Tag Archives: interactive

Edublogs webinar overview. RSS – your connection to the globe

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Introduction

This was a fantastic session by Sue Waters (Edublogs Support Manager) who is well known to so many of us as @suewaters on Twitter and through her terrific posts on The Edublogger. As always with Sue’s sessions this one was very interactive with lots of discussion and ideas shared through whiteboards, textchat and audio.

The Session

As usual we recorded the session (please let me know if you access it). After introductions Sue began with a poll to checkout how many of us were already using RSS and/or a personalised home page. A higher proportion of participants were using a personalised homepage than were using RSS.

Next Sue sought ideas from the group about our perception of  RSS – this led to discussion about the name itself and its lack of clarity for most of us. There was a general feeling that Really Simple Syndication was in itself a confusing name and a consensus that it would have been more comprehensible if the name was Really Simple Subscription. I certainly found it totally confusing when I first met it but finally realised that the “Syndication” part of the name was probably derived from the news industry sharing of stories to different outlets.

Sue then made the logical progression from: now we know what RSS is; to how we might use it.

HowDoYouUseResize

These points then formed the basis for a more detailed look at how RSS can be used. Sue also Application Shared her own RSS feed to illustrate her explanations and to show us how easily feeds can be added and organised.

Sue made references to using a personalised homepage such as iGoogle to manage RSS and any other feeds, links and  information. We had a FineFocus session on using iGoogle as a personalised homepage late last year.

Conclusion

I so enjoyed this! I always love Sue’s sessions because there is always so much interactivity and so much to learn. I have been using RSS for quite a long time although in a very low key way, and I gained new insights and tips. As always I took away ideas, eg using a search of my feed for information and things to explore further eg NetVibes.

PS if you are interested in finding out more about a range of Web2.0 Tools checkout the  Edublogs Teacher Challenge on Free Tools including my challenge on using PhotoFiltre for image editing.

Next Webinar

SerendipitybsmallOur next session is an Edublogs “Serendipity” session on Thursday April 14th at 23:00 GMT/UTC (Afternoon/Evening USA) or Friday April 15th at 7am West Aus, mid morning Eastern States Aus depending on your timezone (check yours here) – in the usual Elluminate room. This is one of our fortnightly unconference sessions where we invite you to bring along your “hot topics” and “burning issues” for our poll on the topic of the day. If you want to propose a topic in advance then visit the Serendipity Wallwisher and add your topic.

In the Future

If you are a regular visitor to our webinars you will know that we alternate “Fine Focus” sessions on specific topics with “Serendipity” the unconference sessions where we choose a topic by poll at the start of the session. Sometimes the very fact of being asked for “hot topics” or other ideas for discussion or learning tends to make our minds blank. This has prompted me to start a Serendipity Wallwisher for topic suggestions. Please visit the wall and add your ideas for Serendipity topics so that we have more choices to consider. Some of these ideas might also form the basis for future “Fine Focus” sessions.

Edublogs Serendipity webinar overview – What can we learn from gifted learners?

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Introduction

Exciting news – I have been holding this post awaiting confirmation that our next webinar will be @suewaters talking about RSS – see bottom of page for details!

My apologies in advance to anyone who accesses the recording – I was slightly late starting it so the poll itself is not recorded. This is almost certainly because I was being distracted by the fact that immediately after the webinar I was going to be the primary Elluminate Facilitator/Moderator for a major regional consultation involving focus groups with participants moving between several rooms and whiteboard roaming. All of the other focus group sessions around the country have been done face-to-face so this was very much a first. It went well – probably more of this in a later post!

In this recorded session – please let me know if you access the recording – the topic chosen was: “What can we learn from gifted learners?” As Serendipity sessions often do this diverged a little out of the topic into surrounding issues.

The Session

We started with the discussion question posted on the whiteboard. This first generated another question “What do we mean by gifted learners?” This gave rise to some interesting thoughts and ideas that addressed this very clearly, and also made some excellent points on the incorrectness of perceptions and stereotypes that exist.

The whiteboard was left in place throughout and some later additions were made but most of the lively discussion that followed was through textchat and audio. We digressed at times into consideration of  issues around the perceptions of some teachers when they encounter gifted students.

GiftedStudentsResize

We also talked about issues around diversity and student reluctance to be identified as different in any way from peers.

Conclusion

This was a great session with lots of  ideas shared. The discussion flowed well in textchat and audio so that time flew by and the end came all too soon!

Our Next Session

FineFocusSmallOur next Webinar is an Edublogs “Fine Focus” session.  In this week’s session “RSS – your connection to the globe”  Sue Waters (@suewaters) of Edublogger fame will share her insights on how to use RSS to keep up with your global connections. Join us on Thursday April 7th at 23:00 GMT/UTC the time for you will vary depending on your timezone (check yours here) Thursday afternoon/evening in the USA, late night Thursday in Europe, and Friday morning in Australia – in the usual Elluminate room

In the Future

If you are a regular visitor to our webinars you will know that we alternate “Fine Focus” sessions on specific topics with “Serendipity” the unconference sessions where we choose a topic by poll at the start of the session. Sometimes the very fact of being asked for “hot topics” or other ideas for discussion or learning tends to make our minds blank. This has prompted me to start a Serendipity Wallwisher for topic suggestions. Please visit the wall and add your ideas for Serendipity topics so that we have more choices to consider. Some of these ideas might also form the basis for future “Fine Focus” sessions.

Edublogs webinar overview – 24/7 global connectedness – blessing or curse?

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Preface

If you access the link to the recording it would be great if you could either tweet me (@JoHart) or leave a short comment on this post to let me know. I would really like to know if it is useful to people when I post the overviews & recording links

Introduction

This was a facilitated discussion session. It is always a bit difficult to plan these because if there isn’t a structure they end up like Serendipity sessions and I do try to make a clear distinction between the two. However I always worry that I have structured it too much and am not giving people enough opportunities to talk and to participate generally. As always I would welcome feedback both from live participants and from anyone who has watched the recording. The topic arose because in the last 2-3 weeks I have several times seen Tweets about, or heard people speak of, the disadvantages of global connectedness. This made me start to reflect on the pros and cons and it seemed a good topic for discussion by a group of highly connected people.

The Session

This recorded session was very interactive with lots of chat and audio as well as whiteboard brainstorming. We began in the usual way by asking what participants wanted to take-away from the session. The next step was taking a look at how 24/7 connnected we are, including a poll on how connected we perceive ourselves to be and whether we like the idea of 24/7 global connection.

We moved on to explore those aspects that we see as negative. This was done initially using the whiteboard, followed by audio and textchat discussion.

NegativeResize

Naturally, we then considered the positive aspects in a similar whiteboard that you can see if you access the recording. When compared it seems that we felt that the positive and negative aspects were about evenly balanced.

We returned to the negatives to consider how we can manage them to reduce their impacts. Suggestions were mainly around taking “time out” in some form and checking information before disseminating it further.

The overall consensus was that being 24/7 globally connected is both a blessing and a curse!

Finally a challenge! For anyone who reads this post, was in the session, or catches the recording.

Do one thing this week to either:

  • Reduce the impact of a negative
  • Increase the impact of a positive

aspect of 24/7 global connectedness

Then tell us about it either on Twitter with the hashtag #SerendipEd or with a comment on this post.

Conclusion

This session was great fun for me and hopefully for the other participants also. I do so much enjoy the discussions as I always go away with so many new insights and hearing lots of different perspectives on the impacts of being connected was particularly exciting. My main take-away was to keep myself  aware of the negative aspects and work to manage them. I so love the opportunities for getting a global perspective and having someone to talk to in the small hours when I can’t sleep that I sometimes forget that there are negatives!

Next Webinar

SerendipitybsmallOur next session is an Edublogs “Serendipity” session on Thursday March 31st at 23:00 GMT/UTC (Afternoon/Evening USA) or Friday April 1st at 7am West Aus, mid morning Eastern States Aus depending on your timezone (check yours here) – in the usual Elluminate room. This is one of our fortnightly unconference sessions where we invite you to bring along your “hot topics” and “burning issues” for our poll on the topic of the day. If you want to propose a topic in advance then visit the Serendipity Wallwisher and add your topic.

In the Future

If you are a regular visitor to our webinars you will know that we alternate “Fine Focus” sessions on specific topics with “Serendipity” the unconference sessions where we choose a topic by poll at the start of the session. Sometimes the very fact of being asked for “hot topics” or other ideas for discussion or learning tends to make our minds blank. This has prompted me to start a Serendipity Wallwisher for topic suggestions. Please visit the wall and add your ideas for Serendipity topics so that we have more choices to consider. Some of these ideas might also form the basis for future “Fine Focus” sessions.

Edublogs Serendipity webinar overview – Mind-mapping

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Preface

If you access the link to the recording it would be great if you would just Tweet me (@JoHart) or leave a short comment on this post to let me know. I would really like to know if it is useful to people when I post the overviews & recording links

Introduction

In this session, recorded as usual, the topic we chose by poll at the start – from a combination of suggestions by participants and some taken from the Wallwisher – was Mind-mapping. The way we approched this was very different from the fantastic Fine Focus webinar on Graphic Organizers that Shelly Terrell presented for us back in January. So even if you were in Shelly’s session it’s still well worth checking out the recording for this one!

The Session

The chosen topic of mind-mapping was one of those I had taken from the Wallwisher and to my great delight the “owner” of that topic was with us! I feel that sessions are better when the original “owner” of the chosen topic is present.

We began with a quick poll to find out how many of us use mindmapping tools of some sort. The outcome was unanimous – everyone present uses mind mapping in some form. All of us use, or have used, mind mapping software as well as the more traditional pen/pencil & paper approach.

Next we use the whiteboard and shared some of the different applications/tools we currently use for mind-mapping, and in some cases links to mind maps. We moved on to hear from participants through audio (and some through text chat) about  the tools they use.

Then we decided to have a “play” with bubbl.us which is the most recent mind mapping tool that I have used (to plan the content and structure for a “Welcome disc” to help my online literacy students get to grips with e-learning). I like this one for its simplicity and ease of use. I was able to application share and we could easily collaborate/brainstorm with individuals taking control of my desktop to add ideas and organise the content. Our topic – suggested by someone in the group was “Surviving Easter without gaining weight” – the resulting mindmap looks like this:

olpfsvx_Easterresize

If anyone would like some “homework” I would love a brainstormed mindmap about how we can improve the Serendipity/Fine Focus webinars and encourage more people to attend.

Conclusion

This was a great session with a variety of tools and ideas shared, and we got to “play” as well – giving me a great graphic to include in this post. My takeaways are more mind map tools to try!

Our Next Session

FineFocusSmallOur next Webinar is an Edublogs “Fine Focus” session.  This week’s session “24/7 global connectedness – a blessing or a curse?” will be  a facilitated discussion on some of the impacts both postive and negative of  our ever increasing worldwide connectivity. Join us on Thursday March 24th at 23:00 GMT/UTC the time for you will vary depending on your timezone (check yours here) Thursday afternoon/evening in the USA, late night Thursday in Europe, and Friday morning in Australia – in the usual Elluminate room

In the Future

If you are a regular visitor to our webinars you will know that we alternate “Fine Focus” sessions on specific topics with “Serendipity” the unconference sessions where we choose a topic by poll at the start of the session. Sometimes the very fact of being asked for “hot topics” or other ideas for discussion or learning tends to make our minds blank. This has prompted me to start a Serendipity Wallwisher for topic suggestions. Please visit the wall and add your ideas for Serendipity topics so that we have more choices to consider. Some of these ideas might also form the basis for future “Fine Focus” sessions.

Edublogs webinar overview – using ToonDoo

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Preface

If you access the link to the recording it would be great if you could either tweet me (@JoHart) or leave a short comment on this post to let me know. I would really like to know if it is useful to people when I post the overviews & recording links

Introduction

The purpose of this session was to take a look at one of my favourite online tools, the cartoon making site ToonDoo. I use this a lot both for learning resources and to engage my students in developing texts.

The Session

As usual the webinar was recorded and we began with a look at what people would like to gain from the session and finding out who was familar with Toondoo. This led smoothly into an opportunity to share links for other cartooning websites.

We moved on to look at a couple of the ways I use ToonDoo both for learning resources and for students to create their own visual texts. Then came the really fun bit, using Application Share to share the Toondoo website and to jointly make a cartoon. I asked for volunteers to build a cartoon and gave control to several people in turn. The resulting cartoon is here:

WebinarToonResizeFollowing the successful use of “homework” last week when we went away to make Vokis. I thought maybe a similar homework this week would be fun. So we invite anyone who was at the session (or in fact anyone who reads this post/watches the recording) to make a ToonDoo and either Tweet the link or put it in a comment to this post. Then we can all enjoy. 🙂 We already have one person @jofrei who has completed the homework with her ‘toon entitled Webinar Toon

UnforseenResize

 

I was rather hoping I would not be expected to do any homework this week but decided that it is always fun to make cartoons so here is mine. I have cheated a bit in that this is one is one I needed to make for the Induction disc I am developing for my online literacy students. I’m trying to underscore the information on digital safety and digital identity with cartoons.

 

Conclusion

I enjoyed presenting this session very much. Partly because it felt very interactive with lots of particiption and partly because I like “playing” with ToonDoo. I also think that these sort of combined “techie how to” and “teaching strategy” webinars are a good combination. This is because sometimes learning about a great tool is not enough in itself – ideas on how it can be used/applied in a learning context are really helpful.

Next Webinar

SerendipitybsmallOur next session is an Edublogs “Serendipity” session on Thursday March 17th at 23:00 GMT/UTC (6pm USA EST, Midnight BST) or Friday March 18th at 1am CEST, 7am West Aus, 10am NSW, depending on your timezone (check yours here) – in the usual Elluminate room. This is one of our fortnightly unconference sessions where we invite you to bring along your “hot topics” and “burning issues” for our poll on the topic of the day. If you want to propose a topic in advance then visit the Serendipity Wallwisher and add your topic.

In the Future

If you are a regular visitor to our webinars you will know that we alternate “Fine Focus” sessions on specific topics with “Serendipity” the unconference sessions where we choose a topic by poll at the start of the session. Sometimes the very fact of being asked for “hot topics” or other ideas for discussion or learning tends to make our minds blank. This has prompted me to start a Serendipity Wallwisher for topic suggestions. Please visit the wall and add your ideas for Serendipity topics so that we have more choices to consider. Some of these ideas might also form the basis for future “Fine Focus” sessions.

Edublogs Serendipity webinar overview – avatars and Vokis

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Preface

If you access the link to the recording it would be great if you would just leave a short comment on this post to let me know. I would really like to know if it is useful to people when I post the overviews & recording links

Introduction

In this recorded session the topic we chose by poll at the start – from suggestions by those participating – was avatars and Vokis.

The Session

Most of our discussion was around using Vokis. We all use standard avatars in a range of situations, but most of us were not so familiar with Vokis and their potential. Luckily we had some participants who had either experimented a little with them or who had used them with students. These people were a tremendous asset to the discussion, providing us with the link to the Voki site, great information about the practicality of making Vokis, and brilliant ideas for using them with students.

In this session we did something a bit different – we gave ourselves some homework! This was to make a Voki, post it and let other participants know where to find it. I’ve been lazy and posted mine in this overview as my image for the post. However to compensate for the laziness I did two Vokis!

Conclusion

This session was great fun apart from me talking too much! We had several participants without microphones so lots of the discussion was through text chat. When this happens I often talk too much as I have discovered that if silences are too long in Elluminate participants often assume their audio has failed. For me this was an extremely useful session that has finally pushed me into trying out a Voki. Something I have been intending to do for ages. I also now have a lot of ideas for using them with my students as a different kind of visual text in addition to ToonDoo which I already use.

Our Next Session

FineFocusSmallOur next Webinar is an Edublogs “Fine Focus” session.  This week’s session “Easy ‘tooning with ToonDoo” will be about one of my favourite “toys”. We will look at how to use ToonDoo (online cartoon making website) to make cartoons. And also at some ways that it can be used both for learning resources and to engage students in creating visual texts.  Join us on Thursday March 10th at 23:00 GMT/UTC (6pm USA EST, Midnight CET) or Friday March 11th at 7am West Aus, 10am NSW, depending on your timezone – in the usual Elluminate room

In the Future

If you are a regular visitor to our webinars you will know that we alternate “Fine Focus” sessions on specific topics with “Serendipity” the unconference sessions where we choose a topic by poll at the start of the session. Sometimes the very fact of being asked for “hot topics” or other ideas for discussion or learning tends to make our minds blank. This has prompted me to start a Serendipity Wallwisher for topic suggestions. Please visit the wall and add your ideas for Serendipity topics so that we have more choices to consider. Some of these ideas might also form the basis for future “Fine Focus” sessions.

Edublogs webinar overview – digital safety resource sharing

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Preface

If you access the link to the recording it would be great if you could either tweet me (@JoHart) or leave a short comment on this post to let me know. I would really like to know if it is useful to people when I post the overviews & recording links

Introduction

The purpose of this session was for all of us to share some of the resources we use to address issues of digital safety for students. We had a terrific session with excellent links shared for resources, websites and a digitally safe virtual space.

The Session

As usual the session was recorded and as we often do we began with our thoughts on what we would like to be able to take away from the session.

We moved on to discussion and resource sharing, talking about the different ways we raise and address issues of digital safety with our students.

PersInfEmbarrass

Several different types of resources were shared and discussed using both Application Share and Web Touring. Discussion was very active with participants using both audio and text chat throughout, and certainly I gained some great insights into some different approaches to digital safety.

We finished up by collecting all the resource links onto a whiteboard, so that anyone accessing the recording can easily find them all in one place!

Conclusion

The sharing of resources is always one of the things I enjoy most about many of our webinars. I also love it when people talk about the resources that they use themsleves with their own students because this provides insights for me into the way others work with their students. So giving me ideas for improving how I work with my own students.

Next Webinar

SerendipitybsmallOur next session is an Edublogs “Serendipity” session on Thursday March 3rd at 23:00 GMT/UTC (6pm USA EST, Midnight BST) or Friday March 4th at 1am CEST, 7am West Aus, 10am NSW, depending on your timezone – in the usual Elluminate room. This is one of our fortnightly unconference sessions where we invite you to bring along your “hot topics” and “burning issues” for our poll on the topic of the day. If you want to propose a topic in advance then visit the Serendipity Wallwisher and add your topic.

In the Future

If you are a regular visitor to our webinars you will know that we alternate “Fine Focus” sessions on specific topics with “Serendipity” the unconference sessions where we choose a topic by poll at the start of the session. Sometimes the very fact of being asked for “hot topics” or other ideas for discussion or learning tends to make our minds blank. This has prompted me to start a Serendipity Wallwisher for topic suggestions. Please visit the wall and add your ideas for Serendipity topics so that we have more choices to consider. Some of these ideas might also form the basis for future “Fine Focus” sessions.

Edublogs webinar overview – Blog or wiki? Pros & cons

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Preface

If you access the link to the recording it would be great if you would just leave a short comment on this post to let me know. I would really like to know if it is useful to people when I post the overviews & recording links

Introduction

This was a great session with a lot of sharing and plenty of  “take aways” and insights into how and why people use blogs and wikis in their teaching. We had a really good blend of audio contributions, text chat and whiteboard interactions with lots of links shared in text and through web tour.  We did a session once before (in late 2009) comparing Nings, Blogs and Wikis and I have found the recording link and added it towards the end of the post. So this week you get two recordings for the price of one!

The Session

As usual the session was recorded and we started with a look at what participants would like to gain from the session

BlogWikiToTakeResize

and also a look at where everyone was coming from in terms of using blogs or wikis both with their students and for their own use. Interestingly all participants in the room at that point used blogs but not wikis for their own professional development and/or resource sharing with other teachers.

We then moved on to take a look at some of the reasons for choosing either a blog or a wiki and how these characteristics relate to each of the two tools.  Next we shared through whiteboard text and some fascinating audio input some of the reasons we use blogs and/or wikis with our students. From my personal perspective it seems that the characteristics are increasingly overlapping with time as the providers of these tools expand the available  options for users and also as users become more inventive and knowlegable about them.

Although the session was about blogs and wikis we also took a brief foray into alternatives to these as there are an increasing number of alternative ways of publishing on the Internet for both public and closed group contexts.

We moved on to web tour a few great examples of blogs and wikis used for specific purposes including: information and “how to” sharing blogs; blended reflective life and work blog; professional and personal development blogs; multiple author blog; resource sharing wiki; and collaborative planning wiki. If you checkout the recording the links for these are live on the relevant whiteboard and there are many other shared links in text chat.

Lastly we took a look at what we might do as a result of the session followed by feedback and “take aways”.

Here for anyone who is interested is the recording link for the session comparing Nings Blogs and Wikis that we did back in late 2009 – when Nings were still free!

Conclusion

We had a really good blend of audio contributions, text chat and whiteboard interactions with lots of links shared in text and throughweb tour, so if you missed this session it is well worth catching up through the recording. Also interesting to compare with the older session from 2009.

Next Webinar

SerendipitybsmallOur next session is an Edublogs “Serendipity” session on Thursday Feb 17th at 23:00 GMT/UTC (6pm USA EST, Midnight BST) or Friday Feb 18th at 1am CEST, 7am West Aus, 10am NSW, depending on your timezone – in the usual Elluminate room. This is one of our fortnightly unconference sessions where we invite you to bring along your “hot topics” and “burning issues” for our poll on the topic of the day. If you want to propose a topic in advance then visit the Serendipity Wallwisher and add your topic.

In the Future

If you are a regular visitor to our webinars you will know that we alternate “Fine Focus” sessions on specific topics with “Serendipity” the unconference sessions where we choose a topic by poll at the start of the session. Sometimes the very fact of being asked for “hot topics” or other ideas for discussion or learning tends to make our minds blank. This has prompted me to start a Serendipity Wallwisher for topic suggestions. Please visit the wall and add your ideas for Serendipity topics so that we have more choices to consider. Some of these ideas might also form the basis for future “Fine Focus” sessions.

Edublogs Serendipity webinar overview – Presentation

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Preface

If you access the link to the recording it would be great if you would just leave a short comment on this post to let me know. I would really like to know if it is useful to people when I post the overviews & recording links

Introduction

For this recorded session the topic chosen was from the Wallwisher and was on best presentation practice, however as we were a small number we diverged from this and discussed and shared examples of  the options we use ourselves.

The Session

We started the session by sharing (on the whiteboard) some of the ways that we present our information to others. With a small group these were inevitably limited in number, as I think most people have preferred tools and styles of presentation and will usually use those if practicable.

AgesOfPresentationsTOONresize

We moved on to discussing and sharing (through application share) some of our own personal examples of how we present information eg interactive PowerPoint, webpages with embedded links and customised Elluminate whiteboards developed on a PowerPoint base.

Conclusion

This session was great for gaining insights and ideas from how others present information. My takeways include a need to learn how to make the internal interactives work in Powerpoint and also to take a closer look at using a web page as the thread to link a series of information presentations.

Our Next Session

FineFocusSmallOur next Webinar is an Edublogs “Fine Focus” session. This week’s session  “Blog or Wiki? Pros and Cons” will be an opportunity to discuss the pros and cons of blogs and wikis as tools for different learning situations. Do you know the difference? Do you want to use either or both? Do you currently use either or both? Come along – share how and why & discover how others use them. Join us on Thursday Feb 10th at 23:00 GMT/UTC (6pm USA EST, Midnight CET) or Friday Feb 11th at 7am West Aus, 10am NSW, depending on your timezone – in the usual Elluminate room

In the Future

If you are a regular visitor to our webinars you will know that we alternate “Fine Focus” sessions on specific topics with “Serendipity” the unconference sessions where we choose a topic by poll at the start of the session. Sometimes the very fact of being asked for “hot topics” or other ideas for discussion or learning tends to make our minds blank. This has prompted me to start a Serendipity Wallwisher for topic suggestions. Please visit the wall and add your ideas for Serendipity topics so that we have more choices to consider. Some of these ideas might also form the basis for future “Fine Focus” sessions.

Edublogs webinar overview – Pay for software you have to be joking!

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Introduction

This was a great recorded session even though we were a very small group. Phil who is @philhart on Twitter did a terrific job and I really enjoyed being a “participant” and leaving most of the hard work to him!

The Session
After the usual preliminaries Phil started the session by checking that we had all recieved the file he had sent to us by file transfer. This is a listing of some free software that can be downloaded or accessed within the cloud. NB if you access the recording this file will also be automatically sent to you.

Phil asked us what software we already use or would want to use. He then moved on to ensuring that we all had a similar understanding of the terms “Open Source”, “Closed Source” and “Free Software”. From my own perspective it seems that the term “Free Software” is one that could provide much food for discussion in its own right! It is often used, in my opinion inappropriately, by suppliers for restricted and time limited trial versions.

We than moved on to sharing our experiences with some different free software Afterwards Phil raised the issue of  the pros and cons of free software and what we can do to mitigate the possiblew impacts of the “cons”.

ProConResize

As Phil was looking at both downloadable and cloud-based applications we also took a look at the concept of cloud-based computing and some of its possible disadvantages! The rest of the session was a discussion on some of the available software including links for sites which have a variety of free software available.

Conclusion

I learned lots from this session both from Phil and from the other participants! If you’re considering the possiblity of using free software or if you are already looking for something specific then its well worth catching the recording.

Next Webinar

SerendipitybsmallOur next session is an Edublogs “Serendipity” session on Thursday Jan 20th at 23:00 GMT/UTC (6pm USA EST, Midnight BST) or Friday Jan 21th at 1am CEST, 7am West Aus, 10am NSW, depending on your timezone – in the usual Elluminate room. This is one of our fortnightly unconference sessions where we invite you to bring along your “hot topics” and “burning issues” for our poll on the topic of the day. If you want to propose a topic in advance then visit the Serendipity Wallwisher and add your topic.

In the Future

If you are a regular visitor to our webinars you will know that we alternate “Fine Focus” sessions on specific topics with “Serendipity” the unconference sessions where we choose a topic by poll at the start of the session. Sometimes the very fact of being asked for “hot topics” or other ideas for discussion or learning tends to make our minds blank. This has prompted me to start a Serendipity Wallwisher for topic suggestions. Please visit the wall and add your ideas for Serendipity topics so that we have more choices to consider. Some of these ideas might also form the basis for future “Fine Focus” sessions.