Innovations in Education

With the exception of the occasional knock on the door from family and friends and the routine visit to the clothes line, I spent most of Sunday online.  I know, I can hear you say – oh Lina, get a life!!!  Now that I’ve started students on this blogging journey, I’m finding I have a number of questions that I need to deal with.

My main concern at the moment is to encourage my pre-service education students to engage with the blogging process in an ethical and safe manner in the hope that they can make informed decisions regarding their use in educational contexts.  During the initial planning of this unit I questioned whether I should set up the student blogs within our Learning Management System – I decided not to as this restricted access would impact their experience with blogs. Even though these are early days, after reading the students’ initial posts I’m pleased that I made this decision.

Now that I’ve let my students loose in the big wide world I realise the importance of making them aware of behaving ethically online. I found the following sites to be a useful start:

1. Blogging Ethics and Rules of the Blogosphere  

    

2. Blog Rules – David Warlick

3. To Blog or Not to Blog – Jeanne Kimbal

I would really like to know how you tackle the issue of behaving ethically online with your students?

Tags: Behaving Ethically

Wow – I also wonder what  Web 3.0 or Web 4.0 will deliver. Somehow I think someone will have coined a new term – Web 4.0 sounds “so yesterday”.

Yes, I feel the same there is so much to learn and not just about how to use the technology but the impact they have. I believe that the biggest change and the greatest educational value in these new technologies (which grow old as I type) is their ability to connect people.

Rob I think you would be interested in reading the work of George Siemens (2006) who posits a new theory called “connectivism”. This theory integrates elements of a number of learning theories, social structures and technology to present a theory more appropriate to the needs of the knowledge society. Siemens notes, “Our desire to connect – to externalize – is a vital component of the learning process. Instead of merely developing learners for careers, we have an obligation to create a learning ecology where learners are able to shape their own meaning” (Siemens, 2006, http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism_self-amused.htm)

Tags: Connect People, Web 3.0

One of the dilemmas I am constantly faced with as an educator who teaches in the area of information technology at tertiary level is how to keep up with the ever increasing treadmill of new technology.

You may have heard about the ‘digital divide’ – it usually refers to those who have ‘access’ to technology and those who ‘do not have access’. This is indeed an issue, but in this field I am constantly reminded about another digital divide – the one between those who ‘know’ and those who ‘don’t know’ how to use and apply the technology in the learning and teaching environment. I would include myself in this situation – as I would be considered as a ‘don’t know’ regarding some of the new technology.

I have devised a WebQuest to help my students and to help me bridge this digital divide. In addition, I have created this to blog to share this experience.

Tags: first blog post, WebQuest