Sunday, October 25, 2009

#18 Wikis

Wikis seem to be central to the idea of the read-write web as there can be many contributors on a topic of interest to all. There seems to be more emphasis on the community than on the individual who began the wiki. There is a difference to sites such as social networking or social bookmarking where the centrality of the individual is more significant.
The applications of wikis seem to be enormous in an educational setting. I've just bought the book by Will Richardson on the use of blogs, wikis and podcasts in the classroom. I hope to find further inspiration and some more structured strategies there.
I can see that a wiki on reading from the collection of the school library, my workplace, would be a good place to begin, as that is certainly a shared activity.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

#17 Delicious

Like many other web 2.0 sites, de.li.ci.ous is blocked to students by our school network. I can see the point of view of the manager, but the time will come when we must teach students to use the sites responsibly instead of banning their use.
They are, however, available to teachers, and I am pleased to be able to access the favourites which I had on my home computer when I am at work. I am also very pleased to be able to search for sites which are relevant to me in work and for personal use which have been bookmarked by other users. Who needs Google?
Like all the other applications which we have looked at in this course, it will require more careful investigation and time to explore. I hope in some months' time it's something I use easily and frequently and that I have given examples to my teaching colleagues so that we might share and promote resource based learning.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

#15 RSS Feeds

I'm still transitioning between the use of the web as a consumer and as a contributor, so I really like the idea of the RSS feeds where the information can come to me. One of the problems I've found so far with Web 2.0 is re-organising my time so that I might be a contributor as well, and this application is certainly a time-saver! I've added the feeds on iGoogle to my Google Reader, as well as some other ones that I'm interested in, such as Inside a Dog. I like ABC's Radio National, too and will add some of their programs to which I like to listen.
I'm quite excited about the prospect of being well-informed on topics which are interesting to me, and maybe even the news and current events!
This application could be useful to me in the local school setting where students may blog and the feed may be added to my reader, as Mark Wagner comments in his ITM blog on RSS feeds which we read as part of the introduction to this topic. In my personal life, new blogs by friends and family overseas could be added, which would save me looking to see if they've written lately.
Learning about the use of RSS feeds has been a positive experience!

Friday, October 2, 2009

#14 Facebook

The article by Paul Allen is revealing. ABC Radio National was discussing Facebook last week on Life Matters, too. In fact there's no shortage of articles on the subject to be found in the media. I guess the bottom line is that online social networking is here to stay and as a person who works with adolescents it's important that I know what it is, how it works and how to use it to best advantage. I do not at this stage want to be their friend, alas, or even a friend of my adult children. No doubt that will come as the use of Facebook expands significantly beyond the younger age groups.
Perhaps the use of Facebook is more extensive amongst people who can spend more time at their computers and who have less direct face-to-face interaction in their workplaces. I do anticipate using this application mainly for social purposes in the future when I have more time for such activities.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

#13 My Space

This social networking site has no value for me at this point in time. I can see how it might be used by public libraries to engage adolescent and other clients, but possibly not in my school situation, as social networking sites are not encouraged on the school network. The concept of maintaining cyber friendships at the moment is disagreeable, as I struggle to keep up to my work email.

# 12 Flikr

This is a photo of a creek in my geographic vicinity. The object of posting it is to demonstrate the skill of adding a photo from flikr to my blog. I'm pleased to learn how to do this, and to have the blog and the link to flikr set up so that I might use it in the future.
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