Question 3

From my experience with this course there were numerous aspects which I find exceptionally useful aspects of online learning. The first easily needs to be the collaboration.
Through the ICT environment in this course we have had a constant social environment where we have been easily able to be constructive learner and social teachers. We have easily been able to help each other and relate best to each other as we are all aiming for the goal. Through the collaborative environment we also learnt a lot of information about their peers including their learning styles, creative sides and their interests. We have been able to share a lot of information not only through the class room but also through our blogs and our wiki. This leads me to the next point. A great aspect on the online learning environment is the access to each other and the access to information. No matter what subject or content of information it was always readily available and if our peers were not readily available because it was say 10pm. It was now easy to ensure we could share our new found information through our new blog communication links and our contributors or through our wiki. This made it extremely useful to help each other out when having problems connecting information or even other contributors as we were able to collaborate together and work it out.
Another aspect which I found useful through online learning is the way in which a teacher can conduct a more relaxed though interactive environment. The teacher can simply alert the students to the goals and outcomes they need to fulfil and send them on their way. The teacher does not need to dictate to them the way in which they need to learn. The students do not have to sit in rows reading from textbooks instead they can jump onto the computers themselves take responsibility for their own learning and be active participants in the lesson. The internet also provides for lessons to easily cater for the various different learning styles as there are numerous activities to each subject waiting to be used.
The unlimited resources available alone make online learning a great way for accessing information from all around the world there are numerous sites including the BBC and Bradford college site as well was surf aquarium that lead to helpful information. The use of web quests proved extremely useful now not only can we easily plan for numerous lessons at a time, we have incorporated multiple intelligences, social interaction, assessment and feedback can easily be worked into the lesson. It seems the web quest is a very sure way to go when planning a program the only thing I need to be careful of is the amount of time I can end up spending on designing and making the web quest overall it proved extremely successful and useful.

Question 4

the following is an example how how I incorporated Blooms higher order thinking into my blog. as i needed to evaluate and assess our problems in attaining contributors. overall though all our blogs are examples of Higher order thinking as we have created them.

If i added you at 8pm
If i had added my contributors at 8pm yesterday instead of 9:20 this morning it would have caused great distress. at this point we are able to sit together talk freely and work out who is on who's blog and if the system is working correctly. if i had been sitting at home on my own, trying to work out who i added successfully and who i didn't and which persons blog i am able to contribute to and to which persons site i can't i would have been a mess. being in a social surrounding and working together enabled us to work it out together and turn to help if need be. not only are we able to talk about it but we are also able to turn around look at another persons screen and show them exactly where to go. if sitting at home on my own and chatting through MSN without being able to see the screen the person through the chat room was discussing it would have been enormously confusing. ending up in phone calls occurring to try and realise what we are doing, where we need to 'click' and who's on who's blog. By eventually attaining the other blogs and authors onto each others site we are know able to access more information on the same topic, we are able to network with so much more ease and easily show work we have produced instead of needing to send files back and forth through MSN or email accounts now we can simply log on and view the files, information and sources we need for the work we are searching.
http://sarahscosmos.blogspot.com/2007/03/if-i-added-you-at-8pm.html

Vygotsky's theory is based around social interaction. This has been incorporated into my blog through my contributors and through our class Wiki. An example of social interaction on my blog can be seen below which was posted on my blog from a contributor.

friendships
Thanks heaps for accepting to be my one and only friend on Google blogs lol have good times networking learning with me ... xxx
http://sarahscosmos.blogspot.com/2007/03/friendships.html


To incorporate Glasser's theory into my blog i added aspects which allowed for freedom and fun. My contributors had the freedom of posting information (example above) and I also incorporated games, pod casts, videos and pictures and diagrams. Below is a small sample and just one of the many pictures included in my blog. Another aspect which can also can cause interest and engagement resulting in a sense of freedom and fun is the multiples intelligence test.

http://sarahscosmos.blogspot.com/2007/03/cognitive-tools.html

I Incorporated Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences by having pictures, videos and games which appeal to all the different learning styles. iIIncorporated numerous diagrams (as seen above) as well as the multiples intelligence test. A site for the games and a sound clip are found below.

http://surfaquarium.com/mi/intelligences.htm

mp3 music Justin Timberlake MP3s

Question 2

Question 1

Components of an interesting blog:
Music/audio files
Games
Pictures
Diagrams
Video clips
Hyperlinks
Newsletter
Chat session
Personal information

Pictures are important to use in a blog as it breaks up the constant form of writing. It captures the eye, adds a sense of creativity and appeals to those people who are visual spatial learners.

Games make the blog fun, interesting, creative and ensure that people have fun on your blog. There’s nothing more boring than going to find information and finding nothing but constant writing. The use of games also makes it interactive and enjoyable while the searcher can still find their information. Games are also able to appeal to all the multiple intelligences rather than just a few; everyone’s accounted for. Nothing more exciting than amusement from a game.

Video clips help for entertaining and making the blog more interesting. As the site contains movement, sound and a different form of gaining information than just reading people feel interested and engaged when they can sit and relax and watched film clips relating to their information or their interest rather than needing to constantly read. It just a bit of creative flare

http://surfaquarium.com/mi/intelligences.htm <-- to access games

this is a test post