Production Blog 4

The four lessons I have created using Web2.0 tools around the topic of Food Equity have different focuses. The first lesson, as discussed in a previous blog, is about food inequity around the world. The second is about the food equity issues in Australia. The third aims to demonstrate the consumption patterns throughout the world and Australia. The forth is a demonstration and practical lesson that uses a different cultural recipe to show basis for different food choices across the globe.

The lessons are all related to real world issues, some global and others local. These issues are aimed to help students have a quality learning experience in the classroom.They relate and engage with issues that will affect them in the real world. Over eating, multiculturalism, food prices and many more food equity issues are things every student will have to deal with in the real world. these lessons will help them to understand some of the issues so they may make informed choices to help themselves or others within the community.

Production Blog 3

Whilst producing my Web2.0 lessons I have learnt many different skills through the production process. The specific production features I have considered to be most beneficial and informative are:

1. As talked about in a previous blog, the creation and editing of a website using Weebly.com.
2. Finding and assessing the numerous Web2.0 tools available to find which tools would be appropriate for a Food Technology lesson.
3. Learning to use the different Web2.0 tools I chose to incorporate into my lessons, e.g. Prezi, SpicyNodes, Wordle, etc.
4. Creating meaningful learning tasks around the Web2.0 tools.

 There are numerous Web2.0 tools available on the Internet. I found a few sites that were very helpful in explaining exactly what some of the tools were and how to use them. Two of these sites were Go2Web2.0.net and Cooltools forschools. i found them helpful as my knowledge of web2.0 tools was limited before I started this assignment. Descriptions and linking straight to the sites were great as a could relatively quickly read about and acess the site to have a look at the tools.

Learning to use some of the tools was difficult at times. I created a Prezi presentation as a part of a lesson in the website. This was a fun yet challenging process, I enjoyed learning how to create a fun presentation but it also took me a awhile to get used to the controls and tools within the program. One of the benefit of using Prezi with a class is that it is all online and you are not required to download any additional software. The instructions are easy to follow even if the controls take some getting used to and applications of the product are numerous, e.g. presentations, speeches, demonstrations, portfolios and more.

Creation of meaningful, quality tasks is something that I struggle with. the use of Web2.0 tools has helped me to create deeper meaning in tasks for my classes. I do believe that the use of these tools is a great way to get a class active in their learning. Research and investigation feature heavily in my tasks and I have tried to incorporate many quality learning experiences as possible.

Production Blog 2

The topic I have chosen to base my Web2.0 lessons around is Food Equity.The topic is a local and global issue. The need for nutritional food in under privileged countries is large and it is good for students to be aware of the issues. There are also big issues to do with food equity locally in Australia. Politics, price and obesity seem to be the main issues that affect our society.

When writing my first lesson I wanted to show students the global issues first so they start to understand how lucky we are to live in a country with adequate nutritional food. Looking globally will also show the differences of issues around food equity. One of these is the fact that in Australia we only spend around 15% of our income on food compared to around 75% of income that people in the developing world use. Another issue is that 2 billion people in the developing world are living on only 2 dollars a day. (If Australians lived on 2 dollars a day according to the above percentages we would only use 30 cents on food compared to the 1dollar and 50 cents of the income that the developing world spend on food.)

I think that this topic will engage students into the subject area and help them to realise that, though we have issues around food in Australia, we are blessed to live in such a well developed country.

Production Blog 1

I have chosen to create a website that will hold all the Web 2.0 tools I will use in this assignment. I will focus the content of the Web 2.0 tools around my nominated curriculum area, which is Food Technology Years 7-10.

I have created the website through Weebly, which is an easy website creator, called Food Equity (which is a focus area in the curriculum. which is the topic I have chose to teach through the use of Web 2.0 technologies. I have enjoyed using Weebly so far as it is simple and straight forward to use. The site is great for people like me who do not have a lot of website designing experience. The layout of the editing pages is very easy to use and the instructions are understandable. The website is looking professional and I hope that it will continue to be easy to use as I go along in the creation process.
www.weebly.com

I have created four lesson pages within the website where I will add different Web 2.0 activities/ lessons for the teaching of the topic I have chosen. i will now be looking into Web 2.0 tools that will suit the needs in my lessons.