Raffy And Friends

When I first started this PD it was hard work.  A lot of the terms were unfamiliar and concepts difficult to grasp.  I would never have predicted that I would come to enjoy exploring each new topic!  I feel proud to have successfully negotiated most of the tasks on my own and am confident in having a go at a lot of things I hadn’t even heard about before I started this PD.  Thank you for the opportunity of being a part of this exercise – I will be looking for ways to incorporate my new skills into my daily routines, as well as helping the staff at school to become familiar with Web2.

Have added a LibriVox feed to my RSS so I can listen to the rest of David Copperfield (the current title being read). I’m looking forward to finding out what future titles will be.

Best Places … is like being in a kid in a lolly shop! Which to get first!

As well as “preserving” tens of thousands of titles, it’s great to have a catalogue of unusual or old titles from the 19th and 20th centuries at my fingertips. Housebound readers or those who don’t have ready access to a library (which may not have a lot of the more obscure titles anyway) will have an absolute ball with eBooks.

I’m another one with mixed feelings about this.  I can see that there are huge possibilities for it in education, but I have reservations about authenticity and rigour of the information / experiences.  Being part of the generation that didn’t grow up with on-line gaming, social networks and IM, I find it difficult to take animated lectures and tutorials seriously.  Although, given that OH&S has so radically restricted science pracs these days, at secondary and tertiary levels, I can see immediate benefit in being able to “participate” in experiments in Second Life – again, provided that the school’s networking infrastructure is up to supporting it.

A few teachers at school have already started asking for podcasts from 621 and 774 – radio interviews that are very useful for Legal Studies, International Studies, Economics etc.  Now our LMS is up and running there will be even more requests I’m sure.  We will even be making our own before too long.

A lot of our teachers have found very useful YouTube sites, but of course bandwidth is a real problem.  You can happily select the site you want at home but it’s another story all together when you try to show it in class, using a wireless network!  Capturing the clips is an option, but quality and image size is problematic.  Teachers expect that they’ll be able to show it in class and have it look like they’re watching a dvd!  Of course that doesn’t happen and it’s frustration all round.

The Audio Visual Association of Independent Schools(AVAIS) has had a wiki for several years, but it hasn’t been used very much.  As most of the members are in constant contact via emails and using these as a discussion forum, hopefully having been involved in this Web2 pd more will see the value of using our wiki.  I’ll be pushing for it at our meetings, that’s for sure.  It was a bit “clunky” to use originally, but things have changed and it’s not so daunting to have a go now.

Rollyo is a great idea – so much better than making folders in Favourites or Bookmarks on your browser toolbars. Now I have a great collection of Australian quilting sites all in one place, and just a click or two away.  I love the way you have quick access to so many other interesting rolls as well.  I may never get up from my computer again!

I was reading some of the articles re Library 2.0 while at the Help Desk in the Library today.  In the adjacent classroom area, using our new IWB, our TL was working with a Yr 10 Geog class and teacher, introducing them to her Antarctic Blog, cloud tags, linked blogs, pages etc.  Library 2.0 is already off and running in our school and staff and students are loving it.

Not only have I made an account with Del.icio.us and loaded all my bookmarks from home, I have also changed my browser from IE to Firefox – simultaneously!  Everything transferred from IE to Firefox so easily and quickly, and I just logged in to my Del.icio.us account and away we went.  Technology is marvellous when it works like this.

Found a book (using Google Book Search) that I’ve been wanting but couldn’t find in bookshops locally.  Successfully ordered it online from Booktopia in Sydney and should have it by the end of next week.  Brilliant!

I found my home and work with Google Maps, and plotted the route in-between.  Then I had a look around my area and asked for directions from Tullamarine Airport to my home.  Google Earth then “flew” me over the entire route – not quite the way I’d choose, but still good enough to show international visitors how to get to our place when they visit.  Who needs a GPS when you’ve got GM and GE for free?