In my investigations of technology, I have come across some really cool examples of how a classroom web page can be a very helpful tool for students, teachers and parents alike.  A child's education is a collaborative effort between his/her parents and teachers.  Communication between parents and teachers is usually (in my experience at least) restricted to notes to and from home and the occasional parent/teacher meeting or equivalent.  There is a huge potential for more communication which can only benefit the student. A class website is an extremely effective way of keeping lines of communication open between parents, teachers and students.

It is also a great way for students to showcase what they are learning to their parents or for parents to initiate conversations about whats happening at school if children are hard to get information out of (like mine!).  Students can go to the website if they miss any school or need help with work.  The list goes on.  There are so many reasons why a classroom webpage is a great idea.  I wish my kids classrooms had them.

Above are a couple of examples of classroom web pages that I really liked.  Click on the images to go to the sites.

I went in to Task 2 with a whole different attitude to what I did in Task 1.  In Task 1 I was intimidated and nervous about putting myself out there on the world wide web for potentially the whole world to see.  I am even hesitant on Facebook about putting too much personal information on!  I'm not totally paranoid, just rather wary.  Anyway, I balked at the task most of the way through it and my time management was poor because I couldn't see the task for what it was.  My marks reflected this.  

So for Task 2, I changed my attitude.  I went in with confidence and learned a lot about my work/study habits.  I learned not to get so daunted by the apparent enormity of the whole project, but to break it down into very little achievable tasks.  When I did this, it not only became less scary but almost enjoyable.  With the task broken down it was also much easier to time manage.  I learned to really look at EVERY available resource (especially on LMS) because almost everything you need is already there.  Most of all, I learned that there are no 'trick' questions.  If you read the requirements of the task, what is being asked is just that.  What is being asked.  No hidden extra meaning or between the lines stuff.  Seems simple I suppose.  But I always think there needs to be more.  I need to trust myself, that I understand what is required and that I do NOT need to find a hidden anything.

Oh wow!  What a fun, productive day I've had working on this task.  I'll have to admit it was the first day I've actually enjoyed this unit! I'm really excited because after this unit is over, I am really keen to try to get my social network up and running for real.  Living in rural WA, face to face networking with other parents of deaf children is virtually impossible.  I know of a small handful of parents in my town who are raising deaf children through "Morning Tea" type events organised by our local Visiting Teacher of the Deaf.  However, our children and our situations are so different - whether it be in age, hearing ability, family dynamics or lifestyles, it can be hard to strike up a friendship or any type of relationship that allows sharing of advice, support and general networking (especially if you're quite introverted in such situations, like me!).  Anyway, we'll see later on where all that goes.

Today - I created my social space using Mixxt, which was fantastic and easy and can't really say I had any problems.  I created a new member (my husband) to see what the joining up process involved and took several screenshots along the way to use in my instructions to my peer.  I used Jing for the screen shots.  It was a relatively small program to download onto my computer, however it came with a bit of crap baggage, like dodgy virus scan programs that run scans that find hundreds of horrible files that are going to harm my computer and a new preferred search engine.  Once upon a time I could fix all these things in a couple of clicks but as you get older and busier, you have less time to keep up with the ins and outs of your operating system, therefore I have ignored what bonus, unwanted software (I think the term is malware?) I have gained today and hopefully will remember somewhere down the track to find it at the root and rip it out!!  Once I had downloaded and installed Jing, a pretty little half yellow bubble appeared at the top of my screen which I promptly clicked and saw my options and pretty much got the gist of what needed to be done to use the program.  I then wrote the descriptions for the "Social Learner" page and linked my social networking page to this page.  So, apart from tweaking and prettying it all up, I just have to record my screencasts and the research and construction side of this task is finished.  After that I will need to write a pretty impressive blog post because I am acutely aware of the lack of depth of my blogs!  I need to reflect on my "learning and/or problem solving strategies" and on "connections and extensions" and throw in a "visual".  So I shall go away and chew on those for a day and hopefully finish off with a brilliant final blog for this task!!

Okay, so charging in "all guns blazing" was probably quite ineffective.  I didn't read all the information about the assignment that was available on the LMS.  Should know better by now!  While waiting for an answer from the AllDeaf webpage, I was reading through some of the resources on LMS and came across the Symbaloo page for Social Media created by Jenni Parker, https://edu.symbaloo.com/mix/socialmedia6    I really liked the 'click and try' type of interface that a Symbaloo page offers.  So click and try I did.  In my mind, I knew what I wanted to make for my social group and while lots of sites offered something that could be a modified version of what I was thinking of, www.mixxt.com/ offered me exactly what I was thinking of and more!  I began to get excited about the assignment for the first time! 

So I began to build my social media page/group for parents and families raising deaf children.  Mixxt has been very easy to use so far.  It gives the user so many options without making it complicated or hard to navigate.  It was great to be able to incorporate all the things I love about social media with all the things I have found useful and supportive during my amazing journey raising our deaf daughter.  I would actually like to make this group a real functional page, not just an assignment.  But I will rein myself in a bit for now and make sure it meets the requirements of the task first.

My social media has several features where members can contribute.  They can contribute to a discussion forum (several will be set up with discussion topics created), they can add photos and videos, and they can use and add links to useful and supportive webpages, and perhaps for the purpose of the assignment they could register their interest/attendance at a 'morning tea with a guest speaker' for parents of deaf children and nominate a plate to bring or service to provide for the event.

Ok, after a catastrophic ending to assignment 1, I am charging into assignment 2 with all guns blazing.  I wanted to create something relevant to me - I figure the more real it is, the easier it might be to know where I'm headed with it!  So I searched "social networking for parents of deaf children" and found a place called AllDeaf.com, which among other various features, allows members to create their own social groups.  So, I have signed up for membership - it seems to be a predominantly (but not exclusively) American community, so I will create an Australian niche!

Okay, so membership is complete - activated by email and now I am going to update my profile and see what the site has to offer...

Profile updated - public/privcate settings, adding of homepage - this I found applicable for the first time in my life!  However, I didn't put it in just yet, because I want to be taken seriously, not just as a student (if you know what I mean!).  Instant messaging - not applicable.  Bio, Location, Hobbies and Occupation - all filled out.  Looking, looking, looking - found discussion forums, photo galleries, social groups - aha!  Looking, looking, looking - can join any of many social groups for deaf people, but can't find anywhere that lets me create my own social group.  Hmmm, I know I read that I could create my own group, so why can't I find it.  Grrr.  Eventually give up and post on a help thread in discussion forum - how can I make my own group?  Awaiting answer...

This is my final blog for the assignment.  As usual I have let myself down with what some people will call poor time management.  I could keep trying to finish the poster for the third part of the task but the few points i might get for that will be eaten up with late demerits.  So no digital guidelines poster to submit for me.  Boy, am I proud. Again.

Well, after making a start on this assignment, I left it for several days to work on something else and in that time I pondered and processed what I had learned.  Even though building a website is something that most people (including myself), would consider too technical or complex to attempt, sites such as this one I am using, Webnode, make it possible for anyone, even those who only have basic skills such as using a word processing program.  Once you have a feel for the interface, it is surprisingly easy. Simply click on the region you want to work on, select the edit button, make the changes and save or apply.  Child's play.  Hmm.  So now I will go into every section on my website, and make some sort of change from the template, to make sure that it really is that easy across the board. 

In most assignments, taking the first steps is always the hardest part for me.  So here I am, crawling through the first few steps of this 'Digital Citzenship' task, waiting for inspiration or creative flow or something that will show me how it finishes.  I think that is why the beginning is so awkward - you can't see how each step you take will shape the final product.  But with every little bit of progress made, the finish line gets inevitably closer, so, one foot in front of the other and here we go....

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