Arghhh!!

Well, I have been on here for last three hours on and off, tinkering with various tools.  I am about ready to scream as nothing seems to be going right tonight!!  I was trying to work in google documents and don’t seem to be able to create a new document.  Basically, all I was wanting to do was try it out so I new it was functional before I go to start my paper.  I am the type of person that doesn’t like to wait until the last minute to know if something is working, and it looks like that is a good thing right about now!!  I click on new document and nothing happens.  Any suggestions???   Please, I am sure it is a setting or a button I am not pushing, but it is frustrating the heck out me right now!!  I also spent some time pondering Glen’s latest post as well as how I want to start using some of these tools with the staff at my school.  I am a vice principal, so I don’t have a class of my own, however, I would like to get some of our staff using these tools.  But, since my latest frustration, I will save all of those thoughts until tomorrow, when I have cooled off a bit!!!  I know everyone can relate to my frustrations at some point in time, when something they were trying to do, wouldn’t work for them not matter what they tried!!  Oh well, have no fear, I will be here tomorrow trying to configure the tools to work for me.  Until then…….

Yug-a-mugga! Yug-a-mugga!

Well, I think I have established a Yugma account.  I have done everything it says and there is a little icon on my desktop now, just not certain if that is what is supposed to happen.  I haven’t had the opportunity yet to have a session yet with anyone, but have been in the screen where is talks about setting up a session, so it is sounding like the right spot!!  I have been trying to explore a little bit each night, as I find this is the best way for me to learn and practice using all of these new tools I am being exposed to.  Besides, what else is there to do when it has done nothing but snow since 7 this morning!!!  While my husband snowblows the driveway so we can get out in the morning, I shall play on the laptop!!

HELP!!

I spent last night and this morning trying to get podcast going, or at least I thought that was what I was doing.  I downloaded Yugma and tried starting a session.  It is telling me I don’t have the rights.  Any suggestions?

Skype, don’t fail us now!

Well, today task proved to be more interesting than any of us expected.  Time:  1 o’clock  Place:  Skype  What:  Skypecast????  So Angele and I sit down together to join the skypecast, as she does not yet have audio or video, when we noticed things weren’t going the way we had anticipated.  This has happened to us before, as we are an admin. team, so things don’t always go the way we envisioned.  So, persevere we do, trying to make out what has happened.  I tried joining a conference call, which I had done previously with 2 other class members ( at which time we learned that video is lost and only audio is maintained between multiple people).  However, people started messaging me that I needed to do other things and at the same time I had two classmates join my conference invitation!!  My comment to Angele, too much going on here all at once!!!  Dana, Nicole, Angele and I figured out that we were in our own world, and although that does happen sometimes, we quickly realized this was not the way it was to be working.  We dropped our call and tried to decipher how to join everyone else.  Lucky for us, our first attempt at dialing in to the call worked, and bingo-we could hear everyone!!  I was nice to hear the voices to the names that we have been corresponding with for the past few weeks.  So our chat began, as we all pondered topics for our paper.  Many suggestions were brought forth, such as how is ICT going to affect all curriculum, how can we use ICT in a graduate studies program, how can we apply this in our workplace, how to build curriculum around the usage of mobile learning, the financial burden of ICT for school divisions and how to overcome that and bridging the gap between personal usage and school usage ( infusing technology).  For myself, I have made no decision yet, but the wheels are turning!!  All in all, our conference call was successful and it was nice to hear where everyone is at.  Some are far more advanced than others, but that is okay, as we are all able to learn something from each other.  It makes things less intimidating for me knowing that there are others out there feeling just like me!!  There were a few frustrating moments for us, as Angele and I were participating in the call.  We  were not able to hear everyone clearly, some had more feedback than others.  Also, not knowing who was speaking if they had not identified themselves first made for some guess work, as well as not wanting to interrupt someone who was about to speak.  A few suggestions have been made on some other blogs about this process that sound like they would alleviate this issue for next time.  Those are just a few of my own thoughts about the afternoon session.  I look forward to participating in more sessions with all of you. 

MMMM!!

Well, I guess I truly have been bitten by the technology bug!  My intention was to sit down here tonight and simply check my news reader, when I got reading Glen’s del.ic.ious entry.  Now my first thought was, I am to tired to try and teach myself that right now, but then I couldn’t resist.  I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep if I at least didn’t give it a shot.  After some searching and configuring, I think I have figured this out.  I have added it to the sidebar of my blog and within the next few days hope to add some bookmarks.  So Glen, I have to say MMMMMM, it really is del.ic.ious! 

Skype Invitation

I have added my skype contact to the sidebar of my weblog, however I thought I would do it this way too.  My skype contact is deerwood239 and I invite all of you, my fellow classmates to add me to your skype contact list. 

Where do we go from here??

After reading Glen’s most recent posting about increasing participation and collaboration in on-line learning, I’ve done some thinking.  Personally, up until this point, each time I have come on to the computer to use these new tools I have learned, I find myself spending all of my time scrolling through everyone’s blog and then trying out various things I have seen on those blogs for myself.  I am a learner who learns by doing, so immediately the urge plagues me to figure out “how did they do that?”  Therefore, I never get back to commenting on those blogs or to thank them for allowing me to learn from their entry.  So to everyone thus far, THANK YOU!!  I can see up until now that technology has allowed me to quickly access, share and gather knowledge within our course group, but that is all it has been doing.  It has made us a group, so now it is up to us to make it a community of learners.  Collaboration and sharing allows us to engage in active learning.  Doing so will allow us to not only share information but also allow us to come up with problem solving ideas as a group.  In the short time that Glen posted his last blog, I have seen this happening already.  I have many comments on my blog from people that I hadn’t heard from up until this point.  I think this is encouraging, and vow to do the same for everyone else.   In just a short time, I feel more of a connection to this community just by having people communicating to me, and now see the importance of that learning community in order to enhance our learning.  No more excuses, I will make the time to comment for others!

Navigating

Well, the last few nights I have spent navigating my way through many of these sites trying to learn as many ins and outs of them as I can.  Tonight I managed to create my own wiki space as well.  Last night I checked out a few skypecasts and had a conversation with a friend who is also taking this course.  Each day I read through everyone’s blogs, and with the help of the reader, I am quickly able to see where there is new news.  I have to admit that learning all of these new things is very interesting and a lot of fun.  At times I find myself somewhat addicted to playing on my computer in order to see what else I can learn.  I know people who have had similar feelings when learning about facebook, feeling a sense of addiction to it as they are connecting with old friends.  I guess that is when it is very important for people to be sure that technology and all of its capability does not interfere with other aspects of their life. 

Skype

Today has been a day of learning and collaborating.  I have created my skype account and spent some time experimenting with some of the features it has to offer.  I also put what I’ve learned to use, by teaching a few others how to do the same.  Technology is truly amazing, as long as it is fully functioning!!  I had to opportunity to talk to a few other students taking this course to hear what is going well for them, what is not going so well and have their help with a few areas as well. 

 I also commented on the thought of web proofing. I think that it is extremely important to teach kids to be web wise. Blocking them from things only causes them to be more adamant that they will get to whatever is being blocked from them. However, I do feel it is essential to teach them how to proceed with caution. Teaching them how to use the web safely and wisely is the key. By avoiding these situations, we are only asking for more trouble later on. If children are not taught what to look for, we only have ourselves to blame.  I think to do so, one must have a lot of knowledge themselves surrounding the web and all of the sites that children are attracted to, and the best way to find that knowledge is to use the web and these sites yourself. 

Well, time to go and experiment a bit more before putting things away for the night. 

First Day

Well, it is official!  I’ve signed up for this course and am very excited about all I can learn from it.  I have just been looking through this site to see if I can figure some of these things out.  So far, so good!!  Now I’ll see if I can make entries on my own blog!