Module 9

I had been introduced to Scootle earlier in the year and at the time thought it was a great resource though seem to have forgotten about it! I have been pleased to get reacquainted thanks to this module. I have spent some time today finding some excellent interactive resources to use with my students. The learning path is a good feature for both sharing with other teachers but also to set up students on so that they all undertake the same activity. At Southern Cross we have the My PLS system which does a similar job so I am not sure as to whether I will actually use this but can definitely see why one would. I find the whole Second Life concept to be slightly freaky, I think I am more of a "real" world kind of a man! I can see the educational benefits that were outlined well in the two videos though wonder whether the pull of an alternate reality "game" at the students fingertips may lead to a whole lot of going off task. I think it would capture some students imaginations really well (the type of students who may prefer to live in their own head or take part in other alternate realm type games) though I wonder whether others would take to it so well. I might investigate it more - the jury is out! The stuff on social network sites is very timely given that I went to see the film of the same name this very week. Facebook and Twitter are obviously now global phenomenons and the generation of students that we are teaching will accept this type of communication as second nature. As a pom living in Australia this type of site is excellent for keeping in touch with friends and family in the UK but as outlined on the CEO site one needs to be careful with this type of online presence - especially as far as students are concerned. I am a big advocate of training in the etiquette and dangers around such sites for children and teenagers. As far as Twitter is concerned I can see the value but so far it is not for me, similar to Facebook status updates I find that it can often fall into the "I am currently doing the washing up" category - good on you, thanks for sharing it with the world! Maybe that is just my cynicism coming through....anyway, all food for thought....