Posts Tagged “web 2.0”

18 10 2008

uLearn Conference

Posted by: Lyn in Education, tags: , , , , , , ,

Recently I attended the uLearn Education Conference in Christchurch, which is a very beautiful city in the South Island of New Zealand. I took this photo from my hotel window.

The theme of the conference was 21st century technologies and how they allow us to voice our opinion, to make a difference, to connect, collaborate, network and learn. ‘The opportunities go far beyond the simple ability to publish to the web, far beyond the simple use of tools. They revolve around connecting, forming groups, creating personal classrooms and networks.’ (Will Richardson)

  • ‘What can you do?’ has been replaced with ‘What can you and your network connections do?’ Knowledge itself is moving from the individual to the individual and his contacts.” (Jay Cross)
  • Learning in networks is an ongoing process, not an event.
  • The network is always learning
  • A Google search puts us in touch with information. A blog search (Technorati) puts us in touch with people.

More important than just publishing on a blog is the ability to create networks around what is published and it’s important for teachers to master the skill of unlearning and relearning.

To sum it up, for me the uLearn Conference was about:

- 21st Century teaching and learning
- The read/write web
- Using the Web to form networks (Blogs, wikis, Twitter)
- Interaction, collaboration, creativity
- The ‘why’ of it all

‘Tipping points’, as explained by Malcolm Gladwell, are the levels at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable. After uLearn08 I think the tipping point for online networking in NZ education is almost here!

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08 08 2008

Wordle

Posted by: Lyn in Education, tags: , ,

Here’s something to have fun with! I made this poster online using ‘Wordle’ www.wordle.net The number of times you write a word dictates its size in relation to the other words – however the word will only appear once.

To save it as a .jpg I took a screen shot (using the PRTSC key), pasted it into Photo Filtre and then cropped and saved it. Make sure you change the file type to .jpg

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03 06 2008

Zoho Creator – a fantastic online tool

Posted by: Lyn in Useful, tags: , , , , , , , ,

Zoho Creator is one of the ‘Zoho Work Online’ applications and it really is fantastic! It’s an online data base and form creator and is so useful for easy data collection. If you need to collect any sort of information from your principals and teachers, why not walk the talk by using the Internet and online resources to do this? Zoho Creator has many uses and the extra bonus is that teachers are developing ICT confidence and skills at the same time.

Recently, in preparation for a cluster trip to Palmerston North, I added a trip registration form to the eBest ICT cluster website for the teachers who were going to add their details. I alerted the ICT Lead Teachers to this form by email. The first photo shows the form and the second is a part of the spreadsheet of collected data. I then exported it into Excel. It worked perfectly and saved me a lot of time. And no, I didn’t lose anything! Click on the graphics for a bigger view.

Zoho Creator is easy to use and free. (It has been so far!) You simply drag and drop the fields you require from the selection (see below) and add your questions or choices. The result looks really professional and has many uses for principals, teachers and students. Try it out.

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