The Reluctant Blogger

Discovering the Nuggets of Gold in My Learning Journey

2009-08-16T17:48:00.000-07:00

Thinking about my learning over the last 6 weeks immediately brought to mind panning for gold. I have deposited many grains of information that now I need to carefully sift through for the nuggets of gold. Over the past 6 weeks I have been introduced to and tried many web 2.0 tools. I have reflected on how I could use them in my work and read how my fellow students were thinking about using them. At the end of the day, I need to gently swirl the learning, resources and ideas around in my 'pan of knowledge' and see what I am left with. How do I use my experience, knowledge and tools to make me a more effective educator? I need to separate the gold from the sand...the ideas I can use from the volume of links, blogging and discussions that we took part in...all interesting, but what can I actually sink my teeth into and use?

The Highs and the Lows in My Learning

Originally, I had the highs and the lows separated into two topic areas. As I started to refect, I realized that sometimes the lows ended up being highs as they became opportunities for learning. So here they are together...

I have learned about more web 2.0 tools than I ever imagined existed during the past 6 weeks. There is life after lecture! I am invigorated to discover that with these new tools I can reach the digital native...the students who make up the bulk of my classes in ways that will invigorate and hook them. I look forward to reflecting on and trying new ways of teaching that incorporate web 2.0 tools. I am eager to share this learning with my colleagues.

Blogging and tweeting (yes, I know I detest it...but there is a certain lure to having people actually respond) are a way of putting my voice and ideas out there into cyberspace and connecting to like-minded people. When I was thinking about how to use twitter in college, I tweeted that thought...and I got a response from someone outside of this class. The ability to throw a question into cyberspace and make a connection with a previously unknown person to me motivates me to continue exploring these tools, even those I am less fond of.

I enjoyed some of the more "fun" tools like Animoto and Picasa that I could also use (just for fun) in my personal life too. I made some connections for myself with wikis and nings I joined that will help me to continue my learning in using technology as well as in content specific to my area of teaching.

I began this course with no experience to speak of with any of these tools. Blogging was not something I had ever experienced outside of reading blogs on rescue dogs (I have a soft spot for rescue dogs!). My blogging was very rudimentary to begin with - I still have a ways to go I think, but I began to 'get it'. Jenn (our professor) talked a lot about 'hooking' the audience and directed me to the blogs of some of my classmates who were exceptionally good at this. I have enjoyed reading the blogs of my classmates - all are great bloggers - and I have learned a lot from them. Many of them were exceptionally good at intertwining their personal experiences (in life and in learning) into their blogs, which added a richness to them. There was a great deal of creativity in everyones' blogs and I learned from reading them what can be possible in blogging. I will continue to go back to their blogs for ideas. I also noticed that others were using tags or labels in their posts. I did not do this which may account for why some of them got outside traffic on their blog where I did not. Organization in the digital world - something I need to develop!

I do regret that it took me awhile to catch on to RSS feeds. When I finally signed up with Pageflakes, I loaded all of the extra blogs I chose to follow. I made the mistake of continuing to follow my classmates from my blogger site. This was not a good idea. If I would have added them to pageflakes, I would have been notified of any new entries as soon as I opened my browser (pageflakes is now my home page). Instead, I had to go through my blog site to access theirs. On a positive note, I now have an EDES501 page on my pageflake. So...if any of you continue to blog, I WILL be reading you!

There is absolutely nothing in the content of the course that stands out as a 'lowlight'. I must admit though that Twitter was a tool I thought was absolutely useless when I started this course and I could not see how I could find any use for it. I am keeping an open mind about it and I have experienced some positive with it as described above, but it won't be the first tool I go back to.

I am amazed at how much I have learned in the past 6 weeks. What does smack me in the forehead as the biggest 'low' was the time factor. This course all seemed doable at the beginning - after all, how hard could it be to do a course that was completely on line and was about exploring cool web 2.0 tools?

When I began this course, I was still at work 36.25 hours a week (spend 35 - 40 hours per week on this course...no problem!!). Halfway through I went on a week's vacation to BC (with my parents from Ontario whom I hadn't seen for a year), and then went to Toronto for a week, attending a 3 day conference. I had many 'vacation days' where I stayed up until 5 am finishing a blog. It was a bit of a juggling act to fit the course into my summer schedule - but I am glad I did. What I do regret is not being able to have the time to really dig deeply into the material and reflect on each tool in detail. The pace of the course and assignments resulted in rushing through one to get to the next. As a result of the frenzied activity over the past 6 weeks, I am going to take a break before coming back to these tools for my continued learning and teaching. I will be back though.

I also experienced a few technology 'glitches' over the course - the biggest being the loss of all the content of a 4 GB USB drive when I came back from Toronto (lesson here - never let a memory stick go through the Xray machine at the airport). I lost a lot of information (work and university) including everything I had researched and saved for this course. While the tools are great this experience reinforced the fact that technology is not infallible and backing information up is crucial. Some of the web 2.0 tools I learned about will actually be helping out with this loss of information. I have a delicious page - so any of the urls I copied into my rough notes in Word are also bookmarked there. My blog also has references to most of the reading I did for this course and I will be able to track down the articles again (it was just something I didn't have time to do for this final blog).

In using the tools for each blog, there were also learning curves and bumps along the way. For the most part, the tools were quite simple to figure out, but with technology there are always minor glitches that go beyond what we may know. For teachers who are just learning this can be a critical point in whether they will continue or not. If they find the experience too frustrating and time consuming they may not get to the point of using the tool in their teaching. I found that having an online community with my fellow bloggers in this class provided me with helpful advice (either directed at me or another blogger having a problem).

I still struggle a bit with doing so much of my learning online - I am still a bit of a paper and pencil person! My own digital literacy and learning to read online is still a work in progress. I found that I hopped a lot from on link to another...read bits of interesting information - and then never saw it again. I really need to work on my ability to organize information well - delicious is good, but I think I need something beyond that. I wonder if a wiki would work as a way to organize my information better?

What's Next?

Using technology for teaching requires educators to develop some basic digital literacy. In his blog Dangerously Irrelevant, Scott McCleod commented that "we never seem to hold folks accountable for being self-learners" and provide teachers with courses for tools like Facebook instead of letting them learn on their own. In reflecting on McCleod's comments in his own blog, Ferriter (2009) suggests the time spent in these courses could be used in more meaningful ways by learning how to use the tools in ways that will enhance student learning. This quote from his blog is worth posting here - it is something I want to remember as I continue my learning:

"But most importantly, do we REALLY want to send the message to teachers that they bear no personal responsibility at all for exploring new teaching tools, strategies and techniques? Whatever happened to our professed commitment to “lifelong learning?” Can we expect our students to embrace self-directed study when teachers refuse to demonstrate the same independence? Maybe I’m being unreasonable, but I’m tired of our tolerance and ready to see basic digital literacy and a willingness to experiment be a fundamental expectation for every educator." (August 11, 2009. Do we really want to facilitate co-dependence?)

In this course I have done a bit of both - I have been a self-learner in figuring out how to use the tools as well as thinking into the future about how I can use these tools effectively in teaching. I have a long way to go in this learning journey and I am hoping I won't have to do it alone. Ideally I would like to have my colleages along for the ride - we could really shake up our practice, particularly in distance learning. The online community - blogs, wikis and nings in particular - will also be places I return to. As I introduce these tools to my colleagues two strategies will need to be developed:

1. Dealing with the technology
I agree with McCleod and Ferriter - we do need to take responsibility for our own learning and muddling our way through the tools can be the best way to learn. However, it is nice to have a resource or two to turn to for occasional help. I will share a few of the resources I found and bookmarked - Web 2.0 for Newbies and WebTools4U2Use for starters as well as my blog and delicious site. YouTube is also a great source for 'how to' videos on many of the problems that can arise in figuring out web 2.0 tools. We can also be a resource for each other as we begin to use these tools.

2. Incorporating the tools into teaching
Richardson (2009) suggests that most teachers are still simply taking their analog resources and digitizing them for posting on the internet. I admit this is what I have done to this point and I would guess most of my colleagues do the same. Our inclass courses are also offered through distance and we have not "taken advantage of the power of the Read/Write web" (Richardson, p. 130) in our distance delivery. Many of our courses have a lot of 'soft skill' content that is difficult to teach when there is little or no interaction amongst learners and the teacher. The use of web 2.o tools could greatly improve the learning experience.
As educators we will individually decide how we want to incorporate tools into our classrooms, but we can also collaborate and have our own learning community. As a group we can strategize on how to do this - take a part of faculty meetings, use a tool like a wiki, ning or blog.

What's Next for Me?

I plan to go back to everyone's blogs in detail and make sure I get the 'nuggets' of learning that you have each discovered. I wish I would have had the time to do this during the entire 6 weeks of the course. However, there were great discussions on our weekly discussion boards.

I need to find my own 'community'. I am not a full-time teacher, and I teach at the college level. I also have considered at length how this course impacts my 'real' job - the full time work I do as a project coordinator for the government, and more specifically, my work with our 'learning community'. I have hope for my involvement with the PersonCenteredPlanning ning...I am excited to connect to people outside of my local geographical community.

I am beginning to run out of steam...not for the ideas presented here, but for the time it has consumed out of my life. I need to take a break, take a step back and critically reflect on my experience and what it means for my work - particularly for my teaching.

I am not linking my thinking to my reading as much as I'd like to (really Jenn...it is there somewhere in the back of my mind), if I had another day or two I would. So... with this, I think I will end it...a great experience, a ton of information, a mindboggling pace - that has opened a door I cannot close. I will be looking for ways to use this information and share it with my colleagues. I look forward to the future...and some day (maybe) you might see me tweeting again!

I loved this 'If you Give a Mouse a Cookie' take on introducing digital tools, the internet, and more simply, the computer, to teachers - once that door is opened...

References

Richardson, W. (2008). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. (Second Edition.) Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwinn Press.

Time to Get Real with Technology

2009-08-14T19:00:00.000-07:00

Biting into Technology

What's next? That is the question I am to ponder in this blog. When it comes to using Web 2.0 tools for teaching and learning - I have read about them, tried them and blogged about them. I have thought of how I could (or would) use each of them...and there it has stopped. Now I need to consider where I will actually start...how will I taking my learning out of this digital classroom and incorporate it into my work. And into my head popped chocolates...a whole box of them!

I think of my journey with technology as being like a box of chocolates...you never know what you're gonna get...and where it will lead you! Okay...not exactly what Forrest Gump said, but that's what came to mind. Technology is a bit like a box of chocolates - you open the box and gaze upon an array of different choices...dark chocolate or milk chocolate, round or oval shaped...wiki or ning, myspace or facebook, blog or twitter, picasa or flickr. Where to start? Which to choose? You've tried some of these chocolates (web 2.0 tools) before and had a few favorites. I had previously tried Facebook before this course and thought it was okay, so I tried it again. Some are new - you try a taste of it and now have a new favorite to add. Maybe you like it a bit more than your old favorite and will scoop all of those first! I also tried Ning - another social networking tool and found I liked it better than Facebook. It offered much more on the inside than Facebook did, and so I set up a Ning for my work.

Others are a complete mystery - you have no idea what you'll be biting into! I had never tried blogging, photosharing or VoiceThread before. I was unexpectedly surprised with the easy photo/video creations I could make with Animoto...that tool is definitely a keeper! I also had no idea what I would find inside of the VoiceThread site. Now this was a tool I could definitely see myself chomping into again.

So, in my box of chocolates - I mean tools - I have many favorites (and some I don't like as much)...I will definitely keep using some of them, others that are not favorites (like Twitter) may have an acquired taste...I may have to keep trying it to develop a taste for it. What a problem to have...so many tools to choose from...which will I try first?

Just Pick ONE!

My task for this current blog assignment was to pick one tool to introduce to my coworkers. I chose to focus on my fellow instructors in the Disability Studies program at the college where I am a sessional intructor. All instructors in the program have some experience with online tools as we have been using Blackboard for the past few years. I don't know how extensively it is used by each instructor as there is no set standard for its use. Though we have all posted material online, emailed and posted grades I think we would all agree that there is so much more we could do.
I like a number of web 2.0 tools and it was difficult to choose just one to introduce to my colleagues. I decided to use Voicethread as the tool to share first. According to Bill Ferriter, Voicethread has a lot of potential for teaching and I would agree. Users can upload images, video and documents (pdf, Excel, Word and PowerPoint). All of the instructors use PowerPoint and most have uploaded their slides onto Blackboard at some point. Voicethread would allow them to use a format they are familiar with (PowerPoint) and take it to the next level by adding audio. This would allow them to try out a new application with little effort - they would already have teaching notes to accompany their slides. I think we would all agree that the addition of audio to a slide presentation would only enhance it. In his blog Ferriter (2007) praises Voicethread for being easy to use - you don't have to be a techy to use it well. The minimal skills needed reduce any technical barriers users need to overcome and "because the tool is simple by nature, the focus of any digital effort remains on the content rather than the technology". I think this alone would attract instructors to it. Once everyone has tried it out using a familiar format they can explore other ways to integrate Voicethread into their curriculum.

Why Web 2.0 Tools in Disability Studies? Making the Case

When I introduce Voicethread to my colleagues there is a risk it could be viewed as a neat little trick we can add to jazz up some of our material. I also need to make a case for the value of Web 2.0 tools in general. In recent years we have become more aware of how technology is invading our classrooms in unwanted ways with students using their cell phones and internet to communicate with their friends while in class. They are using technology, so we should take advantage of this and find ways to use add technology that enhances versus detracts from their learning and our teaching. Here is my plan for introducing technology:

1. Share my learning experience from this course with my colleagues at our first faculty meeting in September. I also plan to give them the link to my blog so they can see some of the tools and learning I engaged in. Have a discussion about the type of students we are seeing now who are digital natives - what does this mean for teaching? This video below is a good introduction to digital learners and makes a case for using web 2.0 tools in the classroom.

2. Have a dialogue with colleagues about technology. What is everyone using? Don't assume they aren't making use of Web 2.0 tools. What do they think about introducing new tools? Are there any concerns or fears? This following video illustrates one teacher's transition from "sage on stage" to a participatory model of teaching. An important point made in this video is the suggestion to start small:

What is participatory learning in a digital world? According to Davidson & Goldberg (2009) it"includes the many ways that learners (of any age) use new technologies to participate in virtual communities where they share ideas, comment on one another’s projects, and plan, design, implement, advance, or simply discuss their practices, goals, and ideas together" (p.12).
Why should we care about this? We are teaching college students who are already using participatory learning to get information. As adults we are also turning to the internet to find out from what Davidson & Goldberg call the "wisdom of the crowd” or “smart mobs" (p. 13) to find out what kind of car or cell phone to buy, what restaurant to go to, etc. Learning that occurs in a participatory 'peer to peer' versus 'sage on stage' method is more likely to motivate and excite students to learn. Davidson & Goldber (2009) describe the influence of technology on today's students:

"An increasing number of those born after 1983 (the desktop) and 1991 (the Internet) learn through peer-to-peer knowledge networks, collaborative networks, and aggregated private and open source social spaces (from MySpace and Facebook to del.icio.us). Given that the entering college class was born in 1989 or 1990, we are talking about a cultural change that touches every aspect of the educational system as well as nonformal learning environments for all ages: (p. 22).
It is time for us to pay attention to this and embark on a collaborative journey to include web 2.0 tools in our teaching.

3. Share the Voicethread tool.
There are a number of resources I can share with colleagues that will give them information on what Voicethread is and how it can be used in the classroom. There are 2 Voicethreads I will share with them (they can see it in action and learn about it at the same time). The first is a presentation by Michelle Pacansky-Brock on how Voicethread has enhanced the teaching and learning experience:

One of the useful features of Voice thread is the abililty to use audio - which is particularly advantageous for auditory learners. According to Ice, Curtis, Phillips & Wells (2007), audio creates a more dynamic learning environment by:

creating a teaching presence
reflecting a sense of caring on the part of the teacher that text alone does not
allowing for inflections and nuances in the voice that helps students better understand the meaning behind the words
creating an increased sense of involvement

More Examples of How Teachers are Using VoiceThread:

I would also share with them my first try at using Voicethread for a course I teach - they can see it on my blog. Once I actually use it in class, I will share my experience and the feedback from students. There are a few online resources I will also share:

1.Voicethread ning - I recently joined this ning. They have specific groups within it for librarians, Chinese language learners, linux, ESOL skills for life, voicethread and deaf students, global collaborations, secondary school, middle school education, elementary ed, art and Music. There is no group yet for college instructors or post-secondary…maybe we will create one together!

2. Voicethread4Education wiki - This wiki has:

Samples submitted by teachers of VoiceThread projects made by their students
VoiceThreads used in professional development
Resources, including other websites that contain VoiceThread examples
Best Practices - tips and ideas of how to best implement VoiceThread in your curriculum
Subject area ideas &examples of those ideas (from the home page of the wiki) for K - 12, college, library, admin, ESL/EFL, Special Ed and Ed Tech

3. DigitallySpeaking wiki - This wiki on web 2.0 tools has great resources on Voicethread, including an number of Voicethread examples of how it has been used in education. Bill Ferriter has created a number of useful handouts which are on this page as well.

4. 7 Things You Should Know About Voicethread - this is a quick handout which would be a good introduction to Voicethread, created by Educause

Keeping the Momentum Going
One way to keep the momentum going is to keep it on the agenda for our faculty meetings. We can share how we are using it and what impact it has on teaching and learning. One of the barriers in learning from/collaborating with each other as faculty is time and place. Many of us are sessional instructors and are at the college only when we are teaching a course. Those who are full-time are busy and often juggling multiple responsibilities. It is not often that we are in the same place at the same time. Hmmm...sounds like we need another web 2.0 tool!

Another tool I think would be very useful is either a wiki or a ning. I must confess, I am not sure which would be better to use as I haven't used them enough yet. Features that would be useful are: abililty to embed audio, video, documents so we can share what we are doing with web 2.0 tools and the ability to engage in asynchronistic discussions. In addition to keeping the momentum going for using Voicethread, this would be a great forum for ongoing collaboration on the overall content of the program.

The courses over the two years of the program overlap a bit in content as well as build on each other. Some of the resources could be used for a number of courses. At any given time, we individually have no idea what other instructors are doing in their courses. A wiki, for example, could have a page for each course where the instructor responsible for the course could add content - the course syllabus, curriculum, addtional readings, potential guest speakers, videos, web sites, etc. Others could add suggestions of other resources that might be useful. This would be helpful when teaching a course for the first time as assigned courses do change from year to year. I know I would also appreciate being able to see what the content is for other courses to be able to reinforce ideas/concepts in my teaching. It would also help to prevent any duplication in use of materials - or at least give us the heads up so we can make sure we are using them differently.

Well...I'm excited about the possibilities...I hope my colleagues are as well! I think web 2.0 tools have a lot to offer to the teaching and learning experience. They are inexpensive (many are free), easy to use, easily accessible and best of all - increase critical thinking through collaboration with others...

SWEET!

References

Davidson, C.N. & Goldberg, D.T. (2009). The future of learning institutions in a digital age. MIT Press: Cambridge, Massachusetts. Retrieved on August 13, 2009 from http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/chapters/Future_of_Learning.pdf

Gooding, J. & Morris, R. (2008). Web 2.0: A vehicle for transforming education. International Journal of Information and Communication Technology Education 4(2): 44-53

Ice, P., Curtis, R., Phillips, P. & Wells, J. (2007). Using asynchronous audio feedback to enhance teaching presence and student’s sense of community. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 11(2), 3-25.

SnagFilms Film Widget

2009-08-13T14:45:00.001-07:00

Getting Smarter with Blogs and a Daily Dose of RSS

2009-08-10T12:14:00.000-07:00

“Community development is the new professional development. We forgot that and taught Web 2.0 tools. Discuss.”

This tweet was posted back in April 2009 by John Pederson and shared by Will Richardson on his blog at http://weblogg-ed.com/category/professional-development/. In his reflection on this statement, Richardson posed the idea that professional development is a process and not an event and that we should look at it as learning not training. There is some debate in the literature on the difference between the two terms. In my opinion, learning (versus training) involves a process of critical reflection and change. Grant (n.d) proposed that "professional development goes beyond the term 'training' with its implications of learning skills, and encompasses a definition that includes formal and informal means of helping teachers not only learn new skills but also develop new insights into pedagogy and their own practice, and explore new or advanced understandings of content and resources" (p. 3 in Malopinsky et.al.)

Blogging as a form of professional development provides the community forum mentioned by Pederson for teachers to pose questions, reflect, collaborate and change their practice. Teachers today are teaching in a digital world as illustrated in the video below. They not only require the tools, but they need to understand how they can effectively use them and what will mean to teaching and learning today. Knowing how to use web 2.0 tools does not guarantee they will be used well. Blogging, wikis and all the rest provide educators with opportunities to understand the pedagogical implications of these tools and will bring their practice into the digital age.

Teachers work fairly independently and do not have a lot of face to face time for collaborative learning. Blogs allow for that continous collaboration, acting as online learning communities where teachers can engage in “as-needed, passion-driven, hour-here-fifteen-minutes-there learning flow that relies on the interactions of many learners, not on the expertise of any one person” (Richardson, April 30, 2009). According to Richardson, it is in those interactions not in the tools where we will find the most value – it isn’t about the publishing, its about the connections we achieve through the publishing – the new ideas that come out of our connections - the discussions, collaborations and sharing of ideas. As I have read many times in my learning during this course - having a voice and making connections is really at the heart of Web 2.0 tools. I think that is what Pederson was refering to in his statement.

Getting Started with Blogging

Ferriter (2009) suggests when getting started with using blogs as professional development to start as a reader, He suggested the following 4 steps:

1. Use a feed reader for a few weeks and target a few blogs that match your interest area or work. I used the SupportBlogging wiki to find appropriate blogs. I also used blogs suggested by other bloggers as I was reading. Ferriter suggested his own pageflake to find some blogs to start with (which I did). There are so many blogs to choose from that I appreciated any recommendations! You can use your aggregator service tutorials to help you learn how to create your personalized collection of feeds.
2. Dedicate daily time to browsing your feeds. A few times a week make time to read the posts that interest you – look for ones that will motivate and challenge your thinking. Leave comments, enter into a discussion with other readers and the author.
3. Spread the word – let others know about how the blogs are influencing your thinking and practice.
4. Share your feedreader with your colleagues and engage them in conversation about articles/posts they read (try to read some of the same posts they do).

If you do these things, Ferriter says your team will begin to “work from a common foundation of challenging ideas that can stretch your cooperative thinking and growth” (p.37).

I admit that I haven't completely followed Ferriter's suggestions. I was so intent on getting my blog started and working on developing some rudimentary knowledge and skill in using the Web 2.0 tools required for my assignments that I left the RSS feeds to the side for a few weeks. Instead I added some blogs to follow right on my own blog. This has not been the most efficient way of doing it because I only see the new posts when I go into my own blog. My commenting on others blogs has also been at a minimum as I am just trying to keep up with my own readings and postings. I know there is great value in this and will tackle that shortly. The learning is not the same when its one-sided.

Becoming a blogger happened early in the process for me - as this is a course requirement, we just had to jump in and get our feet wet! The process of blogging has added to my learning. The writing helped me to make sense of my exerience with the tools and reflect on how each of them could impact my practice. Without the blogging I would likely just move on to learning the next tool. Also, the blog gives me a permanent record of my learning - something to go back to and share with others.

RSS Feeds - The New Virtual Newspaper Boy

RSS or Really Simple Syndication is like getting your newspapers, magazines and correspondence all delivered to your door, with your headlines organized and emphasized, without you having to lift a finger (well...you do have to turn on the computer!). A feed reader allows you to subscribe to webblogs, online newspapers and other web sites to get the content you want delivered right to your computer. Any web page that has a RSS feed on it can be added to your personal page. To do this you need to sign up with an aggregator - a web-based service/software that will collect your feeds. The video below provides an overview of RSS and how to use it.

There are a number of aggregators to choose from. Some like Bloglines and Google Reader are Web-Based RSS Readers. There are stand-alone RSS readers that you download to your computer like NetNewsWire for Mac and SharpReader for Windows (I did not look at these as the process itself doesn't seem user friendly). The applications that seemed the most user friendly to me were the customizable page generators that will integrate and display RSS feedsas well as personalize with other gadgets. Among these are iGoogle, NetVibes, PageFlakes and Live.com. (from http://webtools4u2use.wikispaces.com/RSS)

Up until recently I had been bookmarking all my favorite websites, which according to Stephen Abram is "soooo last century!" I considered iGoogle, but settled on PageFlakes because I liked the look and layout of it.

CNet did a comparison of four of the top aggregators - NetVibes, PageFlakes, iGoogle and Live.com for home/start pages. NetVibes and PageFlakes were the top 2 with just slight variances between them. I took a tour of NetVibe and was impressed. I already have all of my feeds set up on PageFlake, so I will leave it there for now. I have just begun to visit my PageFlake - it is now my homepage - which helps! I think I will find it hard to limit my time reading and will need to allot specific time so I don't end up net surfing!

PageFlakes is a home/start page that you can personalize and add RSS feeds to
When it was started in 2005 it was very customer focused - the company talked to their users and made their site very functionable in response. According to Phil Bradley, it started to go downhill after it was sold to Live Universive consortium in 2008. Bradley who was a very enthusiastic user of pageflakes prior to 2008, now recommends using another service like Netvibes or iGoogle. I have not had any problems (still a newbie so I can't tell!), but will keep that in mind just in case. I would recommend checking out NetVibes though. Both NetVibes and PageFlakes are great if you use other social networking tools like FaceBook or Twitter, which you can access from your home page.

So...my journey of professional development with blogs and Rss is just beginning. If you are interested in seeing what I am following - here is the link to my pageflake:

http://www.pageflakes.com/daroye/27410036. Happy reading!

References

Ferriter, B.. (2009). Learning with Blogs and Wikis. Educational Leadership, 66(5): 34-38.

Malopinsky, L., Kirkley, J., Stein, R. & Duffy, T. (2000). An Instructional Design Model for Online Problem Based Learning (PBL) Environments: The Learning to Teach with Technology Studio. Paper presented at the Association for Educational Communications and Technology Conference (AECT), October 26, 2000, Denver, Colorado. Retrieved August 10, 2009 from ltts.indiana.edu/about/aect_2000.doc

Twitter

2009-08-09T09:13:00.000-07:00

Frequent Bits of Information

Twitter reminds me of those F.B.I. or Secret Service agents you see in movies constantly speaking into their shoulder or wrist mics, sharing bits of information with all the other agents linked together wirelessly. Not a lot of information but just enough to provide a network of people with the information they need to do their job. These quick and instant updates tell others what is going on in the immediate vicinity of each sender and adds to collective picture of what they are working on (saving the next U.S president for example, though I am sure if we listen carefully we might also hear where they are going for lunch that day!). These messages may not be useful or make sense to anyone else who is able to tap in to the flow of communication and will be ignored.

In my brief exploration of twitter, I have viewed a number of "tweets" as these messages of 140 characters or less are called. Most of these I either: a) don't understand what they are talking about (talk about the ultimate experience of having something taken out of its context!) or b) have absolutely no interest in. As you might have picked up on, I have little interest in Twitter and am having a difficult time understanding its relevance to our world and to our classrooms. It seems like just more noise in an already chatter and information filled cyberworld. I am sure some of you reading this share my bewildermint with the popularity of this new form of chatroom!

Now that my bias is upfront and center, I will put it aside and make an honest attempt to look at how Twitter could be used for my own professional development as well as for use in the classroom (I teach a few courses at the college level).

What's the Twitter with Twitter?

Twitter was developed in 2006 byJack Dorsey and a small group of board members at Odeo, a podcasting company (Wikepedia) as a service for people to be able to instantly message each other (primarily internal to Odeo to begin with). Twitter became a combination of instant messaging and microblogging allowing people to connect with each other without having to be attached to a computer (the twitter application can be added to and accessed from our mobile phones). What makes it different from the text messaging we can do from our phones is our ability to communicate with people from all over the world at the same time.

You can follow other Twitter users (celebreties like Ashton Kutcher, Ellen deGeneres and Opray Winfrey being among those most followed) or be followed.

How Do People Use Twitter?

The most common use for twitter is for people to provide friends and families with social updates. People also use it as a form of microblogging and to find out what other people are up to (as followers).

At the DoshDosh Blog, they have compiled a list of 17 other ways to use Twitter:

1.Personal branding.
2. Getting feedback.
3. Hiring people (or getting a job).
4. A direct traffic. route to your website or blog.
5. Share or read news and find out about conferences.
6. Make new friends and connections outside of your usual group.
7. Network with others from the same industry and get testimonials or peer recommendations.
8. Use it as a ToDo list (though there are other online tools that do this as well like Remember The Milk.)
9. Business management as a company intranet connecting employees.
10. Businesses can notify their customers about new products, etc.
11. Take notes on ideas you want to explore latter with relevant links (the beauty of this is the ability to do it offline using your mobile).
12. Provide people with updates for events.
13. Find potential customers or clients.
14. Provide live coverage in real-time of an event (useful for citizen journalism). Other users will spread the message in a 'retweet'.
15. A time management and analysis tool.
16. Setting up impromtu meetings or informal gatherings.
17. Acquire votes.

A rather unique use of Twitter I found was in a hospital operating room where the doctors were tweeting progress and answering questions from the more than 1000 medical students following the procedure live - the ultimate teaching tool!

But do most people actually continue with twittering on an ongoing basis? According to research firm Nielson Online, 69% of twitter uses quit using Twitter after just one month of microblogging (Channel Web News).

The largest groups using Twitter are 18 - 24 year olds - the typical ages of my students in college (19% of users) and 25 - 34 year olds (20% of users) (Retrieved from http://www.infoblog.infopeople.org/2009/02/who-uses-twitter/). Suprisingly it is not the 17 and under age group who are using this social networking tool.

How might I use Twitter? The two most likely areas I would use Twitter for are professional development and in my teaching. I decided to explore Twitter for professional development first. Below is a good slideshare of the types of communication Twitter can be used for:

Why is the Fail Whale Smiling?

View more documents from Rodd Lucier.

What I struggled with at first was finding others to communicate with (sorry Ashton Kutcher and Paula Abdul...I really don't want to follow you!).

How to Find Other Teachers on Twitter (this slideshare is a good example of a mashup!)

I was happy to find this PB wiki that has a list of teachers you can follow on Twitter. They are organized into different categories to make it easy to find teachers who share the same interests as you.

I decided to follow 3 teachers from the e-learning category (just started today): @bbray, @coolcatteacher, @jsuzcampos. I decided to put out a question to see if I got any tweets. I'm not sure how you get responses...is it only people who choose to follow you or who you choose to follow who hear your tweets? If you tweet into cyberspace and there are no followers there...does anyone hear? Anyway, I said I was thinking about how to use twitter in the classroom, and jsuzcampos tweeted back with the link to 50 Ways to Use Twitter in the College Classroom . It wasn't until I added 3 people to follow that I received a response. So...maybe there is some use in twitter...I am still not sure! I still think there are better tools to use for professional development like blogs and wikis.

Using Twitter in Teaching

The largest share of twitter users are in the age group of the college students I teach and my second exploration was to look at how I could use twitter in the classroom. The following videos provide some ideas on how to use twitter in the classroom, including:

to build a sense of community among the students
as a collaboration tool
as a forum for asking questions with the ability to get answers immediately
to use as a place for classroom discussion (particularly for students who are too shy to speak up in class)
helps students to think outside of the classroom about what they learned in the classroom

Twitter for Teachers is a wiki that is being developed as an e-book for teachers on how to use twitter in the classroom. It has good information teachers can access if they are interested in incorportating twitter in their classrooms.

Students are already familiar with the technology of twitter - and are likely already twittering on their cell phones at the back of the class...can I harness that familiarity for learning? What would I use Twitter for? A few university professors have used Twitter in the classroom where students could use their computers or cell phones during class to add tweets on the classroom discussion which are then displayed on a screen in class. I liked that idea, however...the class size I teach is usually between 10 - 20 students (as opposed to the 96 students in the one university class). I'm not sure if it is needed in a small class, but I would need to try it first.

Here is a video of the Twitter Experiment at a post-secondary level:

One area I thought Twitter might have a practical use is when the students are out on practicum placements. Over the 2 year program, the students are sent out on two field placements for a number of weeks, only meeting as a class once a week during a seminar placement. Twitter would be able to provide a continuous and immediate link to both their fellow students and teacher. We would need to ensure first that all students had cell phones with the capability to add Twitter for no additional costs. The Twitter feed would need to be a private one so students could talk freely with out anyone else being able to access their tweets. I am not sure if they would need to have a separate twitter account for this.

So...are frequent bits of information necessary for a good learning experience? Probably not. Would the little bits of information add up to something that is larger than the sum of its parts? It might. I have heard a number of times that you have to experience Twitter to appreciate its power. With the other web 2.0 tools available that are more appealing to me...I am not sure this will be the first tool I try out in the classroom

2009-07-31T20:55:00.000-07:00

Is Social Networking a Modern Form of Alchemy?

Alchemy: a power or process of transforming something common into something special (definition from Merriam-webster online dictionary).

Wikipedia lists 154 social networking sites - from well known sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Ning to speciality sites like MOG for music, Muxlim – a Muslim lifestyle community and those that exist on the fringes of society like the gothic/industrial subculture in VampireFreaks...and this is not an exhaustive list.

Are these sites one person's modern version of the little black book and yet another's worst nightmare? We've all heard stories of educators being disciplined, or worse - fired for inappropriate postings on their MySpace or FaceBook sites. So...what's all the hype about social networking? Does it have any value outside of accumulating as many friends as you possibly can or being a space to let it all hang out? Biz Stone, one of the cofounders of Twitter, seems to think so. He has called these social networking tools a modern form of social alchemy – which he described as taking something worthless and turning it into something of value (PICNIC07 conference, panel discussion). According to Stone, "You can take a tweet that you think is meaningless, or valueless, like ‘I’m grabbing a beer at Logan Airport at Sam Adams Pub.’ Sure, it’s of little value, but if someone gets it in real time, and they say ‘I’m in Logan Airport, I’ll meet Biz for a beer, we’ll come up with an idea for a company, and it’ll become hugely successful,’ you’ve turned that lead into gold” (quoted in The Wall Street Journal Blogs, May 27, 2009).

So...why have we deemed these tools - used primarily for social and entertainment purposes - worthless - and do they have real value...particularly in the realm of education?

I must admit...I have been a reluctant online social network user. Not that I don't believe in social networking - in the real world! In fact, increasing one's social capital or social network give us a sense of belonging and well-being. Can this happen in an online community as well? How do we measure the worth of online social networking? Here are are a few things I considered in my quest to find the "special" in social networking tools:

First, I needed to clear the clutter from my evaluation of social networking sites. Pokes, hugs, bumper stickers and the writing on walls can distract us from seeing the value in online social networking - both for our own personal lives as well as in our work as educators. I do have a FaceBook page (more about that later) and share Julian Smith's list of 25 things he hates about FaceBook...

Secondly, I needed look at the balance of life online with life offline - virtual world versus real world. I needed to face up to my bias that there can be too much of a digital thing...and can we really, should we really be communicating with our "friends" primarily through a digital medium? Is my fear that social networking sites have pre-empted getting out in the real world and meeting with people face to face real or imaginary? This next clip illustrates my concern that the virtual world can consume some people's lives...

The third thing I did was to consider that there may be some merit in social networking by opening my mind to the opinions of those who do find value in them...

Social networks give us the opportunity to connect with old friends with whom we've lost touch and new friends that we would otherwise never meet. In a study by Ellison, Steinfield and Lampe (2007) they found that college students used Facebook primarily to "keep in touch with old friends and to maintain or intensify relationships characterized by some form of offline connection such as dormitory proximity or a shared class" (paragraph 42). Facebook helped students to maintain their relationships with people as they moved from "one offline community to another" (paragraph 51). Ellison et.al. (2007) was able to link a strong usage of Facebook with social capital, particularly that which keeps people loosely connected to each other. They suggest that these connections (social captial) could be used to gain future opportunities such as jobs and interships. Rather than keeping people from their real lives (as I feared), online communities may actually help to keep people in contact with friends and family even as life moves people apart in physical distance. Accoring to Ellison et.al "this use of technology could [also] support a variety of populations, including professional researchers, neighborhood and community members, employees of companies, or others who benefit from maintained ties" (paragraph 52).

And last, I looked at some of the critical issues faced by using social networking web 2.0 tools - and some practical advice for bringing them into the classroom.

With any web 2.0 tool internet safety, age-appropriate exposure and online behavior of students are a concern. Fodeman & Monroe (2009) identified a number of issues that have a negative impact on the social well-being of young people:

younger children using sites like FaceBook that have a lot of adult content that they are not old enough to be exposed to
social networking online is time-consuming and means you are always "on" when it comes to your social life. Students need to have some down time where they can disengage from the pressures of social life
there is a false sense of privacy on the internet and students really don't understand how serious the consequences can be if they post inappropriate content about themselves or others
"screens act as a moral disconnect for many of our students" (p. 39) and normalizes behavior online that is mean and harassing to others.
it becomes easier to 'break up' or deal with difficult situations online which has a negative impact on their ability to communicate
relationships are built and friends are made online instead of in the real world
having 200 - 500 online friends is really shifting the meaning of the word 'friend' as we know it

Are these concerns enough for us to close the doors on technology? Whether we like it or not folks, technology is here to stay. Farr ( 2009) argues that students already have access to technology in their homes and we shouldn't be forcing them into a time warp of no technology when they enter the hallways of our schools. Instead of fighting against certain technologies (yes, we are beyond PowerPoint!), educators should be teaching students to use technology in a safe and responsible manner. It isn't just teens and young adults using social networking tools either. Abram (2007) advises us to begin teaching online social literacy young as more and more elementary (and younger) aged children are engaged in online social networking with site like Webkinz and Club Penguin. FaceBook is one of the two most popular sites for grades 4 - 12 students (Fodeman & Monroe, 2009).

With any new technology comes fear (Farr reminds his readers of what happened when calculators were first introduced in schools). He believes our problem with these technologies is our fear of losing control in the classroom. Using technology doesn't mean having unrestricted access to it. We can promote the use of technology in ways that benefit our students' education by teaching them how to explore information and gain new knowledge. At the same time we can teach about the dangers as well by introducing protocols for safety online and 'netiquette' for proper behavior. Abram (2002) suggests we teach children early to use critical thinking when it comes to privacy and sharing their identities online by using scaffolding. We can build awareness of identity information beginning in kindergarten and early elementary when students are learning bits of information like their name, weight, height, etc. and what to share when and with whom.
Abram (2007) warns “schools that block social sites rather than taking advantage of a teachable moment are missing something” (p.3)...as we all know – kids don’t stop doing something just because we adults tell them to…they just take it underground where we can't see them doing it.
So we need to become comfortable as educators with social networking ourselves and see the value in using these tools if we are to help our students use them effectively for learning.

Becoming a Social Alchemist

The key in successfully using social networking tools in our teaching is to find the value in them at a time when teachers are still being warned of the dangers of using social networking sites themselves. According to Kist (2008), preservice teachers (most of whom are in their early twenties) are ignoring these warnings and continuing to use FaceBook, MySpace and blogging. They have found the value in these tools and use them to keep in touch with family and friends, organize events and plan their schedules, and meet others who have similar interests (through online groups). Perhaps we should start with our colleagues who are digital natives and have them share their 'magic' for turning 'lead into gold'.

If you jump too enthusiastically on the social networking bandwagon, Levit (2009) has some tips to deal with the overload:

1. Ask yourself why you joined each site - is there a real purpose to it or did you join just because someone asked you to be their 'friend'?
2. Consider what that purpose is - what do you value about that site? Limit your activity on that site to the purpose and avoid duplication.
3. Create boundaries between your social networks like using FaceBook for your family and friends and LinkedIn for business.
4. Communicate your plan - let people in your circle know what you are using each site for so you don't have to feel bad if you need to turn down a request to join your page.
5. Use your privacy settings so you don't overstep your boundaries.

Am I Feeling the Magic Yet? Hmmmm...I'm cracking a bit and seeing flecks of gold! I have had a FaceBook site for over a year. It all started out quite innocently as a quest for knowledge! A number of my colleagues from various organizations wanted to try an online book club for a professional book we wanted to read. A younger member of our group (one of those digital natives!) suggested we use FaceBook as it was a really easy way to do this. So...we all signed up (somewhat reluctantly). Okay...I never did read that book and no...FaceBook did not really work for us as our online bookclub (with my new knowledge, I am sure I could come up with a better alternative now!). However, I have used it for the usual reasons...finding old friends and maintaining contact with those who no longer are close enough to visit. I do enjoy reading the walls of friends (it is rather voyeuristic and funny, though harmless in content!) and I like to see the pictures people post. So, for me, it has turned into a very small slice of how I keep connected to some of my social network.

It does have its downside as well. I occasionally get friend requests that I do not want. I have had a request from a stranger in Brazil, students I have taught, and people with disabilities that I know through my contact with them in my professional life (I have chosen to ignore these requests). I also get requests to join causes, play games, birthday requests, smile requests....(again - ignore is my strategy). I also get friend suggestions from FaceBook (what???I don't even know these people!).

Have I seen any educational benefits to FaceBook? Well, I did join a group on FaceBook created by one of my classmates for this course. Unfortunately, I can't find the group on my page! Truthfully, I am not sure I would use this application in my work as an instructor. I prefer to keep my personal life somewhat separate from my professional life (though I do have colleagues on my FaceBook, but I consider them friends too). I don't see any feature on FaceBook that I could not get through another web 2.0 too. I find FaceBook a bit too casual, personal and intimate for it to be an effective teaching/learning medium.

I explored one more social networking tool to see if it would be a better choice in my work...and it was! I had heard a few positive things about Ning...so I checked it out. I found 2 ning groups that I joined right away. The first was Classroom 2.0 - a ning site for educators interested in web 2.0 and collaborative technologies in education. I don't have time right away, but I will joing the beginners group on that ning. I was thrilled to find the second ning group on person centered planning. I had actually come across this group accidentally a number of months ago and then forgot about it. When I started this course, I tried to find it, but couldn't remember if it was a blog, wiki, or something else. The opportunity to connect with and have a network of other professionals across North America who are all interested in this area is going to be amazing! I am looking forward to checking it out further. This is a ning I could also direct interested students to.

So...how will I use social networking tools with my students? I am not sure if I will. We use Blackboard at the college and have discussion boards for both first and second year students, so I am not sure there would be a desire to switch to something else for the social networking piece. I would consider using a ning for a group...but I am not familiar enough yet with the tool to know if it would be a better choice than a wiki...or is it just a different model of the same sort of application? One thing I have to seriously consider are the potential benefits to using social networking tools that students may already be comfortable with before I make any decisions to dismiss or try out a new tool. Will teaching on their turf motivate them to be more actively engaged in the learning process?

There are many tools available to us and I will need to sift through all my little pieces of lead before I decide which ones to turn to gold!

References

Abram, S. (2007). Scaffolding the new social literacies. Multimedia and Internet @ Schools. Mar/Apr 2008 issue. Retrieved July 30, 2009 from http://www.sirsidynix.com/Resources/Pdfs/Company/Abram/MMIS_23.pdf

Ellison, N. B., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C. (2007). The benefits of Facebook "friends:" Social capital and college students' use of online social network sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(4), article 1. Retrieved July 31, 2009 from: http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue4/ellison.html

Farr, F. (2009). Mad magazine to facebook: What have we learned? Teacher Librarian 36(5): 30 – 32

Fodeman, D. & Monroe, M. (2009). The impact of facebook on our students. Teacher Librarian 36(5): 36 – 42.

Kist, W. (2008). “I gave up myspace for lent”: New teachers and social networking sites. Journal of Adolescence & Adult Literacy 52(3): 245-247.

Levit, A. (2009). How to: Deal with social networking overload Levit, A. Retrieved July 30, 2009 from http://mashable.com/2009/07/30/social-networking-overload/

Messing Around with Multimedia

2009-07-29T21:11:00.000-07:00

Interested in making your own videos complete with music at the touch of a button? Want to tell a story digitally ? Better still…interested in getting students motivated to learn? Try multimedia sharing…its sure to peak some interest...and it's so much fun they won't even know they are learning!

Multimedia sharing is also know as mashups - described by McPherson (2008) as "applications [that] combine and integrate information from two or more sources into one new information form" (p.73). An example many of us are familiar with are Google Maps that have information from other data sources like web cams and photos.

In this blog I will explore two other multimedia tools that are gaining in popularity and have great potential for the classroom - Animoto and Voicethread.

Animoto

Animoto is an intuitive, free web 2.0 tool that produces "killer video" from your pictures..."fast, free, shockingly easy" (from their homepage). It was designed by film and television industry experts and publicly launched in August 2007. The results are quite stunning with visual effects that look like the music videos you would see on MTV.

The application does all the animation for you and if you don't like it, you can remix it. Since it is so easy to do with little skill on the part of the user, some people think it misses the boat on inspiring creativity and higher order thinking (Valenza, 2008). But for a fun and easy way to make videos online to share, it can't be beat. Animoto videos are great for grabbing attention, make effective public relations videos, can be used to capture an event or showcase student work.

The process of creating a video is a simple one:

1. select your images, from your computer or another location like Picasa on the web.
2. arrange your photos in the order you want, choosing some of them to be hightlighted in the video if you want. At this stage you can also add text.
3. select your music - your own or from the copyright free selections they have on the Animoto site.
4. click the finalize button.

After these steps are done, you can view your video and make changes if you want. With a simple click of the remix button, the program will provide you with a different arrangement. At this stage you can also choose to share your creation with others.

Some of the advantages of using Animoto with students are:

it attract students because it is a fresh and fun application (much more so than PowerPoint) and engages them over time because it is easy to use with a minimal of frustration and each project is always unique
good for auditory and visual learners
provides access to Creative Commons audio and images
in telling powerful stories, it helps move students literacy concepts beyond reading/writing

Of course, everything also comes with a few disadvantages and Animoto is no different:

because it is web-based, it relies on a good connection and that isn't always available (as I have experienced in the last 2 days!)
the application is still fairly new, so there isn't a lot of buzz out there on how it is being used in schools
users are limited in how they can refine their video
the free version of Animoto allows you to create videos that are a maximum of 30 seconds long (which is about 12 - 15 pictures).

And since it is rather addicting...I can see myself paying for the upgrade to full length videos. It is reasonably priced at $30 for a year. Educators can get a pro subscription for free by filling in a simple application.

Trying it Out. Animoto was easy to use, fast...hmmmm...I think you need a faster and more reliable internet connection than I currently have on my vacation! All-in-all it was an easy process...I was able to upload pictures from my Picasa, add text, change the order, choose music from the animoto collection and voila! A real cool little video! Now, trying to get it onto my blog was another issue. I was able to easily load it to my Facebook, but no matter how I tried, I couldn't get it embedded in my blog. Animoto has a simple process to do this...just copy the html code and paste...but it wouldn't work. Finally, I decided to export my video to my YouTube site and copy and paste the YouTube code into the blog.

So...here is my first attempt at creating a video, using the pictures I had posted on Picasa for our picture sharing blog.

Using Animoto in My Work. I can think of a few ways I could use Animoto in my work. I do think I have to be careful that I use it effectively and with discretion...only because I really liked using it and it would be easy to use it because it is fun, even if it isn't really adding to the learning. One of the assignments first year students have to do is a portfolio of themselves - who they are as a person...their likes, gifts, talents, etc. This is in preparation for being able to understand all of those facets in the people with disabilties they will eventually work with. Many of them already are using photos and making scrapbooks...Animoto would be a great way to complete this assignment...and it is always more powerful with music I think.

I could also create a video with pictures of people with disabilities - one of people actively engaged in their communities, and one of people in institutions (there is an old photo essay - Christmas in Purgatory - that I could use). These videos could be used to initiative a discussion around the feelings each of the videos envoked in them.

I could also use this in my work with our learning community. We put together a book a few years ago that told stories of people with disabilities in Edmonton - written by many local and well-know authors. With each story came a black and white photo of the subject of the story...it is a powerful collection that would be even more powerful in video form. I tried to import the pictures into my Picasa...but I could not get it figured out tonight. If I do, I may share it on my blog as the pictures are great.

This tool has many other applications in K - 12. For more ideas, visit the Classroom 2.0 ning. I could see using it to record a school trip to Paris, for a memento for students as well as for sharing with others.

Using Voicethread

Voicethread is a multimedia slideshow that can hold images, documents and videos that people can then comment on. Comments can be left in one of five ways: voice comments using a microphone or telephone, text, audio file or video. In the voicethreads I looked at, voice comments and text comments seem to be the most popular. With voicethread, students are able to hold asynchronistic discussions, guided by their teacher who can post a question to explore. At first glance, I was not sure about the usefulness of this tool, but after viewing a number of voice threads, I think it is another awesome tool that I need to explore more!

As with many of these web 2.0 tools, there are lots of personal uses as well as educational uses. I looked at a number of voicethreads where people used old family photos so family members could tell a story about the person/people. It is a good story telling tool. It is a great way to collect a group discussion among people from many walks of live all over the world. Again, as with any web 2.0 tool, it is important to make sure this tool is right for the project rather than being carried away by the bells and whistles of the tool. Voicethread is a tool that encourages collaboration, discussion and thoughtful reponses from students. As a teacher, it is important to carefully plan your voicethread to encourage this sort of resp0nse (Best Practices, Voicethread4education.wikispaces).

Just a few of the ways voicethread can be used in the classroom:

debates
creative storytelling
visual literacy
reflective practice
critiques of artwork
oral histories

According to Ferriter (in Weir, 2008), voicethreads can benefit students who may be too timid to speak out in class, but will actively participate in a voicethread. The asynchronistic nature allows students to take their time before responding. He also found that students liked the fact that there were more than one discussion going on that they could participate in - it didn't get boring.

Bomar (2009) found her students were comfortable with creating online content, but found it difficult to do so with an academic focus and tone. She used voicethread as a project in which she had the students doing research prior to reading a book that historically had not been well received in past. They all reported that they enjoyed the project, loved using voicethread...and...there were no complaints about reading the book!

Here is a short video on how voicethread could be used in the classroom.

Using Voicethread in the Edublogosphere

Using Voicethread in my Work. I can also see myself using voicethread in my work, particularly with distance students. There are a number of activities/assignments that could effectively fit into a voicethread, even for my inclass students. I could present different types of plans for people and have students comment on them. This example below is an activity I typically do in-class that I will try using voicethread.

So...my experience with multimedia ends for now...I have experienced all the glitches possible in doing today's blog...which has given me a renewed appreciation for a reliable computer with a reliable connection! Something to keep in mind when using these tools with our students!

References

Bomar, S.. (2009). A pre-reading voicethread: Death comes for the archbishop. Knowledge Quest, 37(4): 26-27. Retrieved July 29, 2009, from ProQuest Education Journals.

McPherson, K.. (2008). mashing literacy. Teacher Librarian, 35(5), 73-75. Retrieved July 30, 2009, from ProQuest Education Journals

Valenza, J. (2008). Announcing: animoto for education. School Library Journal. Retrieved July 29, 2009 from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1340000334/post/1560024356.html

Weir, L. (2008). VoiceThread extends the classroom with interactive multimedia albums. Edutopia. Retrieved July 30, 2009 from http://www.edutopia.org/voicethread-interactive-multimedia-albums

Wikis are Wonderful!

2009-07-23T23:06:00.001-07:00

Have you ever tried to collaborate with a group of students, colleagues or friends on a project? Getting everyone together in person, by phone or email can be a daunting task...and who is responsible for what piece of the project...and how do you provide each other with timely feedback?

Looking for curriculum ideas for that grade seven social curriculum you are teaching for the first time this year?

Do you struggle to find meaningful professional development opportunities that would provide you with a wealth of new ideas that you could make use of in your teaching? Or would you just like to browse, in one spot, a vast collection of travel information - first hand - from real travelers instead of a slick marketing brochure...

...Enter the wonderful world of wikis!
Wikis - one of the web 2.0 tools to hit the virtual world in the late 1990's can help you with all of the above and more!

What in the world is a wiki? The word wiki comes from the Hawaiian word (wiki-wiki ) for fast (Clyde, 2005). You have probably heard of or even used the most well known wiki in the world - Wikipedia - started in 2001 by Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales (Clyde, 2005) with more than 75,000 active contributors today. It is known as the world's biggest encyclopedia and boasts on its home page of having more than 2,963,000 articles in English alone.

Wikis have a number of features that make them stand out from other web sites. Wikis :

are a "collection of web pages that are linked to each other, and reflect the collaborative works of many authors" (Beldarrain, 2006, p. 142)
are specifically designed for collaboration among multiple users
are editable by anyone who is a registered user
keep track of the history of edits with the ability to revert back to an earlier version
require little technical skill to master as many of them use WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editing much like a word processor and doesn't require knowledge of HTML code
are always a work in progress
have discussion boards for each page, allowing users to have conversations about their work on the wiki (Clyde, 2005, Ferriter, 2009, Robinson, 2006).

Who uses wikis? Wikis are used in every area of life by ordinary citizens, corporations like Disney and Sony, universities and colleges, cities, project teams, businesses and teachers (Richardson, 2008). There has been a big increase in the educational use of wikis since 2004 (Robinson, 2006).

What do people use wikis for? Wikis can be used for:

Coordinating activities with a group
Online brainstorming
Sharing ideas and resources
Collaborating on projects or lesson plans
Fostering social interaction from a distance
Creating a repository of knowledge about a specific topic
Building courseware
Providing feedback through peer review on development of a paper or project

Educational uses for wikis include teacher use for professional development, colloborating on lesson plans and sharing practical resources. In the classroom wikis can be used with students to promote learner controlled construction of knowledge (Beldarrain, 2006). The possibilities are endless. At SmartTeaching.org they have developed a list of 50 ways to use wikis for a more collaborative and interactive classroom including ideas for resource creation, student participation, group projects, student interaction, ideas specific to your class, and for sharing with the community.

I looked at a number of wikis that illustrate how they can be used by educators.

Wikis can be a warehouse for material for teachers who work in the same content area.
Teaching is a time consuming and labour intensive effort and requires lesson planning that moves beyond what is provided in a text or formal curriculm. Individually a teacher is limited to how much planning and research can be done in the course of a day or a week. Most teachers would love to have access to the materials their colleagues have developed and with wikis, this is possible.

The CESA 5 Math-Science Partnership wikispace is one of these warehouses. It includes reports on research findings, assessment information, and presentations for math and science from K to grade 12. There are links to other web sites for math resources (many are completely free, like math templates) that are organized into groups for K - 5, grades 5 - 8 and 9 - 12. Some of these links included a Math Glossary for grades 1 - 8 and Mathworld - the world's most extensive math resource. This wiki is a virtual goldmine for math teachers! Though most of the links I explored were active, there were occasionally a few that were gone. This wiki has recent activity on it, but when a wiki is large it becomes more difficult to stay on top of everthing.

Wikis can be used to create a classroom text by the entire class of students. This is a collaborative way to research, learn and collect knowledge in one comprehensive site.

The Anatowiki is a very comprehensive collection of resources and content (divided into units) on the human anatomy for anatomy students, teachers, or anyone interested in knowing more about the anatomy. I don't think this site is intended for elementary students - one of the set of lab notes I downloaded to look at made mention of using cadavers! Another caution - there are a number of graphic photos on the site showing real pictures of body organs. This wiki has everything you would need to know on human anatomy and is presented in downloaded lab notes, videos, diagrams and photos, recorded lectures and links to outside resources. It's a remarkable effort with 442 listed members!

Wikis can be used to create lesson plans. Bowllan (2008) describes a wiki she developed specifically for a grade 5 novel (for a friend who was using this book in her classroom) which includes lesson plans. She decided to do this as a wiki because it could be edited and added to by students as well as teachers. As a wiki, it provides students with the opportunity to go beyond the book in their learning.

The Mzungu Boy wiki includes questions for each chapter, vocabularly (with links to an online dictionary), a recipe for ugali (a Kenyan dish described in the book), and videos of African life. This wiki is a great start, but unfortunately, it does not look like it has been used as intended. There are only 4 users, one of which is the creator of the wiki. Bowllan decided to create this wiki for her friend to use, but it is unknown whether she used the book as intended or what her comfort level was with this technology. Many teachers do not use a lot of technology in their classrooms. Though the impact of its use can be very positive for learning, a lack of experience may negatively influence educators' openness to introducing it to students.

Wikis can be used for professional development. This was the use that interested me the most for two reasons...1. It is hard to find good professional development when you need it and 2. Collaborative learning in teams (communities of practice) is important in workplace learning. Ferriter (2009) suggests that the digital tools we now have available to use provide new portals for learning and observed that he has "found a group of writers [on the web] who expose me to more ideas in one day than I've been exposed to in the past 10 years of costly professional development" (p. 35). As a digital immigrant, I am still learning my way through the technical side of Web 2.0 tools and have just begun to scratch the surface of how to use them in my teaching and work. Besides this course, I have limited access to any professional development in this area. So...I will be making use of a few of the great wikis I have come across to help me in my learning. Here are two of them:

Webtools4u2use Wiki was one of my favorites. It has great resources linked to other sites, is well organized and easy to navigate. The front page has a table of contents and is quite visually appealing and worth a look. It was developed with Glogster - a tool that mixes graphics, photos, videos, music and text into "Glogs" (sort of like an interactive poster...very cool!) . Each web 2.0 tool (e.g. podcasting, blogging, wikkis, etc.) has it's own page with links to other resources and a page with ideas for using the tool in the classroom and libraries. There is a quiz you can take on How Well Do You Know Web 2.0 Tools which is a great demonstration of another tool - MyStudiyo - an online quiz creator - very fun!

Digitally Speaking is another wiki that introduces web 2.0 tools to users. The pages include "practical examples of how educators can make digital dialogue a real part of their classroom instruction" (from the home page). This wiki also includes some VoiceThread presentations (audio) by Bill Ferriter. This wiki is worth bookmarking and visiting...I wish I would have read the pages on blogging before I set up my blog!

Want to Wiki? Are you ready to set up your own wiki? Before you do, I strongly suggest visiting at least the last 2 wikis I mentioned and reading up on wikis first. Though you can set up a wiki on a server (this does require more than basic computer skills), most of us will access what is called a WikiFarm - these are servers that run wiki engines as a service for free or for a fee. All of the wikis I have shared on my blog were developed with one of the three following wiki resources:

WikiSpaces offers free wikis for K - 12 education. If this doesn't apply to you, you are still able to get a basic subscription for free. The only downside to this is you will have ads on your wiki. I have found this distracting when I have visited wikis to the extent that I would be willing to pay the $50 a year fee to have no ads. This is the wiki resource I chose to use for my wiki. Webtools4u2use wiki was created with this.

PBWorks is the new incarnation of PBWiki. I'm not sure why they changed the name. They also have a basic edition for free and unlike WikiSpaces, there are no ads. The look is much more basic (no templates available). Digitally Speaking wiki was created with PBWorks.

Wetpaint wiki is the one I am least familiar with. Like WikiSpaces, it is free but has ads. For a fee of $19.95 per month (more expensive than WikiSpaces), ads are removed. They also offer no ads (at no cost) to educators. This site seems to be more of a social networking site than the other two do. The home page seems very Hollywood...there are a number of entertainment (television and movie) wikis advertised.

Oh...(W)one More Wiki! I came across a wiki that I really needed to find! I was wondering recently how could I find good edublogs to read and subscribe to...I have just been stumbling upon them. So in my digital travels this weekend I found the SupportBloggingWiki - a wiki that gives students, teachers, administrators, parents, and others [the opportunity] to help promote an understanding of the benefits of educational blogging (from the homepage). If you click on their logo below, it will take you to the wiki. Its a great place to find some great blogs!

Wiki Woes. Though wikis have "great potential for promoting online and offline collaboration and for disseminating research and practical resources among educators (Knobel & Lankshear, 2009, p. 631), they have not yet been embraced in the same way blogs have been. Wiki success depends upon everyone doing their part and working collaboratively. Unfortunately not everyon is good at or likes to work with others. Some people are not very good at communicating their ideas.

Clyde (2005) suggests another issue with wikis - that of information literacy. Students need to learn how to evaluate information and knowledge found in an open source like a wiki.

Wikis also need to be treated as works in progress and kept up to date. When this doesn't happen users experience information that is not current, empty pages or links that no longer exist. Wikis aren't always easy to find on the web. I found two wiki indexes that can help - http://wikiindex.org/ and http://www.wiki.com/.

Whether a group of colleagues or a group of students, it would be wise to set out tasks, expectations and timelines from the start (for a wiki project) and make use of each member's strengths (for editing, researching, video uploading, etc.). For a teacher collaboration, Ferriter (2009) suggests:

Dividing the topic(s) into sections/subsections
Assigning sections according to area of interest/expertise
Generating key ideas, links to outside resources, upload documents, imbed video
Letting those who are good writers do the final polish of writings
Leaving editing to those who are particular about good spelling and grammar

My Wiki Experience will require some further thought and learning. I thought I would try to set up a wiki primarily for use with my college students. I chose Wikispaces because of its features: WYSIWYG editor, Subdomain support, RSS support, Blog import integrated with Blogger.com and Typepad, and customized themes. To be honest though, I liked the way the wikispaces wikis looked! There was a walk through tutorial on the site which made it pretty easy to use. I had a minor problem in choosing the name - I didn't realize the no spaces rule.
I found the pages easy to edit, just like using Microsoft Word. As I am setting this up with a certain course in mind, I chose a protected wiki that only members can edit, but everyone can see. Completely private wikis are not free. As the organizer…I can invite people, delete pages, and change the look of the wiki. Since I am not paying for this, I have the basic subscription with google ads on the side…though once I created a page and saw the ads - I did not like itand thought it would be better to pay $50 per year for no ads. As a college instructor, I don't qualify for the free education offer of no ads. However, I was able to "test" the upgrade for free for 30 days, so if you visit my wiki, there won't be ads - for now! My wiki has a history tab…I can see what changes have been made and revert back to an older version if I choose. I can also be notified of changes through email or RSS feed. As an organizer I can lock a page so only organizers (myself for now) can change it. I can also delete the wiki if I choose to.

It did take me a few hours to play around with the wiki and get a bit of content up. I am not completely sure how I will use it yet...I think there are a number of possibilities.

Right now I use Blackboard to post any class materials and resources. With the wiki I can better organize information onto pages and include video. I would like to add VoiceThread to my powerpoints and have them available as well. Besides using this for a place to park all my course content students need, I think this could have a collaborative component. One of the assignments involves researching a number of planning tools...this is something the students could do together in groups with each tool having its own page. Some pages would need to be deleted when a new class began (if I was to use it as an assignment) and others could be built on. I am realizing the time that this will take to think through the curriculum and also to better understand the potential of wikis. But that's what its all about...wikis are a work in progress!

My wiki is called PersonCenteredPlanningWiki - feel free to have a look!

Just for Fun! Try these wikis when you have some time to play! Click on the pictures for the link.

WikiTravel WikiBooks

References

Beldarrain, Y. (2006). Distance education trends: Integrating new technologies to foster student interaction and collaboration. Distance education, 27(2): 139 - 153.

Bowllan, A. (2008). A wiki gives a book a worthy life. School Library Journal. Retrieved July 23, 2009 from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6590061.html

Clyde, L.A. (2005). wikis. Teacher Librarian, 32(4): 54-56,67.

Ferriter, B.. (2009). Learning with Blogs and Wikis. Educational Leadership, 66(5): 34-38.

Knobel, M. & Lankshear, C. (2009). Wikis, digital literacies, and professional growth. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 52(7): 631-634

Richardson, W. (2008). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. (Second Edition.) Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwinn Press.

Robinson, M. (2006). Wikis in education: social construction as learning. The Community College Enterprise, 12(2): 107-109.

Virtually There!

2009-07-21T22:24:00.000-07:00

How does going to the library in your favorite pyjamas and fuzzy slippers, cup of steaming coffee in hand sound? Think you'll get odd stares? Think again! You can now "go" to the library without leaving the comfort of your home...a few clicks of your mouse (computer that is)...and you are virtually there! That's right...the virtual library (or libraries...there are tons of them) is no farther than your home computer down the hall.

What is a Virtual Library?

Digital libraries emerged in the mid-1990's (Saracevic, 2009) and since then the terms digital and virtual libraries have been used interchangeably. According to Wikipedia (paragraph 3) the term virtual "is now primarily used for libraries that are virtual in other senses (such as libraries which aggregate distributed content)". Basically, this means a virtual rather than a physical space where information and resources are collected and organized from a number of sources. According to Gunn (2002) these resources come in a number of formats besides print - including audio and video. Many libraries, including school and public libraries now combine both a physical and a virtual space for their users. But it isn't just our traditional libraries that have gotten in on the act. There is a wide range of other organizations that have started and maintain digital libraries including museums, government organizations, non-profits and so on (Saracevic, 2009) utilized by many different users for a diversity of reasons.

What's Great About Virtual Libraries?

Gunn (2002) identified the ability of virtual libraries to "break down the physical barriers between users and information sources" (p. 3). One example of creating a digital library for a very specific group of users is the DAISY consortium - a worldwide initiative to move from an analog to fully digital services for people who have visual impairments. This is a great effort to ensure equal access to information and knowledge to a group of people who have largely been socially excluded from print (Tank & Frederiksen, 2007).

I think the virtual nature of libraries can also spark a motivation to learn in our students who are digital natives and comfortable with the tools of technology. Because virtual libraries combine a wide variety of resources in many formats, they add depth and richness to the learning experience that paper and lecture does not. I have visited (and bookmarked for my children!) a number of digital libraries identified by Mardis & Payo (2007) that could enhance the learning environment in science for students:

National Science Foundation - online library of science, technology, engineering and mathematics education and research (free)
Cornell Lab of Ornithology - mulitmedia-rich tools, information and research on the study of birds (free)
eSkeletons Project - provides virtual access to primate bone specimens (free)
Fun Works -helps students identify their academic strengths and link them to interesting professions (free)

Optics for Kids - visual images and activities related to science of light (free)

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives - demonstrates math concepts visually using math manipulatives and interactives (download free trial desktop version)

These are good examples of learning opportunities, many of which are informal that just would not be possible in a physical school library (Wargo, 2009). Many libraries also digitally preserve artificats like historical picture collections that most people would not normally be able to view. The New York Public Library is a fabulous example of a library with an extensive collection of historical material, much of which is available to access without a library card. Unfortunately, some of their resources require a library card - an experience I came across a number of times when browsing virtual libraries online.

Virtual libraries don't come without their problems. Gunn (2002) identified a few concerns that seven years later are still valid. In order to use virtual libraries people need to be able to connect - they literally need an internet connection and access to a computer (not everyone does) and the skills to access information in a digital environment. Also, these libraries do not create themselves - they require skilled professionals to develop and maintain them and to act as a resource for users to guide them through the process of accessing information. When not properly maintained, the user can find themselves clicking on a link that is broken and no longer in use. I experienced this a few times, primarily with The WWW Virtual Library - the oldest catalogue of the web started by Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of HtmL. There were a number of pages no longer in existence, likely because it relies on volunteers to maintain them.

Using a Virtual Library with College Students - an Example

In January I will be teaching a course on Advocacy to students in the Disability Studies Program and I will be directing students to a virtual library called The Disability History Museum. It has a digital archive of "images, texts, and other artificats related to disability history that have been gathered from libraries and private collections across the country" and is only available online. One of these texts is called "Christmas in Purgatory", a historical visual text by Burton Blatt that exposed life in an institution in the 1960's and the inhuman treatment of people with disabilities that occurred within its walls. I plan to direct students to this and other content of the library so they can see the images and read the stories of what life would have been like in an institution - this will add a different perspective to our discussions on advocacy.

In the forward to the book Seymour Sarason of Yale University illustrates why virtual libraries are so important. He wrote:

"It would have been immoral, or at least an adverse commentary on our societal values, if Christmas In Purgatory was allowed to be available only in libraries (those which had copies). For one thing, this was an historic document. It was extraordinarily "profitable" in terms of its international influence on thinking, values, practices, and planning...it was a simple, easily grasped, compelling, upsetting visual document which stood as a reminder of what existed in our society, and as a criterion by which to judge any derivative of our propensity to segregate people who are or look "different." Precisely because institutional purgatories exist today and will continue to exist for the foreseeable future, Christmas In Purgatory should continue to be available. We should be grateful that it will be (p. iii)."

References
Blatt, B. & Kaplan, F. (1974) Christmas in Purgatory. http://www.disabilitymuseum.org/lib/docs/1782.htm?page=print

Gunn, H. (2002). Virtual libraries supporting student learning. Retrieved July 22, 2009 from http://www.accesswave.ca/~hgunn/special/papers/virlib/index.html

Mardis, M. A. & Payo, R.P. (2007). Making the school library sticky: Digital libraries build the teacher-librarians' strategic implementation content knowledge in science. Teacher Librarian 34(5): 8 - 14.

Saracevic,.T. (in print, 2009). Information science. In: Marcia J. Bates and Mary Niles Maack, Eds. Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science. New York: Taylor & Francis retrieved July 22, 2009 from http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/~tefko/articles.htm

Tank, E. & Frederiksen, C. (2007). The DAISY standard: Entering the global virtual library. Library Trends 55(4): 932-949.

Wargo, S. (2009). Virtual libraries are teaching treasures. Retrieved July 22, 2009 from http://www.edutopia.org/print/6216

Remember the Record Button! Podcasting for Dummies!

2009-07-18T09:57:00.001-07:00

I have listened to podcasts, I even have a head-set and microphone for Skyping. This will be easy I thought! I downloaded the Audacity program suggested by Will Richardson in his book and...that's where I hit the wall. I opened the program and had absolutely no idea what to do next. How do I record??? I started to speak into the mic and nothing happened. I looked at the Audacity tutorials...still couldn't figure it out. I went to YouTube and watched a video...still nothing. Okay, I thought - this is one assignment I can't do...I will just have to blog about my incompetence and how you need to be a techi to use some of these Web 2.0 tools. I was getting MAD! I don't have enough time to figure out this tool, podcast and blog (with some research in there too) by Monday morning. Then...I thought I would try just one more YouTube video...maybe the answer would be in there. Here is that video...it is a great first introduction to podcasting...

Just a few seconds into the video...voila! Nobody told me about the record button! Heh...this isn't so hard...its like using my old tape cassette recorder...it has a record button as well! So...back into Audacity...push the record button...and I'm on my way. Of course, my first recording was just shrieks of glee when I realized this was working and I wouldn't have to be muddling my way through this all weekend...or will I? Recording is just the first step - hmmmm.....

My First (and last??) Podcast is Done...Now What??

I thought I would make this a practical exercise for me. I am teaching a course on person-centered planning for a few college students taking the course through distance learning. One of the assignments involves learning how to do graphic facilitation as a planning tool. One of the learning activities is for students to get comfortable with using graphics to record information. In class, I read a story aloud - Stone Soup - while students graphically illustrate the main themes of the story. For distance students I have suggested they have someone read the story to them (a version of the book is available online on the Tamarack Community web site and could be read aloud from this site). So...I decided to read the story on a podcast and provide it to distance students as an alternative to use in this assignment.

The recording went fine...stumbled on a few words...changed a few word, but other than that no major problems (my dogs didn't even bark!). My headset/mic is probably not the best - it is not USB, but it worked. I tried to use the noise reduction, but it made the recording sound tinny, even on the lowest setting, so I took that off. I don't know if a better mic would have made the difference or not. I would have liked to play with the music effect shown in the video, but I didn't have time.

I saved my podcast to my desktop and then had to find a site to host it. I looked at a few... OurMedia, PodBean, BoxNet, Gcast and Gabcast. I decided to try Gcast, signed up (free if you don't podcast from your phone...no danger of that with me!) and uploaded my podcast to my account. I can't figure out how to keep it private or how to share with others except by giving them a link to my podcast on Gcast. I haven't figured out how to embed a podcast into a blog - I read somewhere that Blogger doesn't have this feature but other blogging sites do have this feature...next time that is something I will look for.

So...I thought I'd see if there was any way I could link directly to my podcast. This is where a bit more time and a bit more technical knowledge would come in handy. I ended up getting an RSS feed to my blog (whaaat??? I don't even know what that was all about). I went to BoxNet (one of the suggested sites in Blogger Help) and tried to upload my file there...it was too big for the "free" subscription...oh well. I tried their advice on enabling enclosure links (and I have no idea what that did, if anything...it was a bit beyond me so I took it off). Nothing seemed to work, so I stayed with Gcast and a hyperlink to the podcast. Not the most visually appealing choice (I would have liked to embed the podcast into the blog as I'm able to with YouTube videos)...but it will do for now. I have no more time to fool around with this! This can be a very time consuming effort if you don't know what you are doing...perhaps a reason educators can be reluctant to use Web 2.0 tools if most of your time is spent figuring out the tool. This is where mentoring by someone in the know would be most helpful!

If you click on the stone below, it will take you to my podcast.

Is it Legal?

This is a BIG question, hovering over me and causing anxiety. I didn't write this book...it isn't my original ramblings that I am recording...am I in trouble here? It is an old story and the author of this version did not write the original (heck, I could have probably told the story myself from memory - most of us know the story of stone soup). The book (this version) is available to read online and if you go to the publisher's web site as I just did, you will find a short "movie" version to view/listen to. I guess I could send students there...they would have to make sure they just listened and didn't watch (no guarantees there). Does the fact that this book can be read and a movie version watched online make it okay for me to read it in a podcast? I found a web site - Storynory - that has a number of books for children read by the creator of the web site that can be downloaded for free...which makes me wonder. Truthfully, I do not know what the rules are around this scenario. Butler (2008) suggests that even though copyright around podcasting is somewhat iffy, educators should still look at copyright law and do their best to apply it. It is still best to get permission. I know that I can ask someone in the college about this and I'll get some guidance on what is covered by fair use and classroom exemptions as this it out of my knowledge area - it just won't be prior to posting this blog. As a professional though, it will be important for me to follow up on this if I want to use the podcast for my distance students.

Podcasting for Learning
Though this is my first experience creating a podcast, I have used them in my work. A great example of an online community/learning center that engages people across Canada is the Tamarack Institute. Over the past five years they have hosted a series of tele-learning workshops which they turned into podcasts available online. I used one of their 2008 tele-learning sessions (a podcast) - A Great Time for Social Innovation - in our learning community...our group listened to the podcast together (I had downloaded it to the desktop of my computer) at one of our monthly gatherings. I provided a printed summary of the information from the web page along with the links to other resources they had and we engaged in conversation after the podcast using the reflection questions provided in the tele-learning session. There are over 50 podcasts and accompanying material available at Tamarack in the online Learning Centre.

Regardless of whether a student is a digital native or immigrant, they can benefit from podcasts in a number of ways(Robinson & Ritzko, 2009). Podcasts can be used both for informal and formal learning. They can be used to interact with new material or new technology. For auditory learners podcasts can be a preferred method of learning over print materials. Learning becomes portable as students and teachers alike can listen to podcasts on their mp3 players while running or driving their car.

Gatewood (2008) described four of the more popular uses of podcasts in learning:

1. Augmenting curriculum by introducing, supporting or reviewing curriculum

2. Professional development for teachers in a convenient, at your own pace and time method of delivery

3. Presentation of materials by teachers and students

4. Communication with parents

Copley (2007) conducted a study with campus college students that looked at using audio and video podcasts of lectures as supplementary materials. The majority of students enjoyed using these materials, preferring video podcasting. Surprisely, having these materials did not affect the rate of attendance in class - students used the materials for catching up, note-taking and preparing for assessment. Copley described a method of converting PowerPoint slides to jpeg files, importing them into Windows Movie Maker and then adding an mp3 file of the lecture (needs to be sychronized manually with the slides). Though this can be time consuming, I thought this might have some merit in it for my distance students particulary. Currently, I upload the PowerPoint slides I use in class to the Blackboard site for the distance students, but they have no accompanying notes for them. It would be useful for them to have a podcast of the lecture that goes along with the slides. This is an area I will have to look into a bit more. Again...more playing with technology before I am able to use it effectively in my teaching!

Before turning all your lectures into podcasts, you may want to think about Simonson's (2007) opinion on this matter. According to Simonson "a recording of a lecture is a poor example of a podcast" (p. 103). He recommends that a podcast should be a single idea of no more than 3 to 10 minutes in length. Longer pieces should be chunked into smaller separate podcasts, each with their own main idea.

I think I am more likely to continue using podcasts that others have developed than to develop my own podcasts. But...never say never...if I ever figure out how to utilize a podcast better...in a blog or other medium, then I might reconsider.

References

Butler, R.. (2008). The Changing Web and COPYRIGHT. Knowledge Quest, 37(1), 76-78. Retrieved July 19, 2009, from ProQuest Education Journals.

Copley, J.. (2007). Audio and video podcasts of lectures for campus-based students: production and evaluation of student use. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 44(4), 387-399. Retrieved July 18, 2009, from ProQuest Education Journals.

Gatewood, K.. (2008). Podcasting: Just the Basics. Kappa Delta Pi Record, 44(2), 90-93. Retrieved July 18, 2009, from ProQuest Education Journals.

Robinson, S., & Ritzko, J.. (2009). PODCASTS IN EDUCATION: WHAT, WHY AND HOW? Allied Academies International Conference. Academy of Educational Leadership. Proceedings, 14(1), 38-43. Retrieved July 19, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Global.

Simonson, M.. (2007). Podcasting ... or "Seeds Floated Down From the Sky". Distance Learning, 4(2), 104,103. Retrieved July 19, 2009, from ProQuest Education Journals.

Cleaning out the Digital File Cabinet with Social Bookmarking

2009-07-14T14:46:00.000-07:00

The Stress of Mess
I have a lot of web sites saved in my 'favorites' tab on my computer...too many to count and many which are no longer functioning or no longer useful to me. Some are saved in forgotten places in folders. When I am being lazy, I simply click on "add to favorites" and the web site I am on is added to a very long list, organized only in alphabetical order. I am sure I have web pages saved more than once. Needless to say, my filing system is messy and overflowing...making it almost impossible to find anything! Between work and home, I use 3 different computers...each with their own messy system (my work computer is by far the worst) and no way for me to retrieve sites from one computer to another.

So...the idea of using social bookmarking immediately appealed to me from an organizational perspective - finally a tool that will help me to organize the web information I have been collecting over that past 15 years. Now if there were only a tool to help me organize my paper files as easily! Richardson (2007) suggests another plus to using social bookmarking - the ability to "share our treasures with others." This sharing, I thought, will be very useful in my teaching.

A Delicious Experience!

There were a number of bookmarking sites to choose from. Some sites like Digg and Reditt seem to be primarily meant for sharing and incorporate active voting on submitted links (news stories, videos, pictures, web sites)...more like a popularity contest! Not what I was looking for. I decided to try Delicious, one of the more popular social bookmarking sites. There were a number of features that appealed to me:

RETAINING SOME PRIVACY

On this site you are able to keep some (or all) of your bookmarks private and share only those that you want to. I liked that feature. Our bookmarked sites create a footprint of our interests and some facets of our lives that we may not want to share with the world or our students (for example - our online banking site, where we shop online, goofy sites we waste time on...like Simpsonizing yourself!).

A few words on the issue of privacy:

Van Horn (2009) cautions of the threat to privacy that internet searching has become. Search engines like Google keep a record of our searches and scans our gmail messages for words that can help advertisers to target ads towards us. Another examples of a search engine linked with email is MSN with Hotmail and MSN Messenger. Cookies from websites we visit are also sent to our computers and stored, all without our knowledge and permission. We give personal information over the internet all the time...we need to be aware of what information we give out and to whom. As educators we also need to be aware of the image we present to our students online. Carter, Foulger & Ewbank (2008) point out that as we become more comfortable with online social networking we've seen a cultural shift in how we view privacy, with more people willing to share more information about themselves. When we share more than professional information about ourselves are we opening ourselves up to issues of professional conduct? Though having students know we have "Simpsonized" ourselves is not going to create quite the buzz as Facebook pictures of ourselves at a drunken party - we need to be aware of the possible issues and remember our activity on the internet is not anonymous.

EASY ORGANIZATION
This is much easier than organizing my web sites on my internet browser! I have so many sites saved in a poorly organized fashion that I find it difficult to find anything. Delicious has a couple of tools that makes organization a breeze. When saving a new web site on Delicious a box will appear that prompts you to choose tags and enter notes if you wish (a little more on my experience with those in a minute). And...when I tried to save a web site I had already saved, it did not add it a second time.

IMPORTING/SAVING

When opening an account, you are able to import all of your favorites saved on your computer's internet browser. I don't remember if this was automatic or not when I opened my account. If it is automatic, be careful which computer you open it on! Luckily I opened it on my home computer with its 150 saved sites, most of them current. It will be much easier to organize my 150 sites as I will have to edit each bookmark to add tags and notes than if I would have done this at work. My plan is to go through my computer at work and add relevant bookmarks to Delicious. A good summer project! In the meantime, I will only make public those sites that I have had the chance to edit.

TAGS
Tags are a simple way to categorize and find your bookmarks. For me this will be useful as I often forget what I save something under - this will give me more choices! Many sites also cover more than one topic area so you can choose multiple tags. If you are saving a new site using the Bookmark on Delicious option on your internet toolbar and others have bookmarked this page already, you will be presented with a number of tags you can use (and you are still free to choose your own). If you have imported your favorites into Delicious, you are on your own to create tags!

Tags also help you to limit your search. I used the tag "disability" in a search and got 30897 bookmarks. I added a second tag "advocacy" and reduced that to 368 bookmarks.

On the other end, a tag can be too limiting and produce no results. I used "person centered" as a tag and had no hits. Then I tried a combination of 2 tags - "disability" and "planning" and got 33 bookmarks, some of which were sites on person centered planning (I was interested in finding web sites that focuses on person centered planning). Tags used in some of these bookmarks were ones I hadn't thought of - "pcp", "person-centered" (hence my problem with finding bookmarks for person centered sites).

This problem is created by the use of a folksonomy to create tags - these are informal tags that are created collaboratively by us - the users. We decide how to tag a bookmark rather than use a standard set of terms (a taxonomy). Problems with tagging can happen with structure (capitals, punctuation), when the tag is unclear or misspelled. On the other hand, as users we also come up with tags that make more sense to us than those automatic classifications used by search engine spiders.

NOTES

In addition to having tags to help you easily find your pages, you can also personalize your bookmarks a bit more by adding notes. If there is something specific you want to remember about a site or want to direct your students to, you are able to view your note right under your bookmark.

Using Social Bookmarking with Students

There are a number of uses for social bookmarking with my college students. I can share web sites I have collected in different topic areas that pertain to the curriculum in an efficient way. They can be themed to match different parts of the curriculum. There is information on some sites that can be viewed online versus printing or downloading. When students are doing research, they too can add to the collection in a specific area.

Using these bookmarked sites will be an opportunity to take what has been called "flat" materials (printed material) and turn the learning experience into a richer experience in which the students can actively explore concepts. For students who have grown up in the digital age these opportunities may engage them in learning in ways that textbook reading and lectures will not.

In a course I teach on advocacy, I shared a number of online resources with students on what has been called "Ashley's Treatment" or "Pillow Angel". We were talking about human rights and ethics and I used the example of this young girl to spark some lively discussion. I have added 3 of these web sites/pages to my Delicious account and now I will be able to just provide the students with the link. I can get the students to add more bookmarked sites that reference this topic and add others that expand on the ideas presented and talked about in class. To see my Delicious bookmarks on this (and the beginnings of my new and organized life!) go to http://delicious.com/daroye1 .

For more ideas on using social bookmarking for interactive learning, click here.

Is It All Delicious?
Social bookmarking doesn't come without its problems. How safe is it to keep all of our information in digital cyberspace? Saving everything online can turn into a nightmare as Ma.gnolia users found out early in 2009 when the system crashed and all data was lost. You should always back up your bookmarks for safekeeping.
Some bookmarking sites are easier than others to use and have different capabilities. Before choosing a bookmarking tool, do some research, try out a few and make sure you choose the one best suited to your needs and appropriate for the student group you will be using it for. It should be easy enough to use that the students (and you) are not spending all of your time trying to figure it out.

Is bookmarking too easy? Will access to a teacher's or fellow students' bookmarks allow some students to coast on the efforts of others? Does using bookmarked web sites reinforce shoddy research practice on the part of students who would rather download a few quick google references rather than do some serious research? As with any other Web 2.0 tools, it is important that we become familiar with them, understand where they fit into learning and use them along with all of our other teaching strategies rather than abandoning the old for the new. Part of our job as educators is to teach students how to use the Web for learning.

Evaluating Web Site Information
One last caution...because it is so easy to bookmark a site, students may do so with little thought put into what they are bookmarking. The mere existence of information on the web does not make it appropriate or legitimate. Students need to have information to help them in evaluating web sites.

Downs (2005) suggests 10 principles that can guide us in evaluating information on a web site. Here is a quick summary of those principles:

1. Because someone is said to be an authority doesn't make their information beyond reproach.

2. What you know matters. Trust your own experience.

3. Keep count of how trusworthy sites/people have been in the past.

4. Learn to distinguish facts from appearances.

5. Generalizations are misleading and universal generalizations are usually false.
6. Absolutes are often hidden generalizations.

7. Statistics are often misleading. Statistics without supporting data should not be trusted.

8. Go to the source and don't rely on second hand information. Look for references.

9. Motives matter. How information is framed for us to see matters.

10. Beware of misdirection. This includes information that is mispresenting or attacking the source.

REFERENCES

Carter, H.L., Foulger, T.S. & Ewbank, A.D. (2008). Have you googled your teacher lately? Teachers' use of social networking sites. Phi Delta Kappan. Bloomington: May 2008. 89(9): 681-685.

Downs, S. (2005). Principles for evaluating websites. Retrieved July 13, 2009 from http://www.downes.ca/post/4

Morrison, J. (2007). Social Bookmarking Strategies for Interactive Learning. Retrieved July 15, 2009 from http://wiki.scholar.com/display/SCLR/Social+Bookmarking+Strategies+for+Interactive+Learning

Richardson, W. (2007). Taming the beast: Social bookmarking. Finding good stuff online isn’t a problem, making sense of it is. Thank goodness for social bookmarking. School Library Journal, 3/1/2007 Retreived July 14, 2009 from ttp://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6420397.html

Social Bookmarks (n.d.) Retrieved July 12, 2009 from
http://web2tutorial.wikispaces.com/social_bookmarks

Van Horn, R. (2006). Privacy update. Phi Delta Kappan. Bloomington: Nov 2006. 88(3): 183-184.

Videosharing for Learning

2009-07-12T21:06:00.000-07:00

Tubing for Fun

Over the last year or so I have often gone to the YouTube website to look at videos. It started with the funny dog videos...you know the ones like the skateboarding dog and the smart dog and the swimming pool (okay, I'm a sucker for dog videos!). I quickly found out that instead of being a site just to store and show off home videos, YouTube also offered up a vast collection of quality videos (even those made by your average person) that could be used for educational purposes. Yes, YouTube can still be seen as a time-wasting endeavour (it is easy to spend way too much time voyeuring your way through other people's videos) but it now opens up new avenues for teaching and learning.

I realized the value of YouTube when I did a search for content-related videos for a college course I was teaching. Much to my delight I did find some appropriate videos, including one called A Credo for Support that had previously only been available for purchase on VHS (soon to be uttered in the same hushed tones as "8-Track"). I have been able to use these in class as well as provide the links on BlackBoard for distance students.

Before I Continue...Situating Myself in This Exploration of Web 2.0 Tools

I realize that I have neglected to provide some context for my learning in this area. These tools will be of benefit in my work in two main areas: better facilitation of a community of practice for practitioners in the disability field (where time and distance make face-to-face collaborations and learning less feasible) and in teaching college courses (both in class and distance learning). Of course, I am always looking at how I can use these tools just for fun and personal learning as well as being an informed parent who can assist my children in discovering and using some of these tools.

For the purpose of this blog, I will relate my learning to the courses I teach at college. I have found quite a change from teaching adults in a workshop format to teaching college students. In my experience, college students have tended to be younger, less experienced in the disability field and definitely more technologically adept than the adults I had been used to teaching. I am eager to see how I can use these tools to engage a younger audience who have been called "digital natives" by Marc Prensky (see his 2009 Interview for Frontline's Digital Nation on PBS on his website.

This "YouTube Google-Eyed Generation" (Duffy, 2008) has grown up with technology. In the PBS show Frontline, they explore the impact technology has on childhood in the special Growing Up Online. Children and youth have grown up gaming, with cell phones and IPods, instant messaging and always on...online and getting information instantly from numerous sources. Our dodgey lecturing style of old will soon tune them out. PowerPoint is no longer the new tool on the block (and I thought I was pretty hip when I graduated from overheads to PowerPoint!)

Duffy cautions us that "it is not sufficient to use online learning and teaching technologies simply for the delivery of content to students [and as educators we need to explore the technology ourselves to learn how we can use it for] collaborative and (co)creative purposes as well as for the critical assessment, evaluation and personalization of information" (p. 119). In our early stages of using Web 2.0 for learning we have "taken the work [we] had students do in the paper, analog world and simply digitized it" ( Richardon, 2009, p.8). I can see this in my own use of Web 2.0 technology - I have taken my Word and PowerPoint copies of teaching materials and simply uploaded them to BlackBoard. I will need to challenge myself over the next few years to tranform my practice so I am effectively making use of these tools. It is likely that time will be a determining factor (and possible barrier) in this transformation as there is so much to learn and I will still need to spend a fair bit of time on the more "traditional" aspects of teaching. I worry that it is too easy to use video for "EDUtaining" (entertaining) versus "EDUcation".

Some Guidelines for Video Learning

Duffy (2008) suggests a number of guidelines to move past passive watching to active viewing and learning. Using video can be an effective way to initiative classroom discussion and analysis of the topic. Here are some of his suggestions:

Segmenting the video allows you to interject discussion and comments throughout.

Taking notes individually or as a group helps to develop notetaking skills.

Pausing the video at specific points gives students the opportunity to predict what might happen next.

Turning off the sound allows students to focus on the visual with narration from the teacher (good for stressing the steps in a process).

Turning off the picture and relying on auditory information can be used to predict what might be on the screen.

Focus students attention during the video by asking them to look for certain things in the video or answer a few questions (which are good to put on the board in advance). This prepares them for what will come when the video ends and lets them know they have a responsibility for learning while watching.

After the video is done ask for student's reactions - what did they like/not like, have problems with, made a connection with (to learning, to life experience). Be prepared to deal with diverse reactions and comments to the material in a way that appreciates the diversity.

...and for the teacher's prep:

Preview videos first to make sure they are suitable and fits with the content of the lesson. Previewing also gives you the opportunity to make sure the technology works (and we all have experienced times when it doesn't!)...is the bandwith sufficient...is the download time okay (or can it be downloaded in advance?

Integrate the video into the content of the lesson rather than as a stand-alone activity. Set the stage for the video with activities related to its content prior to watching and have some follow-up activities once viewing is complete.

Cut the video to show only the most relevant parts. Sometimes the entire video is not necessary (and is too long) or useful to the lesson. Duffy suggests http://www.cuts.com/ or http://www.eyespot.com/. I had a look at these and thought they might be complicated to use and one of them had fees attached. It may still be simpler to cue the video up to the right spot.

How Could You Use Duffy's Guidelines for This Video? It Just Takes One Person

Could you use this Dancing Man video to talk about the power of one person...about participation...about being self-conscious? Could you stop the video at different times early on and ask students what they think might happen...will he get in trouble? will others think he is foolish? will anyone join in? what do they think the outcome will be? Predict how long it will take before it happens. What would they do if they were there?

Video is a powerful tool - for learning and for connecting with one another. One of my favorite YouTube videos is the following video from Playing for Change called Stand By Me. A very powerful video of connection and community.

"Roll 'Em"...Going Online with YouTube

Getting my videos up on YouTube was a relatively simple process. Deciding which videos to bore the world with took a bit more time! Once I signed up for a YouTube account I was able to upload with a few simple clicks of the mouse. I had a number of short videos saved in my photo files as they were taken on my digital camera. I finally figured out an easier way than TubeTilla for embedding a video on my blog. Beside each YouTube video is a grey box with information on the subscriber and the video, with a url and embed box beneath. By copying the information in the embed box and pasting it in the Html box of my blog, I was able to easily embed my video. This doesn't work in other applications like PowerPoint...so in those cases, using TubeTilla is still needed. So...presented here for the first time (if you don't count that they've been posted on YouTube for a view days...I have been the only viewer so far!) are my two videos!

It was rather exciting to see something I had created (even in a very rudimentary way!) on YouTube. I was a bit disappointed to see there were no viewers yet. Being able to share my pictures and videos with others in a way I was unable to before does give me some motivation to use these mediums more and get more creative with them. I can see how this could motivate students to learn by using these tools. However, I do think teachers would have to set some clear parameters around how to use them for learning and not just playing (though both can be incorporated). I am still nervous about having too much personal information online...I think about identity theft and other strange things that could happen. How do you protect yourself? How much is too much?

Getting Connected and Getting with It!

There is a plethora of information, tools and sites in the digital world, there for the taking. Understanding the technology, the language and the ethics, including copyright, can be daunting. In their article in the December 2007 issue of Teacher Librarian, Annette Lamb and Larry Johnson share with the reader some simple tips to get you familiar with video sharing and some good web resources to access. Click here for a draft version of the article.

Zoe Branigan-Pipe, a Teacher at Lawfield School in the Hamilton Wentworth District School Board (Ontario) produced a great 5 minute video called Teaching and Technology that showcases how she is using technology in her classroom. It was inspiring to see how the class used technology to enhance their learning.

So...are you connected? Are you technology savy? If you aren't sure, take this quiz to see just how connected you are!

References

Duffy, P. (2008). Engaging the YouTube google-eyed generation: Strategies for using Web 2.0 in teaching and learning. The Electronic Journal of e-Learning 6(20): 119-130, available online at http://www.ejel.org/

Lamb, A. & Johnson, L. (2007). Video and the web, part 2: Sharing and social networking. Teacher Librarian 35(2): 55 - 58.

Richardson, W. (2008). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. (Second Edition.) Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwinn Press.

Picture This

2009-07-08T22:58:00.000-07:00

I did it! I finally figured out how to link a picture back to my newly created Picasa photo album! If you click on the picture on the right, it will take you to a very small sample album of our trip to Mexico last February (when you have a digital camera, you tend to take an abundance of pictures and I didn't want to subject anyone other than family to 73 cave shots!). I was able to do this by clicking on the picture and adding a hyperlink directly to the album. It took me awhile to figure this out and I don't know if there is an easier way to do this. I thought there would be given that they are both Google tools.

I chose to try out the photo sharing tool Picasa 3. I thought if our professor uses Picasa, it must be okay. I found a video on YouTube that showed some of its features and I was convinced! It looked easy enough and I liked the simple editing and extra features like being able to make collages. Also, Picasa is also a Google tool, which made it easy to link up with this blog.

YouTube Video That Shows Some of the Cool Features and Convinced Me to Try It

If you haven't used it yet, you can download a free application called Tube Tilla that will allow you to download YouTube videos and convert them to WMV, MP3 or MP4. I have used this application to add YouTube videos to powerpoint presentations.

Will Richardson suggests to readers of his book that they use web tools in their own learning practice before introducing them to students. Using the tools ourselves can inform our practice as teachers and help us to discover how to incorporate them effectively into our teaching. It is also important to become familiar enough with the tools so we are able to guide others in their use. While some student will be technology savy, others will struggle with it. Technology should enhance the learning experience and not detract from it. When students are adept at using technology, they can spend their time on the learning experience and not get stuck on the technology glitches.

This has been a very time consuming (but fun) exercise. I feel like I have barely scratched the surface of what is possible with photo sharing sites and I really have no idea yet what the differences are between them. Another I considered was Flickr, recommended by Richardson as one of the best sites on the Web. In fact, he devotes an entire chapter in his book on using Flickr. I would have liked to see a more balanced examination of these tools - I wondered what he thought of Picasa and how it compares to Flickr. I plan to sign up to Flickr and spend some time playing with both tools to see which I prefer - learning from experience can sometimes be the best teacher!

And...in the end, learning should be fun. I found a site called Dumpr where you can upload your pictures and use different effects on them. Below is a picture of my son transformed into an art gallery picture.

2009-07-07T12:03:00.000-07:00

Hi, I'm Debbie Royer - welcome to my first ever blog! I am nearing the end of my graduate studies (2 courses to go!) and this blog is part of the Web 2.0 course I am taking at the University of Alberta over the summer (also my first summer course ever!). I am taking my MEd in Educational Policy Studies with a specialization in Adult Education.
I’m really looking forward to taking this course (I love using technology) but at the same time a bit apprehensive (I can get lost in time when on the web and I also get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of postings when taking an online course).

I work full – time for the Government of Alberta as a Project Coordinator with the Persons with Developmental Disabilities Branch (PDD). I have done a lot of “training” over my career, developing and instructing workshops for staff who work in the disability field. Most recently, I have had the responsibility of developing a community of practice for practitioners who work in the agencies funded by PDD. This has been a learning experience as I have worked with community partners over the last 4 years to grow our “community” and we are still figuring out how to do this best. I am hoping to use what I learn in this course to develop a virtual side to our face to face meetings. I also teach part-time at Grant MacEwan College in the Disability Studies program. I use WebCT in my courses, primarily with distance students, but also to complement the in-class instruction. I would like to be better at using this medium as a teaching tool…right now; it is predominantly a place to plunk material!

I live in Sherwood Park but grew up in Toronto, though I have been an Albertan for most of my adult life (came west when I was 25). I have 13 year old twin boys – Liam and Colin, a husband Tim and 2 senior citizen dogs – Lizzie and Riley.

Getting Started

2009-07-07T11:58:00.000-07:00

Choices, choices...too many choices! I could get lost in just setting up my blog. It took me at least 30 minutes just to choose my layout. Finally I had to give myself a shake and pick one...move on...content is more important! Leave the gadgets for now and just get this started. There is always time to come back to the "stuff" later!

I'm one of the last ones in the course to get my blog created. Sometimes being last is good! I was able to view the other blogs, see how they were set up and how many used which blog publishing tool (most used this one)...this gave me a better place to start from as I am totally new to this. I decided to go with blogspot for 2 reasons - the feedback from others that it was fairly easy to use and I also had a google account set up already.

So far, so good...the process has been pretty easy (besides making decisions on layout!) and the editing function works like a charm. I may even get used to doing this and blog away till the end of time! I am going to keep it simple to start with and play with the possibilities over the next few weeks. Just need to add some pictures for now...