Conclusion and Feedback

I have really enjoyed sampling so many on the Web 2.0 technologies.
I now have two iGoogle pages - one for work and one for home! Love Google. I can't wait to set up Blogs for classes next year and include visuals and online videoes (from YouTube especially - stil so proud I was able to put one on my page).

I am still thoroughly impressed with Rollyo and will use that next year with stage 5! What a great way to organise research for topics!
Still love and use Facebook and other social tools- but I am still very aware of social issues that are involved in their use. So much so, I have enrolled in a PD day on Internet safety which will look at ways I can help/teach students to use the internet and variety of applications in a school context.

Still not sure about virtual worlds, but I have been speaking to more students who use Warcraft and discussing how they take the complicated stories from this world and use it in narratives in the classroom. I had not realised how interesting and complex some of these stories are.

Really want to use Wiki spaces, just waiting for the day students will have access to them as well as teachers!

Thanks again for the great tutorials, I plan to continue on my journey into the World of Web 2.0

#22 Ebooks & #23 AudioBooks

I really like using Audio Books in the classroom. I have used some audiobooks, last year and this year to help support low literacy students. It is a great way to support their reading skills and help them follow the story. To often when reading a novel in class, some students are left behind, or they are not sure what is happening in the story. With Audio Books you can pause, discuss, complete activities on paragraphs, chapters, characters, re-listen to sections to encourage student understanding of the novel.
The World Ebook Fair is a great site that I would like to explore in greater detail, especially areas on poetry.
LibriVox was a great site to browse. Was very excited to see Shakespeare listed. This is such a benefit in the classroom when a class is reading a play after or before viewing it on film. I have used a Romeo and Juliet Audio Book in the past, but have (until now) not been able to find other plays.

I have not used Ebooks in the classroom, but this has a lot of potential in low literady English classes. In one of my classes I have noticed that the students are very visual. Using an Ebook could help them achieve what most beleive, that "They cant' read a book". This 'pressure' could be relieved through the use of Ebooks. Also finding books out of print or hard to find books could be found on Ebook sites. These Ebooks could be used through a data projector or even an Interactive Whiteboard!

I am going to share the Ebooks with my faculty as a new way of engaging low literacy level students in a thematic (novel) study as an alternative to outdated books that they are not engaged in. :-)

#21 Online Video

I am so proud that I have learnt how to put a video from YouTube on my blog!!! I chose a commercial from Thailand that I completed an analysis on with my year 9 class. It is a wonderful ad that students have not seen and therefore enables them to think about the tecnhiques used in a more objective light.

YouTube and TeacherTube are wonderful tools to use in the classroom. I am able to use YouTube a lot in the classroom, for example, film, advertisement, poetry analysis just to name a few!

I don't think teachers can ignore YouTube, students are familiar with it and a lot upload their own creations. They are exposed to a lot of material, good and bad through YouTube. As a teacher you also have the opportunity to analyse YouTube as a whole, discuss what students have viewed, make evaluations - and connect the evaluations to the wide world.

#21 Online Video

#20 Podcasts

After a professional development day which looked at Podcasting I started to use Podcasts in the classroom with a year 8 class. We were listening to different radio stations programs, including Hamish and Andy, the Kyle and Jackie O show. The Podcasts were easy to access and easy to use and it was great to be able to analyse the radio programs students would listen to outside of school hours.

Audacity is easy to understand and use in the classroom. The only problem is lack of equpiment in school. It would be great to have students record their own mock up of a radio program and put it on the net.

I am now using Podcasts of documentaries I have missed and key speeches etc for a unit on 'Australiana'.

Podcasts are a great innovation!

# 19 Rollyo

Was amazed at how easy it was to create a search roll. Wish I had found this tool earlier on in the year. I had my year 10 and year 9 English classess create an internet list of sites for Shakespeare and a director study. I then gave the lists out to the students, when it would have been more beneficial to put them into Rollyo and allowed students to search using Rollyo, rather than having to sift through 3 pages of web addresses!
This would also be a great group work project in the library for the beginning of each new unit!

Have to say that this tool is one I will most certainly be using next year!!

http://www.rollyo.com/emmy21/

#18 Wikis

Loved the video by common thread. So easy to understand and process. I went on to view some Educational Wikis for English and they are amazing. Not only do they have discussions, but they also include videoes, updates, photos, news, weekly/monthly tasks etc.

One wiki I viewed also had a rules page, which was really interesting to see. I had a glance through the discussion and it was great to see that students could discuss and reply to specific posts. They could also tag it.

I would love to set up a Wiki in the coming holidays for next year and have students actively use it throughout the year. It need not be topic specific, but as the year progresses, different discussions could take place etc. It would be also great to see the progression of students discussion skills over 4 terms.

A Wiki could be used across KLA's in schools. What a great innovative collaborative website!