Playing in the Sandbox

I always loved playing in the sandbox (sandpit?) as a kid - so much fun to be had making sandcastles, playing with my brother's trucks etc - filling them with sand and driving them around, dumping the sand in my brother's shoes.... ah, the joys of childhood.

I also had some fun playing with the Learning 2.0 wiki which was a little challenging. I know I was going on a few posts ago about setting up a wiki for my family and we even used pbwiki to do it but... I have a memory like a sieve and couldn't remember how to do anything so struggled with it. I did, however, manage to put a few things in there, including my sister's Toblerone Cheesecake recipe on a newly-created "Favourite Yummy Things" page. I also added some favourites to the music page (I frequent Myspace quite a lot) and the only sporting activity I've taken any interest in over the past few months is there too on the favourite sports page.

I did have a problem doing the following also:

Add your blog to the Favourite Blogs page. That's how we'll know that you've been there. It’s easy to do if you follow this simple syntax

Example:

[ URL Title of blog]

[ http://stmbtech.pbwiki.com Learning 2.0 ]

With brackets [ ] and just a little typing, you’ve added a link - it’s as easy as that!

Actually, I didn't find it that easy - instead I just clicked on the 'link' button in the toolbar at the top, chose 'link to URL' and typed the address of the blog/myspace page/website in that box. Not sure how the above was suppose to work as I tried it but couldn't do it... perhaps I missed something?

My newest friends are Blog friends!

Ok, so I'm a little 'off task'... again... but I'm up to date with the Learning 2.0 activities (well, almost).

One of the aspects of Facebook that kind of annoys me a little are the applications or at least the number of applications out there. Why? Well, it seems that almost everyone I know on Facebook loves to install a myriad of applications on their profile page, which is great - for them... but they seem to feel the need to 'invite' others (i.e. me) to get these applications too. Now I know there are some fantastic applications there (who doesn't love a good game of scrabble??), some of which I've installed and use quite regularly, but there are others that maybe just harmless fun but to me just seem to be clutter and, logging onto Facebook and seeing about 20 invitations to everything from aquariums to hot potatoes to fish tanks to movie trivia to superlatives (phew!) gets a bit tiresome!
Having said that, I did, however, find one application today that I think is fantastic - blog friends! It allows you to link your own blogs as well as the blogs from your friends (and their friends!) to your Facebook profile. The blogs appear according to your 'interests' that contain a series of keywords. Anyway, I discovered some excellent edubloggers through my newly formed connections and have been enjoying having a read of them. Might have to subscribe to some of their blogs also!
Take a look sometime!
p.s. yes - I did send out invites to some of my friends to join blog friends... but only to people I thought would use it!

"will we wiki?"

This was a question I posed to my family via email about six months ago when I first heard/saw what wikis were about. I thought it would be a great way for us (my 10 siblings and myself who live in various locations around the state!) to keep in touch, share pictures/stories, plan family get-togethers etc. The result can be found here (yes, I use pbwiki too!). It's still very much a 'work in progress' (but I doubt that a wiki is every really 'finished'... is it??). So far we've used it to share photos of our kids as well as jokes and there's even a recipe page (you HAVE to try my sister's Toblerone slice - it's AMAZING!!!). I set up the sidebar with some instructions for those less 'techno-savvy' than myself (ha ha... right...) so they could add pages etc. themselves without too much trouble. In the future, there's the hope that our kids (some are primary and high school age) will be able to have their own pages and put up some of their work from school or just about anything else they want to share with their cousins etc. We're also hoping to have an annual 'get-together' which we may use a page on the wiki to plan - anyone can add comments or ideas on where we can go etc. We'll see where it goes in the future...

Anyway, having had some experience of setting up a wiki for personal use, I had a look at the ones listed in the Learning 2.0 activity and saw some uses there I'd not considered (i.e. 'choose your own adventure' story - interesting!). Something else that also became very clear to me was the importance of making the wiki 'look good' (so, yes, I thought I'd better go back to my family wiki and improve the look of it!). The Room 15 wiki, for example, was much easier to look through than the others and also had some interesting pages in there (there's even one for teachers!).

I can see wikis being very useful for students to publish their work in many different ways (i.e. text on a page or podcasting etc) and it also has the benefit of keeping it organised. I recall many occasions, teaching Studies of Religion and having the students work on groups to research part of a topic and then 'report back' to the rest of the class. This also involved getting copious copies of notes etc for the other groups in the class and general required huge amounts of time (which we didn't have!). Having the students do something similar in a wiki would be a fantastic way to save time as well as make the work accessible for other students as well. It is also accessible to anyone who has the internet at home (that would be most students these days? Or is that too big an assumption to make??). Another use could also be for groups within the school (i.e. St Vincent de Paul or Student Representative Council) to report on or give information about events or other things they were doing.... the possibilities are endless! And just makes me wish I could get back into it all sooner....

Off task?

Sorry if this is a little off task but...
I discovered how to make this really neat slideshow thing from a friend on Facebook and then worked out how to put it on my blog!
More pics of my kids - that's about all I take photos of these days!
I'll get back onto Learning 2.0 soon.... I promise!
If you'd like to have a go at it yourself, you can find it here.

Fav.or.it

Like lots of people I tend to get a bit behind on looking at Google Reader and keeping track of all the blogs I subscribe to. Today, however, I noticed one of the blogs mentioned a new RSS reader that was going to be available soon, called fav.or.it. I haven't had a chance to really have a good look at it yet but it looks like it will have some interesting features...

"fav.or.it is our answer to the current separation of feed reading and commenting. We have built a web interface that lets you read all your favorite content and at the same time take part in an interactive community." (click here to see more)

Yum!

I've been using del.icio.us for a while and have found it to be quite useful. I must admit, however, that so far I've set it up and only added a few different things to it that are of interest to me. I know it's easy to just 'tag' different websites as you're looking at them and save them to del.icio.us but... most of the time I forget to do it! This means if I want to go back to that page later I need to go searching for it again...
Like lots of Learning 2.0 tools, I can easily see the benefit of using this for teaching - huge potential! But for now I guess I'll just keep adding tags slowley as they become useful to me.

Rolling around...

Just had a quick look at Rollyo and wish I'd had access to this a few years ago while teaching Studies of Religion! For me, that was the most obvious use this tool would have - senior kids doing research etc - it would make it so much easier (for me and them!). There was always the problem of students accessing information from sites that weren't very reliable. The students do need to learn to recognise the difference between reliable and unreliable sources on the net, however I think there would be times when it would be useful to 'restrict' their searching rather than have them search for something very general using Google, for example, and have it return thousands of results that may or may not be from sites that are useful. It would save lots of time!

There's probably lots of other things I could use it for too - I think it's good to be aware of these tools for future reference - Ali might like to do a search of Wiggles colouring-in pages on some of her favorite sites! :-)

I quickly put together a search roll on Christian beliefs that might be something Studies of Religion kids would use (but I'm not sure if that link is going to work). It's pretty basic and something I'd probably have to do a bit more work on and add more to but... it's a start, I guess.

Dance!

I had a look at some of the image generators (actually, I managed to waste heaps of time looking at them! There are so many...) and found one that I thought was rather neat and something I know some senior kids I use to teach would have had fun with. It's a generator for making motivational posters so here's one I made with one of my favorite quotes...

I can see this poster appearing on the wall of my classroom in the future :-)

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/motivator.php

Hello... my name is Judy...

... and I'm a Facebook addict...

I must admit I haven't been keeping up with the whole "Learning 2.0" process of late, since discovering Facebook! It has been an almost daily ritual for me to log on and check out what's been happening with my 'friends' (I've made quite a few new friends in the various groups that are on there) as well as getting and giving stories, advice, jokes etc on everything from teaching and learning to toilet training! It really is amazing how quickly and easily I can connect with such a variety of people on an amazing array of topics!

So I'm hoping to get back to "Learning 2.0" in the very near future - maybe I could start a "Learning 2.0" group on Facebook???? What do you think, Roberto??? ;-)

Pasha Bulka part 2...

... and this is another!

transforming the Pasha Bulka

Some novel ways to move the stranded Pasha Bulka have appeared on YouTube. This is one of them...

finding friends!

I discovered and soon after joined a neat little (well, it's not so little actually!) community on the net... called facebook. It's very user-friendly (especially for floaty users such as myself!) and has an incredible array of different features. So far I've linked up with a few friends from teaching and elsewhere, put up some photos of the kids (organised into albums - very neat!) and joined a few discussion groups (yummy mummies and domestic godesses - definately one for me! as well as a few other more 'academic' ones that are relevant to teaching and learning) and have been looking for other interesting discussion groups to join. It seems like a great way to keep in touch and share info with friends and find new ones with similar interests.
So... this is me on facebook!

readers and feeders

After having a look at the second part of this activity, I was a bit stumped...

"Now that you have a newsreader (your Google Reader account), you can begin adding other newsfeeds that interest you."

Ok... so this may seem like a silly thing to say but - I wasn't sure exactly what it was that I should be looking for - what interests me? Lots of things... what interests me that I'd like to have some sort of regular newsfeed giving me up-to-the-minute info? Not sure...

My time is limited - I get very little time in the day to just sit, let alone sit at a computer, so having specific newsfeeds should save me lots of time sifting through the HUGE amounts of info that is out there in its various forms. I have a few 'teaching and learning' blogs that I subscribe to (as well as a really neat recipe blog) but to be honest, there's just so much out there on so many different topics that it's difficult to sift through it all and find things that are really worthwhile subscibing to. I also found navagating through some of the search tools either difficult to use or just came back with so much that finding things that were useful was difficult.

Perhaps if I had more time to spend looking through it all I might find more but at present I think I'll just stick to my 'easy option' when it comes to finding interesting blogs etc - see what others recommend as being useful!

There's still something to be said for 'word of mouth'...

my little digital native

Where in the world... ?

I just worked out how to add one of those neat little maps to my blog! I also put one on my other blog as well - not sure if there's going to be too many visitors but... who knows?
p.s. I still haven't found my walkman... but have been enjoying listening to the new Missy Higgins album (amongst other things) on my new mp3 player :-)

Feeling clever...

Ok, I'm having a go at the first part of the RSS activity... as I'm typing this!

A few things I've noticed before I started this activity...

First, I'd used a "feeds" thingo (groovy-looking little orange button) before in Internet Explorer (I've somehow managed to get a new version of Internet Explorer which is a pain in the neck to use!) which I haven't found all that useful. It takes a bit of 'getting to' to see if anything new has arrived on any of the sites I've subscribed to through it.. so I'm going to stop using it and am hoping the Google reader one will be better - so far so good!

I had a look at the youtube video of 'how to use Google reader'.... it was ok for the first few minutes but then I started to get a bit lost with it all - there's lots to take in from a 9 minute video! I found I had to go back and look at parts of it again to get a quick refresher on how to do different things but it gives a good explanation.

I've also 'subscribed' to the other blogs from Learning 2.0 as well as a few others (not all that hard to do) and was a little concerned that it showed all previous posts as being 'unread' and so Google reader saw them as new content. I thought I'd have to 'look at' them all again but noticed the 'mark all items as read' button... what a nifty idea that is! :-)

I've also started a shared items page... there's not much there at the moment (Kendall Kids posts are just there as a test! The fact that the one post featuring "Uncle Robert" is on there is pure coincidence) but hopefully there will be in the future.

And... ta dah!!! I figured out how to put my shared items on my blog! It doesn't link directly to the shared items page of Google reader but instead takes you to the original blog. It's still kinda neat, though. Feeling very clever indeed! :-)

Flickr Functions...

I've spent some time tonight looking around Flickr with particular interest in how it was being used by schools or how it may be used. It seems lots of the schools that I've seen using Flickr are simply posting images of different events etc. as a way for others to view their photos - almost like a yearbook - which is a great idea! Having spent several years working in a senior high school R.E department and going on countless retreats/reflection days/excursions etc. I can see the value in having a place on the net to post these images. It would save the endless requests by kids: "Miss! Can we please get copies of your photos?"

I can also imagine using Flickr to expand on a creative writing task I use to use both in class and as a reflection activity on retreats. The students were given a selection of photos and asked to choose one that was significant to them. It may have been an image associated with a unit of work we were studying or something more abstract. They then wrote a story/reflection based around this image. Previously, I'd used a selection of about fifty images I'd gathered and had printed and laminated on A4 sheets. Using Flickr, however, the selection of images would be somewhat increased! The biggest challenge this may pose is for the kids to actually choose an image: "Miss! I can't decide which one to use!! There are too many to choose from!!!". While looking around at the incredible number of applications and other things available, I found one that might be useful for this task. It's called Findr and can be found at http://www.forestandthetrees.com/findr/ It finds images relating to specific tags.

There are so many different things out there - from images to programs to video etc. etc. etc! It's just not physically possible to see it all let alone have the time to see how it all works, making it even more necessary than ever to work collaboratively with colleagues - continuing to share ideas and possibilities is vital to make the most of all that is available.

Lorna's little hand

fingers
Originally uploaded by judyvk.

I figured it out (it took a while)... but hopefully this will appear on my blog? This is a photo of my neice's hand a few days after she was born (approx 3 months prem.). The 'big' finger is her mum (my sister).
I don't think I need to say anymore. This image speaks for itself.

Happy birthday, Ali!

butterfly birthday cake
Originally uploaded by AS500.

Before I try putting a photo of my own up on flickr and then posting it on the blog, I thought I'd try just getting one from flickr...
So.... with the huge array of possible tags/groups etc. to look through, I thought I'd go for something practical! Alison (my daughter) turns 2 in a few weeks and I'm planning on making her a 'butterfly' birthday cake.. so, after typing "butterfly birthday cake" into the neat little "search" box, this was one that came up (of over 250!). I might have a look through a few more to get some more ideas.

My friend??

I see the next blog activity has us looking at Flickr... which I haven't done yet but will.
I'm just wondering why when I hear "Flickr" I seem to have these weird flash-backs to a show that use to be on tv... "My Friend Flicker"?? Something about a boy and a horse???
Perhaps I just imagined it... Sleep-deprivation will do that to you!
Also playing a bit more with blogger to see what other things I can add to make this all 'look' a bit more interesting...
Anyway, I'll have a look at Flickr sometime and write some more....

Where's my Walkman?!?

A conversation I had with my husband recently went something like this:

Me: “hey, do you know where my old walkman got to?” (note: for those of you born after 1985, a ‘walkman’ is a device used to play cassettes, usually music…)

Him: “no… I haven’t seen that thing in ages… what did you want it for?”

Me: “oh, I was thinking I might start exercising again – you know, in the morning before the kids are up, just go for a 20 minute walk. It would be good to have some music to listen to while I get some exercise…”

Him: (laughing) “are you kidding?”

Me: “what’s so funny about me going for a walk in the morning?”

Him: “I’m not laughing at you wanting to exercise. It’s the walkman that’s funny…”

Me: (not amused) “what’s wrong with wanting to listen to music?”

Him: “again – nothing. But did you know that walkmans have been somewhat superseded by other things?”

Me: “yes…”

Him: “so why don’t you just go get an mp3 player? They aren’t that expensive these days and you can put heaps of music on them”

Me: “because…. I like my walkman!”

Him: “but that thing is so big and chunky to carry around.. and it only plays cassettes! Most of that music is so old – who’d listen to it? Do they even make cassettes anymore?!?”

Me: (somewhat indignant) “I’ve still got my cassettes…. and I happen to like listening to them…”

Sometimes it’s easier to be lazy – to just ‘go with what you know’. Why spend time and energy trying to figure out some new gadget/method for doing something when you could have what you wanted to accomplish completed using a device/method you are already familiar with??

So… the hardest of the lifelong learning habbits for me? That’s easy – “using technology to your advantage”…

While I’m fairly competent with lots of ‘technology’ (this is my second blog attempt but I’m probably one of the few people in the world who have never used an mp3 player!), there’s still lots out there I have no idea about. I became the proud owner of my very own data projector several years ago and made much use of it in the classroom when I was teaching (beware: the ‘powerpointless presentation’!!) but by the time I go back to teaching, I’m fairly confident that ‘powerpoint’ and the like will be somewhat obsolete!

Learning to use technology takes time – it’s a very rare and valuable commodity in my life – and having the time to just sit and learn about something purely for the sake of it is very difficult. Unless the ‘technology’ is something that is going to be immediately useful/necessary for me, I don’t have time. So big challenge #1 is to somehow make the time.

The easiest habit was also an easy one to pick – “accept responsibility for your own learning”. Since resigning from my full-time teaching job to be full-time ‘Mum’ to two kids (I will go back – I’m missing it too much!), I’ve made it a goal to spend the time I have off from teaching to be learning! Apart from the obvious and very steep learning curve I encountered with having children (i.e. how to encourage a toddler not to hone her artistic skills on the walls with crayon or how to convince a six month old that pumpkin and corn mash is ‘mmmm… yummy! Yummy!’) I’ve recently completed my second post-grad course and have been thinking about starting a third. At the moment, however, I’ve been a bit caught up with the fact that there’s so much in teaching, particularly in the area of technology, that’s evolving. I’ve got a weird premonition of going to a job interview in five years from now and being asked about technology only to enquire sheepishly if my classroom would have access to an overhead projector! I’d like to become as familiar as I can with what’s out there and how it can be used, not just for the sake of using it, but how it can make a real difference to the learning process. The best part is that it’s all so new and different and exciting! I’m looking forward to the challenge of working it all out

p.s. I think I’m getting an mp3 player for mothers day… but I’m still going to find my walkman (I know it’s here somewhere!).