Developing a learning project using web 2.0 October 30, 2007

we have been using web 2.0 technologies to try to approach education and technology in a constructivist approach. The context of the project that we have to design is to be done at home, involving the students parents. Looking for the active involve the parents with the students work, the students have to try to teach their parents how to use the web 2.0 technology.

1. Design a project in web 2.0 technology
2. Do it in a way where students have to get parents actively involved, the best way for the students to learn how to use this, is to teach someone else: their parents.
3. Parents will understand what the students are doing at school.   
4. Construct this in a way that parents can do this anywhere.
5. Call a meeting, or send a note home to inform parents about this project.
6. problems with parental involvement, maybe try and get an uncle, aunty, or even a brother or sister.
7. Teacher becomes a facilitator and a mentor, the more resposnibility the student has, but remember that they are still children.
8. How are we going to motivate the students to comoplete this task? We have to try to now involve the parents, so the students gain more affirmation and confidence from completing this task.

This task has been completed and it is available on another blog called the learning project and again on a wiki called the learning-project. These can be both accessed by clicking on the links above.

My Essay October 30, 2007

Well i have just finished writing the essay for this subject and whilst researching to answer the question i found some amazing articles, which have helped me a lot for the essay, not only that, but they will be valuable for the future as well. Just as technology changes, so does the need to change the way we teach students. Yet this research shows me that the students will be able to use the tehnology before i will, and probably better than i will.  Here are the links to the papers

1. Growing up digital
2. Web 2.0
3. Blooms Taxonomy
4. Creativity for Web 2.0
5. Opportunities and Challenges
6. User-Led Education

After being away for 2 weeks… October 11, 2007

I’m back. I felt the great need to write that not being connected to the internet for 2 weeks, I feel left out of things. I got back on Sunday night and the first thing I did was check my emails and Facebook, I felt like I was having withdrawals from Facebook; WordPress, and PBwiki. Yes I missed my friends as well, but it has been very difficult to not see things and chat to people over the internet, even though I have a phone and spoke to some people everyday. I felt like I was out of the loop and I’m not looking forward to having to try and learn all the new things I missed out on for 2 weeks. What I am trying to get at is that Web 2.0 is forever changing and after not using anything for 2 weeks I am going to be a bit behind in the technology stakes, which means I have a lot to catch up on. Another thing I was getting at is that I think I am becoming a bit of an internet junkie… I never thought I would, and I never knew why or how people could become addicted to MySpace or whatever it is that they fancy. I am addicted because I like to see what people have done on my page, or messages they have sent me, and I have some friends in other states that I can talk to on Facebook and through email. I guess that is why people become addicted. There may be other factors, such as trying to make lots of new friends, which I’m not really looking at doing, but if they come along then I’m not going to ignore them.