Keep in touch with Generation Y!

Ever heard of Urban Dictionary? I subscribe to the feed using netvibes to get the Gen Y word of the day… it doesn’t really help!

another blocked site? feeling stifled? what can you do?

Please Don’t stop the Innovation

The availability and access to these tools and this technology has resulted in so much innovation, collaboration, creativity and excitement from teachers, students, community and industry. While this has been very inspiring, there is obviously material out there, on these spaces, open to the world wide web, that legally shouldn’t be, may be against policy, unsafe, breach privacy and child protection legislation and therefore, those websites get blocked inside the DET world.
I do NOT however, think the solution is to block everything.
So what can we do?

Who’s responsibility is it to guide young people in these spaces? Their parents? Do they understand it themselves? How can we, as teachers, coaches and mentors, guide them in these spaces, prepare them for use of this technology in the workplace if we can’t access them?

There’s an obvious effort by educators to “engage youth, get on their wavelength” (article by Khyiah Angel from the NSW Teachers Federation), there are generation studies emerging at a rate of knots as the Baby Boomers and Generation Jones try to embrace technology, get their head around the effect that video games have had on Generations X & Y, and how this all might affect us in the workplace. How can we do this if we can’t access the technology that our children “live” in and work with?

netvibes Vs Google Reader

First of all, thanks to Sue Waters for posting an introduction of everyone that’s participating in the 31 Day Blogging Challenge created by Darren Rowse. It’s a great way to find out about everyone involved.

Sue, I think you’ve really started something with this netvibes Vs GoogleReader thing with the comments on your post;

“Alex from Miller’s Spin (Australia) may well cause me to be banned from Google forever. Her great screencast of how she uses Netvibes to subscribe to blogs has convinced a lot of bloggers not only to try Netvibes but also to give Jing a go. Which I did – and here is my quick screecast of how I use Google Reader to subscribe to blogs!” Sue Waters

I liked the jing movie you created and have linked to above, it was very informative. I love that GoogleReader let’s you view the blog posts on that one page, that makes life easy! As RSS feed readers go, both netvibes and Google Reader actually do very similar things (I also use iGoogle), but I do find netvibes a little prettier (much like Mac vs Windows) and has more ‘theme’ customisation options. I also love that you can drag pods over the tabs to drop them into different pages.

Steve Jobs and a Field of Women

I flew to Sydney early on Friday August 10th for the ICVET Learning Powerhouse 2007 – Sustaining the Spark conference. It was such a great day for sharing, collaborating, networking with colleagues and viewing product showcases. I must say, I gave my newfound blogging/twitter network a bit of a rap while I was there and I got some interest in the Web2.0 apps we are all using. I was very motivated by some of the speakers. You can see more on my moblog.
So what’s this about Steve Jobs?

On the flight, I was delighted to read in the QANTAS magazine that when recently attending the “All Things Digital” conference with Bill Gates, Steve Jobs was heard referring to recent statistics about iTunes becoming one of the most popular programs for Windows and stated; “It’s like giving a glass of ice water to somebody in hell!”
So, we stayed in Sydney for the weekend for the AFL Field of Women 2007 event (and of course some shopping). This was an amazing event for Breast Cancer Network Australia with 100% of proceeds going to Breast Cancer. Great to see the Sydney Swans (yes I’m a fan) win. More photo’s on Flickr.

It’s new, it’s chrome, it’s sexy and it’s thin

It’s new, it’s chrome, it’s sexy and it’s thin. Apple iMac

Who am I? Why am I writing this Blog?

Build a better Blog in 31 Days
Day 5 Challenge: Conduct an About Page Audit

Well we’re up to Day 6, but I’m still catching up with the Day 5 challenge.

Day 5 is all about the blogger’s About Page. Most readers hit this page to see who you are before they decide whether they want to subscribe to your blog.

Build a Better Blog in 31 days!

Please help me improve my blog…

Darren Rowse has laid down the gauntlet by providing a great opportunity to join others in doing just that, improving their blog – 31 Days to Building a Better Blog – 2007.

I joined this challenge thanks to Sue Waters from Challenger TAFE, WA. Sue emailed me after I made a comment on her content-rich, m-Learning blog. This led me to The Bamboo Project blog, where I read more about the 31 day challenge. So, I started poking around realised that I have slowly been edging into this little community of educational bloggers nationwide, not only through their blogs and wiki’s, but also through Twitter.

One amazing thing about these communities is the sharing of experiences, resources and technology tips… So now, just to let you know that it gets better, by joining this 31 day blogging challenge, there’s an opportunity to win a kilo of chocolate!

Create Engaging Learning Experiences with Jing!

So you want to create some learning materials that engage your learners, but don’t know where to start? Try this free little tool called Jing.

Fishy students use PDA’s in the classroom!

Sue Waters is a part-time aquaculture teacher and educational leader in e-Learning for Challenger TAFE in Perth, Western Australia. She has many online spaces, called Mobile Technology in TAFE on which she shares her thoughts and experiences on and with m-Learning and e-Learning.

Here latest blog post about why and how she uses PDA’s in the classroom is really worth a read – Why I use PDAs in the classroom.

Supporting e-Learning Staff

A training day with a small group of Faculty and Workplace e-Learning contacts was an ideal way for each staff member to catch-up with where the rest of the team is, collaborate and support each other. Looking at one relevant technology and focusing on it’s application for teaching and learning with colleagues seemed to be an extremely succesful way to get engaged and motivated.

Networking with other educational bloggers

Why Blog? Since joining the edubloggers network, I have received many comments from other educators that are using blog’s and sharing the blog’s they use for teaching, exploring technology in education and engaging parents and community. Here are some ideas for educators using blogs: Content-related blog’s for your faculty knowledge sharing Networking and personal knowledge [...]

Free learning materials and tools to enhance your delivery!

I started creating a list of sites offering free online eBooks, audio files, videos, learning tools and materials for educators, then I found this great wiki – Librarian Chick that has so many amazing listings already, I thought why create my own?

Here are a few of the tools and sites listed on – Librarian Chick that I thought were good.
Tiny URL – Have you noticed a lot of the links that come via the Australian Flexible Learning Framework start with http://tinyurl.com? This web tool allows you to transform lengthy URL’s that often get broken up during a copy and paste, into a shorter more manageable URL. Check it out. There’s also a Firefox extension for this.