EduSpaceLounge’s Weblog

It is now a couple of months since 23 Things 4 Swinburne finished and I am having withdrawal symptoms. I liked my weekly check-in and activities and now that they are over, I have been continuing to utilise some of the tools that we were introduced to.

So, after much thought, I have decided to continue with this blog ….. not sure what direction it will take but let the journey begin!

I am very happy that I was one of the winners of 23 Things 4 Swinburne. I am enjoying my iPod Nano …. I am fully Mac-ed out now!!

I am having 23 Things withdrawals though!

Participating in this programme has helped me get back into the “techno” mindset. As I metnioned in a comment on the Swinlearn blog, I have  been working in Third World countries for the last 8 years and although I have had net access throughout that time, there certainly have been some developments and thousnads of websites/blogs/wikis/software/teaching tools that I was either not aware of or had dismissed as useless (eg YouTube).

I am completely OVER WebCT (from now on, I am only entering grades into Gradebook), so now I am using a blog for all my classes. I am not really using it as a blog, more a repository for any information that I need to give the students. I would prefer to use a wiki but as yet, I haven’t found one that I really like.  I think the next 23 Things should be wiki based rather than blog based. As a teacher, a wiki is a more suitable tool for my students.

I am a YouTube and Flickr convert – both sites have a lot of resources that are useful for my students. YouTube led me to utilise mindmapping in class (I found a site where you can create mindmaps online for free). Flickr led me to discover that there are lots of images that are useful for my students.

Always loved delicious – I encouraged my students to sign up to delicious and I often tell them to go to my delicious site to access my bookmarks. Some of my students have signed up and have added me to their network. It is very satisfying to see that a student has not only been paying attention but has taken my advice!!

What has surprised me is that a number of sites that I frequent (eg Sue Waters) are in fact blogs – I thought they were hosted web pages.

I created a new Facebook page for myself and a Facebook (private) group for my students. So far we haven’t done anything in the “group”. I have to admit, I am not sure if I like using Facebook with students but I figured that seeing I am teaching the NetGen, then I need to utilise tools that may engage them more than traditional methods. Short, fast, colourful and noisy are what they like!! As my dear friend Jackie W used to say “Gotta have colour and movement”.

I have also discovered some other great sites –

• Elegg.org seems to be a very good social networking site.
• EduSpaces.net is “the world’s first and largest social networking site dedicated to education and educational technology. Launched in 2004 and with over 19,000 members there is something in here for everyone interested in education”.

Since starting 23 Things, I have also become interested in Virtual Worlds for educational purposes. I have read a lot about the predictions for use of Second Life and I attended the Australian Virtual Worlds Workshop run by Suku (Lilydale campus). I attended “in world” (via Second Life [SL]) the first day; the second day I attend in Real Life (RL). It was VERY interesting and now I am keen to begin utilising SL in class.  Here is a link to Stories from Second Life: How Languagelab gave language learning a new lease on life.

I have a plan ………………….

So, thank you to all the people who have helped me/us complete the 23 Things 4 Swinnie. The programme has been great. Is it run for students?

That’s all from me folks!!

And the winners are …… ???????????????

I have used Podcasts  and Vodcasts a lot over the last couple of years, in particular ones from the ABC site. I also utilise ABC’s iView sometimes.

I had a look around podcast.com and a found a good podcast from Second Life Education Research. The podcast is done by Intellagirl who is quite famous in SL. She and her partner wrote Second Life for Dummies. Since I took possession of my Mac, I have started using  iTunes U. I came across some good info regarding Second Life. particularly Using Virtual Worlds for Teaching and Learning. In the podcast David White talks about some students he knows who use Google docs, so that a number of people can be editing the same document, at the same time.

Here is a screenshot of the iTunes screen.

I have also discovered that iTunes U has a lot of resources that I can use with my students.

This week I have to

15. Set up a feed reader within iGoogle

16. Add some subscriptions

17. Subscribe to some blogs

I set these things up in iGoogle a couple of weeks ago but I am still playing around with them. I will have to continue on these Things tomorrow because my net connection is really slow tonight and iGoogle is taking forever to load/reload.

A couple of weeks later ……

I discovered a good site called “pageflakes” (no idea how I found it …. too many internet miles/hours between now and then) – it enables you to set up a page similar to iGoogle but it displays the feeds in an easier to read format. I also found a pageflakes page very easy to set up (but slow to load).

I am using YouTube and TeacherTube a lot now. I know how to get a YouTube video into Facebook (it is easy) but getting a TeacherTube video into WordPress seems to be a bit harder (according to the instructions on TeacherTube http://www.teachertube.com/wordpress.php).

I found a video on TeacherTube that may be if use to my students. I am having trouble getting the video embedded into this blog, so here is the url http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=0b6b55e6a27f3f200bb5. I will keep trying to get the video on here.

Actually after having a good look around TeacherTube, I think YouTube has more suitable videos for me to use with my students. I am going to start using YouTube in class – there are some really good videos on it that are suitable for the subjects I teach.

I have used the video below to help my students understand why mindmapping is a useful tool for them to use.

I also came across a site that has good videos for schools (but probably more suited to primary and secondary teachers and students) the site is http://www.teachers.tv. There is also an Australian version of it.

Here is another one – it from a VERY popular Indonesian tv show. Forward it to 4.20 and there she is – my daughter.

Due to completing 23 Things, I have come across a lot of interesting sites and tools for teaching and learning.

I have created a blog on edublogs.org (education version of WordPress) for use with my students and I have begun using VodPod which is another video sharing site. On my class blog, I have a thumbstrip of all the videos that I have selected for my blog. I have inserted it on this blog too.

I joined the Swinilearn wiki in May this year but very rarely look at it. My name in the wiki is eduspace.

Now that I have to complete Things 18 & 19, I have revisited Swinlearn. I have inserted a profile picture and I have started 2 new threads – MyNoteIT and Information overload.

Now I have so many sites to look up, I am experiencing information overload!!

I found the links at “100 helpful Web Tools for Every Kind of Learner” to be very good.

But, what are the Swinnie rules regarding teachers posting info for students on-line? I don’t mean results, I mean things like posting assessment items and class handouts in a Wiki or in Google docs or even in MyNoteIT. I don’t want to go to the effort of uploading a lot of information for students if we aren’t allowed to use the things I mentioned above.

I have been using Google Images for the last couple of years.

To satisfy the requirements of Thing 14, I did a search for my daughter in Google Images. I was surprised at what came up for her.

My daughter is a model in Jakarta and I discovered that there are a few hits for her.

I was surprised to find out that she has just been on the front cover of another Indonesian magazine. Plus, they wrote an article about the new photography studio that Aimee and her husband have opened in Jakarta.

I am always excited when I see her photo somewhere. It is weird when I go into a department store in Indonesia and I see her photo on display in the makeup section. Gee, she is even on the little bags that you get when you buy a product from Ultima II.

Aimee (my daughter) has a great 1st Life – I am going for a great life in Second Life!!

I have also been looking at iTunes U. I have discovered some really good resources.

I came across some good info regarding Second Life. Amongst them was a podcast “Using Virtual Worlds for Teaching and Learning”. Here is the address -

http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/ox-ac-uk-public.1659430276?i=1465480796

In the podcast David White talks about some students he knows who use Google docs, so that a number of people can be editing the same document, at the same time.

Here is a screenshot of the iTunes screen.

I have also discovered that iTunes U has a lot of resources that I can use with my students.

Pepsi123, Corriefan and I have worked on an Excel file in Google docs. Here is a screen shot of our pathetic attempt

I was thinking of using Google docs with my students but I am not sure what the policies/rules are at Swinburne, re using such things with students. Does anyone know? According to the Swin polices site, we aren’t supposed to send emails to students’ non-Swin email accounts, so does that mean I can’t get the students to open a Gmail account? It seems that you can’t use Google docs unless you have a Gmail account. If it is possible for me to use them with students, then I would be interested in using them but if not, I don’t have any other use for them – other than using the calendar.

Also, what are the rules regarding using blogs and wikis with students?