Conclusion

Whoo Hoo - I did it. I finished this Web 2 course and gee it feels great. In the last month, I have cleverly dropped the words "My Blog" into a few conversations. I certainly feel a bit more internet savy yet also completely overwhelmed and in awe at the amount of "stuff" out there. I have really liked the Tracking Log and seeing those boxes filled with red upon completion of the tasks and I have really, really liked when Fiona commented on my blog. As teachers, we write comments on our students work, books, assignments and I felt like one of my students when Fiona left comments...always positive and encouraging. Thanks. Not sure if I'll keep blogging but I certainly have enjoyed the whole experience!

#22 and #23 Ebooks

Project Gutenberg was an interesting site - I liked their top 100 list of recently downloaded EBooks - proving yet again how few "must read" books I have actually read. Disappointed that my all time fave book - To Kill a Mockingbird - was not on that list. Come on people - get reading that one. Today my children have a pupil free day at their school so we are enjoying a Monday off. We went to the library this morning. We were all very excited as the four of us only seem to get there together on school holidays. We all chose 5 or 6 books and I also got a couple of magazines and one cook book. We left there to go to the park across the street and while they madly rode their scooters and ripsticks around I got comfortable on a bench and started on one of the books I had chosen. Listen people...I love the whole book thing...choosing it, flicking through it, wondering about that dedication, smelling those pages, dogearing if its already been done or finding my bookmarks or old receipt for keeping those pages pristine, leaving it open but facing down on the coffee table, bedside table, pool lounge, leaving the occasional chocolate fingerprint from turning pages...ahhh books...but not EBooks...not interested - not yet when I still have my senses to see it, smell it and touch it. My husband and I have used audio books when we travelled by car across Western Canada pre kids. That was great so I know the fun of those. And yes, audio books would be great in classrooms for special needs kids but also for modeling enunication and such. Now, the kids are calling so I'm off to help them bake a cake from that cook book we got from the library...the pictures are great in it...we might even leave a chocolate fingerprint or two.

#21 Online Video

I was excited to get to this task...been waiting patiently. I am one of those people who like to do things in order so I didn't want to skip ahead just so that I could have an excuse to sit and be on youtube for 30 minutes...I gave myself that time allotment. People, I have a new renovated bathroom to clean. Anyway, I found Teacher Tube takes sooo long to load - is it just me or is everyone having this problem? With my permisssion, my kids go on You Tube occasionally for fun - we have had a family session with Miley Cyrus teaching us the Low Down Hodown dance - I'm still a work in progress. I have found a video that has been helpful with teaching me how to braid my two daughter's hair. They are both playing netball and doing Scottish Highland Dancing...I cannot braid to save myself but am determined to learn in 2010 netball season and for the next dance comp in June. Hopefully, this video should do what no hairdresser or girlfriend has been able to do.

http://http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=q74Efp4P5Tw

I also found an annoying but stick-in-your-head rap on Teacher Tube about area and perimetre. I could SO rap better than that and will show my Yr 6 students the video and my version of the rap and let them be the judge! If nothing else, it might actually help them remember the formula for each. http://http//www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=157&title=Mrs__Burk_Perimeter_Rap

#20 Podcasts

#19 Task of Rollyo has been closed temporarily...does temporarily mean 4 days cause that's what it's been so I have moved on now to podcast task. My eldest daughter and I use iTunes frequently...well she uses it frequently and I more occasionally. I am a dedicated morning runner - wierdly I love it and I really need it - and really don't understand why anyone needs more than 60 songs on their iPod. That's all I have on my thanks to iTunes and the songs I have uploaded from my fave CD's but really, does anyone need a thousand songs to exercise to? If I run 30 minutes, I only get through about 8-10 songs...less if I'm going fast. And they are on shuffle mode so I listen to a different mix most days. I'm happy. So anyway, with podcast task, I went on the suggested links and had a look. I found sooo many Christian podcasts...tried to follow the links for kids and family - a priority for me...then to food links - a big love of mine...did I mention that I run and the need for it! and then finally to some educational links. Kept hitting a full on Christian theme to most of them. Watched a woman try to train her dog for 2 minutes...not sure where/when I would use this in the classroom...but my iPod - oh yah! I agree that it would be great in a university setting...people miss classes - hey I've done that and the lecture can be made available. No excuses now people for not passing that course! Nieces and nephews - I'm talking to you.

http://http//www.linkingforlearning.com/podcasting/7things_you_should_know_podcasting.pdf

# 18 Wikis

Holy Wik! I have been all over the place with this one. Been on wikis looking at how teachers in Portugal teach volume and capacity to their kids...you know because I might go to Portugal someday and need to know this. I must say I found some of the wikis very unhelpful - asking me for threads and such and then found I was just wasting time scrolling through some of the suggested links on Wikis. Interesting to learn that Wiki means "quick" in Hawaiian. Wait till the next school trivia night - I am going to know so much more than the last trivia. I think wikis might be good in classrooms for writing school newspapers. Each class has access to it - the beauty of wiki - and they could write a weekly item on what's happening in their classes. Other ideas - oh I bet you are still reading about how those Portuguese teachers teach Maths.http://http//mgenta.wetpaint.com/

http://http//www.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main/FocusOn_Mathematics

#15 RSS

Could be just me but I found this task a bit complicated...it is Wednesday so maybe my brain is in mid week funk?! I found lots of sites to add to my list but had to put a stop to it...I can barely find time to keep up on local and national news here...why stress myself even more with trying to read news updates from Canada...good heavens. No more adding favourite sites - though I accidently found some very funny ads, comics, stats that just happened to pop up...not sure how I did that. I can indeed see how RSS is valuable for personal use. As for using it in the classroom? Perhaps, if you were looking at global news items. The recent Winter Olympics comes to mind. If you were doing a Maths activity - keeping data of the medal tally and wanted to graph it every day then the students could go the this RSS and get the information really quickly without scouring through all those other websites. Any other teaching ideas on how to use this? Or are you in mid week funk too?

#14 Facebook

I have had a Facebook profile for about 2 years now. I use it as a tool to keep in touch with my nieces and nephews back in Canada. Their parents, my siblings, are on Facebook too but we still use email, Skype and the old fashioned way of telephoning to keep in touch. I do love looking at Facebook to see photos that my nieces and nephews have on there. It was an amazing way to keep in touch with one niece who put all her photos on Facebook when she was nursing at an AIDS orphanage in Africa last summer. Another niece has had her first baby making me a great auntie! I haven't met this new great-nephew yet but I have been able to Skype them regularly and have used Facebook to see the numerous photos of him. I do feel (at times) that Facebook is quite voyeuristic in that I have access to so many photos of my nieces and nephews friends...many who are still at university and are partying through Spring Break and mid terms...do I really need to see so many drunken party photos...obviously I do since I find myself scrolling through hundreds of them. Last year, after we returned from our family holiday in Canada, my own children's photos were on Facebook as their Canadian big cousins all uploaded their Aussie cousins holiday on to their pages....it was a bit unsettling to see my children on there who had no say in the matter. I can see how great Facebook is as a social tool for keeping in touch also and can really understand the addictive factor...luckily I have too much housework to do to become addicted to Facebook! Must go and hang out that laundry...but first might just check into Facebook for any new photos!

#13 MySpace

With great trepidation I had a look at the MySpace documents provided. The trepidation due to the exact negative comments which I have read about and heard about with some of the teens that use this social network. I went onto a number of Amercian library sites and had a look at their MySpace. I thought it was cute how each of them labled themselves as male or female and gave their age...some over 90 as it must be the age of the library. I thought that they would give the top 10 list of books that teenagers are reading at the moment...but forgot that libraries of today are about so much more. They gave lists of the top music videos, new release songs, DVDs, movies and then oh yah...the top ten books. I found a link to the New York best seller list which I found helpful to see which of my favourite authors have been up to or if I could find any interesting ones to add to my Mother's Day wish list I like to keep for my kids! http://http//www.nytimes.com/pages/books/bestseller/index.html

So, if MySpace in libraries is helping teens get back to reading or helping them to keep reading by sharing on this network, then I'm for it...with strict supervision by teacher librarians and parents.

#12 Flickr - No Flickr for me thanks!

I followed all the steps to get a Flickr account. At the moment I am feeling like I have "account overload" - with yahoo, flickr, igoogle, my work and personal email accounts, my bank account...good heavens - isn't technology supposed to make us feel less busy! Anyway, will not be using the Fickr account after this task. We use Picasa for uploading our photos and send the ones we want to share to family and friends. I also have a facebook account where I can see all the photos I want to see of my friends and family. This didn't do it for me. However, another breakthrough for me as I was able to attach the link this time. Whoo Hoo!

http://http//www.flickr.com/photos/48072468@N03/?saved=1

#11 Library Thing

Well I have spent a frustrating 30 minutes on The Library Thing...reading posts from like minded crime fiction fans. That wasn't the frustrating part - but the fact that I couldn't get my choices to catalogue and the link kept closing on me...thus no link attached. I can see the value in this task to personally catalogue our books. My husband and I invariably find second hand books by our favourite authors - Jonathon Kellerman, Faye Kellerman, David Baldacci, Harlen Coben - only to discover a chapter or two into it that we have already them. It would be helpful to organize our personal library like this, but let's face it...I'm never going to do that. Who has the time? It was fun to read the post of an elderly lady in Lincolnshire, England who is also a Kellerman fan. She suggested some different authors to try. I will. I suppose kids would enjoy publishing posts of their opinions on books they are reading and sharing their thoughts with the world. How would you use it?

#10 Image Generators

Well after promising myself I was only going to spend 20 minutes on this task, I got a bit carried away again with the time! I'm blaming a fellow blogger/colleague/friend who showed me her face on Cameron Diaz' body and I was determined to show her up and put my face on Wonder Woman's body...my all time favourite super hero. However, couldn't get my head shot to fit on W W's body and spent too much time trying. So I have gone to the Disco ball - it was easy - no resizing required. It goes with the shirt I wore last night to a friend's birthday at the pub when I wore my disco esque top and got lots of comments on it. So here's to the 70's era and all that great disco music. My kids are going to love this webiste.

#9 Virtually Online

Well I had a look - did not enjoy the virtual world I must say. When I read that I could enjoy socializing with literally thousands of online friends, I immediately zoned out. Don't know about you and your social life, but I have enoug trouble keeping up with socializing with my own real friends - never mind the virtual ones I could meet! On top of keeping my 3 children's social calendars I don't have time for the virtual world. I know my kids enjoy the avatar creations they play on line...mainly the two girls when they can change the avatars hair style, clothes, body shape...hmm. But how would I use it in the classroom. Sure, I know kids would love to play online games in class...can someone tell me how they use it effectively in an education setting.