Sprucing up my page and teaching an intro to 2.0 class.

I had a lot of fun making a video for my Classroom 2.0 page. I have a new computer in my lab with an i-sight camera. It was fun to actually use it. It would be cool if other people could also post "hello" videos so we could see more than a picture of each other. I guess the coolest would be if we could video conference with each other at some point. I've never done that. Although I have video skyped with my in-laws. I actually find that a little wierd, but it is a nice way for them to see their grandkids since we live on opposites ends of the country. I know there are many more educational uses for video conferencing, but haven't tried any yet. (Ok, I know I used the word "cool" a lot of times in this paragraph.)

I am offering an "Intro to Web 2.0" class for my school district for one graduate credit starting in May. We posted the course on Monday and we are practically full after only 2 days. That is exciting! And people are signing up from other schools, not just the school where I work (there are 8 K-8 schools in my district and 1 high school). We are giving away Will Richardson's book "Blogs Wikis,Podcasts and other Powerful Tools for the Classroom" to all participants and I am planning to use that as my text/guide. I also just found the Online book "Coming of Age: An introduction to the NEW world wide web" which is available as a free download. There is a whole Coming of Age Ning network just to discuss the book. I got to it from someone's ning page ( I can't remember who it was.) I'm sure I'm going to have a lot of questions for the forum as I get ready to teach the class. I am also planning to have my students join this network. I'm excited and I think my enthusiasm is spreading. This network is definitely inspiring me. Thanks!

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Comment by John Franke on April 11, 2007 at 8:00pm: Good luck with your class. It sounds like you are turing many people onto these wonderful opportunities. Good luck.

Comment by Steve Hargadon on April 11, 2007 at 8:53pm: I love the welcome video idea. I've thought about the Skypecasts for the folks here and even mentioned it at one point, but don't think there was any response. I was thinking we could have one time each week for an hour when some follks could come prepared to each give a 3-minute overview of something cool they are doing, then having a discussion. You would need a chat forum, I think, to make it really effective. We could then record and post the sessions as podcasts. I'm up for organizing it if people think it makes sense.

Comment by Patrick Higgins on April 11, 2007 at 9:33pm: Best of luck with your class. I just finished the middle school version of my "Welcome to Web 2.0" class. If you'd like to use any of my resources, most of which come from Quentin D'Souza, feel free to do so at http://workshoponestop.wikispaces.com. I hope you have plenty of time to work with. I only had three hours total, and I needed much more than that. The high school version is coming up in May and I will greatly trim down what I taught. Biggest hit with the group: del.icio.us and social bookmarking.

Comment by Shamblesguru (Chris Smith) on April 11, 2007 at 10:15pm: If audio only then I'd like to suggest trialing the new Talkr "Talk to me" http://new.talkr.com/ ... instant voice conferencing.

UMMMmmm ... maybe better to just stick with Skype for audio conferencing and someone records it.

Yes but Talkr does have a cool looking logo

But I'm already comfortable with Skype

Get off of my shoulders you two ..... no ... not YouTube (that's been blocked in Thailand.

UMMMmm ... I need my morning coffee