Archives
Tags
Meta
Web2 presentation – collaboration.
March 1st, 2009 by misterel
Haven’t been a ‘good’ blogger. My main reason is that I get so sucked into the world of twitter and following conversations, chipping in and then looking at all the various resources that have been talked about. However tomorrow I have a 30min slot to discuss some web2 resources to the Heads of ICT in Cornwall. Not much time, so reduced it down to collaborative tools: twitter, delicious and diigo. I have also added links to some of the great resources I have been ’shown’ via twitter.
I created the presentation using prezi.com which is a great presentation tool. This link should take you too it. I just hope it works.
Posted in Resources, Teaching & Learning | tagged delicious, diigo, prezi, twitter, web2 | | 1 Comments
Twitter and me…
July 2nd, 2008 by misterel
Have just been re-reading my posts and have realised that twitter has been mentioned, linked to, but not really explained… Also I think I am a visual learner… Twitter is the biggest word in the tag cloud I added!!! So I’ll try and explain how I use Twitter and the benefits you can get from it.
In simple terms Twitter is a micro blog. You can only post 140 characters at a time. I’m guessing originally people were just posting day to day activities, thoughts etc that they felt like posting. However, because you can follow and be followed by anyone, twitter has developed unofficial networks of people that share resources, ideas etc. In surfing terms I’m still a bit of a ‘grommet’ when it comes to twitter. I’m following more people than follow me and I’m still getting to grips with the whole process.
To be honest though, twitter has become my first port of call for info and the response time from other users has been fantastic. The big question is, can it be used in education. I have started to dabble with this idea and so far I’m still undecided. I introduced the concept of twitter to my sixth form ICT students, they have all made accounts and now follow each other and a generic ICT twitter account that I set up. I use this to post useful links and info about the lessons. The beauty of it is, I can’t write to much and neither can they.
There are some teething problems… Although I may think that ICT innovation and new ideas are in the realm of the next generation, none of my pupils had heard of twitter and it therefore took them a while to understand the concept. Secondly, they have to actively check their twitter account for new tweets… They seem to be a tad lazy at this. So, will wait and see how well they get on with it and will post here accordingly. In the grand scheme of things it would be fantastic if the school could have its own generic twitter account and every parent followed it…. one day.
Posted in Resources, Teaching & Learning | tagged blog, education, grommet, ICT, innovation, Resources, tweets, twitter | | 1 Comments
Some stuff I forgot plus more…
July 1st, 2008 by misterel
In my ‘I can’t do this’ post yesterday I had a mental block on many of the things I wanted to post about so will try and cover a few more here.
There’s a chap I follow on twitter, Lee Lefever, who’s videos I stumbled across last year. He and his wife have produced some of the most simple yet compelling video tutorials I have ever seen ( apart from the ‘you suck at photoshop tutorials…but they’re in a category all of their own). Basically they are videos using whiteboards, voice over and paper cutouts that explain all things web2 and more. If you are interested in seeing them, then head on over to the Common Craft Show.
Also a guy called @iusher on twitter also introduced me to the world of issuu via a link to a new moodle book. Issuu allows you to upload pdf files and then converts them into virtual books. I am definately going to use this to publish resources for staff and kids. Also I have found that some nice people have also uploaded some Batman comics.(I’m a bit of on old school boy really and comics are one of my vices).
So there are 2 more things that I am currently a fan of. However there are still more chugging around my head. For example, I use a website called Adrive for backing up my resources. This is a fantastic site as it gives you 50GB storage free. It is extremely easy to use ( as long as you have java enabled) and will even upload your complete folder structure. The added bonus is that it will allow you to share files if you want to.
I’m going to be a tad lazy now because there is another blogger, Mark, who has just blogged on his blog a whole list of other web based reosurces that he uses and explains them a lot better then me. However I have only jusrt downloaded evernote and am now going to have a look at toodledo. I’ve been using remember the milk, but am finding it a tad clunky.
There are three more things I am going to mention…. seems like it has taken all night just to write these.
Firstly, if you wish to while away an evening flicking through websites that may or may not interest you, then look no further than stumbleupon. All I will say about this is beware, once you start you may never stop stumbling…
Secondly, I would like to point you in the direction of animoto. (Thanks goes to DAJBelshaw for theads up on this one). Animoto is a fantastic website which allows you to turn still images into the most fantastic and interesting video clips. If you go to their education section they will also give you a promo code to allow you to make full length movies. I have used animoto to create adverts for the ICT Department on our school website. Personally I think it works well.
Was going to mention microsofts Office live workspace..but it doesn’t seem to want to work..lol. But I can say that it does intergrate very well with office 2007 and 2003 and creates a virtual drive to save work on. Enough said…. think I’m going to go and stumble now.
Posted in Resources, Teaching & Learning | tagged adrive, animoto, Common craft show, evernote, issuu, office live, online storage, pdf, remember the milk, stumbleupon, toodledo, twitter | | 0 Comments
information overload
June 30th, 2008 by misterel
I don’t think I am cut out for blogging. I follow various educators on twitter and they bombard the network with so many fantastic websites, resources and ideas that I have trouble keeping up… I haven’t dared look at my google reader for fear of information overload.
I have recently been debating what ASUS to get for school. The cheaper 701 or the 901. I have seen both and reckon our kids would easily get on well with the 701. I also like the fact that it boots up remarkably fast (linux version) and the battery will last for ages (especially if you don’t have the wifi on).
I have also been studying with interest the development of easy to use hand held camcorders. I especially like the new flip video . However have had discussions with my techies who think the .mov format means that doing any meaningful editing in adobe premiere elements is difficult.
Then, there is the great website I found thanks to a tweet on twitter called wordle. This site allows you to create fantastic word clouds and will even creat them based on rss feeds and delicious tags. Below is my first wordle created using my delicious tags.
This may not look like an information overload, but there have also been shed loads of info on moodle, including the latest moodle book and the new games module. Amongst this melee of information, (of which I have forgotten loads or added to stumble or delicious for later), I am also trying to get my head round re-writing SoL (Schemes of Learning) for KS3 and also getting ready for the next academic year, where ICT Coordination is high on the agenda.
Going to go now, have a new toy to play with. Just got a nike+ sportsband. Now all I need to do is go for a run.
Posted in Resources | tagged asus, flip video, KS3, nike plus sportsband, twitter, wordle | | 1 Comments
Lazy blogger
June 22nd, 2008 by misterel
I have dabbled in the world of blogging, but have so far been unsuccessful… I think it might be a character trait as I fail to keep abreast of my blog and suddenly realise that weeks have gone by and I haven’t blogged a word. This, however is the first time that i have decided to blog in the educational sphere. Hopefully teaching all day will give me enough material and insights to allow me to be a more frequent blogger.
One of the main reasons for starting this blog, is because I have become sucked into the world of twitter and have found it a very useful source of info and simple to use. I am also ‘blogging’ on our school website, although that is more a sharing of info and resources for other teachers and parents.
Going to post this now and then check out all the features available on this blog.
Posted in Generic | tagged blog, blogging, education, ICT, Resources, sharing, twitter | | 0 Comments
