Module 1

Hi fellow bloggers,
I am a primary teacher coming back into full time teaching after several years. While out of the game I spent time completing a masters on writing and literature, specialising in children's literature, and was able to explore many areas of interest such as art courses and being a member of a writing centre. This year has been a steep learning curve because so much has changed in the past ten years in classrooms. I now remember the reason I started teaching in the first place - that joy of being on a learning journey with your class and watching them grow in so many ways. At the beginning of this year I knew very little about IWBs. Now I don't know what I would do without one! I was already using some Web 2.0 applications such as Skype, Audacity and YouTube and I love using email. But I resisted jumping on the Facebook and Twitter bandwagon because I was sceptical regarding privacy and I really didn't want to put in the time.My 23 year old daughter spends hours on facebook every day. She gave a chuckle when she found out I was doing this course because she has been trying to get me on facebook for years!
I wonder... are social networking sites timewasters or timesavers? Will they place more demands on my already limited time? Are they enabling us to become more social...or less? Are we more self indulgent? Why do we feel the need to publish every thought that comes into our heads?
On viewing the multitude of toolsWeb 2.0 offers I realise I need to learn another language- I was confronted by a plethora of 2.0speak...widgets, feeds and aggregators, wikis, bookmarking...some I have used but most I need to explore. It's like another world. This link went straight into my favourites. I now have a gmail account and an igoogle page complete with gadgets. I am looking forward to expanding my horizons and bringing this new world to my students.