Module 5 - Podcasts/Vodcasts-The Virtual Teacher (and student?)

I've had a hard night of family drama's - changing bed linen at 10-30 pm as a result of an ongoing stomach virus that reared it's ugly vomiting head across the doona of my 6 year old certainly was not on my list of things to do this evening. It seemed my two year old never wanting to miss out on all the fun decided to join in and suddenly the 'quiet' household was a pumping nightclub of activity. I just needed yia-yia and papaou to join in with the podcast download of bazooki music and a few ' hopah's and away we go!!
The hustle and bed time bustle resulted in a no-show for work the next day- however- if I was forward planning ahead (other then the emails and 7am telephone calls outlining my textbook task for year 9 as opposed to their database activity in pre-booked computer labs) I would have indicated to them to go to SOLE and upload the podcast for that lesson.

'Good Morning year 9' - (can you imagine their faces? they look around- look at each other quizzically) 'That's right boys- I'm not here, but Geography can always prevail in difficult times- now for that database procedure...'
I could have (and I say 'could have' because only after reading and exploring podcasts and vodcasts do these ideas come to mind) recorded the task using mp3 mics and then uploaded the podcast to the school's intranet.
Imagine their faces - initial (insert big smile) 'great- she's away- bludge time! to 'oh no....she's away but not really away..... or would they even notice?
Add in a video and edit (audacity / movie maker) and the question arises..'do I really need to be at school at all?' Could I not pre-plan all my lessons, video edit them and upload them and the students just download them to access each task - Perhaps the students do not need to attend at all if they can do this from their own home- a bit like virtual school of the air or online uni- studies?
So many questions and possibilities.

Anyway my next task is to try out the podcasting with my year 6 ICT class. They are completing research on a famous world leader as part of their HSIE studies. One option for research delivery is to conduct an interview in pairs with their world leader.
I plan on them recording the interview (MP3) and then editing their work using movie maker. We have edited clips using movie maker prior in the junior school (and the boys have loved it) but not with the boys doing their own voice-over recordings. I think they would enjoy both the recording and the subsequent editing.
If we can video their interviews (as opposed to editing stills), insert background music, add transitions it would make a fantastic and engaging end result. I'll keep you posted!

Don't you love you-tube! - Year 9 Geography Community Studies

Flickr - Module 4- The Bingle Bungle!

So now we all know what happened to poor Lara Bingle....she needn't have employed Max Fevola to scout out women's mags to download THAT photo...she should have saved herself the hassle and the agent's fee (obviously recouped in story cash for splash) and just downloaded it herself in a public photostream like flickr.
I must say though if you weren't inclined to play around with the application and wade through the FAQ's then do employ an agent-or send a message to your friendly helpdesk- it might just save the hour or three to link it to your blog!
The application may have some uses for linking photos to school's websites to show the interested community facets of school life they they may not ordinarily see or be able to attend first hand. It could be used to showcase a range of activities from sporting, to performing arts, to the progress on new building projects.
Would I use it in the classroom personally? - I don't think so- however I think the students themselves would enjoy sharing their photos and adding them to their own blogs or journals which would generate interest. Additionally, photos diaries would be good to view progress over time.
In regards to copyright, I suggest if you don't want it in a public forum then simply don't post it!

see my house? its way up there!

see my house? its way up there!
Originally uploaded by jtzakos

I wish.....

Check out my boat....no the OTHER one!

Check out my boat....no the OTHER one!
Originally uploaded by jtzakos

So we can link photos to blogs...it took a bit of playing around but finally we have it...Now anyone for a day out?

bubbl.us or 'boggl.us?' Module 6

Ok - lets make this quite clear in the intro - yes- I skipped over modules 4 and 5 so I could use bubbl.us application sooner rather then later with my trusty year 9 recipients aka year 9 guinea pigs. (and yes, I do intend to go back and complete the modules so I can continue to share my e-learning adventures with you - my followers.... )

Well, I gave bubbl.us a go at home. ( it's a mind-mapping application) I thought I might map out all the options for my morning prior to 8am. With this in mind I signed in, created my parent bubble and wow the number of child offspring was truly amazing. I am still awaiting the 'New Idea' editors phone call because really I should be more in demand then 'octo-mum'.

My 'child' bubbl. increased from 2 to 'way too many'. My options included - coffee, wake children and/or stop them from fighting and/ or watching t.v.(more sibling bubbl's here), organise breakfast, get them dressed, me too, make various lunches with (insert sibling bubbl.here- range of snack foods appropriate to the healthy food pyramid - quick there's protest- insert new child bubbl., pack school bags, library bags, sports bags, my bag, quickly throw in a load of washing, discuss with yia-yia what is for dinner tonight, tomorrow night, next week, next name day (if you have greek parents insert bubbl. for smile and head nodding)...phew...all this before 8am? So far bubbl.us = chaos

With another coffee and a clearer head I thought I would try it out on my year 9 geography class. The task: to bubbl.us a mind map on factors affecting community change. We started and they did great. They brainstormed many ideas and linked them to their community study. They were keen and made many bubbl's and loved blowing up the unnecessary ones - that little animation is truly attention grabbing. The boys were after email addresses to share their work with others and they loved the visual organisation of ideas. The downside comments from the boys was that they couldn't change font style and organise text as freely as in other applications. There was also a time-lag in saving work.

I would love to continue to say that the task was hiccup free but alas....
In the second lesson (yes we did need two) the boys attempted to upload their sheet and unfortunately this took 20 minutes - so much time the gloss wore off the new application and they demonstrated an obvious preference for 'flight simulator' then 'bubbl.us'.
So obviously new applications are great to use however remote servers and connectivity remains an issue for reliability and lesson coherence.

At this stage we changed tact and opened up a microsoft word document and inserted an organisational chart. The same result without the headache.
Stay tuned for comments on glogster!