Wikis are an interesting collaborative tool with potentially great uses in both our personal and professional lives.
I have used a wiki with my daughter when we were planning her wedding. The wedding was to be in my home town and my daugter lived some 6 hours away. It literally meant we were on the same page and not making decisions twice. Very handy.
It is interesting that in a discussion between Teacher Librarians on Yammer ( a communication tool similar to Twitter) this week there has been a suggestion to create a teacher librarian wiki. This would have great potenial to share information. Unlike classroom teachers T/L's are physically insolated from each other. In rural areas, maybe many hours away. This often means we are all in our own school doing the same research to create great lessons or find good resources for our students. With a wiki this information could be shared in a central place.
I found the set up of the teacher librarians wiki at http://teacherlibrarianwiki.pbworks.com/w/page/19823570/FrontPage very good. I did wonder though why it hasn't been used in over 2 years.
Wednesday, 20 April 2011
# 17 Delicious and Social Bookmarking
As I move from my computer at home (and sometimes hubby's as well) and then to several computer at school, I used to email myself great sites I had found. When I was introduced to Delicious some time ago I was delighted. Yes I thought it was delicious. Delicious made it very easy to keep track of the great sites I found.
However late last year word was spreading that Delicious was about to disappear so I moved all my bookmarks to another social bookmarking site called Diigo. The Diigo site makes moving the bokmarks amazingly simple. I guess they want you to make the change.
I really enjoy using Diigo. I love the tags and the tagging clouds. I also enjoy the ability to use sticky notes on my saved pages. Although, like with Delicious, there is a feature that allows you to share your bookmarks with others I keep mine private. I guess that reflects my non risk taking personality
I have learned some extra features about Diigo by reading Margies Post #17 Delicious. It is a very worthwhile read.
However late last year word was spreading that Delicious was about to disappear so I moved all my bookmarks to another social bookmarking site called Diigo. The Diigo site makes moving the bokmarks amazingly simple. I guess they want you to make the change.
I really enjoy using Diigo. I love the tags and the tagging clouds. I also enjoy the ability to use sticky notes on my saved pages. Although, like with Delicious, there is a feature that allows you to share your bookmarks with others I keep mine private. I guess that reflects my non risk taking personality
I have learned some extra features about Diigo by reading Margies Post #17 Delicious. It is a very worthwhile read.
Tuesday, 19 April 2011
#9 Virtual Worlds
I have already posted for this task but wanted to add this information that I found interesting...especially after so many negative thoughts about virtual worlds.
The students and I found it interesting that one of their favourite authors, Jeff Kinney, author of Diary of a Wimpy Kid series ,considers himself not an author but a cartoonist. He created the virtual world poptropica.com which the students really enjoy. When we talked about this in class I was surprised at how much the students knew about poptropica.
The students and I found it interesting that one of their favourite authors, Jeff Kinney, author of Diary of a Wimpy Kid series ,considers himself not an author but a cartoonist. He created the virtual world poptropica.com which the students really enjoy. When we talked about this in class I was surprised at how much the students knew about poptropica.
#13and #14 Social Networks
I feel I have enough internet exposure without creating a My Space account. I acknowledge its existance and will leave it at that.
I use my Facebook Account to keep in touch with friends and relations who live a long distance away. I do not use it for work or to promote my work related blog.
I found it interesting to read some of the articles recommended in this course. I didn't previously know I could put my friends into groups. In the information provided in the readings it did say that my friends would not be able to see that I had put them in groups so I found it surprising when I received some emails back from some people commenting on the group name I had put them in.
I have always been pretty private about what information I put on Facebook but I still found the information given about creating privacy settings useful.
Beginning next week the New South Wales Department of Education and Training are lifting the block on Facebook for teachers on school computers recognising its potential for collaborative networking and information sharing among teachers.
I use my Facebook Account to keep in touch with friends and relations who live a long distance away. I do not use it for work or to promote my work related blog.
I found it interesting to read some of the articles recommended in this course. I didn't previously know I could put my friends into groups. In the information provided in the readings it did say that my friends would not be able to see that I had put them in groups so I found it surprising when I received some emails back from some people commenting on the group name I had put them in.
I have always been pretty private about what information I put on Facebook but I still found the information given about creating privacy settings useful.
Beginning next week the New South Wales Department of Education and Training are lifting the block on Facebook for teachers on school computers recognising its potential for collaborative networking and information sharing among teachers.
Monday, 18 April 2011
#9 Virtual Worlds
Virtual worlds will not be part of my teaching.....
however there is an online training program presently being developed for teachers which will be using virtual worlds.
PLANE is an on line learning experience being developed by a collection of educators and others from Department of Education and Training, Association of Independent Schools and Catholic Education Commission. As part of the training program participants will be able to enter a digital virtual world for experiencial learning, problem based simulation learning, collaboration and communication.
I have been following their blog this year as they begin what has the potential of beging a great learning tool.
however there is an online training program presently being developed for teachers which will be using virtual worlds.
PLANE is an on line learning experience being developed by a collection of educators and others from Department of Education and Training, Association of Independent Schools and Catholic Education Commission. As part of the training program participants will be able to enter a digital virtual world for experiencial learning, problem based simulation learning, collaboration and communication.
I have been following their blog this year as they begin what has the potential of beging a great learning tool.
# 15and #16 RSS Feeder
I created a RSS Reader some years ago as I was following several blogs for personal reasons. I loved reading the blogs of my friends and relatives and found it a quick and fun way to keep in touch with what was happening in their lives. By using the RSS feeder I was able to quickly check to see if there were any updates without going into each individual site.
However life was to become more complex.
In January I created a blog to promote the school library where I am Teacher Librarian.
Initially the blog (http://cosysorner.edublogs.org/) was meant as a communication tool for our school community but it found an audience in other towns and countries.
Other teachers and Teacher Librarians began to follow our Cosy Corner Blog. This following, lead me to discover other library blogs which I then wanted to follow. I added these new blogs to my RSS Reader and now checking my RSS Reader has become an essential part of my daily routine.
By adding my RSS Reader to my iGoogle page checking new postings has been made even quicker.
However life was to become more complex.
In January I created a blog to promote the school library where I am Teacher Librarian.
Initially the blog (http://cosysorner.edublogs.org/) was meant as a communication tool for our school community but it found an audience in other towns and countries.
Other teachers and Teacher Librarians began to follow our Cosy Corner Blog. This following, lead me to discover other library blogs which I then wanted to follow. I added these new blogs to my RSS Reader and now checking my RSS Reader has become an essential part of my daily routine.
By adding my RSS Reader to my iGoogle page checking new postings has been made even quicker.
Saturday, 2 April 2011
# 12 Flickr
This beautiful tree was photographed while in Buckinghamshire, England. I really loved the beautiful lines made by the truck as it crept its way up the wall.
I previously didn't have a flicker account but it was not hard to create one as I already had a yahoo account. It was interesting to see when I logged into flickr photos I had previously saved from emails were already in there.
This is certainly a quick and easy way to upload photos to the blog. I also have an edublog which I use with my students. I have yet to see if I can link that to flicker also.
In a primary school setting I cannot see that I will be teaching my students to have a flickr account but knowing about the Creative Commons feature is very much worth showing and teaching about.
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