Probably not as the Urban Dictionary is blocked within the DET network. I subscribe to the feed using netvibes (more on RSS and netvibes) to get the Gen Y word of the day.

Let me share a few gems with you.

wifive August 20

Short for Wireless High-Five, used when you want to give a friend a high-five, but you are further then arms reach from each other. It doesn’t involve any physical contact.

work hot August 19

A person that may or may not be hot, but is the most attractive person in the set of people you work with so you lust after him/her.

Keep in touch with Gen Y, Urban Dictionary has mySpace and Facebook plug-ins.

I also have some resources on this wiki space.

While I was there, I found this very cool T-Shirt site, Busted Tees.

Here’s a few of my favourites;

Sue Waters raises some interesting and very valid points in her latest post that are definitely worth some discussion;

What can we do about policies that are stifling innovation in educational uses of technology?

This is a very interesting topic and perhaps worthy of further exploration.

The above blog post couldn’t come at a more appropriate time for me. I am currently witnessing, first hand, a substantial growth in the use of open websites in the form of wikis, blog’s and other social networking sites/web tools for the purpose of educational resource and corporate knowledge sharing.

I am also, today, feeling quite disturbed by the number of stories I am hearing about cyberstalking, cyber and text bullying and harassment of young people.

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?

Maybe we need to change our thinking?

Unless we raise our own awareness about these issues, and start being more proactive about privacy, copyright legislation, etc, then unfortunately, I think we are likely to see more sites getting blocked and there’s probably very little we can do about it.

I have had many conversations recently regarding the above and whilst there is some awareness of privacy laws, legal requirements, corporate policies, there is, evidently, a substantial lack of knowledge, not only about how the technology actually works, but also about copyright, licensing, child protection laws, privacy legislation, compliance issues, etc.

I believe that we must very quickly engage in discussion about building and sharing knowledge around the above issues. We need to start developing policies and guidelines in a friendly language that are supportive and start a framework for building capability in our workplaces.

Perhaps then, we might start to see some positive changes.

What are your thoughts?

Please comment.

Some Resouces

• The Copyright Kitchen is a user-friendly resource for those working in vocational education and training (VET). It breaks up copyright information into categories built around who you are, where you work and the task at hand. Check out their list of Resources!

• Youth Privacy Issues
• DET Child Protection Training
• To see if a site is blocked at DET, run the site through the web filter here. You will need to use your DET username and password.
• Gmail Warning to students and teachers by Frances McLean

Do you get the vibe?

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.

It’s also good to see everyone getting into jing.

Also, thanks to Kate Quinn from Waxlyrical (Australia) (also loving Netvibes) for setting up a netvibes page to follow our 31 Day Blog challenges. I updated this yesterday – click the button to add this to your Netvibes page.

Facebook Meet Netvibes: Netvibes Introduces the Facebook Widget

So you haven’t heard much from me on twitter or seen a blog post lately and you’re wondering where I’ve been for the past few days (unless of course you’ve been watching my moblog… then you’d know), right?

Well, I have been away and now I’m back and I’m a little behind – I wish that were actually the case, I’ve been eating my way through Sydney this weekend and I’m sure my behind is not so little

Travel account

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!”

There’s some footage here.

What Field of Women?

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.

What Blog Challenge?

And now…. to catch up on my tasks for the 31 Day Blog Challenge…

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.

Tips:

• Rework your “About Page” regularly.

• Visit Darren Rowse’s post on some of the aspects to include in an About Me Page.
  Include; your photo, blog objectives, introduce yourself, “How To” understand parts of your blog (like RSS, categories, comments, etc), point people to key articles in your blog and add your contact details!
• Transparency: Be as transparent as possible, list your interests, “jobroll”, objectives and other online spaces. I like to visit blogger’s about page to see what I may have in common with them before I dig deeper or subscribe or even email if I like it that much!
• Engagement: There is just so much ‘content’ out there. So much to read. Research shows that Gen Y don’t read a great deal, they like a summary – “Just the facts maam”; unless of course you’re part of their social network, then bring it on, as long as it’s fun and interesting. I stop to read and respond when I see humour and personality.
• Highlighting Key Pages: I know I haven’t done this, so I can’t really comment, other than to quote Darren Rowse’s key points to how to propel readers deep into your blog:
  “Is there an article that you’re particular proud of that sums up what you’re blog is about? Is there a sponsor you want to highlight? Is there a page with an income stream that you’d like to expose all your readers to? Are there some categories that you’d like to highlight?”

Please visit my About Page and come back here to comment (before I rework it using the abovementioned tips – even though I’m REALLY tempted). I look forward to receiving some constructive feedback.

View my 31 Day Journey

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!

This challenge started on August 1st, 2007. It involves a small daily task to improve your blog and your blogging community network.

Personal Goal for this challenge

As the leader of a team of teaching staff, exploring the use of technology in teaching and learning (North Coast Institute, TAFE NSW), this challenge provides me with the opportunity to share my experience with this team and start conversations about how, and why, to build better blogs for classes, industry and to improve internal communication.

And now to catch up…

Reader Challenges

• If you have a blog, why not join this challenge. Sure, time is an issue, but looking at Darren’s statistics, a worthwhile investment.
• Add your own blogging tips to your blog and invite readers to comment. Have a look at these great tips, compiled by Darren Rowse.
• Read my blog tips; improve your edu network and get more visitors…
• Subscribe to the RSS feed of a couple of great blog improvement sites; Copyblogger and Problogger
• Sign up with MyBlogLog and check out these tips

Day 1 Challenge: Email a new reader…

If you read this blog, please comment on this post and let me know who you are and why you are reading. I would like to email you and maybe even find out how I can improve my blog for you.

To follow my findings from these challenges and tips, visit this page of my blog.

View my 31 Day Journey

With Jing , you can create effective media-rich learning material, provide instruction, demonstrate how to use a web site or a software application, record everything you do and pass it along AND it couldn’t be easier to use!

Capture audio and screen movements easily with Jing!

Thanks to Joanna Kay from the Illawara Institute, I have been playing with a really cool, free Web2.0 tool called Jing.

So what exactly is Jing?

Jing is a free program that allows you to capture what’s on your screen (for all the visual learners out there). You can very easily add arrows and text boxes to highlight points of interest and provide instruction to learners. You can even capture screen movements and audio, which are outputted as a little video/ flash files (you’ll need a microphone/ headset), you can then save these to your computer, or if you sign up for an account, it will automatically upload to their server and give you the URL (link), which you can then email or IM to learners.

Sound like Adobe Captivate?

Yes, it’s a bit like Adobe Captivate, but it’s free. It doesn’t have as many features as Captivate, nor does it offer you the same level of editing ability. It does keep a history of the files you create and it allows you to store them somewhere else (which is great if you’re using the same account at home and at work) AND if that’s not enough, Jing has a Mac OSX version, yay Jing!

What does Jing look like?

Well, it’s a cute little yellow program that sites on your desktop like in the image below.

It’s easy to use. – Just watch this video tour.

Have a look at my first attempt – My first attempt was pretty ordinary, you can take a peek here.

Hints & Tips
* Keep your recordings short and sweet
* Script what you are going to say because you can’t edit it
* Keep your screen to a minimum size so everyone can see it!

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.

Besides her blog, she also has a couple of other Mobile Technology in Education online spaces;

• Sue’s podcast site has lots of great audio and video podcasts of interviews with people using the technology.
• Sue’s wiki site documents how the technology is being used and provides “how to” tips.

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.

What we learnt

1. One thing at a time - focus on one tool that you feel will be relevant to your workplace/ faculty and set it up
2. Connections and teamwork – make connections and network with each other, share ideas and resources and look at what other team members are doing.
3. Ask for help - don’t be afraid to ask for help, exploring problems and solutions together is a great way to explore technology.

What next?

1. Look at your personal plan. How are you going?
2. Communicate with you Faculty about what you can offer
3. Keep in touch withme, I can help you, give you some direction and connect you with each other

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 sharing with colleagues and industry
• Hints and tips, course announcements and additional resources for students
• Useful course links

Here are some ideas for students using blogs:

• Knowledge management and sharing
• Reflective writing, journals and scrapbooks
• Assignment submission and review, leave your comments
• Groupwork networking and resources sharing space for course-related resources
• E-portfolios

How To

More great blog ideas

If you have a blog or are using a blog, join the network by clicking on the image below. It’s amazing who you meet and collaboration with.

• Australian eduBloggers Wiki
  

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Here are a few of the tools and sites listed on – Librarian Chick that I thought were good:

Resources

• LearnOutLoud.com – offers the Internet’s largest directory of audio and video learning resources. Browse the catalogue of over 10,000 available titles including audio books, MP3 downloads, podcasts, and free educational audio & video…
• FreeLoadPress – Free online textbooks
• 4Teachers – Integrate technology into your classroom with free online tools and resources
• PlanetPDF – Huge archive of free PDF books
• SuTree – An index of free video lessons, video tutorials, lectures and how to guides

Tools

• Awesome Powerpoint Tutorials – Tutorials on how to create text-FX, transparencies, DVD’s etc.
• Create A Graph – Quickly create graphs and charts
• PowerPoint Templates for Teachers – PowerPoint resources for educators
• Thumbstacks – Create and share presentations on the web
• i-Lighter – The yellow highlighter for the web
• GroupLoop – Simple web-based software to organize your group
• MindMeister Basic – Hold online real-time brainstorming sessions with friends and colleagues

And one tool that isn’t listed;

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.