Final Reflection

I finish with dark chocolate cups filled with a decadent triple cream chocolate mousse sitting on a layer of raspberry syrup

These delicate chocolate cups took alot of time to create and perfect - again my reflection on food is parallel to that of teaching. This course has taken  time and makes me so much more aware of the need to implement technology. It is often stated that "teaching is a human endeavour" so in the creation of a classroom in which I engage with students in a technologically savvy way, I will make mistakes. My strength is that I will continue to try and implement new learning tools and if they don't work well with one group of students, I can always try with another year group.

Web 2.0 encourages the development of a dynamic learner, and through the use of various activities we can target all levels of Blooms Taxonomy. There is a strong focus in Blooms on student centered learning, which is reinforced by many tools we have explored in the Web 2.0 course. While a mind mapping tool such as Bublus can be used to concisely summarise a topic by using basic recall, blog posts demand a higher order of thinking as students may be asked to critically evaluate the material covered in a syllabus, especially evident in the more controversial topics such as genetic engineering. Web 2.0 also highlights the idea that teachers no longer just disseminate information, but that students play a crucial role in collaboratively constructing their knowledge. Teachers must now facilitate the use of technology. Students are becoming global citizens simply by virtue of their interactive use of the web. The use of Web 2.0 technology and the skills that students will acquire is in line with the CEO's iLEARN model. In order to connect and engage with students we must acknowledge that they way they learn is changing, and therefore change with them.

Previous to completing this course I thought I was making use of technology in the classroom. Upon reflection I can see that I was doing this in a "Web 1.0" fashion, where students were the passive recipients of information. Students have been receptive to the introduction of mind mapping, blogging and EdModo, which has only encouraged me to continue my professional development in the area of technology. It is amazing that students are now the creators of knowledge and information, rather than just recipients.

The blog that I have posted a comment on is here


http://lorenawebtwo.blogspot.com/2011/07/module-9.html?showComment=1309947183721#c6339089612389578073

Learning Communities, Constructing Knowledge Together in Wikis - Module 10

These very simple vanilla butterfly cakes are one of my favourite basic recipes. I use a raspberry Chantilly cream with fresh vanilla bean to top them off, so yummy!

My last module reflection is similar to these basic cupcakes, in that they remind me that I have so many skills in the kitchen but sometimes, traditional methods are best. I recognise that I must embrace the technology that Web 2.0 has guided me through (in fact I have loved the challenge of thinking of ways to implement them in the classroom), and I genuinely enjoy getting students to interact with content in a way that they are familiar with. However, I think students need to develop a level of independence and take responsibility for their learning. It is not a good situation to see that only a  few students contribute to collaborative learning sites, while all students benefit. This means those that do not contribute are not actively engaging with content. Additionally, our formal external exams are all still written, and with the implementation of so much technology students are losing the ability to write quickly and legibly, so I think our system has to catch up to the technology we are frequently using in the classroom.

As for the advantages I think these online learning communities, such as Wikis, give students who would not ordinarily contribute to class discussions a chance to be heard. Those students that are shy, quiet or not confident in their abilities will get a chance to feel heard and benefit from the stronger students. The sites also enable students to hear the different perspectives of the people in the group. The sites are a way to reinforce the content taught in class and with students explaining it in their own words, a teacher can be confident that students are becoming fluent in a particular area of study. The online communities  also deliver a sense of equity amongst classes. In my experience, the biology Wiki enables me to make available all the resources I have used in the classroom so that the other class has access, this is  also reciprocated by the other teacher. This reinforces the idea that we are one cohort and not separate classes competing against each other. Furthermore, online communities could could be established across multiple schools. This would be a great benefit to science as there are many teachers who have come to be teachers after a substantial career in science, particularly research, and thus we could draw on the most experienced teachers to enhance our knowledge of syllabus material.

I think our role as teachers is changing, we have to embrace technology in order to engage students, but I don't want to forget traditional methods such as drawing basic diagrams, this is especially important in science as a diagram can often better explain what a student is trying to say than simply writing a response.

Networks on the Web, Professional and Social - Module 9

In the front there are cocoa dusted dark chocolate truffles with a ganache centre, in the background (barely visible) are marzipan and date truffles dipped in dark chocolate - these have been a family tradition for Christmas for as long as I can remember :)

With the explosion in popularity of Facebook came the delicate issues of privacy, cyber bullying and  duty of care. I strongly believe that there needs to be boundaries between the social and professional lives of teachers and students and therefore fully back moves by the CEO to ban all Facebook correspondence between students and teachers. I recognise that Facebook is a communication tool that is familiar to students, however there are other tools, such as Edmodo, which are very similar to Facebook and allow parental access. The parental access negates any concerns about the content or conversations that students and teachers may engage in. Additionally, I regularly monitor the account that I have set up for my year 11 students, ensuring that all communication is appropriate. The process is transparent, the students know they are being monitored, the parents are comfortable and teachers know that false accusations cannot be made - while easily making available electronic resources such as work booklets (students can the download and print these themselves, thus reducing paper usage at school) and YouTube links. Finally, we must educate our students as to why sites such as Facebook are inappropriate in the classroom, not simply ignore their questions. We have a responsibility to teach them that some behaviours can be considered distracting and prdatory

Collaboration tools such as Wikis are a great way to ensure that students share questions, notes, links etc. on syllabus material. In fact, we frequently use WetPaint in biology. It is difficult to navigate through at first (leading to some students not wanting to use it) but I persisted and now I am seeing all the benefits, especially the chance for students to collaboratively create study notes.

I have not had a chance to use Scootle, but reflections from other teachers lead me to believe that the program is somewhat restrictive, with many teachers opting to not use it anymore.

I think that online communities are an excellent concept for the classroom  but teachers must be vigilant to the potential problems that could arise because it is new, and we are still navigating our way through. Furthermore, we need to make the distinction bewteen social networking and online communities very clear.

Managing Your Flow of Information on the Internet - Module 8

Maybe its because I am nearly finished Web 2.0, but I these little Christmas gingerbread men make me feel so festive! They are a modification of Mrs Fields recipe and are always enjoyed :)

RSS feeds are fantastic tools for teachers and possible even keen students. I have been using RSS feeds for two websites this year, the Board of Studies (BOS) and ScienceAlert. The BOS ensure that I keep abreast of syllabus changes while ScienceAlert refers recently published articles in my area of interest (a good site for those keen students!). RSS feeds are definitely a great way to keep on top of new information without me physically logging onto websites and checking for changes weekly. RSS feeds would also be useful if I decided to utilize blogging in the classroom, as I could quickly be altered when a student has made a contribution to the site.

Buiding Online Communities & Social Bookmarking using Delicious and Sharing Blogs - Module 7

I have mastered the macaron, with  the perfect pied - Adrian Zumbo & Hisako Ogita would be impressed! These are a dark chocolate chip macaron with a chocolate and peanut butter ganache which is my husbands favourite flavour

These macarons are "Delicious" which is coincidentally the name of the online book marking tool. I had not previously taken the time to explore this tool, even though I had heard many teachers make reference to its usefulness, but now I am truly converted! To have access to my favourite websites on any computer at any time is fantastic. Furthermore, I see so many students that are not able to effectively carry our research to locate reliable and valid resources on the Internet. If there was a class account that students could contribute to, I could regularly check the websites they are using to ensure that they are more than just an endless list of Wikipedia entries. I think this tool would be very valuable for seniors, especially in the context of giving students links to the most recent articles relevant to the syllabus material because technology in science changes and advances so rapidly. I would also like to see our KLA establish a common account, we could annotate the sites and classify them according to the units of work. This would cut out time in searching for material and over a period of time build a very resourceful virtual library.

One down side is that I do not like the way the Tags appear in the tool bar, but I am sure that is just a settings issue, one that i am yet to sort out!

Exploring Photos and Videos on the Web - Module 6

One of my favourite dishes of all time (I would eat it every night!) - chilli eggplant with prawns, adapted from the lovely Kylie Kwong!

My experience with Flickr is limited (although I am starting to think that I should use it to post my food wonders) because if I have wanted to share photos with friends I have used Facebook (clearly not allowed in schools, and for good reason!) or with students, I have used EdModo. As I already have a way of sharing images with students, I am not sure that I will utilize Flickr in the near future, although I can see it may have potential in the classroom such as sharing photos of scientific diagrams. It would be easy for a student to capture what I have drawn on the board and then up load it to a general account that the class shares, especially good for when a student is away.

Creating and Communicating Online - Module 5

Inspired by Gourmet Traveller, this is a triple chocolate cheesecake on a sable base, topped with hazelnut praline - it takes two days to create but it was in celebration of my brothers engagement, so it was worth every complex minute!

I am not a visual learner, I love to methodically write notes in concise point form but I do realize that many students are more engaged when presented the opportunity to draw what they know. I started using Bublus in Term one and have found that  it is a great tool for creating unit summaries or at the beginning of a unit as a diagnostic assessment. I can then save the mind maps and give students access to them. I have also set the creation of a mind map for homework for junior students and it is interesting to see what they have learned by the end of a unit of work!

I have not yet had the chance to create a Prezi for the classroom. I think it is also an innovative tool for visual learners because they program can show relationships between the information being presented, I am apprehensive about implementing the program (as opposed to traditional PowerPoint) because I get a little motion sick when the presentation moves too fast.

Here is an example of a map that we created as a class in Senior Science: