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.
Wednesday 30 January 2008
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.
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.
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.
Monday 28 January 2008
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.
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.
Wednesday 23 January 2008
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.
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.
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