Module 8

RSS Feed and Google Reader! This allows quick and easy access to the regularly visited sites. It gives notification of updates. A definite time saver. Finding the time to click through your favourite sites each day is nearly impossibile. But having that information come to you in one place makes is time effective and convenient. Plus you can organise your information into folders. Creating an account with Google Reader simple and the site was easy to navigate.

Module 7

Delicious is a way to store (and share) your bookmarks on the internet so no matter where you are, as long as you have computer access, you also have you bookmarks. I guess this is a good thing. It is like carrying your filing cabinet with you. Of course it still has the human factor of limitations as any filing cabinet - how did I file that one? The tags of course do help, and as long as you have an organized brain then finding your sites should not be too much of a problem.

I have always used the school website as the place to put sites that I want to keep. It seems to have worked for me so far.

The advantage of Delicious over using just the school site is the social part of Delicious. You can share your bookmarks easily and access other peoples favourite sites. So someone else can do the work - a definite plus for time poor teachers who are always looking for better ways to present and to motivate the children. And I think most of us are more than ready to share anything that we find that is useful. A two way street.

Perhaps this is the place to do it. I guess I will find out now that Delicious is in my browser.

It is easy to access and easy to use.

Module 6

What fun bubble.us is. Using this software mind maps can be quickly and easily made. How motivated would the children be to make"another mind map" if they could do it using this software. It is a pity their certificate has expired. I wonder if they will renew it or if the site will go down. In the nmeantime it is a neat application that could very easily be tranferred into classroom use.

Glogster is an interesting tool. This could be used in a variety of ways. It could be a good get to know you exercise for the beginning of the year where to children make a glog about themselves. Again the privacy issue comes in but that could be solved by using the educational glogster rather than the ordinary one. It could be used as a part of HSIE - telling about a country, or an event in history. The children would quickly master the concept and would enjoy adding their information in that format.

I had a go using some information related to what we are doing.

It is basic but a start. Here is the address.

http://stephanieharrison.glogster.com/edit/glog-first-try-stepharry/

Module 5

I am already somewhat familiar with podcasts and vodcasts. The children at our school are experimenting with them and the year 6 students last year produced some remarkable examples.
I have used Youtube quite a bit in the classroom and last year with my gifted group when we were looking at Macbeth. There are some great examples. A point of note though, they do need to be viewed before showing the class. One of the witches scenes (Polanski) was not suitable for those young minds, as fabulous as it was.
We have also used youtube clips with our unit on tornadoes (also needing previewing because of some colourful language!). I have also just found a couple of very useful examples of the poem ‘The Highwayman’ which I am using in our poetry unit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjfUT9KKAPg

http://www.strimoo.com/video/12158890/The-Highwayman-A-Tragic-Tale-MySpaceVideos.html

So easy and so quick! YouTube is a great resource for teachers adding that visual aspect that our kids enjoy so much.

I also use itunes and an ipod for my music. I am fairly new to these but am finding out more and more. The podcasts in the itunes shop seem endless.
I did like Storynory. It could be quite useful even in upper primary as they are good examples both of the narrative form – very topical at the moment – and good oral reading examples.

Still lots to explore.

Module 4

Things have not gone completely smoothly this module. I started to do the module at school with a few other colleagues and we all had trouble uploading our photos. They just would not load. I gave up and went home after about an hour and a half thinking we were doing something very wrong.

Wrong! Once at home I uploaded with ease. Must have been the server having problems! Phew!

Any way I have had a bit to do with flickr before as a recipient, with the family sending me photos via a link on my email. It is a great way for siblings who live in different cities and even different countries to exchange photos with each other. I have to admit that I have always let my partner recipricate with our photos. I have never explored it myself before and having had a fiddle, which I really enjoyed, I know I have so much more to learn here. But I like being able to do what I can do after a short time. The photos can be uploaded very quickly and easily, and shared with a quick email link. Seems simple and as an added bonus, a good place to store a back up of your photos.

Using Flickr with the children as a classroom tool could be fun, however privacy and security would have to be carefully dealt with. There would be many times when flickr could be use and the photos shared with class members and with parents - excursions, sporting events, science experiments, liturgies, etc. The description tool could also be fun with the children writing their own captions. The kids of course would pick this up very quickly themselves and we could have photos everywhere. This would be ok as long as the privacy issue is clear to everyone.

Here are some of the photos I used on my photostream. I got them all from flickr in a creative commons search. All my own photos are of family it seems on looking, and since these ones were to be shared I thought it best to use the copyright free examples.

Cupcakes seemed like a good idea at the time. I also learnt how easy it is to take photos off yout photostream!

Module 3

Yesterday my colleagues and I finished writing our curriculum newsletter to parents which took a few days and numerous emails back and forth between the three of us plus several phone calls and the odd 'in person' interaction.

Today I learnt about google docs. If ever there was an example of how google docs could be used to streamline, save time, energy, frustrations and confusion, this is certainly one: with 3 people, 3 ideas, 3 opinions, working in 3 different locations on one outcome. Next time we will definitely use google docs.

What a great tool and with so many applications in the classroom, particularly for group assignments that are done both at school and at home. No more 'I have that on my home computer/memory stick/email/what ever'. Great tool.

Module 2
I am amazed by the different ways people can use their blogs. I particularly enjoyed the Art Project Blog and will definitely use some of the material there.

I also was interested in how literature responses can be used as shown in The Secret Life of Bees blog. Maybe we can get our readers circle kids to put their responses in this form. They would certainly love doing it.

I still have some concerns. The biggy is that I thought I had addded my blog to the wiki page but when I opened it today it wasn't there. I have loaded it again but it has not turned blue as the others on the site so I guess I am doing something wrong. I hope I can work out what the issue is.

I have added this image of Burleigh Heads at the Gold Coast taken this Easter.
Too beautiful for words and already a distant memory!