June 3, 2008
December 3, 2007
Had a great session at LIFT for ICT Continuum. Actually understood blogs and wikis before hand, this session reinforced these concepts. Explored googledocs too, have used this with my students. Fun.
November 6, 2007
Well I introduced our new classroom blog today, that was great. I have had one student make a post, we have decided to use an alias for each student, since I feel this is safer for them. Any thoughts on how I could make use of this blog, aside from just posting comments?
November 4, 2007
I have set up a new classroom blog for my students to start using next week. This was relatively easy, similar to the wordpress blogs we have. The wiki is a little tougher to figure out, but I will keep practicing. It all takes time……..
October 29, 2007
I have enjoyed using my weblog to keep in contact with various people from this course, and to stay somewhat connected to what is going on in this course. I feel that the use of a classroom based weblog would be a very effective learning tool for students. I have a classroom based calendar where I post daily homework and assignments, with the hope that the students (and parents) will be checking daily to see what is due for the following day or week. I was curious as to how many of my students actually use this site, and not one of them put up their hand. As a teacher, this was disappointing for me. At the end of every school day I will spend approx. 15-20 min, either updating this site, or emailing parents with homework that may have been missed. I will continue to do this, in the hope that someone will eventually check this site, and make use of the info that is made available to them. That is what a teacher does! Technology does open up a wide range of learning for students, the use of JING or Epearl look like interesting sites. I am glad that I have had the chance to learn and use weblogs, and hopefully I will use this tool in my classroom in the future.
October 26, 2007
I have searched to no end, and I have not been able to find the google calendar that everyone is talking about. Can anyone help?
October 21, 2007
I feel that someone who decides to approach the idea of learning online must be somewhat motivated and self directed. We all have responsibilities, whether it be holding a job, or being a student, raising families, etc - and being able to find the time to keep up with the demands of the course, can be taxing. That’s why I like the idea of being able to read each other’s blogs, and see what everyone else is doing. I think of it like a little support group, on the web. When people make comments on other blogs, this gives us all a chance to voice our opinion, or share an idea with many. To me this is also a part of the learning process, sharing ideas with other people. Being able to contact the instructor is another positive, email /blogs - it is an easy process. I guess whatever you put into online learning, you will get out.
October 19, 2007
I have the use of a SMART board in my classroom, and I find this a very valuable teaching tool. There are many sites that I use when teaching. I am implementing the Gr7 Math Assessment with my students, and I have found a great site online called the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives. This is a cool site, with lots of interesting math concepts, and interactive sites. EducationWorld.com is another useful site for educators. Over the years, I have collected many sites which I use for my courses. The SMART board allows me to show the kids the activity, and they can actually write on the site. We usually print off what we have covered in a particular class, and they can use this as reference or notes. Technology is great!
October 10, 2007
Security issues when using the worldwide web is a huge concern for teachers and students. A teacher has to be constantly on his or her guard checking and making sure that their students are where they should be. Students now adays are very clever when it comes to searching out sites which may or may not be appropriate. I know that schools all have a filtering system put into place for their computers, but you will always find the odd student who can get around this. I, myself, am always are little doubtful about the safety of using the internet, even on sites that claim they are secure. I have shopped online before, I can access my bank accounts and credit cards from my personal computer. Deep down I do believe that these sites are okay, but there will always be someone out there who tries to figure out how to try and hack into these sites.
As a teacher, I try to make the students aware of the positives and negatives of the web. They need to realize that the web can be an amazing tool which should be used wisely, and not abused. I try to discourage them from putting personal info about themselves online, but I know and have seen them using many questionable sites, like facebook.com. My students this year are really hooked on this site, and are trying to encourage me to do the same. I have seen many old highschool classmates on this site, and I am sure that these people don’t even know that their faces are there. Is this not a breach in privacy? This is a difficult issue to address, because a lot of their parents even have their own facebook accounts.
In the future, I would like to see a tech/teachers, organize a parent meeting, explaining the privacy issues that arise when you use these sites. I feel that most parents don’t see anything wrong with these sites, but perhaps if they knew about the privacy concerns, they would change their minds about that.
October 9, 2007
Hello to all! I have been enjoying learning about how to use blogs, but I do agree that it is a time consuming task. (and at times, a frustrating one) I have set up a few links on the side of my blog, and I hope to add a few more.
Selecting the theme for my blog was fun, lots of choices there. I read the clip on the course blog about Reading Books vs. Playing Video Games. Definitely food for thought. Have a great day!
