According to an 'Introduction to Mahara' video that was posted on Scivee.tv (2008), 'Mahara provides a safe, education-focused Social Networking environment.' Furthermore, Mahara enables users to post their resume online, their blogs, along with any other personal information that they'd like to share either to the whole world or just their own circle of friends or groups which can be easily created with a click of a button.
An idea of what my Mahara page looks like so far can be seen below:
As you can see I've only scraped the surface with this eportfolio site. I've posted some of my blog entries from my Professional blog and have added a video in my 'Views' section.
Process and learning opportunities using Mahara
The process to make Mahara work in a classroom setting would be to evaluate your class to see if it would be beneficial to your students. For example, ensuring there aren't major hinderances to anyone from experience learning to its fullest potential is vital. This is where Access and Equity come into the picture. Dr Dale Spender and Dr Fiona Stuart the writers of, Embracing e-Learning in Australian Schools (2002) expressed the importance of equity in schools:
We need imaginative solutions to ensure that everyone has access to online delivery of
learning anywhere, anytime, and any place, those who are not computer
competent...will not be part of the information society.
Therefore, establishing the reasoning behind using this ICT tool is essential and could help you in the future. However, if there are no major concerns or signs that indicate this would hinder one of your students from their learning experience, the opportunities Mahara can open are helpful and could prove highly effective.
Since Mahara is an 'education-focused Social Networking environment' (Scivee.tv 2008) imagine school-based employers getting on board with Mahara and connecting with students in your class who are looking for work or simply connection with people in their field of interest. Teachers from other school could connect and collaborate, student's could post their work or previous assignments on to their profile where there teachers can provide feedback and also refer on to other students or teachers. The possibilites could be endless.
Hence, with a sound knowledge of what is ultimately best for your students, I believe Mahara could be extremely helpful to teachers and students to connect with each other along with other educational institutions and people who are in the corporate/industry world.
References:
Kirk, A 2008, An introduction to Mahara (with sound), Scivee.tv, viewed 21 August 2009
http://www.scivee.tv/node/6372
Spender & Stuart 2002, Embracing e-Learning in Australian Schools, Commonwealth Bank Groups, viewed 22 Aug 2009
http://www.bssc.edu.au/public/learning_teaching/research/embracing%20e-Learning%20000-731.pdf
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