Interesting stuff I’ve found

This is a bit of a list of interesting things I’ve found in the past day or so. I hadn’t realised there was such a community of people interested in technology in education or tech-eds as I just read. I know I could (indeed should, and probably will) bookmark this stuff on del.icio.us, but one of the reasons I started this blog was to log my research because I know that I just won’t go back and look it all up on del.icio.us.

• Human: for fellow teachers
• Learn 4 Life
• ICT in my classroom
• Tania Kennedy at UTS
• Teaching with Technology: Practical ideas for using Web2.0 in the Primary Classroom

Also, after having spent some time looking at edublogs (reading other peoples’ blogs), I’m loving the look of the pages. This is because edublogs is powered by WordPress, and therefore is themeable/skinable. So, my next task (once I’ve read those blogs a bit and got some more ideas) will be to transport my blog over there.

I am really glad I shifted my blog to edublogs. There are so many interesting blogs hosted here, the interface is so much more user-friendly, and I got to choose a theme for my blog. I might not stick with it, but for now it’s better than the standard theme. I guess that’s something I can tick off the blog-checklist.

Blog Design Checklist
Check this list to make sure you included all the items. To get an “A,” your blog must have all these features.

-Pick a theme – you can’t use the default (the original theme).
-Your theme choice must have at least one sidebar.
-You must create a new title for your blog.
-You must have a quote under your blog’s title (or in a widget).
-You must have all the required widgets (you decide the order, add more if you want to):
o Pages
o Links
o Recent Posts
o Archives
o Recent Comments
o RSS 1
o Meta
- You must create and upload an avatar. Go to the LMSResources wiki (http://lmsresources.pbwiki.com) and click on the “For Fun and Learning” page for links to avatar sites.
-Your blogroll must have at least two links:
o a link to Beginnings (http://lmsilgunas.edublogs.org)
o a link to LMS Resources (http://lmsresources.pbwiki.com/)
- You must have erased all the default items.
- You must add your first post.
- Leave respectful, thoughtful comments for the people in your group.

I think this may come in handy if I use blogs in my teaching next year, and if I don’t at least it’s something that I can aspire to with my own blog

Also, I found Dave Truss’ post on Blog Rules which may be handy.

10

The other day as I was wandering around the Net I found Tom Barrett’s blog over at edublogs.org. That’s the sort of thing I’m intending to achieve here in my blog. The description he uses to describe his blog is “Space for me to explore my ideas and experiences of ICT in my classroom.”

I’m really liking the idea of using blogs in my classes. I’d like my students to use the blog at least once a week, probably every double lesson, as a journal. I’m thinking of giving them a list of suggestions of things to blog about. Which may include some (or all) of the following:

• Reflect on what you’ve learnt/achieved so far
• Describe what you would like to learn/achieve
  • within the current topic/project
  • within the umbrella of the subject
• Reflect on how you have worked with others
• Reflect on how you have worked so far.

I’ll come back to this list at a later date (maybe find a resource about journalling before I go much furthur with this idea).

I also found a very interesting page over at edublogs about how/why to use blogs in classroom settings. Maybe I can find some other sources for suggestions like this.

Apart from journalling I’m sure we could find other uses for blogs (as edublogs suggest). It might be a useful tool to help my students collaborate.

Tags: thought blogging
Posted at 10:42AM Nov 05, 2008 by Claire Adams

So, here’s my first post:

The first

Well, I’ve been doing lots of research and reading. I’m actually quite excited about returning to work next year. I’ve found lots of ‘potentially’ useful things around the place, and noticed that lots of them popped up on blogs. This got me thinking, really thinking. I knew I couldn’t rest until I’d begun the journey of blogging myself.

I’m really keen to write down my thoughts about my research and teaching as a way to further think through, rethink, critique and analyse it all.

I’m not sure what subjects or year levels I’ll be teaching next year, but I hope to incorporate IT into whatever it is. I’m particularly interested in doing some work with online tools (which may be tricky given the hardware I’ll have available) but it seems easier than installing new software.

I’d like to maybe use edublogs to facilitate some collaborative work amongst my students. I’ve also seen some really cool ‘wall display’ ideas tonight that my students could construct as assessment pieces (yay for authentic assessment).

Tags: thoughts
Posted at 11:13PM Nov 03, 2008 by Claire Adams