Week 3 - Web Spaces

The Brilliance of Blogging

Online sites can allows students to explore the digital world with ease, including the ability to create their own entries into the internet. They will be able to explore different view points, collaborate on multi-author wikis with fellow students and create their own little slice of the digital world with a reflectionary blog.

Each blog site is unique in its abilities. Some blog sites allow the author to dictate the positions of each text box, image and other widgets that can be used on a website. Other blogs have a document-like presentation during the creation of the blog post. Similar to Microsoft Word or Google Docs, you are able to manipulate images into specific areas, however, presenting widgets is more difficult. Each site I have explored allows differing options for layout. All sites allow the author to revise their content and make edits to already published works.

Blogs are typically single-author, however, if students share a profile, they would be able to create a multi-author blog to publish.

Every site creation tool is individual, some sites such as Wix allow the user to manipulate the layout to fit exactly what the user imagines. Other sites may be a bit more restrictive, such as Blogger, which allows you all of the features of essentially writing in a document. The overall layout of Blogger is pleasing, but for a user that has a particular idea of what their blog should consist of, it may not suit.

Each blogging site has a different skill level to suit the varied experience of users. There may be blogging sites may require extra steps in the layout section, or some sites that enable easy layout options without the author making many decisions. Depending of the context of the class and the skill level of the students participating, educators may need to choose specific sites for learners to trial. Easy-to-use blog sites like Blogger would be an excellent starting points for students initially introduced to the blogging scene, and as their skills improve, they would be able to trial sites such as Wix. As with all new learning practices in classrooms, a teacher needs to be aware of the technological skills of their students and the knowledge of whether or not the student has access to the internet or technology at home. 

Blogger

Wix

Google Sites

I loved the creation aspect of Google Sites, but could not easily find out how to allow commenting on the blogs posts. Considering the context of using this technology in classrooms, I decided to alter my choice of site to Blogger, as it was an easier set up than both Wix and Google Sites, and automatically allowing the commenting on blog posts.

All types of media are able to be shared in online sites, including but not limited to;

• Images
  
  
  
• Videos

This deep focus music that I enjoy listening to while I study.

• Audio recordings and many more!

With time, students will be able to explore the full extent of their sharing capabilities.

How to Keep Yourself and Others Safe Online

In allowing a student to explore the digital world, an educator must ensure that their learners are following safe, ethical and legal protocols. A teacher must educate their learners on how to confirm information from sources to avoid the spreading of misinformation. A teacher should also remind the class about the ethical and legal grounds of copyrighting and plagiarism. Students will always manage to find ways onto sites that are blocked by the school, so teachers need to be aware of the content that students are consuming in class time. Using applications such as net support to keep students on task and away from potentially dangerous information will assist teachers in classrooms. 

The Benefits of Online Spaces and the SAMR Model 

Generally speaking, students would be able to aptly explore the use of ICT for many subjects, although blogging may not suit subjects such as mathematics. Students can explore English classes through ICT by recreating the texts they are covering into their own cartoons with original characters. Business students can create websites for assessment or class tasks.

The SAMR Model, when employed in an English classroom could be used in the following format:

• Substitution - Creating a shared OneNote with the class that includes the main content being covered, eg. novel reading of Jasper Jones. The OneNote could contain summaries, analyses and worksheets.
• Augmentation - Students would be encouraged to write blog posts regarding specific topics discussed during the lesson that related to the Jasper Jones book that they were reading. They would have to create their own questions to answer regarding content learned and relation to the novel.
• Modification - Students gain the ability to create visualisations of the novel, using Wordle to create word maps (including the use of most frequent words) or finding videos on sites like YouTube to further explain the novel or support the student's thesis.
• Redefinition - The learner is given the opportunity to create their own version of the novel, using animation and cartoon creation websites. Student's could modernise texts or make the text more relevant to themselves to better their understanding of the content being taught.