Module 7

Social bookmarking enables you to save your favourite sites online so that you can access them anywhere. I now have a delicious account and have embedded my link list into my blog. This is a great way to share your favourite sites with others and to benefit from theirs. I love the idea of having access to my favourite sites anywhere.

Module 6

Creating and Communicating Online 

Bubbl.us is a free website for mindmapping online. I would use this site for brainstorming as a class using my IWB or the chn could access it via laptops to record and organise their ideas individually or in pairs. Students can collaborate on each other’s projects via the site through ‘friends’ or a link. Once again, this tool can be used across the KLA’s. Projects can be saved as an image file and then used in other documents.

Glogster  and editorial cartoons – Glogster is an online poster. It can be used to make editorial comments on current events or news stories. Chn show their understanding of a current event by manipulating text, graphics, videos, pictures or sound files to create an interactive online poster. This can then be embedded into a wiki, blog, or school /class web site. They can make posters as advertisements, to present their research on a topic or summarise a unit of work. Glogster is a motivating way to share ideas and a great assessment tool to culminate a unit of work.

Module 5

Podcasting...

Podcasting is a hybrid of ipod and broadcast. Personal On Demand- watch or listen at a later date. Storynory looks like a useful site where children can listen to stories. I have added this to my new class blog. I have downloaded audio files before to use in a radio play. Zamzar is a free file conversion site which is useful for converting files to mp3. Using Audacity, teachers or students can record stories, radioplays, tables, counting and more and link to an established website, such as Myclasses, so they can be listened to by the students at home, uploaded to blogger (with parental consent) or downloaded onto an mp3 player.  Children can evaluate their own reading by recording on audacity. When podcast, the teacher has access to a library of oral reading for assessment purposes. Teachers can also use podcasts to provide revision or extension material to students .

Teachers.tv and youtube offer vodcasts which may be useful in the classroom. Today I used youtube to show the children ‘How to Make a Shaker’.  The class wrote a procedure and then used this to make shakers, integrating science and writing. Children can make their own vodcasts using Flip cameras. My students used flip cameras to make a ‘Cool TV’ segment where they videoed each other demonstrating the procedure ‘How to make an Eggbert’ .  Vodcasts can be used across the KLA’s.

I found how to podcast into blogger: http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=80259 through their help site. Also, iTunes U is a site which offers over 75000 educational files for download from a variety of locations around the world, including colleges, universities, museums, libraries and other cultural institutions. Version 6 of iTunes introduced official support for video podcasting which can contain downloadable video files (in MOV, MP4, M4V, or MPG format), but also streaming sources and even IPTV. Downloadable files can be synchronized to a video-capable iPod, or downloadable files and streams can be shown in Front Row.

Module 4

Flickr allows you to store, sort, search and share your photos online. A content filter ensures you filter the content of your photos into two groups: safety level and content type, so that everyone can then apply filters to searches they do to make sure they're seeing what they want to see. A safe search is a feature that allows you to control what turns up in your searches on Flickr. Tags are keywords you add to your photos to make them easier to find later. Anyone can see your public photos on the Flickr website. Other ways to share are through your blog, by setting up and sharing a Flickr web address or using the Share This button. I now have a Flickr account where I can share my photos with the people I choose or the general public. Here are two photos from my Pacific cruise. NB I dined on the coconut crab thinking it was a type of cuisine before I discovered the prehistoric looking crab living in the bush on a Fijian Island! (They are called coconut crab because coconut is their favourite cuisine.)

 Smartcopying is a useful link to explain copyright issues. Creative Commons applies to resources such as music, filmclips and photographs. It is good to know that schools can generally use these in their projects free of charge after checking the licensing agreements.

Module 3

Google Docs is a free, Web-based word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, and form application suite. It allows users to create and edit documents online while collaborating in real-time with other users. It is accessible anywhere, anytime. Students can work together on the one document. Like blogs, students are publishing to a readership, not just writing for the teacher, so it becomes more motivating.

On attempting to access Google Docs via my iGoogle homepage, I realised I have far TOO many gadgets and it takes far too long! I’ll have to declutter!

It seems to be easy enough to create a document in Google Docs, although I would probably use this application more as an internet filing system where I store the documents I expect I will need outside of my home or ‘home’ computer, or that I want to share with a colleague. I can use this facility to store educational files so that I don’t need to use a USB, and my daughter can access them from interstate to use in her classroom. I much prefer creating my document in Word because the text space is very narrow in which to type. I can’t see the whole document. I cannot use the mouse to move my cursor, just the arrows. On accessing the original document to share and edit I am able to edit more easily but not all of my text is appearing on the page as I type- frustrating. The concept is good though. Revision history and real time chat are great features that make collaboration easy. It is also simple to share and I like that I can choose who accesses the document.

Module 2

A blog on blogging... I see the benefit of educational blogs in the classroom as online forums where children can reflect on their learning and that of others. It made me wonder...how often children in a traditional classroom have opportunities to read each other’s work. Ideally an edublog is a place where children can learn more about their own learning through collaborating with their peers. Blogs could be used across the KLAs for:

·         pretesting – What do I already know?

·         direction- What would I like to find out?

·          reporting on research

·         assessment-What have I learnt?

·         evaluation of the process- How could I learn best in the future?

I found the link http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/techtorial/techtorial037print.shtml had useful tips for blogging ‘do’s’, such as ensuring the students follow the school’s acceptable use policy and discussing the importance of tone and respect for others' opinions. Another link I explored was http://escrapbooking.com/blogging/class.htm . This provided a wealth of information on how to use blogs in the classroom.

 I was overjoyed to find a ‘lingo’ link in a ‘blogroll’. I realised I have encountered some sites with ‘linkrot’. I fear that I’m a ‘blurker’ as I’ve spent hours lurking on other people’s edublogs soaking up their ideas; however I have left one comment on a colleague’s blog, and now feel I am more in tune with the ‘blogosphere’.

I have spent hours going from link to link. I found this quote which seemed very appropriate:

I think I need to add a blogroll to my blog to organise it all!

Module 1

Hi fellow bloggers,
I am a primary teacher coming back into full time teaching after several years. While out of the game I spent time completing a masters on writing and literature, specialising in children's literature, and was able to explore many areas of interest such as art courses and being a member of a writing centre. This year has been a steep learning curve because so much has changed in the past ten years in classrooms. I now remember the reason I started teaching in the first place - that joy of being on a learning journey with your class and watching them grow in so many ways. At the beginning of this year I knew very little about IWBs. Now I don't know what I would do without one! I was already using some Web 2.0 applications such as Skype, Audacity and YouTube and I love using email. But I resisted jumping on the Facebook and Twitter bandwagon because I was sceptical regarding privacy and I really didn't want to put in the time.My 23 year old daughter spends hours on facebook every day. She gave a chuckle when she found out I was doing this course because she has been trying to get me on facebook for years!
I wonder... are social networking sites timewasters or timesavers? Will they place more demands on my already limited time? Are they enabling us to become more social...or less? Are we more self indulgent? Why do we feel the need to publish every thought that comes into our heads?
On viewing the multitude of toolsWeb 2.0 offers I realise I need to learn another language- I was confronted by a plethora of 2.0speak...widgets, feeds and aggregators, wikis, bookmarking...some I have used but most I need to explore. It's like another world. This link went straight into my favourites. I now have a gmail account and an igoogle page complete with gadgets. I am looking forward to expanding my horizons and bringing this new world to my students.