And then there was the website!

As past requirements in this course have been to set up blogs and wikis, I took it upon myself to take the next step into the world of web design! Two words I thought would never leave my lips, actually they didn't ever leave my lips, but they were written by me which it seems has more value than verbal dialogue anyway.

To begin with, I was advised to use a fairly foolproof site called 'weebly' to successfully complete my task of setting up and understanding the functioning of websites, and how this could be applied to Blooms Taxonomy and SAMR. Much like the blog and wikispace sites, I was a little overawed, but remembering how relatively easy they were to set up had found a new level (maybe level one) in confidence for all things technological. Weebly was indeed quite easy to set up to begin with; I did however skip past the video of 'how to' and went on trying to do it myself (with my level one confidence). Although, upon trying to change some text and add pictures, I was stumped. Using my new found savvy for 'web anything' I searched for 'how to use weebly' in Google and to my relief, there was a video for my requirements.

Weebly offers a great deal for the user with text, pictures, video links, search boxes, buttons, slide shows, spacers, changes in text colour, size, headings, sub-categories and no doubt a lot more, should I have paid for full access to the site. I decided to use the site as a test, instead of any particular subject matter.

As far as learners go, the opportunities are endless in what we learn, how we learn it, how far we can take it; all depending on the students and of course the teachers' ability to supply higher learning. Referencing the SAMR model, it would be easy to connect the website to the models' levels of learning. Substituting could occur simply by reading information, adding comments, pictures of which could easily be done on a poster or alternate material. Augmentation could allow for a more complex aptitude of audio or video links, YouTube links, research articles or clips that support the purpose of the assessment. The student could then show that he has read the material and applied thought and effort to create a response, and argument to support it. Modification using websites could offer students and teacher to engage in learning through links to similar examples of evidence, questionnaires, comment sections on certain text or video pieces. Finally, the ultimate level of Redefinition is that the student could use the site globally; connecting with first hand witness accounts, links to current profiles of authors, historians, links to credited papers and many more. If researched, the ability for the website to have credibility and education components is highly achievable by any student.

The more I use the diverse perceptions of the Bloom's or SAMR models, the more I enjoy its ability to continually teach and challenge. The ability to step back and look through the eyes of a teacher whilst being able to think critically about how as a teacher I can challenge my students beyond the early stages of SAMR. I thoroughly enjoyed this journey in the world of websites, and now wish that at the start of this course I said 1 out of 10 for my ability behind the screen.

Here is my link to my website about me really http://inowhaveawebsite.weebly.com/