Encountering E-Learning Education

Download Video: Posted by AllanahK at TeacherTube.com.

Images accessed from: http://centre4.interact.ac.nz/viewfile.php/users/17/1965004372/Allanah_King.jpg

This video is a demonstration of the use of blogs, podcasts and wikis in a Allanah King’s year 4/5 class in New Zealand. Allanah is a primary school teacher at Appleby School, a rural school near Nealson. It is a small school with only five to six teaching staff and is within close proximity of the wine growing countryside near Richmond. In 2006 the school financed a pod of 12 Apple lap tops which were shared between classes. The was the first chapter in Allanah’s innovative and creative use of ICTs particularly online learning the classroom.

On this short video Allanah describes her personal e-learning experiences under the supervision of Mark Tredwell, who originally introduced her to weblogs. Allanah was intrigued by the instantaneous and proficient nature of this online learning tool and endeavoured to personally engage in the world of weblogs. She began by creating her own blog page where she practiced uploading postings, comments and multimedia. Allanah then introduced this new online medium to her students and created a class Weblog. This was a gradual process and initially was very teacher directed and highly scaffolded. But as the class became more competent they became the creators and designers. Now all classes at Appleby School have class blogs which are all linked together, creating a wonderfully networked online community.

In Allanah’s class there are weekly blogging monitors who ensure the class’ discoveries and progress are recorded regularly. However, in reality students blog far more frequently than simply a weekly basis. Allanah also uses the class blog to communicate with parents and the wider school community.

Allanah also uses the class weblog to link to a myriad of additional web-based learning tools. These include:

·         The Clock: Allows students to know the time in their collaborating classrooms in Wales and New York.

·         Del.icio.us: Provides easy access to websites.

·         Cite counter and Cluster Map: Documents who and where people are viewing the class blog.

·         Blogmeister Blog: Reflective journal for students.

Allahah has also embraced a number of other technological learning tools such as:

1.       IWeb: Apple web authoring tool which she used to re-structure the school’s website

2.       Podcasting using GarageBand: Focused on happenings and learning from the classroom

3.       Skype Conversations: Local schools, Wales and New York

4.       Flickr: Tagging photos and weblogs

5.       Class Digital Camera: Photos are posted on the class blogs

6.       Students’ personal blogs: Linked to the class blogs.

Allanah recognises that there are some limitations in using web-based technologies. But conversely the rewards are great for example increased communications and engagement amongst students. However, becoming competent in using these online learning tools is progressive and gradual. Allanah encourages her viewers to “own something before you give it away” in the way they become comfortable with using web-tools personally before introducing them into a meaningful learning context. In summary some of the significant features of weblogs Allanah King highlights include:

• Connectivity with other classrooms globally
• Integration of many multimedia tools
• A forum for personal reflection and journaling
• Sphere for reporting on learning
• Frequent opportunities for meaningful learning experiences

I found this video immensely encouraging as a student training to become a primary school teacher. It gave me great confidence to see how Allanah King gradually developed her skills and understanding of a number of online teaching tools and then successfully introduced them into the classroom. It appears that she uses weblogs in an engaging and motivating way as students are personally and individually involved in online learning.

King, A. (Presenter and Producer). (2007). One Woman Wondering’s with Web 2.0. TeacherTube. Retrieved, March 3, 2008, from http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=93fe8abcfe3ce2003e5c

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