Hi Anne,
Thanks stopping by and saying hello. I have just read in one of your posts that you are blogging with your students. I am trying to set up blogging accounts for my students with " edublogs". Which company are you using for your blogs?

Thanks for the welcome, Anne. I'm already feeling re-energised reading and exploring the forums/blogs/members in C2.0. Sometimes I find it hard to stay motivated when I feel like I'm the only only doing these things in my school

Hi Anne, I have realised that I have two accounts on this ning. So I'm deleting one to lessen the confusion which means I have to reinvite some friends. cheers Anne

Having enjoyed your tweets about your Flip, I was glad to see your video. Excellent, yet inexpensive tool. Your professional growth has really developed well over the past year.

Hi Anne,
Thanks for the welcome, looking forward to exploring more. Really looking forward to introducing this technology to the Japanese department. The little bit we have done so far this year has really sparked an interest. Students were thrilled to be able to record their oral conversations on mobiles and send them to me.

I am doing well. I was thinking of your plums when I saw that my persimmons are really producing. Our wild sand plums were not very fruitful this year. It may have been too wet. They like a semi-arid prairie.
I gave three presentations this summer, and I ustreamed one recently with the help of GingerTPLC. It is rather amusing to see your own personal quirks on video.
I hope your area will come out of the drought. Ours took five years before it really broke, and the last two were terrible.
Can't wait to see what other new tech stuff you are up to this year. I have put your blogs on my blogroll.

Hi Anne. Thank you for your post. I used a wiki when I student taught for a poetry unit, and the students loved being able to share and comment on each other's work. My first year I did not use a blog, but I am starting with a blog this year. I am going to try using online forums and see how that goes. That's so neat that all the students are using blogs now at your school. It's great that community has gone on board.

Hi Anne,

Sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if the weekly 2.0 chat was still going on. One Google Cal has it listed at 11am (EST) and another at noon. The main ning page (on the right) says to look at the live conversations page, but the only ones listed there are prev. recorded.

thanks

-dave

Hi Dave, It is never a bother to contact me. Due to the huge differences in time zones I can rarely participate in live conversations, so although I have attended a couple, I dont often check now. Did you go to theCR2/0 wiki, choose conversations link, scroll right down until you come to the last few dates in August as there seem to be a few still listed there.Choose the actual live link. Let me know if that does not work, and I will find out more for you. Some of those sessions are great so I hope you can get onto them. Please let me know.

Thanks, Anne! I'm teaching Integrated Tech to 6th graders this year, 1st semester and then a 6th grade computer class 2nd semester. So, I've spent the past few hours doing some searching. Small, rural district - no guidance, I'm pretty much on my own to plot my course! The good thing is that I'm willing and I hear that I have great students this year. I've been doing a lot of research in the past year but now putting it into practice - whew! My head is spinning.

Hi Anne
Just browsing Classroom 2.0 this evening. Love your Flip videos!
Julie

Hi Anne, Are you getting excited about the Learning 2.008 conference? I am really starting to get hyped for it. I attended the pre-conference session last night in Second Life. I enjoyed that and it was my first time to actually attend something live as I also have the timezone difference.

Hoping to meet you F2F.

Heather

Thank you Anne.

Hello there, i'm a school teacher/founder from Nepal. I run an elementary school for poor family rural children. I'm Govinda by my name. if u find me like minded person plz mail me at gopisu@gmail.com

6,7,8 grade. We are using classblogmeister.com

What's your grade?

Hi Anne,
Thanks for the welcome. I know that I am not alone in my technology frustrations. Unfortunately schools seem to have too few technicians and/or technicians that can actually teach teacher how to better use the technology. Our tech staff is really good but they have too much work and not enough time or hands to get it all done.

The site seems like a place I will find a lot of useful info and I am excited to get started.

Hi Anne, I am after a small piece of advice! I have started a blog for my class at Global Teacher: http://crheb.globalteacher.org.au/ and I am wondering how to attach documents and PP shows so my kids can download new info that I find. I can easily put up pics, sound and video, however it would be a lot more useful if I could add these files as well. Can you help?

Thanks for your comment Anne - I'm thinking that this community is just the place to start making connections. I'll have a read of your blog and see what tips you have for what works to get students as enthusiastic as I am about this.

Deb

Thank you for your reply to my message! Much appreciated!

Thanks for the response, Anne. I've been using the Fisher Price digital cameras with my first graders for two years with good results. We've used them to record the weather, do photo illustrations for original poetry, and to record projects, especially math patterns and block buildings. I would like to extend these into more interactive media. What structure works for blogging with a classroom?

Hi Anne
is it possible to share info here with a lot of people at once.
this is in regards to www.teenlivedrive.com

Hi, Anne,
Thanks for the reply. Do you use Skype for the video conferencing? Of all the applications you mentioned, the only one not blocked would be VoiceThread. We have used that for projects. Anything that gives free rein to anyone on the net is always blocked.

Thank you very much for the response! Yes the person did start the Skype call, I think they need to tweek their setting as well. When I initiate it , it has worked fine. Silly question, the school's connection is inferior to what I have at home. I wonder if that has something to do with it. It is broadband, just not sure how "broad" it is. :-) Would you ever be willing to test out a Skype call? Also have you heard of Adobe Connect? Just wondering what your thoughts were. Thank you very much again. :-)

Hi Anne

i was involved in the knowledge bank conference earlier in the year unfortunately for the students and myself the timing of our sessions wasn't great with meant our bit didn't go as well as planned but we are presenting it at the home eco conference in dec so we have a chance to polish our act!

I am happy to explain how i use myspace although it is a little detailed. i use it in both my teaching areas commerce and geography. i am not sure how detailed you want me to be. it is blocked at school and all the work is homework activities. there is always the option no to do it live if the students really have a valid reason for not doing it live or no internet connection at home.(there was 1 student out of 60 who chose not to do it live from a year 9 geography class- she used publisher to complete her tasks)

at the conference i did send out the assignment sheet on how i used it for the geography class. did you get that?

Is there any particular aspect your interested in? I applied for the innovations branch social networking professional learning term 4 but didn't get which was very disappointing as i use social networking in the classroom now! it would of been great to have some time to explore its use with more flexibility!

:)

in commerce i use it when students are studying law to make the topic more engaging i get them to create a myspace live for teenagers about laws and rights that relate to them as applied in vicotria, get them to include internet safety and then they can choose what laws /ringts they think is the most relevant meeting the criteria. They have to write and appeal to their audience so in some cases they may need to have a short cut list so i can understand what they are saying apart from the normal ones like lol etc they like it they are on every night anyway so it isn't much to put their work up their - i shows a different way they can use it and more importantly i get to chat a little about how much it too much etc and get them to think about what they have on their space etc i make them make new spaces and use their school email so i can easily identify them. i will email you the sheet for the year 9 students if you would like. then you can ask me questions about it as it is far more complex.
:)

Thanks for the compliment Anne. I looked up the conference and got some interesting ideas.

Hi Anne,

My first VC unit came as a grant with a polycom camera and 32" TVs on stands. The unit was stuck in a closet (unused) for at least 5 years before my time. We took it out, cleaned it up and set it up in a conference room at the Alt. Ed building, but no teacher wanted to load their kids up and bus them over. So it was still unused. So I decided that to make it portable. Basically, I bought a rolling suitcase, cut egg crate foam to fit and protect the camera. The TVs went to different campuses. Now when a teacher wants to do a VC, I show up with my suitcase and cables. The teacher has to provide/checkout the TVs.

Last year the district bought an additional polycom camera off of ebay so we could connect classrooms within the district.

I know tandburg has portable units now but when my district saw the price tag, they freaked...I guess that I will have to continue to be creative.

Hey, Anne, how about the book set in New Zealand, The Whale Rider, do you know it? I'd like to get my English students in touch with some kiwis via wiki. Any advice?
Our space: http://wiki-land.wikispaces.com

collaboratively,
andrew

Hello Anne,
I understand what you are saying. Thanks for your explanation. It makes sense. One more question: what type of webcamera do you use? Can your camera capture the whole gruop of students at a time or only one person who is speaking at the moment? I think it is a great idea to try video conferencing without students at first. I will let you know when I fix all the necessary equipment and bring it all together. One more question: is there such an option in Skype that lets us record the whole video conference and view it later as a video file? I think it would be great for further class discussion and analyses.

Hi Anne,
Thank you for the welcome. It's good to see how many Australian teachers are on here.
I'd love to know more about what you're doing in the classroom. I'm spending a lot of time showing teachers how to podcast and make movies. Helping them come up with ideas for how to integrate this into the classroom.

Hi Anne,
I'd love that! Thanks for giving me some of your time. I understand about marking etc. at the moment, it's that time of year once again :)

Hi Anne,
Thanks for your reply.
We mostly use POLYCOM video conference equipment for the video conference. Some times we use skype , when our partne school does not have the Video conference equipment. I resonally used elluminate to attend a few webinars.
Muraliv

Thank you, Anne, I certainly will.

Greetings and nice to "meet" you! We use IP video, as well as iChat & SKYPE. For classroom use- it's primarily IP. We do a great deal of in-district collaborations and professional development using iChat. Looking forward to possibly using the new video chat functions from GoogleTalk.

we use Communicator too- but internally only-

Hi Anne,

Since your interested in online conferencing I recommend you take a look at WiZiQ's virtual classroom.

Hey, Anne. It's our sophomores (15-16 yrs. old) who study The Whale Rider.
Thank you very much!
collaboratively,
andrew

Anne, thanks for the welcome. I will have to check out your projects to see what all you are up to.

Deborah

Thank you Anne!

Matt

Thanks Anne
Just shows you how excited I am with this site. I have checked it first thing back at school this morning. I attended the session with both you and Jess, but I also went to Jess's session on Monday. I must say I am really inspired by what you do at your school.
Maree

Great - thanks so much for the tip! I will check it out!

Lisa

Hi, Anne thanks for your interest in smart Business Wiki, I think it's great to be given the opportunity to work with teachers from around the globe. I look forward to learning more from professionals like you.

Hello Anne. Thanks for the comment. I'm very excited to be part of Classroom 2.0 community and I do hope I can learn more from you on ICT. Congratulations on the award that you have won. I hope you will have a good time in Kuala Lumpur. Is this your first visit?

Hi Anne, Nice to hear from you. I am looking forward to sharing good practice and new ideas from around the world. What ages do you teach?

Hi Anne,

Thank you for your nice welcome! I'm looking forward to checking out this site -- I've already found a couple of really interesting things that I hope to incorporate in future classes!

Hi, Anne. So far, we've done work on Voicethread and blogging. We also do as much work as we can on our Smartboard. Thanks for befriending me. :) I look forward to learning more from everyone.

Hi Anne,

I remember your presentation at VITTA a while ago when you were using Soundhouse (?). I've always been in awe of you!

I was briefly on the VITTA committee last year as I had a go at managing the 3in6 video competition since Keith Richards was passing it on before he retired.

Soon realised that I was probably not serious enough to stay on the committee and made the most of the experience but did not try to go on it again in 2008.

How do you do all the things that you do?

Regards, Bill Oldham

Thanks Anne I'm glad Ive got that clear! This looks like a marvelous spot! Ive just discovered the wiki so Ill return there...

Thanks, Anne!

Have you been at Hawkesburn for a number of years?

Do you find that you have to combine classes (like Year 11 and 12 ) to be able to run a group in your school? Or can you use the DECV to fill the gaps?