Reflecting on the use of ICT's in schools

I feel that through implementing blogs into the classroom it's  great way of engaging students as they appeal to their interests of using technology.  In my short experience with blogs, I've found that they can be a fantastic way of sharing information about virtually any topic as well as expressing particular viewpoints.  With blogs it is easy to add images, links to other websites and videos or YouTube clips.  So far ways that I have considered using blogs effectively within my classroom would be similar to the activities I am completing throughout this course; through critically reflecting on my experience and reading about other peoples experiences.  I feel that blogs could be useful in the classroom for writing persuasive pieces, where other students are required to leave opposing comments whilst learning to be mindful and tactful in their responses - Internet etiquette rather than cyber bullying!

Last week I created my first Wiki and engaged in an activity where I was required to leave comments.  I found the task to be much less daunting and overall the experience was rather enjoyable.  The only concern I really have about using wikis is the ease of accidentally deleting other students work.  I am aware of the history button to bring back any deleted work but I still have concerns that if someone hit delete then save, are you still able to go back through the history to bring back the deleted information?  Also if you are unaware of deleting someone's work how will you know who deleted the work, can you retrieve this information and how long does the history save this information?

In previous courses we have been required to create or build websites which I will link below.  For the subject of global science we were required to apply Bloom's Revised Taxonomy to a science sub strand creating a learning journey to scaffold knowledge within this area.  I chose to build my website using Weebly.  While it took sometime to figure out what and how all the buttons work, I am now really comfortable with using Weebly's and intend on using them in the future.  One of our lecturers last term showed us how effective using Weebly's for student homework can be.  She just has the Weebly ready to go and the students log in and complete their maths and literacy homework - no more paper wastage or forgetting to take/bring homework to and from school!

One negative aspect of Weebly's is that is so easy to get caught up in making the page/s look pretty rather than completing the research to add the information.  I have found that by using a blank word document in order to complete the research or writing for the Weebly, allows more time to play and decorate the webpage.  In some ways this is similar to the SAMR model in that we start with a very basic technology product such as word and then use that information to go into the webpage to be accessed by many others.

So for now the learning journey continues as I continue to figure out how to use all this technology stuff...

Link to my weebly for science: http://monica-dixon-mackay-at2.weebly.com