The power of images

Saw this on Slideshare the other day. I thought it was very powerful - sort of like a visual summary of a Web2.0 world. Some of the images used I thought had the potential to open up all sorts of discussion just by themselves - like the one with all the individuals in the cafe sitting interacting with their computers in front of them, or the couple sitting back to back both interacting with their own technological device - could be great openers for looking at pluses & minuses, with the potential for quite indepth discussion. This slide show has really struck a lot of chords with me - I think it's fabulous. Further more, if you take all the educational thought out of it, I have to say as photographic art works - some of these are just stunning.

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Now I know I said I'd write some more about my PLN - and I will, I'm just running out of hours, and much though I love my 2.0 existence - I have to attend day one of our 2 day cluster conference tomorrow. I also have the first of my 2 presentations to deliver - sort of exciting and scary at the same time. With a bit of luck and good management I'll continue my discussion tomorrow - otherwise, it will definitely be Friday.

My PLN has taken me on an amazing PLJ Pt 1 - Introduction.

I had a play with gickr and made this tonight. Just a very simple gif animation and already my mind is ticking over the possibilities for classroom use.

graphic myspace at Gickr.com
Over the course of the last week I have been on a whirlwind journey of learning, challenge, discovery and just plain old fashioned fun! This personal learning journey (PLJ) initially came about as a result of my preparation for the Northern Bays Cluster Conference, where I am co-presenting 1 workshop and presenting a second workshop totally on my own! It was this second workshop that led to the PLJ.

Facilitating my PLJ was my personal learning network(PLN)comprising of a group of educators in NZ and beyond, all of whom I met via Twitter . Now considering that I hadn't even heard of Twitter before the end of September 2007, I have built up a network of people that I regularly interact with online. I have never met any of them face to face;however, I enjoy chatting with them, follow links that they post on the internet, follow some of them via their blogs as well as Twitter and I have even joined Nings that allow me further opportunity to interact with them. What I love about it (apart from the social aspect in what can be an isolating profession at times) is that I am able to access up to date PD, relating to topics that interest me and I have total control over what and how much I take on board and explore. Add to that, the fact that I can interact with like minded others, discussing things that matter to me, means that I am one happy little cyber camper.

There is so much more to share and I promise to return tomorrow and explore this further - for now though, this introduction will have to do. I really wanted to start getting this down as it has been whizzing around in my head for the last couple of days. However, I have also not been to bed until well after midnight for 4 days straight so I need to catch some Zzzzzz's in order to stay sane. I'll post Part 2 tomorrow as I explore this topic further.

Just Thinking Outloud.

My resolution for this year is to really start using this blog as a tool for reflection and global networking with like minded educators - gosh that all sounds a bit high brow - LOL! As I prepare my presentation for our cluster conference next week, I have been reflecting on the growth I have made in my knowledge and understanding of the ICT tools available, the language/terminology I have added to my mental dictionary, the skills I have gained and the people I have connected with since April 07.
In April last year I decided on a new personal motto "Do something that scares you". This was an important turning point for me as I can be shy and I tend to over think situations which means that at times I avoid/ miss out on opportunities because of my own fears and insecurities. I have explored ICT possibilities for most of my teaching career and have included ICT as a tool in my class in some form or other since I began teaching about 15 years ago (Now I do feel old). In my personal life I have used MSN, email, google... all the usual stuff I have belonged to a few teacher list serves over the years. So that's the back ground.

Back to April 07 - I'm a scrapbooker in my spare time and decided I wanted to find out if there were any online forums in NZ for scrapbookers to connect through. A google search led me to SBO, where I found and connected with many like minded others. I chat with these ladies regularly and have developed some online friendships. At the bottom of some of their posts many of the SBO ladies had sig tags that included their blog links. I had heard of blogs before, but had never really explored them. Clicking on these links resulted in my next step forward - I began my own blog. This blog was a place where I could share my scrapbooking pages, burble about my daily life and link to other blogs I enjoyed. I became more confident and started commenting on other people's blogs - this meant that people started to comment on mine and a few more friendships were created. I learnt the html code to create hyper links using key words within my posts and started to discover the world of widgets, some of which I added to my own blog. Visiting other people's blogs I would come across things I hadn't seen before and my knowledge of web tools and toys increased.

Fast forward to the September/October school holidays... I had the opportunity to attend ULearn 07
in Auckland. This conference was an amazing experience for me and accelerated my personal and professional growth considerably. I was exposed to the thought provoking ideas presented by Ewan McIntosh- I was excited to discover that he, like me, had issues with the labels of "digital native" and "digital immigrant" - descriptions I had always felt were simplistic and gross generalisations, especially when I was told I was an immigrant because of my age and yet the definition of "native" behaviours fitted me more closely, particularly given my unusual exposure for a child of the 70s/80s, to a wide range of technology from the time I was born, thanks to my electrical engineer/Ham radio operating father. Derek Wenmoth kept asking "Are you blogging this?" and said that people had been "Twittering" and blogging about Ewan's presentation - he even mentioned that some people were being "Skyped in". I sat there and thought - ok so blogging I get, they're blogging this right now? Wow! - What does he mean about "twittering"? - Isn't "skype" that video phone that David has? and my thoughts were spinning. Never mind that I had a head full of thoughts and questions from Ewan's presentation - plus I badly wanted a Nintendo DS and the "Brain Training" software to go with it - lol!
At morning tea time I noticed signs about the "Blogger's Cafe'" - I knew that I was a blogger, but I didn't blog about school stuff, unfortunately my shyness kept me away for the whole conference - I kept thinking maybe I should go over and see what it's about, but I kept chickening out. I am kicking myself now that's for sure. I attended my breakouts for the day and just felt challenged and inspired - Tony Ryan
as my first break out definitely helped with this. I went home that night - buzzing and blogged about my day - just a little bit. After the second day I was so excited by all the stuff I was hearing - I googled twitter
and signed up straight away - I only had Ewan to follow but it was a start. I also got really brave and left a comment on his blog. From his blog I followed a link to another NZ teacher's blog from a comment they'd left, which led to another blog, and another and so on. I was collecting a blog roll full of teacher blogs - people who thought the way I did and who were as passionate about ICT as I was. I was so inspired I started adding to my blog again - at which point I decided I needed a separate blog for teacher stuff - and so this blog was created.

Since then it has positively spiralled - I have made contacts, connections and friendships via Twitter, been inspired by other amazing teachers. I have discovered del.icio.us, podcasting, Web 2.0, tiny url, Flickr, QuestAtlantis , Voicethread, Ustream.TV, RSS, Bloglines, TeacherTube , Technospudsand so much more. I think what has really amazed me is just what is out there and how educators all over the world are putting it to use. To be able to ask a question via Twitter and get an almost instant response has been fantastic. I have learnt so much from all my online contacts and can really appreciate how technology helps to make the world a smaller place. It is so exciting to be part of a global community of educators all sharing ideas and collaborating and it has provided me with regular, ongoing professional development.

Quick Catch Up

Well I'm back, I'm here, it's late and I should be in bed as I have work tomorrow. Both of my blogs have been a bit neglected as I have been trapped in the marvellous world of report writing!! Tonight I finished them all - yay me! Tomorrow I'll give them one final read through/proof read and then on Thursday I'll hand them over to my AP to read.

I am presenting 2 breakouts at our cluster conference in January - this is something that has come about since I last blogged. Very exciting and kind of scary - here I am hoping to sound really intelligent and supposedly inspire other teachers (or at the very least send them away with one useful idea and without having bored them to sleep!!). One is about Quest Atlantis and the other is about using digital technologies to provide children with a world wide audience. Any tips, ideas, links or suggestions for that second one will be gratefully received.

Used the COWs (computers on wheels)with my class today. We had a lovely time working with the Digital Learning Objects from TKI Digistore and working on our Quest Atlantis tasks. Then at close to lunchtime the computers decided they'd run out of go juice - fair enough, no worries there, just plug them back in to charge over lunch. Just one problem... old 1970s classroom blocks, with old 1970s wiring, plug in a unit containing lots of computers to charge up all at once and ...opps! There goes the fuse. So I couldn't charge the computers over lunch and had to rethink my plans for the afternoon. I guess a side issue of using modern technology in our classes is that some of the not so modern technology can't keep up with it, and who is going to foot the bill for upgrading everything? An interesting point to ponder. I had several disappointed kids this afternoon as the deal had been if their partner was logged in to QA before lunch then they could switch and be the one logged in after lunch. Apparently this has happened to others, so at least I know it wasn't just my room.

Other than that, not alot to add at the moment - of course it's late and I'm brain dead. So I guess I'll sign off for now. With reports done I'll have my brain back and will make sure I post with greater regularity. Actually I could do an entire post on the work my kids have done in preparation for QA - I have been amazed at the level of motivation.
Anyway, bed calls. Nite all.
Ciao

The week that was...

Well, it’s been a week since ULearn and I have to say my head is still full to overflowing with ideas, inspiration, challenges…you name it. I have been to all sorts of conferences and various PD over the years, but I don’t know that I have ever felt as inspired as I have by ULearn 07 . Maybe I was just in the right headspace at the right time, or maybe there was more to it then that – who knows. All I know is that it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience and that it has really challenged me to think about the way I do things. Not necessarily to make sweeping changes, as some of what I heard only affirmed what I was already doing, more to make me think, be reflective, be critical about why and how I do things.
If nothing else, through following links and ideas I have gained through ULearn 07, I have connected with other like-minded NZ educators through their blogs and through Twitter . I’d never heard of Twitter before the conference, but in true “me” fashion, of course I had to go and find out what it was. A little addictive I must say, although it is neat to be able to share a thought when I have it, get feedback from others and give feedback on their thoughts as well.
I have started to put in a place a few little and doable things from ULearn , and already this first week back has been one of the smoothest of the year. The kids have been very busy, very engaged and the quality of thought and depth of discussion from my 8 and 9 year olds has been amazing.
I have begun the online PD for QuestAtlantis , which I was introduced to at ULearn . The great thing is that our AP and another member of staff are doing it as well. One of the things I really like about QuestAtlantis is that it contains the “academic rigour” mentioned by Tony Ryan , as well as being motivating and engaging for the children. They get to connect with other children across the globe as a feature of QuestAtlantis as well.
I am keen to start blogging with my class. I have been keeping a personal blog since April and of course have just begun this one. I have to be able to present it to school in a way that shows I am considering privacy and security for the children. This is important to me as well, what I am battling with is how to ensure my kiddies are kept safe, while allowing the opportunity for them to connect with that wider, possibly global, audience. I could make our blog password access only, but would this narrow the audience? It’s an interesting dilemma – thoughts anyone?
We got a new toy this week too – a projector, again I am now considering ways that I can use this within the classroom without it becoming simply a glorified OHP. We had a little play the other day and used it to view a video about reading created by a class in the USA, we also created a collaborative mind map using Inspiration.
My kids also found out that no; they hadn’t placed in the Net Guide Web Challenge . They were a little disappointed, but when I told them that there were almost 3000 entries they cheered up a little. I have to say the standard of the winning classes and teams were absolutely amazing – some of the best I’ve seen in the last 5 years. Congratulations to all the finalists – you have done a fantastic job.
Well, this post is really quite long so I’ll stop for now. I have more to dissect re ULearn ,but will do that as a separate post or two.

Hello world!

Ok, so here I am with yet another home in cyberspace - my digital footprints must be creating quite a pathway around the web by now. I have to say, it IS very entertaining to Google myself and see what turns up - LOL!! (I love Google!). But seriously though, this is my first posting on this blog and in fact the creation of this blog came about as a result of my 3 days spent attending the ULearn conference here in Auckland. I had a head full of stuff - I had been provoked, challenged, inspired, amazed - heck one keynote speaker actually had me with tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat! (But we'll go into that at another time as I really need to go to sleep soon). I had come home at the end of each of the first 2 days and unloaded some of my thinking onto/into (you choose - it's after midnight and my brain is sludge!!) my other blog, just to clear my head of some of the "noise" and allow myself to get to sleep. It was while doing this that it occurred to me that what I really needed to do was start a second blog for all my "teachery stuff" as I described it. My other blog is really more for my family happenings and scrapbooking moments. What I needed was a place to think, a place where I could verbalise my thinking, store my links and maybe, just maybe, get feedback from others to help clarify, modify, extend, reinforce or challenge my thinking. When I saw some of the blogging be done by NZ educators I was just so impressed and dare I say it a little in awe. I thought, "I can't do the teacher blog thing - these guys sound like they know what they're doing!!" However, my motto this year has been "Do something that scares you!" and taking on board what Tony Ryan had to share, well I am not going to engage in any negative self talk/red light thinking. So here it is, the birth of my second blog. This is my thinking space but you are welcome to come and add your ideas to mine, to challenge, disagree, make suggestions - whatever. So hello world...let's see where this foot print will take me.