Teaching in the big wired world

Goal #1- Web2.0

Once the goals had been set I enthusiastically dived in to the pool of web2.0. I had initially stated that I wanted to see how these could be used in a whole school environment however this changed once I realised how long it would take to get my own head around the plethora of web2.0 resources and began to focus more on how I could use these tools as a teacher for professional development and in my classroom. (This coincided with the realization that neither the parent nor the staff group were ready to communicate via blogs and my time and research would be better served by changing the focus of my web 2.0 studies).

New goal developed:

Develop a greater understanding of web 2.0 technologies focusing on how these technologies can be of use in the classroom and as a vehicle for teacher professional development.

In response to this new goal my learning took the following course:

• I attended a professional development session on wikis
• watched countless youtube clips and tutorials to educate myself
• participated in online conferences about blogs and podcasting
• read magazine articles such as ‘Blogging 2 Learn, Learning 2 Blog’ by Amanda Marrinan (2008)
• experimented with my own blogs and wikis
• tested a blog and a wiki with my class
• started developing my own delicious bookmarks
• joined online communities including Twitter and Diigo (once I joined these the learning became a lot thicker and faster as people post links to countless amazing sites every day)
• read other people’s blogs and visited their wikis
• joined a few wikis including http://twitter4teachers.pbwiki.com/
• commenced using Google Docs personally
• signed my students up to Google Docs to access homework
• got other teachers onboard with wikis in a ‘sneeky and creative’ way:

As in all schools, I feel that some teachers at my school are reluctant to embrace the technologically enhanced world, I had found it difficult to get my peers motivated about using web2.0 or even to educate them about it. The perfect opportunity recently arose where I was able to suggest a wiki for a group of staff to help organise our staff wellbeing day. This proved to be such a rich yet informal and spontaneous learning opportunity!

After this learning opportunity arose, I realised that with such a lack of staff confidence in ICT, the best type of PD for my staff is the informal and ‘needs based’ type. When learning baout a new ICT related tool / resource, they need to know what it is (in the simplest terms possible) and how is it going to be of use in my classroom. I have changed how I view my role as ICT Coordinator now- I think I need to be a resource stop for teachers – that is, I need to have a load of resources available when a teacher needs help with integrating ICT or know where to find resources to help them. (Similarly to how I would expect the Literacy Coordinator to have a range of resources available for me if I was having trouble with teaching spelling etc). I am setting up my delicious bookmarks with this ‘resource bank’ in mind- hoping that it in itself might be used by teachers to find resources.

My learning in web2.0 has been steep and exciting. I have come from knowing very little about blogging to creating this portfolio using a blog. My students have travelled this journey with me. They now have experience with blogs, wikis and Google Docs- not to mention ipods and the Nike Run program. Their learning has certainly been enhanced with the use of the these web2.0 technologies- they are far more engaged in what they are doing and the first question I have every day is ‘are we doing our wiki / WebQuest / blog etc today?’ The students are more motivated to learn, they want to show their work off to the world. They are attracted to technology like mosquitoes to a zapper (particularly the boys). It appears that schoolwork is not work if it is done on the computer.

Although I am still a beginner in the big wide world of web2.0, creating my eportfolio using an Edublog is one example of the depth of learning I have experienced during the last few months. I felt this was the perfect way to demonstrate my learning in the area of web2.0 and it relates to the use of web2.0 for teacher professional development.

The first part of this goal was to explore web 2.0 technologies. The second part was to consider ways these could be used in the classroom and as a vehicle for proffesional development. In order to demonstrate my learning in this area I have compiled a list of web2.0 resources for teachers to use. This list (displayed in a wiki) is available at www.teachingresourcesbyriss.wikispaces.com/web+2.0 . I wanted to create a one stop shop for web resources for teachers at my school to try without having to sift out ‘what’s hot’ and ‘what’s not’ themselves. 

•  Download a Word version of Web2.0 resources (with explanations) here: web2.0 resources

Resources:

• Marrinan, A. (208) Blogging 2 learn, learning 2 Blog. In Educational Technology Solutions. Issue 23. Victoria, Australian Media Group.
• Roblyer, M.D. (2006) Integrating Educational Technology Into Teaching. Fourth Ed. New Jersey, Pearson Education.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS