Course Reflection

Hiya Bloggers one and all,

To quote from the great film Dirty Dancing, ''I feel like it is all slipping away somehow.'' Yes the end has finally come. It is time to write my course reflection and move on to the big Web2.0 world of teaching.

Well it seems like a long time ago that I started wide eyed and naive on the path to Web2.o enlightenment. A long time ago indeed. I used to think I was reasonable in applying technology in the classroom. That was before this course and oh how my eyes have been opened. There is so much out there. Wow!!

I have really enjoyed my journey of learning. I have already used some of the applications in class. Bubbl.us is fabulous, as is glogster which I need to explore more. I have looked up and used things from blogs. I am now aware of a range of networking sites which will be useful for teachers. If you haven't checked out mrb's blog Network Nine you should. It will be shutting soon I believe. I was very inspired. Here is the link: http://mrbsblog.com/

I have been inspired by this new web world and have started creating a blog for my class and have learnt a lot including such things as embedding YouTube videos images, links to make the blog interesting. Well for me at least, I suppose if the kids like it then that is a bonus. I guess I am aware that we can sometimes use technology for the sake of it rather than having it enhancing the learning experience. Hopefully I will be able to make the blog meaningful for the children and their learning. There are of course issues for us as teachers. Of course we only have two hours, maybe three with our laptops. Thus, access which is reliable is not always available. I see my blog and it's activities therefore as mainly to push the more interested and Gifted children. Those children who will be happy to head home and hop on the internet and learn to sate their curiosity. Of course many applications will help in delivering more interesting and motivational lessons as well.

The course as it has gone on has also lead me to feel rather overwhelmed by the amount of useful material out there in Web world. It is just incredible. You could spend hours and hours every day and not scratch the surface. I guess the challenge then is to take small steps, become confident and competent in a small range of applications before pushing out those boundaries little by little. Hopefully such things as delicious, scootle etc, will also make it easier to find things which will be helpful and meaningful.

This trip to Webway heaven I think has helped me see the future. Especially as the children become more settled in school and more mature, I think we will see teachers step more into the background and rather than teaching we will be facilitating which I guess we already do to some extent. I think we will point the children in the right direction, help them with selecting appropriate technology and using our great questioning skills, guide them on their learning. I think the children will demand it of us. I like to think that this will see the children become more creative and engaged learners. Rather than us feeding them information and activities as we can sometimes do, they will develop more higher order thinking, skills.

Well again quoting Dirty Dancing, ''22 countries in 3 days that's what the kids want." Our kids are growing in a very different era to ourselves and I think we need to keep up with the times or school will become rather irrelevant for most. Never before has there been so much information and technology available. We need to equip our children to be able to think and work in this world. That of course means we have a lot of learning to do ourselves.

Well anyway if you have read this far I apologise for writing such a load of drivel, hahaha!!! At least if you have insomnia I will probably have cured you of that. Please just wipe that drool off you mouth though, it is a little gross.

Well so long suckers, it has been fun,

Cheers Colin
P.S. I commented on the blog of Jane Coates and the link is as follows: http://janesweb2.blogspot.com/2010/06/reflection.html

Module 10

Hiya Bloggers,

How in the heck are you all? Well what did I learn in module 10. Well I couldn't tell you what the heck a ning is and I can't really see the difference between a wiki and a blog. Yes I am a dummy. Maybe it is just late at night and I am beyond saturation. There is just so much out there. I think I need to get a job just searching for stuff. Well I guess I have delicious now which may help me narrow things down.

Well sorry folks short and sweet this time round which you will no doubt be thankful for.

Cheers Colin

Module 9

Friends, foes, followers, welcome one and all.

Here we are again for another blog post. The weeks are flying past and I see the end is fast approaching. Parting will be such sweet sweet sorrow.

I digress. We are looking this week at social networking sites. I am already a Facebook user yself. I do enjoy being able to see what people are up to without necessarily having to physcially catch up or message people. Due to this I never really got into Twitter. It seems much the same but even more meaningless. Of course I did become of Twitter follower of Julia Gillard to keep a close eye on the evil one. She seems to have called my bluff and is now follwoing me!!! Oh my days better watch what I tweet I guess. Actually that will be nothing.

Scootle is another resource which seems to be very useful and will give help to teachers in preparing for meaningful lessons, teaching and learning.

Well so long for now. And as I always say, well not for a while, does anybody really care, woo hoo.

Cheers Col

Module 7

Hiya again my fans,

How in the heck are youse all? I wish to apologise for the haphazard nature of my blogging. It appears as though I am going backwards and forward and sideways and all over the place really. Oh well, such is life as they say.
Today we are discussing delicious a very useful bookmarking site. I can see that it could be a very useful tool to have. I already have a number of people on my delicious network which equates to nearly 500 bookmarks. I guess it may be potentially cumbersome for me as I will have to sift through 500 websites which is a lot of sites. However, on the other hand you can I believe be fairly confident that the sites are useful as they have been chosen by other teachers and therefore useful. It also appears that many of the sites appear to be well labelled so it will be relatively easy to see which sites will be appropriate to my Year 3 children. All in all I think delicious will prove to be a useful site to have discovered. As they say Rome wasn't built in a day. Checking out a few bookmarks a night will see me through my 500 bookmarks in no time at all. I guess with all learning it is an ongoing process. Well anyway enough of this blogging thing, got to go check out a few more bookmarks.
Adios amigos,
Cheers Col

Module 6

Hiya All,

How in the heck are youse all? Well it is holidays so naturally I am happy as a pig in mud, haha! Yet here I am blogging in school holidays. What am I doing to myself. I must admit, here comes the nerd again, to being quite excited but some of the things I have been learning. I am trying to create a blog for my class. Some of the Web 2.0 tools I have been discovering have fit quite nicely into this blog. I see the future of children's learning and it is new and exciting.

Ok, I am getting carried away. On the down side setting up things and access issues are at the moment still a barrier but there are some interesting ways to change how the children are learning I think. This gets me to the first new tool we looked at in this module, bubbl.us. I have already used this in the classroom and think it is a new and interesting way of brainstorming with the children and also organising information into categories and subcategories which can be challenging for the children. Wouldn't it be great if on a SMARTBoard you could write into each bubble with your SMARTBoard pen.

Anyway on to glogster. This is quite an exciting new tool also. I have not really used it too much in my class but I think from next term I will use it more. I know the Year 6 teachers are using it widely and effectively to present students information in a new way. In some ways this tool allows the teachers to step back. A glogster poster pre-prepared can be the input tool for the student allowing them to spend more time assisting groups of children. It is the future I see, haha!!

I am hoping that I will be able to use these tools and become familiar with them and place them in my blog. As I said with ICT accessing and reliability issues, I can see a lot of the tools I will now be using will be particularly good in helping to push those Gifted and Talented and genuinely interesting children as they will be able to take extra strides in their learning at home. Those children who are motivated and interested will be able to use these tools to sate their curiosity. I hope. Of course it depends to a large degree on my own creativity which is slightly unfortunate, haha!!

Module 8

Hiya avid readers,


How in the heck are you all? I am sure as always you are waiting eagerly for my words of wisdom.


Ok today we are looking at RSS feeds and for me as a google account holder Google Reader. I am sure the Google organisation is waiting in great anticipation, perhaps trepidation on my opinion of this application.


Will I give them this:



















or this:








Ok, I have looked over the website and I must say I think that it is a little busy for a start. Also I think now I have igoogle, delicious and other such sites available to me I think that it is unecessary for me to use Google Reader. A bit of overkill really. I guess it may be useful if you were in high school and maybe doing Media Studies or such things as that.







So what is the verdict.






Well I am afraid to say Google Reader, the verdict is.......................
















And this is how empires fall, hahaha!

Cheers All


PS acknowledgement goes to the following site for the pics.
http://www.theboxset.com/images/reviewcaptures/892cap012.jpg

http://www.languagetrainers.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/thumbsup_arniesmall.jpg

Module 5

Hiya All,

How in the heck are you? Well who am I kidding? I am writing this for myself. There are no people in internet land interested in anything I have to say. Well let's face it who in their right mind is going to get excited about my views on teacher tube and other such things. Maybe I should make up some stories about wicked scandals at my school. Who is sleeping with who? HAHAHA!! What else could I make up? Or maybe I can just make this a random diary entry. I have been a great diary writer in the past. I was just reading my overseas diary from 1997. I was at the French Open that year. I had centre court tickets for the first day and watched Pete Sampras, Iva Mioli on that court. I also went out and watched Anna Kournikova when she was reasonable. I always miss Europe this time of year. Spring has hit and people and the cities come alive. The French Open always seemed to coincide with half term break and then soon after there was Wimbledon and then of course summer holidays. Great time to be alive!!!!! AAAhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!
Ok I must admit I have used YouTube videos a few times to show stories about Anzac Day and such things and they are quite useful. I am still having the problem of the amount of time needed to search to find some small titbit to use in the classroom. I am a bit overwhelmed by how much is out there. So there you go. I hope you have all enjoyed not reading my blog. I think for the next one I might just copy something from the internet and see if anyone even notices, haha!

Cheers Col

Module 4

Hiya Fellow Bloggers,

How in the heck are you all? So here we all are again, discovering the wonderful world of flickr. Hmmmm, again I must wonder at the practical value of such a thing. I am glad I now can think about how I can have some of my great holiday pics made into a great book to keep for the generations.

Well that is about it for me this week I am afraid. No usual witty humour and keen observations.
I will add a lovely pic for you to laugh at. Eventually

Module 3

Hiya All,
Well I have just written a wonderfully insightful and lengthy dissertation on the value of Google Docs. Sadly it was lost before I could publlish it so you are getting the short dodgy version. Perhaps you are thankful!!
I wonder what happens to all these great things we lose when we least expect it. Does it just hang out somewhere in cyberspace, watching us frantically searching for our valuable lost work. Is it somewhere out there sipping Pina Colada's saying so long suckers.
Well this is turning out to be the usual lengthy drivel I always turn out so back to Google Docs. Well I wonder if anyone thinks like me, especially in primacy schools, that all these great things, blogs, Docs etc, assumes a certain level of reliable and regular access to technology. I can see some great applications for the technology we are discussing and not to mention motivating for students but it is not always viable with the limited access we have. I could see some great opportunites for students to practise their learning and extend it at home even, though again there may be access problems for some students. We are writing some narratives at school at the moment. Wouldn't it be great to set up some story starters and let the kids add to, edit and publish these stories. And there could be plenty more. Well if I was more creative that is. Oh well you do what you can.
Well I shan't bore you any longer. Take it easy and remember, nobody really cares.
Cheers Col

Module 2 Part 1.5

Hiya Bloggers All,

How in the heck are youse!!!! Well this is a quickie. I have started to look at some of the blogs out there and I must admit my consternation and incredulation at the number of blogs and resouces out there, it is amazing. While it is amazing to see that there is so much out there, I must assert a point from my last entry about the use of blogs. While there is a massive amount out there, how are we meant to find things specific to the needs of our class and children. Oh my goodness, a bit like finding a needle in a haystack. Needless to say greater practise will help me to became better at searching and refining what it really is I need and what I am looking for. Hmmmmmm, I guess only time will tell.
On another note, no comments and still only 3 followers, I am beginning to suspect my latest evil plan for making my millions, so as to live in the lifestyle I deserve, may not be coming from blog writing. Shame. Guess I will have to go back to buying lottery tickets. Maybe Mr Trump is feeling generous at the moment.

Adios Amigos

Module 2 Part 1

Hiya all,

Well only up to module 2 and already have 3 followers. Ah the power, I hope it doesn't go to my head. Well so far so good with this blog thing. I guess it is the inner geek ( not nerd ). Maybe I should have stuck to computer science after all. I would have the riches and glory, the cars and the houses. Oh well I must satisfy myself with the inspiring young minds and filling them with knowledge. Or perhaps drivel if I asked the students!!!!
Well I am still unsure of how I will use the blogs to actually help my students learn from a practical point of view. Of course I have had fun playing around and putting up silly pics of myself. As I said the geek in me probably.
Still I will forge on and investigate how other people have used blogs and perhaps I will have my mind changed for me. Lets hope so.
Well take it easy all and remember, nobody really cares,
Cheers Col

Module 1

Well here we are starting on the road to blogway heaven. HHHHhmmmmm............. Does anybody really care?? Well I guess I need to get with the program or whateva the buzzword of the day is. I am hoping that maybe people will really care and I will be making millions in no time at all.
So excited readers, my name is Colin and I am a 37 year old, yes am getting old, who works in the Inner West in Sydney, woo hoo. Are we trembling yet? I teach an 'interesting' Year 3 class who are a bunch of lovely cherubs. I am hoping that this blog will aid me in motivating and tapping into my young students interests. Well anything really that will get them to stop falling asleep will be very nice indeed.
So module 1, what was that again. Ah yes igoogle, I remember now. I must say that it was quite a fun discovery. Imagine that when logging in to check your email you can also see a bunch of interesting sites right there in front of you. Some may say there are only so many sports websites you can look at but hey you just never know.
Well as my blog states does anyone really care. And I ask you as much as I have welcomed my new adventures in igoogle, is it just technology for the sake of it. Is is like the ipad a cool gadget with no real value except it is really cool. Well I guess that only time will tell. I hope that this web 2.0 adventure will actually be something I can use with my kids. And I suppose if that doesn't work I can be happy with the millions of dollars which I will inevitably make from my wonderfully witty and insightful blogging.
Thank you all and remember, noboyd really cares, hahahaha, woops I should say lol. Whatevaaaaa!!!

Cheers Col