Module 9

Module 9

Learning Objectives:

·         Visit Scootle and explore the ratings and comments of others.

·         Understand the difference between professional learning networks and social networks.

·         Explore social networks for your own understanding (not for use with students).

·         Create a blog post on your learnings in this module.

1.       1 Activity 1: Visit Scootle and explore the ratings and comments of others	13/11/13	I have used Scootle before so this was not a new resource for me – I spend a lot of time with teachers exploring the resources available. I used to use it when it was Digilearn but it is so much bigger now. I did download the User Guide so that I can learn more about all the features in Scootle and better utilise it. I even managed to put in a profile picture! I had already discovered and used learning content and I understand and can refine search results. I have also added, managed and shared learning paths. I discovered that in order to copy someone’s learning path you need to change the name of it otherwise it won’t copy. In the meantime I created three empty folders because I thought that was what I was doing wrong J Scootle is a bit like a a lot of other Web 2.0 platforms with its capacity to personalise what you do and with lots of weblinks and different ways to access content and make comments.
2.       2 Activity 2: What is Social Networking?		From Wikipedia: A social networking service is a platform to build social networks or social relations among people who, for example, share interests, activities, backgrounds, or real-life connections. A social network service consists of a representation of each user (often a profile), his/her social links, and a variety of additional services. Most social network services are web-based and provide means for users to interact over the Internet, such as e-mail and instant messaging. Online community services are sometimes considered as a social network service, though in a broader sense, social network service usually means an individual-centered service whereas online community services are group-centered. Social networking sites allow users to share ideas, pictures, posts, activities, events, and interests with people in their network. And from the course advice: The use of collaboration tools such as blogs, wikis and nings for learning with students is recommended. Personal social network sites such as Facebook are not.  Social networking is certainly popular and not just with kids – most people I know use Facebook at least if not Instagram, Twitter, etc. We need to recognise what we, as teachers can do to maximise positive uses of networks but keep a “lid on” the social and emotional risks associated with social networking. Cybersafety has to be a big part of education today, without stifling opportunities for creativity, collaboration and learning.
3.       3 Activity 3: Explore social networking sites		Exploring social networking sites: A.      Second life While I can see there might be some value in this for education, particularly being able to create realistic virtual “situations”, the content in the introductory video seemed a little unsuitable for most school aged children and I would be concerned about the level of violence possible from what you could create.  I could not see myself getting into it and I certainly would not want anyone in my professional life to see anything I had created there!! B.      FACEBOOK I have a personal Facebook account in my own name, which is a concern when I think about my digital footprint, I need to ensure that I am not being linked to anything unsavoury and I am contributing more regularly to other online sites so that what I put there is more readily available than anything I might be associated with in Facebook. I also only accept actual people I know as” friends” c. TWITTER I also have a twitter account but I only set it up for CEOM and have not really used it much at all – my children have twitter accounts and are less than eager for me to “follow” them, unless it is to comment on my daughter’s blog. I have concerns about using this tool at school too – maybe I just can’t see the value in having kids tweeting with each other when they could be talking!! D. LINKEDIN Yes I have one of these too, but I don’t access it very much. I need to see the professional value it can give before I am convinced it is good for me. I have always preferred networking in person but after watching the video I can see the point in giving it another go – so maybe I will!! This is the one that has the most possibilities for positive addition to my digital footprint.
4.       4 Module Reflection Activity		This module reminded me about the good things in Scootle and gave me the impetus to properly examine it through the User Guide, which I will keep handy through Delicious. It also got me rethinking about social networking in my own life but it didn’t really give me much reason to embrace it in an educational setting.