need to still police the use of these new technologies to make sure they are not used inappropriately.

Module 9: Social Networks

I knew about Scootle but I was just using learning paths done by another teacher at our school. I now know how to create my own learning paths. I think that Scootle is a great resource for teaching science. I have mostly used it for revision before exams but I think it could be use to introduce new topics. I like that students can work at their own pace. I also found that some students that were normally disengaged in the classroom were really focused and seemed to enjoy learning using scootle. I will need to explore scootle a lot more to find out all the interesting learning objects prior to teaching a particular topic. At the moment the vast number of objects is a bit overwhelming.

I have been a facebook user for a number of years now. I really enjoy it and have been able to found a lot of my old school friends using that network. We even organised our high school reunion using facebook. However I don't really think that I would use facebook at school. I know that a large number of our students have a facebook page but I have always refused to accept students or former students as "friends" on my facebook page and will keep it that way.

I had never thought of using Second Life for education purposes but after watching the you tube videoclips I can see how it would be a good way to engage our students. I definitely think it would be great for HSIE teachers. I think that there are also interesting options for us science teachers which I discovered in the Science Learning Opportunities in Second Life you tube video below.

Module 8: RSS feeds

I wish I had known about RSS feeds earlier. I have added a number of sites to my Google Reader and I think that it will encourage me to keep me up-to-date with developments in educational technology and science issues. I like updates to be sent to one place as it is a big time saver. However, I will remove BBC News from Google Reader...too many updates to my liking...feeling swamped.

I had a look at Gary Molloy's Pageflakes page for inspiration. He has great a Edna and EduBlogs page and a science page with a compilation of feeds that may interest teachers of chemistry and science. I feel that I still need to look for additional biology websites.

Students could benefit from setting up a Google Reader page and reading about current scientific issues and research, especially for senior students aiming to get a band 6 in a science subject. I think that gifted and talented students would also enjoy taking ownership of their learning by selecting websites that they would like updates from.

Module 7: Social bookmarking using Delicious

I think that Delicious is a great idea. I have hundreds of websites bookmarked on Internet Explorer on my laptop. I wanted to switch to another browser but decided no to because I thought that I would lose all my favorites. Delicious will allow me to access my bookmarks anywhere using any browser. I still have not transferred all my bookmarks across because my favourites folder is just too messy!!!

The tagging option is great. As I wrote, my current favourites folder is a big mess with folders everywhere and duplicates. I often save a website and then cannot find it again. I think that tagging my bookmarks as I go will make me a lot more organised.

The idea of sharing favourites is great especially with other science teachers. I know a couple of teachers who spend a lot of time online researching interesting resources and it will be great to use some of these. I could also imagine sharing websites with my students especially senior students (I only teach Years 7 to 10 right now.

Module 6: Bubbl.us and Glogster to create and communicate online

I have used brainstorms quite a lot in my teaching either before starting a new topic to find out what the students already know or at the end of a topic for students to summarise and make links between concepts clearer. I tend to use butcher paper and coloured pens and have used Inspiration before. I have to say that I prefer the paper option. I am concerned that at a girl school, students would spend a lot more time making sure their mind map looks pretty rather than concentrate on the content. But I guess that would be the case with a lot of the Web 2.0 tools.



I am not very creative so I did not really enjoy using Glogster. I spent too much time fiddling with the different options and quickly lost patience so the glogster I made was very basic. However I could see students using Glogster as I think that THEY would really enjoy it. Maybe we could use it in the classroom to make an interactive poster about a scientist. It would definitely make the topic a lot more fun.

When I was looking online I found this video showing how to use glogster to make a virtual science fair and it does look like a good idea.

Module 5: Podcasts and Vodcasts

I have used ITunes for personal use for a while but have never thought of using it in the classroom probably because I had never really investigated podcasts.
I have subscribed to the ABC Science Show as I enjoy this program a lot but don't always find the time to watch it.

YouTube is a great source of videoclips to show students but I had never really taken to time to search out all the resources out there. I had never heard of Teachers TV, TeachersTube and SchoolTube and am planning on using these a lot more to show small clips in my class. I think that showing visualisations especially for topics that are quite abstract (like atomic structure, chemical bonding etc)will be valuable. You can also find exciting science experiments (see clip of Steve Spangler below).



I have included a couple of cool science songs from They Might Be Giants...I love these guys.

Science is real


Meet the elements


Speed and velocity


I also intend to use podcasts and vodcasts for professional learning. The post 20 iTunes Feeds for the 2.0 Teacher lists a number of interesting podcasts to learn even more about Web 2.0 tools. I also want to improve my knowledge and understanding of both chemistry and physics but did not want to pay the heavy university fees. There is so much available out there and geography is no longer a limiting factor. I am quite excited!!! In fact, I am so happy that I have started this course. It has opened so many new doors for me.