Category Archives: Web 2.0

Addictomatic – need a search engine? But wait, you also get…

Smashing apps put me onto the search engine, Addictomatic: inhale the web. Ignore the fact that it sounds like a subliminal cigarette or gadget commercial, the results are actually quite impressive in breadth. Addictomatic searches the following:

Topix ‘is the leading news community on the Web, connecting people to the information and discussions that matter to them in every U.S. town and city’. My result had ‘Melbourne, Australia’ as the locality.
Live.com news
Google Blog Search : find blogs on your favourite topics
Twitter search (search Twitter in real time; see what the world is doing now)
YouTube
Digg
New, images, video ; Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog, Digg surfaces the best stuff as voted on by our users. Continue reading Addictomatic – need a search engine? But wait, you also get…

Geography2.0

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0SnaK4T7qU&color1=11645361&color2=13619151&fs=1]

About.com:Geography is a site worth checking out to support learning about current events in SOSE. Make learning relevant by focussing on what’s in the media now. You’ll find information about countries that are in the news, for example, the war in Georgia, countries in the Olympic Games, Olympic Games cities 1896-2014, geography and maps of China, photo gallery of Beijing. It might be worth signing up for a geography newsletter, or bookmarking Matt’s geography blog (which has an impressive geography blogroll).

The Google Earth blog has an interesting selection of post. Have a look at how Google Earth and Google Maps bring events and geography to life; watch Arctic ice melting on YouTube in Google Earth. So many Web2.0 geography opportunties!

Here is a video fly-through of the 3D Olympic Games site in Beijing that Google has released:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p2cEQCsBuY&color1=11645361&color2=13619151&hl=en&fs=1]

George Orwell’s blog

tombstone of Eric Arthur Blair

What would you say if I told you that you could read a 70 year-old blog? Anachronistic, perhaps? Well, you can. George Orwell, born Eric Arthur Blair, has risen from the dead to blog – so to speak. His diaries between 1938 and 1942, beginning August 9 this year and continuing into 2012, will be posted day by day, exactly 70 years after Orwell penned the original entries. This definitely adds a new dimension to the posthumous diary. And what a brilliant fusion of original ‘log’ of the past and the modern-day, Web2.0 version of the ever-popular diary.

The Orwell Prize
outlines the project

Orwell’s ‘domestic’ diaries begin on 9th August 1938/2008; his ‘political’ diaries (which are further categorised as ‘Morocco’, ‘Pre-war’ and ‘Wartime’) begin on 7th September 1938/2008.
Continue reading George Orwell’s blog

teacherstudents/studenteachers

father and son fishing

In her wiki ‘6 words’ (thanks for the link and information, Jenny Luca), Lauren O’Grady says something that I feel very passionately about – she talks about bridging students and teachers through multiliteracies. Her blog, ‘teachers are learners – learners are teachers’, takes as its theme the vision of a partnership between student and teacher, and more than that; if we acknowledge that learning and teaching are complementary, then we do away with that hierarchical, unequal footing in the classroom. Then we free teachers from having to know everything (which is impossible), and encourage them to learn continually, share their learning, take learning from whoever is willing to give it.

With Book Week coming up, I decided to involve students in my own learning. Voicethread is something I know about in theory only, and I thought we could record the activities including student comments . I’ve also not used iRivers or audacity to record or edit audio. Today I spoke to some students and, surprise! surprise! – they’re more than willing to help out. I’m looking forward to it and will post about the experience once Book Week is over. Next week I’m hoping to take part in a class of year 7 students who are learning to use Video Studio. I’d better make a head start on the how-to, because, as the teacher reminded me, the pace will be at the level of the students, not the adults.

Web 2.0 in magazine format

Here’s a Web 2.0 application with stylish presentation. Issuu allows for viewing and publishing online within categories: academia / architecture / art / comics / culture / design / fashion / fun / gadgets / games / illustration / magazine / motor / nature / portfolio / photography / shopping / sport / sketchbook / street / technology / travel. It’s marketed as a living library where users can upload their own documents to share ‘in cool magazine’ format. It’s like Flickr in magazine format, giving the authors a place to store and share work; allowing viewers to bookmark favourites; share links or embed in an aggregating service, such as Facebook; share comments. Continue reading Web 2.0 in magazine format

#080808 Olympic Games

Beijing 2008

Connecting with the Beijing Olympic Games is more interesting and dynamic with technology. Think of what the moon landing would have been like if we’d had the same possibilities. I remember being spontaneously sent home from school so that we could all watch the landing on TV. (Grade 5, in case you’re wondering. Linda Fewings came home with me and we ate crumpets.) What we have now is almost instant visual information (videos, slideshows, pictures), dynamic news through RSS (Twitter; Very Recent search engine) and interactive tools (trackers and maps). A great way to introduce students to Web 2.0 technologies when they’re already engaged in the Olympics.

I’ve been fishing for links to the Beijing Olympic Games and here’s what I’ve caught:

Summer Games on Youtube

Interactive map of Beijing Games on New York Times

Teacher Planet (lots of resources on the Olympic Games) Continue reading #080808 Olympic Games

Teaching up a storm




Pomme de Granada

Originally uploaded by The Department

Wes Fryer compares good teaching to good cooking. He talks about ‘recipes’ being modified in a Web 2.0 context to suit specific needs and situations. His six main ingredients for powerful teaching and learning are del.icio.us social bookmarks, Flickr photo sharing, VoiceThread digital storytelling, collaborative writing tools, websites for phone recording as well as SMS polling, and videoconferencing. How do these tools and applications differ from traditional 19th century teaching and learning? Replacing a one-way direction from teacher to student, where the teacher is the expert and the student a passive receptacle, these ingredients enable active and interactive learning.

I’m interested to find out more about the websites for phone recording and SMS polling. Are Australian teachers doing this?

Bravo Hawkesdale

isn't he cute

I realise that many people would have discovered ages ago what Hawkesdale College has been doing with blogging, but since I’ve only just looked through properly, I have to do my little rave because otherwise I’ll burst. It’s so fantastic!

The Hawkesdale K-12 blog : Techno7 (Our first year 7-12)
is about students and teachers blogging through the 7-12 school journey.
What’s on the blog?
• There’s a page for each subject, plus extras, eg. study skills, etc.
• Each student has a blog for each subject
• Each teacher has a blog following their Web 2.0 journey, posting stuff for students, or just ideas, findings, etc. Continue reading Bravo Hawkesdale