Online+Spaces

 The purpose of this section of the presentation is to ...

1. Show how my class online spaces have developed over time 2. Offer some practical suggestions on how to organise a wiki to support and manage student learning 3. Provide an overview of some social media tools that are useful for the eLearning classroom 4. Examine some of the issues that you should consider when establishing online learning spaces?

 __**My Journey **__

My first online space that I developed was a blog for my class (2009)

I started the blog for one reason. A few of the students in my class were forgetting to complete their homework on a regular basis. The main excuse being, "I lost / misplaced my diary and couldn't remember what I had to do." So as a solution to this problem, I developed a space where the homework requirements were added online. Problem solved.

Here is our class blog from 2009

**[|2009 Class Blog]**

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As the blog developed, I could see in it the potential for allowing students to share their published work. Over the course of the year we posted various examples of work and ocassionally others would comment on our efforts.

In 2010, I discovered wikispaces. Homework was the first button to be added and from there I stared adding things like timetables, resources and links to school notices etc. It was around this time I came to realise the wiki would be a great "space" for students to present examples of their work. I added students names to the navigation bar allowing students access and editing rights to the wiki (big step for me, as I was the one always in control of the classroom and learning etc).



In using the wiki this way, it soon became very apparent that my students needed to explore other ways in which to present their work. Jacqui Sharp's resources have been a fantastic help in this regard. Below is her excellent slideshare resource on publishing tools / methods for the digital environment.

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<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 18px;">Throughout 2010, my class had lots of fun exploring these publishing options as well as digging deeper into using web 2.0 tools.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 18px;">Here is an example of student work from 2011 ...

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 18px;">Georgina's Page

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">Here is our class wiki as it currently looks today (2011).


 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">The Class Without Walls Wiki **

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__**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">eLearning **__

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">This year (2011) I have been fortunate enough to teach in the "digital" class at the school where I work. In terms of access to computers, we have a 1 - 3 ratio (if you include the teacher's laptop in the mix - I have a roll of 33). Having greater access to equipment, coupled with my developing understanding of eLearning pedagogy, I decided it was time to further develop my class online "spaces"

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 18px;">What is eLearning about? The ideas below have helped me in my approach to creating online learning spaces for my students. As I've added to and tweaked my online spaces, I've always tried to make sure the intent of these ideas are reflected in what I do.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 18px;">1. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">eLearning is about using social media to communicate and learn

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 18px;">2. eLearning is about students developing their own pathways and journeys. Students document their own learning which ends up as a digital portfolio

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 18px;">3. eLearning is "open classroom" walls

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 18px;">4. eLearning is about reflection and self assessment

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">5. eLearning is about students choosing and using the best "tool" or plan to facilitate their own learning

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">6. eLearning is about collaboration

__**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 18px;">Social Media **__

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">The first area I was wanting to explore was the social media component. I was looking to add a social media tool to our wiki that would enable my students to practise aspects of digital citizenship within a "closed" environment. Twiducate has been a good choice for my class.


 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">[|Class Twiducate page] **

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<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">Further explanation of twiducate can be found on my web tools wikispace below ...

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">**Webtools for Schools**

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__ **Blogs** __

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">Further additions to our class online spaces this year were two blogs.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">With the first, I was looking for a blogging platform that would allow me as a teacher to moderate comments and have control over content. Kidblog is a great solution for teachers who want to introduce their students to blogging in a user friendly and safe environment. We use this blog primarily for reflective writing.


 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">[|The Class Without Walls Kidblog] **

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<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">﻿The second blog is a space we primarily use for sharing information and aspects of our learning ...


 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">[|The Class Without Walls Blog] **

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<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">This year I have also experimented with a space for summative assessment for my class. I created a separate wiki and password protected each of the students pages, so only they and myself have access to their information.


 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">Assessment wiki **

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 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">Pathways wiki **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">Students also have a space (wiki) where they document their learning pathways for the main curriculum areas. Each page is password protected.

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<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">__**Curriculum Areas**__

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">The next obvious step was to create separate wikis for curriculum areas to allow my students to access specific teaching / learning resources as well as space to publish and share their learning ...

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">**Literacy wiki**

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<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">**Numeracy wiki**

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<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">__**Authentic Learning Journey wiki**__

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<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">This keynote presentation by Suzie Vesper addresses various issues surrounding the use of online spaces. Well worth viewing.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">Some of the issues she identifies are ...

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">1. Maintaining control of online spaces (slides 48 - 54) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">2. Ownership and life span of lifelong material (slides 55 - 56) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">3. Length of time work remains online (slides 57 - 58) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">4. Naming online spaces (slides 59 - 63)

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<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">Here is an audio explanation of the The Class Without Walls learning environments

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