Module 9

Scootle is a great resource and one I was already a bit familiar with. I had already searched for some resources for French and there are plenty of excellent ones there that look very suitable for using with my students. What I hadn't gotten around to doing before was creating a learning path for these resources. So, in completing this module I have now started to do that and I am excited about using them with my students this year and next year. What I also hadn't realised before was the part of Scootle that allows you to read comments of other teachers and share learning paths. This is the part of Scootle that seems to me to be most characteristic of Web2.0. It reminded me a bit of delicious in the way that you can view the learning paths of other teachers just as you could share the bookmarks of other delicious users. I'm pleased I have found out about this aspect of Scootle as I think it will be really helpful and save time.

In terms of social networking I am not really much involved in that at the moment. I am not on facebook, my space, twitter etc and at the moment have no desire to do so. These are not things I would consider using in the classroom but I could see their place as a way to collaborate with colleagues. I did find the list of Social Network Sites for Educators interesting. I was not aware so many of these sites existed for such a wide range of interests, from learning Spanish to using technology in the classroom. I can see how it would be beneficial to belong to one or some of these online groups and it would really connect you to a world-wide web of educators.The problem for me would be finding the time at the moment to really contribute to these sites but it is good to know they exist!

I did not think that much of Second Life and again, for the moment, it is not something I would use in the classroom. I have found many more useful tools through this Web2.0 course that I think are far more beneficial to the students and their learning. I did not find the Second Life website easy to navigate or to really understand how to engage in it. I was trying to enter some of the Paris spaces but could never seem to get anywhere. I am probably also a bit put off by media reports I have read in the past about how Second Life can be unsafe in terms of the people you can encounter in this virtual world. So for now, it is not a tool I will be investigating any further.

Overall, even though I am not that much engaged in social networking on the web, I do think it is an important part of Web2.0 and I will definately be using the social networking aspects of delicious and Scootle regularly.