Module 9

Hello all

This was an interesting and eye opening course.

Scottle is an incredible application. I was fortunate enough to have been given a sneak peak of this program at school. We spent a few hours learning how to search and create learning paths. So I reviewed all the course documents to brush up on my search techniques and reviewed some learning paths already created. This is a fantastic resource of which I'm sure will only grow as more teachers begin to use it. The thing I like most is that it does not just focus on videos and pictures but it also has learning objects and interactive games that you would not normally find in other places on the web OR have to pay a fortune for.

The view portrayed of social networking sites was interesting. My feelings towards such applications is fairly negative despite being a user. I currently use the facebook application but I do not log onto the site for a couple of hours each day. I try to limit it to maybe 2 hours a week. I also only try to use it to email people and organise social gatherings. I feel applications like this, encourage people to sit at computer rather than go out and interact with others. We learn to 'talk' to someone through a computer and forget to assess things such as tone and body language when engaging with other people. Having said that, I'm aware that these applications are only growing in popularity so schools need to learn to sink or swim!

However, I was pleasantly surprised at some of the proposed educational uses of social networking sites. In particular, second life. The uses of such a program could be endless in providing students with a virtual world to learn about the real world. My only concern is using these applications to replace excursions. Nothing can substitute for actually visiting an art gallery or being given a tour of a museum.

Having reservations about the program I reviewed what others had to say about social networking sites. One colleague in particular mentioned that Second Life was created for entertainment purposes and students might inevitably revert to using it for entertainment purpose despite being instructed to use it appropriately in the classroom. There was also a concern about the level of literacy and numeracy of students as a result of reverting to ICT applications in the classroom. I suppose teachers and schools will have to think hard about how they use technology – should it be a support system or should schools completely revert to computers?