Environments affect the choices made in technology because everything that we do has an effect on the environment: from driving to school to reading the newspaper. In regard to this unit, we have found that technology is a valuable resource in regard to our learning. Although technology does have an impact in the environment, textbooks and the such have a similar impact, and neither are particularly good for the environment, yet they are both used as stimuli for our learning. However, technology, when it is available, offers a more interactive way of learning, hence it is more exciting for the student. In schools like ours where technology is available to us, we should take advantage of this opportunity, yet there are many schools that are not able to, and so they are only able to have tools such as textbooks to learn from. And so in such environments, technology cannot be used, hence affecting our technology choices.
Health and Social Education EQ- How are web 2.0 tools such as social-networking sites affecting youth both socially and health-wise?
Whether we like it or not, social-networking is a major part of todays society. As of 2009, over half a billion people are connected through sites like Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and Bebo. The positive aspects of such technology is that now, people are just one click away from each other which brings the world closer together technologically. Users can share ideas, views, photos, videos and memories through these social networking sites. Yet, there are a host of negative aspects of social networking. The obesity rate in youth is increasing dramatically because children are now parked in front of their computer sets rather than going out and as well as this prolonged sitting in front of a computer is both bad for your sight and posture. Socially, more children rely on communicating through technology than face-to-face which is a problem because it hinders social skills. IM language also affects spelling negatively and it can distract children from doing other things in their life. Yet, the easiest answer the this question is an over-used cliche "do everything in moderation," us as youth living in the 21st century should not abandon technology, because its part of our everday lives, but we need to realize when to stop and step out into the real world.
Criteria D: Create -Script for the Video
Web 2.0: Why It’s Good For You
Scene: A normal IT lesson.
Cast: Tara, Dylan, & Maria
Tara: Hello everyone. You are watching TDM TV, and I’m your host , Tara Nelson! Today we are going to talk about Web 2.0 and the values that it can bring to our school. Most of us have seen how Web 2.0 is encouraged for most of our lessons such as Language B, Science, and Humanities. Lets take a look at some of these examples. ( Dylan enters the scene and is on one educational websites)
Dylan what are you looking at?
Dylan: Well, right now I am improving my Science skills. I am doing this awesome quiz on cell reproduction! (After doing the quiz Dylan checks the results and sees that he gets everything right)
Look!I got 9 out of 9!!!
Tara: Good for you Dylan, congratulations!!!!
Dylan: As you can see folks many sites such as bbc bitesize can improve your knowledge about science and prepare you for all you need to know! And since using the internet is quite a high-stimulus activity captures my attention easier than simple reading!!
Tara: Also, you can use sites like Babbel, Teachrtube, and Rubistar to improve students’ and teachers’ learning!
Tara: Quite interesting, isn’t it? Now lets move on to another student! (Maria enters the scene)
So Maria, what are you doing?
Maria: Oh hi Tara! I was just…um…doing nothing.
Tara: ‘Gasp!’ Were you trying to go on facebook!? How very irresponsible of you!!
Maria: Don’t panic okay!!It’s blocked! See? (Camera then faces the screen where facebook is blocked)
Inappropriate sites like facebook, myspace, and youtube are blocked, so there’s a highly probable chance students will not be fooling around and playing when they really should be working! *Sigh* so I guess I’ll just have to log on to facebook at home.
Tara: Very interesting! And thank you for sharing your facts!
So you see folks, Web 2.0 is a very useful tool in the educational deparment and can help students improve in their subjects in a very useful and interesting way. Thanks for watching!
VISIT our blog on http://web2dylanmariatara.blogspot.com/ !!!
Plan: Gantt Chart
Uploaded using Windows SkyDrive. This Web 2.0 tools allows users to sync all their documents onto the internet so that it is downloadable anywhere you have an internet connection! No more leaving work at school!
As our plan has two seperate parts, one a brief table describing use of resources, and one a detailed Gantt chart describing our use of time, we think that our plan is very useful. As we used a gantt chart we can check up on what we have to be doing when, and therefore helping us to manage our time and resources well. It is also very detailed, providing step-by-step details on what to do. As part of our plan is visual this is also helpful, because it is more appealing to refer to.
Design Brief | Design Spec
Design Brief
Create a product that takes less than three minutes to present and that convinces people that Web 2.0 is a valuable educational resource.
Design Spec
- It should be 3 minutes or less
- It should be pro Web 2.0
- It should have both for and against points of Web 2.0
- It should be presented in an innovative and creative manner (ie. not a word document)
- Our entire group should be involved in the creation of the product.
- Visually pleasing hence sparking interest
Teachers and Web 2.0
We have recently conducted a survey on teachers and their views on Web 2.0.Our hypothesis was that many teachers would see web 2.0 as a useful education tool. We have finally collected the final results and this is what we found:
- 50% of teachers know about Web 2.0
- 62.5% of teachers use Web 2.0 in their classrooms
- 87.5% of teachers think Web 2.0 is a valuable resource and thererfore it should be used in classrooms.
According to these results it seems that a great deal of teachers think that Web 2.0 is a useful resource in school and education.
Click Here to take survey
Testing Our Product
To test our product we decided to use a Web 2.0 tool, to prove that it is indeed an educational tool. We created an online poll on blogger asking viewers of the blog if it convinced them whether Web 2.0 is educational. They had 3 choices - Yes, No, Maybe. If the majority of the answers are yes our product is a sucess! The ideal people who could answer the poll are the board, but as there are only a few of them and there is a large chance that they wont see the blog, we opened it to anyone who decided to view the blog. The poll shows instant results after each vote! 
What is Web 2.0?
Web 2.0 is the second generation of the internet - it allows users to share, converge, communicate, collaborate and design through websites. These include social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Bebo, Flickr and Hi5. It also has video sharing sites such as YouTube where people around the world can upload and stream video, and Hulu where users can watch episodes of their favourite TV shows online. Web 2.0 includes interactive games, that allows people to play against other people worldwide. Australian pop queen,Kylie Minogue has even used web 2.0 to create her own social networking site called kyliekonnect so her fans can interact with eachother.
Web 2.0 has alot of educational value and this generation of internet has created something called e-learning. Sites like babbel.com help users learn different languages while creating a platform for users to communicate with people who know the same language across the world. Titatok.com is a website that uploads kids stories and illustrations and gets it ready for publication. There are many study group sites like WePapers.com that lets students talk to each other about work, and "collects and organizes student-generated academic papers that could help millions of students around the world." These are just a small preview of what Web 2.0 has to offer to education, and we believe that it should be used around school to improve and enhance student learning at OSC.
Introduction
The aim of this unit is to investigate whether or not Web 2.0 should be used as an educational tool in the classroom. We must explore views both for and against this and come up with a conclusion as to what side we're on. We then must create a presentation to the board of directors of OSC that explains why we are for or against Web 2.0. We need to include a synopsis of what Web 2.0 is, the history of web 2.0 and some of its tools. One of the main differences in this unit is that we have to hand in our design cycle in the form of a blog, and use at least two different communication methods in it.
