The blogging experience....

Advantages:
Having the blog throughout the course allowed for some great reflection on the things we were learning each week. Whilst I gave many of the tools thought and consideration actually putting this into written words makes you think about it one step further.
Drawbacks:
They can be time consuming. Hours could be lost looking for things to add to the blog, reading others, making comments, and adding my own posts. I sometimes found them tricky to manage as well, flicking from different pages and logging in all the time. For discussion of one themed topic I have a preference for discussion boards in place of blogs, this way the one flow of discussion stays in the same place.
My public voice:
Finding a voice was a little difficult. This had a lot to do with not yet knowing what I wanted to use my blog for (a resource page, store holder, or online journalling). Without realising my page quickly became one for reflection and as a result served more as a personal journalling experience than a page that offered insight or required questioning from other people. It became more of a palce for me to pool together my ideas and beliefs on the issues of technology in education.
Usefulness:
I enjoyed reflecting personally on issues of the course and I think this is the obvious trend of my blog. The feedback from peers was appreciated and it was nice to know that someone was listening to my opinions and thoughts. I enjoyed logging onto my blog and seeing new comments.
It was however sometimes difficult to comment on other peoples blogs. Often posts were lengthy and hard to follow depending on the type of online voice they had. I assume this would be the same trend for students - possibly avoiding blogs that are not similar to their own due to them being too difficult to understand.
Embedding links:
Once you knew how, this was an extremely easy tool to utilise, and one I could imagine younger years students being able to do. Personally, I do not spend a lot of time searching the net for resources and as a result this has not been reflected in my blog. For teaching purposes you could easily have students find 1-2 items on a certain topic to collect for their blog.
Next time:
I had not blogged before and I had never been someone who eveen journalled so this was a new and unique experience for me. In blogging again in the future I think it would very much depend on the context. It was recently bought to our attention that a blog like this could be used in our teaching portfolio to demonstrate our tech knowledge. Had I known this earlier perhaps I would have taken a more professional approach to my blog and used this to represent some of me newly acquired tech skills. However, blogs could still be used in what I still think their traditional sense is - an online diary/journal with students detailing their reflections on the week or certain tasks.

I have used my blog as a place to reflect on the things we have discussed in our course this semester. I have tried to connect the new tools we have discussed with how I might use them in my teaching with students. The blog was a nice place for me to really stop, think, and make connections between these new technologies and teaching opportunities.

Semantic Web

Making the web a more meaningful resource has some amazing opportunities but some scary concerns as well.

Opportunities:
with the notion that the web becomes more intelligent due to the way it remembers previous search info, and collates infromation on you based on the groups you belong to etc. this will alleviate some of the stress associated with information overload and the amount of irrelevant information out there. being able to ask the internet for a search and for it to provide the most relevant answers to your world will be wonderful use of time.

Concerns:
limiting your search world and the chance to be exposed to new things. what people often find so wonderful about the internet is the endless amount of new things they are able to find out about. If we have searches that are catered only to our personal taste then there is a level of conern that we will not step outside our comfort zone and try new things.

Hopefully there would be an option to choose whether we search in a semantic web and maybe we could turn this option on and off when we feel like it?

The implications for education:
reduce the info overload our students face and pool relevant info. also a possible safety measure if the semantic web is able to choose age appropriate material for school aged children.

Multitasking

There are obvious debates for whether this is good or bad for computer use in education. Recent research has indicated that we are never able to do two things at the same time but that same of us are just able to switch between tasks extremely quickly.

In order to make some of the tasks more bearable that I complete at my computer, having Facebook and email open keeps me at my computer and makes the task of sitting at it all day more enjoyable.
On the other hand, I do notice my distraction at times from my essential tasks. There are moments when I check email or FB when I was only on them a minute earlier. Sometimes when returning to my original task it does take me some time to get back on track.
But back to the other hand, at least this keeps me at my computer and stops me from getting up and leaving it to do other tasks.
What should take me an hour probablly takes me two due to my multitasking and distracting myself. This I beleive is where the concern lies - often we hear reports of students spending hours at their computers trying to complete work (all of which occurs simultaneously with their blogging, instant messaging, you tubing, facebooking etc)and this has issues for tiredness and not ever completing the essential tasks.
Because I sit cautiously on the edge of this issue, being an avid procrastinator and multi-tasker (I have been blogging for hours but also Facebooking and emailing for that long too) I don't know the solution.
I'd love one if you have one... in the meantime i'll just check Facebook :)

Info Overload

There is a lot out there. I feel overwhelmed often when i sit down to do research at the number of stuff out there, sifting through it and finding the relevant stuff. And i have the skills needed to be able to do this. No wonder students have similar feelings and are often left confused by the information they see. I understand now why so many teachers find the research for their students and then get them to pull information from this - it acts as a means for controlling the content students are exposed to but also relieves the information overload feelings.
My concern with teachers doing this is whether they are prohibiting their students from developing the info literacy skills that they need. Yes there is a lot out there but if you can manage the learning of these skills effectively then hopefully you can reach a point where your students can do the research independently without the overload feelings.
Solution:
Rather than printing one or two pages of information and having students highlight it, pool a larger number of research materials online into a class wiki or blog that resembles a reseach page. a tag cloud or using a my delicious account would work well also. This means students still work to develop their info literacy skills by working througha number of materials but not so many that they are overwhelmed. As they develop their skills the number of materials can be increased, even introducing irrelevant or unreliable resources will require students to extend their skills

Using chat rooms and social networking sites in education

If I am lucky enough to work in a school where a second language is taught then I would love to work in conjunction with the language teacher in developing a penpal relationship with students in another class speaking the language who may also be trying to learn english. What better way to engage students and have them practice their language skills than by liasing with someone in another country.
Building a relationhip with a teacher/class in another country like this would open up countless opportunities for teaching focuses. The two classes could run projects in conjunction with each other rather than merely writing letters and practicing literacy and language skills. In integrating technology, students could move to to the use of web-cams to present information and share classrooms and culture even further than the written word.
In assisting the learning of a second language students could almost work together to teach other and run activities and groups to help each other learn.

Using the resources and teachers skills in your school (like a language teacher) is one of the most valuable messages I have taken on board to assist and benefit my teaching. A closer relationship with a language teacher means that students are not only making use of the language they learn in 1-2 lessons a week but that some of this practice may continue to be used in the classroom.

Risks and Dangers with when dealing with students computer use

"If you open yourself to the benefits and opportunities of the internet, you expose yourself to its risks and dangers at the same time. "
This is the opening statement on Mark's e-language wiki on digital safety. A statement that is certainly not exclusive to only internet use. If we open ourselves to the opportunities of stepping outside our house each morning then we also expose ourselves to risks and dangers. With any aspect in life that we expose ourself to the risks exist as well.
its about how those risks are managed and dealt with that makes the difference. If you can control for some of the dangers, prevent some of the risks by teaching the skills to manage these issues then you signifcantly reduce the risk attached.

to cross a road we look both ways - skills which we drum into children from the moment they first put a foot out the door.
In managing the same concerns for internet use in education we apply the same basic prinicples. This is inclusive of information literacy skills but also with outlining the explicit dangers of using the internet - inappropriate content, time online, contact, privacy, cyberbullying, misinformation. These should start to be introduced as soon as students start engaging in these tools

Friendly Schools and Families

http://www.friendlyschools.com.au/

A research based program with the support of Donna Cross - a leader in cyberbullying research.
The tools and resources are great, current, practical. I often referred to the resources and kept up to date with Donna's research when counselling my students and parents.

Any opportunity you have to attend a PD with Donna would be extremely worthwhile.

(i should call for a job for advertising with her!)