Teachers are now the guide in all of this information, just as a safari guide helps you through the jungle. The teacher helps you discover the amazing little things in the jungle that you may have missed looking for yourself. They also help to steer you away from dangers that you don't recognize.
To be the best guide/facilitator a teacher needs the best tools of the trade. Mahara is one tool for teachers to help students share their own content and/or social network online. Mahara is a place for teachers to guide students in creating an ePortfolio of all their work. Just as they saying goes, "You don't build a reputation on what you're going to do, you build it on what you've done."
Students can build a portfolio of work to take with them when applying for college, scholarships, and jobs. Teachers have the opportunity to show students the importance of keeping track of their work in one place.
Another great aspect of Mahara is the ability to share and reflect on each other's work. Teachers have a big responsibility in trying to encourage and motivate all of the students in a classroom. It can be a challenge. Teachers can open up the channels of encouragement by allowing classmates to comment and share each other's work.
If one student did an excellent job on a project or presentation, the class doesn't have to wait for the teacher to say anything, students can comment and share each other's work. The more students share great work the harder students work on future projects and the more others will work get their projects noticed.
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