Vimeo Free Video Hosting 500MB/Week

I am really impressed with this free service. When you post to your site you can view as a whole page! 500MB free per week is very good. You can also choose to share or keep it private. WOW!

Working in kG all day!

Today I really got stuck into my facilitated page in kG. I added a heap of links for Blog Hosts and Video hosts. I have added links to other students from FET 8611. I will visit their blogs and leave a comment. Oh and Phil's blog taught me about this nifty previewer wigit called snapshots which I have installed here. Thanks Phil! I also got the chat thing from him too.

Stocks and Flows

How do the concepts of “stocks” and “flows” relate to the information flow in this course? And in other courses you have done?



CC Creative Commons

How do the ideals of Creative Commons relate to the realities of life in the digital world?
I must admit that I didn’t even realize that copyright was instant. I thought that you had to apply for it. The CC appeals to me because in education it can be really confusing when you want to stage a play or make a film for your class and you need to borrow from others. I really like the idea that I can make it official that my online photos or writing can be shared.

What sort of Creative Commons license should we apply to the course wiki?
I think this one  Attribution should be used for our course wiki - “You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your copyrighted work — and derivative works based upon it — but only if they give credit the way you request”. This allows artistic freedom but gives credit to the author.
I have one question for you all;
How can you tell who is the true author? What happens if I use something from the Internet with CC that has been plagiarized from somewhere else? I mean how could I know?
And, what if I created a similar artifact to someone else and then made it CC, and then the other person found out and got angry. I mean it could happen right?

The Read/Write Web

How significant has the development of the read-write web been in your personal or professional life? What about the lives of your colleagues or friends?
To be honest the Read/Write web has only become write enabled for me this year. Before I used it to get information and send email and that’s all. Through doing this Masters of Education Technology I have been introduced to the Internet in a whole new way. I am a learning-by-doing person so I have taken these new skills directly into my classrooms. Here I have influenced my colleagues and my school with my class blogs and my activity in online groups such as Facebook etc. Nobody at my school had ever heard of a blog before I started using them early this year. Now we have class sites using Google Apps and other classes are using weblogs as well. I f eel so lucky to have so much support. My partner teachers have had mixed responses. Some love it and have worked with me in creating all kinds of stuff, some are interested but don’t really participate and some are too scared.
Do you believe that some people simply don't understand the concept of the read-write web? Yes, because I was one of them not so long ago. Many teachers are intimidated by technology and so many Christian teachers are downright scared of the content on the Internet. I have had many arguments about this. And some, like me in the past - just didn’t know that it is so easy to publish on the web. My son has 2 websites and a blog and he is 8! He wants me to buy him a domain for Christmas www.riam.com
And what about people who simply can't see it any other way?
Well now I can’t imagine now working without the Internet. When my class computer has a virus or the Internet connection won’t work I feel really quite cut off! It has become such an integral part of my teaching. My students tell me that they race home to log into their blogs and check their email. I love the fact that I can go to Facebook and catch up with friends from all over the world. I saw my friend get married - she lives in Canada and only yesterday I found my best friend from boarding school whom I haven’t heard from for 22 years. She saw my page and sent me a message. That’s amazing!

Intimacy with Digital Tools and Toys

Have you experienced people interacting with ICT tools in a way that suggests that the person thought the machine was “alive” or had an “emotional state”?
I must admit that I have kept a tamagotchi before. It was a dog. Anyway, I fed it, played with it etc and generally thought that it was ‘alive’. I really didn’t want it to die - but it did after I lost interest. If you want to try having a virtual pet you can put a virtual pet on your blog. Here is the link http://bunnyherolabs.com/adopt/ My students love virtual pets and have put many on their blogs. I use them as motivation to go online and also it helps kids to understand how to copy and paste HTML into their blog.
I have also played with a Furby before. A friend had one and kept it in her classroom. It was so real. It spoke in Furby language which her class soon learnt. The Furby would suddenly speak and demand his tummy to be rubbed or to be fed with a spoon. It was quite spoilt as the Grade 6 were very willing to take care of it.
How might these changes impact on the way these tools can be used in learning? I think that it’s very interesting to have these kinds of toys and they could be used in certain inquiries but having done class work in the past with live animals I much prefer the real thing. The machine as real as they might seem are simply that - just a machine.

New Digital Devices

Think of examples where a digital device has replaced 2 or more tools you would have used in the past?
My PDA phone allows me to store appointments, word docs, e-Books like the Bible for church, search the Internet, access email, make calls, listen to music downloaded or via radio, take small videos and take photos. It does a lot of stuff. But I still have a digital camera, iPod and Digital handicam. Reason - the other stand alone stuff offers better quality.
Does the new device simply replace the old devices or does it do something new? I like the convenience of having stuff always with me.
How might these tools be used to support learning? The e-book feature on my phone PDA is an obvious one. The new iPod touch also has Internet access and can store podcasts and e-Books too. I think that I could really used Podcasting in the future in my class as all of my students have an iPod. I will definitely look into this.

Working on the kG pages

I've had a little more response to my kG Vlog page. I placed a posting in Moodle requesting blog URLs of the course members. I've had two responses. That's not bad. I feel that it is hard for me to keep up posting here as it is only for myself. A big part of my class blogging is that I know that it is being read by my students. They tell me so! I will have to be more disciplined from now on.

Wireless Technology

Does a wireless laptop simply allow you to do what you would have done with a wired computer but to do it anywhere? Or does it allow you to do different things?
Having just purchased a wireless laptop I must admit that it makes my studying much more accessible. I am writing this post in the salon whilst having a creambath. It’s an intensive conditioning treatment. I am trying to become more digital native and not printing off all the readings but saving them in m laptop and reading them off the screen. This MacBook allows me to enlarge the print which really helps.
What wireless access points exist in your local environment? How can you find them? Well there’s no wireless in this salon but if I wanted to I could purchase a mobile phone that can connect to this computer to give me Internet access anywhere. Starbucks and JCo have WiFi. Most malls here have WiFi.
How has the always connected world of the mobile phone impacted on your life and your learning? The traffic is really bad in Jakarta and the mobile phone allows us much more freedom. Being able to be connected in traffic jams that can last for hours and hours is a definite plus.

Hidden Technology

What other information technologies have “disappeared” into the way you live and work?

It took me some time to think about this. I guess I take for granted the fact that I can pick up the phone and talk to anyone almost anywhere in the world. My students recently learned all about inventions and it’s amazing how quickly our technological world develops. I also take for granted being able to fly. 100 years ago the Wright Brothers were almost on the verge of giving up and and I think it was Orville who said, “Man will never fly in 1000 years”. Little did he know that within the same century space travel would be possible.

What tools do your students or your children take for granted? What is gained and what is lost through the use of these tools?

My kids take TV for granted. I remember being one of the first families to have a colour set in our neighbourhood. TV gives us so much through news, education and entertainment. But I’m also one of those parents that limit the amount that my kids are allowed to watch. I purposely don’t have cable TV. I think that it is too easy to spend too much time in front of the TV. I believe that being passive for long stretches of time really does affect our creative ability.

Handhelds in School

What impacts do you think the disappearing computer will have on our lives and those of our children?
I can feel the impact already. I know that my work as a teacher has become increasingly computerized. My son is in Grade 3 and takes the Internet for granted.
What skills will be important when "the book" becomes increasingly intelligent?
I think that being able to choose which resource will become increasingly important. I have felt very overwhelmed in this course whilst making my facilitated page due to the oceans of information available and how quickly it is changing and updated.

NetGeneration or Digital Native

Do you believe distinctions such as those made in these readings are useful?
I could relate to many of the examples. I see myself as a Digital Immigrant trying to assimilate into a Digital Native world. I’m trying hard. I’ve bought a new laptop and I’m trying to keep all my readings for this course digital. Before this I always printed everything out. It’s hard but I feel that I need to make the transition.

What do you see as the major differences between the people at different ends of this continuum? Well the biggest difference is the Digital Native or Net Generation’s ability to multitask. I’m quite good at that but the one thing that I cannot do is study and listen to music. If there is music playing I will simply tune it out. I cannot concentrate if the TV is on. When I read I just read. I can’t listen and read to two different things. I’ve never been able to do that.

Where do you place yourself on the “digital native” or “digital immigrant” continuum? I have a lot in common with the Digital Natives. I’m very right brain visual and I must play with stuff not sit and read the manual first. It used to drive my father crazy because he would always read the manual from cover to cover before he even unpacked the new digital gadget! By the way he was the one who always tuned in the TV etc. Even the TVs of every motel or holiday house that we stayed at!

What impact has this had on your own ability to communicate with either your fellow learners or your students? I am so excited to be doing this course. I now spend less time on introductions in my lessons and more time getting into the actual inquiry. My students take a little while to get used to this but thrive when given the freedom to explore first before getting instructions. This way my instruction which happens after the initial exploration supports the learning.

Open Source

How might open source software be used in your learning
environment?
I think that open source software could be used extensively at my school. We are an IBO school and therefore not allowed to use the pirate stuff that is everywhere here. I am also interested in this and am going to try NVU or New View a WYSIWYG website tool said to rival Dreamweaver and Expression Web. The link is here http://nvudev.com/index.php

Is software piracy a problem within your environment and might
the use of open source software reduce this?

Yes piracy is a national problem actually. You can buy anything in software for as little as $3 a CD. It’s not down some dark alley either. You can buy it in a nice shop with marble floors in shiny malls.

Are you paying licensing fees for the use of elearning tools?

At school we only pay for ‘Turn it In’, ‘Sirs Discoverer’ and ‘Pro Quest’. We have a campus license for Windows and there is talk of changing over to Vista.

Search Engines

How have you been able to use search engines in your own teaching or learning?
I use Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask Jeeves for Kids, Enchanted Learning and Discoverer Online Library mostly with my class. I often conduct live searches directly in front of my students to model how to access information. It is a hard skill to learn - how to search the Internet. You have to know what key words to use to get the desired results. The biggest hurdle for my students is understanding the results. When students are making a search I prefer to recommend search engines that have been set up for kids. The others such as Yahoo etc are really for further information.I try to teach my students that pictures are just as important as words and are often easier to understand.

How can having access to large amounts of information via the web empower learning?
I believe that the Internet empowers learning by allowing us to access anything and everything quickly and easily. The hardest part to this for my Grade 3 and 5 students is knowing what to use and what to discard.
How might it disempower learning?
Quality. Just because there is a lot of information doesn’t mean that it is equal in quality. My students last year were most shocked to discover that there class blogs were popping up in Google searches as resources. I have to constantly teach about creditable resources. Look at the site author and the site itself.

Metcalf’s Law

Think of some situations where Metcalf's law has applied (or not applied) to your own use of technology?
Have the number of people you deal with who have access to email or instant messenging (or another ICT tool) changed?
Yes, I have to use email to communicate with colleagues because there is simply not enough time to meet face to face in the day. Email simplifies a lot of stuff. It’s a really easy way to contact everyone. My colleagues at school mostly use Yahoo messenger all through the day. I don’t really use it. I find it annoying as I’m often busy teaching.
Has this changed the way you are able to use these services?
Yes I find that I don’t use the phone as much! It’s much better to email as you don’t have to disrupt the other person and there is a written copy which helps me to keep track of stuff. IN my teaching I pretty much teach all day long with little time for preparation or other stuff. Using email, chat and most recently Facebook allows me to catch up with others on a more regular basis.

Moore’s and Metcalf’s law

Think of some situations where Moore's law has applied (or not applied) to your own use of technology.
I deal with Moore’s law all the time! I confess to being a bit of a gadget freak. Actually I’m typing this on my brand new MacBook Pro! To buy this MacBook I had to save and save - anyone with a family to support can relate! Anyway, part of my problem was the fact that in a few months Apple will release a new model. Should I have waited? Well I could have waited but I am sure that in a few months again there would have been other updates etc. A never ending cycle? Price? Well my colleagues at school all brought their Macs a year ago. The price was the same as what I just paid but the machines were not as fast or had as much HDD.
What impact does Moore's law have on adoption of ICTs.
There is a HUGE debate going on at my school.
To go Mac or not to go Mac? It’s the question of the year. Indonesia has been romanced by Apple. You can get them everywhere! My school administrators are concerned that Macs are double what a PC costs. I can understand how that affects their decision even more together with the problem of just how fast technology outdates itself. The teacher’s argument is that we want to have both platforms in the school to give an even greater advantage to our students. We are a very expensive school but as always we must keep to a strict budget.
I’m wondering how often do other institutions upgrade their hardware? At my school computers used until the machines don’t work anymore. I think that the term is ‘run into the ground’, only after that are news ones purchased. I totally understand that but it can be very frustrating to have to work on a PC that has only 2GB HDD and it’s not even Pentium 2! This is what I have in my classroom!

Working on Assignment 1

I have found after a bit of searching a free video hosting site that is safe for children. www.dropshots.com It is safe because you can't see what is hosted there. It gives you the coding fr free unlike many sites that make you pay for that. You can have hosted up to 20 videos but they must be under 2 minutes. I have decided to make my kG page about blogs and vlogs as I realize that I have a lot of inside info that I can share. I hadn't realized that by using blogs in my classroom fr 6 months would have taught me so much. Actually, the students taught me. I find it works much better if you let them be the expert - after all they are the digital natives.

Sooooooooooooo Slack at Posting!

I just realized that I hadn't posted anything on here for 10 days! Well now that school has broken up I intend to catch up.
Hmmmm Christmas is coming. I got myself a little present - a MacBook Pro! Wow this will take a little getting used to. I have never owned a Mac before. I felt the pressure to own one as Mac is booming in Indonesia and many schools are switching over.
It was the most expensive computer that I have ever bought! Rp 19,200.000! Yikes! I paid with cash and it was like passing over a 'brick' of rupiahs. There were some other European customers in the shop that they were laughing at me! It did look pretty funny! I got a great Christmas deal that included a mighty mouse and in earphones.
Now I have to learn to get used to the differences. What was the first thing that I did with the new Mac? Play games of course! Mac games are really pretty - nice graphics. I also made a virtual book of some recent photos and it was so easy. Everything is just click and drag.

Dropshots

Today I tried out Dropshots for hosting video and pictures. It is free and you can put videos of under 2 minutes there also. I can password it for my students so that they can choose which photo they want to use. It is so hard to work at school using Flash drives. The students flash drives are usually full of virus'. I can't risk my own computer. It takes so long to scan each drive when there are 20 kids lined up waiting!

Googlepages Process

We started working out the page navigation today. Some kids can't get the point of consistent navigation. It's hard for me to explain this when we have almost no time in the school lab. The breadcrumb really isn't an option as I have no real time to teach it in. I will be happy if they can get a basic site to work.

A Online Environment for Kids

As a part of my group work for Online Environments I have looked into an environment for children.
I was impressed with the clear rules stating that users must:
* display respectful behavior
* keep personal details confidential
* no talk about drugs or alcohol
* no cheating
* no using real names
I also liked that the parent had to create the account for the child.

Safe Video Hosting

Now that I've decided to look into Vlogging in education, I need to find a video hosting site that is safe for minors. You Tube and Google videos have lots of adult content. I need to be able to send my students to upload small clips in a safe site. There are a few that the user pays but I need a free site. I have just registered to http://www. mediamax.com
This site allows you 25GB free for hosting videos, audio and images. I hope that it works. I want my students to link a few small video clips that I took of them building circuits to their websites. I hope to be able to embed the videos.

Googlepages Started

In Grade 5 yesterday I taught my class to make a Googlepages website. We had a lesson on URL and how it helps if the URL describes the content of the website. Many of my students have chosen long URLs and I will bring this up for discussion in the labcom today. I had one student who lost their gmail password and needed to make another email account.
Today my plan is also to teach about hyperlinks so that the students can link their pages through the navigation bar. I will also teach them about breadcrumb navigation and give the option of using that as well. We also discuss using picture banners by making them in Word and using the screen print button to capture the screen to allow editing in Paint. I had already done this technique with them before when we wrote Haikus with clip art.

Looking at Emerging Technologies

Today I though about emerging technologies. I made a posting on the Moodle discussion board. I was thinking about how the mobile phone has impacted on Indonesia. Everyone around me has one but I know that a vast percentage of the population just can't afford it. I asked my Grade 5 class who has a HP - we call them handphone here, and everyone put up their hand!

Let's Get This Party Started!

I have already started a user page in KnowledgeGarden.
I have contributed to one page about a link to Facebook

My next goal is to create a page of my own about recording inquiry online within a blended learning community. I am in the middle of an inquiry with my Grade 5 students about machines. I will teach them to make a Googlepage website to record their inquiry process. I will also ask them to put their weekly work on their blogs and to comment on each others work. Our inquiry is about making a billy cart to race down the school road.

Welcome to my Blog for FET 8611

I've just started this new blog for my 4th Masters in Ed Tech course FET 8611. I have used a template from Pyzam to make it look more interesting. This is the same blog account that I use for my class blogs and Class Parent blogs. I have done this on purpose so that all of you in FET 8611 can have access to these online communities. Feel free to ask me anything about these online communities.