WEEK THREE REFLECTIONS: WEB SPACES

After launching my first blog, I dove head first into a dark tunnel of settings, themes, layouts, fonts… the list goes on! I became obsessed with the fonts being uniform, and spent HOURS on multiple features and settings. I’ve not created a blog, website, wiki, or anything of the like before, so this was fun, new territory for me.

I have created a blog (exhibit A – you’re reading it) and I find it easy to operate. I have created a web page; at the least, it exists. I admit to having little success in the website sphere as I don’t seem to have the pre-existing knowledge of widgets and gadgets, and side note, I’m not actually certain these words truly describe something to do with my website. Personally, this website construction task is a tough one, however I am excited and willing to learn! I believe this digital knowledge will allow me to construct and participate in valuable web spaces for my students, contributing to a collaborative, learner-centered, FUN education, yet realistically, my current ability needs to catch up (and quickly) with my evolving beliefs and intentions.

I recently explored a concept mapping program and lo and behold, this Gen X/Gen Y-member created a map of sorts, to elucidate some features of websites, blogs and wikis. Now don’t get too excited… upon finishing my experiment, I realised that saving the project as a slideshow presentation was not an option. Therefore, please follow these simple steps:

1.    Click on this link Features of Websites, blogs and wikis.

2.    As per this image I so expertly screenshotted and cropped, you must then click on the button shown.

3.    Please use → arrow to scroll through the presentation.

Note: Clearly this is a lesson in itself, repeat after me – *I will avoid spending two hours on a program before confirming that it will do what I need it to do*. 

Online education provides students an autonomous, accessible learning space, whilst allowing opportunities to develop higher-order thinking skills and digital literacies, contextual skills that will benefit their higher education and assist in carving out careers. It can also offer learning in an opposing sense; in how to think laterally and creatively when technology fails. Developing the ability to adapt is particularly important in a digital world due to modern civilisation’s reliance on technology.

Blogs e.g. Blogger, WordPress, Edublogs etc.

Upon launching my blog, I went through what felt like every setting on offer. Blogger’s settings allow for the publisher’s choice of page layout, display themes, fonts (as I previously admitted to being obsessed over) and colours, basic word processing settings, privacy and publishing settings, language, plus many more. 

I am currently the only person with the ability to publish posts on the blog due to this being my preferred privacy setting, however invites can be sent to others inviting them to contribute to the blog.

 

Readers can comment on posts however as the blog owner, and I am able to reply to the comments. Videos and images can be uploaded to blog posts; files can be uploaded from device folders, or YouTube clips can be uploaded by searching for the required video. 

Links to websites can be added into blog posts by selecting this symbol and by selecting this option  authors can preview blog posts prior to publishing, to confirm that all files and links have been formatted and inserted correctly.

I find the blogging web space the simplest and most user-friendly site to operate. I can design my blog to suit my personality, and update it regularly with posts related to my journey into the foray of teaching and education. As a blogging teacher, I can envision this type of web space being valuable in connecting students with their classroom, in a safe yet fun way!

Legal, ethical and safety aspects to consider.

The safety and welfare of students is paramount therefore student wellbeing must be of the utmost importance. Although Education Queensland and schools themselves implement extensive procedures, systems and restrictions to provide safe online learning spaces for schools, students must be taught correct protocols related to navigating the web safely. In addition to online safety, legal and ethical disputes can arise if students use the work of others without appropriate referencing, hence teachers must communicate the seriousness of bibliographic knowledge and understanding to students. This information and the expectations on students when using technology can be found here at the ACARA website.

In a singing voice... SAMR SAMR SAMR SAMR SAMR Chameleon. 

Chameleons transform themselves, just as the SAMR Model contributes to the transformation of education. Get it? Culture Club? Boy George? See what I did there...

The SAMR Model enables teachers to incorporate digital technology into the classroom; utilising ICTs allows for transformational and meaningful education.

(Puentedura, R., 2014).

In a junior Geography class, a learning experience adapted with the SAMR model may transpire as follows:

SUBSTITUTION:

·         Worksheets handed out to students comprising questions about the geographical features of a particular place, with research prompts and specified list of websites to conduct research.

·         Students to document answers and findings in Word.

·         Students to print out research and turn in to teacher.

AUGMENTATION:

·         Worksheet is created by teacher and uploaded to Microsoft Teams.

·         Students to access uploaded worksheet on Microsoft Teams, and conduct independent research using Google Earth.

·         Students to create a map of their location’s geographical features, using Google Maps.

·         Individual Google Map links to be emailed to the teacher.

MODIFICATION:

·         Student-created map, in addition to geographical research, to be created in software such as PowerPoint, Google Slides, Prezi etc. and presented to the class.

REDEFINITION:

·         Small groups of students to start a wiki page to compile and succinct their research.

·         Groups to create a multimodal presentation for a tourism campaign using software such as Vimeo etc.

If you have any feedback for me, I'd really love to hear it, particularly... did the link for the concept map work for you, and was it somewhat simple to follow the directions once the map opened (if it did actually open)?!

Thanks for stopping by! :)

References:

Briley, R. L. (2015). Karma Chameleon, sans Boy George and Culture Club [blog post]. Retrieved from https://brileyrebecca.wordpress.com/2015/07/20/karma-chameleon-sans-boy-george-and-culture-club/

Puentedura, R. (2014). SAMR and Bloom's Taxonomy: Assembling the puzzle. Retrieved from https://www.commonsense.org/education/articles/samr-and-blooms-taxonomy-assembling-the-puzzle