# 21 Youtube and Teachertube

I have tackled this activity over a number of weeks, so consequently have forgotten half of what I've investigated. I like the fact that you can find just about anything on Youtube. People sometimes email me podcasts or are they vodcasts??? and I think where do you people find these things? Well now I know. I must say a lot of time is absorbed just sifting through the good, the bad and the ugly on Youtube. There was some great stuff on Teachertube but again very time consuming finding something relevant that I would use in a teaching capacity. Teachertube seems a much safer option for students and I can certainly see why schools limit access to Youtube. I think there's lots of value in using something with students from either of these sites, especially when it can demonstrate or explain something better than I can. However, you'd have to weigh up the benefits of time for resourcing and technology should always be used to enhance effective teaching, rather than replacing it. I would be more likely to use resources from Youtube and Teachertube that have been recommended to me by others who have successfully used them. However, I will endeavour to find more great stuff in the weeks and months to come.

I love this clip of the Sound of Music - very entertaining. I hope you do too.

# 20 Podcasts

Until this task I didn't really know what a podcast was, although I had heard the term bandied around a lot. I thoroughly enjoyed the 'Amazing Presentation', how very true. Years ago whilst travelling round Australia in our camper trailer, my husband and I listened to Radio National on our car radio (when there was reception). I loved that we had a running commentary as we passed through each state. How great would it be to download to the ipod for those times when there was no reception. I investigated quite a few of the 'Educational Podcasts' and could really see the value of some of these in terms of both professional development and use in classrooms. As I am not currently teaching, I haven't an immediate use and know that I will need to continue on the technology learning curve if I am to continue to stay in touch with the technology students are using in today's world.

# 19 Rollyo

I must say, I couldn't really see myself using this tool on a personal basis. I do like google search and seem to find what I need fairly easily. Having said that, I can see the value of creating your own search tool for just the websites you want your students to use for research on a particular topic. It would eliminate access to unwanted sites and certainly save time. The negative side of that though, would be the limitations set by the search roll. Sometimes an advanced search uncovers unexpected treasures.

# 18 Wikis

I like how Wikis are quick to build, easy to edit and you don't need any knowledge of html to set up, which levels the playing field. Having a website where all members or users can write, edit and rewrite is very useful for collaborative writing, pooling knowledge and exchanging ideas, especially with subjects that change or frequently need updating. I also like how it can eliminate the need for emails back and forth. Everyone has access to the same information so there is no doubling up. What does concern me however, is if someone changes what you have contributed and their information is wrong, also you would have to ensure only members have access to the Wiki. I think there's lots of scope for the use of Wikis eg setting and posting agendas for meetings, planning projects, collaborative editing of documents, debates, open ended taskes where there are many possible answers or ways of arriving at a given answer. Curriki was easy to navigate with some great resources for teachers (will have to bookmark on delicious). There was also some great stuff on the Educational Wikis - too much to absorb now. I'll have to come back to it. Our family has a wiki for weekend jobs at my mother-in-law's house which works really well. We know who has done what job, when and what needs to be done.

# 17 Delicious

Well not only have I been able to set up a Delicious account but have managed to test it on 4 different computers as I've been travelling this week. I love that you can access bookmarks from any computer (no more having to email my husband sites he needs). I have also managed to link Delicious to my igoogle page which I am chuffed about and makes bookmarking very quick and easy. I also like the privacy aspect where you can share sites or keep them for yourself. (I would definitely set it up like this for classroom use). I used Delicious years ago when it was De.lic.ious. We had a teaching network who would all bookmark great sites. I loved it, but as I haven't been teaching for a few years sort of forgot about it. One thing that did frustrate me was when not all the sites bookmarked were that great, you still had to sift through them. However, setting up my own account eliminates that a bit. I can see that in the classroom, by bookmarking relevant topics for research it would reduce time spent trawling irrelevant sites. The only down side I can see is if people bookmark too many sites that you don't find helpful and you don't have much control over what is bookmarked. Yes, I'll be using Delicious in the future and hopefully hubby will be too.

# 15 RSS and # 16 Subscribing

Well have spent quite a bit of time this week revisiting igoogle (and have now made it my home page). Now that I have reclaimed my laptop from the rest of the family (told hubby to bring his home and stop using mine and banned kids from using it), not to mention purchasing and setting up wireless so that I can work at night, I can play around a bit more with each activity. Up until now I felt as if I was just getting by, doing each activity but not really absorbing and understanding what everything was. I am immensely proud of myself for going wireless and what a surprise when husband came home and discovered my new IT skills.

I found the video RSS in Plain English great. It was very straight forward. I understand RSS to mean really simple syndication and that it delivers regular updated info without having to search whole websites. I now have the blogs I am following, regularly updated on my igoogle page which is great. As there isn't really any website I check regularly at the moment I didn't know what to subscribe to. I haven't quite worked out how to attach an RSS feed to my own blog. I think I'll have to just move along and revisit this activity when I get inspired about what to follow.

I love the concept of RSS. My husband regularly checks particular sites on his work computer and I told him he should use RSS. I think he will.

I can see that in a classroom situation this would be great if you wanted regular updates on a current affairs issue being studied. How do others use it primary classes?

# 13 MySpace and # 14 Facebook

Well after much deliberation and psyching up I finally joined MySpace and Facebook, checked out what each of them offered. Checked out what other people had on their sites, then promptly deleted my accounts. I know that was wimpy of me but there is a reason I have avoided joining the ever growing numbers of people on social networking sites. Over the past few years I have been amazed by the number (and frankly the type of people who have wanted to 'friend' me). Surprise! Surprise! my friends have remained my friends even though I have not friended them on Facebook or MySpace

I have to say that I printed out the 5 easy steps to stay safe on Facebook, and followed them to the letter. I can see how people would get frustrated with this task and not bother, though when I looked at the default settings it certainly allows people to access just about anything. For this reason, I would prefer facebook over MySpace as it seemed to offer better privacy settings for the user. MySpace had a more appealing  homepage and I can certainly see it appealing more to the younger user with it's easy access to music downloads. Thanks for the articles about protecting yourself, they were very valuable.

Lots of my friends are on Facebook and find it very useful for sharing photos, especially when living/travelling overseas or organising group catch-ups. I don't feel the need at the moment to spend an inordinate amount of time seeing what others are doing. Maybe that need will present itself as my kids get older.

I checked out Ning but couldn't access it and had a look at Linked-in which looked good for those in professions such as teaching or education. Haven't had much time to investigate Twitter. What I saw didn't impress me much. However, I have enjoyed reading many people's "Twittered" comments whilst watching Q and A.