e-learning experiences

For the Journal of Computing in Teacher Education, Joseph Friedhoff wrote and interesting article titled “Reflecting on the affordances and constraints of technologies and their impact on pedagogical goals”. Although the article primarily dealt with using blogs as a teaching/learning tool in tertiary education courses for preservice teachers, many of the points raised about the value of using blogs in classrooms could also relate to primary school students. According to Friedhoff, tools such as blogs should ideally facilitate collaboration and communication between classmates. Unlike discussion boards, they also mean that an individual’s work is compiled together in chronological order. In a primary classroom, this could be an alternate way for students to record their thoughts like a journal, or in a more formal task relating to a particular KLA.

Having become quite familiar with writing and reading blogs over the last semester, I believe that if the technology were available to students, many stage 3 students would be capable of writing and maintaining a blog of their own, with guidance from their teacher. However unlike Friedhoff I believe that blogs would not be as effective in encouraging collaborative work amongst primary students–a tool better suited to this task would be something like a joint class blog or a wikispace. Therefore I believe that blogs could be useful in the primary classroom as a journal-like tool for students to record responses and reflections in an online medium.

Jared makes an interesting point in his blog questioning the safety and suitability of blogging in the classroom. His post What does Microsoft have to say? provided a shocking insight into the realities of children and teenagers who blog. I found this posting really interesting, since I realised that I had not stopped to consider this issue in any depth, instead being caught up in the excitement and challenges of incorporating technology into the classroom. Of course most primary school aged children would lack the presence of mind to eliminate their names, ages, and other personal details from online blogs, discussion boards and the like, so it is the responsibility of teachers and parents to educate children on this new form of “stranger danger”.

This website provides cartoon clips demonstrating internet safety, and is endorsed by the Australian Government for use in primary schools. I actually saw this used in my practicum school last semester, as the school had a heavy emphasis on ICT, and my supervising teacher would play the clips to her 2/3 class while they ate their lunches. I think clips such as these can be used to make students aware of the dangers of revealing personal information over the internet, however I also believe it is the responsibility of teachers to monitor students’ postings if they choose to incorporate this technology into the classroom.