Since the introduction of Web 2.0 digital technologies in the late 1990's it has rapidly changed the way in which we 'interact' with the web from the static (Web 1.0 - Read-Only generic sites) to the interactive way of the web and it's supporting technologies. (HowStuffWorks, Inc, 2010)

Web 2.0 is mainly about connecting people and giving everyone a voice and an audience to share and connect with people locally as well as globally, therefore bridging the communication gaps that existed prior to web 2.0 by enhancing the power of working together through online networking and collaboration. (Rowe, 2010)

Students of the 21st Century are growing up alongside these new technologies and have experience to certain degrees depending on their situation Web 2.0 and its digital technologies in their present everyday lives.

This is good news as students will already have developed or are in the process of developing an ICT affiliation or connection which is not only required by the National Curriculum but also it is now the way the world does business and communication. (ACARA, 2009)

ACARA (2009) recognises that the rapid and continuing advancement of these information and communication technologies (ICT) are ever changing the ways individuals and groups of people share, communicate, engage, interact, socialise, use, develop and process information and technology, and learners especially the young who need to be highly skilled in ICT. (ACARA, 2009)

The National Curriculum Board even though acknowledges that some educational facilities already employ and adopted these technologies in learning in their school's own curriculum, there still needs to be an increase their effectiveness significantly over the next decade. (ACARA, 2009)

In light of this knowledge, learners in order to be fully engaging citizens will need the proper skills, training and etiquettes or Netiquettes (Internet Etiquettes) that they will need to survive society's ways of working and communication methodology in the real world. (Learn the Net, 2010)

More importantly, Queensland Education has recognised ICT not as an elective form of study where students and teachers engaged and observe casually but a requirement or expectation which is embedded into the Smart Classrooms framework. (The State Of Queensland Department of Education and Training, 2010)

This ultimately means that the learner must align themselves with the Student ICT Expectations which identify with the ICT knowledge, understanding, ways of working and skills those students in Queensland state schools are now required to have the opportunity to develop from Prep to Year 10. (The State Of Queensland Department of Education and Training, 2010)

These main expectations are now based on the National Statements of Learning for Information and Communication Technologies and the Queensland Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Essential Learnings. (The State Of Queensland Department of Education and Training, 2010) (ACARA, 2009) The Student ICT Expectations have been very transparent as they have outlined the requirements of the learning outcomes the new curriculum expects to be implemented and achieved by the end of Years 3, 5, 7, 9 and 10.

These ICT expectations will assist Queensland state schools to implement and facilitate of what is required from the Essential Learnings ICT cross-curriculum priorities. (The State Of Queensland Department of Education and Training, 2010) (Queensland Studies Authority, 2010)

The ICT expectations:

• Inquiring with ICT
• Creating with ICT
• Communicating with ICT
• Ethics, issues and ICT
• Operating ICT.
(Queensland Studies Authority, 2010) (The State Of Queensland Department of Education and Training, 2010, p. 1)

By implementing the Student ICT Expectations will ultimately better prepare and organise schools and ICT education faculties and facilitators for the approaching national curriculum, which will recognise that successful learners are both creative and productive users of modern technology, especially ICT, as a underpinning for success in all learning areas.

In light of this context it is imperative the Learning Managers be not just acquainted with these technologies but masters of ICT to help to stay in engaged with the learning junctions and help them see new ways of learning in the classroom through these technologies.

How Learning Managers can use, plan and implement the Student ICT Expectations.
The Student ICT Expectations continuum enables Learning Managers to effectively plan correctly for continuity of student understand learning by observing the learning process back and forward. This will help them see where to take student learning next – based from what students can declare and procedurally demonstrate currently. (The State Of Queensland Department of Education and Training, 2010)

Learning Managers in order to be successful in implementing ICT effectively into the classrooms ultimately should plan early to address the expected ICT learning by the significant stage or level. Importantly they should have a look back to what was expected at previous learning juncture as these expectations are not included in the expectations for later junctures. (The State Of Queensland Department of Education and Training, 2010)

Some of the Digital tools that a Learning Manager could use to implement active learning into the classroom. In my previous blogs I have covered and tested a wide range of excellent learning tools from online concept maps, making Blogs using Wordpress and Blogger, Wikis, RSS feeds, Podcasts, Avatars, Movie production software, picture archives, digital imaging, Web conferencing, making web page and digital portfolios, presentation software including Microsoft PowerPoint and Prezi.

For my top seven products that I have investigated as the best choice for engaging students into active leaning are , BlogSpot for blogging, Voki for Avatars, Skype for Web conferencing, Prezi for presentations, Weebly for website make as well as digital portfolios, "Wikispaces" or "PB works" over using Wetpaint, Podomatic for creating podcasts feature iTunes music store for online catalogues your podcast.

Digital Tools of the ICT Trade for Learning Managers

Digital Tool:Blog Refection

My brief evaluation of the functionality of a blog and its usefulness in your learning context.

Since the introduction of web 2.0 blogs which is derived from word collaborative two words "web and log" have become an exciting way for everyone who wishes to write to an audience can be heard as it has become voice for many.
In the past during the 20th century all news or ideas were promoted through static media such newspapers, including columns and articles written by journalist.

However, the advantage that blogs have over traditional media is that they are in real-time, written as the story unfolds and other followers can write comments to the articles virtually after they have been written anytime.
and are not limited to just texts however they can express their ideas through video, pictures, animations, interactive games, forms, polls, audio, as well as text.
They also can embed into the page links to other web pages, blogs, references sources,

Whilst blogs are a great tool for the author whether professional and novice, their strength and broad communicative abilities can incorporate their way into the learning classroom that will allow learning managers to facilitate collaboration and communication amongst their learners between learners and guest expert professionals.

The ICT introduction to schools digital pedagogies such as blogs are becoming mainstream ways of transforming learning as they encourage students to write, read through visual and literal texts and using multi-learning styles making learning more fun but also engaging and memorable.
Blogs should be used as integral part of learning not just integrated into learning.
However according to Stephen Downes there is a negative side to blogging especially with schools which is largely the content could be read by the wrong audience exposing them to the dangers of the World Wide Web.(Downes, 2004)

Some schools just play it safe and block all blogs, wikis and anything that uses web 2.0 technologies outside the education department design.
Whist I appreciate their efforts to protect students, students are not learning new pedagogues which may support their learning styles and be forced to learn using the formal facilitate method of the 20th century.

The solution is that all blogs must be set to private and only allow fellow students in the class to read and collaborate and still achieve the learning objective.
There should be installed a security host who can review and filter all student blogs for any inappropriate information that can put students into danger.

This actually happens in real world as censorship by media companies encourage novice commentators to write under a call sign rather than their real name.
And if someone writes something offensive they often are rejected and approved if appropriate to the contexts.

Digital Tool: Weebly

http://essdigitalportfolios.weebly.com/index.html

http://visualiteracy.weebly.com/

This do it yourself (WYSIWYG -What you see is what you get) web site builder is an excellent web 2.0 tool to build your own website however is very useful is collaborating teamwork as individual can add or modify their work when they want without having to wait upon other group members. I had the wonderful privilege of working with Amy Kennedy and Andrew Webb in collaboratively building our Visual Literacy web page that we used for our Visual Literacy presentation.

Due to its own success I worked on our next project alongside with Amy Kennedy and Andrew Webb as well as Lynn Camilleri and collaboratively designed and built as group our Digital Literacy Portfolio on Weebly.

Pros - What can I do with Weebly?

Create a free website including blog facilities
Easy drag and drop interface
No technical skills required
Over 70 of professional designs
Free domain name hosting

Cons - What we found difficult with Weebly?

Could not add tables but had to embed using HTML code
Weebly was very slow in responding
Uploading was slow and moving text around was difficult
The designs menu were mostly horizontal rather than vertical and after so characters a part of the menu list was out of view
Most of the good technologies like uploading a video were only available in the Pro edition which meant paying for it.

Digital Tool: Wikis (Wetpaint)

Wetpaint: From Engaging me to Enraging me..(LOL)

(Prensky, 2005)

So what is a Wiki?

"A wiki is a database of pages which visitors can edit live."

The building blocks of wikis are the "comments" from visitors.

You can generally edit a page in real time,search the wiki's content,and view updates since your last visit. In a "moderated wiki," wiki owners review comments before addition to the main body of a topic.

Additional features can include calendar sharing, live AV conferencing, RSS feeds and more.

Do Wikis have security risks which could put students at risk?

When as a Learning Manager you decide to have your students engage in collaborative learning by building using a freely editable and public wiki that you need to be conscious of privacy and security in your classroom and school and proceed with legal caution. Why? Because there can be issues of legal liability and risk to reputation, particularly if you publish to the web as well student safety and protection. Options such as a moderated wiki format, user agreements, and locking some pages from public view can offer protection. Make sure students don't activate their accounts with their own school or private email but get them collective to create project email accounts which only to be used for education and training learning projects and not for public or private use.

What can a Wiki do for student learning?

A wiki makes it easy to collaborate, swap ideas and information on projects such for a student collaboration for education learning, social or business purposes.

A wiki can open the doors to experts and shy silent types alike which is great for shy learners, increasing creativity, expertise, and productivity all around.

Wikis end the waste of ricocheting emails and communication breakdowns--wikis literally get everyone "on the same page."

Also with public wiki accounts there a few but I have reviewed WETPAINT and on the whole I really don't recommend this wiki for student use.

The pros

Wetpaint lets you build a rich, interactive, engaging online community around the whatever-it-is that you're really into. Utilising the best features of wikis, blogs, forums and social networks, Wetpaint mixes everything you need so you can create, collect, and organise content on your own social website.

Cons

The two main reasons are there is a lot of inappropriate advertising which is very distracting as their advertising (which pays of for the free account service) is constantly flickering in the background trying to get your attention. To get rid of the advertising you had to upgrade and pay for the service which can be expensive and depending on the project the school financiers may find it difficult task to justify their reasoning to pay for the service even though they may see the value.

#NB From my recent testings there appears to be a substantial flaw in the design code of "Wetpaint" Wiki as it will run properly only in the Internet explorer browser and not in open source browsers such as Firefox, Google chrome or safari. As a Learning Manager this can be frustrating as some schools only use Apple mac which use safari browsers or PC with Linux which only use open source programs such as Firefox.

So I recommend using "Wikispaces" or "PB works" instead which are both free and on't have annoying adverting in your face but is discreet in the background letting you get on with your work.

Digital Tool: Voki

What is Voki? Voki enables students to express themselves on the web in their own voice using a talking character or Avatar. You can customise your Voki to look like you or take on the identity of lots of other types of characters… animals, monsters, anime etc. Your Voki can speak with your own voice which is added via microphone, upload, or phone.

Voki lives on your blog, social network profile and will soon be integrated in various instant messaging platforms. You will also be able to download it to most video supported phones.

SWOT analysis Strengths

Very Engaging and fun
Easy and friendly to use when it works the way is supposed to.

Weakness

Program tends to freeze or crash a lot when creating the Voki Avatar
Relies heavy on Adobe Flash which is buggy but also won't be supported on iPhones, iPod touches and iPads.
For novice Learning Managers as well as learning students these bugs could prove to be a source of frustration which could remove the purpose for both parties which is to engage and learning as well as have some fun. It could become a case from "engaging me to enraging me...") (Prensky, 2005) .

Opportunities

Supports students with learning difficulties as well as students that are shy in front of the camera

Threats

Avatars are becoming more popular and Voki if it stay with Flash and does not move to HTML5 format may well fall out of use.
Not to mention there are approximately over 250 Million iPhone users and 3 Million iPad users and their product don't support flash, so there's an added incentive for Voki to change or at least make an option to run HTML for non-flash devices.
These devices like the iPad are been adopted for ICT tools into schools for learning purposes so lets hope Voki comes to the party.

Digital Tool: Skype

Since it's introduction Skype has slowly evolved into the mainstream V.O.I.P (Voice over Internet Protocol) preferred choice of communicating outside the telephone land line and mobile cellular phone. SWOT Analysis on Skype when using for ICT Learning purposes.

What can you do with Skype in Education?

Strengths

It is free, easy to set up, and requires little training to use.
Users have quite a bit of anonymity therefore not exposing the user too much on the internet.
Skype offers a tutorial for students which teachers can use as well.
Great way to communicate with family, friends and make new acquaintances for free.
Works with PCs, Linux, and Macs.
You can see, hear, and type to the individual you wish to speak too all at the same time.
Several students can get on each side of the connection at a time to communicate with each other.
The conversation is in real-time as opposed to waiting for responses from email.
The voice and picture are very clear.

Weakness

You must locate your own contacts for calling and conferencing.
Make sure students use privacy for contacts so personal information is not displayed for all to see.
Rather particular requirements of bandwidth/hardware.
A camera must be available to speak/be seen.
Calls/video feeds are frequently dropped, which interrupts conversations.
Requires students to have a computer with internet.
If users choose not to put personal information in, you can't tell if the person you're selecting for a contact is the person you want. This is especially a problem if the person has a common name.
You have to coordinate being on the computer at the same time as the person you want to see/talk with.
Due to safety laws School systems may choose to block Skype.

Opportunities

Allows parents to see their students presenting
Allows students who are absent a chance to participate
Allows teams of teachers to meet virtually
Allows administrators to connect with classrooms from their office
Become the "teacher as facilitator"
Conference with subject matter experts, guest speakers, or other classes around the world.
Foreign language students can utilise this great site.
Help students practice foreign language (or second language) with other students who are natural speakers
Can be used to connect with students who may be absent or may have moved
Students who may be on vacation/ somewhere none of the students have been before can talk about it from there
Connect with parents or family members who may live in different areas of be unable to attend conferences
Students in the same school working on a physical project can communicate from class to class.
The computer can be hooked-up to a classroom projector so everyone can see the video while students are talking.

Threats

You never know what students in another classroom might say online.
Make sure students do not abuse it by making unnecessary calls that would be charged.
You would have to closely monitor any contact going on with your students at all times for obscene behaviour or gestures, and be prepared to explain to parents what happened and why.

Digital Tool: Digital Images

Images are a brilliant Web 2.0 tool to use to help Learning managers support their teaching and help students better engage in their learning.

According to iStockphoto website they are the web's original source for user-generated, royalty-free stock photos, illustrations, video, audio and Flash. Whether you're designing a school web paper project, showing presentation, collaborating on a Wiki or blogging away to peers on class work, there are millions of affordable images, vectors and clips to help your student in class tell their story.

http://www.fotosearch.com/

http://www.fotolia.com/

Fotosearch and Fotolia are providers of royalty free and rights managed stock photography, illustrations, maps, video, and audio. They provide different stock agencies of "The World's stock photography at one website." This is great as students will be able to use these picture to support their web projects, school presentations, podcasting etc. All these products can be licenced and easily downloaded for use in your presentations, promotional materials, websites, etc. When you purchase a license to use an image, video clip, or audio clip, you do so based on the license agreement of the publisher of that particular content. The license agreement will be presented to you before purchase confirmation.

Analysis of istock, Fotolia and Fotosearch

Pros

Share and stay in Touch

Upload and organise you picture in categories

Crop,fix and edit online anywhere in the world

Explore a whole world of photos to share

Millions of images to choose

Virtually any topic

Royalty Free: Which means that once you paid for the image you have rights to that photo for school, business or home use without the worrying about legalities or copyright ownership.

Cons

Most images are not free and only royalty free

The Pedagogy of Teaching using images supports students' learning. Raising student higher order of Learning. We remember visually more so that by using words. On average we remember 30% Visually and 7% audibly. Therefore it is imperative to support teaching by using images. Integrating visual literacy instruction and scaffolding into classroom curriculum begins by asking a some simple important questions to start and engage the students'critical thinking process. (Jakes Online 2006)

What am I looking at?

What does this image mean to me?

What is the relationship between the image and the displayed text message?

How is this message effective?

Just as professionals ask critical questions of messages they examine, students should be just as critical of the messages they see too. In the visual design and interpretive world, similar questions are asked during message creation as well:

How can I visually depict this message?

How can I make this message effective?

What are some visual/verbal relationships I can use?

(Jakes Online 2006) When students internalise these important key questions, not only will students be prepared to recognise and decode coded and simple messages, but they will also be better prepared to communicate with a higher level of visual sophistication that will carry them right through the "multimedia-dependent" environment of higher education and the modern working and social world. (Jakes Online 2006) For more information about the power visual literacy please have a look at our Visual literacy website myself, Amy Kennedy and Andrew Webb designed, edited and collaborated virtually online. http://visualiteracy.weebly.com/index.html

Digital Tool: Podcasts

Reasons why students should be allowed to create podcasts:

CREATIVITY: one reason is "be allowed to create podcasts". Getting learners involved in making their own podcasts helps them to develop and build their creative skills.

In other words podcasts form a fantastic creative platform for students of the 21st century to active engage and express themselves and learn.

FOUR learning pedagogies: think about the skills which are needed to succeed in a foreign language: reading, writing, speaking and listening?
What are the four skill areas we have to somehow teach: reading, writing, speaking and listening?
What four attributes are required to produce a podcast....I think you know the answer.... yes Reading, writing, speaking and listening?

If learners are producing podcasts in the target language they are quite simply putting all four learning pedagogies to practical use for a purpose, not simply for the sake of an exercise.

Take OWNERSHIP: if students are creating podcasts they are producing something which they own. They are scripting, recording and performing their own work and it becomes something which they can share and talk about with their family, friend, teachers and peers.
AUTHENTIC AUDIENCE/Social-culture: think of the times when you may have asked learners to produce some kind of work for display. It may have gone up in the classroom or even in a corridor or a display at the school entrance. How many people, potentially, would see this work and have some kind of interaction with it. It could be a few hundred...With a podcast the potential audience is the world is their audience. (Queensland Studies Authority, 2010) Obviously it is highly unlikely that the whole world will listen to Captain Kirk's take on regular verbs, but nonetheless the potential is real. And that is what counts. Not only does this appeal to the average student's egocentricity but it is also a sure fire system of quality control. They won't want to appear silly in front of a (potential) global audience.(Finally!, A Blog about Blogging !, 2010)
HIGHER ORDER THINKING: the production of a podcast encourages students to use higher level thought processes such as compare investigate, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. (Marzano & Pickering, 1997)
For example in order to produce a podcast grammar guide students need to synthesise their knowledge of a grammar point and then analyse it to extract the relevant information. The process could then involve some form of self or peer evaluation according to a pre-prepared rubric.(Aussie SchoolHouse , 2010)

CO-OPERATIVE WORK: What I have found in producing podcasts is that there tends to be a role for every student...even the ones who habitually let everyone else do the work find something to contribute. (Siemens, 2004) (Connectivism, 2010)
21 CENTURY COMMUNICATION: many of even the most computer literate students don't realise that much of what they do at their computer at home can be transferred into lessons and many find it difficult transposing the ideas of what they do on their site into other applications. In preparing and producing a podcast learners can learn about and practise the necessary skills for communicating in the 21st Century.

Podcasting - Reasons for Learning Managers

TARGET LANGUAGE: We know that the best way to learn a language is to immerse yourself in it and that it is difficult to replicate this in 3 50 minute periods a week, so why not give your pupils the opportunity to listen to more TL. This could be in the form of supplemental information to lessons, or general study aids such as audio forms of vocabulary lists.
ACCESS FOR ALL: have you ever had a pupil off class long term, or been off yourself for a long time? Making a podcast could help absent students keep up or help your class stay motivated even if you are not present in ENGAGE: podcasts are a great way to engage your students. In my experience pupils don't feel as if they are doing something as tedious (to them) as learning because they get to use the gadgets that form an integral part of their life.
For some reason its not all that uncool to have some of the vocabulary guides I have produced on an mp3 player / mobile phone 21ST CENTURY COMMUNICATIONS. in creating podcasts you are entering the realms of 21st century communications. More and more people want to access content on demand rather than waiting for it. In entering this world you are not only providing yourself with endless cpd opportunities but you are taxing your creative side and helping your students learn at the same time.

Pros - Podcasting is convenient especially for those who are very busy. People that are very busy usually miss their favorite shows on television, or on the radio, because their schedules don't permit them to tune in to them as they would wish. Podcasting, on the other hand, allows people to download all their favorite shows and enjoy them at a later, more convenient time slot. Podcasts are easily distributable and are easily playable on pretty much any mobile audio or video technology. This means of distribution contributes greatly to the popularity of podcasts. In today's day and age, finding anyone without a digital mobile audio device is the exception. More and more people are moving to digital audio for their entertainment and information needs. -The advantage of the human voice. People enjoy getting their information from a human voice. There are many things that can be conveyed to audio or video formats that wouldn't be easily transmissible via text format. The ability to transmit video and audio makes podcasts more enjoyable than text based syndications.

Cons - Podcasts aren't easily searchable. Although there are many search engines that provide information regarding podcasts, it is most impossible to find anyone that would allow searching within the audio file itself. This could turn off many people especially when there are those that prefer gleaning their information by scanning through text quickly. While many people do indeed have mobile devices, not everyone does. Podcasting may alienate this segment of the market, leading to them looking elsewhere for their entertainment and information needs. There also those who would act negatively to having to download such from the Internet and play them on their digital recorders. They would rather read that have to wait for recommended audio file to finish playing. They believe that they can absorb more information by reading-being speed readers themselves. They also their belief that podcasting should be relegated to entertainment instead of being the format of future information. Conclusion In the end, only time and technology will tell whether these advantages and disadvantages will still hold true. As technology and trends shift to the next generation, the pros and cons of podcasting could either multiply or lessen.

Digital Tool: Prezi

Prezi is a brilliant presentation as it a concept map for presentations. Recently I watch two presentations that embedded Prezi as part of the presentation and was very engaging to the viewers. Students would learn more easily due to the eye catching visuals in the form of text.

Largely thanks to Google Wave Prezi allows those with Google Wave accounts) users to embed Prezis and collaborate live. In Wave you can embed different applications to work with. These gadgets will allow small groups to show Prezis to each other and even edit live. Analysis of Prezi Strengths

Very engaging for students

Easy to use/user friendly

Plenty of online support and technical video support.

Able to Zooming into details of a Text/picture/image

Make Dynamic Venn Diagrams

Embed YouTube videos

Weaknesses

Relies heavily on Adobe flash which can be unstable and buggy

The tool may become predictable and become boring to students if used regularly as it will loose its originality and students will disengaged Opportunities

Students will better recall more information that just an ordinary presentation.

Share their work globally.

May be able to collaborate and edit online with different users.

Have Students Create Graphic Organisers to Understand & Represent Thinking

Use Prezi as a mind map and help students with disabilities to learn more easily.

Help student with their vocabulary.

Prezi may soon help students engage in learning through Collaborative Presentation Editing using Google Wave.

Threats

If Prezi becomes popular the cost may rise and restrict to only students with money

Young company that may need Venture Capital to expand where the company may charge the consumer a fee or annual premium.

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Comments List

The following conversations (comments) have proven invaluable to me as it gave me insight to what other colleagues though not just on the products but how they learn or prefer to learn.

As a Learning manager this will be a great way to get to know learners better and to cater for their learning needs as it will give me some insight into how they learn.

Conversations and lifelong learning approach

This a great also to develop and adopt a lifelong learning approach to the continually development and expansions operational skills, conceptual knowledge and appropriate attitudes and behaviour towards the uses of elearning in educational settings.

I have realised now that by initiating professional learning conversations and seek and engage learning opportunities will improve student active learning when using elearning.