Weebly Websites

I like this tool. Creating my own website was fairly simple using weebly.com. I believe this would be a fun and interactive learning experience for students in a primary school and could be incorporated in multiple ways. Learning Managers could use this tool as an assessment task for students in upper primary where the students have to create their own website to portray information on a particular topic. In the younger years the class could collaboratively create a website that they can show to parents on what they have discovered from their learning throughout the term. When I am in my own classroom I will definitely use this technology.

WIKI spaces

Today I had a go at creating my own WIKI space. I found it was actually quite easy to use. I had fun creating it and choosing a theme. It was quite similar to designing my blog. WIKI spaces can be used for anything you want to write about. But unlike blogs, a WIKI space can be edited by other people. I create a list of things I had to do for my blog and will cross them off as each one is completed.

A WIKI could be a great classroom tool for collaborative assessment, group members could upload and share new information with their group members. It could also be great to use as a site for class excursions and camps, where the class could upload lists of items they need to bring and as someone thinks of something else they could add it to the page.

I would be interested in other ideas of how to use a WIKI in the classroom as this is something that I believe could be engaging for the learners.

=)

After reading Jessica and Kelly's blogs I noticed the had a different experience to me according to using WIKI's. You can see my comment on Jessica's blog here.

Kelly's blog had a great website with many uses for WIKI's within the classroom. I urge you to take a look at it as it contains some great ideas: Smart Teaching "50 ways to use a WIKI".

Concept Mapping Online

Concept mapping is a great way to brainstorm, organize information, etc. The website bubbl.us allows you to create concept maps online. You can create your concept map, add text, change colours and connect information bubbles and overall get a great, effective looking concept map. But for some reason I do not like this tool. I am quite technologically literate and found this an easy task, except for the fact that it took me AGES to do. I like using concept maps in the classroom. I believe they are an effective teaching strategy but I don't think they should take forever to complete.

Maybe in an upper primary classroom the students could use this tool as they would be more comfortable using computers and computer programs. However, I do NOT recommend this tool for lower primary. If I was to use this in an early years classroom, however, I would write up a concept map on the white board (collaboratively) and then create the concept map myself to print out and place on the wall for future reference.

This is only my opinion though! Happy blogging all =)

I have left a comment on Teagan's blog about the use of concept maps in the early years classroom. You can read it here.

Upon further reflection I do believe this tool would be valuable to use. Although it is time consuming, you could get students to draft their concept maps on paper and create them using this tool. The students would then be more engaged in the learning as it would be a fun way to implement a usually standard learning experience. =)

Blogs

A blog is a simple online tool that allows a person to post their thoughts and feelings on a certain topic. Different people use blogs for different reasons.

At first, creating a blog seemed daunting. I thought it would be a hard process and take forever to use. However, when I began to create my blog I was amazed at how easy it actually was. Using Google Blogger I successfully created my own personalized blog. I was even able to change my background, font and colour scheme without messing anything up.

I believe that blogs would be a great classroom tool to use in the primary classroom. It would allow students to work collaboratively, share ideas and information, provide feedback to each other and to reflect on their learning. Although it seems most suitable for upper primary students, blogs could be incorporated in to the lower years by making it a whole class activity.

I am glad that I have been given blogging as a task as there is no way I would have created my own blog otherwise. I now plan on incorporating blogs in my future classroom.

Happy blogging everyone =)

After reading Teagan's blog I made a comment about the use of blogs in early year classrooms. You can read my comment here.

Procrastination

I created my blog over a week ago. Every night I tell myself that I 'HAVE to start blogging tonight', but when it comes time, I always find something else that needs doing. Today I discovered the reason for my procrastination... quite simply I'm scared to blog. I have never been someone to write a journal or a diary and frankly I not an over emotional person. I don't feel the need to tell the world my every thought or feeling. However! I have come to terms with the fact that I do HAVE to blog and have concluded that it will be beneficial in the long run. So, with that I have completed my first post and am looking forward to blogging with you all over the next month or so.

Night all =)