Fun with images

Here's a list of really cool free sites I use with my students to funk up profile pics, create unique avatars, or just improve the look of blogs or web pages.

Click here for my List

My Favorite Free Web 2.0 Tools

My Favorite Free Web 2.0 Tools @ the moment

1. Twitter - love microblogging - great for knowing the latest and greatest in education - try out this list for contacts
2. Diigo - fab social bookmarking site for teachers. Added features include sticky notes, highlighting, great groups to join and the list feature which lets you create a feature list of sites and then you can play them like a powerpoint presentation to a class.
3. Firefox- best browser without doubt, great addons
4. Ning - create your own scocial network or adapt for teaching a course online
5. Blogger or Edublogs
6. Elluminate - love this video conferencing room
   
7. Moodle or Studeous
   
8. Google and the Google more link including google calender, reader, etc...
9. Wikispaces - just log on and contribute
10. Mahara - eportfolio and resume building online

Learning Styles

A great sites I've recently discovered on learning styles is

http://www.learning-styles-online.com/

This site highlights some recent brain research into learning styles. It includes a quick test to indentify different learning style in students but also emphasizes that instructors/teachers need to incorporate a large range of media in their learning material. This is done best in an online learning environments that is flexible in nature. Click here for more

Questions for me to ponder

Great questions from Ann for me to ponder

You've made a great start with your Ning environment. Your navigation (at the top) is clear and makes sense in relation to your course. Are these standard with Ning or have you customised? I would like to see some of your lovely photos at the top of the welcome page. Is it easy to move the panes around? There is some duplication - i.e. some of the navigation at the top relates to some of the panes on the Welcome page e.g. Forum, Assignments, etc. What level of control do you have over what appears where?So, how do you plan to use these space with your students? I can see that you have been developing the blog for a few weeks now. When will you introduce the blog to your students? Is it a resource for them? Can you track whether they have used it? Can you describe how it fits into your course please? Do you think it will ever stand alone or will it always be part of a f2f course?Ann

Answer from me!

Most of the navigation is the standard tabs in ning however I've added some customised tabs as well. You can move the panes in a similiar fashion to how you can customise your blogger blog. You can also feature tabs on your front/home page eg. your notes for the week or assignment tabs etc. I plan to use this in combination with my blog. I can also feature my blog within the front page of my ning network. I introduce students to my blog right at the beginning of the course because of all the resources that are listed in it. Its hard to see if students have used it. I can check for visitors using googles analytics but its hard to see if they are my students. I can also track how many times my notes have been downloaded. On the other hand its really easy to track who has visited the ning network.I plan to use the blog as a resources for all my photography courses but i also want it to stand alone as a blog for other photography enthusiast. I've added it to the photo blogs registry site.The ning network is solely for the students in my digital photography course. I'll keep this as a close network so only users I approve can log on and view all the pages. I've also set up another ning network for a digital scrapbooking course I'm running at school for teachers. I have about 12 teachers in the network with resources and class notes for them to use. There are also videos and tutorial for them to use and several discussion forums that they are beginning to use with lots of encouragement from me. I find its really working well as an additional resources to faciliate their own learning away from the classroom, I'm encouraging them to upload their finished work on their page for others to view. Its a closed network (private) but you can view the front page here.

Studeous

I've been trialing Studeous within my school environment. It has some really interesting features such as podcast hosting faculties, student progress tracking, a grade book,etc. Students can submit essays or other files privately for marking and you can embed video easily. It has the usually communicate devices such as a whiteboard, text messaging, online chat, discussion boards, blogs. Teachers can also create test, quizzes etc. online. It also has a clean a sleek look. The disadvantages is it doesn't seem to have a week by week lesson layout like Moodle and its not as user friendly as I hoped. Overall, its pretty much designed for school rather than universities or colleges. I'm going to keep on trialing this LMS within my school environment. It's great because other teachers have also signed up to use it. Can wait to see how it goes.

Might also look at Google Groups.

I've also set up a Ning Social network with a group of teachers who are learning to digitally scrapbooking using Photoshop Elements. It seems to be working really well. It's still early days but it's incredible easy to use and set up as a learning system. Have a look.

Using Blogs to Enhance Learning

I've found this great article about using Blogs to Enhance Learning through my diigo social bookmarking site. It discusses the need for teacher to consider if blogging is the right tool for their course/lesson objectives

In Ruth Reynard's piece, “Avoiding the 5 Most Common Mistakes in Using Blogs with Students,”
she states "the use of a blog in the classroom can only be implemented when there are “concepts for students to think through, various resources and content segments to process, or ideas to construct".

She adds “there must be a certain amount of content preparation” prior to implementing any blogging practices within the classroom."

The article continues , "...teachers need to be clear that a blog is an individualized tool for one learner. Yes, students can leave comments on a colleague’s blog that represent a reflection of the material presented. But if a teacher is seeking reactions from a collective group the tool to use would be a wiki or a discussion forum. In essence, teachers must select the proper tool for the task.

I agree. Just because blogging is the buzz word for Web 2.0 doesn't always mean its always the appropriate learning tool to use in all situations. Let me know what you think.

Make your blog more appealing

Do you want to make your blog a little more appealing? Why not embed a widget or gadget into your blog page. These are application that do all sorts of interesting thing eg. create a custom google search based on a topic , embed a visitors counter, add a calender and/or clock, set up a map showing where visitors come from, add news headlines, add a creature like my spider, add a poll/survey, create photo slide show etc etc...

Here how! Go to your layout tab in your blogs or set up menu/page elements. If your using Blogger hit add gadget then start browsing by hitting all the different tabs. There are heaps to browse in Blogger itself. If your using another blogging service such as Edublogs or Wordpress then try any of these sites. (These can be used in Blooger as well.)

Biggest Directory of Widgets
http://www.widgetbox.com

Maps and tables of visitors
http://feedjit.com

Education Widgets
http://learning-activities.org/widgets/index.php?lastadded=added+any+time

Copy the embed code and paste into your add html box or tab and save.

I've discovered that the secret of using widgets is to use only ones that are appropriate to the theme or purpose of your blog. Then they become adjuncts to the discussion in the posts or become useful additional tool for readers to extend their learning. Don't use them just to fill your blog or for the hell of it!

Blogging as a Learning Tool

I love blogging its a great way to reflect on what we are going. I've been using it with students at school. Here's an example I'm working on now. They also love it as a reflection tool once that understanding its uses and how its set up. Its also a great way to encourage students to write. When setting up a blog using something like Blogger or Wordpress you can make your blog a private one. So only people you have given the rights to can view it. You can also have co-contributors to the blog. Their posts get sent to your email for approval before posting. They can also comment on each other's work. Comments can be set up so only you can approve them before posting on the blog. This then becomes a great way to collaborate and share students writing. Edublogs is a great platform for teachers and students to use instead of Blogger because it lets you create student blogs from your account. Students don't even have to have a email. You can set yourself as the administrator to their blogs approving their work as they go.
Here's a great link to learn more on blogging.

At the Moment

At the moment I'm taking part in the NOW Conference. This is a free 3 day online conference exploring online collaboration and creation for schools K-12. Its been really interesting hearing from teachers around the country and how they use E-learning and Web 2.0 with their students. It was also fun trying out video conference using Elluminate. I found out about this conference through twitter. I love twitter. I learn so much from it and continue to make some really useful connections with other teachers. Its my favorite Web 2.0 tool at the moment. My second favorite is Glogster. This is an interactive poster mash up tool. Lets you use video, links, photos, music, artwork to create an interactive poster. This would be useful to display links or other info to a class instead of the usual boring word document. What I like about it is that it's so visual and interactive. Try it out. Here's a great example of a Glog.

I've been playing with Ning, setting out a dummy digital photography course, seeing how it compares to a dedicated Learning Management System like Moodle. I like the visual look of Ning and the tabs set out used to find things. Students can set up their own blog/ page and upload photos easily and incorporate this into a slide show. Video is also easy to upload. This would be a great advantage for my digital photography class. However it would be hard for some students to follow lesson activities especially some students not well versed in the Internet etc.... Moodle has the advantage in this respect. The week by week activities layout is easy and clear to follow in Moodle. I hate the ads in Ning as well.

Here's a great example of a free online learning course called Work Literacy set up in Ning. So it can be done!!!! It's a course set up by the Elearning Guild on Web 2.0 tools for the learning professional. Check it out here.

I'm going to continue to compare Ning and Moodle and their effectiveness as learning tools but I'm also going to try out Studeous which is another dedicated Learning Management System. Like Moodle the software is free to download but it includes free hosting as well. I'm also going to look at another social networking site called Grou.ps. It's suppose to be like Ning but without the ads. Will see! See all my list of links here!

The start

I have been very interested in the area of elearning for many years. It started in 2001 when I received a small grant to write and design a unit on publishing. I had some experience in web design and multimedia previous to this, completing a certificate in web and video . I have continued to design elearning modules and manage our school intranet. I have continued to keep in touch with the lastest Abobe Product and their usefulness in the area of education (Flash, Photoshop, Dreamweaver etc..)

I currently work in a high school supporting teachers and students in ICT. I am familiar with a whole range of Web 2.0 tools including Wikis although I don't have one yet. I however, run a popular digital scrap booking blog with another friend - http://numbbumm.blogspot.com and have set up a digital photography blog and social network for my class which I have just started using - http://sccdpclass.blogspot.com/

I'm obsessed with the new Web 2.0 tool for education eg. blogs, micro blogs, social networking and bookmarking, Ebooks, podcasting, online quiz making etc...

During this (Teaching and Learning - online)course I hope to learn how to use Web 2.0 tools and others such as Moodle to create an effective and cohesive unit of work. I would also like to become more familiar with elearning theory in proving its overall effectiveness as a tool for learning.