WIKIPedia

Hey Everyone,

I think that WIKIPedia is a great tool for students to use as it requires many different skills to use well. As WIKI's are readily update-able by any audience, it means that students have to be aware about the validity of the information they are reading.

I have done an exercise that involves students using WIKIPedia to look up information relating to a subject area and spot the mistakes in the WIKIPedia content. This exercise teaches students to use many different sources. The class learned that content on the internet is not always correct and to only use internet sources to extend on information gained from books.

I think that WIKIPedia is also a great place to start for assignments as it provides students with a footing as to what they want to re-search and what sort of area's they can look into on a topic.

What does everyone else think of WIKIPedia? and how have you used it?

Jess

SlideShare

SlideShare is an awesome tool that allows students to easily view presentations created by their teachers and teachers to easily view slides created by their students.

This was a very easy tool to use. It allows for easy sharing of presentations as well as an easy way to upload audio to a presentation. I was not able to upload to audio at this time as my microphone is not working :(

I hope that everyone else has had fun with this tool too!

Sustaining Our Future

View more presentations from atomicgirl1710.

Flickr Re-vistited

The students LOVE Flickr.

Being so easy to use, students can navigate around the site very easily. They had a ball editing photos, changing the colors and effects.

Using the search tool to find photos relevent to the unit of work, some students created very interesting pictures, showing their take on the topic being studied. It helped me understand the different learning types in the class though their submited photos and explanations.

This is a great tool to use at the start and end of a unit of work as you can see how students views on the topic have changed though the change in their photo submission and explanations.

Students Blogs

Asking students to create a blog is an idea that has been widely discussed within the community and especially within my school. A large number of teachers feel that it will open the students up to bullying, especially if they are posting their own idea's.

Interenet bullying is a major problem for school aged children, espcially as they are at such an inpressionable age. It has been agreed that this is not a exercise in which the students should participate as the welfare of the children is of the upmost importance.

The students have been taught about the appropriateness of what they post on the internet and are aware of copyright and plagerism laws. These two factos are important as they help students be aware of requirements when they complete assignments and such later on.

Google Earth

How could any Geography lesson be complete without Google Earth?

I spent about half an hour just plying with this program. Finding my house, my friends houses, places I have been in the world, places I want to go. It is increadible and makes me want to travel to so many places!!

Using this as a teaching tool would be quite difficult as most students would want to do what I did straight away, which is look up their house and so on. Assigning it as a homework assignment may work as students will have time to play with it and then complete the task. Using it within a set time period in the classroom may become hetic as students can easily become distracted.

Definitely something that I want to work into my lessons and as a tool to expand on the students learning experiance so far!

References: Google Earth, http://earth.google.com/

Podcasts

Hey all,

I think that podcasts are wonderful ways to keep up to date with information, learn new concepts and become aware of different ideas. There are many uses that Podcasts can have in the learning enviroment. Using posts created and posetd by others can be useful in exposing students to new idea's and the ideas of others. iTune also gives teachers the opportunity to create their own podcasts, giving them an easy way to update students on information.

I had a look around the internet to see what I could find on Podcasts and came across this great video on Youtube. Haveing watched this I thought it was about time to look for a podcast that would suit what I wanted. Having got side tracked in the process with a TopGear podcast, I finally made it to the educational section and have found so many inspiring podcasts.

For studnets learning another lanuage there are posts to help with french, spanish, german and so on. Biology, chemistry, maths and english all have podcasts to help students. Whether a teacher chooses to assign students a poscast to listen to or watch or the student looks for podcasts just to help their learning journey, they are very useful and can definitly make the difference in having an enjoyable learning experiance.

Thanks,

Jess

References: YouTube, Poscasting in plain english, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-MSL42NV3c

YouTube

Morning all,

YouTube is one of the best tools to share video's and media with friends and the world. I can use videos that others have already made to emphasize the importance of a topic. It not only saves time and effort, but also adds dramatically to a presentation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFfAUHSgqWc

As you can see in this video, it shows just how skilled the Australian Air Force (RAAF) really are. Using footage such as this not only helps reenforce the point of technical accuracy and responsibility of their job, but also the pure beauty of some of the maneuvers they perform in the air.

Thanks,

Jess

Reference: YouTube, Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFfAUHSgqWc