Creating My Website on Childhood Anxiety

This must be my favourite part of this course so far. I thoroughly enjoyed designing the web page and it is a topic that I am very interested in. You see my daughter is a bit of a perfectionist at only the age of 7 and this course combined with Learning Supportive environments has really encouraged me to help understand why she gets so uptight about things a 7yo really should not. I loved working my way around the design pages and I really felt like I wanted to go further with this one.

As a teacher I think websites are a very creative way for students to show their learning flair. It enables them to delve into their own interests and create something that they have complete control over their own learning. It combines both procedural knowledge and declarative knowledge but also allows higher thinking knowledge to be accessed as well. The website creation allows the learner to take control of their own learning and encourages the learner take responsibility. Structured and scaffolded appropriately technology can be utilised to understand the differing needs of students as well as teaching them about iInternet safety, guidelines, privacy and ethical rules and regulations of the world wide web (Fasso 2013 & Winch et.al 2011). This is further supported by Education Queensland who recognises that tapping into available technology is a resource that engages students in a wider variety of teaching tools (Department of Education Training and Employment 2011-2015). From the teachers perspective and fitting in with the requirement's of the curriculum it provides teachers with concrete evidence of students innovative learning progress for evaluation, identifies and differentiates students learning capabilities, strengths and weaknesses (DETE 2011-2015)


Though I loved creating and designing my web page I thought I better do a PMI (Plus, Minus, Interesting) Analysis just to ensure my decision is an informed one.

Plus

• Encourages learning using IT
• Exposes learners to website design
• Improves procedural & declarative knowledge
• Improves self esteem due to creating something new and different
• Allows innovative ideas to flow
• Scaffolded to align with curriculum

Minus

• Lack of software or IT equipment may disadvantage children
• Low self esteem in ability to try something new
• Must step outside comfort zone
• Privacy and copyright legalities

Interesting

• Learning something new
• Creative flair and opportunity to discover new resources
• Using technology as a research tool to facilitate learning and teaching
• Assessment and evaluation tool for teachers

In summary I believe this is a wonderful tool for students it encourages collaborative learning, promotes interactive learning between students and teachers and encourages technology learning by the sharing of ideas and information between students (AASL 2013). Additionally researching information on the topic Childhood Anxiety took me to many wonderful journals and databases identifying that there is also help available out there for parents and sufferer's alike.


http://www.weebly.com/weebly/main.php