Something New Everyday!

Why is it 12:52 am and I'm still on my laptop:

• MSN
• Skype
• EdTech Talk
• Google Docs
  
• Twitter
  
• Why do we blog
• Paying my first water heater bill
• Online course
  

This is what I did tonight after watching Grey's Anatomy! It's been a very full evening. I raced upstairs to chat with Don in Al Ain - only 20 sleeps left and he'll be here! Last night we tried the yackpack Walkie Talki widget that's on my blog - it worked like a charm. And then I Skyped with Joyce in NZ for almost two hours. She introduced me to Google Docs. I had earlier emailed my draft PowerPoint which she put up on Google Docs so I could see how she was editing the slides. Google Docs allows for collaboration via the web. She opened a new document so we could both work on our timeline for tomorrow's Twitter session. Google Docs is really easy to use. The files Joyce sent to me can be opened in the Shared Files folder. You can edit simultaneously, format as one would using Word, preview, email and save a document.

Previous to that, I was listening to the live EdTech Talk - a Skypecast of some amazing educational technologists talking about Twitter - Art Gelwicks, Courosa, Lizbdavis, Doug Symington. I learned that with Skype Pro, you can conference with up to 24 users but bandwidth may be a problem. The EdTech Talk is hosted by Worldbridges - a community of communities that use 'homegrown webcasting' and other new media technologies to to help people connect, learn, & collaborate from Vancouver Island, BC. Yea Canada! I checked out twitter and responded to technolibrary's tweet about Grey's Anatomy. I tweeted that the relationships are sad. She tweeted almost immediately that she liked the healer - I'd forgotten about her. I liked the healer too because of her strong faith and positive energy. Tweets always lead me to URLS which lead me to reading blogs. Darcy Norman talked about public v. private tweets and how you can't have both. Someone else is opening another twitter account just to interact with his students to maintain confidentiality. The topic for today which caught my eye was reasons for blogging. I have been amazed since I started this course at the number of people who have so much to say and it's all good stuff - probably because of who I choose to read. I like blogging too because it's a journal of my activities, my thoughts, my learning process. I couldn't say it any better than University professor Daniel Lemire as to why I like blogging:

“to me, my blog has become the single most powerful knowledge management tool I use. The way I use it, it gives me a view of where I am, where I’ll be, where I’m thinking about being. My blog is like my intelligence department… it collects lots of data in an organized fashion and it sits there, waiting for me to go to. The fact that I’m read means I get feedback, and hence, people help me complete my information. I also find out about new, interesting people because they link to my blog, comment on my blog and so on.”

Professor Henry Farrell identifies five major uses for blogs in [college] education, including the organization of in-class notes and providing equity in discussion for all students.

Before I call it a night, I need to update my Angel site. The students and I are having a few problems as I've not had any training on it. The gradebook isn't recording the fact that they've done the orientation tasks and neither our Ed Tech Department or my contact in Florida can help out. I discovered that I have to answer the short answer questions by clicking Utilities, View Grades. It allows me to see their answers and I input the points. I've got my email forwarded to my hotmail account so it's interesting to see how late students stay up, as notice of their emails pops up when I'm working this late at night! They want to know the results of the poll and the Dog's Trial, and I've found another legal quandry to post for tomorrow's poll. They're still having growing pains with the wiki. I don't like the wiki and blog as much as I thought because you can't change the format of the text or insert an image - it's quite limited. Also I haven't figured out how to see all of the posts - sometimes they hide. I probably need to read the manual! As for the Dog's Trial discussion - I can't find the answer to the conundrum so will have to figure it out again. I noticed that 5 of the students didn't complete the poll on the German luxury car and 350 pound Robert but have posted the results under Course Announcements. I spoke to a colleague today who is developing her own online course. I asked her if she wants to collaborate and she said "No, we all work alone and make the same mistakes!" She was kidding of course, but it made me realize there's little collaboration going on at our college. I hope I can change that. Well, it's 2:06 am and it's time to say goodnight!

I have to agree with this fifth grader who was asked about blogging:

"I think it’s the most beautiful tool of the world and it allows us the most magic thing..."

—Florence Dassylva-Simard