Scootle
My school is familiar with Scootle and we have all used it for a little period of time. I have found Scootle to be wonderful with Kindergarten where it was used a lot at the start of the year for letter recognition in a wonderful game of shopping for letters. If I had to be picky, I would say that there are WAAAAAAY too many activities in different languages!!!
Second Life
WHOOOAAAAH NELLY!!!!!!! Now if there is a site that could lead teachers down the path to countless parent phone calls....this would be one. The website is quoted as saying "Second Life is a playground for your imagination", as teachers we do encourage creativity, imagination and critical thinking....however, having an imagination in such a "playground" has many faults and concerns. No teacher - knowing the ramifications of the site - would allow their students to unsupervised engage and partake in the site. Yes it is a wonderful idea, but I think it is at the moment, years from being safe and practical from an educational stand point.
Facebook/Twitter
Do social networks REALLY provide more benifits than negatives? Surely the line comes where children stop interacting educationally and start interacting socially. In essence Facebook is similar to a MyClasses blog. The main difference being the openess that facebook has. Giving children the opportunity to engage in written text, post pictures, complete quizes, tag pictures and engage with a wider audience. MyClasses is a lot more limited allowing children only to engage in written text. Sounds boring I know, but at the end of the day it is the safest option, and the one option where you KNOW that children will do what it is they're supposed to.
And my Final Thought...
*Scootle is designed for educational purposes, making it a great teaching tool (especially with the Smartboard)
*Second Life seems to be for individuals who enjoy the online social life, a great tool for chewing up time, but it has no place in the classroom or for educational purposes (unless the class was titled: Unsafe practices for individuals...STRANGER DANGER!!!)
*Facebook/Twitter is a fun way for children to interact and stay in touch, but at the end of the day its design is for social networking rather than educational practice.
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I agree that facebook should not be used in schools, especially as most students who use already use it as a social networking site, therefore it will never be utilised properly in class for educational purposes....my students already use email inappropiately during class time by emailing each other "notes" rather than old school "passing of paper"
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