Being tagged has it's challenges

Maybe it is a smaller world than we think...in the last couple of days I have been tagged by two 'bloggers' that I regularly read. Thanks Cherie and John. The challenge is of course to then tag another 8 bloggers and I presume without tagging the ones that have tagged me. Now that's a bit of a challenge because when I read who they have tagged they are ones that I might have tagged as well. Tricky, you see.
But the task is first to follow the rules:
1) Post these rules before you give your facts
2) List 8 random facts about yourself
3) At the end of your post, choose (tag) 8 people and list their names, linking to them
4) Leave a comment on their blog, letting them know they’ve been tagged

1. I live in Charlton, a small town in North West Victoria and have lived here almost all my life.
2. I have travelled to Switzerland; Portland, Oregon; London; Seoul, Sth Korea; Cook Islands; New Zealand; sometimes for work and sometimes for pleasure
3. I have two children, Hannah and James.
4. Of five siblings, I am the only one who has remained in my hometown. My brother and sisters live in Bendigo, Brisbane and Zurich, Switzerland.
5. I teach at the school where my husband is principal. We have worked in schools together for most of our careers and seem to manage this very well.
6. I taught my daughter Hannah in Grade 4. The only thing she tells me she didn't like about it was that I never chose her for anything. I guess I didn't want to be accused of favouritism.
7. My great uncle, the later Gus Parish was once manager of BHP.
8. I grew up on a wheat and sheep farm.

And I'm not going to be able to tag as many as 8. I hope that people don't mind me doing it. I found it much harder than I thought because I know that a couple of you have been tagged in recent days. Not sure what this means for the progress of this tag but anyway here goes...

Now for the tagging
Vicki

Tom

Chris

Darrel

Adrian

Mash Up awards

I just came across this great website http://mashupawards.com when I was looking for a definition of mashable content on the web. That led me to bookr - the winner of today's award. What a cool little application. I can see how we could create lovely little books for kids to read on the web using images that we have taken and posted into flickr. It takes no time at all to put something together and then to embedd it into a blog or a wiki. Put as many pages as you like .

This isn't a great example but you'll get the idea.

Blogged with Flock

Flock

I've just been skyping with Chris Betcher, chatting about this and that...mainly school and webby stuff. He's been raving about Flock lately in his blog and mentioned it again tonight so thought I'd check it out. Just quietly, I think he might be right. It looks pretty cool. I think I'm going to have fun playing with this new browser. In fact this is my first post using the Flock "create a new post" button. It says only one click to post and it's right. COOOOL !

Blogged with Flock

Oz teachers - the best mailing list in the educational world

OzTeachers is the most prolific and supportive mailing list that I have ever seen. It is amazing how generous and supportive the teachers are who belong to it. I honestly don't think I would have learnt a quarter of the things I have learnt over the last few years about computer technology and now Web 2.0 without the wisdom of all these wonderful educators. I have just been reading a really interesting discussion on the list about the use of social bookmarking in schools and in particular the popularity of delicious. It seems that there are a few teachers out there who are using delicious as a very effective bookmarking tool for students and teachers when researching topics required for school projects. I wonder however how much those who contribute so prolifically to the list are not the norm. I suspect so. I think we are still a long way from seeing the use of these tools as part and parcel of the reportoire of a student's or a teachers for that matter researching strategies. I guess it's our challenge to start making inroads.

I love PageFlakes

I know that I have written about PageFlakes before and raved about the convenience and value of it as a personal homepage and repository for regularly visited webpages, links and much more. This morning I opened up my pageflakes to see that it's been revamped again with lots of new widgets and flakes and a whole new look. There is even a flake now called Anything Flake which is one that anyone can use to design and create for themselves.

"The new Anything Flake lets you add any type of content from text to images or even build custom HTML applications. This Flake can be used to personalize pages and Pagecasts even more fully.

For non-technical users, its WSYWIG editor lets users write text, add images, or grab URLs or other content from the Web and drop it in. Essentially, If you can use Microsoft Word, you can make a Flake. For example, a new mom or dad might copy images from their digital camera and paste them into their Pageflakes page or Pagecast.

Advanced users can take the Anything Flake much further using HTML and Flash components.

COOL !!!

VideoJug

It seems that everywhere we turn these days someone is mentioning YouTube and the incredible way good videos on YOuTube can be spread across the world by work of mouth (or email) in a matter of what seems like minutes. In my experience most teachers still do not use the power and the ease and the accessibility of video to support, teach, enhance, influence, engage etc etc in the classroom. I have blogged before about Teacher Tube and the great things that are on it. Today I came across another site called VideoJug that is basically life explained on video. vidoes are tagged according to group or topic. e.g. How to clean your house the green way or How to put out a candle without blowing it.
People can even post requests for things that they would like to know and they then hope that someone will post a video to answer the request.
There is a whole section devoted to education with some amazing historical footage Check out in particular the section on learning.

Working with teachers and blogging for blogging's sake

I have been struggling my health a little bit lately, hence the blogging has suffered. But each time I think about it and not post, I realise that I'm losing the momentum. And I don't want to do that. The stream of thought that comes with blogging is really important.
So to keep things going I'm going to be a little kind to myself and rely on the generosity ( and brainpower) of others to ensure that I have something reasonably interesting to post.
Chris Betcher recently blogged about Bryn Jones 11 Things that make a difference in using ICT to improve learning.
Briefly they are
1. Emotional Support
2. A shared pedagogical understanding.
3. A constructivist philosophy
4. At least 4 computers per classroom
5. Help to access appropriate material
6. Just in time technical skills and support
7. Reliable infrastructure
8. Access to professional development(but not necessarily participating in it)
9. Links from home to school
10. Leadership
11. Flexible Learning Space
All of these factors ring really true to me in my role at school. For me personally I would add another couple. One is persistence. Most days I try to be like the blow up clown that is weighted at the bottom so that no matter how hard you hit it, it will keep bouncing up. I must admit lately I have really felt like staying down. But any change takes a long time and so in my role I have to accept that I just have to keep bouncing back, presenting ideas and encouragement over and over again until someone takes up an idea. (or until they are so sick of me they do it to shut me up)
Another is time. I am extremely lucky in my job to be able to devote a lot of time to learning and exploring exactly what is out there. (and I get paid for it!) If I was a full time classroom teacher I know I would still be passionate about technology but I wouldn't have the time to learn as much. I know I'm slightly twisting Chris's intent here but in Chris's post called The Challenge of being a Life Long Learner he talks about the relentless aspect of lifelong learning. And it's true. The nature of the web makes it even more so. So what teachers need is time to explore, to learn and to practise.
I'm sure there are lots more but that will do me for now. Thanks Chris and Bryn. You don't even know it but you are helping me through a rough patch.