stuff:ED

It's time for a move....

2007-02-24T07:38:00.000+11:00

After using Blogger for a couple of years to establish a PLE and record some of my work and play on the web, I'm finally moving on to a new blogging space. I've set up my very own hosted Wordpress blog, which you can access at www.jokay.com.au.

I'll probably still use stuff:ED from time to time when I'm demoing blogging to my colleagues or recording something specifically for work, but jokay.com.au is where I'll be focussing my blogging energy.

I hope some of my stuff:ED readers will join me over in my new space.
Update those rss readers! ;)

Azzura's Deck

2007-01-11T10:39:00.001+11:00

Safety Girl! aka Azzura Supplee has rebuilt her lovely deck at her new spot in Waterworld. Such a lovely spot!
posted by jokay Wollongong on Adria using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Tarot at Castle Leon

2006-12-19T08:33:00.000+11:00

All I need now is a medieval outfit and I'd fit right in here. Here I am having a virtual Tarot reading - which was mostly good ;)
posted by jokay Wollongong on St Guilk using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Visiting Santa

2006-12-19T07:27:00.000+11:00

I couldn't check out the Winter Festival HUD without fitting in a visit to Santa. Here I am making a wish for Christmas. Funny tho... Santa wasn't very animated and he had absolutely nothing to say - even when I asked him how Rudolf was doing! ;)
posted by jokay Wollongong on Tipsico using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Rooftop Dragon

2006-12-19T07:06:00.000+11:00

Here's one way to attract people to your virtual home........ add a giant rooftop dragon!
posted by jokay Wollongong on Hubbard using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Standing on top of the Virtual World

2006-12-12T04:21:00.000+11:00

..... in my new groovy tutu! ;)
posted by jokay Wollongong on Wasp using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Virtual Retail Therapy

2006-12-11T20:39:00.000+11:00

I've got new hair - hooray! We won't talk about all the other stuff I bought! ;)
posted by jokay Wollongong on Panache using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Postcard from Second Life

2006-12-11T13:57:00.000+11:00

Hanging out with Leigh (and some Otago people via his avatar) at the Medical Library. Im looking forward to hearing a bit about their impressions, and ideas they have for using Second Life!
posted by jokay Wollongong on Healthinfo Island using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Ballooning with Otago Polytechnic

2006-12-11T12:45:00.000+11:00

Here I am with Leroy Goalpost getting ready for a little tour of Second Life with some educators from Otago Polytechnic in New Zealand. Virtual Balloon rides are so much fun! ;-)
posted by jokay Wollongong on Wasp using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Checking out Dell Island

2006-12-10T23:54:00.000+11:00

Nice Garden.. and some signs with notecards for newbies. I wonder how newbies would handle it tho...it's a bit complex. And didn't we already do this at Orientation Island?
posted by jokay Wollongong on Dell Island 2 using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Going for a ride with Sean....

2006-12-08T19:00:00.000+11:00

On a Shark! Eeek! ;-)
posted by jokay Wollongong on Millions of Us using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Popsci.com

2006-12-08T18:45:00.000+11:00

Check out the Popsci Build - love the gardens, and the whole place is wind and solar powered! ;-)
posted by jokay Wollongong on Millions of Us using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Checking out PopSci

2006-12-08T18:42:00.000+11:00

Whilst exploring the PopSci build with Sean today, I noticed the 'Future Now' stage and couldn't resist standing in the spotlight for a picture! Love the details here... worth checking out.
posted by jokay Wollongong on Millions of Us using a blogHUD : [permalink]

A Watermeloney Couch!

2006-12-07T15:39:00.000+11:00

This could only belong to one person! ;-)
posted by jokay Wollongong on Montara using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Working on Christmas Lights!

2006-12-07T09:03:00.000+11:00

I've been working on some flashing Christmas Lights for Sean's Lighthouse. All very strange - I would never put up elaborate decorations in my real life house... but in Second Life, I have the urge to create a huge and flashy tree! ;-)
posted by jokay Wollongong on Wasp using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Hanging out with Bee

2006-12-06T22:18:00.000+11:00

Hanging out with Bee Kerouac in Stillman. She's found a groovy model house and has been squatting here until temptation takes over and she buys her own virtual home!! Bee swears she's not gonna spend any money in SL... but the temptation is so hard to resist! ;-)
posted by jokay Wollongong on Stillman using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Chitzen Iza Coffee Shop

2006-12-06T21:33:00.000+11:00

Sean Drinking Coffee at the NBC Universal Headquarters. The textures and lighting around here are amazing!
posted by jokay Wollongong on NBC 16 using a blogHUD : [permalink]

BB has done something weird to Sean!

2006-12-06T21:09:00.000+11:00

A scary snowman has squished Sean's avatar... I hope he recovers! ;-)
posted by jokay Wollongong on Kingdom of Media using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Checking out Big Brother with Sean

2006-12-06T21:03:00.000+11:00

Finally found time to go check out Big Brother space, and talked to some of the residents.
posted by jokay Wollongong on Kingdom of Media using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Winter at Safety Girl's Place

2006-12-01T05:24:00.000+11:00

Safety Girl aka Azzurra Supplee has gone all wintery at her place in Scape.

I love the sense of humour in this creation!

posted by jokay Wollongong on Scape using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Postcard from the Stage in Wasp

2006-11-30T21:00:00.000+11:00

Second Life blogging as performance art? ;-)

posted by jokay Wollongong on Wasp using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Note: Yes... I think this means I'm blogging again! ;-)

Using a cool Second Life tool called BlogHUD, I'm able to create text and pictures from within Second Life and simultaneously post it to both my BlogHUD page and my blog. Yay!

Get set for an ongoing stream of crazy places, events and people from within Second Life - I'm inspired again!

FLNW - What You're Missing!

2006-09-21T17:38:00.000+10:00

The frantic pace of the Future of Learning in a Networked World Open Space Conference.... lots of fun being had by all.

Yesterday, we were lucky enough to travel on the Taieri Gorge Railway and got to see just how beautiful New Zealand is first hand. The gorges we travelled thru and the landscape we saw was pretty amazing... as were the conversations had by the FLNW crew and many locals about a whole range of issues including virtual worlds, online network building and everything in between.

Check out Conrad's fabulous pics on Flickr to get an idea of what we saw.

Today, it was a pretty fast paced open conference session with staff members from Christchurch College of Education.

Yet again, I talked about Second Life, and was excited to meet several people interested in virtual worlds and gaming in education - including Tim Greig who talked about becoming a gaming librarian. He is also exploring Second Life and the possibilities there for library services. I'm looking forward to meeting him in-world! ;-)

Right now I'm sitting in a pretty speccy hotel room in Whangarei, getting ready for the next leg of the tour in Northlands. The fun continues... stay tuned ;-)

Day 2 in Dunedin

2006-09-19T11:24:00.000+10:00

The Future of Learning in a Networked World Unconference has kicked off with style. We just spent several hours at the Hutton Theatre of the Otago Museum talking to a bunch of educators about the work that members of the FLNW group have been up to.

I had the pleasure of presenting some info about Second Life and the work I've been doing there. I'm looking forward to seeing some of the participants join us in exploring virtual worlds.

Next stop - a bit of a tour of the teaching and learning context in the Otago province, visiting schools, unis, training units... followed by a cocktail reception at the Student Centre and a cafe crawl for dinner.

CLC - is there anybody out there?

2006-09-11T23:25:00.000+10:00

There's a bit of a discussion going on at the Connected Learning Community blog about the engagement and sustainability of the community. Thanks to both Sean and Mark for some thoughtful posting.

I for one am still hoping that we can get this Connected Learning Community thing going! Where is everybody else? (Jo peers at her very quiet feed reader!! ;-p)

Anyway, having read both sets of posts on this topic, I gotta say.... Before we go crazy setting up a zillion accounts and spaces for the CLC and creating group blogs, I think we need to remember what the original philosophy of the project was about.

From the list on the Project Launch Wikipage the words that stick out for me are Self-organising, Learner-centred & self-directed and Peer-to-peer. The goal that gets me excited is the idea of exploring and modelling the process of creating a network of learners centred around flexible PLEs built using Web 2.0 tools.

I'm concerned that if we start to create announcement lists and email based forums or organise formal synchronous sessions, we are moving away from that idea and resorting to 'Web 1.0' approaches to online community building... which is really not the point if we are looking to explore some of the ideas around networked learning and connectivism.

Maybe this is because the old ways of building online communities are easier? I'm not sure. I do know tho that my inbox is full, and my calendar pretty busy in terms of both online and offline synchronous events. I can't fit in much more email, and I can't facilitate many more events or sessions... and I recognise that many of us who are involved with the CLC are suffering from the same overload.

stuff:ED as a graph - made with Websites as a graph

My reasons for joining the CLC are about getting to know a community of people via their personalised learning environments - be it a personal blog, wiki, start page, and I want to be able to subscribe to this via some sort of RSS feed. It was not to join another mailing list - I am already a member of lots of those.

I want to be able to engage in the CLC in flexible ways - commenting and adding thoughts on community members personal blogs, responding in my own spaces, using the blogosphere to have a conversation, sharing links and resources via a simple tagging system.

Ultimately, I hope we can show that the kinds of informal networking and learning that many of us are doing with our PLEs really does work. That it can translate to a larger network of learners... that it can work as an effective delivery option for teachers and students, or another other community of practice looking to learn together.

So what should we do?

In my opinion, the key to keeping the CLC going is participation from community members. Mark, Sean or myself can all easily setup all the tools and accounts for the CLC to use, but if nobody else participates, there really is no point.

If the CLC is to be sustainable and interesting, all of us must engage in this process, or it will indeed die - about the same time as the money runs out that there's no one left to manage the zillion sites and services that nobody is responding to!

So, CLC members... I'm putting out a challenge... this is not the time for lurking!

Write something about what you did with a Web 2.0 tool this week and tag it in del.icio.us with the 'clcommunity' tag.
Create a howto on one of the tools you're already using in your PLE.
Add some useful links to the feed if you're not a blogger.
Tag a photo of an event or workshop. I'd love to check out what your up to!

Go on.... I double dare you! ;-)

Touring Second Life for the eLearning Networks Event

2006-09-07T12:15:00.000+10:00

I've posted this information to the eLearning Networks Event Forum, but thought I should also make it available on stuff:ED for other colleagues who might be interested in joining us.

I'll be holding a tour in Second Life tonight for educators - from 7pm - 8pm AEST, starting in Wasp. All welcome!
_____________________________

Getting Setup For Your Virtual Life!

Setting up for Second Life is pretty easy - but there are some key steps you'll need to take....All who are intending to join us for the live tour on Thursday will need to go through these steps.

1. Check that your computer meets System Requirements: Second Life has specific software and hardware requirements. Check the website for further information. If your computer doesn't meet these requirements, you may not be able to participate in Second Life effectively.

2. Visit the Second Life Homepage and Go to the Join Now section where you will find an online form to fill out.

3. Choose a Name for Your New Avatar: You don't need to use your real name... be creative. Choose a first name of your own creation, and a last name from a drop-down list of choices. As certain names reach a certain quota of residents,they drop off the list and new last names are added. Options currently on the list include 'Mata Hari,' 'Pluto,' 'Gallinda' and 'Jinxing'.

4. Choose from Some Basic Avatar Options: New users need to choose a basic setup for their new avatar. There are a number of male and female options on the website to choose from. (see pic.) Don't worry too much about this, as you will be able to modify and create your avatar later on.

5. Complete the Registration Form: Add the required details to the final registration form (name, password, email address etc) and submit. You're pretty much signed up now and ready to go! ;-)

6. Optional:Premium Accounts or How to Get Linden Dollars to Spend in Second Life: If you're interested in owning land or engaging in the Second Life economy, you may wish to sign up for a Premium accout. Premium account holders recieve a one-time grant of Twelve Hundred Fifty Linden Dollars (L$1250), plus a weekly allowance of L$500. However - to join our tour on Thursday night and explore the possibilities of Second Life, you do not need to spend any money - simply skip this step.

How much does it cost?Your basic Second Life account is free. A basic account will allow you to visit Second Life and meet its residents, you will have access to all the tools and events. Additional Basic accounts cost a $9.95 one-time setup fee. Premium accounts (required for owning land) start at $9.95/month and up. For more information about pricing see the Second Life website. Note all prices are in US $.

7. Download and install the Second Life client: Users need to download and install the Second Life software onto their computer. (About 25MB for Windows users and 57MB for Mac users). You must have this software installed in order to access Second Life.

8. Log in to Second Life and Start Exploring!: That's it! You're ready to start your Second Life. Launch the Second Life software and login. You will arrive on Orientation Island where you you will be able to use the resources there to familiarise with the Second Life interface.

IM Me... I'd love to meet you: Once you're in Second Life - we'd love to hear from you! To get in contact with me, you can use the Instant Message tools built into Second Life. Simply click on the Search button, and under 'people' search for jokay Wollongong. Using the Instant Message button at the botton of the People Search tab you will be able to send me direct messages.

You can also visit my virtual home in Wasp via this Slurl, which will teleport you directly to my spot.

A few notes:

For everything you need to know about Second Life check out the Second Life Wiki or the Second Life FAQ
All prices quoted above are in US$
Contact me via joannamkay@gmail.com or via Skype - username: joannamkay.

And (one of) the winner(s) is....

2006-08-26T06:23:00.000+10:00

Get Your Own! | View Slideshow

Yesterday, I went to the National Literacy and Numeracy Awards Ceremony and watched my Mum receive one of the 2006 Minister’s Awards for Outstanding Contribution to Improving Literacy and/or Numeracy.

From the Literacy and Numeracy week website:

Ms Rita van Haren, from the Australian Capital Territory, is Deputy Principal, Lanyon schools cluster, with responsibility for Pedagogy. Throughout her career in education, as both a classroom teacher and educator, she has been a passionate advocate of literacy teaching and learning. She is a dynamic leader who has generously devoted her time to the professional development of teachers across the ACT, and the broader teaching community.
.....

Ms van Haren’s ability to inspire, motivate and inform current and future educators in the field of literacy has been demonstrated through her commitment to and active involvement in several key literacy professional organisations. She has worked tirelessly to introduce effective practice approaches in order to improve the way literacy is taught in schools.

I'm so proud! And she definitely inspires, motivates and informs me too! ;-)

The ceremony had the usual boring speeches and such, but it was great to attend, not only to see my Mum being recognised, but to see some of the amazing teachers out there.

Check out the 2006 National Literacy and Numeracy Weeek website for more info

Welcoming 'The Gong Media' Bloggers!

2006-08-23T17:41:00.000+10:00

I've spent the last two Wednesday mornings hanging out with the students from the Diploma in Communication and Media course and their teacher Peter Bradbury.

During both sessions, we've had a great time talking about all sorts of things web-related, and the group will be using blogs and wikis to complete their projects throughout the Semester.

Last week, we planned projects and explored some cool sites including Blogger and Flickr. We also set up a blog to record the students work - check out The Gong Media Blog.

The class came up with a great mission statement, which we've included:

To have fun.... and in doing so 'profile and promote' our course to and within the wider community... by means of managing a project/event and thereby encouraging future enrolment. In doing so, we hope to create an unforgettable learning experience for all.

Micael will be editor of The Gong Media Blog, and will be coordinating posts and working with the class facilitators, making sure that all the students work is recorded and showcased together and the blog is developed into a place to find out more about the Communications and Media course. He will also act as moderator on the blog - coordinating, consulting and negotiating with his fellow students and facilitators on this process as we go.

This morning, we spent a couple of hours talking about how each of the teams would record their projects during the Semester, and decided that Wikis were probably a great place to start.

Each of the teams has a wikispace set up now - ready for the work they will be doing to coordinate a number of interesting projects and develop some cool resources. Check out:

We've edited the blog's 'sidebar' to include links to all the newly created wikispaces, so everyone's work is linked together. A few more to come yet - but it's a great start to our new Communication and Media Learning Community.

I was very impressed with the energy and cooperation all the teams showed, as they worked together to negotiate names for their new wikispaces and discussed how they would manage them.

A special shout-out has to go to our class web publishing gurus! Jacqui has set up an awesome wiki to show-off her artwork and has even included some How-to resources to help her classmates get their heads around HTML! Meanwhile, Eve has created a beautiful blog, with lovely pictures and some great creative writing! Can't wait to see what you two share with us next!

Big congrats to the class today - you did a great job and I had fun working with you all!

Upcoming Event: Tapping into resources for eLearning

2006-08-21T06:18:00.000+10:00

The E-learning Networks (part of the 2005- 2006 Australian Flexible Learning Framework) is holding what looks to be another awesome online conference on elearning from 6-8 September 2006.

It's a free online event and is titled 'Tapping into resources for eLearning.' Check out the website for further info.

The Keynote speaker is Dr David Weinberger. His work focuses on how the Internet is changing human relationships, communication and society. He'll be asking the question - "The Internet - why do we care so much?" Sounds like a session not to be missed!

Also - for anyone who's a little new to elearning..... definitely worth checking out the lead-in events, which are designed to give beginners a bit of a kick start. More info here.

Annd, exciting for me... I get to show/ talk about a few of my favourite things in an asynchronous online discussion (starting 30 Aug) and live online tour of Second Life as part of the conference. I can't wait!!

To all you Secondlifers out there..... All suggestions gratefully accepted - which spots, people, projects do you think we should we check out? ;-P

Anyway, for more info on the conference, download the flyer here or go and register now!

Wikispaces: My Personal Portfolio

2006-08-20T17:56:00.000+10:00

Since last time I posted about my PLE and the work I've been doing to fine-tune it, I've been reviewing my other online spaces and places, in an effort to consolidate and clearly link all the work I'm doing online and create a really effective online learning environment for myself.

Wiki Update

To this end, it's time to update my much neglected Wikispace! I started by posing three questions to myself about why and how I'm using it.

Question 1. Do you really need a wiki too?

In the past, I've published personal websites to record and promote my work. More recently though, I've abandoned that process in favour of blogging. This has been a great decision, as my blog is a much more useful tool than the formal personal websites I've had in the past, and is much more a reflection of me and the work I'm doing. The decision was also a good one in terms of time-management, as I find I maintain a blog much better than I ever did a personal website. I can drop in and update quickly with a short post when I'm busy.

However, as much as I love the journal-style format of blogs, it doesn't make it easy to publish and promote resources for ongoing use. I think I do need a wiki - to keep track of the myriad of resources I put together for workshops and events. It will act as a repository for all my online stuff.

Question 2. What will you use it for?

I'll use the wiki for a number of purposes including:

Personal Portfolio - a more formal space to send prospective employers, colleagues collaborators and students to when they ask about my work.
Networking Tool - I'll include my contact details, a personal calendar and links to recent work, so that anyone searching for me has a better chance of getting in touch.
Resource Repository - a publishing space for the workshop resources, how-to's and other handy elearning resources I'm creating.
Linking Tool - A space to list all the projects and online spaces I'm working on, allowing a more complete overview of my online work and play.
Aggregation Tool - Using the RSS tools on Wikispaces, I'm aggregating links to a range of useful resources. This includes my own self-generated content, and also links to a range of projects I'm involved in. Another handy way to get a quick overview of everything I'm reading or engaging in.

Question 3. How should it be structured?

Unlike the dated entries on my blog, the information I'm including here is more permanant. Therefore, I've made my wiki more like a traditional website, including a pretty simple structure, with separate pages for various bits of information and resources as follows:

Jo's Wiki Homepage: A photo, contact details, links to my online spaces, latest news, my photostream and a calendar.
Current Projects: Links and basic info about all the projects and collaborations I'm involved in.
Recent Workshops & Presentations: Presentation notes and other useful info relating to the workshops and presentations I'm delivering.
Resources: A repository of documents, tools and resources I've created. Archived here for future use.
Jo's Feeds: A page for aggregating all my online stuff.

Why I Love Wikispaces Again!

Have you seen how cool Wikispaces has gotten lately!??

I'll admit it - the lack of styling tools on Wikispaces has had me less than impressed in the past and looking for alternative tools. Just like my blog, I wanted to make my online portfolio my own - with colours and artwork that are appealing to me and reflective of some of the work I'm doing.

But, congrats has to go to the Wikispaces people, who have busy been rolling out a bunch of new tools.

Check out the info I found via the Wikispaces blog about the awesome new features:

Embedded Media Function: This means you can now paste in the HTML from any web service and it will show up on your wikispaces page. You get the media and applications you want, with the simplicity of Wikispaces' WYSIWYG editor.
Email Notifications - We've had RSS feeds for all of our pages and spaces for a while, but RSS isn't always the notification method of choice. Now we'll send the same information to you via email.
Saved Drafts and Autosave - Never lose your work again because of a browser crash. Also, if you're not ready to make a change live, save your progress to continue later.
Image Alignment and Links - Greater control of image placement, including floating text around the image, centering images, and making images link to other pages or URLs.
Page Includes - One page can include another to build a template like system.

Sean FitzGerald has put together a great demo of all the cool things that you can embed. Check it out to find some great ideas for yours!

More exciting for me, is the fact that Wikispaces is now completely themeable and customizable.
You can:

Choose from several pre-made themes for your wiki
Mashup your theme - you can change every aspect of how your space looks and works if you have a little HTML/CSS knowledge
Change your stylesheet so that your pages look just how you like them

Just like my blog, I can now edit the template and add my own style. Hooray!

These new features have allowed me to customise my Wiki, so that it matches my other spaces, particularly my blog, creating a visual link (as well as the digital links) across all of my online creations, spaces and publications.

Next steps...

So, I've updated my blog and my wikispace - ensuring that all of my online work is clearly linked and documented. There are a few other spots on the web I need to have a look at, but I'm feeling pretty good about my PLE. It allows me to engage in some amazing networks, collaborate with fabulous people and record my work for future use.

Next steps?..... Integrating Mobility! I use a laptop, mobile fone and PDA each and everyday. My next PLE challenge will be figuring out how I can best integrate this, allowing me to stay connected with the network and my learning environment from anywhere, anytime. Got any suggestions? ;-)

Metal:ED Developments

2006-08-15T22:43:00.000+10:00

A few developments over at the Metal:ED blog in the last few days....

Jody Kerr posted a draft version of the first Welding video here.

Annnd (drumroll!) - tonight, Metal:ED went mobile!

Check it out!

Mmm... del.icio.us Network Tools!

2006-08-06T14:22:00.000+10:00

Whilst perusing the Del.icio.us Blog today, I discovered a new widget for my blog that looks kinda interesting.

The new del.icio.us Network Badge allows you to tell readers about your social-bookmarking network. You can check it out over in the right-hand column of stuff:ED (under 'Incoming Links').

I've been using the 'Your Network' tools in del.icio.us for a while now - to discover interesting links and info via my network of friends, family and colleagues. It is an invaluable part of my daily web-surfing, as it's where I discover the best new leads and information about my work and personal interests.

Searching for and discovering new information this way helps me to track the things my peers are interested in, and allows me to keep up to date with all the latest tools, views, sites and news that is being viewed and discussed within some of the online and offline communities I am a part of.

Adding this simple networking tool to your own blog is pretty simple - visit the del.icio.us site to set up the little piece of Javascript required and paste it into your blog template in the right spot. Check your blogging tool's help pages for further info on how.

Sooo... I've shown you my links and the network I'm connecting with using my favourite social-bookmarking tool. Where's yours?

New Project: Slatenite.com

2006-08-05T19:29:00.000+10:00

I'm very proud to be part of a new collaborative project in Second Life - the Second Life Arts and Total Entertainment Magazine.... and you're invited to the official launch party! ;-)

Created and edited by the amazing Anya Ixchel, and authored by a fabulous team of writers, Second Life Arts and Total Entertainment is set to include a wide array of articles focussed on on the Arts, education, culture and entertainment in Second Life.

Second Life Arts and Total Entertainment is available in various formats (online, PDF, inworld version). Check it out!

Learnscopers in Second Life

2006-08-04T14:47:00.000+10:00

I'll write a more detailed post about our adventures in Second Life at the Learnscope Advanced Team Meeting I attended on Wednesday and at the NSW Learnscope August workshop I facilitated on Thursday.

However, I couldn't wait to publish the footage we captured during our tour of the Second LIfe Library services with Lorelei Junot yesterday.

Cool huh! ;-)

Cleaning up my PLE for CLC

2006-07-31T00:26:00.000+10:00

Today, I spent several hours fiddling with the template for stuff:ED - tweaking things about, and changing some of the content in the side-bar. It's been awhile since I've done this, and it was about time! However, my reason for doing so wasn't just blog-keeping! ;-)

I recently became involved in the Connected Learning Community (CLC) network - a very interesting project being coordinated by Sean FitzGerald, Diana Khabbaz and Barbara Campbell. The project is funded by the 2006 E-learning Networks Project, part of the Australian Flexible Learning Framework. For further information visit the CLC Wikispace.

The CLC Network Overview describes the the project as:

"A Community of Practice (CoP) with the purpose of exploring Web 2.0 technologies in education and related learning theories, such as Connectivism and Networked Learning.

Based on peer-to-peer learning principles, the network will provide an opportunity for members to share skills and knowledge and mentor each other in new tools, practices and concepts.

The network will be built on the open web using Web 2.0 tools, modelling the process of creating networked learning communities based on personalised learning environments, thereby reflecting the underlying philosophy of learner-centred, self-organising, egalitarian networks."

Sounds exciting huh! ;-) If you're interested in becoming a member check out the 'How to Participate' section on Sean's wiki. You should also check out some of the great resources the team has put together including guides on: Choosing an Online Presence; Online Presence Reviews and RSS Feeds and News Readers.

But back to my blog-keeping...

Anyway, a couple of great chats with other members of the CLC has inspired me to clean-up and get to work on improving my 'personalised learning environment' ready for the coming CLC network activites.

I use this blog to record my professional and personal adventures online.... and so far it's been a great learning experience and lots of fun. The process of creating and developing stuff:ED has allowed me space to reflect, create and network.... and yes, I'll admit it - the web developer in me loooves tinkering with blog templates and widgets!! ;-)

However, despite the recreational/ creative motivations behind my blogging habit, the real gains from blogging to stuff:ED have been in the contacts I've made the the various networks I am now a member of via this space.

So what have I included on stuff:ED and why?

Online Presence: Although I use a number of online spaces including social bookmarking tools, start pages and photosharing tools, my blog is the centre of my personalised learning environment. I use the Blogger service to host stuff:ED for free and the tools provided allow me to 'mash-up' content into one online space.

Blog Template/ Artwork: I have spent a lot of time 'hacking' at my Blogger template, using a range of resources to learn how to do so - including the informaton about Template tags on the Blogger Help site and a collection of other interesting sites and resources on tweaking the Blogger matrix. This process is quite complex if you have limited experience with HTML, however it has allowed me to further personalise my space, so it is completely unique and reflects my tastes and interests.

Contact Me Tools: My blog is an important part of my digital identity. I use it to keep in touch with others, in both a professional and a personal context. Hence, contact details are important. I have included an email address, Skype Widget and the option of sending me an Odeo message - which should ensure that people can get in touch easily! ;-)

RSS Feeds: Really Simple Syndication has changed my life! The RSS feed for my blog is an important part of staying in touch with my networks, as it allows others to stay up to date with my blog posts, and helps me to ensure that my 'voice' is being heard by those who are interested in the things I am working on.

I'm using Feedburner to manage the RSS feeds on stuff:ED, and have included a number of 'chicklets' to popular RSS aggregation tools, which allows for seemless subscribing to my blog.

I also use RSS it to manage the content I am creating, using feeds to push content into my blog; as well as sharing it with others. Using tags and feeds from del.icio.us and flickr I can create link rolls, tag clouds image badges and slideshows to enhance my blog.

Photo Feeds: I'll admit it - I am addicted to flickr! Photosharing is one of my favourite ways to network with others, and I have more than 900 photos in my collection. Using a couple of different tools including the flickr Badge tools, I am feeding images into stuff:ED in a two spots dynamically. Additionally, I regularly use photos from flickr to illustrate my posts.

Using photos on my site helps to make it more visually appealing; and also allows me to connect two of my key online spaces together (flickr and Blogger). I also believe that photos help to bridge the distance between me and my network of peers and colleagues, as it helps us to visualise each other and our respective homes, workplaces and environments.

Links to Current Projects: I am involved in a range of projects which overlap - both practically and in subject matter. Using some artwork and hyperlinks, I have included information about this work on stuff:ED. My main reason for doing this, is to connect my various bits and pieces of online work together and to allow for any networking opportunities to come into focus.

Links to my Focus Areas: Those who know me well are aware of my current Second Life obsession, so it's no surprise that info about my exploits in virtual worlds is featuring heavily on my blog. I have included some info about my work in Second Life at the moment, as well as some SLurls 0r links to my personal virtual spaces. I'm hoping that this will assist me in making contact with other members of the amazing Second Life community.

del.icio.us Links: I use del.icio.us to keep track of all the information, sites, resources and content I'm discovering online. However, I also use del.icio.us to feed links into my blog. Again, this is handy for keeping my site 'sticky' and up-to-date and also allows for any of my readers to tap into my current areas of interest and research. The del.icio.us feed is probably the most dynamic and constantly updated part of stuff:ED.

Sites I Read: One of the key characteristics of blogging is the connections, comments, conversations and engagement that happens between users, and across various blogs. I have included a looong Blog-Roll (list of links) of the sites that I am reading in order to highlight those connections. This allows me to keep track of what is happening in my online network, but also allows me to share a bit more info with readers about the networks I am working and engaging with and my areas of interest.

I am using Bloglines to power the blog-roll on stuff:ED and am finding it pretty easy to use. Note that I have used some additional CSS here to style the blog-roll so it matches my template design.

Site Meter: I use Site Meter to keep track of the traffic on my blog. This is a great way to figure out a bit more about who's reading your blog, who's referring to your blog, and which bits are the most popular. I have discovered some fascinating leads and contacts via referral statistics in my Site Meter! ;-P

What spaces and why?

So now that i've rambled on for ages about my blog and what i'm doing with it..... a question for all the other CLC Members out here!

I'm wondering... What spaces are you using and why?

Learnscope in Second Life

2006-07-30T14:04:00.000+10:00

Getting Ready for the NSW Learnscope Workshop in Second Life

My explorations in Second Life continue, and I'm excited to be getting ready for a workshop I'll be facilitating in Second Life next week for the NSW Learnscope 2006 August Workshop event. The workshop will be hands-on and a chance for some of the participants to visit a virtual world for the first time.

In preparation, I've been learning lots myself... including how to make some groovy items to share with the group on the day.

First off, I created some Second Life Tour T-shirts using Photoshop and some photos I'd taken in Second Life previously. These were easy to make using Robin Wood's template, and I love the way the green one looks on my avatar. (And yes - for all those already requesting, I will make you one in your favourite colour! ;-p)

Creating Comics in Second Life

Today, I completed another groovy project - my first Second Life Comic Book! Using a tool called Comic Book Creator and my camera in Second Life, I managed to create a cool (but very basic) little comic book that provides some simple instructions on how to edit your avatar.

It was fun to make, and I hope will be a handy tool - either on paper in RL or in virtual book form) for the workshop participants to use in order to get a quick guide to beginning the process of creating their own virtual identity via their avatar.

You can download a PDF version of my HowTo: Dress Up Your Avatar by jokay Wollongong Comic here.

A Virtual Comic Book

Comic book complete, a virtual version was the next job on my list. I wanted to convert my 2 dimensional comic into something I could pass to others 'in-world' or for displaying at my spot in Second Life.

Using a groovy product called THiNC Book 2.0 by Toneless Tomba I managed to create a 3D version of my virtual comic book by uploading the images (after a little editing in Photoshop) and loading them into my book.

1. My first virtual book, 2. Constructing a virtual book, 3. Virtual Printing Press, 4. Printing my first virtual book, 5. Printing my first virtual book, 6. 3Snapshot_04022, 7. My first virtual book, 8. My first virtual book, 9. Mieke checking out the book, 10. HowTo: Dress Up Your Avatar - Page 1, 11. HowTo: Dress Up Your Avatar - Page 4, 12. HowTo: Dress Up Your Avatar - Page 5, 13. Dancing with Mieke

Off to the Virtual Printing Press

With that complete, it was easy to use the THiNC Printing Press to make a copy ready for distribution.

Check out the huge version I've added to my spot in Second Life - If If you want a copy of your own, visit my spot in Second Life and grab one - it's free! ;-)

Now... to my next publication! What types of info would you like to read in virtual book form?

(Wow!! I'm a self-published virtual author! Tee hee! Thanks to several of my friends in Second Life who gave me some great ideas and feedback!)

Projects Project Projects

2006-07-28T22:12:00.000+10:00

There are lots of projects keeping me busy at the moment.. and neglecting stuff:ED! I've included a bit of an update below:

metal:ED

The metal:ED team have done a great job of planning a series of Welding videos and we're just about ready for the first shoot. Check out our project postcard below:

eCommunicate Network

We've had lots of new members joining up, and have held a few great meetups at the TLRU with Communication teachers in the last few weeks. Check out some photos from our Flickr Group.. and keep an eye out for our upcoming Flickr Photo Comp, which you'll be welcome to join in on! ;-)

1. eCommunicators, 2. eCommunicators, 3. Rusty Kembla at his fab gallery, 4. Business Admin Teachers - checking out some new technology, 5. eCommunicate 2.0 Network Edna Group, 6. eCommunicators

teacherConnect Project

We had a fantastic meeting at the early in July, which kicked off the teacherConnect project.

1. Steph, 2. Robyn, Diana, Alex, 3. Steven, 4. World's most moblogged event

Since then, Steve Parker has been doing some great work on the teacherConnect wiki, and is currently drawing together information on moderation, codes of conduct and a networked learning charter, which seeks to provide information and guidance to teachers and students working in networked learning environments.

In my opinion, these discussions are key to refining the networked learning model; and I'm looking forward to hearing more from the community about what we all see as our rights and responsibilities when engaging in networked learning spaces.

A busy couple of days....

2006-06-27T16:59:00.000+10:00

It's been pretty fast paced in my world for the last few days.....

I attended and gave a short presentation at the Mlearning06 - Adaptive Technologies Conference, which was organised by Andrew Park and his team at MTraining. It was exciting to be a part of the event, and hear from Alex Hayes, Daniel Dacey, Richard Turnbull, Daniel Dacey, Marcus Ragus, Caryl Oliver and Dennis Macnamara. You can listen to some short audioclips from the event here.

Congrats to Andrew and the team on a fabulous event... all the effort was worth it.

And the learning and networking opportunities just keep on coming.....

This week in the Teaching and Learning Resource Unit, we're holding some open days to allow teachers from various faculties to come together to talk about some new technologies and how they can be used in teaching and learning. I had a great time today talking and planning with teachers for next semester and exploring some of the tools we'll be exploring together.

The Communication section teachers came together to officially kick off our Web 2.0 network - eCommunicate 2.0 and we had a good time talking about blogging, photosharing, virtual worlds and moblogging. I'm excited about the projects coming up, and can't wait to see the Cert 4 and Diploma students blogging, podcasting and photosharing. It's gonna be a busy couple of months!

Everyone got signed up to the eCommunicate 2.0 EdNA Group and we're all ready to start some learning and sharing of resources together. Our next workshop is coming up in July and we'll be focussing on Blogging - I can't wait!

After that, I had a great meeting with some teachers from our Business Services section, who are interested in using some new tools and technologies in the classroom. We talked about a range of resources including Learning Object Repositories and how they can be used to search for and locate useful existing resources; toolboxes and how they can be customised to create resources for delivery via LMS, CD-rom, PDA or via a Wiki; plus we discussed some Web 2.0 stuff including Blogging, Photosharing and Podcasting.

It was great to hear some good brainstorming going on during the session. We came up with some cool ideas for creating How-Tos for the use of office equipment in Flickr and a great application for podcasting which will allow medical adminsitration students to learn important medical terminology.

Next up - Metal:ED - we'll be meeting tomorrow for a workshop on storyboarding..... but more on that later! ;-)

TALO in the Metaverse.... will you come and play?

2006-06-21T10:29:00.000+10:00

I've had a busy couple of days both in Real life and in Second life... there's lots to do in the office and a conference to prepare for on Friday. However, as per usual, the most exciting work has been in Second Life.

First, off I had the pleasure of Rusty Kembla aka Roger Stack's company at my spot in Wasp. We had a great chat, and I'm looking forward to sharing more ideas with him about how SL might be used to engage young people. I'm also looking forward to checking out his virtual gallery next time we meet! ;-)

After a cool chat about all things work, I spent some time with my new neighbour Azzura Simplee, who is a lots of fun to hang out with and is busily setting up a great looking Mall just nearby. Within a few days, she's already renting out spots to virtual tenants - Very Entrepreneurial! She also let me play with her virtual human cannon. We had lots of fun shooting ourselves across the sim.

But then it was time to get back to work! After a little prodding from Leigh, Alex, Sean and Steven I created a new Group in Second Life this week which will allow TALO members to start exploring Second Life and collaborating together.

Titled TALO in Second Life, TALO members will be able use it to explore Second Life together. My hope is that we can use this group to network with each other within the Second Life world and whether or not it is really viable as an alternative or addition to LMS, web conferencing, online networking. The group is free to join and will allow us to keep track of each other and share resources.

I've donated some virtual land to the TALO in Second Life group, which allows us to establish Group Headquarters. All TALO in Second Life Group Members have access to this space and are welcome to use it for exploring, experimenting, building scripting or holding events and meetings. With a Basic Free SL account, you will be able to use this space to explore the Second Life platform without buying your own piece of land. You can visit the TALO in SL Headquarters 'in-world' by click here or teleport to Wasp 16, 160.

I've also setup a page on the TALO Wiki with some useful info and links to resources.

TALO Headquarters already has some interesting virtual toys for you to play with - including the Community Noticeboard, Virtual Radio for listening to some tunes whilst in-world, and of course - lots of space for meeting, building and experimenting. I'll be adding new stuff regularly, and invite all TALOers to do the same.

Check out a Slideshow of pics I've taken of the new TALO in SL Headquarters 'in-world'.

So.... TALO in the Metaverse..... will you come and play? ;-)

Web 2.0 and Sharing a Classic

2006-06-19T01:12:00.000+10:00

A few days ago, Botts left a great comment here about the social-networking power of Web 2.0.... "web2 strikes again showing us a whole lot more of who the people are that we are interacting with.

And I agree. I love it that I'm able to share info about the stuff that interests me on both a professional and a personal level. I've used a few basic Web 2.0 tools to share some info about me, and I regularly discover new areas of common interest with those I am connecting with online.

Anyway, Botts and I have discovered a shared interest in The Ramones, Henry Rollins and Akira. So, I thought I'd use Webratsmusic.com - an interesting new service that I discovered via the EngageMe website to share with everyone.

Watch some classic Henry Spoken Word....

Online Communication Tools - which reality do you prefer?

2006-06-15T16:50:00.000+10:00

For most of the day today, I've been logged into the Australian Flexible Learning Framework 2006 Networks Online Event. The theme of this year's event is 'Tapping into Social Networking for E-Learning'.... right up my alley! ;-)

From the Online Conference website:

Tapping into social networking for e-learning intends to stimulate conversations and connections that will enable you to build knowledge and gain practical skills in e-learning. Central to the conversations are exploring some of the emerging social networking technologies and pedagogies that are presenting new possibilities in the way learners interact and collaborate with others.

The first day of the conference has been great and congrats must go to the organisers! I'm actually writing this post while I listen to an interesting presentation by Marg O'Connell titled Blogging for Learning. (View her Blogger blog here)

For me, the highlight was Stephan Ridgway's informative presentation titled Introduction to Podcasting & Vblogging in Education. Check out his impressive Wiki to access the resources he put together to support his presentation.

About half-way through the day, I snuck out for a little while to join an online meeting in Second Life. It was hosted by the SL Grad Student Group and held at the New Media Consortium Campus in Second Life. The guest speaker at today's event was CBD Barkley (aka Alan Levine of CogDogBlog and Director, Technology Resources and Member Services for NMC).

It was great to take a seat on the virtual grass and listen to the amazing things that the New Media Consortium are doing on SL, and also to hear about the work being done by this group of Grad students - teaching all sorts of interesting subjects within the Second Life space.

CBD Barkley even took us on a tour of the new NMC virtual art gallery, which features some truly amazing works.

I've come away from another great day of learning in both my 'real life' and my 'second life', with lots of new ideas to follow up on and new tools and resources to explore. In particular, it has me thinking again about the types of tools we use to communicate online.

Comparing the two modes of online communication I've used today has been an interesting exercise. As I get more immersed in Second Life, more text-based learning environments are becoming much less appealing to me personally, and I'm really interested in looking into this further.....

So I'm wondering...... Which mode appeals to you, and why?

Real Life in Second Life

2006-06-06T23:59:00.000+10:00

So far, my Second Life experience has been engrossing, amazing, addictive, challenging and inspiring. I'm meeting all sorts of creative people in my virtual neighbourhood, and many of them are exploring ideas around using Second Life to achieve real life outcomes.

All of this is really exciting to me, and encourages my interest in exploring how we might use Second Life and similar virtual spaces to enrich teaching and learning at TAFE.

One of the things I've been focussing on lately is trying to get my head around the Second Life platform - how to build, script and manipulate objects in a virtual space.

Building my virtual home has been great fun - and a fabulously creative process.

Now it's time to take the next step and create interactive objects.

Today, I experimented with some very basic scripting which allows me to pass Notecards to others Second Life users. I also created some artwork in Photoshop and uploaded it to Second Life as a texture.

After a little reading on the LSL Wiki, I figured out how to create a sign that I've placed on the side of my virtual house. This allowed me to share some info about my real life projects with my Second Life friends and contacts whether I'm 'in-world' or not and was really easy to do.

I've included a link to our Metal:ED blog in the notecard, as well as my Secondlife contact details.

EASY! This simple technique is being used in all sorts of interesting ways.... and could easily be used by teachers to share resources with their students within the virtual space.

I wonder if we'll get any metal:ED blogsite traffic out of this experiment! ;-)

metal:ED - Using Web 2.0 to document an elearning project

2006-06-06T02:53:00.006+10:00

Late last night I published the first post in a new blog - metal:ED - Developing educational video resources for trades.

The aim of this new blog is to document the progress, processes and experiences of a new project we're working on in the TLRU as part of the Learnscope NSW funded project Innovation on the Ground: Seed to Harvest, which is designed to support e-learning skill development and technology use in the classroom.

metal:ED is focussed on developing a model for the production of training videos which would allow students to use computers or DVD players in the workshop to watch demonstrations and practice their skills.

As Team Mentor, I will be providing project management and support to the teachers from Metal Fabrication and Welding, as well as investigating some of the mobile delivery options.

Additionally, I will be responsible for documenting the project via the metal:ED blog. This will be an interesting experiment for us - using Web 2.0 technologies to track our progress and map out some best practice guidelines for future projects. I'm looking forward to getting stuck into it!

Check out metal:ED and let me know what you think. How would you use a blog to document this kind of project?

Laptop Explodes - geek disappears

2006-05-10T16:24:00.000+10:00

Created with: Newspaper Snippet Generator

Idea shamelessly pinched from Loobylu. Also seen on Micro Persuasion. (And probably a billion other places! Give me a break - I'm procrastinating! ;-P)

Virtual Home-Hunting

2006-05-07T19:03:00.000+10:00

I've been exploring Second Life for a few weeks now, and have decided it's time to find a place to call (virtual) home.

I searched around quite a bit today, but still haven't settled anywhere. So I decided to contact a Second Life Real Estate Agent..... yes, they do exist! ;-)

I sent an email, and promptly received a very nice IM from Nancy the virtual realtor, who brought me to this gorgeous spot.

I can imagine bringing students and teachers here for great lagoon side chats, or watching training videos in a beachy cinema. Pass me my deck chair!

Unfortunately, as much as I'd love to set up here, I don't think I can afford it. I'm not quite ready to blow $100 US to purchase and $20 per month. I need to get a virtual job!

Anyway, check out a Flickr Set of my Second Life here.

eNetworks Project Kick-Off Event

2006-05-06T18:03:00.000+10:00

I'll be facilitating a new network called eCommunicate 2.0 this year, and had a great time in Canberra on Friday attending the Australian Flexible Learning Framework eNetworks Project Kick-off event.

On the way to Canberra - Macquarie Pass, NSW

Cathy Baxter, E-learning Networks Project Manager kicking off the workshop. (Special Guest appearance by Sean's head in this shot ;-P)

Alex Hayes giving a great presentation on CLI and the work he's doing around mblogging.

a quickr pickr post

I'm busily establishing the eCommunicate 2.0 network's online spaces and will have more info shortly.

In the meantime, go check out teacherConnect - the Learnscope Project we're undertaking in the Teaching and Learning Resource Unit.

We've got a very busy, but great couple of months ahead of us!

I think I need a..... Second Life!

2006-04-20T10:15:00.000+10:00

Okay, maybe I've had too many cups of coffee, but I'm really excited about a session I just attended on the use of Second Life in education. (See the Wikipedia article if you don't know what Second Life is!)

Titled "Second Life: The Educational Possibilities of a Massively Multiplayer Virtual World (MMVW)"was presented by David M.Antonacci and Nellie Modaress from the University of Kansas Medical Center, USA or "Pietro Maracas" and "Sophia Gilman", as they are known in Second Life.

You can view a copy of David and Nellie's presentation here. It includes some great WMVs that demonstrate how users can create objects and build environments within Second Life. I particuarly liked the Role-Playing example.

This presentation really got me thinking about how we could use virtual worlds for use in a range of areas in VTE. I'm bubbling with ideas about how we might use some of these techniques in trade areas, as I'm about to start work on some elearning resources for use in Metal Fabrication and Welding, particularly in some of the core modules like OHS.

My list so far....

A virtual Fire Drill, where students take on various roles in an emergency situation - eg. Fire Warden, First Aid Officer, Worker with a mobility disability, Visitor to the workplace.
Role-playing situations to practice communications in the workplace. Eg. Students could role-play situations to learn more about sexual harassment policies or anti-discrimination polies, also great for conflict resolution type scenarios
Students involved in creating a 'virtual workplace' (could be an office or workshop) that meets OHS safety standards. Their peers could then be involved assessing as virtual building and safety inspectors.

Got any other suggestions? ;-)

More Learning from my Living Room

2006-04-20T06:13:00.000+10:00

Here I am again - up all night at the TCC Online Conference.

I just attended a great session by Satoru Shinagawa from the University of Hawai'i, Kapi'olani Community College on the use of Podcasting to teach languages.

He talked fairly specifically about using Ipods and Ipod specific tools, but the ideas would be applicable across other mobile devices.

Most interesting were his ideas about using sound and pictures (with later generation Ipods) to show pictures for vocabulary that cannot be easily explained with audio descriptions.

Saturo provided some great examples that are available online. Check out the Quicktime movies here, here, here and here.

I'm really interested in learning languages online, so I'm looking forward to taking these ideas back to the Language teachers at the Illawarra Institute!

More soon!

Up all Night.... Learning!

2006-04-19T09:16:00.000+10:00

Blogging the Technology, Colleges & Community Worldwide Online Conference

"Join us for our 11th annual TCC Worldwide Online Conference to share your expertise, experiences and knowledge relevant to the use of information technology in learning, teaching and academic services. This event will also be useful for novices and those interested in Internet resources for teaching and learning. It will provide a strong foundation about what's currently happening in higher education."

I've spent the last 8 hours or so logged in, engaging in the TCC Online Conference being held over the next few days.

As its based out of Hawaii, the timezone thing kinda sucks for us in Aus, but the sleep-less night has been worth it.

I'm bleary-eyed at the moment, but inspired!

Highlights of the conference so far include:

A Virtual Class Project: A Face-to-Face Class, a Distant Client, and PLAY! A Video Game Music Symphony by Ellen Cohn, University of Pittsburgh and Jason Michael Paul, Jason Michael Paul Productions. This presentation was really exciting, and provided a case study of the Play! Virtual Class project. This session was really interesting to me, as it appealed to my inner geek ('puter games music is so cool!) as well as the Stage Manager in me. (I studied Theatre Technology @ Uni).

The project allowed students from the Uni of Pittsburgh to work with Jason Michael Paul on the promotion of the Play! Symphony events. Sounds like action learning at its best. Jason also talked about how the web and emergent tools like MySpace are being used to create communities and promote events and services. Check out the Play! website - it is seriously cool.

Tim Lauer on Elementary School Mash-ups. Tim is one of my favourite bloggers, so it was a bit of a thrill to attend his session. He talked about his use of online tools with Elementary School students @ Meriwether Lewis Elementary School in Portland, Oregon. Using tools like flickr and del.icio.us, Tim showed how very young students can engage in the social web in real, safe and meaningful ways. Check out Eden's project on the Lewis Elementary School Flickr stream.

I was particularly dazzled my some of the stuff Tim is doing with Google Map Mash-ups, allowing students to geographically track the information they're discovering as part of classroom and research projects. Check out Map Builder.

He also made some good points about managing child protection when using these tools with young students and the need to have an ongoing conversation with teachers, students and parents about those issues.

Kids Today - Teaching Our Students in a Connected World by Will Richardson

Another of my favourite edublogger's Will Richardson's presentation was wonderful. He talked about the read/write web, and students can engage online as readers, editors and publishers. His perspectives on how Web 2.0 technologies are transforming personal learning, are inspiring.

A few interesting facts from Will's Presentation:

1.2 million new blog posts each day

35.7 million sites and 2.3 billion links currently tracked on Technorati

7 million new web pages produced each day

3600% increas in user-generated video in one year.

WOAH! BABY! ;-) No wonder we're all struggling to keep up with all the amazing stuff out there.

Anyway, you can view all the links and resources from Will's presentation on his wiki.

And finally....

I've tried to record the links and resources mentioned in the presentations I attended via del.icio.us. Check it out!

I'm off for a nap now.... need to get the energy together for tonight's sessions! ;-)

Dogs on YouTube

2006-03-26T13:49:00.000+11:00

I recently scored a new phone - a Nokia N70, and have been enjoying taking lots of pics and videos with my new superior phone camera.

Check out the video I took a few minutes ago of two treasured family members - Astro and Mieke. It's posted to YouTube for your viewing pleasure! ;-)

This was recorded especially for my cousin Laura, who is Mum to Mieke the dog, and currently studying in Canada. We miss her very much!

New AATE Website Live

2006-03-13T11:43:00.000+11:00

Just a little newsflash:

I've been doing some work with the Australian Association for the Teaching of English to redesign and update their website, and am happy to announce that the new site is now live @ http://www.aate.org.au.

Still testing a little, so there may be a few little hiccups, but I'm so relieved to finally have the thing online! ;-) I'll also be implementing an RSS feed in the Media Centre section within the next few days, so keep an eye out if you're an English teacher!

Anyway, checkout the following:

AATE's Policy Documents including The Teaching of English in Australia and Professional Development for English Teachers
AATE Media Centre - for the Latest word from the AATE Executive Council or check out a Newsfeed from EdNA
AATE Calendar - find out about events relevant (we're using Eventful to power this - great new tool!)
AATE Bookshop - I could spend a fortune! ;-)

Hopefully, this is just the beginnings of the AATE's online journey, and we'll continue to enhance the site, adding some more Web 2.0 features in the near future.

Next steps for the AATE might include:

Some experiments with Wikis and forums to get the online discussion started
Automating the bookshop more effectively and integrating Paypal
More dynamic content in the media section including podcasts from conferences and such
Maybe even blogging!

Got any other suggestions??

In Beta: Cool Stuff to Check out! or "oh how I love to beta test!"

2006-03-11T13:14:00.000+11:00

I discovered a great list via Kottke.org today:

“The Museum of Modern Betas features 67 pages (and counting) of Web 2.0 sites that are in beta. This might also be Yahoo's shopping list. #”

A pretty cool list! I’d already discovered some of these tools/sites – but there are a whole bunch of new and interesting ones to explore….including:

Eyespot: http://www.eyespot.com/ (edit and combine your videos online)
WetPaint: http://wetpaint.com/ (wiki tool)
MyMe: http://www.my-me.com/ (personalizing online profiles)
Veoh: http://www.veoh.com/ (online video tool – a bit like YouTube)
Magnato: http://www.magnoto.com/ (virtual fridge door)
WebBrush: http://www.stanfy.com/dev/webbrush/ (online collaboration tool - create and discuss charts, diagrams, schemes, sketchs etc)
Pligg: http://www.pligg.com/ (v interesting! Web 2.0 CMS)
Typolis: http://typolis.net (blogging tool - or as they call it ‘story-hoster’. Looks very sleek)
Numbler: http://numbler.com/ (web-based spreadsheet and collaboration tool)
RapidFeeds: http://www.rapidfeeds.com/ (rss tools)
Fold: http://www.fold.com/ (start page)
Enablr: http://www.enablr.com/ (simple tools that help you to communicate better on the web – Stenographr looks interesting, as I am now pen-disabled and post-offices suck! Transcribr tool for podcasts too – hooray, text transcripts make podcasts accessible and searchable.)
BlogCode: http://www.blogcode.com/ (blog recommendations and ratings)
EpicTrip: http://www.epictrip.com/ (connecting our travelers with videos, virtual tours, reviews)
Vyew: http://vyew.com/ (real-time online collaboration and conferencing tool)
TuneCore: http://www.tunecore.com/ (music delivery and distribution service that gets music you created up for sale on iTunes)
Zoomr: http://beta.zooomr.com (Another photo-sharing tool)
Planiglobe: http://www.planiglobe.com (Make your own digital map)
Oyogi: http://www.oyogi.com (“empower people to seek and find other human beings who may have the expertise and knowledge to answer their questions or with whom they wish to collaborate”)
Favorville: http://www.favorville.com/ (social networking tool which provides members with the opportunity to help and be helped by others)
Nativetext: http://nativetext.com/ (online community where you can publish or read any document in any language… translated by humans, not software)

Also a few that are marked as ‘landing’:

LaLa: http://www.lala.com (online service that allows people to swap physical CDs, and pays the original artists 20c per swap)
Life IO: http://lifeio.com/ (no idea what it is – but they’re doing a good job of intriguing me!)
Awesomr: http://www.awesomr.com/ (again no idea – but am intrigued!)
Chalksite: http://chalksite.com/ (tool for teachers – gradebook, messaging, blog etc)
celum IMAGINE Smart: http://smartimagine.com/blog/ (media asset management solution)

This is bad, I’ve only gotten to page 30 of the MOMB list….. I got no chance of getting any work done today – too many new things to play with!! ;-)

International Women's Day 2006.

2006-03-08T13:59:00.000+11:00

I was honoured to be asked to speak at an International Women's Day function today at TAFE. It was lovely to put on my 'human rights hat' for a little while, and focus on achievements of women, and also the work that still needs to be done to ensure equality for all of us - both women and men.

I have published a little set of photos on flickr, and am hoping that the students might contribute some of their own.

I have also posted the text of my speech below for anyone who is interested.

Wishing everyone a very Happy International Women's Day 2006!

Speech: International Women's Day 2006

Firstly, I wanted to start by saying Happy International Women’s Day! Since the beginning of the 20th century, people from around the world have been coming together on this day to celebrate and protest for women’s rights, so we are taking part in a tradition that has a long and important history.

To introduce myself – my name is Jo Kay, and I work here at TAFE in the Teaching and Learning Resource unit. My work here is focused around eLearning, and web design. Before joining TAFE in September 2005, I spent nearly 6 years working at the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission – my role there involved managing their websites and online services, and also developing and coordinating their human rights education program for secondary schools.

One of the wonderful things about working at the Human Rights Commission was the opportunity to work on a range of projects that focused on improving human rights and equality for all people in Australia – including some projects that focused on the rights of women.

So, with that in mind, I thought I’d highlight some of HREOC’s recent projects that focused on advancing the rights of women and promoting equality. As I’m a self-confessed Internet addict, the focus will be on online projects and websites where you can find more information. For those of you who would like to follow up and learn more, I’ve put together a list of links. There are copies floating around for anyone who’d like to check it out.

But first – some history….

International Women's Day is marked on 8 March every year. It is a major day of global celebration of the economic, political and social achievements of women

The history of International Women’s Day dates back to 1910 internationally and, in Australia, to 1928. However, it was socialist women in the United States who organised the first national Women's Day in 1908 and helped to inspire the international event.

In 1910, the first international women's conference was held in Copenhagen by the Socialist International movement and an International Women’s Day was proposed by German Socialist Clara Zetkin. The following year, International Women’s Day was marked by over a million people in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland.

Today, International Women’s Day is celebrated all over the world, and it’s a time when women get together to remember the interests that we have in common and to remember the struggles in the past that women have had in common. It commemorates a strike, an organised action by women protesting about working conditions, but it also marks the positive achievements of women around the world. It's a time to celebrate the fun of women getting together, and its an occasion when a political, a social and an economic statement is being made about the collective interests of women.

Visit Wikipedia for more information on the history of International Women's Day.

Women’s Rights – The Facts:

As well as celebrating, it is important to consider the issues that still face women around the world. The following statistics were compiled by the United Nations Department of Public Information in 1997, and provide a clear indication of the work still to be done.

Status of Women

Of the world's 1.3 billion poor people, it is estimated that nearly 70 per cent are women.
Between 75 and 80 per cent of the world's 27 million refugees are women and children.

Political Participation

Women hold 11.7 per cent of the seats in the world's parliaments.

Women and Education

Of the world's nearly one billion illiterate adults, two-thirds are women.
Two-thirds of the 130 million children worldwide who are not in school are girls.
During the past two decades the combined primary and secondary enrollment ratio for girls in developing countries increased from 38 per cent to 78 per cent.

Women and Labour

The majority of women earn on average about three-fourths of the pay of males for the same work, in both developed and developing countries.
In most countries, women work approximately twice the unpaid time men do.
Women make up 31 per cent of the official labour force in developing countries and 46.7 per cent worldwide.
The value of women's unpaid housework and community work is estimated at between 10-35 per cent of GDP worldwide, amounting to $11 trillion in 1993.

Women and Health

Women are becoming increasingly affected by HIV. Today about 42 per cent of estimated cases are women.
An estimated 20 million unsafe abortions are performed worldwide every year, resulting in the deaths of 70,000 women.
Approximately 585,000 women die every year, over 1,600 every day, from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth.

Women and Violence

Each year an estimated two million girls suffer the practice of female genital mutilation.
Worldwide, 20 to 50 per cent of women experience some degree of domestic violence during marriage.
The primary victims of today's wars are civilian women and their children, not soldiers.
The use of rape as a weapon of war has become more evident. In Rwanda from April 1994 to April 1995, estimates of the number of women and girls raped range from 15,000 to over 250,000.

Women’s Rights in Australia

So now that we’ve looked at some pretty depressing statistics, let’s look at what’s happening in Australia to advance the rights of women and to improve equality for all people.

There are a number of organizations in Australia that work to improve the status of women in our community, and to address these issues. Today I’m going to focus on projects undertaken by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.

The federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner – currently Pru Goward, is part of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. Her role is to:

promote equality between men and women;
eliminate discrimination on the basis of sex, marital status or pregnancy; and to
eliminate sexual harassment at work, in educational institutions, in the provision of goods and service, in the provision of accommodation and the administration of federal programs.

You can read a statement from the Sex Discrimination Commissioner to commemorate International Women’s Day on the HREOC website.

Recent Projects undertaken by the Sex Discrimination Commissioner

To give you an idea of the work undertaken at HREOC to promote equality for men and women, I thought I would point to a couple of recent projects undertaken by the Sex Discrimination Commissioner.

'Striking the Balance: Women, men, work and family'. It explores men's and women's choices for balancing their competing work and family responsibilities. Men and women from all over Australia have been invited to make submissions on issues around family, gender and work balance. These submissions will be compiled into a report later on this year.

Sexual Harassment in the Australian Workplace was a project that explored Workplace sexual harassment, including the results of a national telephone survey which found that more than one in four Australians have been sexually harassed. The project included production of a Code of Practice that can be used by employers in both small and large businesses to ensure that their workplace is free from sexual harassment.

Youth Challenge – Tackling Sexual Harassment in Your School is a human rights education resource focused on educating young people about how to identify and deal with sexual harassment. The resource includes videos, worksheets and other useful information that can be used by teachers and parents.

There are a range of other organizations working to promote equality in our community including: Commonwealth Office for Women, the NSW Office or Women, Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency, the Women's Rights Action Network of Australia, the Rural Women's Network, the National Women's Justice Coalition, the Immigrant Women's Speak Out Association, and the Women’s Electoral Lobby.

I urge you to check out some of these websites to find out more about the current status of women in Australia.

I’ve included web links to these organization in the handout, along some links to International Organisations including the UNIFEM - the women's fund at the United Nations, the United Nations Women's Watch, Amnesty International, International Museum of Women and the Girls Go Global project.

To finish, I thought I’d share my own perspective on International Women’s Day.

I believe that gender equality is, first and foremost, a human right. It is both a men's and a women's issue.

International Women's Day is a wonderful time for all of us - both women and men to reflect on the status of women and the importance of equality - not only in our own local communities, but around the world.

Thanks very much for listening.

The world's laziest blogger & how to discover human rights

2006-02-24T17:57:00.000+11:00

SO its been a month since I posted, and that is truly pathetic! BUT! my excuse is I've been busy wearing my web dev hat.... and I'm sticking to it! ;-) The first few weeks of term have been a flurry of activity for us @ the TLRU. I've been building resource CD-roms, developing course materials, and learning Flash 8... all losts of fun! At any rate, I'm sure to get my act together soonish and will post more often!

In the meantime, I'm pointing you to 'Info for Students: What are Human Rights and Why are they Important?' which is a piece of web design work I did for the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission waaaay back in Sept 2005. The site was launched by the Attorney General and others today, and I'm very excited to see it up online.

Unfortunately, I didn't make it to the launch today, but a quick check of the media release revealed a great quote from a student:

Jessica Bloom, a St Catherine’s of Waverley pupil and winner of the junior section in the 2005 Human Writes essay competition, spoke about the human rights abuses she witnessed first hand in South Africa. She concluded by saying: "Our young people, who will shape the future of our country and the world, desperately need human rights education. The education of today’s young people will give us a generation of informed adults. This is the best way to protect human rights, now and for the future, and there is nothing more worthy of protection."

Well said Jessica! And congrats to HREOC on getting the site launched!

Quickr Flickr with Quickr Pickr

2006-01-21T15:03:00.000+11:00

I just discovered a new groovy way for posting photos to my blog from flickr.

Quickr Pickr allows you to easily select and publish photos from your flickr photostream to your blog. It's set up to post directly to Blogger and Xanga, but is capable of posting to any blog with just a few extra clicks.

From the Quickr Pickr site, I discovered that I can also style the way the photos post myself, which is a great feature for any blogger who knows a little bit of code and/or is obsessed with tweaking her blog @ the moment (okay - I admit it!! ;-p).

Anyway, I used Quickr Pickr to generate the HTML code so I could include some images from my flickr photostream below. It automatically adds the captions from flickr to your post too, which is very nice.

From L-R: Willie, Ellen, Lynn, Jeannie - enjoying Xmas Dinner

Me with Chad and Steve

Libby helping to make the Xmas dinner

Oma and Henry - celebrating Christmas Eve

Steve in his sexy new soccer shirt

Taken from the southern end of the Sea Cliff Bridge

Opa looking surprised @ the farewell dinner for Laura

Dad got some special Madura Tea to take back to Leeds

Joel's sexy new Soccer shirt

Celebrating Renae's Engagement to Wayne.
It was lovely to see her looking so happy!

a quickr pickr post

Learning Languages Online and Multi-lingual stuff:ED

2006-01-20T11:08:00.000+11:00

Learning Languages Online

Lately, I've been downloading Mp3s from Chinesepod.com in an effort to learn a little bit of Chinese, and also to gain some inspiration for some of the podcasting I'm hoping we might do @ the Illawarra Institute in 2006. I've also used Chinesepod.com as an example of great podcasting in many of the workshops held at the TLRU in late 2005.

I'm really enjoying the free service from Chinesepod.com. The podcasts are very engaging, entertaining, funny and informative; and I really like the fact that I'm hearing native speakers from Shanghai, rather than an English or American accent.

Anyway, a few days ago Michael Nelson over @ Live and Let Learn wrote a great post about learning German via podcast @ Deutsche Welle, which inspired me to look a bit further into the 'learning languages' tools and services that are available online.

All I can say is WOW! I discovered some reeaallly interesting stuff......

Learning Dutch

My Mum's family came to Australia from the Netherlands in the 1950s. (You can read about it on the HREOC website.) So, I've learnt some dutch from my family. (especially my Oma, pictured on the right) However, I have to admit my vocab is pretty sad, and my speaking skills even sadder. All is not lost tho! I can learn Dutch @ the following sites:

www.learndutch.nu provides Mp3s, plus grammer and vocab exercises.
Taalthuis Online Dutch Course - includes instructional text and .wav files
DutchGrammer.Com - very handy for learning how to write dutch

I also found some interesting Dutch vocab software for free download.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find a conversational type site for learning dutch, nor any podcasts. Perhaps I need to teach Oma how to use iTunes and my audio recording tools!! ;-)

Learning Japanese

With all the fabulous Japanese Anime out there to watch, Kabuki to see, Bonsai to grow, Japanese Mythology to read, and awesome Japanese gadgets to buy, I'd love to learn some Japanese.

Anyway, I searched around a bit and found lots of interesting resources including:

Free Japanese Lesson! provides some great info on Japanese characters, but its lacking in the audio department.
MIT Japanese Language Program is pretty good - this is course material from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and includes both notes and some audio files.
Tokyo Cube - the language activities here are a little limited, but this site is also full of cool stuff about Japanese culture.

Learning French

I learnt French in Year 7 at Highschool, but I didn't enjoy it much and dropped it as soon as I was allowed to so I could spend even more time in the computer labs and art rooms! Maybe that was because the French teacher taught us from a text book written in 1963!

If only we'd had Sébastien as our teacher, I'm sure I would paid much more attention!! ;-) Check out The French PodClass.

This blog is well organised and includes all sorts of goodies including Podcasts, exercises and transcripts in PDF format and even some Vocab videos in Mp4 format! I like the way Sébastien includes 'musical breaks' and movie reviews in his podcasts too - French music is so cool!

Learning Russian

My step-grandmother is Russian, (pictured right with my Opa) and I love listening to her speak Russian with her daughter and sister. If only I could understand a word or two!!

There are some great resources for learning Russian online. My favourite find was A Spoonful of Russian by Natalia Worthington, who says she wants to create love for the Russian language in my listeners and motivate them to learn more! You can listen to her podcasts via Odeo. There's also an interesting interview with Natalia about why and how she podcasts on The World.org. (Also includes a bit about her experience of Hurricane Katrina and losing her house...she's on leave from podcasting while they rebuild!!)

So much to learn, so little time/ bandwidth!! ;-)

There are lots of other great sites for learning other languages including Italian, Farsi, Spanish, Portuguese and Korean, to name but a few.

Multi-lingual stuff:ED

If you click on the little flags now appearing at the bottom of every post on stuff:ED, you can read my posts in a range of languages. Cool huh!!?

After reading about Leigh Blackall's initial attempt at implementing translation tools on Teach and Learn Online using Google Translate, and his subsequent success using WordLingo, I've finally got my act together and have implemented WordLingo on stuff:ED.

For the geeks out there - there are some great instructions on how to implement WordLingo on Blogger available @ Digital Inspiration. (Sooo easy! Go on - implement it on your blog too!! ;-p)

Anyway, I'd be really interested to hear from any native-speakers of French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, Korean and Chinese have to say about the quality of the translations that WordLingo spits out.

Open Letter to Illawarra Institute Engineers

2006-01-16T22:42:00.000+11:00

Dear eLearning Engingeers,

Firstly, thankyou for attending that workshop back in December!

Secondly, I'm sorry I've been so slow in getting all these links out to you all! I was busy blogging and using Christmas as an excuse to drink red wine! ;-)

However, I'd like you to accept this blog entry as an apology for my slackness and a happy new year wish all wrapped into one!

Below is the long ago promised list of links to all the resources we talked about in the workshop. I decided to turn the list I've prepared into a blog entry - hoping that it might help us to start discussing how you and your staff can use some of these tools in the classroom/ workshop/ workplace in 2006.

Please feel free to pass the link on to colleagues, staff members and others if you wish.

____________________________

1. What is eLearning?

There are a range of interesting websites, blogs and discussion papers that look at what elearning is, what it should be, and the outcomes we should all be aiming for.

Check out the following blogs for some interesting ongoing discussions about elearning, online technologies and education.

2. teacherSmart

The TLRU will be releasing further information on teacherSmart training sessions and other professional development opportunities. However, in the meantime you can check out the teacherSmart website, the teacherSmart Flickr Group and teacherSmart del.icio.us links for an update.

3. Learning Object Repository

A Learning Object Repository is a searchable database that houses digital resources and/or metadata that can be reused to mediate learning.

During the workshop we looked at a number of Learning Object Repositories:

Teaching and Learning Exchange (TaLE)
TaLE provides access to teaching resources developed by the NSW Department of Education and Training.
Education Network Australia (EdNA)
EdNA Online provides a range of services including a directory of useful info about education and training in Australia; and a database of web-based resources useful for teaching and learning.
MERLOT: (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching)
MERLOT is a free and open learning object repository designed primarily for faculty and students of higher education.
AEShareNet
AEShareNet is an online catalogue of learning materials owned by organisations
across Australia.
TAFE Connect Online Showcase
Provides TAFENSW staff with access to TOL Learningware (online courseware) to see if it is suitable for their teaching.

4. Flexible Learning Toolboxes

Flexible Learning Toolboxes (formally known as ANTA Toolboxes) provide electronic resources, suggested learning strategies and supporting materials in a range of subject areas on CD-rom. TAFE NSW buys licenses for the Flexible Learning Toolboxes so that teachers can integrate them into their delivery.

To find out more about the Flexible Learning Toolboxes you can:

Visit the Australian Flexible Learning Framework Website
Read my previous post about attending a Flexible Learning Toolbox Workshop
Contact the TLRU for further info.

5. Creative Commons

The Creative Commons website provides copyright holders with the ability to grant some of their rights to the public while retaining others when publishing works online. The aim is to make it easier for authors to freely share their work with others if they want to.

For further info:

Watch 'Get Creative' the Creative Commons Animation we watched during the workshop
Check out 'Reticulum Rex' - another Creative Commons Animation, which provides information on how Creative Commons has developed.

That second animation is especially exciting...."Free culture in real-time." How inspiring for online educators who want to share resources and network more effectively!

6. New Online Tools/ Technologies/ Developments

Here's the bit that I get all excited about. Below I've listed the new tools and technologies that we explored during the workshop, plus a few extras tacked on for your info.

Answers.com is a free, ad-supported, reference search service, created to provide you with instant answers on over a million topics.

del.icio.us is a social bookmarking, social software web service for storing and sharing web bookmarks. You can check out the teacherSmart del.icio.us links here; and my del.icio.us links here.

Wikipedia is a free content, multilingual encyclopedia written collaboratively by contributors from around the world.

Podcasting is a method of method of publishing audio and video programs via the Internet, allowing users to subscribe to a feed of new files (usually MP3s). Check out:

Flickr is a digital photo sharing website and web services suite. It is free and allows users to upload and share their digital pictures with the world. Check out:

Flickr Homepage
My Flickr Pages - especially the Coffee Photoset as demonstrated @ the workshop
The Flickr Blog

Writely is an online word-processing tool which allows users to share and collaborate on documents. You can use it for all sorts of things (Meeting notes, Reports, technical specs · Sign-up sheets, proposals etc.).

HipCal is an online calendar and to-do list which allows you to keep track of your life. Includes alert tools which can be used to send reminder emails, and has a group calendar tool that looks kind of groovy.

____________________________

So there you go! I hope you all find something interesting to explore in the list above. I'm looking forward to hearing what your thoughts are. I'll be posting a bonus episode in the next few days - the "great online search for PW-50 info" coming soon!

Regards, Jo

PS. I'm working on getting a copy of the truly FAAABULOUS video Les shot @ our workshop for posting online. Don't worry - if I manage to get it up, it will embarass me much more than it will embarass any of you! ;-)

Touched by his Noodly Appendage

2006-01-15T21:11:00.000+11:00

I could write a long, ranty post about why teaching Intelligent Design as an alternative to biological evolution in high schools is a really dumb idea.

Or I could just link to this.

And this. And this. And this! (I want one!) Annnd this.

But the most important thing is to show you what inspired this post in the first place!

Play Flying Spaghetti Monster

Ridiculous web-games are such good time-wasters!

EDITED - 20/1/06 - Look! Even the Pope gets it!

Back to blogging...

2006-01-13T20:24:00.000+11:00

So I've been on a little Christmas season holiday from blogging. Very slack on my part, but too much celebrating (and red wine) will do that.

To celebrate my return, you may have noticed that there's been a redesign, and I've been playing with adding more dynamic content to stuff:ED, including photos from flickr and a feed from my del.icio.us links repository. Hooray! Now I can bore people with endless photos of my cats, (and other stuff - I promise!) and links to various examples of www goodness.

Why is the web amazing?

2005-12-02T22:38:00.000+11:00

"The web developed because we went in the opposite direction – towards openness and lack of centralised control. Unless you believe that some invisible hand of technological inevitability is pushing us towards openness – I am a sceptic – we have a remarkable historical conjunction of technologies."

from: James Boyle: Web’s never-to-be-repeated revolution

Did you know? November marked the 15th Anniversary of the first web page.

Check out this article by James Boyle (Professor of Law at Duke Law School, a co-founder of the Centre for the Study of the Public Domain and a board member of Creative Commons).

You can also view A Short History of the web by Tim Berners-Lee (creator of the WWW).

Computer Science Course via Podcast

2005-12-01T16:35:00.000+11:00

This course is all about understanding: understanding what's going on inside your computer when you flip on the switch, why tech support has you constantly rebooting your computer, how everything you do on the Internet can be watched by others, and how your computer can become infected with a worm just by turning it on. In this course we demystify computers and the Internet, along with their jargon, so that students understand not only what they can do with each but also how it all works and why. Students leave this course armed with a new vocabulary and equipped for further exploration of computers and the Internet. Topics include hardware, software, the Internet, multimedia, security, website development, programming, and dotcoms.
from: Computer Science E-1 website

Sounds like a course we could all gain from - and now you can! Harvard Lecturer David Malan is delivering some the Computer Science E-1: Understanding Computers and the Internet course via podcasts and we're all invited.

For the first time ever, not only are these lectures available in high-resolution RealVideo and RealAudio formats for registered students, the course's first several lectures are also available to the world as a Podcast in video and audio-only formats. Of course, only registered students can receive credit for the course. Many resources, including assistance from the staff and access to certain servers and facilities, are also restricted to registered students. And only registered students can submit problem sets, exams, and final projects for feedback from the staff
from: Computer Science E-1 website

OK - so you can't sit the exams, or have your assignments marked - but other than that pretty much all the learning resources available to the students at Harvard are also available to you via the computer in your living room or office. And, if you've got an Ipod or similar MP3 player, you can learn about computers and the internet on the train, whilst sunbaking at Bondi or when out on your early morning powerwalk. Generally, this type of online course has been delivered in a closed environment - eg. within the safe structure of a learning management system, or on a College or University extranet. However, Computer Science E-1 is being delivered in public - in an online environment that any interested learner can navigate to using common internet browsing software. This is the exciting bit - by opening the virtual doors to the lecture room, a bigger network of learners can grow.

Computer Science E-1is delivered well - using a mix of web technologies to provide the students with lectures, notes and other resources. The structure of the course website is clear and easy to navigate. The software required to view, download and listen to the learning materials are all freely available and generally pretty accessible to all users. Videos of lectures are available throughout the semester, so students can revisit the site to revise for exams or refer to when preparing project work.

It's also interesting to note that David plans to use the site as an instructional tool. Information about the his site's design and technical specifications are included in the 'About the Site' section, with the suggestion that he will discuss this further during the course. I like the duality of this - that the students not only learn from the course content - but also the course delivery tools. This course is just one example of some of the exciting changes currently happening within some learning institutions. Using web-based tools including Podcasting, Videocasting, Blogging and Websites, a whole range of learning resources are made accessible to students, but also to the any interested learner. Check out the links below to view some other examples:

Important Note: To subscribe to the RSS Feed for Computer Science E-1, point your Feed Reader (Aggregation Software) @ http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~cscie1/podcast/

Welcoming New Bloggers

2005-11-18T15:39:00.000+11:00

Day three of the November teacherSmart workshop was held in the TLRU today. Some of the participants created cool new blogs.

Check out:

Keeping Track of the News on the WWW

2005-11-16T00:31:00.000+11:00

Industrial Relations Protest Online

Yesterday I went to a rally in Wollongong to protest against the proposed changes to Industrial Relations laws in Australia. It was pretty amazing to be in a hall full of an estimated 8,500 - 9,000 people making a stand together. It was also pretty interesting to see the live hookup with protest events around Australia. Technology used to enhance the traditional protest model - very cool!

Anyway, when I got home I got online to check out what people were saying/reporting about all of this on the web. Check out the links below:

You can access the official position from the Unions @ www.rightsatwork.com.au

I found various opinions from all sorts of people with a quick search on Technorati - a great tool for searching blogs:

the daily magnet provides a good round-up of the days events
there are pics of the protests held @ Belmore Park to view @ Machine Gun Keyboard
Anonymous Lefty gives us a humourous rundown of his day @ the Federation Square Protest (has pics t00)
At Crapping on about whatever I feel like, you can read a report on the Canberra protests
Jolie makes a bloody good point over at wisththink.org
there are a range of views included on Margot Kingston's Web Diary

WikiNews provided some really interesting information too:

Thousands of Australian workers set to rally against IR reform (check out the history of this document t0 see all the contributors to this article)
Hundreds of thousands rally in Australia against IR legislation (check out the history of this document to see all the contributors to this article)

Sydney IndyMedia, Perth IndyMedia and Melbourne IndyMedia are hosting text, image, audio and video of the event:

There are lots of photos of the rallies held around the country on Flickr:

And of course, I was able to access information from more mainstream news sources:

ACTU claims massive turnout for IR rallies (ABC 7:30 Report, 15/11/05)
Fear and loathing in the CBD (Sydney Morning Herald, 15/11/05)
Howard rejects IR protests (News.com.au, 15/11/05)

The web provides everyone an opportunity to have their say and contribute to the ongoing debate about all sorts of topics important to our community through blogs, forums, wikis etc. It also allows us to keep informed via a broad range of online news sources and is an exciting alternative to mainstream media.

What's your favourite online news source?

teacherSmart Workshop - November

2005-11-14T22:43:00.000+11:00

The first two days of the November teacherSmart workshop happened Thursday and Friday last week. We had a large and enthusiatic group, and it was alotta fun.

It was great to see the group sharing knowledge and learning from each other, rather than just listening to us blither on! ;-)

Check out the photo set @ Flickr to see what everyone got up to.

Flexible Learning Toolbox Customisation Workshop

2005-11-10T23:40:00.000+11:00

Yesterday, I attended a workshop on Flexible Learning Toolbox Customisation at Australian Technology Park in Sydney. It was delivered by Shane Dowd, NSW Toolbox Champion (what a cool title!). The workshop was a great introduction to the toolboxes and the ways they can be used to create training resources for delivery online.

For more info about work Shane does to 'champion' the toolboxes check out his webpage.

For anyone who hasn't encountered the Flexible Learning Toolboxes (formally the ANTA Toolboxes),they are:

"...a collection of resources, suggested learning strategies and supporting material to support online delivery of vocational education and training. They provide high quality resources based on recognised training packages at a fraction of their development cost." (Australian Flexible Learning Network website)

Anyway, Shane gave a great introduction to the toolboxes and where they fit into the Australian Flexible Learning Framework; along with good info on copyright on the toolboxes and where to access the various packages available. He also provided a really good demo of the ways to approach using and editing the material included in the toolboxes.

I enjoyed the workshop alot - and gained a much better understanding of the toolboxes and how we might use them in the TLRU. My only wish was that we'd had some time to actually have a 'tinker' with a toolbox during the workshop, but I guess it's pretty hard to cram it all in to a short space of time.

The exciting thing about these toolboxes is the possibilities presented to use the teacherSmart tools to effectively draw informtion and resources from various toolboxes to create customised learning objects. Many of the toolboxes include interesting assests including reading notes, ideas for assessment activities, sound, image, video and animation which could be used by teachers, to enhance their own resources.

Anway, I'd be intrigued to talk to teachers who are actually using the toolboxes to hear how they feel about ease of use/editing, as I wonder if the process is a little too complex if you don't have tools like teacherSmart, Frontpage or Dreamweaver. However, anyone with some basic knowledge of HTML and a decent HTML editng tool could use these resources really effectively.

For further information check out the Flexible Learning Toolbox Website @ http://www.flexiblelearning.net.au/toolbox/

TAFE Illawarra teachers can contact the TLRU for more information on how you can access the Toolboxes.

teacherSmart Workshop - Day 3

2005-10-21T15:03:00.000+10:00

We had a very quiet, but productive day on Friday with a small group of 'teachersmarters'. The focus of the day was completing Learning Object documents, as well as a short demo of smartConvert.

Lindsay created some great Flickr photo sets for use in a Learning Object about Hazardous Areas.

Cool Tools: flickr Goodness!

2005-10-20T20:33:00.000+10:00

Check out the flickr blog @ http://blog.flickr.com/ to find out about the 'goings-on' of the flickr community. This week you can find out about:

ShoZu - a new tool for uploading photos from your phone (limited release yet, but still cool)
Photos tagged with the word 'divine' - a truly amazing collection
Check 'Fall in the Flickrverse' for beautiful Autumn images
S u d a r s h a n's amazing photos of India

And of course, you can check out the teacherSmart photos to see what we got up to @ the TLRU teacherSmart workshop last week. You can also revise your skills in creating a teacherSmart learning object.

(If you don't know what flickr is, you're missing out! Check out: www.flickr.com or read about the flickr phenomenon @ Wikipedia.

Cool Sites: 20 Technology Skills Every Educator Should Have

2005-10-18T15:45:00.000+10:00

"Not since the introduction of the blackboard have we seen a piece of equipment make such a difference in how we teach."

Check out this very interesting article about the skills all educators should have. It includes a comprehensive listing of the types of technology/software that teachers should know about, plus links to interesting online resources you can use to improve your skills.

http://thejournal.com/magazine/vault/articleprintversion.cfm?aid=5387

stuff:ED Links: Watch del.icio.us bookmarking live

2005-10-16T13:09:00.000+10:00

Check out the Del.icio.us Live Bookmarks service, where you can see the links being added by Del.icio.us users in 'real-time.'

Using Newsfeeds on your blog

2005-10-16T05:10:00.000+10:00

You might have noticed that I've included a Newsfeed in the Left-hand column of stuff:ED. The content that is included down there is being drawn from the EdNA (Education Network Australia) website - specifically from the Recently Added Resources category.

EdNA provides Shared Information Services including Standard Search, Advanced Search, Recently Added Resources, News Headlines, Browse, Event Calendars, Metadata Search, Browse Map, Find Education and Training Providers, and Category Export.

What does that mean?? Basically, it means I was able to include information direct from the to my blog/website. It will update continuously, providing me with sticky content that keeps my readers informed with useful information. Best of all, the newsfeed from EdNA helps to keep my blog current, and once it's set up I don't have to do a thing!

The EdNA Shared Information Service also allows you to get content delivered direct to your desktop RSS reader or handheld device too - but more on that later! ;-)

Notes for the geeks: EdNA's Shared Information Services are available in a mix of XML, HTML, RSS and Javascript options. You don't need a lot of experience to use these services at a basic level. EdNa have put together some great documentation to help you figure out how to add it to your own site.

As you can see, I've used an the tools available @ www.rss-to-javascript.com to create my newsfeed from EdNA. You don't need to be a genius to figure out how to use this tool either - and no javascript skills are necessary. If you can 'cut and paste' and you know a little HTML adding newfeeds with a tool like this is simple!

One last bit: If you want to find out more about feeds that you can subscribe to using RSS check out The Feed Directory, where you can search on topics of interest to you (or your students).

Welcome to Stuff:ED

2005-10-14T21:50:00.000+10:00

Ok... so I know this is the boring (dare I say dreaded) Welcome Post, and it would be good if I could come up with something really profound to say about what I'm trying to do here.....

Anyway... I've decided to start a little blog here on Blogger to share interesting discoveries I've made on the web. I'll be adding links and musing about web-based tools and resources that can be used to create interesting online education resources... and anything else that I decide is kind of cool.

Additionally, I hope I might be able share with others to create new and interesting ways to incorporate technology into education.