Fellow travellers ... my friend would say

One of my friends used to refer me to as a "fellow traveller", it is an expression I have come to appreciate as I meet many other teachers who fit into this category nicely. Joseph from Ivanhoe Grammar Plenty campus is one such person. We have met only briefly a few times but we think alike. Actually blogging has proved that you do not even need to meet a 'fellow traveller', you communicate with people who you know are just like yourself.
Joseph invited me to the Plenty Campus on Friday 25th May to take part in a SKYPE with
Tom Barrett Tom is currently an assistant headteacher and Year 6 teacher at Priestsic Primary and Nursery School in Nottinghamshire, England. He was a finalist in the Best Wiki awards for Edubloggers in 2006. He talked to us about the many ways you can use Google Earth in the classroom. This has huge potential not realised by most teachers. He also showed us a site that records where visitors to your blog have come from. Many people visit and read blogs but do not comment, a little disturbing for the kids who look forward to seeing if anyone has been visiting them. digital point shows where 'visitors' have come from. It looks like this in a blog. ... hmm yes I know no-one visits mine !!! but you can see how this would be interesting for kids and it spring boards discussion and interest about other places in the world.

Whilst at the Skype I met two ladies from VITTA and they invited me to speak at a mini conference being held at Ivanhoe Grammar Ridgeway Campus in August. I will be speaking about Teachertube and Mojiti. Quite amusing when you think that two years ago i didn't even know how to use the video camera !!. The conference is being held in conjunction with a visit by Will Richardson. i have added his blog to "blogs I read. Anyway keep a look out for their conference details it sounds really interesting.

Using a Blog to do the teaching

On Monday 16th April I am presenting at Huntingtowers' Professional Learning Day. My brief is to provide samples of many different ways teachers can incorporate ICT ( Information Communication Technologies) in their classrooms - from Prep through to year 12. I will do my best to try to inspire them with examples of Blogs, Podcasts, using programs such as MovieMaker, Photostory, imovie, Comic Life and embracing mobile technologies such as phones and iPods. After my talk staff will break up into groups and they have an hour and a half to "produce something" using any of these technologies.

To encourage staff to use the technology, instead of producing a handout, I have included the task requirements for one group, here on my Blog. So welcome !.

Your task is ;
1) to post a comment in my Blog about my presentation today - good bits, bad bits, how I could improve, (anything really !)
2) Make your own Blog
3) it must have at least one "post"
4) A link to a website
5) A photo ( it can be of you or anything else)
6) You must include links to the Blogs of the other staff in your group
7) Make a comment in another persons Blog
8) Inlcude information about yourself in the profile section
These are the mininum requirements. As in any classroom offering a "differentiated curriculum", there are many more aspects you may choose to include, if you have time.

You may use any of these free sites, Blogger.com, Edublogs , Schoolblogs.com or Classblogmeister.com. Although at the time I wrote this, there was some difficulty with the Schoolblogs site. You may even be adventurous and find another site to host your Blog. Good Luck and I look forward to linking to your sites.