Oct 29 2006
Performancing, Zotero, Firefox 2.0 and Getting Back to Blogging Here…
Well I welcome myself back to this blog and beginning to post more frequently as I start to bring my ideas together for my next assignment and action research. This time I have to choose an educational initiative that I have undertaken or am undertaking and look at in terms of the current literature we are reading into on the MA Module 5251. This is mainly to do with issues of WHY are we really using ICT within School and does it actually make a difference?
On the right you can find my initial ideas into some projects of which I am favouring the School Email Setup or the ICT staff INSET that I have set into action this year and its successes, failures and consequences. More research into Moodle does not appeal, and the weblog initiatives are still in need of tweaking although responses from an Egyptian culture to weblogging with pupils has led to a lot of worry from parents.
With the school Email or INSET, the rationales can be looked at in detail as to why the school wanted it in the first place, and beyond that we can look at detail at teachers reactions to these initiatives both from a cultural point of view and an overseas teaching point of view. Anyway click on the thumbnail to access a gigantic version outlining my thoughts.
Other news includes the release of Firefox 2.0 with inbuilt spell check which is fabulous (Download it now!). The new Plug-In called ZOTERO is worth a look as it integrates fully with the browser and provides a ready to use citation tool like EndNote without the cost or the problems. I have yet to work out the export facilities, but it should lead to a much easier. The performancing plugin seems to work well too, although I still haven’t posted with it yet. Something stops me from using it…..next time maybe.
On the reading front George Siemens has another LMS review which as always bangs the nail in the coffin of any VLE. And maybe he is right. Worth downloading and having a look.The Myth of the Digital Native is a great snapshot and post, which really made me think of what is happening in my classrooms in Egypt and how the supposed Digital Natives don’t seem to be as native as they are supposed to be. In fact maybe the native is more willing to just let technologies wash over them, and not really even understand the processes behind them? Finally don’t forget to take a look at the lecture by Mr. Greenfield relating to his everyware book, which looks into ubiquitous computing in a simple and effective way.
Enough, and hopefully this blog will be much more active over the coming months. And its wonderful to realise that I have only just realised what a trackback uri is…..always more to learn.
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