Happy Birthday Bardwired - 10 Years Old Today!

Wow what a milestone, I am feeling old today as my baby hits double digits!

I was introduced to blogging by Richard & his students at Matau School & thought this would be a great way to keep schools in touch with what was going on around the Bardwired ICTPD cluster. Sure beats stuffy reports to Principals' once a month. It has been quite a journey over that time, with many highlights and in the last couple of years quiet patches too. My first post was a very factual account, in fact a list, of what i did at work that day...i think it only got better after that.

To start with it was text only, you had to have some working knowledge of  html to make anything else happen. Pictures weren't easy and it was four months before any images appeared on my pages.

Flickr arrived early in 2005 and that was the beginning of my love for Flickr. That was also the time i began to use hyperlinks but it was still awhile until hyperlinks became part of my deliberate writing style. My writing here waned when blogging became a professional requirement for my two other roles with the VLN Primary & VPLD; Twitter & Facebook also took over my attention. As with any pride & joy there are special milestones & highlights - here are a few of mine.

Here are some of my babies milestones:

First podcasts May 2006 - Prensky@School Marc Prensky's keynote from Learning@School
First video May 2006 on Vimeo - Kidz & Kitez @ Makahu,
First flash animation - Christmas 2006
First friends -  Tom & Graham - when i learnt that blogging is about conversations and learning together
First blog post from my phone - moblogging February 2007
First Youtube video embeds TUANZ 2007
First embedded slideshow - Around te Maunga May 2007
First avatar - Meez May 2007
First Panorama - Panoramic Pitt August 2007
First slap on the wrist for this post May 2009

Highlights:

Where Are We Going??????? - 2005 thoughts about Google
Connecting with others - Edubloggers Offices Photostream
Starting nzedublogs with Jedd
Life changing highlight - getting to know my darling Rick
Time 4 Online Conference
Dead Cats & Laptops - most interesting/gross picture
Helping Bruce update his blog
Connecting with others - 8 random facts meme (great to be reminded of those connections :-)
VLN Primary kicks off at Matapu School
The Future of Education (i just like this post)
Being 'published'
eLearning eBooks (i liked this one too)
N4L consultation  early conversations

Riding the Taniwha!

Introducing our new Minister – L@S 2012

Here is the updated link

It's a Wrap

L@S conference bites the dust for another year and a good one it's been too. For a great tongue in cheek read (i think ;-) read Arti's reflections.
My highlights:
Catching up with all my friends as these are the only times we get to f2f and of course making new friends :-)
Meeting David Warlick who inspired me as a beginning blogger some time ago and also meeting Tom for the first time - someone who i have had many conversations with through our blogs.
Keynotes were very good though i really thought Jennifer's (www.takingitglobal.org) was telling the same story that Michael Furndyk told @ ULearn05. The only breakout i attended was Derek's 10 Trends. The rest of the time (not) i was sitting down the lake front watching the waka go out - another highlight.
One more - Conor Bolton - dedicated eTeacher & Volcanics eLearning cluster facilitator running round town trying to find some VC gear to deliver his scheduled L2 Accounting class. The class was rescheduled for the next day and he ran his VC class in the trade hall from the Asnet VC stand in front of crowds of other teachers. I didn't witness this but heard about it. I was very impressed that Conor had the courage & the confidence to share his teaching practise in front of his peers and in such a forum - good on you Conor :-)

Scary Moment
Well I've already blogged this - not being able to connect to my Wiki site with all my presentations on...Well i think it all worked out ok in the end - nobody asked for their money back anyway ;-)

Looking forward to ULearn07 with Ewan keynoting. David lit the spark here - not that we haven't been trying ourselves but i guess there is nothing like a 'celebrity' blogger to make teachers sit up & take notice - especially one with such a lovely southern drawl. I am equally anticipating a great accent from Ewan and for him to fan the flames of the sparks that were lit in Rotorua.

Wikis Gone West?!!

Well here i am today in Rotorua presenting 3 workshops all prepared and ready to go on http://bardwired.wikispaces.com and wouldn't you know it i can't get on only through my own laptop and only running explorer.....aaahhh!! (it keeps timing out from the wikispaces server even when i have removed all firewalls hhmmmm)

I can't get into the main page of my blog either - Explorer keeps wanting to save it as a document --- very strange? I can see i will be flicking backwards & forwards between Flock & Explorer all afternoon.

No time to figure it out with 2 more workshops running soon. So the main link for my next workshop is here.
Blogging On

Social Networking & Schools

A cautionary message to School Zone schools from VEN (SZ educational governance group) about the use of social networking sites by young people and why they are blocked in our schools (though schools have the autonomy to unblock any sites and some are). Having highlighted the negatives which are well publicised in the media VEN asks:

"Young people are though using the medium to communicate - a lot. Harnessing the powerful opportunity that social networking sites provide is a real challenge for educators....We are interested in hearing positive ways that social networking sites have been used by schools for educational purposes, and would like to share these."

Lots of examples at http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/ Please list your school blogs, podcasts, flickr site... if not already listed.

Schools might find it worthwhile working through this 'educational scenario' as they decide how or even if they will open up social networking sites http://www.stratford-primary.school.nz/home/rachelj/web2/index.html

“Allowing our students to engage collaboratively with others online raises issues of ethical, safe and responsible use. There have been stories sensationalised in the media of cyber bullying, inappropriate pictures and personal information published on student sites. People can behave in disinhibiting ways online, saying and doing things they would never do in a face to face situation. (Butterfield, 2005) (Chisholm & Fenaughty, 2006) This can have long lasting consequences as their ‘digital footprint’ may not be so easily edited or erased and could attract unwelcome attention or repercussions. For this reason many schools have blocked social networking sites through their Internet Management Systems. In effect this is a ‘head in the sand’ reaction. Young people are using Web 2.0 tools anyway and in growing numbers. 55% of US teens use social networks (Warlick, 2007); and 52% of all blogs are created and maintained by 13 – 19 year olds (Twist in De Craene, 2006). “Values and ethics are vital. You cannot control whether students CAN do these things. They can. You CAN control what you teach students! … Schools who ignore technology and ignore instilling values in their students could be reaping the negative consequences.” (Davis, 2007) Students need role models of what it means to be a responsible digital citizen. Teachers could do this by becoming involved in social networks and communities of practise thus also giving them a better understanding of what it means to be a networked learner. (Hargreaves in Lee & Berry, 2006) Schools should update their Acceptable Use policies to include the use of social networking and it should cover students use (relevant to school) outside of the ‘school gates’. Monitoring student use (as opposed to blocking) is important. There are many blog and wiki sites available that require log-on authorisation and comment verification allowing teachers to monitor and screen their students’ interactions. This may be a good safety net as students learn to walk safely and wisely in the wider networked world.” For the full paper click here.

Web 2.0 is the buzzword - it will be the walk & talk of Learning at School. TUANZ07 keynote speakers are edublog celebrities also so there will be no escaping the Web 2.0 bandwagon when it comes to town. In our enthusiasm for hooking in to the Connected World (& i am pretty enthusiastic myself) lets also not forget to be critical of the issues involved and how can we address them in our schools.

Maps and Memories

My childhood, seen by Google Maps
Originally uploaded by mathowie.

As i prepare my flickr workshop for Learning at School next week i am discovering new cool things. I've been trying to find examples of annotations on flickr pics and turned up this one. There are notes all over the google maps picture that talk about places in the neighbourhood & things that happened when Mat was growing up. "This is where i got hit by a car when i was chasing the icecream truck..."
I am thinking about our Stratford Primary School jubilee coming up soon - it would be great to get a flickr group going of students & old students who could annote maps of the school & the town together - what a story they would make!

Another interesting find is Bloglines now has a feature called Image Wall that pulls in all the photos they have in their system (not just flickr). Definately not for kids as in their words "Curious, funny, challenging, good, bad, and ugly - it's all there." I viewed for a short while & it was very interesting but some of the pics that appeared were more than a bit dodgey (pornagraphic in fact).

I won't blog anymore of this you can see my presentation notes in progress at the Bard Wired wiki site.

Flickr Blog

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Originally uploaded by rache65.

Blogging straight from Flickr.
This image uploaded from my phone to flickr.
Sign outside O'Donaghues Stratford after shots were fired in Malones the bar next door the night before. This is hugely not like Stratford - not really the Wild West here...

Bubblr

Having a little play with Bubblr as i get together a Flickr workshop for L@S next week.