Module four

I have had a lot to do with podcasts and vodcasts with distance education. The most useful things about these forms of media is their portabillity and their ease of access for students. Most students either own or have access to ipods or thier equivalent these days. They are also usually familiar with the requirements for downloading and moving files onto these portable devices. This enables them to study while on the move. I use my ipod to replay podcasts from university while I am excersising or mowing the lawn (we have four acres that is mowed). This is a godsend for time poor people or for students like me who need to listen to lectures a number of times for the concepts to sink in. U tube is another tool that I use frequently to watch demonstations of difficult concepts that are best understood using visual stimulus.
On the whole extreamly useful technology.

Module three

Google forms looks like a great way to obtain data that is already organised without laborious entry into a spreadsheet. I will have to send a answer form to my kids that is linked to a spreadsheet in google docs to see how well it all works. The ease with which data can be obtained  from a sample  space that suits your requirements makes google forms a great tool. A class may be sampled as easily as the whole school making for accurate and easy statistical analysis.

Module Two

Module two was  interesting with some informative videos and useful links. Although I am reasonably computer literate I am new to blogging and this was a learning experience. I can see that the blog platform would be useful to set up individual course information pages. A blog could be used to inform a group of students about up and coming events and to include a class in a group expereince. It is a nice easy way to keep a select group of people in the loop about events. They are easy enough to set up so that one could be made for every class that you are involved in so that the postings that students receive are subject and class specific.

Module one

The online community is something that I currently have a reasonable contact with. I am aware of the large part that websites such as face book plays in our children's lives. To be effective educators in the current climate we need to use the technology that our students are already involved in to better involve them in our course content.
I am currently studying by distance eduacation which involves a large amount of online learning aids. This gives me an opportunity to assess the usefulness of many of the software platforms encountered Web 2 from the perspective of the student. I plan to use this knowledge to improve and add to the techniques that I am using to assist learning support students.