Thanks Kat, for the collaboration with these Fish!

Fish: Add a touch of nature to your page with these hungry little fish.  Watch them as they follow your mouse hoping you will feed them by clicking the surface of the water. (Click on the word Fish to get some yourself or if you fancy a green tree frog).  Thanks and all credit must go to aBowman who generously has plenty of "gadgets" to share - take a look at his site!)

Voki Mark 2!

I had another play with this to try and make myself more realistic (LOL!), so I've recorded my voice and made myself wider, but cant find anything to make any wrinkles so the rest will have to stay! I can see these being used as hooks in class and like our course coordinator has used on the moodle site to give directions in a topic.

Voki!

This is my 3rd attempt at commenting under my Voki I went to preview then must have inadvertently pressed something else and lost the lot! "Control Z" (that normally undoes your last instruction) does not work on these postings! After looking at other Voki's and admiring their talents - K (we all know who this is, but being safety conscious and respectful, I know I should check with you to ask if I can link your Voki to your name here! BTW (isn't that cool digital native talk from a digital immigrant?), just how did you manage to get your girl to look so like you? Thanks for the inspiration and giving me the confidence to 'have a go'! I had to wait my turn though as my 9 year old spotted what I was attempting to do over my shoulder and he was desperate to design one himself! If only the enthusiasm for his "boring writing homework" was as high! After watching him try every style of hat, piece of clothing, theme, bling, character and colour, then to listen to him record his voice in a funny way, a serious way and finally decide to use his normal little voice, I realise I would definitely use this 'widget' in a classroom. I would demonstrate and allow a small amount of time to practice to ensure ease of use, then encourage the students to complete their Voki outside of lesson times (or in free time), when they could choose how much time they wish to spend designing their representative of themselves! (Of course, I would ensure opportunities or library/computer access for those unable to access at home). What looked daunting was quite fun and easier than I expected and I now feel confident to share this widget with others!

And another Science Weebly on Life Cycles!

Another Weebly; this time on Life Cycles!
http://www.weebly.com/weebly/main.php
Recognition must go once again to 
www.weebly.com - thank you for your inspiration to this digital immigrant! Thanks to Shelley checking out this link, I realised I had linked it to the editing page of my Weebly - only accessible to me! Apologies, click on the coloured words here and they will lead you to correct link for my Science Weebly on Lifecycles for Year 4 Thanks for helping me add another rung to my the learning ladder! Sharon :)

Weebly

Weebly!


Here is the Science Weebly I constructed earlier this year entitled:

Changing matters; solids to liquidsO
Once I had set up the initial Weebly, I enjoyed the challenge so much, I just kept adding more and more parts, which, as one can imagine, made the whole thing far too long!

Thanks to www.weebly.com

I remembered how to do it!

Here's the joke widget!

<!--BEGIN BRAINPOP PARTNER CODE -->
<script language="JavaScript" src="http://www.brainpopjr.com/widgets/jokes/get_jokes_player.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">get_player("167","448");</script>
<!--END BRAINPOP PARTNER CODE-->
Oops not sure where I went wrong here; I've done this before so I'll try again!

Widgets

In the two years I have been at Uni, I have not known a course with so many links to so many new experiences. It is like a complex spider's web. I wonder how many times I have been on Moodle and saved links in a word doc (that is now 4 pages long; thanks for the tip Kat!)to come back to later on, and then wondered where I started or how I got to where I ended up! This course has the remarkable ability to make three hours feel like 15 minutes. I keep 'losing' myself and my brain hurts with all the exciting information! There is a never-ending plethora of new ideas and fascinating additions. Today one of my favourites has been this K-3 joke widget from Brainpop Educators

Here is one of their cute Widgets!

A little helper from www.fodey.com

Now I have found where my lost posts went, I can transfer my other discoveries with confidence! 


Thanks to www.fodey.com for this cute little helper that was so much easier to administer than I had imagined!

This could be used in class as an attention grabbing, quick and easy tool to send quick reminders or emphasise relevant facts for learners and for them to share "light bulb" moments or vital steps.  I like the style, I wonder if it uses download to keep moving (streaming?).  Before today, I would have looked at these add on features and thought they would be out of my limited expertise to set up, but I am learning quickly now; as the NIKE mantra repeats - "Just Do It"!

I did it!
Better late than not at all, this clapperboard courtesy of fodey.com could have appeared at the beginning of my blog!

And another comment that is now a post

Sharon&#39;s Blog10 July 2012 22:39

I will rectify any incorrect spellings as I explore!
Clapperboard; fodey.com; flickr; spell with flickr; avatars; voki; profile blog; theoretical concepts of e-Learning; netiquette; worth.1000; wordle; keepvid; blogger (there's one box ticked!) 2!);second life; bubble us; widgets; wordpress.

This list is growing rapidly and there are still many more 'new' words - time to explore I think! In no particular order, procrastination over, time to dive in and test the water!

A retrieved blog that should have been a post!

Sharon&#39;s Blog10 July 2012 22:16

As this course began, I thought I had very limited experience eLearning. Actually listing the ICT's awakened the realisation that I have some real life experience that I could indeed share with a class!

There were many new 'terms' shared, so I will list some and challenge myself to explore them further and record my findings; wish me good luck please!

Comments instead of posts - oops!

This person just realised where some of her posts disappeared to.  She posted them as comments by mistake!  

To quote a couple of Ireland's famous writers:

"Mistakes are the portals of discovery."

James Joyce. (n.d.). BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved July 15, 2012, from BrainyQuote.com Web site: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/j/jamesjoyce106797.html 

James Joyce (1882-1941)

"Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes"

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

All learning but how to rectify the mistake?

Hopefully she'll learn from this and know better next time!

Word clouds!

I made this word cloud last week using text written by Marc Prensky (Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, 2001) at wordle.net and amazingly I see my title in large letters!  No, not Sharon, but my new identity since becoming a student last year; I'm now recognise myself as one of the Digital Immigrants Prensky refers to!

After reading the article (exposing my true Digital Immigrant 'accent', by downloading and printing it off the Internet, reading and highlighting the important parts!), it gives clear recommendations of how the Natives and Immigrants can help each other and co-exist.  Prensky is imparting the idea that Digital Immigrant teachers of today would be wise to design lessons that include use of familiar tools that students know and use regularly in their digital worlds.  The future needs of  learners should be identified, and direction towards this end should be speedily communicated, using familiar terms and language, demonstrating safety and etiquette; thus enabling students to converse successfully in tomorrow's diverse society where they will live and work.  Collaborative platforms where both students and teachers learn from each other should be used and teachers should praise the cohort of Digital Natives as they coach the teacher in the practical use and application of digital facilities.

Mature-aged students of today are products of an education that was delivered according to the Victorian, Taylor-style industrial system that was designed to teach 'at' the masses where they had to individually listen to or read, and remember facts to regurgitate at a later stage.  True to Digital Immigrant form, I have printed off much of the first two weeks course work from moodle and experimented with many of the applications to trial ideas before daring to expose myself on my Blog for all to see.  I recognise this as procrastination and fear of looking like a fool, but realise today that this Blog is my experiment.  I understand now that as students, we are producing individual work and ideas under a collaborative platform.  This is real eLearning and most of us are learning so many new, very user friendly, educational features and applications that are building our eLearning language to share in a classroom!  Thank you!

My inaugural post!

My inaugural post!

Well I have finally made it!  My e Learning blog begins!  I have looked through the tutorial several times and read some texts in nervous anticipation!


I found Cool Tools for the Connected Classroom (Mirtschin, 2010) was one of the best and easiest to comprehend, as well as being Australian, so all relative to the task in hand!


Feeling delighted; a big tick!