My wiki is finished. YAY!!!!

I have now completed my web 2.0 tutorials wiki. I have worked my way around the problems I have encountered and learnt much along the way.

My tutorials cover:
The habits of Lifelong Learners
Blogging
Photo sharing
Glogster
Wordle
Collaborative Document Sharing (for staff)
Sharing Documents and Presentations (for students)
Wallwisher

I hope the tutorials will inspire the staff  to try out these technologies with their students. It will make learning more fun for the students and teachers.

If Only Things Would Work

This week I added Tutorials  5 & 6 to my PD wiki.

All went well until I tried to save and it froze and I lost all my links. Now I have to redo and try to find the links again.

I have also been having issues trying to upload documents through Boxnet and Slideshare. Our network/internet connection is TOOOOOOO slow. The students are keen to upoad their files to their wikis but are held back by the technology.

I am told the new WAPs will give us a faster and more reliable connection.

Final TPL Leaders Day

Today I attended the final day for TPL team leaders. The day was organised for teams to put the final touches to their Case Study and submission to Knowledge Bank (which is to be called FUSE in the future).

I found it a very useful day for networking and catching up with other TPL leaders.

Robyn Scalon was very generous in sharing with me much of her knowlege about web 2.0.

I had been having problems with loading documents to the student wikis. Having set up accounts on Boxnet I discovered Netspace had blocked our access. Netspace is very good at this. I have had ongoing battles with them. Robyn introduced me to a website called Slideshare, which allows uploading of documents and slideshows. Hopefully when I get to work on Monday it will not be blocked by Netspace.

I also found out about another web-based bookmarking site called Simplybox. It is similar to Delicious but visually more interesting, especially for children.

Finally I now know a better way to access multiple open windows on my desktop, simply by sweeping my mouse pointer to the bottom-right or top-right of the screen.

All in all a most productive day.

Using Google Docs

Today I finally created the 4th activity on my staff tutorials wiki. It is a tutorial on using Google Docs. I think this is a great website for sharing, and collaborating on, documents.

I particularly like the facility to see the changes others have made and the ability to compare documents.

Following Blogs on Google Reader

Today Beck showed me how to upload blogs to my Google Reader account. Now I can stay up to date at the click of a button.
In the past week I have also set up iChat and Messenger to stay connected with other staff. It saves time and I don't have to run around to rooms all the time. I also find it an efficient way to find out information from colleagues.

I'm Sold on Apple

I am now convinced that Apple software is far superior to Microsoft.

I have just had training in the use of iWorks, which includes Pages, Keynote and Numbers. These programs integrate seamlessly with each other, as well as with Microsoft Office. They have better features and more options than Microsoft programs.

My Frustration

My greatest frustration is that at school any of the programs I try to run are either blocked by Netspace or I am let down by our wireless network.
After a struggle with Netspacedisallowing sites, I finally set up Glogster and Boxnet accounts for the students only to find our network would not upload student documents. I am yet to find out why. It all wroks well from my home internet so it can be done.