Journal #2

"Breathing Fire into Web 2.0"
By Justin Hardman

This article discusses Hong Kong’s internet capabilities in their schooling. MyDragonNet accomplishes the ever-so demanding need for teachers’ online communication as well as ways to communicate to students, students to communicate to other students, curriculum mapping, online portfolio management, and after-school activities and information. The design of myDragonNet was created by an HKIS school technology coordinator, David Elliott and Associate Principal Karen Moffat. The idea eventually lead into the looks of Web 2.0, and comes from the belief that schools should seek to work within and exploit this power of interacting online. “By providing an educational environment that mirrors that of the real world, myDragonNet supports the school’s goal of preparing students for the varying literacies that they need in our networked world.”

What were the three components that teachers needed in their web-based system?
Teachers needed a way to improve their communication for themselves and their students to support classroom activities and classroom and group management. They also needed provide curriculum mapping, resource repository, and archive resources (curriculum development). And last but not least, they needed it to serve as an online portfolio management system to support student and teacher reflection with a longitudinal review of their learning.

What are some advantages of the online portfolio system?
The electronic portfolio allows students and teachers to save, share, and showcase their work while at the same time, acting as an archive for everyone’s work in order to analyze the progress of the school as a whole. Teachers also have the option of gathering the outstanding work and showcasing it for other students to follow as examples.