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.

Module 4: Exploring photos with Flickr

I love to take pictures (the picture below is one taken during our last holidays in Bali) and I have used the facebook photo sharing application in the past to share albums with friends and family (as most of my family lives overseas) but Flickr seems to offer a lot more possibilities for the classroom.



I think that kids these days are often visual learners so you could use Flickr to find powerful images for your presentations/slide shows. This would make your lessons more appealing.

The post Tips and Tricks for Finding Science and Math Images on the Web gives good ideas.

You could design virtual field trips, for example, to show students interesting geological formations, less well known animals (e.g tuatara) and plants (e.g.liverwort) etc. You could show the weird creations of genetic engineering. The easiest way to find striking images is to use to most interesting feature on Flickr.

Some of the interesting capabilities of Flickr include:

- adding notes and comments to photos
- editing photos using picnik
- sending a link to photos rather than sending them as a large attachment
- geotagging pictures (great for virtual field trips)
- turning SafeSearch on to avoid finding photos with inappropriate content

The whole copyrighting and intellectual property issue is important but I have to admit that I had never really thought about it that much before. I am sure that I have broken the rules so many times whether when photocopying a book (over the 10%)or inserting pictures in my presentations. Students in our classrooms are not aware of copyright issues and I have rarely seen students attribute pictures to the owner. We try to stamp out plagiarism but I don't think that we teach our students about plagiarism when it comes to pictures that well.

I was not aware of Creative Commons licenses but I believe that it is a great idea to find works that can be used by others and to share pictures under conditions that you agree with.

Module 3: Creating and Sharing with Google Docs

I really enjoyed learning about Google Docs via the Atomic Learning website. It is the first time that I have used Atomic Learning and I have found the given instructions very clear and so much easier to understand and follow than instructions from a manual.

I really like that Google Docs allows you to share documents which would help promote group work and collaborative learning. With Google Docs, I would be able to give guidance while students are still working on an assignment rather than after the assignment is handed in. We could also encourage students to use Google Docs for group assignments. Students will no longer need to meet but can work on their assignment in their own homes in their own time. The real time editing feature of the new version would makes this even easier. There would be stronger accountability for individual effort on group projects because I would be able to individually assess student participation.

I found this cool post called 20 Google Doc Templates for use in Science and Math Classrooms.

Another interesting post is How to Integrate Google Docs in Science and Math Like a Pro from the same blog.

I think that Google Docs would also be very useful to use within our faculty for example, to edit programs or exams. It would also be a good place to store documents because it would enable me to access them from any computer.

Finally, two of the features of Google docs that I find quite amazing are:
- the ability to do a Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level test for a document to check that it is written at the appropriate level
- the ability to look on Encyclopedia Britannica

Module 2: Exploring the use of Blogs

I watched a really interesting program on television yesterday called "The Virtual Revolution: The Great Levelling?". It looked at how the web is reshaping almost every aspect of our lives. Some of the things that I remember most from the documentary are:

1) The Ushahidi Platform http://www.ushahidi.com/ which is explained on their website as a tool that "allows anyone to gather distributed data via SMS, email or web and visualise it on a map or timeline. Our goal is to create the simplest way of aggregating information from the public for use in crisis response". This amazing tool started because of the ethnic violence in Kenya back in 2008. If I was an HSIE teacher I would definitely mention this to my students, a great example of democrady in action using Web 2.0 tools.



2) The fact that even though the web is democratic it is dominated by a very small number of programs and tools. For example, Facebook dominates the social networking "market", YouTube the video sharing market etc.

I was familiar with blogs but only as a follower. In this module, I really enjoyed learning how to create a blog using blogger and was quite surprised by how easy it was to publish posts which include links, photos and even videos. Actually I should not have been because it seems that most of the Web 2.0 tools are very user friendly.

I can see myself using blogs in the classroom. The ability for readers to leave their comments in an interactive format is a great feature to enhance learning.
I found a great website which provides specific examples and strategies for creating electronic, educational, experiential, and engaging scrapbooks!

I like the idea of electronic scrapbooking. As explained on it is the practice of combining photographs, written narratives, quotations and other textual content into a scrapbook style album. The E-scrapbooks would be very engaging for students and a great tool for reflecting on their ideas about science and also to share ideas with other students and/or the teacher. They would be a great way to track student learning, thinking and understanding. I also think that students who would know they have an audience other than just me the teacher would write more carefully as they really care about what their peers think about their work.

You could easily create a teacher's blog to share interesting information(in the form of posts with embedded websites, videos and photos) with the students in the class and have them comment on the information you have shared. Students could also be asked to create a learning journal which includes reflections and some of the interesting photos, websites, videos that they have found on a topic or an electronic reflection on what they have learned in class today. You could also create a class teacher-directed blog where students and teacher share their findings and ideas.

I would really like for the logbook that we ask our Year 8 and Year 10 students to produce during their scientific research project to become an electronic scrapbook. I think students would enjoy it more than writing in an exercise book. I have just marked the year 8 logbooks and a major issue was that very few students demonstrated their thinking processes. Another advantage would be that you could check that they are actually working on their project on a daily basis. You could comment on their project as they are doing it rather than having to collect their log books at a specific date. You could also refer students to other students' blogs to show them what is a "good" blog.

I have bookmarked an interesting website about blogs that I will read as this is a tool I want to know more about.

Module 1: Web 2.0 and personalising my Web space

My name is Jessica and I have been teaching science at Domremy College for nearly five years. In October 2008, I gave birth to Jeremy and stayed at home on maternity leave until January 2010.

When I came back to work two days a week in a job share situation in January 2010, I found out that laptops had been introduced at our school and that I had missed all the professional development opportunities that must have been offered at the time. I felt lost for the first time since my first couple of months as a beginning teacher...I had never even used a Mac :-) and did not feel comfortable using technology in my classroom.

I had recently been to the CEO worshop "Using Technology in the Science Classroom" with Michael Prest and Frank Milic as presenters. I am embarrassed to say that I first heard about the CEO ILe@rn model and ILe@rn projects (Rosemary Englert presented their "Waves are not just for surfers" project) that day. It was an eye opener to see all the different tools now on offer on the Internet and how teachers were successfully integrating them in their classroom. On that day, about a week ago, I decided to enrol in the Web 2.0 course.

I am hoping to learn about the different Web 2.0 online tools (wikis, blogs, Google docs, Delicious etc) and how to use them in my classroom to enhance my students learning and to make it more meaningful and fun. I would say that I am a beginner in elearning although I have used some Web 2.0 tools before such as YouTube, Facebook and Skype. However I have not really used these tools in the classroom except YouTube to show the Tom Lehrer Elements song to my year 8 students and a couple of scootle lessons.



Before starting the course, I went online and checked my digital footprint. Like most students, I had never really thought that something I posted online to my friends could potentially be used against me (for example by current or future employers). I found my Facebook and Linkn accounts a couple of links to my previous career as an environmental consultant.

In module one, the first thing I found really interesting was learning about the differences between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. I think that the possibility of collaboration and sharing in Web 2.0 tools will be something that our students will really enjoy as they love group work and the sharing of ideas. However, as said in one of the YouTube clips, it will be important to explicitly teach students about the limitations of these tools, especially copyright issues and reliablity of sources of information.

I loved the Jane Hart website introducing all the tools. However I did feel a bit overwhelmed by the number on offer. I have bookmarked it as I intend to go back to it throughout the course.

I cannot believe that I did not know about IGoogle especially as I have been using Google as a browser and Gmail as my email for years. I think that the personalised webpage will be useful for personal use as it allows quick and easy access to email and a variety of gadgets (weather, YouTube, to do list, science posts). I am also planning on adding a couple of crafty blog I love to read. However, I am not sure how IGoogle could be used in the classroom at this stage and I am a bit concerned that students would be too distracted by the various gadgets and the busy nature of the page.

I am excited about the learning journey ahead.