Task #13 and Task #14 - MySpace and Facebook

Oh Social Networking - definitely a topic that most of us are now accustomed, I think it would be more difficult to find someone these days that do NOT have a FB account.

Just out of high school - 9 or so years ago - MySpace was all the rage and you were not somebody if you did not have a MySpace Page. I remember spending hour after hour making the page pretty and attractive using Myspace HTML codes found on the internet - pimp my space if I remember rightly. Was a great place to share photos and let people know how your life was going. It seemed to keep everyone from high school keep in touch, even if you didn;t really want to know what was happening in most of their lives.

FB then quickly took over from MySpace with more user friendly gadgets. With the invention of Iphones with a FB application, made it even easier to connect FB with everyone anywhere you are. Not only is Facebook a place to keep in contact, share thought and photos instantly but also a place where you can be kept in the loop with different things, for example my surf club uses it to inform members of training sessions, events coming up etc. I also know of friends who have used it to start up an online business. A very versatile web tool.

Task # 12 - Flickr

Oh Flickr is something that I have used before to share much loved memorie - photographs. I feel now that with the Iphone age and Facebook era it is much easier to share the photos with the people that I wish as easy as uploading straight to FB where all my mich loved friends and family have accounts. I can easily tag people and they can be notified by FB as this occurs. I do however think the concept behind Flickr was well thought out.

Flickr does however have other options that FB does not including different project ideas, for me though in my life at this moment I find it easier to use one tool - FB being the easiest to connect my photo with the people that I need to.

Task # 11 - Library Thing

Library Thing is a tool I have never heard of or have been exposed to before. So I took this task in my stride and had a look around the site.


I am not sure how this would connect with the classroom, however it is a great tool for the individual who has a true passion for reading and books and can see how it would benefit these indivduals.

If time permitted perhaps students could begin to keep their own library?

Task #10 - Online Image Generators

Now a topic that I have implemented and know a little about. I have created different text and graphics for my classroom wiki and have also used the comic creator for creative writing in a Year 2 educational setting. I love playing around creating headings, images and other exciting parts to put into the wiki etc. Here is one I played around with for this task.



Image by Cool Text: Free Graphics Generator - Edit Image

I think this alos has a great outcome for students to do design in ICT Studies.

Task #9 - Virtual Worlds

Vitrtual worlds have often been a part of the web that I have questioned, in particular the validity of them and the purpose as to why someone would spend hours and hours in a secret life/world that didn't exist instead of interacting in the world that they are apart of - being the 'real' world.

My other intrigue is how this can actually  be transferred into an educational setting in a spoitive manner, continued research may answer this question.

Task #8 - iGoogle

Well here we are on another Friday afternoon - think we need to change the day we meet and discuss the elements of Web 2.0. I have never really every looked at iGoogle before and was interested to see how it can connect many aspects of Web 2.0 together in one place. I especially loved looked at all the different gadgets and ended up creating a home page full of little treats.

Google Maps - Task #6

Google maps has been used by myself predominantly to find future houses - as we are trying to buy at the moment. Every time I get an alert from Realeastate.com I get onto Google Maps to look at where it is. Not only can you look at the map of where it is, but you can also look at street view - which gives you a small snippet into the neighbouring houses. It has definitely helped us weed the crappy houses and areas from the decent houses and areas without having to leave the house. In this busy lifestyle that we lead it definitely is a time saver for my husband and myself.

Google Docs - Task #5

When we first started playing with this resource this afternoon, I was definitely convincing myself that emailing a document around the tracks was the easiest way to get feedback and make changes with colleagues. Then I made a document - as this was part of the task - and I sent it to my colleagues still convinced that emailing it back and forth was the way to go. My colleagues all proceeded to open it at the same time - first surprise moment - as I know if you email a document to multiple colleagues and all colleagues try to change it then this ends in frustrating computer melt down moments. My colleagues then decided to all type into the document at the same time and - 2nd surprise moment - they all managed to adapt and change it at the same time, in real time with all changes being saved at the same time. I was totally amazed at the unique ability of Google Docs. I now have a changed view on the whole google docs resource and think that it definitely brings about a form of collaboration that email does not! I cannot wait to utilise this wonderful Web 2.0 platform.

Web 2.0 - Task #4

Web 2.0 would seem to be quite a easy thing to understand....watching all the videos on Youtube - a form of Web 2.0 itself - was great to hear lots of different definitions being thrown around. The main thing that hit home to me was that all these different aspects of Web 2.0 sit as solo platforms and require the USER to make these platforms work. Without the users interaction it would just be webpages existing with no real purpose.

Introducing Teacher's Pet - Task #2

Blogging, so where do we begin? This is my first attempt and blogging and am excited for what lies ahead. I am a primary school teacher who currently teaches Preparatory. I am participating in this course on Web 2.0 with a couple of colleagues and am looking forward to learning some new and interesting things.