Microblogging

This weeks Blogging Corner Challenge is Twitter and was set by Michelle Dodd. Michelle has asked some really great questions to stimulate conversation around this very handy online tool.

I started to use Twitter around 6 months ago and right from the outset I found a truely wonderful group of Educators who instantly welcomed me into their fold. The thing that struck me the most was how much these people were willing to share and welcome newbies! That's the great thing about Educators, they are always willing to offer support and advice. A community like Twittter is both engaging and theraputic, you often get a "heads up" on new tools and tricks from those in the know, but also have the opportunty to contribute your own thoughts and ramblings. I have even had the pleasure of meeting some of my Twitter aquaintances face to face at conferences and workshops.

Recently I have forsaken Twitter for another microblogging site called Plurk. I have to say I actually enjoy using Plurk a lot more than Twitter, as I find the conversations easier to follow and enjoy a greater variety of conversations to join in on. One good thing is that often the same educators who are using Plurk are also Twitter users! The best of both worlds really, though there aren't as many Australian educators who have taken the plunge into Plurk... I think it will catch on eventually though.

So you want to start? The best thing to do is just dive in and give it a go (oh and then join Blogging Corner and let us know how you go!)

Tags: twitter plurk blogging bloggingcorner08 microblogging
Posted at 10:20AM Oct 23, 2008 by Alison Hall  |  Comments[0]

why blog?

There has been quite a lot of discussion in my neck of the woods about blogging in general, but more specifically teachers blogging and students blogging. Is blogging self indulgent? Do the people who blog just simply have too much time on their hands? Who would want to listed to what I have to write? What's the point of blogging?

I think that one of the best things a beginning blogger can do is to find others who are doing what they want to do, or writing about issues or subjects that are interesting. By read other people's blogs and by engaging in the conversations that evolve from them, you can start to form some of your own ideas about what you may like to blog about - so called "finding your voice".

To me, blogging is a way to organise my thoughts, and helps me form an opinion about something.  It is also how I can share what I am doing and the new things I am learning about. If people listen to what I say that's great, but if they don't I am not too perturbed. For me keeping a blog is a way to explore, define and then redefine my thoughts. You may find it means something different for you.

A few great examples of educator blogs to follow, read, listen to and if nothing else provide a shining example of "how to" for other educators:
Chris Betcher - education and technology
Sue Waters - podcasts
Kathryn Greenhill - librarian
Wormbins - class blog
Larry Ferlazzo - teacher + an excellent blog roll

There is also some interesting discussion going on in the edna Group blogging corner about the merits of students and teachers blogging.

Tags: discussion educators use of new technologies blog blogging
Posted at 11:44AM Jul 25, 2008 by Alison Hall  |  Comments[0]

Blogging, blogging, blogging

This slideshare on the subject of blogging speaks for itself!

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Tags: blogging publishing slide share blog
Posted at 06:01PM Jul 17, 2008 by Alison Hall  |  Comments[0]

Get out there and get involved!

So there's this new thing called me.edu.au .... wow that's wonderful!.. I've joined...  but what do I do now?

A question I feel a lot of people are asking. Honestly, I feel the best way to utilise me.edu.au fully is to just be brave and put yourself out there. You may feel like you are totally alone but once you start to open up to the community and get involved you may feel differently! me.edu.au is meant to be a place for educators to share and collaborate, so lets get cracking!

Join: visit some of the me.edu.au communities and join them if they interest you and introduce yourself on the whiteboard.

Contribute: add some of the resources you regularly use to the left hand link sharing space of your communities.

Find: search for collegues, friends or people who have similar interest to you and add them as a collegue.

Write: Start up your me.edu.au blog. If you don't know where to start, try a few ideas suggested in some of the communities and from other blogs eg. About me, blogging community

Tag: make sure you tag your blog posts with relevant tags, but also with the names of the communities you'd like to share your blog post with. Once published, your blog post will flow through to those communities and appear as in the related links from edna and blogs box on the community pages.

Feed: gather RSS feeds of all the places where you do things online eg. flickr, wiki spaces, nings, other blogs, facebook, del.icio.us, diigo, twitter, plurk etc etc etc etc and put them into the feed part of your profile (edit my profile > feeds) Here is an example of the feeds I have coming through.

What will happen now? = Anything you add to your networks across the web will be picked up from your RSS feeds and displayed in your public profile. If your collegues also do this, you will be able to see what they are doing as well. Personally I think this is one of the best things that me.edu.au has going on right now.

So start joining, contributing, finding, writing, tagging and feeding so you can get the most out of YOUR community!

Tags: blogging showme communities me
Posted at 04:34PM Jul 11, 2008 by Alison Hall  |  Comments[0]