Web2.0 Image bank and slideshow creators - A comparrison

Flickr - is an image and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community platform. In addition to being a popular Web site for users to share ...

Photobucket - offers image hosting, free photo sharing and video sharing. Upload your photos, host your videos, and share them with friends and family.

Slide - lets you use photos and other digital content to publish and discover the people and things that matter to you.

Imageshack

FireSnaps.com

Picturetrail

Slideroll

FlauntR

Imageloop

*All descriptors taken from Google search.

Definately love this presentation on Life Long Learning. Have a look see - best viewed in Internet Explorer as some web browsers may not display images and text content.

The habit of a life long learner that I would find the most easiest would have to be 'Play' after all I am a visual and kinaesthetic learner, I need to do in order to embedd the learning and link the new information with the prior knowledge. (A connective theory of learning)

The habit that I would find challenging would have to be the goal setting, and I dont mean motherhood goal statement, I mead nutting out the detail goals. I think the challenging part is spending time on it and developing the strategies to get there.

I like the idea of the learning plan - might just go out an do one of these for what I am researching at the moment.

Podbean - Podcasting

Ah I found this great pod blog site. It is a spin off from a blog site only that it is for podcasts.

http://jaqson.podbean.com/

Teacher tube - the educators you tube

Ah you just have to love teacher tube - I was on last week watching a piece created by an American teacher about early settlementof America - very interesting. The teacher used pictures that used fade transitions, audio overly of hime telling the story and a quiet subtle over lay of music. He chose the music wisly and added dramatic music to dramatic parts of the story which added to the engagement of the resource. Well it had me for a full 10 minutes and believe me thats hard for someone to achieve.

The only downsize is the larger file formats and longer download times in some cases.

Just love KompoZer

Did you ever want to create a resource that could bring a variety of resources together including web links, e-games, media and documents in the one simple to use resource - maybe its an auto run CD-ROM or a website/group of html pages located on a LMS.

Well I would be advising you to create some html (web pages) and use links to open your resources. By using CSS you can create some swanky looking resources.

Click on the link below to view a group of html pages created in a WYSIWYG html editor.

Graphics in e-learning

Don't know anything about html or web pages? then KompoZer is just the right tool for you. It is a tool that you can use to create html pages, however you don't need any special knowledge, just basic computer skills and if you use WORD - you will be streets ahead.

Tagging - A better way to bookmark

I use delicious for my tagging because it is an online bookmarking tool - Web2.0 of course!

Using my favourites on my computer relies on the fact that I always use the same computer to surf the Internet, however often I am not and I tend to take work home with me. I use delicious so that my favourite websites and pages are tagged online, therefore it does not matter what computer I am on, all I need is an Internet connection and web browser and I am there.

I find delicious is a collaborative too, as I often browse mt team members delicious tags for websites they find useful.

ARED

Here a decision tree I worked on with a staff member last year.

Appeals Process

RSS - The new way to feed

I love the concept of RSS and no one better explains it that Commoncraft.

RSS in plain English

What I like about RSS is that I can keep up to date with changes made on my favourite websites without me having to go out an check them out regularly which meens me visiting many different websites which may or may not have been updated. All I have to do is vidist my RSS reader (I use Gmail RSS reader) and in the one place it lists all my fave web sites which have been updated - I can even read the up dates from my reader without having to navigate to the website itself.

My fave websites which I have a RSS feed from are:

http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/

http://janeknight.typepad.com/pick/

http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/easy-way-to-make-your-courses-look-interesting/

Just thought I would share with you all a resource which was developed by Construction and funature which required a customisation of a toolbox. Basically the most relevant parts where kept and images relevant to our organisation was used in replace with the ones which came with the original toolbox.

The team though it would be a good idea to have a picture of a product that was created by a previous student and would truly represent what the current student would be making for this project.

TV Cabinet Project

Flickr Referencing Advice

Picture was taken from Flickr - PAR-TIC-I-PA-TION, or 37 pieces of library flair (also a 365days shot), cindiann

So if you are like me and use Flickr a lot, then how do you keep track on the images, artists and URL's...and why should you even do this. When you are developing resources as an educational professional the things you create may actually be owned by the organisation you work for. So if you are developing resources for the organisation they will want the resource to be used by a variety of staff members, probably for well after you have left for a better job in North QLD. So how can a new staff member pick up the resource you created a few years ago edit it? Where will she find those pictures? The answer is simple - documentation and referencing. My organisation advises that people working on resources that will use Flickr images should document the thumbnail picture with date it was retrieved, name of the image, URL address and person whom posted it. That way the images can be looked up very easily by someone else at a later date. The trouble is where do you keep these reference documents. Again the answer in simple - In a place that gets backed up regularly. I tend to store this type of info in a Flickr folder on a drive assigned to me by my organisation. This drive gets backed up regularly and it sits on a network.

Flickr - Creative Commons Pictures

Picture taken from Flickr on 16th April 2009 - Flickrn3D, viavoi

I love the web2.0 tool Flickr. It is a great place to source and use Creative Commons pictures in educational resources, especially online or electronic products. This tool is great to add to the teachers/education professional resource tool kit because it offers the user a chance to search for something which may already exists, that may suit the project - without them having to pick up a camera and go off taking some photo's. (Providing they know how to use a camera properly)

As Educational professionals we also have to think about gaining permission for individuals included in the picture or in some cases the buildings and landscapes in the image. With Flickr we do not have to worry about anything like that because it comes with its own completed license.

People whom upload to this site use Flickr to store their pictures, something like an image bank. Some people upload and attach an 'all rights reserved' license to their images. This means that under no circumstances can anyone copy and use their pictures - They are just for show. While other members upload their pictures and attribute a Creative Commons license. This means that people can download and use their pictures under certain conditions. Usually theses conditions include attribution for the artist.

All this means is that when we are searching for images to use in educational resources, we have to make sure of the license conditions. This information is found on the image page at the right side of the screen under the heading 'Additional Information'

If it is a creative commons images (some call it some rights reserved) there may be some rules to abide by. This may include making sure the artist is recognised and that it can not be used for commercial purposes. There are many different attribution rules so make sure you check these out before downloading any of the images.

Life Long Learning

Picture taken from Flickr on 10/04/09 - sattchi gallery - young and old. Posted by vintagedept

While studying for my Bachelor of Teaching degree, I have come across the terminology lifelong learning (LLL) - as if it was something new! As if it was one of the concepts which came packaged up with the EL's, straight out of the constructivist theory.

Now that I have been learning for myself how to be a teacher and educational professional and observing what other do and have done so in the past (through many theory of learning transitions) many would argue that as a result of their pedagogy - this is what they do anyway...but is it? and is the question or direction really about expert teaching and developing expert practice which understands the theory of life long learning to it's deepest level.

I think life long learning, hinges on the educational professional valuing the concept of lifelong learning. While also understanding due to the very nature of the social environment of education/teaching, that they can and will, more than likely have an impact on the learners and that impact may go beyond the classroom and probably beyond the subject matter (lack of a better word). This may not necessarily be a good thing, especially if the experience was horrible (an experience on what not to do) none the less a valuable experience because you can learn from it...provided the learner can synthesise the experience, reflect and apply (So what could be said about resilience and reflection? maybe tackle this one and how it relates in another post.)

Ok now im confused! um I guess this means that understanding life long learning is not so simple and it actually combines the knowledge of brain development, how we learn (retain knowledge/apply knowledge and dare I say it meta-cognition), social construction, resilience, self concept, culture, environment and learned behaviours.

I smell a thesis coming on :D

P.S - To answer your week 1 question Peter - I learn best through visual and kinaesthetic. I understand diagrams and patters of data much more that when it is written in text format and I generally have to do it to understand it - to embed the learning I reflect and create strategies and to remember I make meaning of the information by linking the new knowledge to prior knowledge...just for your interest a lecturer at uni made us memorise a shopping list and we used a strategy similar to mnemonics...lets see if I can remember the 10 items on the grocery list.

1 - ?
2 - Blue - Potatoes
3 - Tree - Yoghurt
4 - Shore - Chocolate
5 - Hive - Mangos
6 - Bricks - Beer
7 - Heaven -Pastries
8 - Plate - ?
9 - Wine - magazines
10 - ?

7/10 - this shopping list was memorised in 10 minutes, using a memory strategy, five (5) years ago when I was at UNI!

We started by tagging rhyme words to each number, then visualised the item. E.G

4 - Shore - I pictured pieces of chocolate, like sea shells scattered on the sand on a beach

Web2.0 - 23 ways challenge

Picture taken from Flickr on 10th/04/09 - Jan's little blue shoe posted by ToniVC

I am very excited to start this blog and take a journey into the investigation of how we as educators, can utalise the tools on the web to engage in education through e-learning and social learning strategies.

I am participating in a few e-learning projects this year and even though I use many Web2.0 tools in my own work and personal practice, I couldn't miss the opportunity to participate in the 23 ways learning opportunity.

The picture of the small baby shoe above represents the baby steps that I will take on this journey with my clients, and that for some people - developing and delivering e-learning and also changing the 'practice' to embed e-learning is a new shoe to wear.