# 13 #14 Social Networks

The Blogger promotional clip is clever and snappy. Not sure whether it will bring people back to Blogger but as a new user I liked it.

Library:/hack has some wonderful interactive ideas for its users. The competition is a fantastic way of collaborating with the public to come up with new ways of doing things.

My Space and Facebook

I understand the attraction for people to interact with these sites. But it’s just not me! I don’t have time to write about myself, my interests or what tv show I’m watching (don’t do much of that either) and I don’t think anyone would be interested anyway. I know I’d rather chat to a friend in person or on the phone while hanging out the washing, cooking dinner or marking books, than write about stuff on the internet. I KNOW I’m boring but that’s me! Also I struggle to maintain successful contact with my dear friends who I wish to spend time with when I can, without the need to add more associations and contacts with people I’d never get to see. I do prefer real contact.

The Educause Learning Initiative article highlights the benefits for college students to use these sites to interact with other students. The opportunities for students to learn from and interact with students from all over the world is also advantageous.

As a parent I am fascinated/worried by my teenagers’ interactions with these sites and the time they spend (waste) writing inane things back and forth to each other. Also the negative effects of online nastiness is also a concern. It has been a real challenge as parents to educate them about safe and sensible use of these sites.  However, in a positive light my son's football coach recently signed up with facebook as a way of contacting the team about training and game times etc. The players get the info immediately via their phones and this does save time for all involved.

#12 Flickr

I signed up with Flickr linking my Google account to Yahoo. I took the Flickr tour which was a helpful way of checking out the benefits. It is a great site for storing your photos and being able to share them with friends and family. Tags are a useful way of grouping your photos or narrowing a search for a theme.

I searched photos for Anzac Day to use for a school presentation and have included one here. It is very usefeul to be able to link flickr to our Blogs. I also enjoyed the “Visual Story Telling” with 5 images being used to tell a story. That would be an interesting exercise for children, they could take their own photos or search for images of their choice to create a storyboard and use as a writing activity.

“The Commons” feature with links to various organisations with collections of historical photos was very interesting. The interactive or collaborative aspect of this feature whereby the public can contribute to the collections and register interest in, comment and Tag photos allows continual growth and exploration for all involved as well as a living history.

ANCAC Day 2011 # 08

ANCAC Day 2011 # 08, a photo by deanog on Flickr.

I searched for Anzac images.

#11 Library Thing

Well this is the site for Book Lovers!! I am one but I don’t really have the time or the inclination to catalogue my own collections. But I see the benefits in doing this particularly for reference books when studying. It would be a useful tool for the classroom library collection and to allow students to add their comments and reviews to the class catalogue too.

I really like reading other peoples reviews and I’ve always wanted to be part of a Book Club and think that the Talk and Groups section would be like an online Book Club with people contributing thoughts and comments about certain books and authors.

I also had a look at the Yarra Plenty RL site and found this to be user friendly and easy to navigate around. I really liked the Staff Picks section and I showed my children the New Titles section as we are always looking for new reads. Our local library is small but usually has a good selection to choose from. My teenagers particularly enjoyed searching for some books they are interested in reading.

#10 Image Generators

What a lot of fun and enjoyable time wasting can be had exploring these sites.

http://www.bighugelabs.com/  had many and varied “toys” to play with to customise images. I tried out the jigsaw puzzle and the motivational poster maker. These could be great to use in the classroom with student work and photos. Student artworks could be used to create puzzles or posters. Students could also use the features to create comic strips and slideshows of their work. The possibilities are only limited by one’s imagination.

I also had a play with Jelly Muffin and Cool Texting but am still working out how to save those images.

#9 Virtual Worlds

Well I can see some benefits in the Second Life virtual worlds in that students could experience tours and interactions with places that they can not physically visit such as the Van Gough Art Gallery or libraries and museums in distant locations. However, I have to say as a mother of 5 with two sons obssessed with WoW I do have negative feelings about the impact and benefits (or not) of virtual worlds.

We have a constant battle/challenge on our hands as parents and educators to allow children to explore and learn in this amazing world of technology. But WoW just causes discipline problems in my house with arguments and fights about computer use. As well it's powers of addiction really bothers me! and the unrealistic images of people particularly women disturbs me too! and don't start me on the effects of the gaming violence! Some issues just to get  started!!

Mmmmm....I guess I will have to explore these topics further in the educational perspective but it will be a slow process to win me over into second life. I prefer REAL life!

#8 iGOOGLE

Well I am being surprised by the capabilities available each time I venture to the next activity. It was an interesting exercise setting up my igoogle page. Will have a challenge keeping it as “mine” when sharing the home computer with 6 other people though! I can see my children adding their favourite games like “frogger” and “pacman” and my husband adding his sporting features.

Again I am amazed at the amount of gadgets and features you can add to customise your page. I think I could adapt a page like this for my class home page with educational features which could be easily accessible depending on topics being covered in the classroom. So the advantage would be in changing the gadgets or features to suit the learning needs of the students as well as including some useful teaching gadgets, like the calendar, clock,  maps weather links etc.

Google sounds like an amazing place to work but I think I’m over the general age bracket of employees!! The integrated perks like the gym, pool and restaurant would certainly enhance employee satisfaction and motivation. Our Principal (who has previously completed this course) trialled the Google tactic of giving staff time  to have “thinking” time or time working on a personal project with the proviso being that the project or idea being developed was to enhance something at our school. Google allows 20% of hours to work on personal projects to enhance the company!

We were given a staff meeting free to work on this Google idea of using work time to advantage our workplace. The idea was successful even though some staff were fearful that their ideas would not be exciting enough. When we next met as a staff each person shared their thoughts, ideas or personal projects. It was a positive sharing of ideas that have brought about some constructive changes in our school and some effective use of time management.

#5 Google Docs, #6 Google Maps and #7 Google Books

GOOGLE DOCS                 

I didn’t realise that Google offered so many products. I have really only used it as a search engine. Pathetic I know!! But thank goodness I’ve started a learning shift by doing this course! AMAZING!

I really see the advantages of using Google Documents to work collaboratively on a document . I had a play and created a document for my teaching program using a table format, then uploaded it and then saved it as a word doc on my computer. Its usefulness is in the ability for numerous people (colleagues) to be able to work on the same document and edit and change it with all being able to see those alterations no matter where or what type of computer each person is using.

This would also be a great tool to teach older students to use when working collaboratively on class tasks and assignments. It could be incorporated in classroom group work and also as part of home assignments in which students are asked to create one piece of work as a group. All could contribute yet edit and make changes separately for later and ongoing review as a group.  It would enable online discussion and co-operative creation of a task.

GOOGLE MAPS

I have enjoyed using Google Maps in my classroom previously but at a fairly simplistic level, just looking at locations and satellite visuals of certain places. I didn’t realise you could alter or customise the maps or add features to them such as symbols and images. This will certainly make for deeper learning experiences for the students (and teacher!) which I will indeed be using next term.

The “How to Guide” and other You Tube Clips on the various uses and capabilities of this tool are extremely helpful for new users. I will need more time to “play” with Google Maps, but will definitely be exploring in more detail the functions of this great application.

GOOGLE BOOKS

  WOW! Again an application I haven’t previously used. I had fun searching for some favourite books and where to buy them. I also enjoyed reading a couple of reviews to find another good holiday read. I then used the links to search and locate copies in my local libraries. My children were also very excited to look for their favourite authors and books prior to our next library visit. 

This will be good to use in the classroom to review favourite books and authors. Students could be introduced to this as a teaching tool, assisting them in writing their own book reviews. Also I liked the ability to read through the first few pages of the books which gives you a feel for the book...great to be able to do before committing to buying or searching for the book to use in the classroom (or personally for that matter).

 I also read some reviews about a recently read book which I found quite disturbing and I was very interested to read what others thought of the book and its implications. The star rating system was also an interesting tool for quickly reviewing the popularity of certain reads. I will be using this more frequently in terms of reviewing children’s books suitable for classroom use and also for recommendations for my own personal reading.

I created a “Personal Bookshelf” for later reference and enjoyed setting up a list of “Have Read” and “To Read” which I will now constantly update.

#4 Web 2.0

I was interested to learn that Web 2.0 is the development of a second generation of web technology and design, refering to the changes that have taken place in the way the web is used. I am amazed at the quantity and variety of interactive advancements in Web 2.0, some of which I had never heard of before eg. delicious and folksonomies.I hope to understand the uses of these as I continue on in this course.
Web 2.0 allows for more interaction and participation by users and has developed greatly in the area of social networking faciliites. Thus making the web a place of collaboration, interaction and continuous movement and flow of information between users.
Library 2.0 has enhanced the way services are provided to it's users allowing for greater involvement and participation in the form of feedback and input into library services and faciliites.Users of library services using Web 2.0 are encouraged to interact with services provided and therefore assist in the development and design of enhanced and upto date library services.
I enjoyed the youtube clip from bliptv  titled "A Brave New World". Teaching has certainly been enhanced with the use of technology and wow hasn't it changed the way we do things, how we involve our students in their learning and how interactive and collaborative it has become. I hope to continue my learnings in this area so as I can continue to assist my students and make learning exciting for them.