Scootle was the first social network I visited. I realised that an email I had ignored at the beginning of the year was my key to logging in so I began a search through past emails to find my log in link. Registration completed, I began my exploration of the site. I decided to take a shortcut and headed to the seach function. I typed on "British colonisation" as I am currently teaching that unit and will teach it next year at my new school. I found a few good resources, mainly aimed at older children. I downloaded the Scootle User Guide and skimmed the 59 pages. It was clear that there were a number of ways to find content other than the search function. These included:
- by advanced search,
- by location,
- by time,
- alphabetical searching, and,
- by topic.
When I initially searched, my automatic reaction to the search results was that there was nothing of use there. Then, when I looked closer, I noticed that certain buttons needed to be pressed to find the content I was looking for. To the untrained eye, Scootle could easily be disregarded as an unuseful resource. Before I read the user guide, I thought that, while Scootle was quite useful, that it took a marathon of steps to find content. Most teachers would agree that taking time to find resources means using time we don't already have. Once I read the user guide, something I probably should have done before, I gained a better understanding of how to use Scootle to maximise its potential. Yes, I should have read the user guide before, but how many people start assembling something a cabinet without looking at the instructions. I put up my hand and say I'm guilty of this!
Scootle definitely has its benefits. In the age of multimodal education, it is evident that Scootle provides several options and resources to integrate a range of rich multimodal resources into the classroom.
I could identify a few Web 2.0 features of Scootle, the most obvious being the ability to share learning paths. I visited the learning paths page to answer the question and to my surprise, someone from my school had already begun a learning path! I created a learning path called Christmas and began adding Christmas items to it. I then clicked on my learning path to share it with my school. It was quite easy and I can see the benefits of the function, especially with collaborative planning and team teaching.
Social networking is the use of online communities that allow people to connect with other people through a variety of topics and content. I explored the three sites: Social networking - friend of foe?, Libraries and social networking, and, What is social networking? The three sites provided some useful information about social networks. I am currently a member of a few social networks, such as:
Admittedly, I am quite a Facebook addict, spending at LEAST 3 hours a day on Facebook (yep! time to institutionalise me!)
I explored What is Second Life?. I had heard of Second Life before and was interested in finding out more. After watching the Intro video, I had recollections of my high school days when I was addicted (worse than Facebook!) to The Sims. Thank God I purchased a laptop with a weak graphics card otherwise Sim 2 would take over my life! Before watching the videos, I was a bit skeptical about how Second Life could be used in education. First, I watched Education in Second Life: Explore the possibilities. I loved the idea of asking students to create characters to explore how life was like in particular eras. At my school, we just had a "Back to School" day for Year 4, where they experienced school life in the 1800's. Some kids just couldn't handle it. With Second Life, there character is the actor, not them, and (hopefully) they would find it easier to tell the difference between acting and reality. The second video, Educational Uses of Second Life, it was clear that this tool would be useful for those students who are reluctant to participate in drama activities due to shyness or an unwillingness to participate. Here, they are are controlling their virtual character who is a different 'person' to themselves and hopefully would overcome that shyness or reluctance as it is the character who is in the spotlight rather than themselves.
The next site to explore was Facebook. He he... being told to go on Facebook is like asking me to open by Christmas presents early! The slideshare presentation was no longer available, so I explored the Directory of Social Networking Sites for Learning Professionals. I cannot believe the amount of sites available. I tried creating my own social networking site while I was in uni for beginning educators using a forum. It seemed that no-one was interested as it was before the days of social networks. Perhaps I'll try to get it running again....????
The final social network to explore was Twitter. I tried Twitter, with very little success. Not many friends are on it and it seemed pointless updating a site that no-one was paying attention to. The Twitter in Plain English video helped outline the basic use of Twitter. Perhaps if more of my friends were on Twitter, I'd probably "Tweet" more!
Ok, blogs done.. time to check Facebook! LOL!
A
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