Reflections on Practice. Where to now? Why?

I have just reread the 7 entries I have posted since I set up this blog on 12 September 2007. I am proud of what I have learnt and pleased that I have had the opportunity to dedicate time to this in depth exploration of web 2.0 social networking and learning tools and their application to student and teacher learning.

On 24 September, I listed some questions posed by Mark Pesce about literacy and learning 2.0. It is urgent that educators begin serious conversations around these questions. It is vital that teachers engage with the transformations already in progress that will effect learning and teaching in schools over the nest year(s).

I continue to be absolutely entranced by the ever-growing avalanche of information available to teachers, everyone really. The creation of google personalised learning environments are a must to enable easy understanding of the potential administratiave and professional applications for education.

The outline of "The story so far ..." on 20 September 2007, gives me a timely reminder of how far I have come, what I have learnt, what I still need to learn and many other still to be discovered and answered questions. I have achieved what I set out to do in parts 2 to 6 and more. I have reflected on the value of each tool to learning, how sustainable these and many others are to use and keep using and made some decisions about which tools are potentially the most useful.

I have come across the work of Steve Hargadon and many other web 2.0 education gurus again and again through online conferences, in blogs, wikis on slideshare and many other web 2.0 locales. It is amazing how small cyberspace really is for educators learning through action. Steve's ten questions are the basis of an ideal set to start any conversation about web 2.0 applications to education.

Every day, I use slideshare, del.icio.us, my wiki and igoogle docs and reader. I have learnt how to integrate these quite well and they have become integral to my learning. Less frequently now, I use this blog, vodpod, ning and as for the others I will probably have to abandon them. There is so much overlap with the tools even with some unique features, there is just not enough time!

I plan to focus more on integrating my blog use with the other four tools to ensure that this fits into my daily learning routine.

I also need to insert more hyperlinks to show what I am doing with these most functional tools.

I am keen to further explore the use of widgets and the voicethread application.

Next time ...!

Reflections and New Directions

I have continued to use the links and readings Google Reader sends me daily on my key search words. The energy being generated by web 2.0 social networking applications continues its upward trend.

Over the coming weeks, I'll focus more on classroom teaching tools and strategies for each of the applications I have explored.

I am looking forward to reading Alan Levine's material from his coming Australian tour.