Finito!

After lots of learning, exploring and experimenting, here I am at the end of this 12 week journey into Web technologies. I know that in some ways I have barely scratched the surface of some of the tools that I have explored, having to be content with what I have been able to give time to. I have, however, gained in confidence in my ability to grapple with new technologies and overcome a bit of an anxiety that ' it's all just a bit too much'  to get into 21st century technologies. What I probably need is a week with nothing but a laptop, a list of interesting webtools to explore and plenty of uninterrupted time to investigate and learn more thoroughly.

I have appreciated the opportunity to explore through the structure of the course and the benefit of doing it over a few months rather than trying to cram it into a couple of intensive PD days. The plan back at school will now be to get some of the 12 staff from Hillcrest who have participated in this course to volunteer to run some training sessions on a tool they found interesting to other staff in the College so as to spread the expertise through the school community. As for me, I shall lead a session on setting up and using a Wiki page as I have already set up a wiki for the College Exec and they are busily working out the ins and outs of how to use it to their advantage. It's all part of a passion for creating a professional learning community with ICT technologies as one platform for cultural transformation

Thank you for the opportunity to be a part of this learning journey :)

eBooks

I think that eBooks will find their place in the same sphere as other technologies - a good parallel option for those who prefer an electronic version of a text rather than a hard copy. I must admit that I am still a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to books - I like to physically pick one up and turn actual pages rather than read a page on a screen and turn it electronically. It just doesn't have the same feel.... It's interesting that I have made the adjustment with photo collections - most of the photos I see these days are digitally saved on a computer or iPhone or camera; but as for books or magazines, I still appreciate the paper version far more that the e-version.

Will it always be thus? Forever is quite a long time and I am keen to keep up with technology so I'll probably bite the bullet in the near future and have a go at downloading a couple of books from the World eBook Fair or similar - more to say that I can do it rather than any particular drive to rad eBooks.

The other issue is time - or the lack thereof..... I probably wont do justice to the long list of books I'd love to read. Once I can create a space in my life to do so, well that will be another matter. Meanwhile a Masters essay beckons, a big pile of unread Educational Journals lies dormant on my desk, a number of Exec issues are pressing and, oh yes, some Year 12 Chemistry marking I promised to get back to the students ASAP.

TUBESVILLE

I have been very aware of Youtube for some time now - kind of impossible to avoid it really with 3 teenage children and a wanne teenage 9 year old roaming around my house from dawn to dawn (yes - they occasionally sleep...). I have even seen an uploaded video from my 9 yo who decided that she wanted to be on Youtube as well as the rest of the world... Like all technology like this, Youtube has its good side and its dangers. I have seen some wonderful, creative, nostalgic material; I have also unfortunately seen some junk I would have much preferred to not see. The other sites I am enjoying exploring are Teachertube and Godtube. I have found a Chemistry promo film from 1941 which I am planning to show my Year 12 class this week and I am sure that there are other valuable resources to uncover on both of these sites.

PODCASTS

Podcasts are brilliant but there are just so many of them!! I really appreciated the list of 15 to explore as well as the BIG lists of various podcast links in the email. There are a number which need to be investigated further although to be honest it may take me some time to see podcasts and RSS feeds as the MAIN source of information and learning. I'm still inundated with far too many paper-based journals and articles. Trying to wade through them and then make time on top of that for regular podcast absorption, RSS feed inspection etc is a bit of a stretch at the moment.

ROLLYO SHMOLLYO

This is the first real dud I have had all course - I just couldn't access the site. Even time I put in the web address, it came up with this message: didn't connect - Too many connections

Not sure where to go with this one - any ideas anyone? I'd be more than happy to revisit this site - it sounds interesting and useful!

Oh well, to make up for it I'll embed a music video instead

As well as a Claude Monet painting for no reason other than its artistic beauty :)

WATERTIGHT WIKI

I thought it was about time I put some of this learning into actual practice so I created a Wiki for the Executive team at the College where I work so the the school leaders could have a go at creating pages and editing one another's ideas. I realised once I had created it and put up the first page that it really wasn't appropriate for general viewing - any more than the minutes from a meeting of the Exec team so I made it a private wiki - accessible only to invited members. It will be a bit of a learning curve for all of us digital immigrants to become familiar with this technology but as a school community who are seeking to embed technology in the classroom we should be aiming to upskill those in senior leadership so the call to technological adaptation and embrace is rich and full, not hollow and hypocritical. It will remain to be seen if the wiki takes off and the rest of the Exec team take to it. I, for one, and having fun learning how to navigate around it :)

DELICIOUS? Well maybe not but still it's quite tasty....

I must admit I was a bit underwhelmed by Del.i.ci.ou.s  (too many full stops, I know...)  I'm not quite sure what I was expecting but to dedicate a whole website to tagging bookmarks seemed a bit of overkill. I suppose that my modest Bookmark collection in Firefox doesn't really demand an elaborate tagging and classification system; on the other hand if I really got inspired and starting collecting millions and trillions (slight exaggeration there) of bookmarks I would definitely want a much more organised way to file and sort and access these multitudinous references. I shall definitely revisit Delicious and explore some more. It seems like a useful way to track down some themed tags and see what people have stored under different topics.

RSS - Really Something Special

After I set up my Google Page as my homepage earlier in the course, I started looking for a couple of RSS feeds to add to the page - it is such a terrific way to have a quick scan of the news when I don't have a leisurely amount of time to sift through a 'real' newspaper. I have now 4 RSS feeds on my page - The Age, The Australian, Google News and the RSS feed from the Centre for Public Christianity.

I wonder how long it will be before the big media companies start charging a subscription for these free feeds - surely it must reduce their income if people are gearing more towards these RSS options than buying a hard copy of the news.
I am sure that the Discovery Centre at our school will be actively looking at ways to use RSS feeds to access many articles on various topics. The potential for this is wonderful from an educational perspective!

SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES

So I've been on Facebook now for about 2 years and had always heard about this other mysterious site called MySpace which, my teenage son convinced me, was only for cool teenagers (like himself...) and definitely for uncool parents like me. In addition it supposedly far more complicated than Facebook and probably a bit above digital immigrants like the Baby Boomer/Gen X'er like me.

Well thanks to the Week 6 tasks I am now not only signed up on MySpace - only to find it quite simple to navigate around - but have also discovered LinkedIn - more of a professionally oriented social networking site. It might be a good way to connect with Deputy Principals/ other Execs in schools elsewhere. The potential of these sites is exciting in allowing people to connect when previously this would have been virtually impossible.

FLICKR

How many high quality photos are there on Flickr? I started wandering through some of the Photo galleries and found that there was an amazing assortment of artistic and creative stills and videos reflecting a whole range of interests and panoramas. I'm not sure when I'll get to sort my hundreds (thousands) of digital images on my computer at home and upload some of them onto Flickr to share with others - sounds like a holiday project if you ask me :)

LIBRARY THING

Having been an avid reader for many years it was interesting to join up to Library Thing, add some of my favourite books and then see how many reviews there are - those who loved the same novels and I do and those without any taste whatsoever.... I'll have to explore this site a bit more and maybe make some connections with others who share the same love of Russian and French classic literature!!

IMAGE GENERATOR SOFTWARE

I enjoyed learning about Shape Collage, Cool Text and Jelly Muffin software!


Myspace Picture Generator>



Image by Cool Text: Free Logos and Buttons - Create An Image Just Like This



Image by Cool Text: Free Graphics Generator - Edit Image

VIRTUAL WORLDS

Well I finally got a chance to have a look at some websites I have heard about about for some time - Second Life and World of Warcraft. Was I impressed? Yes and No -
 'Yes' because I am amazed at the ingenuity and creativity of those who have the skill and perseverance to put together these virtual worlds and attract millions into their cyber-view of reality
'No' because I can see how quickly a virtual world can become an escape - a parallel universe for those (particularly the young adults) who may not have matured to the point of having a solid grasp of the real world. My concern is that the easy access to a world which you can create yourself is the it may further alienate some from living a REAL life with all its attendant joys and struggles. Would I encourage my students, and even more pointedly, my own children, to get involved in these programs? Absolutely not - I would rather they were engrossed with the real world, making a difference in the lives of real people with real issues.

iGoogle

So iGoogle seems like the easy, user-friendly equivalent of Pageflakes; without the cantankerous, on-again, off-again problems I was having with PF. I have a gripe, however.... Why is it that gadgets like a beautiful photo of nature have to come with a cartoon figure of a suggestively dressed young woman??? Not happy, Jan :( Apart from that, it seems pretty simple to add/subtract a wide variety of functions - especially news stories, puzzles etc

To make up for the ridiculous advertising that comes up on the iGoogle page at times, here is a  beautiful nature photo with no advertising whatsoever :)  ENJOY

GOOGLE BOOKS

I made an amazing discovery when investigating Google Books - I found a Maths Puzzle book just brilliant for the Gifted and Talented students I am taking. It has shown a few really challenging problems to put at the end of worksheets to really sort out the bright sparks from the Bright Sparks! :) There is a lot to explore in Google Books and it has whetted my appetite to find out some more. This holiday list is getting a bit out of control!!

GOOGLE MAPS

I have found Google Maps really useful except when it gives me a dodgy route to get from 'A' to 'B' when I know that there is a much better way to go! In this session, though I enjoyed the opportunity to create a route for myself - just a simple walking route that I regularly take with THE DOG (actually my wife's...) - a (not so) fierce Maltese x Poodle - a Moodle - which is quite funny seeing as our Intranet platform at school is also a Moodle....

When I get a bit more time - holidays maybe - it will be a good learning opportunity to retrace our 2 trips around Australia in 2005 and 2008, including photos of notable places we visited on the way. Something to add to the growing 'Things to Do on our Holidays' list!

Blogpost 2 - LIFE 2.0

It seems to me as a digital immigrant that a lot is being made of the '2.0' mindset when it comes to new technologies on the Web, in libraries and so on. There is definitely power in the concept of generational change when it comes to 'what's new' but I wonder if it also includes an attitude that we should be embracing a whole new view on 21st century life as well - Life 2.0.... The idea that newer is somehow better and more life enhancing is something we need to challenge on a regular basis. The ditching of traditional values in pursuit of the new and avantgarde is fraught with danger and lacking in wisdom. Surely the adoption of Web 2.0 technologies is a brilliant development but only if it is based upon a firm bedrock of enduring values and foundational principles which undergird the adoption and embracing of newer ideas.

Google Doc blog effort

So I went and had a look at Google Docs and ending up modifying a lovely serene template that looks like a boat on still waters but I couldn't work out how to transfer it to this blog - yet. Does anyone know how to copy and paste a powerpoint slide onto a Blog page like this?

BLOGPOST 1b

IT'S AN INTERESTING EXERCISE TO play around with fonts and other such things particularly when there are a million other things which could be written. There appears to be no end to what can be done here, including embedding this Sons of Korah video clip from Youtube. Enjoy it - they are an amazing band who just sing the Biblical Psalms with phenomenal musicality and passion

 

BLOG POST #1

So here I am about to write my first blog...... what I should really be doing is my reading for my Masters program that I have also just started. Not enough hours in the week at the moment. Still, I can't complain - it's all of my own doing! As well as doing the Deputy Principal thing from 8-6 each day, I have a wonderful wife and 4 very unique children aged 9 to 19. I have had to learn how to manage my time, my energy and stay on top of things; I have also had to learn, the hard way, what Jesus meant when He said the following:

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own