Mahara Process and Learning Opportunities for Teachers and Students

Hi,

Mahara seems to be everything at one place. On Mahara anyone can have blogs, videos, pictures, forums, audio, links and it seems to have the capability to be to a great extent personalised.

Mahara can be used in the classroom for specific topics, study and research.

Mahara has a huge storage capability at a cost, which can be safer than home hard drives as it is on the internet which is here to stay as it is now accepted worldwide. This can be helpful for teachers to store information which can add up over the years and helpful for students so their work is not lost.

Learning opportunities seem simular to wikis and blogs, allowing students to post information using technology they are familiar with.

After speaking with teachers who have tried research and study using simular technology in the classroom they have said that students seem to learn about the same as not using such technology.

When first beginning my E-Learning journey I was so excited about using these technologies in the classroom. After looking for applications in the classroom and find minimal information I am really disheartened about the whole process. It seems so time consuming with similar results to non-technology lessons.

I did find information on a lesson where students can ‘find pictures on flikr and create a collage with a box of information using text, video or audio’ (Pattern, 2009) which seems fun for students.

What do you think?

From Paul Jak.

Reference List

Pattern, J. (2009). Introduction to Simply Box. Retrieved August 27, 2009, from http://voicethread.com/#q.b309201.i1639395