Yippee, I have finished!

I didn't think I would make it, especially as this time of the year is sooooo busy with marking, reports etc. I have learnt heaps but I do need to go back and spend some extra time playing around with a few applications that really appealed to me. BYE FOR NOW

#22 & #23 Ebooks & Audiobooks

NO matter what, REAL books are by far better than ebooks but I do have some ebooks on my iPhone and the advantage is that I can have several books stored on it and access them any time, especially if I am stuck waiting somewhere and wishing I had brought a book! I do get very tired reading text on a screen regardles of the size but ebooks are good for students who are visually impaired. Audiobooks are also great to listen to in the car. For classroom use they are good for improving students' listening skills and can be more interesting (due to character voices etc) than just reading a book. I think that students have the potential to extract a lot more meaning from an audio book than a standard one.

More online video stuff

I obviously didn't read the instructions properly for this week. So I have now included a link to a Geography video I found on teachertube. I think I might use this next year for my itro Geog class.

#21 Online video cont'd

A quirky video about the GFC and sub-prime mortgages. Only a commerce teacher could love this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgTwpCkP138

#21 Online video

I am a fan of youtube especially for music videos. I have spent hours searching for (&, thankfully, finding) clips of songs I haven't heard for a while. The problem with youtube is that there is a lot of rubbush to trawl through to get to the good videos and some of the content is entirely inappropriate but I have learned to shuck oysters, my son has found out how to build a miniature skate ramp and I have found and used some excellent footage on global warming.

#20 Podcasts

I have used podcasts for some time now and thankfully the quality is improving as time goes on. I have downloaded some from iTunes and have listened to a few from the ABC website. They are great for students who are auditory learners.

#19 Rollyo

I have created a searchroll and it was actually quite easy to set up. I found that Rollyo is like Delicious in some ways but I prefer Delicious. Classroom applications are many and varied although, if I only wanted students to use certain websites and no others there is supervision software available that can do this as well.

#18 Wikis

I have spent a bit of time having a look at the wiki links and I certainly can see the potential for use in the classroom in my subject areas. Once again, I suppose once the preliminary work has been done in setting this up and making sure students understand what the purpose is, then it would become second nature. All these things I want to try - if only I had more time!!! SIGH

#17 Delicious

How delicious! I have had a Delicious account for a year or so and , whilst I haven't used it for a while (because I couldn't add sites at work) I think the concept is fantastic. I have set up different categories and topic areas containing web links for different groups of students (e.g. Geography, Commerce students). I really need to get back into using this at school as I think it has great potential. My Delicious account is at: http://delicious.com/HelenMM. It is quite basic at the moment but I promise to expand it in the near future.

#16 Subscribing to some blogs

After setting up Google Reader and adding some RSS feeds, I then added some RSS feeds to my iGoogle page. I also added a couple of blogs to my iGoogle page. Since I enjoy reading bizarre and interesting snippits of information I subscribed to Lifehacker, which is a blog on all things new, weird and wonderful. I can see that using RSS feeds could save me a lot of timewasting waiting for websites to download when I only want to access a small part of the site each time. I hope to continue using these feeds, mainly for personal use at this stage until I do more exploring to see what is 'out there'.

#Activity 15 RSS feeds

Well, setting up Google Reader was very easy. I have subscribed to a few feeds - mainly news websites. I can see a good application for RSS feeds, especially for a subject like Commerce. I could have feeds from financial sites showing me updates in exchange rates, etc.

#Activity 14 Facebook

I already have a Facebook account and quite like the application. In hindsight, I probably should only have used it for those people I DON'T see everyday but in the initial excitement of setting up I happily accepted all potential friends. As for Twitter...YAWN. I did set up a twitter account but am not interested. Who cares if some celebrity is eating toast for breakfast!

# Activity 13 My Space

I'm not a fan of MySpace - too busy. However, I can see why teenagers like it - for the same reasons that I don't. I suppose that is why Facebook is the more mature version of MySpace. As a place for musicians and other 'artists' getting their "stuff" out in the public domain MySpace is a great tool. I suppose, a problem that I have with MySpace is how it is often used as a tool of torment by many teenagers. As educators we need to help our students work out more effective and appropriate ways to communicate through MySpace - a hard task!

IMG_0610

IMG_0610, originally uploaded by yarrumneleh.

Here is a photo of one of my dogs. He looks so angelic BUT looks can be deceiving!

#Activity 12 Flickr

Trying to set up a Yahoo account took ages. it kept on asking for parental permission!!! Anyway, I managed to sort things out (eventually) and set up a Flickr acount. I uploaded a photo of one of my dogs and it seems to have worked as his photo is now on my blog via Flickr. As I am a Facebook user, I prefer to use Facebook for photos I like to share. Flickr is a good application for personal use. Although, I'm not too sure how I could use this application in a classroom other than as a tool for students collecting say, historical images or geographical images and sharing them.

#Activity 11: Library Thing

I like LibraryThing as a personal tool for keeping track of books I have read. I can see some good applications for English teachers especially. You can find my thing at...

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/hmm76

#Activity 10 Image generators

I LOVE these image generators, especially the one at www.says-it.com. Some great applications, especially for my Commerce students. By the way, check out my new single.

# Activity 9 Virtual Worlds

Second Life just doesn't do it for me - I'm quite happy with my REAL life thank you. I can understand the appeal for some people and the idea of having an avatar that you can create from scratch (unlike oneself) could be quite appealing but, overall, I'm not too keen. It might be my age, but I prefer real people!

Week 3 Activity #8

I have set up my iGoogle page -looks pretty good , if I do say so. I did have an iGoogle page ages ago but forgot my password etc. I will definitely go back to using this again at school as I can have all of the links/sites that I use most often with my students at my fingetips ( and it looks good too!)

I have decided that I am moving to the US to work at Google. I haven't told my family this yet.

#7 Google books

I really like Google books not necessarily as a tool for teaching but for ME. I particularly like being able to read some of the text of books and have already found a couple that I'm keen on reading (maybe I can get an e-book version of them for my new iPhone?). Considering the fact that students are shunning traditional libraries with their shelves of of books something like Google Books may appeal to them as a virtual library.

Activity #6 Google maps

I have to say that I use Google maps all the time to get directions for my Son's soccer matches. Am I the only person without a GPS? Most of the time the directions are accurate but the street view/aerial vews are dated. I have also used it for some pre-excusion work with stduents.

Activity #5

Google Docs looks promising. After spending quite a while scrolling through a heap of templates I did come across some that may prove useful in my classroom. I like the fact that I can have a number of students working on the same document at the same time. I created a very basic presentation and invited some people to share and work on this document. With a bit more time spent playing around with Google Docs and working out the saving/sharing part, I'm sure I will find more ways to use this application.

Week 2 Activity #4

Having read a number of the articles suggested for this Activity, I have now been suffocated with technobabble. Overall, I think “Web 2.0” is a term that has been grabbed by media and blown up into something that sounds revolutionary. In actual fact, I think it just part of the natural evolution of the web from its early state (clunky and inflexible in parts) into something more streamlined, user-friendly and user-determined. Does it even have to have a name? As a Commerce teacher I know how important a catchy name or logo is. What happens when the next “shift” happens? The term ‘Web 3.0’ just won’t cut it!

As an educator involved in helping to equip students for a future I don’t know about and jobs that don’t exist yet, Web 2.0 is an indicator of where things are heading. The $100 question is “how do we best use Web 2.0 in our teaching/learning?”. With so much information at their fingertips, we need to ensure that our students have the ability to extract the best information from the Web and to use their literacy skills to creatively use features such as blogs etc. It is quite overwhelming but exciting at the same time.

My photo

I obviously have way too much time on my hands. If you have ever wondered what you would look like as a Simpsons character (who hasn't!!) then go to www.simpsonizeme.com to get Simpsonized.

I've filled in the form to register as a blogger. I'm sure that once I get the hang of this it will be relatively easy.

Ist lesson

Phew!! I made it. Setting up a blog is not so hard after all. Now, if only I can remember all of the usernames and passwords I have created!