Overall on Reflections

Overall I have found this an excellent learning tool. To be honest at first I was not sure whether I would get into using blogs however the opposite seems to have happened. Now while I'm in class I am constantly thinking about how I can make mine better, as well as how as I could use them in my class and how certain activities definately lend themselves to online collaboration. My only regret is that I didn't start this earlier as I could have then further developed this blog, but over all for a PE teacher who has never attempted it before I am very proud of my efforts.

Reflection On Acceptable Use Policies in Education

I was truly shocked to find that some schools do not have acceptable use policies. This was my intitial thoughts when I read this.

I was acutally shocked that more people's AUP are not more up to date. Is this a common occurance you have come across over your time teaching this subject?The reason I ask is that at our school we have a very living breathing AUP in practice. Every year it is updated so that students and staff know what they can and cannot do with the computers. On top of this every year the staff have to sit through a staff meeting where our admin team go through this policy with us explaining why it exists, changes that have been made and outline what we can and can't do. In relation to students that must also sign an Acceptable computer use policy (similar to a contract) and this must be handed in by every student at the start of the year. They have a 2 week leeway period where after this if the agreement is not returned then they are locked out of the computers. This forms must be signed by parents and students. They will not then be allowed back onto the computers until these forms come in.What is even better than having the policy is the fact that it is also followed and enforced. It gives the teachers something to fall back on when dealing with students and also sets out clear guidelines for staff on acceptable ICT behaviour. The only time it can be a problem with the lock out system is when students have assessment due and they still can't get on the computers at school. But I suppose this puts the emphasis back on the students to comply.

In this day and age and after all of the reading I have been doing on cyberprotection and making sure you look after the students I still find it interesting that many school do not also monitor what students are doing with thier computer use time.

Reflection on External Discussion Groups

I'm still in a state of limbo when deciding whether external discussion groups are an essential tool for online learning. So I am breaking it down it to Positives and Negatives.

Positives-

• You can access expert opinions on subject information from a variety of circles, not just your own working colleagues.



• When I sent out a discussion method I did recieve feedback very quickly, as there always seemed to be someone on line when working with oz teachers.



• When checking out other external forums there was a large number of extra links that you could follow to get to excellent teaching resources, which stopped the need for hours of surfing the net looking for information.



• You were informed immediately when someone added a comment to your discussion point.



• It gave you a sense of belonging to a community.

Negatives-

• I managed to join a number of external forums yet when I went to revist them they had changed structure or their was a problem logging on which created frustration, as I was trying to get to these so that I could screen dump for my assignment.



• By using large discussion groups you effectively block up your email accounts with all of the discussions coming through. I suppose this is when you would need to filter what information you want to recieve, but as yet I have not worked out how to do this.



• Any time their is computer failure you cannot get to the discussion points.



• I have to remember to keep using the same password and user name when using external forums because otherwise it is taking me a lng time to log in and I try all of my different possible passwords and usernames.



• They lack a lot of structure.

So in conclusion I'm still not sure if I like using them. Personally I much prefer to use our USQ discussion forums. They are well structured and easy to negotiate.

Does any one have any tips or comments on how external discussion forms can be made easier to use.

James

Reflections on who use's Blogs

I have noticed in our discussion rooms and from my reading of the discussion points it seems as if an international students have been using blogs for a lot longer than what we have been in Australia. Most students who are from over seas seems have a greater use of blogs and wiki's. Is this because their educational system has been set up this way or does it just seem this way because the students in this course are mainly ICT students and as such have been using these online forums for quite some time now.
Another point that I noticed was that primary schools seem to be using blogs far more that secondary school. Would you say that this is a result of the students being with the teacher all day and hence their is more time rather than in secondary the students moving from class to class
Hmmm... Interesting thoughts, I know!!!

Using Blogs in Education

Just interested to know if their are PE teachers out there who using blogs in their classrooms, and if so for what reasons?

This Could be fun

To all those readers out there. Welcome to my blog. Original I was planning to just set this up to complete my masters assignment, however after reading about blogs etc I think i'll continue to use it for personal stuff. I will also use different blogs in my classroom now. In retrospect I wish I had started this sooner as it has been fun to set up.
Especially the fact that up until now I have been thinking about answers etc but have not wriiten them down and this is the perfect medium for this.
Well going to go now but will visit soon as I want to spruce my blog up with pictures, links etc.