A Very Late Entry On Teaching and Learning With Internet: Pedagogical Strategies, Activities and Web Resources 2.0

 

    My apology for the very late entry.  I was in school for few days to settle English Department matters so I kept postponing the blog entry.

     My favourite item from that 19 November presentation is Schoology.  According to Wikipedia, it is a “social networking service and virtual learning environment” for both school and higher education institutions.  Schoology “allows users to create, manage and share academic content.  Unlike Facebook whose keyword is social, schoology’s keyword is academic content.  Thus, there is minimal distraction in Schoology.  Schoology is also known as “ a learning management system (LMS) or course management (CMS).  It is also described as a cloud-based platform that “provides tools needed to manage an online classroom.'”

    Honesty, I’m looking forward to use this Schoology with my Form 5 classes next year and also a part of my research paper.  But, after a recent conversation with a friend about using such tool, there is this issue of some stakeholders (parents, school administrator and teachers themselves) who are still skeptical with the use of such tool as a teaching tool.  It is deemed distracting and has the ability to influence students with negative elements.

http://coe.winthrop.edu/jonesmg/LTI/2010Fwhitepapers/Nicole_Gaillard.pdf

explains that Schoology helps to “extend the students’ learning beyond the classroom" so that students are constantly learning during and after school.  Of course it promotes independent learning in a controlled and technological means.  I find that Schoology ‘speaks the language of students’ as it practises the same principle of Facebook. 

Other than that, Schoology helps “to foster the acquisition of skills essential to being successful in the 21st century such as communication, collaboration, online safety, and technological skills (Deubel, 2009). Social learning connects what students are doing in their home lives and what they are doing in school to make their education more meaningful and purposeful to them.”  For me, constructivism comes alive here in Schoology.

    I wish those skeptical parties will want to open their eyes to the unlimited benefits of this tool but parents simply cannot let their children run wild free in the technological world; run together with them.  Just like the horses.