Scratch

Scratch is an interesting innovation which has the potential to be used in the classroom however the difficulty in creating your own animation limits how scratch is used by teachers. It is a program which allows users to create their own animations and upload to the scratch website. By setting up your own account you can view other peoples projects. For teachers this is where you can find educational activities for students. I feel that allowing students to create their own projects may be a little to difficult and time consuming for them to benefit from the programming. I would use scratch in my classroom with mathematically gifted students or those who have advanced computer skills who need challenging. I would use ready made scratch projects in my classroom but make sure students can only access appropriate content while they are on the website.

Learn more about this project

Google Docs

Google Docs is an interesting program which allows people to save their own documents on the web. A link to these documents can be sent to anyone to access at any time. This means that documents can be edited and viewed by multiple people at the same time. This is similar to how wiki's work. I think that google docs has great potential for use in the classroom if used appropriately. Limits may need to be set as to who can access and edit students work depending on the a specific documents intended use. For example if you want a whole class to contribute to one document, then all students would be allowed, however if a student is posting their own work, you would want to control who can edit the document. This technology is great for sharing documents and has features that could be very useful to teachers, such as the shared timetable. I would use this in my classroom although rules would need to be in place about the appropriate use of google docs.

Bitstrips

Bitstrips is a website that is similar to facebook in the way you create an account and can add your friends. This site allows us to easily make our own comics and your own characters. It also has features that would allow teachers to use it with their students. By limiting access to various 'child friendly' parts of the site, students are able to make comics and share with their peers. The comic builder library contains objects, characters and backgrounds, this takes the emphasis off of the drawing/artistic skills and instead focuses on the creativeness and meaning of the comic. This means that students who are not comfortable with their drawing skills are still able to contribute. I think it would be a great site to use with children who are experienced with computers as some of the features can be a little difficult to master. If this innovation were to be used in schools, teachers would first need to become familiar with each aspect of the site and how the site works. Security settings would need to be set so that students cannot access inappropriate material and those outside the classroom cannot access the students accounts. Below is my own comic strip I made.

Wiki's are similar to blogs as they provide a space for people to share their opinions and ideas and communicate these to the rest of the world. Blogs however are limited in regards to who can add or edit the content. Wiki's on the other hand enable anyone to add, edit or delete content on the site which is why wiki's are perfect for use in the classroom. Teachers should introduce rules about how students use the class wiki and also set privacy settings so that only those involved with the wiki can access the content. Wiki's could be used for group work, discussions/debates about a particular topic or just a free writing space. I feel that wikis are a great way to get students writing and a very interesting way to publish student work. It is also a great way to integrate computer use into the curriculum.

Hi everyone. This is my first time blogging and Im interested to see how it all turns out. What I like about blogs is that they are your own space to share your individual opinions and a chance to interact with others with similar interests. Blogs allow everyone to share their own ideas or views and can be more informative than newspaper/journal articles as people with differing ideas are able to comment and produce a resource that is compiled from various points of view. Hopefully you will agree with my opinions about the technologies we will be discussing in the following weeks however I welcome any constructive feedback.