Module Ten

It was great exploring wikis. I haven't used these with a class yet but plan to next year. We had a lot of trouble accessing wetpaint from school, no matter what filters I submitted we just couldn't seem to get complete access to it.

The Bloom's Digital Map was awesome. I emailed it to all members of staff and I plan to use it myself to link to the curriculum next year.

Module Nine

We have been using Scootle at school for a while now and I love the site. The learning paths are an excellent way of managing the endless amount of resources available. When I was playing with the site I found a tool I hadn't previously used, collaborative activities. This looks like an excellent tool which enables the students to journal their learnings online, I plan to use this next year.

I have been using personal networking sites facebook and twitter. I find facebook a great way of networking with friends, particularly those who are overseas.

Module Eight

RSS feeds seem to make life easier and quicker. I have added Google Reader to my iGoogle page so that when I log onto the internet all the sites I am subscribed to will be visible straight away. Initially I subscribed to too many sites and I found the amount of information overwhelming so I had to cut back.

I can see some value in using RSS feeds if you were following a number of students' blogs and you had to monitor progress. This would allow you to see when the blogs had been updated.

Module Seven

I introduced our staff to delicious earlier this year. It is an excellent site. I have found it to be a fantastic tool to store and organise the websites you find. The more people I connect with on delicious the more sites I am able to find.

It was also great to explore other people's blogs and comment on them. I find it encouraging to know that people are reading my blogs and I like to encourage others by commenting on theirs.

Module Six

bubbl.us is a fantastic site and I plan to use this with my students next year. It is an extremely easy to use online graphic organiser. The students love using technology so this would be a great tool. You could use it at the beginning or end of a unit of work and get students to organise their knowledge then they could post this knowledge on a blog or wiki.

Module Three

In this session our group explored Google Docs. We initially had to skip this session in order to fix some filtering problems, but have been successful the second time around! There are some benefits to Google Docs, namely the ability to access documents anywhere (so long as the internet can be accessed!). We also discussed how this might be useful in a classroom, particularly with older students. Students can send drafts to to the teacher who can then edit, or it could be collaborative work between students. I haev not used this with students yet, but I will look for opportunties to.

Module Five

During this session our group explored various forms of digital storytelling. We have all begun to use and create podcasts and vodcasts within our classrooms already and certainly see the benefit of digital storytelling on learning. The students are highyl engaged and motivated to learn and particpate in sharing their knowledge. We challenged ourselves to then explore you tube and teacher tube and embed clips into our blogs. I have even learnt how to do this in MyClasses too, so I'm off to share my new skill with the rest of my group!

Module Four

Today we had some difficulties with our security settings. I will have to investigate another way to allow teachers to access Google Docs and Wetpaint as my filter is not working! So after a little frustration and a slow start we decided to jump to module four - Flickr.

I have previously created a Flickr account and practised uploading photos. It is not a program I use personally to share photos online, but I can certainly see the benefits for people who just wish to share photos and create products with these pictures. It is also a great site to find copyright free photos for personal use or in the classroom.

I thought originally that there was a way to embed your Flickr images onto your blog page, however this doesn't seem to be the case. Instead I think you either have to link to your Flickr Photostream or just load the pictures onto your page. If anyone knows a way to embed the picture please let me know.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/42498420@N05/

I have also used some other great sites which link into Flickr - my favourite being www.bighugelabs.com
You can do all sorts of fun stuff with your photos - check out my billboard! It's a little small so you'll have to click on it!

Module Two

All the members of our little group came back this week! They haven't been scared off yet which is great :-) This week we went through how to create a blog, we started with the basics and they've all gone off to explore over the next week.

I can see so much potential using blogs in the classroom, whether it be to share ideas, give feedback, journal, it's endless. The problems I have encountered though with the many blog creation sites I've explored are the issues surrounding privacy and expense. In order to be completely private and for the teacher to have a lot of control the blogs have cost money. I would love to know what other people are doing to get around this so that I can explore that avenue.

I have spent some time adding the other teachers' blogs so that I can follow them. We'll create our own small online community.

Module One

My name is Nicole and I am the ICT co-ordinator at my school. I am leading this course with an enthusiastic group of wonderful teachers at my school. I have been exploring Web 2.0 tools for a while now and am using this opportunity to not only teach some others about my experiences but to also continue to develop my skills. I have begun to use some of the tools with my class but there is still a long way to go. During the course I will reflect on some of the things I have tried with my students and hopefully get some more ideas about what others are doing too.

This module allowed me to show the teachers how to use iGoogle, we had a lot of fun creating personalised gadgets to count down to important events.