Summary - Group 1 Technologies for Learning Design

Blogs can become a website for each individual student where learning reflections can be posted to encourage complex thinking and developing skills in analysis and evaluation. Recording a learning journal can become a valuable process for revision and further understanding as well as expressing thoughts, feelings and developing ideas. Although students can comment on other blogs, it may prove to be an excessive amount of reading therefore the aspect of collaboration is lost. However, the possibility of a class blog used in a collaborative nature could also be possible with the potential for success. The class blog could become like a newsletter, a space where selected students each week could outline the processes of the week through a scaffold such as a PMI. This would encourage students to write creatively, enhance confidence, and provide the class with a better view of their learning journey, where we’ve been and where we’re going. Additionally, it could be significantly appropriate to use blogs as a place to construct assignments allowing the whole process can be seen.

Website development exposed itself to be much easier than originally considered. Creating a website through Weebly was quick and simple once the idea was developed. In relation to learning design, a website could provide an irreplaceable experience, giving students the opportunity to keep in close contact with their learning at any time, anywhere and also keep up to date with what’s going on in the classroom. Websites in education would work as a space maintained primarily by the teacher providing an online tool where links of related lesson content with access to text, video, images, links, resources, and other useful multimedia that would enhance the learning experience. The website could also be used to organise learning experiences (lessons and entire units) over the term. To have previous lesson content and related resources always available would be beneficial for students as they can revisit previous lessons to review what was learnt and begin to link ideas and concepts from more recent lessons as they begin to come together. Websites are more safe online spaces, although there is no authorisation process for visitors, it is not students exposing themselves as they do not necessarily contribute directly to the space.

Wiki for learning potential is my chosen technology for further investigation. The main reason for this selection is the fact that it is the only one of the three that considerably enhances the opportunity for collaboration. It is through the mobile phones wiki and creating my own, that developed my preference to this kind of online space to enhance learning. I believe that the best learning is derived from collaborative discussion with fellow students. Additionally, it was the most enjoyable of the three. With the read and edit functions, wikispaces allow for extensive collaboration and communication in the online environment. Students have the opportunity to gain further knowledge and understanding from the perspective of fellow students as well as share ideas with other students. Furthermore, the collaborative feature allows students to discover a combined sense of achievement. While a wiki is free and reasonably easy to set up, the online space can be scaffolded to facilitate higher order, critical thinking to achieve the desired outcome of the activity. Compared with websites and blogs, wikis have the functionality of private setting and allows only invited users to be visitors and contributors. This eliminates very serious risks related to safety online, including stranger danger and personal privacy. Specific weaknesses of wikis can be eliminated through quality management. Open-endedness leading to lengthy blabs can be avoided through the use of a scaffolding tool. While, repetition can be reduced with the ease of editing. Within the classroom wikis can be used in a variety of innovative ways, from lesson reflections to group assignments as well as evaluative discussions on particular topics.