My first online mind map

Below I have designed a mind map based on the big 6 one of the ICT frameworks that could be used for our next assignment. Although there were other frameworks which could be used I considered the. big 6 to be easy to understand. The big 6 is a model of how people solve an information problem.

What learning style am I?

Here are my results from the learning style questionarie.
Most results were close together however social clearly ranked the highest in my graph. I found this true to life as I like to collaborate with peers when working on my assignments.

Wikki in the classroom

From taking part in Managing E-learning I've realised that a blog is an online journal with sequential publications and generally only has one author. Madder (2008) explains that a wiki on the other hand can be viewed and modified by anybody and is similar to a whiteboard except it records everything that is written on it. New work is continually being added by users onto the wiki and therefore it is a continuous work in progress. The most famous and obvious example of a wiki is Wikipedia which has millions of articles written by volenteers world wide.

After reading about wikis it is my belief that they would be of great assistance to students and teachers in the contemporary classroom. For instance when students are assigned group projects/assignments the wiki would provide oppurtunities for students to post materials, ideas, share links and work together online. It also would benefit us as learning managers as we would be able to easily check the progress of our student's group work and offer feedback since the student's work is all in the one place. Basically wikis are an excellent tool which can be used to support all forms of group work for students. Although highly effective, there are issues we need to be aware of. That is the age old issue in that one student is doing all the work on a collaborative project. Therefore it is the responsibility of the learning manager to closely monitor the changes in the wiki using the wiki history feature to be informed of the student contributions.

Blogs

Hey everyone!

I'm in my second year studying early childhood education. Although I am classed as a "young student" I am not a technology wizz so I'm sure I will be learning new skills each week. My first skill I have mastered was setting up my blog. Here I will post reflections relating to the course content.

From my understanding blogs are a web publishing tool and maintained by an individaul online and updated on a regular basis. In a school setting blogs can be very benefical as they provide an oppurtunity to reflect on work being undertaken in the classroom, develop ideas and another means of improving students writing. Within todays classrooms it is also often assumed that all students are confident with using technology. This is not always the case, I myself am an example of this. Blogs however have proven that they are easy to use and implement and can develop students confidence in using computers. They also provide another voice for students to express ideas and oppinions online.

Blogs can be viewed publicly like any other website so it is important that students are educated on privacy, security and also their expression on content. Going over the blog agreements as a whole class will also familarise students with what is approriate behavior online. Content can also be deleted and edited at anytime on a persons blog which is another advantage of using blogs. By taking these measures it demonstrates to students how blogs can be used as an educational tool in the classroom while also developing an understanding of safety online.