Module 9 - Scootle- Something for everyone!

'Did you know Mum that God is watching you? and he made everything!'
This statement accompanied the bath time ritual for my six year old.
' yes-apparently so' I replied.
In my head I suddenly thought, 'did God really see me reverse into my neighbour's parked car the other night as I was negotiating up hill reverse handbrake usage issues of the 'you parked too close to me in the dark kind?
If he did see me, he sure helps out in strange ways.....so that's why my in-laws didn't rush out onto the front balcony to see what was the commotion? (God made CSI- Miami!)and you know..God did make that rule....less then 5km/h = no damage -at least not to their car- thanks be to God...my new bumper well that's a different story..)

'and Mum did you know... that Jesus died?'
(Obviously my school fees are going towards something...)
'Yes and that's why we have Easter' I replied.
Which of course led onto the next question ' so does Jesus die every year' closely followed by 'why did Jesus go to heaven with God if he wasn't really dead?
Good question!
So I headed off to look up scootle (an educational website full of interactive learning objects a.k.a. games amongst other stuff) to see what 'in the name of Jesus' was in the resource list to deal with such questions.

I am a great fan of 'Scootle' a fab resource! Yes I have used a number of the learning objects previously with my juniors and look forward to trying a few out on my 9 Commerce class for their next topic 'starting a business' (run a funky cafe/fish shop/ muffin bakery etc)

Anyway the top of my Scootle pick! is 'I Think - Is there a Creator?' Please check it out on the Scootle site - its great! A short film with voice-overs by 5-7 years olds discussing who/what is the Creator and what s/he created. Accompanied by slide show of appropriate paintings and drawings. Fantastic!

I tried to help you out with viewing but alas....no....(see below)

N.B. Jane's helpdesk: I tried to upload it however this resulted in an error.
Why? because google videos is discontinuing uploads to blogger.
Did you know that? That's why there is an error message when you try?
How do you get around it? Join you-tube - upload your video then copy the embed code and paste in the edit html window in your blog!
Yes it does work however my Scootle pick is still under copyright- educational bodies excepted therefore it's not my content and I don't have permission to upload it to you-tube or blogger in a public forum!! (See J.M. - I have learned something!)

Anyway with the in-laws and other family members jaunting around sunny Greece what better way to check out their travelling adventures then with facebook . Wait until those photos are published...
While at home - what teenager hasn't joined?
As a parent- be careful- join facebook yourself and be friends with your kids so you can check out their pages and who their friends are- be cyber savvy and smart.
In the classroom? I don't see there's a place for it. Create a blog, journal or forum to track diaries/opinions - more collaborative and topical.

Twitter - if you got the time and the inclination why not? It's like subscribing to a news paper but you're only interested in the sport section. Well you'd receive updates on headlines, horoscope and new recipes, employment and housing etc...I don't want all that! It would be better if the sport columnist had a RSS feed and you subscribe to that to just get that update. Personally for me -twitter- I can't be bothered and quite frankly too time poor to sift through the distinct possibility of way too much info!

Module 8- RSS feeds -Bright Light City - Adventures of the Hills kind!

'Bright light city 'gonna' set my soul, 'gonna' set my soul on fire!!
My thoughts as I travelled into the neon lights of the suburb of salvation! The sun set, the street lights came on and I was mesmerised by the highlighted arrows pointing to an array of options - The Hillsong Convention Centre this way, The Adventist Church/Hospital turn right, The Christian School turn left, Destiny Church up ahead, The Hills Community Christian Church this way- I was on the righteous path - (a.k.a. visiting friends in their new home in the hills district)

So I wondered - what brought the church going masses out this way?
Was it the bright lights, the social interaction, the happy sing-song carefree worship all round family entertainment on a Saturday night/Sunday morning or was it really the food and the wine that drew the crowds?

I decided to compare Saturday night options via RSS feeds. The righteous path - Brian and Bobbie Houston from Hillsong vs The Barmans' righteous Saturday night.

A 'Hills Saturday night' according to Brain and Bobbie 'Hillsong Conference planning meeting: So much new innovation, holy moments, powerful elements.. People coming from all corners!' (edited) and 'Hillsong Music has always been an expression from the heart and soul of this House. The songs that have come from this church and been sung all over the world are a testimony to God’s grace in our church'
vs the Barman's music review site reviewing the Saturday night Hitmen 30th Birthday Bash at the Sandringham Hotel -' There was singing in the crowd (JK doing his walk amongst the masses and true believers (edit)), dancing on tables (JK again, although not as spectacularly tonight as when he was carried on tabletop through a teary-eyed audience at a packed Annandale Hotel), and the obligatory Elvis cover (“Suspicious Minds”, performed with now not so little brother Sammy Kannis) while the band powered on.'

Lets look at the common links: paying punters, true believers, singing from the crowds, dancing, tears, celebration, food, wine (?)......and I know where I was on that particular Saturday night!

Back in the classroom and RSS reviewing, I can see some good uses for both teachers (like Dr O'Shea and his Cardinal Pell update) and student use especially feeds for current affairs and economic and business news. It would be good to review the use or continued need for a RSS subscription after teaching a particular unit as a delicious tag to the site might suffice.
For teaching staff- lets review staff development- wouldn't it be good if online newsletters provided a RSS subscription (e.g. e-teaching newsletter) so that only interested/ relevant parties need subscribe and be notified when new posts are published.

So now the question? What RSS feeds do you subscribe to?

Module 7 - Delicious - The great souvlaki tag!

When I first saw the title 'delicious' I wondered about the great merger between Web 2.0 and food? Similarly I too pondered a similar thought about great mergers the last time I went to Church. Let me elaborate.

It was a compulsory Sunday Liturgy for my son's school. The church holding around 600 was standing room only and the cast overflowed down the stairs and into the streets - to listen to the dolcit tones of the grecian chants through the loudspeakers- just so you wouldn't miss anything. (The neighbours must just love Sundays- that and the parking issues..)

Now for the great merger....as the loudspeaker chanting commenced prior to 9am, and the congregation filtered up the main steps and 'muscled' their way into prime positions near windows and doors, there were papou's 'muscling' in to set up their souvlaki stands complete with barbeques alongside of the church to cater for the hungry church-going masses- and further up the street there were stands with home-made yia yia's kourumbethes, sweets and of course bread.

By 11am the crowds flocked - and rightly so - who wouldn't go to church when you can purchase lunch at the same time - the queues both in the church for communion rivaled that for the souvlaki stands outside. I'm not just talking buy one souvlaki to eat now as a reward for good Sunday behaviour, instead church folk were buying enough to take home and feed the whole family complete with bread rolls/ packets of pita to match!!
And now wait for it - the priests came outside with the collection plates, down the stairs, (yes the crowd parted) through the queues and up the souvlaki line - 'if you've got money for souvlaki- you've certainly got money for the church plate-and who's going to argue with the serious bearded men in black? The great merger- win, win for everyone!

Imagine the delicious tags for the barbeque kings and their sharing of favourite sites - any computer, any time? the best way to cook souvlaki? the use of homegrown lemons and oregano from the garden vs supermarket- check out my similar interests - greek dancing, bazooki music, ERT greek channel and best tips for growing tomatoes in the front garden...priceless....

In the classroom, delicious (it's a bookmarking site) would be great for students to use to share favourite sites especially when researching. We all know it takes time to trawl and find student friendly sites using appropriate language and if the teacher can start this off using specific tags and the students can then share with each other- a great collaborative way to research and share resources. The students still have to synthesize the information and structure their writing to match requested criteria.

Similarly from a teaching perspective, we share ideas, books, DVD's, workshop notes etc so now with the increased use of internet sites to assist in lesson preparation to engage and challenge students- this is another way to share resources with colleagues and vise versa and save time doing it!

Don't forget you can always tag a few 'fav' recipe sites- remember the great merger- who can work on an empty stomach?