Discussion of Week 1 Activities

1. How might you incorporate use of the application you chose into your work context?

I have already used Blogger - or rather- I have asked students to set up independent blogs- in order to share ideas around a topic- but it was a pilot and I knew little about how well it might work.

Now, I think I would like to set up a sort of group or collaborative blog, whereby group members all add bits or are responsible for a particular part of a task. I'm moving one group on to Assessment and Feedback in an online module about e learning, and it might be useful to set up a group blog to which each member contributes and thus create a shared resource with open debate as well as links to background reading , e journals, digitised chapters found via the library or relevant yoiutube video clips, for example.

2. What value might it add?
If asked to go into a blog and add, it means the group need a shared goal, to work collaboratively and as such learn from their peers as well as contributing to the content and direction of the task. It would allow learnersa to participate in a shared task and be immersed in the creation of an online community undertaking learning through a social constructivist approach.

3. What issues around ownership,copyright, privacy & security might arise from the use of such an online space?
I have to ensure learners are au fait with netiquette issues at the outset of the course and I do see the need to add issues such as privacy & copyright to the list of essential information and to gain student agreement to the institutional policies which exist to safeguard our learners. There are sites which offer free images, for example, which learners need to be made aware of, and a link should be offered to ensure privacy & security are at least identified from the very start of a course. privacy, is, I think a little trickier when going into sites such as Flickr and Facebook, but if a simple ticklist of general advice is presented as a good practice guide, I think this should suffice.