Teaching tools of the web - week 3 e-learning blog

This week in e-learning, we have been asked to come to grips with a variety of tools available to all in the online world. The expectation has been for us to engage and play with three in particular, websites spaces such as Weebly, collaboration sites like Wikispaces, as well as the wonderful world of the blog like we have here. I was only supposed to discuss one, though became excited and did all three. At first, either knowing nothing about the tools or, having not used them, not being aware the extent of their capabilities, it may seem like this might all just be tech for tech’s sake. Indeed, there are many sceptics out there, who say that, beyond a few key tasks, the uses of technology and Web 2.0 tools are much overrated. Even those of us who are excited about the whole idea, such as myself, are only just waking up to the possibilities.

The most obvious place to start this discussion is at home, right here in blogworld. As I have stated elsewhere I started this more as a repository for myself than anything else. In its most simplest form, the same application can be made in the classroom setting. To push it along that path, perhaps a blog may even be a replacement for exercise books. Imagine a world where a student can no longer say they left their book at home or ‘the dog ate it’. It gets better though. The teacher no longer has to lug around books for marking. Checking for plagiarism would be a simple matter of cut and paste into a search bar. Students can support each other without spending hours on the phone. The ability to link to clips and articles makes the task a lot simpler for all involved. If I had had this at school, it would not have mattered that my hand writing was, and is, horrible. This really is just scratching the surface with thoughts arising as I type. A quick search finds many resources, such as these, these and those ones. Thinking of my own teaching disciplines, a blog could be where students post their essays for English. For HPE, they could embed a clip of someone performing an action, serve or jump for example, for critiquing purposes. Students and teachers need only be limited by their will and imagination.

Had I known about Weebly earlier in the year, I probably would not have started this blog when I did. It really is the kind of space I was looking for to store links, clips and other bits and pieces. On top of this, it presents information in a way that is so nicely ordered that, as a place to store items online, I have not seen better, although I dare say there are others out there offering pretty much the same service. For a teacher, it is easy to see how this could become your online classroom. Lessons arranged in topic folders. Links and clips all in one space. The ability to interact through comments. This is a tool I know I will be using. Often I have seen in the classroom students becoming distracted by the level of information available to them. While it is an important skill, to be able to cut through the rubbish and find the gold, having a space they can come back to where there is order could be most helpful. As I mentioned when discussing the blog, this is another tool that could help to replace the exercise book, at least as an item to be handed in. My first stumbling steps are here.

The last tool we looked at this week was Wikispaces. We have used this before in this course, the De Bono’s hats below, as well as other courses this term. This is the classroom in your pocket. As discussed in the earlier post, the level of interactivity is incredibly high. Students and teachers are able to edit the page with their own findings and questions. There is space for conversation at the bottom of the page to keep the task and the chatter separate. Earlier today, I quickly whipped up this space as an example. The idea would be for students to do their own research and develop their own opinions before sharing them with the class. As new questions may arise, myself or a student could add them to the table. This can be a static or ever expanding room for interaction based on sharing views. Particularly in subjects where there is interpretation and opinion, this is probably the most obvious web tool we have looked at. The space you are able to create is very customisable and the scope for use very broad.

While there is a continued need to be thoughtful in the application of technology in the classroom and technology does not hold all the answers, there is no need for fear and scepticism. For me, as I have explored each tool, uses have become apparent the more I have interacted with them. I am sure I will adapt some things and leave others as experience builds, just as I am sure others will use these tools quite differently to the way I will. There is cause for excitement in all this. Technology is not the enemy; it is a fantastic addition to the teachers storeroom of resources.