Blog postings – trying to help

Here is a (growing weekly) list of the posts you should have made to your blog (Italics is me)

Create BLOG  and share URL as link on forum

• How did you go creating your blog?  Sharing the link?

W1 –

• ·         Digital Teacher - What are the requirements for you, as a 21st Century teacher in terms of the pedagogy and ICT Entitlements of your students? How do your ideas align with those of Bianca Hewes video?
• ·         Main messages from Big Thinkers clip
• ·         Identify the ideas that struck you as most important in the Sir Ken Robinson video and the Edutopia reading. Consider the implications for your classroom. Consider also the benefits that might be offered by using ICT in your classrooms. Review briefly the major theories of learning.  Finally, reflect on the shortcomings of the traditional classroom and curriculum in the light of the messages that have been delivered.

W2 –

• ·         Reflect on your understanding of good pedagogy. Draw from the ideas presented above to create your own pedagogical approach. Based on your own learning experience and what you already know about teaching and learning. You may wish to represent this as an image, a concept map, a video, a table, or text. You may even wish to compose a song. Embed or upload this to your blog and share your ideas with others. This reflection will support all of your assessment tasks for this course.
• ·         You have been presented with two sets of ideas, Bloom's taxonomy and the SAMR model.  In your blog, create a new posting. In this posting, write a sequence of paragraphs that integrate the ideas presented. You may prefer to create a concept map or diagram. What are the links between the SAMR model and Bloom's taxonomy?
• ·         Participate in the wiki activity about mobile phone use in classrooms – post in your blog about the process/scaffolding of your participation;  consider how you may have participated without the Blooms 6 Hats scaffold.  - Post a reflection about the learning that was facilitated in the Mobile Phones wiki, analysing it within the context of the learning theories you are starting to consolidate. Is this forum reflective of behaviourism, constructivism, cognitivism, connectivism? One, or all of the above? What are the characteristics of the wiki design that lead you to that understanding? Reflect on your own personal participation in the wiki. What are the benefits, issues, drawbacks of participating in a wiki like this? How would it contribute to the learning of your students? How did the scaffold support the collection of a range of perspectives? Whilst you may have learned more about mobile phones in the classroom, the purpose is more about the design and participation experience in this activity. This reflection is compulsory,
• ·         What is new for your when considering legal, safe and ethical use?  Is there more you need to learn?

Please submit a Word document with the link to your Week 2 reflection sub-task. This task is your reflection on the design and participation experience in the Mobile Phones wiki.

W3 – 

·         You have already created your first blog, and are going to continue to use this Blog in your construction of Assignment Task 2. This activity asks you to reflect on your learning about blogs. Explore the technical features - how is a blog constructed and presented? Can it be customised? What types of files can be embedded and/or linked to? Can media be used in your blog? How can you connect to others using your blog - ie interaction capacity? REflect on these features. Then think about teaching and learning in your own context, and reflect on the ways blogs can be used in your own classroom.
USE the SAMR model to identify how blogs could be used at each level of SAMR.
You are invited to use both the course readings, other research and sites, and your own ideas, and to be as creative as possible when considering your teaching ideas. Be sure also to consider the way your own students will be using Blogs. Learning with technology should be learner-centred, and it is anticipated that by far your students will be most busy in the online environments, with you in the role of facilitator. If you use any research or ideas from other sites, please BE SURE to reference them.
· Use the instructions provided in the Technical Manual (short set of instructions here) to create a wiki at http://www.wikispaces.com.
Please ensure that you follow the instructions to create a generic user so that everyone can access your wiki. This wiki will become the site for your second assessment task, due in Week 10.
Use the technical manual for support, or explore freely. Add content, click around and look for the functions of your wiki. What type of content can you add? Can you customise the look and feel of your wiki? Is there easy-to-use navigation?
Look behind the scenes. What functions can you see there?
Write a blog reflection, identifying the functionality of your wiki. Then think of your pedagogy, and content. How could your wiki be useful for teaching in your own teaching context? Use the SAMR model (as usual, and for the balance of your explorations of technologies) to propose the use of wikis in your own classrooms at each level of the model.
· Follow the instructions in the technical manual to create a Weebly website. Play with it, add content. Add pages and look at the navigation structure. Did you notice you can add a blog to your Weebly site?
Once you have a good idea what the website can do, consider your teaching and learning context. How can it be used in your context, for you, and your learners? Use a thinking tool, such as a SWOT analysis or PMI to brainstorm its functionality. Think also about how you could use a static website to support student learning, but also how your students can use one to express their creativity. Add your ideas and a link to your website in your blog.