Module 7

What a delicious idea!

I had heard of Delicious before but had never know what is was for. Upon reading the How to: Del.icio.us tutorial, I was turned off by the fact that you needed to download a toolbar to use application. I have a loathing of custom toolbar downloading and try to avoid it when I can. After watching the Social Bookmarking In Plain English video, it seems that a benefit of Delicious is that you can bookmark sites from any computer. True, this is a great benefit. But what if you don't have the toolbar downloaded on the PC that you are using. Makes things much harder doesn't it?


I made my way to the Delicious site to sign up. I was please to know that there were alternates to downloading the toolbar, especially since I was completing this blog on a friend's computer. You can just copy and past the URL, which is a bit more work but saves clogging up hard drives with toolbars.


The next task was to add a user to your network. A downfall of Delicious is that you cannot import current contacts from you address book to see if any of your friends are using the Delicious network. This is something other social networks do. So I used a social network to send a shout-out to my friends on Facebook so that I didn't need to add a "random" friend.


Activity 4 required finding another teacher's blog. Right! Time to find fellow educators to see how they are doing. I commented on the blogs of two other teachers in my school.

Online communities are an excellent way of sharing information. Why should information be kept under lock and key, only to be used by the person who created it? What is the point of publishing when you don't have an audience in mind? The Internet has "shrunk" the world, making it easier to communicate and send messages to each other. Communities are no longer static in a particular geographic region. They are global and dynamic. Online communities make it easier to share information and to communicate ideas in a real-time setting and in a public forum.

I can see the benefit of using sites like Delicious in the classroom. We provide students with MyClasses pages of websites and information that we, as teachers, find both safe and useful. But what if one of our students goes home and finds another website to add to the list? They will write it down to give to us or email it to us. Then, we will need to find the time to add it to the property on the MyClasses page. Why not give students the options of assessing and evaluating the usefulness of websites themselves. Why not allow students access to Google so that they can shift through the millions of hits that come up? Students need to be equipped with the skills to evaluate these sites themselves. Yes, a site may appear with unsafe content. Yes, the site may be useless. But if teachers are spoon feeding sites to students, how will they learn to say "this is an inappropriate website" or "this is an excellent website"? Creating a class Delicious page and giving students the password means that they can assist in building a list of appropriate websites. Everyone raves about giving students ownership for their learning. So, let's start!

Happy bookmarking!

A

Module 6

Mapping your mind!

I learnt about bubbl.us at the ENDA conference I attended in the Easter Holidays (and I believe it was the only valuable think I received from the course). I thought it was FANTASTIC! I used it during the multimodal project to brainstorm about communities. I skimmed through the video Bubbl.us Basics because I was already familiar with this application. The only thing I really needed to do was to sign up because I was using Bubbl.us without a user name, which means that, while you can still use the application, you cannot save your brainstorm within the site or edit it once you have saved it as an image file. Once I signed up, I also noticed that you can embed the HTML of the application into a blog so that it is automatically updated when you edit it. I made two mind maps. The first shows the application of Web 2.0 in the classroom, which I will attempt to update throughout this course. The second one is a map I whipped up today to create a poster about alternate words to "said" to show a true application of this very useful Web 2.0 tool in the classroom.

The use of Web 2.0 tools to enhance learning



Alternate words to "said"

The next part of this module was to explore Glogster. I had never heard of Glogster before and was quite interested to do some exploring. After watching the video, I signed up and went on a journey to explore the three example pages. When the Shakespearean Parodies page loaded, I immediately thought of a scrapbook page. Scrapbooking is one of my hobbies so I immediately warmed to the idea of Glogster. I thought the author had quite a clever mix of multimedia on the page. Next, I explored the History Chapter Summary. However, I found the elements on that page a bit unrelated. Finally, I had a peek at the Decisions, Decisions page. I thought this was a great way to collate the students' ideas. It reminded me a bit of my Multimodal project.

Creating my own Glogster page was easy. The tools are easy to use and are just like using publisher. I even had an option to post it to this blog! Great! I officially LOVE Glogster! Here is my Glogster page:

Time for the optional challenge on Glogster EDU! After watching the Detailed Tutorial on Glogster EDU, I had the immediate thought to email my team teachers and get all of our students Glogster for their major projects on World Religions.

The uses of both Glogster and Bubbl.us are endless. To start off with, anyone with a SMARTboard should embrace Bubbl.us as a mind-mapping tool. It's time to face the truth teachers - our handwriting on these interactive whiteboards is shocking!

Secondly, Tell your kids to throw out the display folders, forget the cardboard and to save the environment! Glogster is an excellent project tool. Like I said before, our students are 21st Century learners, who are growing up in a world were technology is the norm. Why should we, as teachers, try to stop the growing technological changes in the world? Give the students options rather than limitations and you will be surprised about what they can do!

Have fun mapping your mind!

A

Module 5

Turn the music on!
Podcasting is something that I have been reluctant to do since I became familiar with MP3 players, such as iPods. I own an iPod and only use it to listen to music. If I wanted to hear someone banter on, I just turn on the radio. Podcast.com described podcasting as a "buzzword". It seems that technology creates numerous buzzwords. Once, "internet" was a buzzword and now it is part of our everyday vernacular.
One thing I found interesting is that PODcasting is actually an acronym. Personally, I thought the word podcasting originated from the shortened form of iPod. Now I realise that the POD in IPod is actually an acronym itself. According to the website, POD is actually short for:

Portable
On-Demand

While, 'cast' is just short for a form of broadcasting, the same way that a radio or TV show is broadcast to your set. WOW, you learn something new everyday.

Again, the Plain English Series helped explain Podcasting in an excellent way. Podcasting In Plain English listed three reasons why PodCasting is excellent. The great thing about it is that you can take it where ever you want.

Vodcasting is something I 'sortof' did with my kids last term for my grade partner and I's Multimodal Project. We didn't upload them to any podcasting site like iTunes but uploaded them onto the blog to share with the school in Korea that we were communicating with. The kids really enjoyed the project. We didn't need to buy any fancy equipment for it either - we just used digital video cameras and Microsoft Movie Maker. The school had some Apple Macs however there are only a few. We are planning to use the Macs this term to create Claymations instead.

I explored the site Podcasts in Education and was reminded about a staff development afternoon I attended last year. The session was on Audacity, a free audio editor and recorder. This is great for making podcasts with. The gentleman who ran the workshop mentioned the value of students recording essays, stories, etc - in fact anything that could normally be written. This is excellent for those students who find verbalising their ideas easily but find writing quite difficult. Why not allow them to speak their thoughts rather than write? Writing does not need to be completely obliterated from the curriculum with these new technologies. For the videos my students created last term, they needed to research by writing questions and taking notes. Once they had completed the research, they were required to write a script for their video using their information. From the script, cue cards were written to assist those students who had difficulty recalling and memorising the information. Students had more confidence talking in front of the camera than they would have speaking in front of their peers. Best of all - they stayed on task throughout the entire project!

I decided to do the Optional Challenge as I already have iTunes installed on my computer and I use my iPod regularly. One thing I tell EVERYONE to do is to disable automatic syncing. Automatic syncing automatically makes your iPod identical to your iTunes library. Some people may like this, but if you are like me and have some songs at a different location to your iPod then it isn't a good idea to have automatic syncing on.
I explored the ABC Online website and decided to download a podcast from Dr Karl about aliens, thinking that I could use it in class as we are basing our narrative unit on Science Fiction. I downloaded the mp3 to my computer and opened iTunes ready to add it to my iPod. I didn't count on my iPod suddenly dying, resulting in a full system reset and software update! So I decided to just listen to the podcast while slow downloading 6 gigs of music occurred.

Dr Karl in the background, I explored the websites on Activity 3. I already have a YouTube channel, AlethiaSuntainia, and I have uploaded some of my own videos of ridiculous behaviour with family and friends, and of concerts. Some of the other links are educational institution's YouTube channels. I have been aware of TeacherTube for some time, however find more valuable resources on YouTube. I find Google Video also excellent, as it consolidates many video sharing sites.

(OK, Dr Karl has sent me to sleep right about now, so on comes the music again. Ciao Dr Karl!)

The Literacies for a New Age video is a wonderful fable. It makes me wonder how, once books replaced slates, the teachers of 100 years ago would have coped with such rapid changes in technology. Changes in educational technologies are very quick. Just as educational institutions are providing professional development for Technology A, Technology B comes in and Technology A is now obselete. I remember trying to encourage my siblings, who are four years younger than me, to go to the local library to do research rather than rely on the Internet. Teachers must be prepared to embrace change rather tahn shun it in order to keep students motivated in the classroom.





Hopefully by the end of the term I'll post up some of my students' claymations to help demonstrate how wonderful digital storytelling is. On a final note, to create a video like the Literacies for a New Age video, you just need Microsoft Movie Maker or Photostory 3 and a microphone. Kids can even do this at home!

Happy Podcasting!

A

Module 4

Say "cheese". CHE-E-ESE!

I haven't really warmed to Flickr at all, especially since I'm such a Facebook addict. I suppose I'd better start from the beginning "which is a very good place to start" (to quote the beautiful Julie Andrews).

The Flickr Feature Tour was a simple tour that provided a brief overview of the features of Flickr. It started the seed growing. I thought "I can use this", considering most workplaces block Facebook, making very hard to share pics with friends who only access the Internet from work. Next, I explore the FAQs page. We needed to find the answers to four questions:

What are content filters?
What is SafeSearch?
What are tags?
How do I share a photo/s with a group?

Content filters are filters that allow the categorisation of images based on the type of images that they are. The three main categories of filters listed in the FAQ section are:

• Photos and videos;
• Illustrations, art, animations, computer-generated images (CGI) and any other images that are not photographs; and,
• screenshots, which are images of whatever is on your computer screen.

SafeSearch is a function that allows a user to control what appears in the search results of their searches. This is especially good is the user is under 18, such as our students. It ensures that the results are clean and age-appropriate.

Tags are something everyone should get into the habit of using, especially if they want to make their images 'searchable'. They are keywords that you attach to your images to help explain what is in the images. These tags are then read by search functions so that your image can be displayed if someone has searched the relevant keyword. Facebook has a similar concept called "tagging", where you select a person in a photo and attach their name to it, so that the person and their friends can also see the image.

To share photos with a group, you need to add your photo to the group pool once you are a member of that group. You press the "Send to Group" button on the image's page.

Uploading the images to Flickr took some getting used to. I was adding them individually before I realised that I could Ctrl-a the images when the dialogue box opened! I was then able to upload 10 pics at once! Easy as ABC...

I didn't really see the point of the Make Stuff page. It was merely are showcase of what you can do with no real explanations. Below that page is another link "Do More With Your Photos". I found this more useful as it told me which third-party sites I can contact to make the relevant products. Still, the site was a bit useless, as you can go to your local Big W or Harvey Norman and do exactly the same things with your images, and have more control over it, as you are talking to actual people and can see actual samples.

Here are some of the pics I uploaded from my trip to the Hunter Valley Gardens in April. I went crazy in the storybook garden but met some fascinating creatures. To insert the images here, I went through the following steps:

1. Open the image's individual page by clicking on it in the Photostream.
2. Above the image there is a series of controls. Click "All Sizes". This will load another page.
3. Scroll down to "Grab the photo's URL.
4. Copy the URL (highlight and Ctrl-C).
5. In Blogger, when typing a new blog there is an "Add Image" icon, which is the icon third from the right. Click that icon to open the "Upload images" dialogue box.
6. Paste the URL into the "URL" box on the right.
7. Select your layout.
8. Click "Upload Image" - and you're done!

Humpty Dumpty at Hunter Valley Gardens

Getting kissed by Georgie Porgie at Hunter Valley Gardens

I've also inserted a Gadget on the left hand side of my page which displays a slideshow of my photos. Enjoy! I found this when editing my layout.

The next section of the module went into copyright. I did a class on copyright during the Easter holidays as one of the EDNA workshops. I believe teachers are one of the biggest breaches of copyright laws (admittedly, at times I am guilty as well). One thing that caught my eye was "NEALS" (National Educational Access Licence for Schools). I had seen this logo around websites and have always wondered what it is. The FAQs had links to a number of types of mediums used in schools that may be subject to copyright.

The next question for this module is:

What is creative commons?

The EDNA course I attended covered creative commons. It allows a person to give permission to others to use and modify their work. You can download from their site symbols to place on your work that clearly indicates to others what rights they have to use it. We live in the world of Postmodernism, which dictates that no ideas are new - only recreated. Creative commons embraces the postmodern theory, allowing people to share and build upon others' work.

I searched for "space" in the advanced search and selected the tick-box so that I only searched creative commons images. I was trying to find some excellent images to help stimulate the imaginations of the young writers in my class for the narrative unit on space. I found the following beautiful images. I am pasting the URLs due to the fact that no image URLs were provided:

• Living in Space by xenonb
• Pacific Ocean From Space by bluefore4116
• Inspire Space Park (and me) by Bettina Tizzy

Overall, I now know where to go for free images to place around my classroom to inspire my students. I may even start placing my images on here.

Happy snapping!

A

Module 3

Greetings web-buddies! and farewell USB flash drive!
I loved this module. Goodbye to my USB flash drive! I wish I knew about this during my uni days when working on group assignments. I would have sent the link to my lecturer so that they can get a realistic idea of the group collaboration! HA!
The person who creates the "in plain English" series is a genius. This is something you can use in the classroom to teach kids about Web 2.0 tools. The Google Docs in Plain English easily explained how the application works. It made me fall in love immediately. Gone will be the days that the humble USB is mourned over when it 'runs away' from you. Perfect! I think Google Docs is something I may introduce to my team teachers when we do collaborative planning. It will put new meaning into the idea of collaborative planning as we can all access and see the same document without the editing restrictions that are present in Microsoft Word. While playing around I discovered something that I really want to let everyone know about. You can click and drag images from one web browser into your document! Yes! Open and re-size browser with the required image so that it sits next to the Google Docs browser and just click and drag the image over! AMAZING! No more copying and pasting! What ease!
The American school teachers from the next video, Teachers and Principals Talk about Google Docs, made me see how valuable the application is to these teachers. In the stone age, there was the most-cherished 3.5" floppy disk. (I strongly disliked these and cheered at the hostile takeover of the USB flash drive that obliterated their existence.) While in high school, I began writing a novel to fill in the time before school, as I was at school so early. Unfortunately, five chapters into my book, I forgot to pass my disk around the library security guard (the gates that beep if you try to take a book without accessioning it!) and my disk was wiped by the magnetic field that surrounds it. Goodbye novel. Numerous times this happened to those I knew and caused much stressing as ENTIRE assignments were lost as the only copy was on that single disk. I believe Google Docs will then cause much stressing for students, who will need to build a new repertoire of excuses to explain why their assignments have not been done. The excuses "my disk was wiped", "my USB won't read", and, my favourite, "my computer crashed" will become obsolete. Oh dear! The poor darlings!

Until next time!
A

Module 2

WOW! Module Two was great! My apologies to anyone reading - I tend to be bit of a rambler! I think I'll answer the reflection question first:

"Do you have any reflections on the use of blogs in the
classroom?"

As I said in my previous post, for the first half of the year I participated in the Multimodal Project with my team teacher. We set up a blog for the students to use as a communication tool with another primary school in Korea. We used Edublogs as the preferred blog platform. This is a closed blog, but I have provided a screenshot of the blog below:

We used this to ask, and answer, questions with our partner school, and we uploaded video tours of the school that the students put together using Movie Maker. The blogs really motivated the students and it gave them a different form of "pen pal" to speak to. Also, the students were twice as excited when we Web Conferenced with the school using MSN Messenger and a web cam to see those we have been speaking to. The students (and staff) also enjoyed speaking to their old Year 2 teacher, who was in Korea teaching the students English. I believe blogs are a great tool for the classroom. Our students are Twentieth Century Learners - this is their world. Why should we try to discourage this digital revolution? This is the future and so we should be equipping our students for what's to come, rather than what has been.

Course Reflections

Setting up the blog was pretty much straight forward. It is interesting to compare the similarities and differences with Edublogs. I love the "In Mrs Mc Namara's Class" blog. With proper permission from parents, I think that this would be an excellent idea to do with a class. It also allows parents to keep track of what the children are learning in class.

My next site was the "Art Projects for Kids". I naturally went here because I love art. I'm tempted to start a blog about my own art and the art I do with my students in the classroom. Some of the art here was excellent!

Until the next module...

Ciao

A

Module 1

Greetings!

Allow me to introduce myself...

My name is Alfina and I am creating this blog as part of the Catholic Education Office Web 2.0 course. I currently teach Year 4 at St. Mel's, Campsie. This is my third year out of university and loving every bit of this year.

IT is not new to me, and so are Web 2.0 Tools. At the end of last year I completed a two-year computer networking certificate at TAFE - something I enrolled in "just for fun", and recently my grade partner and I worked on the Multimodal Literacy Project, where we used blogs to allow the students communicate to primary school students in Korea. I have never seen such motivation!

The video on viral education was interesting and so true! The video offered some key questions about how we can use the Web 2.0 tools available to use to our advantage. I like the question (around 1:11) "Is it as democratic as it makes out?" Democracy means involving everyone. Last year, a police officer was invited to the school I worked at to speak about cyberbullying. We talk about exclusion in the playground, but what about on social networks? I know some people who 'pick and choose' their "friends" on Facebook, whereas others add everyone and anyone who wants to "be their friend", regardless of whether or not they know them. You have the power to allow people access or to block people. Exclusion can still happen in this forum, where people are excluded. Its a big thing to be 'cut' from some one's friend list in Facebook or MySpace.

The next video "What's it all about" contained a slide show of Web 2.0 Applications. Previously, an application was software that you installed on your hard drive and could only access from your own computer. This 'revolution' (to use the term from the video) allows the remote accessing of applications, so that you can access your data from any computer. Say goodbye to compatibility issues and trying to find where you saved a file! What most users don't realise, is that all of the data is saved on remote servers belonging to the application developers. If the servers crash, data may be lost. The danger is that users will soon unknowingly rely on others to store and save their data, thinking it is in a safe environment and will remain there forever...

The "Web 2.0 is here video" made me think of one main point. No longer are there 'experts' in society. Web 2.0 tools encourage everyone to contribute and be experts. Experts no longer need to rely on book and magazine publishers to approve their content. People can publish their thoughts and ideas for themselves. It's typical 'free speech', and, in reference to the first video, democratic. The question arises then, how is the content monitored to ensure it is truthful and communicating valid ideas?

Video 4 had a great explanation of Web 1.0 vs Web 2.0. I'm now noticing that some websites are integrating the two platforms together in their websites. For example, the 2day FM website is Web 1.0 based because the company controls the content, yet it incorporates Web 2.0 tools through blogging and Twitter links as well. It's good to realise that Web 1.0 is not yet obsolete.

The 25 Web tools for teachers provided an extensive list of web tools that can be used by anyone, not just teachers. I've used most of these tools before. Of couse, a web browser MUST be number one! How can we use these wonderful tools without one. I was also excited to know that I was using number 3 - a blog, as I type. I'm a Twitter member (a micro-blog), I use email (several infact!), and instant messaging (MSN). I fell in love with Bubbl.us (a mind-mapping tool), in the Easter holidays when I went to an EdNa conference. It's so easy to use and very visual for the kids to follow. I've build websites before but find Dreamweaver a bit annoying to use. I like FrontPage, as it is a Microsoft application like the rest. And of definitely I'm a Facebook member, and can't live without it now!

The iGoogle task was quite easy, as I already had an iGoogle page. I was unaware of setting up my own Gadget, so that was a bit of an experience.

I sign off with images of my iGoogle page, and my Google Gadget. Until next time....

A