Well, good news, the paper is complete and course requirements are done.  So the light is bright and I can now focus on some of my duties at home, like preparing for Christmas.  I have to say, since I am just beginning my masters program I was feeling quite stressed about how I would handle things.  It has been a while since I’ve done any course work!!  Well, I am feeling great about things and have learned a great many tools that I could use at work and home.  Our district ICT team is creating their own blog and I have been asked to share some of our course work on there as well.  Should we be providing feedback about this course, as I am aware that they are looking at trying to offer it again next term?  To those of you still plugging away, keep it up because you are almost there. 

Hello everyone!  I, much like everyone else, have been slacking on blogging or commenting much these days.  I have been focussing my attention towards my paper completion, which I have to say is almost complete.  I am just in the final stages of revisions, but the bulk of the workload is complete!!!!  I have to say, this course has exposed me to so many tools that I didn’t even know were out there, and is definitely helpful when sitting on the ICT implementation team for my school.  This was probably the best course I could have taken right now in order to get a clearer picture of what is needed in our school as far as equipment and inservicing for staff.  Just sitting in our meeting on Friday, I was sharing many of the links that all of you have added to you your blogs with our school team.  I will be adding our districts  ICT blog to my blogroll if any of you wish to take a look.  Well, that’s it for tonight.  I have had a couple of late ones this weekend, and have decided I desire to go a relax a bit before heading off to bed!!!  I hope all of you are starting to feel that relief that has come over me this evening.

I successfully created a skypecast and was able to locate it with a search tonight.  However, when I tried to join my own skypecast, it was telling me to download the latest version.  I tried, no success.  I am pretty sure I have the latest version.  Dana joined me through a skype call.  I had him locate the skypecast and try to join.  He was successful at joining, and found me to be the host, although I was not there to hear or speak.  He said that he did have a conversation with a fellow from Ontario though!  With that being said, I am going to give myself credit for hosting the skypecast.  Now how do I figure out my trouble??? Any thoughts???  I am wondering if it is because I am running with Windows Vista.  When I read about programs required for Skype, it says Windows 2000 or XP, nothing about Vista.  Is Vista not compatible???  It seems like I just take a step forward, to only go 2 back with all of this stuff.  If anyone out there has any ideas as to what could be causing my trouble, I would greatly appreciate your feedback.  Until then…….

P.S.  Thanks Dana for the company!!  Now we need to rally for some others to join forces with us!

Well, thanks to Tom I had the opportunity to give Yugma a try.  I was successful with being the presenter, as he was able to see what I was doing, thus, I was able to help him set up his podcast.  When it came time for him to share his desktop with me, trouble struck again.  He keeps getting errors so I was not able to see anything happening on my end.  So some progress has been made.  Hopefully, I can link up to see someone’s desktop in action at some point this week. 

Well, after joining Lili’s skypecast today, or as it turned out, another group conference call, due to glitches in the system again, I decided I would make an attempt at hosting a skypecast myself.  I have been successful at creating an event, to be held on Tuesday evening at 9:00.  If you are searching for it, it is called networking.  I have decided topic of discussion would be flexible, anything pertaining to this course.  A time for questions, trouble shooting, idea sharing, etc.  I have also been able to change my avatar picture to one from my own computer, as I finally uploaded some off of my camera.  It has been a productive day around here, so I am feeling much better about what I have accomplished now.  Angele had me panicking, thinking I was way behind, so now I am feeling like I have made some head way in my assigned tasks.  Angele is going to be coming over tomorrow for some tutorials, as she does not yet have her home computer.  I told her I would give her a hand with a podcast, so if all goes well, I will be able to put what I’ve learned into practice. 

Well I have officially made my blended learning podcast.  You can check it out at at  http://myprincesses.mypodcast.com/2007/11/Blended_Learning-55869.html .  I had a couple of snags when it came to the publishing, because of my sample podcast that I had previously completed.  I didn’t know that the title had to be the same for the user.  It seems to be there now.  So, with much relief, another assignment is complete, and thankfully, it was without a lot of stress.  It is definitely true, that the more you use something, the more proficient you become with it.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ve still got a long way to go!

Well, after much frustration and time, and configuring and reconfiguring, I finally found the setting for my google documents.  There was a pop up that wasn’t being allowed so although I was clicking on new document, nothing was popping up!  However, like with most tech tools, after some time and navigating my way around, I was successful at changing the settings and can now open a google document.  That is good news as far as the final paper is concerned.  The bad news of the night, is I spent so much time doing that, that I did not get to doing my podcast on blended learning.  Tomorrow I hope to finish my script and complete that task.  One task at a time is good for now as they say!!! 

Well, it has been a very busy Sunday.  I went to work for awhile this afternoon to catch up on some paperwork, as well as spent a considerable amount of time on this laptop playing with all of the new tools.  I managed to get my first Yugma session going tonight with Kim, however it was extremely slow.  We are not sure if it is the users or the web.  There seemed to be about a 3 minute delay in what was on the hosts screen to what the guest was seeing.  Is this normal?  If so, I could see this tool becoming very frustrating.  So, needless to say, what we thought we were going to do with it, we did not, we ended up just using skype to communicate with.  Kim was having trouble with her delicious widgit so I walked her successfully through the set up and configuration.  Then, I asked for some guidance with google documents.  It is definitely the settings on my laptop, and having pop up blocks, but for some reason I can’t seem to unblock them.  I will give  that another go around tomorrow.  All in all, a very productive day, because in between all of that I made 2 desserts, a pot of soup, a batch of buns for parent teacher interviews at our school tomorrow and a roast chicken for my own family’s supper tonight.  I think it is time to pack it in for the night!!

Well, I’ve taken the next plunge.  I have recorded a sample podcast to see if I could get technology on my side once again.  I am not sure what I was doing last time, but tonight things seemed to go much smoother.  After recording my sample about 20 times, due to the phone ringing and too many stalls in my speech, I think I have been successful.  I have to say, truly a fascinating tool.  Now to show it to others!!  Take a listen at my short clip http://myprincesses.mypodcast.com/index.html  Let me know if it works!! 

Well, after trying yet again to open a google word doc. on my laptop ( with no success), I have come to work today to do some catching up.  I decided to give it a shot while I was here, and by gosh it worked!!!  The good news, it’s not me, the bad news, there must be some configuration on my laptop which is preventing it from popping up.  Any suggestions? It does make me feel better that it was not the user in this case, as most of us know all too well.  So part of a hurdle is crossed, now to figure out podcasts and yugma.  Perhaps that will be on tonight’s agenda. 

As far as Glen’s latest blog goes,I am a firm believer that one gets out of something what they put in.  For me, I want to acquire some new tools and skills from this course and utilize them well.  Does that mean I need to learn a specific number?  I think not, however, I do need to show evidence of what I have acquired through application.  I don’t think that is necessary to  comment on every blog each day, but rather, comment when you have a reflection or want to credit the person for what they have said.  I do read each day, so as to practice the tools I have thus far acquired, but I don’t always comment.  This is where my time management comes in, each day I devote time to checking in and keeping informed, but I do the bulk of my work load, such as commenting on weekends when I have more time to reflect. I agree with Cheryl that putting quotas would only cause me to obsess, when I should be focusing that energy on exploring and self-directed learning.  I didn’t sign up for this course to only do what was required and then stop upon its completion.  As a life-long learner, you take a course to “jump-start” the learning, and as a life-long learner, you keep applying what you learned and build upon it on your own.  Being an on-line course does not change the energy I put into it or what I want to get out of it.