Tag Archives: PLN

Edublogs webinar overview – A cuckoo free Twitter nest!

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REMINDER

It’s that time of year again! Over the next few weeks timezone chaos will reign. Half the world goes onto daylight saving and half comes off daylight saving. Except for a few regions such as here in Western Australia where we don’t have daylight saving. Just to make it even more complicated different places change on different dates. This is one of the main reasons we use GMT/UTC for our webinar times – because (like our West Australian time, but with much more “credibility”) it stays the same all year round.

If you have just lost or gained an hour then double check the times for anything trans-global in which you are involved. In the Northern Hemisphere you are heading back into winter so will “lose” an hour when your clocks are set back, thus our webinars will be an hour earlier “your time”. In the Southern Hemisphere you are going forward into summer so you “gain” an hour resulting in webinars an hour later “your time”

(For the link for live webinars and info about the times and topics scroll to the bottom of this post)

Introduction

It’s a long time since we had a session related to Twitter and as there seem to have been several waves of spam DMs around recently it seemed a good idea to take a look as some of the strategies we can use to help guard against becoming victims of the people in “black hats”. In other words to stop cuckoos laying their ph*shing eggs in our Twitter nests!

The session

In this recorded session I started with a few questions about how the group uses Twitter. Sometimes our own usage patterns can put our accounts at greater risk of attack – some of these patterns were raised in these initial questions. We then moved on to use the whiteboard to share some of our individual thoughts on the risks posed by attacks on our Twitter accounts.

Next we thought – again using the whiteboard about potentially suspicious Twitter activity that might set our own “alarm bells” ringing.

This included sharing my personal “alarm bells” that have emerged over 4 years and approaching 20,000 tweets.

Next came a look at what to do about these activities – the fake DMs and other potential issues. Catch the recording for the full strategies! One of my main concerns in this is that if you get a fake DM please don’t blame the messenger (ie DON’T block & report) – it could be you next time! We are all vulnerable to attack – if we take some precautions we become less so, but it only takes a moment’s inattention or just something that we don’t know about and those fake DMs could be going out from our accounts! For me personally I think my most effective strategy has been close management of my followers and being careful who I follow!

We finished up with a look at our best take-aways!

Conclusion

A good session – Twitter is a topic that I always enjoy discussing and I do have strong feelings about the community supporting one-another in combating the “black hats”. Over the four years I have been tweeting I have worked out my own strategies to deal with some of the issues that arise and I think it is important to share these widely.

If you have something to share either about Twitter safety strategies or anything you would like to present a webinar on please let us know (add a comment to this post, or Tweet us – @JoHart or @philhart). Then join us to facilitate a session about your e-edu passion! If you are not familiar with BlackboardCollaborate we can help you plan how best to do your session so it works for you.

Our Next Session

Our next Webinar is an Edublogs “Serendipity” session where we invite you to suggest your “hot” topics for discussion – we then select the topic by poll.  Join us on Thursday October 11th 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 October 12th in Australia – in the usual Blackboard Collaborate virtual room.

Edublogs Serendipity webinar overview – emerging tech et al

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Introduction

As has been the case a couple of times recently this was  a Serendipity session where we didn’t vote on a topic! The consensus was to take a quick look at all three that were proposed – “Emerging technologies for the classroom”, “Introduction to PLNs” and “rscon4” The last of these is a little cryptic. It refers to the Reform Symposium Conference for which a date has not yet been finalised. The hashtag seems likely to be #rscon4. The session was, as always, recorded.

(For the link for live webinars and info about the times and topics scroll to the bottom of this post)

The session

A lively session with much sharing on the whiteboard and in text chat, although I felt – as so often that I talked too much!

We began with a whiteboard of ideas about emerging technologies. 

Then shared our knowledge of those we had any experience with – my particular fascination out of this part of the session was with the concept of 3D printers. Something completely new to me & definitely out of the realms of science fiction! This was the longest part of the session.

Our next topic was “Introduction to PLNs”. Again we used a whiteboard to share our thoughts on the variety of tools and strategies we use as part of our own individual PLNs. Any discussion about PLNs is always worthwhile because there are always new thoughts and angles on how we each view them. This was a “flying visit” to the world of the PLN but sufficient to give a flavour!

Finally another “flying visit” this time to “#rscon4” this is actually the probable #tag for this year’s (or maybe early next year’s) – the date is yet to be finalised – Reform Symposium Conference. This was a very short chat as the planning for rscon4 is still in the early stages. However it seems it will be a very exciting event using multiple strands and platforms.

Conclusion

This was a great session – I always find something new and interesting to me personally in every session. However some stand out more than others and 3D printers are a definite standout for me. The whole idea is getting so close to Star Trek “replicators” that I can almost hope for “transporter beams” to enable me to travel without the claustrophobic “tin tube” experience of flying!

Our Next Session

Our next Webinar is an Edublogs “Fine Focus” session. This week Lisa Conrad (@ljconrad) – the Moderator of  the lively Twitterchat for Gifted and Talented (#gtchat) will give us a “heads up” on #gtchat and on moderating a #chat.  Join us on Thursday August 9th 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 August 10th in Australia – in the usual Blackboard Collaborate virtual room.

#RSCON3 – A finger on the pulse of my PLN!

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Introduction

Now that my  mental dust has settled it’s time to write about the Reform Symposium. This is the first of what I hope will be three posts and is an overview of the session I presented on iGoogle – “Keep a finger on the pulse of your PLN” – with some reflection included. The session was recorded as were all of them here is the link to “Keep a finger on the pulse of your PLN” other sessions can be accessed via the Reform Symposium Conference Spreadsheet.

I seem to have been talking about iGoogle a lot over the last year and will be continuing to do so as I am delivering a Professional Development session on it for colleagues in a few weeks. The ever increasing flow of information across our desktops generates a need for some way of handling and drawing together the threads.

The Session

This was a great session for me and hopefully also for those participating. After  a bit of scene setting we started with a poll on how familiar participants were with iGoogle and then a whiteboard for sharing ideas about what exactly it is! I also asked for people to share on a whiteboard the five main strands of their PLN so that I could get a feel for the gadgets needed by the majority – these were fior  Twitter, Facebook and Google Reader  all of which I already had on my iGoogle page.

Then it was time to tell the story of how I came to use iGoogle as my PLE hub to bring together the strands of my PLN. This introduced the main part of the session which was a “show and tell” using Application Share to share my iGoogle page and talk about:

  • how I have set up the tabs (individual pages) and organised the content
  • discuss the gadgets available and how to access them
  • look at how I draw in those threads that don’t have a specific gadget available
  • how the page can be customised (I use a different theme for each of my tabs)

I found this really exciting because as I was sharing people were opening and exploring – sometimes “dusting off” their own iGoogle (or in some cases starting their own iGoogle ac). This made the session very participative as there were practical questions coming through text chat – including as always at least one I couldn’t answer about making tabs public.

We finished with “take-aways” these are always fascinating for me because they are so varied and illustrate so well how different we all are in our perceptions and understandings. This time (very pleasing for me)  there were many intending to experiment with iGoogle as a possible hub for their own PLN.

Conclusion

I really enjoyed doing this session for several reasons.

  1. The Reform Symposium (#RSCON) events always have such a buzz about them so just being part of it is exciting.
  2. I love it when I go away with homework from my “class”. It just confirms to me again that one of the best ways of learning and embedding understanding of something is to “teach” others about it!
  3. It is another fantastic way of connecting with my PLN around the globe – these events always feel to me as though I already know most of my audience.
  4. Having a global audience has an incredible feel all of its own and I find it quite awe inspiring that people from so many different places have chosen to come and listen to me.

I’m already looking forward to the next event and would like to finish this post with some thanks! Firstly many thanks to Denise (@mrsdkrebbs)  for being a fantastic Moderator for my session. Secondly a huge THANK YOU to ALL the organisers for their tremendous contributions to the smooth running of the event – in many cases behind the scenes. Thirdly very special thanks to Shelly Terrell (@ShellTerrell) (she who needs no sleep) and Clive Elsmore (@CliveSir) (master of timezones) for their stamina and overwhelming  committment to making #RSCON3 such a success.

 

 

Edublogs webinar overview – e-learning jargon

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Introduction

This was a great session – Phil (@philhart) got us all thinking as we discussed our ideas and opinions about the jargon we all use in an e-learning context and how this jargon may impact on those new to the field.

The Session

The session was recorded as usual (please let me know if you access it) for those who were unable to attend.

Phil started us off by getting us to share on the whiteboard our understanding of “jargon”

JargonResize

Then we moved on to sharing some of our own experiences with “jargon” and looked at how we teach this for our oun subject areas.

Phil then asked if anyone had used a “Jargon Buster” and if so had they found it useful. One of the common problems with these is that they may often use “jargon” in defining “jargon” – very frustrating for the user! Phil has started a wiki experiment developing a dictionary of e-learning “jargon” where he is trying to use definitions written in plain language. We all had a go at trying to define a few given e-words in a simple easily understood way and also took a look at some of the “jargon” we ourselves have trouble with.

Phil moved on to look at the implications of “jargon” for those new to e-learning (both students and teachers) and thence to what we might do to try and help those new to the field. The wiki was started as an experiment but with collaboration has the potential to grow and could perhaps make a contribution to “unjargoning” the “jargon”. Phil invited all of us to join and collaborate whith him in building a “Dictionary of e-learning Jargon”  If you too would like to join this collaboration and contribute some definitions to the dictionary then ask Phil for an invitation. You can ask him by sending him your email either by DM on Twitter (@philhart) or by filling in the contact form on his blog

Conclusion

This session was fascinating, it certainly made me think again about jargon and how I use it and teach it. Like several of the definitions given in our look at some meanings I often use analogies that come from a (hopefully) more familiar context to my audience. I know I am sometimes guilty of using jargon without being sure that my audience understands this. I find this often happens when I am short of time or “characters” eg on Twitter where I often assume incorrectly that Tweeters will automatically be very “techie” people.

Next Webinar

SerendipitybsmallOur next session is an Edublogs “Serendipity” session on Thursday June 9th at 23:00 GMT/UTC (Afternoon/Evening USA) or Friday June 10th 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.

Edublogs webinar overview – Trouble with timezones?

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Introduction

This session was fun – we had old friends and new (including @tomwhitby a great Twitter contributor and creator of  EduPLN ning – part of the inspiration for this session through Twitter convs with Phil and myself)  who made it a great session through their input. The topic was timezones (TZ) – a mix of background about them and strategies for us all to be in the right virtual place at the right time.

The Session

As usual we recorded the session (please let me know if you access it) for those who were unable to attend.

For this webinar I added to the  “Where in the world are you?” map by including some timezones and also the equator. Should we keep this extra timezone info or does it make the map too busy? Let me know in comments or via Twitter (@JoHart).

We started with a look by Phil (@philhart) at some of the terminology of timezones. Phil teased us with a couple of questions about the International Date Line and a quiz about time for homework!

Then we moved on to sharing some of our own issues in working with timezones.

IssuesOrganisedResizeWe took a quick run through some of the strategies that I find effective in enabling me to be in the right virtual place at the right time. Some of these are also useful in helping to develop a “feel” for what time it is elsewhere. We finished with sharing some idas strategies used by others in working with timezones.

Conclusion

Timezones and the issues around working with them are one the topics that sometimes generate a “rant” from me. More specifically I find the parochial attitude often displayed by people assuming that everyone else is familiar with their particular timezone to be irritating. In my own very personal opinion we have a standard time that does not vary seasonally (ie GMT or UTC) so we should always reference back to that. It is then easy for everyone as they only need to know the relationship between their own TZ and GMT/UTC and not try to work out relationships betweeen their own TZ and several others.

Next Webinar

SerendipitybsmallOur next session is an Edublogs “Serendipity” session on Thursday May 26th at 23:00 GMT/UTC (Afternoon/Evening USA) or Friday May 27th 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.

Edublogs webinar overview – Who’s that on my blog?

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Introduction

This session happened at rather short notice. Our guest presenter had to pull out at short notice. So as I recently had a spate of spam comments on my blog and had used my visitor tracking to confirm to myself that it was indeed spam – this led me to think about how much we know about visitors to our blogs. I thought this might be a topic of interest to others.

The Session

We were a very small group this week and as usual we recorded the session (please let me know if you access it) for those who were unable to attend. To start with we took a look at whether we all had blogs – we did, and whether we monitored visitors – I was the only one who did so. We touched a little on monitoring comments and conversations in comparison with the automatic monitoring that was the focus of the session.

We talked about the uses of visitor tracking/monitoring. I myself mainly use three different systems allthough I also access the standard statisitics automaticially available on all Edublogs blogs. My three systems give me different levels of information from the broad totals of visitors to the blog broken down by country, down to much more specific when, where from and which post they arrived on as well as whether they arrived as the result of a search & what that search was. I find the last very useful in helping me to confirm if comments are spam. Anyone who arrives on my blog as a result of a search for “leave a reply” is almost certain to be a spammer!

Feedjit

I used AppShare to illustrate how I use these tracking mechanisms on my own blog and how I use them to inform (to some extent) how and when I post. The last part of the session was, as usual, a look at our best “takeways” from the session

Conclusion

This session went very well even though we were so few and the topic was planned at short notice. I certainly find that using the different visitor tracking systems is very helpful for me in lots of different ways & hope that these thoughts are useful for others

Next Webinar

SerendipitybsmallOur next session is an Edublogs “Serendipity” session on Thursday May 12th at 23:00 GMT/UTC (Afternoon/Evening USA) or Friday May 13th 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.

Serendipity webinar overview, PLN – getting started?

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Introduction

Apologies everyone – I did it again this week ie was late starting the recording. I think I may have to resort back to my strategy from before the days of the Elluminate recording reminder and have a post-it on my screen.

However I did eventually start the recording and so as always here is the recording link for the session – please let me know if you access the recording. Because I was late starting the recording the topics and poll are not captured here are the topics

Topics 29 4 11D – “Building a Professional Learning Network – where to begin” topped the poll.

The Session

We started with a whiteboard brainstorm with everyone sharing their ideas about how they had begun themselves or where they might suggest others start. The discussion was further developed in text and audio with people expanding on the points made on the whiteboard.  The focus of the discussion was mainly around Twitter but with reference to other PLN starting points such as online seminars and face-to-face conferences. There was also reference to the use of hubs such as iGoogle from an individual perspective and the increasing number of website hubs being called “PLN”s that are often focussed on being a meeting point for a particular educator group.

PLNstartResize
We then moved on to talk about a question raised by one of our group who is fairly new to Twitter, namely how to get people to follow you when you are new. This gave rise to a wide selection of suggestions on the whiteboard, in text and through audio.

We briefly revisited the map to capture the whereabouts of those who had joined after we had moved on from that point. Finally we moved on to think briefly about our “Takeaways” from the session.

Conclusion

This was a really interesting session – PLN is a topic that often surfaces in different guises and it never fails to generate lots of discussion, provide many new ideas, and deliver much learning!

Our Next Session

FineFocusSmallOur next Webinar is an Edublogs “Fine Focus” session. This week in “Who’s that on my blog?” we discuss whether it matters to know about your blog visitors and take look at a few of the options available for seeing information about visitors to your blog. Join us on Thursday May 5th 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

Edublogs webinar overview – Graphic Organisers

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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

One of those rare sessions where I was not actually there! I was laid low by a migraine and was unable to join this exciting recorded session by Shelly Terrell. So as I have said before “recordings are a wonderful thing” because even though I wasn’t there I am still able to write an overview. Phil did a great job on the introductions etc and Shelly was, as always, fabulous! I am so sorry that I missed the live session – I was really looking forward to it and although recordings are great the lack of ability to participate is very frustrating.

The Session

Shelly began with some introductory information and talked about the most simple forms of graphic organiser. She used a simple graphic organiser (GO) format to ask for input from participants on what they already knew about them and then what they would like to know/find out.The “what we already know” made a great Wordle!

WhatWeKnowGOWordleResize

The next part of the session included a variety of ideas on using GO with students – Shelly showed us some great images of mind maps/GO from her students. Shelly then moved on to look at some online GOs especially for mobile use, again sharing brilliant ideas on using these with students particularly for collaborative activities.

Next Shelly used Application Share to share a wiki with links for a wide variety of graphic organisers/mindmapping. This includes paper-based, downloadable, online, rubrics and many extra ideas and resources. Shelly then showed us some of the ones she has used giving a great “flavour” of what is available!

Finally it was a return to the original graphic organiser to complete the “what as been learnt” and “how to find out more” sections.

Conclusion

As is always the case with Shelly’s sessions this was terrific! From watching the recording I have learned much more about GOs and how they may be used. The links provided via the wiki are invaluable and once again I have a huge list of things to check out from one of these sessions.

Next Webinar

SerendipitybsmallOur next session is an Edublogs “Serendipity” session on Thursday Feb 3rd at 23:00 GMT/UTC (6pm USA EST, Midnight BST) or Friday Feb 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 Serendipity webinar overview – class blogs

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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 timely session, recorded as usual. The choice of topic was class blogs and there are two blogging events relating to this that are either underway or soon to start. The first of these is the Teacher Challenge the current challenge is getting started with blogging – its not too late to join this challenge right now if you want to! The next challenge will be getting students started with blogging in preparation for the Student Blogging Challenge itself.

The Session

We started the session by sharing the links to our own blogs, and talking a little about class blogs. In my opinion (and I think that of many others) no-one gives better or more comprehensive information about blogging with students than Sue Waters of Edublogger fame. So logically as we didn’t have Sue with us the next step was to use Application Share and share some of her fantastic posts on class blogs and student blogging. The posts gave us the answers to many questions on the whys and wherefores of class blogs and students’ own blogs.

Conclusion

A really interesting session where the focus was very much on knowing where to find what we wanted to know rather than anyone knowing a huge amount about the topic.

Our Next Session

FineFocusSmallOur next Webinar is an Edublogs “Fine Focus” session. This week in “Graphic Organizers – Stimulating Our Learners’ Minds”  Shelly Terrell will give us a heads up on some online graphic organizers and cool websites for collaborative mindmapping. She will also share tips on integrating graphic organizers to stimulate discussion and support discovery learning.  Join us on Thursday Jan 27th at 23:00 GMT/UTC (6pm USA EST, Midnight CET) or Friday Jan 28th 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.

Overview Edublogs webinar – “iGoogle, do youGoogle?”

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Introduction

This recorded Edublogs Fine Focus session followed the recent Google theme. This time it was my turn, the topic was iGoogle and how it provides the hub of my Personal Learning Environment (PLE)

The Session

I very much enjoyed this session as I  love to “play” with Elluminate and always like to share the various Web2.0 tools that I find useful.

The main aims of the session were to:

  • check we all had some idea about what iGoogle is
  • explore its use as the hub for a PLE
  • look at how the PLN strands can be drawn together on iGoogle through a variety of  available gadgets.

iGoogleDoYou resize

We made use of polling and whiteboard in the early stages of the session. However I mostly used Application Share to show everyone how I use iGoogle as the meeting point for all the strands of my PLN and my “e-life”. Then we took a look at how the new pages can be created and personalised with themes and chosen gadgets. During this section I handed control of my desktop to others so that they could add gadgets to one of my pages. As always I tried to pick up on questions in text as we went, but also asked for them after the Application Share ended. Finally we did a round up of “take-aways followed by feedback.

Conclusion

This was a fun session from my perspective and seemed to be enjoyed by all. My greatest satisfaction as always is when people have “take aways” that they feel will be useful to them and there were a number of these from this session.

Next Week

SerendipitybsmallOur next Webinar is an Edublogs “Serendipity” session, 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. Then join us on Thursday Oct 14th at 23:00 GMT/UTC (7pm USA EST, Midnight BST) or Friday Oct 15th at 1am CEST,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.