Session 3/Module 3 Google Documents

Session 3/Module 3
Google Documents
This is an area that I can see as being quite useful as a classroom tool, especially for group work and activities such as note taking.
Positives are based around the ways in which groups can be allowed to access the information allowing all participants to add their contributions at the same time and be able to read the
Negatives include the simplified tools that are available through the Google docs  as compared to Microsoft Word and Publisher and the related adjustments in formatting that may be presented but using it in its more basic form it has considerable potential

Session 2

So I have made it to Session 2/Module 2  which is a good start!
Using Blogger and setting up our own blog space......
Working through the setting up of our own blog space was a useful activity and I can see how it could be a really handy tool in the classroom.  Most importantly it can provide a secure environment (based upon who has access to the blog) to promote and provide feedback to students , especially seniors who may be working on individual or even group based projects (as discussed by Jade).  The concept of a blog space gives students the opportunity to voice their interests/problems and concerns and while this can also be done in person the use of the blog and general concepts of cyberspace can provide the student to possibly say or respond in a manner that they may not feel able to in a classroom setting (especially in front of peers).  Of course the public nature of posting such material needs to be reinforced to the student
An area of concern I have would  be regarding the  nature of setting up the blog spaces for a full class of students. Primarily because there would be large numbers  trying to create their blog at the one time from the same URL (as we experienced) which put Google into defence mode thus requiring us to provide additional verification to allow us permission to create the blog spaces. This is a difficult situation to try and administer as a general classroom teacher. One way to eliminate this problem would be to spend time prior to the lesson ensuring that each student had their account and blog site set up, this could possibly be done in small group’s using  laptops/class computers over a period of time before the desired lesson time.
As with all IT related issues it would be important for teachers to regularly use and keep themselves up to date with the process of creating blogs to help troubleshooting when working with the students.
There are huge benefits to the portability of this type of work eliminating the need for either students or teachers having to carry large folios especially for Technology and Creative Arts subjects. This currently can only work for class/school based activities due to the page requirements that are presented for HSC Major Projects.

Session 1

My name is Kathy; I am a teacher at Mount St Joseph Milperra. I have decided to enrol in the Web 2 course to further develop my IT skills and to broaden my approach to developing tasks and aiding students with their work.

 I found our first group session to be a positive environment and an ideal situation to encourage myself to work through the course, I look forward to future tutorial sessions.  One of the most rewarding aspects of the tutorial was seeing the videos which identified the changes that are occurring in our ways of delivering education, the importance to meet our students on their grounds or terms to make their learning experiences engaging and real for them.

Using iGoogle was an area that I had previously undertaken and while it was entertaining to use again, I found that it generally does not meet my needs as a classroom teacher, there are too many distractions for me personally and I imagine that would also be the case in my classroom. There are no doubt many useful applications but too many quirky games application.