Module 5

I'm not sure whether we in Melbourne were supposed to do this Module but I thought as we are learning new Online web tools and skills it wouldn't hurt looking at it.  So I did.  I thought the Bubble Us was a good useful brainstorming tool that could be used even in the classroom as a tool to teach children to brainstorm.  Rather than have it on sheets of paper that will eventually be thrown out or  filed amongst our ever growing hard copies, it would be much better to save it online where it can be retrieved and reused at a future stage without all the extra hard copies.

Picaso is very similar to windows media as well as all the other places you can store photos and images.  My only problem with this is that you are doubling up on all these images. Between the Microsoft documents where we save images and videos, we can also save them to Dropbox and I Cloud and Sugar Sync.  Do we really need all of these places to save all these pictures?  Why can't just the media files designed for the computer be good enough to store there and one in our virtual world?  I have a concern that there will be so much space used on the computer that we won't have enough space to save other documents.  Otherwise I can see it is a good tool.  Therefore is it better to use Picaso that Windows media? I would appreciate any ones thoughts about this.  Maybe that's why we didn't have this as part of our Module work.

As for Prezi I didn't sign up as I didn't feel comfortable about giving our school website without permission from my Principal.

Glogster

I have experimented with Glogster and have found it very confusing.  Despite watching the tutorials I have got very lost.  Maybe with more practise I will get better but to post my Mind map on it I took over 2 hours to read and sort through all the information.  Just finding an acceptable Nickname took well over half an hour.  If using all these tools are going to take so long is it really worth it?  My Glogster account is http://aussiecasa.edu.glogster.com/  Where I was feeling very excited learning new ideas.  This has made me want to not even use the account.  Can someone please tell me why I need to use it when I can Blog and do the same things.  I don't know whether I would set up children's accounts as this would have to be passed by the school authorities.

Module 5 Mind Map from Bubbl.us as well as Picasa

This is my Mind Map from Module 3 about Web 2 Online course.

This is another great way to share ideas with other professionals that can improve on your ideas by suggesting better strategies and tools you can use to achieve best teaching practise.

Just love this blog.  I hope mine will one day begin to look like this.
http://yollisclassblog.blogspot.com.au/

My school Blog is only still in its early stages as we are only just setting them up and being very aware of Cyber Safety issues.  My school blog address is
http://cwilliams.global2.vic.edu.au/

Module 4

I can see all this new technology is going to keep me busy.  It will be great for the students to use but I have a number of concerns about cyber safety.   I think the students wouldn't be able to use any photos of themselves or put their names to any work.  I think as a storytelling mechanism it is fantastic and in fact as well are learning Fables at school at the moment and linking them in with our Intercultural Understanding and school values the Podcasts on Aesop's fables are very suitable.  They can be used in cross curriculum activities not just literacy.  The children in my 1/2 class could use the podcasts to make their own story about their own memories.  Currently they are sharing their own stories from items collected in their Memory box to the rest of the class.  I have made a Power Point of their photos and memories.  The children have been using the I Pad to video each other so that they can then make their own movie using Movie Maker.  Then they will have their own digital memory.  This would be a fantastic learning tool.  They could add their Podcast to the class Blog but not use their name. that way they remain anonymous.

The Teacher Tube videos would be great to use in class as a different teaching method for the children.  All these different web tools allows for more variety and engagement by students.

I have real concerns about the ustream.tv though.  I'm reluctant to use that at the moment until I'm more confident with it.

French Riviera

French Riviera

Pompeii

Pompeii