Gotta Keep Reading

Final post

Unfortunately I've had to rush through my last few activities as June reports await. Sadly I didn't see a Web 2.0 gadget for writing them for me! I have been exposed to so many new applications. Indeed most of it was new to me. I see other participants seem to have been more familiar with some of these applications than I was. I spent far more time than I expected on the course but even with 4-5 hours in some weeks it was not enough to explore everything. Hence I think the advertised time allocation ought to be updated. I think some of the ideas got away from me in the end. I probably need face to face contact to really get into some of the applications but at least I know what may be useful and where to focus future learning. Thanks for the help Fiona and Felicity and the prompt replies. Once reports are over I plan to go back to this and see if I can learn some more.

Task 22 and 23 Ebooks and Audio books

Project Gutenberg was fascinating. I am amazed at the people who find time and interest to start such an involved and long term project yet it has clearly taken off. It would be an interesting activity for children to compare some of the older style covers with modern ones and reflect on why there are so many differences. I enjoyed the reading of one of the audio books and I have added it to my RSS feeds so I can be updated on the next chapter! I don't know if I would use these particular audio books at school though as we have access to illustrated ones which would have more appeal to most children. Sadly most of our students would be unlikely to remain focussed without the razzle and dazzle of visuals.

Task 21 Teachertube

I found the teacher tube videos very interesting. There were lots worth watching but once again there isn't enough time to keep going through them. I wanted to post Wikis in plain english but I had no luck trying to include it or others in my blog though. I keep getting a sign that says "Tag is not closed". I'm not sure what this means but I would like to be able to do this. Help please.....

I think such videos at school could be quite useful both for students and for PD for teachers. The one on cyber safety could have been placed on computers for children to view.

Task 20 Podcasts

I have added the ABC Radio link to my Google account. That was the most interesting one from those listed in the exercise. So many of the others were from overseas and not really of interest to me. I listened to an item about the new National curriculum which was relevant and of some value. They seem much like listening to the radio really and that podcast only contained information I have heard or read from other sources. The best part though was when Julia Gillard was interviewed and I was able to just move the control and skip her! You can't do that so easily on the radio. To be honest I probably won't tune into that one again as I'd rather listen to news on the radio while driving or read about it in the paper etc. I feel I spend far too much time on the computer and I'm not really looking for any ways to spend more time unless it achieves something not otherwise available.

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/feeds/edp.xml