Here’s an index of blog posts about each session;

Day 1 at Moodle Moot 2008

• Informative Keynote #1 - Martin Dougiamas , the Founder and Lead Developer of Moodle
  
• Maximising the use of the Moodle Gradebook - Shane Elliot | Pukunui Technology
  
• Diving into e-Learning, building capability and enthusiasm to use an online learning environment for an outdoor bunch - Bronwyn Campbell | Active Learning Partners
  
• Using Moodle for podcasting,  with Julian Ridden | St Ignatius College
  
• Rich content for Moodle on a Budget with Rhys Moult | BJ Network Consulting
  

Day 2 at the Moodle Moot 2008

• Inspiring Keynote # 2, Today’s Kids, Tomorrows Creatives - Professor Erica William | Assistant Dean for the Faculty of Education, QUT - Post1 | Post 2
  
• Moodle Themes Development, with Julian Ridden | St Ignatius College
  
• Eye-Tracking Moodle, Moodle accessibility and usability- Dr Daniel Woo | University of New South Wales
  
• Moodle from a students perspective, with Year 12 students Jane Symons & Anna Prokop | All Hallows’ School
  
  

Flickr is a great tool for backing up your photo’s and sharing them with your friends and family. It also integrates with Facebook, so you can upload your photo’s to Flickr and facebook at the same time (just in case your mates don’t have a facebook). If you use iPhoto, you’re even luckier because you can yupload to both sites from within your iPhoto application… If not, get yourself a Mac!

Check out the great instructional material on the NSW e-Learning Innovations wiki. You’ll also find the following video….

If you use Flickr, please leave a comment here with your Flickr address so we can add you as a contact in Flickr. That way when we next visit Flickr, we can see your latest photo’s.

Had a great weekend in Brisbane…so many idiots on the road though!

Best thing? We got to see my 5 year old nephew Angus and spoil him rotten.

How cute is he? More photo’s here.

So where to start?

Sites like pbwiki and blogger are a great place to start, but edublogs seems to have more features and add-ons. There are many teachers successfully using these tools in the classroom to upload/point to resources and engage students through collaborative discussion, resource sharing and to monitor and engage in student work.

Use of online tools, like Facebook, Flickr, del.icio.us and Lastfm are increasing in people’s day-to-day life. These tools are used to network with others, in order to learn, knowledge share and collaborate with like minded people, to keep in touch with faimly and friends easily, without having to be a web designer or programmer.

The demand for easier, efficient and more flexible ways of teaching and learning is rising. Interest in web-based learning and exploring new technology for more engaging delivery is increasing as the much discussed generation gap becomes more of an issue as Gen Y hit the workplace.

So, I made this blog to share my journey of discovery, research and findings with friends and colleagues. Since I’ve started many of them have also created their own blogs and wiki’s, started Facebook groups, uploaded images to sites like Flickr and much more.

How I Made this Blog….

I tried setting up with blogger, but I didn’t get the flexibility I was after. I wasn’t going to learn enough myself.

So I visited one of my favourite blogs to see how it was made. Veerle’s Blog is Powered by some blogging software called Expression Engine. It looked great, so I downloaded the software and read the instructions. It involved setting up an MySQL Database and configuring some php pages. Although I’ve worked with this type of technology before, I really didn’t have time to revisit it.

So I went hunting for a more simple option. I already have a web space (web hosting) and wanted to use my own domain name (flairandsquare.com) and download additional plug-ins and themes to use with my blog (because I’m a nerd).

The solution…

This is when I found Wordpress. You can sign up with Wordpress and get your own blog, with many themes and customisation readily available.

BUT, Wordpress actually offers to install everything to your web space for you for free - Install4Free (very handy). I provided them with my hosting details and within a day, it was all ready to go.

BlueHost is a great service if you want your own space. They’ll also help you with the set-up.

Note: once it has been installed, you’ll need to delete your old default page from your web space.

Once it’s all set-up, you need to log in to your new blog (with the provided details) and you are then free to explore the features of your own wordpress blog.

The first thing I did was choose a theme for my site. I chose the iTheme initially, which I downloaded after searching for free Wordpress themes (here are some good sites for them). It’s very cool (looks like a Mac desktop and you can click and drag the boxes in the sidebar on the right around), it took some configuring, but the simplicity that resulted was worth it I think. I’ve now moved on to a more complex theme as my knowledge of coding and blogging and RSS has increased and I wanted a more ‘magazine style’ layout.

The free WordPress Blog has many themes and plug-ins already set-up for you to use. WordPress is also the power behind edublogs, which I highly recommend for flexibility, creativity, choice of themes and plug-ins.

Things I’ve Learnt

• Make sure you choose a theme and set-up your plug-ins before adding content.
• Back your site up regularly while you’re building it (if you are using wordpress on your own server, otherwise, you don’t need to worry about this part)
• Create lots of profiles in all the social networking sites (listed below) and list your site in as many places, or on as many sites as you can. This will improve your blog rating and ranking in Google, as will visiting other blogs and leaving comments.
• Don’t do it yourself when there are so many good free options for educators out there that offer everything you will need.
• Explore, try, fail. Explore. Try something else.

This podcast covers the use of Adobe Connect as ‘Virtual Classrooms‘, the use of various Social Networking and collaboration tools, such as wiki’s, blog’s and Facebook to engage trainee’s in industry.

Linda also talks about the mutual benefits to TAFE and Industry and the importance of these tools for life-long learning.

You can visit the podcast site here.

Why?

For a better customer experience, a satisfied customer, to be competitive. The next generation is coming (Generation Z) and they are more fashion and design conscious than ever before. Be ready!

Observe;

| View | Upload your own

Here are some photo’s I took of the new Apple store in Sydney last week.

“Social media is an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio. This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and “building” of shared meaning among communities, as people share their stories, and understandings. ” Wikipedia

How can Social Media help provide a better service?

Watch this great video by Commoncraft;

Social Media in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.

I know I haven’t posted much these days, but I couldn’t resist this, it just amazes me…

Click to view

I twitter, do you? Have you seen the video below from Common Craft about Twitter?

Not sure what Twitter is?

“Twitter is on its way to becoming the next killer app.” Time Magazine

Heard of micro-blogging? It’s a brief form of blogging, short blog posts, there’s usually a character limit of 200 or less, like Twitter’s limit of 140 characters.

It’s a bit like Reality TV on the net. Your network of ‘friends’ tell you how long they’ve been waiting for the train, what they are listening to on their iPod, what they are eating and what they are wearing to bed. It’s short and it’s sharp.

You’ll read what they are presenting and at what forum, you’ll read what happened in their class that day or what amazing discovery they have made.

How does my network use Twitter?

I’ll invite them to comment on why they like Twitter, but mostly, I see them sharing educational resources, asking each other for support and advice, and making friends. They notify each other of the latest educational news and happenings, not just locally but internationally. It’s a fantastic way to keep your collaborative networks real, alive, dynamic.

Twitter is a great and convenient way to interact, you can post ‘Tweets’ from your mobile, on the Twitter website, from twitter widgets inside Facebook, edublogs, wiki’s and even from within Second Life. I can put a Twitter widget just about anywhere so I can keep an eye on the conversation. I can even add a Twitter widget to my netvibes/ RSS feed reader so that I can read and communicate with educators, friends and family all over the country.

What cool things have I discovered about Twitter?

A little secret I’ll share with all of you, you can actually add a Twitter application into your Facebook profile that updates your Facebook profile everytime to post a Twitter. So you don’t need to go into Facebook to update your profile.

Try it! It’s fast and it’s fun!

A blog can be a great way to communicate with everyone at the same time, thus avoiding the giant email recipient list (as my parents have just found out here). You ‘post’ an update on your blog and your readers can then leave their comments as and when is suitable and the conversation begins.

Interesting problem – Where do I leave my comment?

Some bloggers tell me they don’t allow any commenting on their blog because it changes the way they write, or it takes too much time to monitor. However, so many people ask me “how do I leave a comment on a blog?”

Whenever I visit a blog and wish to comment, I always have to go hunting for the comments link. I watch others go hunting as well. People that blog and visit blogs may know what to look for, but what about the people that don’t?

Admittedly, as bloggers we can make it easier for them by inviting them to comment within our blog post. As I have done at the bottom of this post (but I don’t do it enough!), this tip came via the 31 day blog challenge I participated in last year (thanks to Problogger) and is a great tip.

So, for those of you wanting to leave a comment, here’s how;

*please note, this will not be the same on every blog. The link will often be a different colour, to match the blog theme/ style.

If you have any comments on this, please leave a comment here.

]]> http://www.flairandsquare.com/archives/210/feed http://www.flairandsquare.com/archives/209 http://www.flairandsquare.com/archives/209#comments Thu, 17 Apr 2008 23:35:48 +0000 alex miller http://www.flairandsquare.com/archives/209 Happy 1st Birthday to my blog!

Today is my blog’s 1st birthday.

I can’t believe it’s been a year since I started this blog. It’s really quite amazing when I look back through all the entries, I realise what a collection of resources I’ve built up. It certainly has been an interesting journey, the collaborative aspects of blogging are certainly greater than I expected.

Oh and happy birthday also to my good friend Micah who is currently in Perth! I hope your day is completely fantastic!!

Other blog birthday wishes.

Happy birthday to these top bloggers!

• Sue Waters – April 15^th
• Darren Draper – April 19^th

]]> http://www.flairandsquare.com/archives/209/feed http://www.flairandsquare.com/archives/204 http://www.flairandsquare.com/archives/204#comments Thu, 17 Apr 2008 11:21:17 +0000 alex miller http://www.flairandsquare.com/archives/204

It not just Dad’s blog that has re-engaged me, it’s the fact that he’s getting more comments than me… and not only does he fancy becoming a professional blogger in his retirement, but his latest blog post indicates that my mother is soon to join him on the blogging bandwagon!

Is nothing sacred?

I am left wondering what exactly I have done do deserve this. Is this the evolution of parental/sibling humillation?

And why do his posts get so many comments? Is it because of his grumpy old man pictures? Is it the colloquial way he writes? Is it because he has more friends that are interested in his trip?

Do I now need to consider what I blog about? Should I make it more personal? Enough is enough. I MUST keep up. Shame on me for being slack.

Tomorrow is my blog’s first birthday for God’s sake!