tr.im goes belly up?
i’ve really appreciated the use of tr.im as a “URL-shortening” service. Great when you want to email a very long web address (eg those elluminate sessions)..
What is “the blogroll”? Your links out..
The other thing people in the blogging world do is link to each other. People wanted to know how they read and then link to each other’s blogs. Of course there’s always a million ways to do any one thing, isn’t there! You could: subscribe via an RSS reader (eg google reader) – more complicated. add a “friend connection” (via google friend connect) – easy enough. add links in your page via the Layout > Add a Gadget tool – direct on the page. We went for the 3rd option, Read More …
What is "the blogroll"? Your links out..
The other thing people in the blogging world do is link to each other. People wanted to know how they read and then link to each other’s blogs. Of course there’s always a million ways to do any one thing, isn’t there! You could: subscribe via an RSS reader (eg google reader) – more complicated. add a “friend connection” (via google friend connect) – easy enough. add links in your page via the Layout > Add a Gadget tool – direct on the page. We went for the 3rd option, Read More …
23 Things – intro to blogging
Ancy, Soheir and Megan all valiantly posted their first blog messages to the world. Well done all three of you !! After nearly 40 minutes of michael talking about this mythical “Web2” experience.. it was truly time for some hands-on activity. Interesting to read people’s first impressions of blogging: Ancy said she could see they might be useful in some professions for communication, Soheir said she would need to explore the tool before deciding if it could be useful, Megan’s first impression says the blog wouldn’t measure up to email Read More …
Green is for listening? The trauma of windows volume control..
So Tina, one of our amazing English teachers at PRACE, comes in with our box of headsets, “Same question i ask you every Monday.. green is for listening?” This is one of the things that used to drive me crazy when we were running our Can You Hear Us? projects.. (No, not Tina.. the computers!!) (Beware: Rant Approaching.) Most of the windows/pc boxes have a colour coding for the audio sockets (green for listening, pink for speaking), but many headsets use a different colour code for their plugs (orange or Read More …
Victorian e-learning innovations: mid-year sessions
i’ve just listened to the mid-year presentations for the Victorian e-learning innovations.. As well as our own “flexivet” project (flexible delivery in ACE), here are my highlights from all the interesting projects out there.. Lynne Gibb presents: Coonara Community House using collaborative wiki, flip camera and mp3 players to build up resources for learning cultural diversity. Martin Bride from OnTrack in the Wimmera region: delivering literacy at a distance via wiki, with volunteer literacy tutors (Certificate of General Education for Adults (CGEA). A hugely challenging idea, given how difficult it Read More …
Psst.. knowledge-worker? You have mad skills?
Nancy White was spurred into action by Tony Karrer’s “big question” of the month: what skills do knowledge-workers (or “learning professionals”) need (as we head into the teenies). But Tony was disappointed that Nancy listed only 4 “meta skills”: self-awareness, generosity, humility, and willingness to risk. .. because Tony was looking for the technical details, the actual “how do i learn” skills. So Nancy wrote a second version, this time elaborating on the abilities to: scan and filter (manage the “river of information”), connect with other people, synthesise the streams Read More …
How stylish and strategic are you?
Most people enjoy getting some feedback on their inner “nature”.. some better idea of who they are in different contexts. Surely this is why horoscopes are so popular, as well as identity quizzes (huge on Facebook – eg “Which Buffy character are you?“). A symptom of our Western cultural heritage where self-knowledge is not explicitly taught, leaving people hungry for any basic clues to who they might be. For any kind of structured learning, self-knowledge can be vital to your effectiveness. i know that i learn best when i have Read More …
Running out of room? Try multiple desktops
Here’s an interesting idea.. if you’re running a dozen apps, from web to word, audio, visual and social networking.. and you need some thinking space.. you could: a) close some apps, walk away from the computer and take a break, or b) try a virtual multiple desktop program. Linux has always had this built in.. (along with their far superior “Start menu”) but i’ve never been busy enough in Linux to use it. i was browsing through this list of “40 awesome apps” which are all tiny downloads (2mb or Read More …
"Workrave" – a welcome interruption
i’ve just been interrupted at work again!! .. by a terrific little app called “Workrave”, which lets me know when i’ve been sitting Staring at the Screen for Too Long. After installing the program, you decide how often you want to take breaks, whether you want micro-breaks or just regular ones .. and what’s your time limit for the whole day. You can skip or postpone if you’re really busy, or you can sit back and do the recommended exercises for good office health. Honestly i prefer to be interrupted Read More …
Writings Reclaimed
I decided to bring posts to this blog from other projects, such as: Digital Learning at PRACE Digital Learning at Lalor Living and Learning ACFE Learn Local Communities of Practice the North-West e-mentor projects from ACFE Learn Local iPad for Seniors at PRACE the 23 Things project from ACFE, CAE and PRACE. Having written nearly all the text in those places, i wanted gather it all together. It was relatively easy to export from Blogger, and then import into WordPress here. Unfortunately, now i’ve discovered several roadblocks, namely: the Read More …
Mark Hopkins’ story translated into many languages
You remember Mark Hopkins, the adult learner from PRACE who told his story so well, not only in our publication, but also on the SBS Insight tv program last year? Well, some of the stories from this Resilience collection have been translated into other languages for the EPALE* site, and the first story to be translated was Mark’s. *EPALE: Electronic Platform for Adult Learning in Europe. https://goo.gl/XqROOX
Adult Learners in Conversation – “A Fuller Sense of Self”
Last night Tricia Bowen spoke about her experience of reconnecting with the adult learners who have shared their stories in this volume. I talked about how great it was to join with Tricia and Lynne in the whole creative and collaborative process of editing. Then Lynne Matheson invited us to launch the video into the world, so we all made rocket-launching sounds, and the champagne flowed. * It was such a good experience filming and editing these stories with Tricia. I would love to hear any feedback, especially related to Read More …
Reading between the Lines – SBS Insight focus on Adult Literacy
If you think Australia is a highly literate nation, watch this recent episode of Insight from SBS. This powerful and moving episode features Mark Hopkins one of the students from PRACE. I spoke with Mark as part of the “Stories of Resilience” project, and it’s really heartening to hear his voice in this national forum. All these adult learners show real courage and vulnerability, as they describe their experience for people who have no idea of the extent of this hidden problem. Over 40% of Australians experience some level of difficulty Read More …
Dark Side of the Comment Section
If you’re involved with any kind of online facilitation, you may appreciate this article from The Guardian. They’ve done some research into the comment section, finding that much more abuse is directed at female writers than male. (Also, for web designers, some really good layout effects, especially the way they’ve integrated the graphs and the “how would you moderate this comment” bits.) There’s a whole series around this research, articles interviewing people who have experienced the maelstrom of massive online shaming and bullying.. and articles on ideas for making things Read More …
Help Files for the iPad
Here’s a copy of the printed materials we handed out during the course. It’s a pdf file that should hopefully open on your iPad. Link here: This post was originally on the site “iPad for Seniors” at PRACE.
PageTurners has a new online shop
Just sent out the latest PageTurners newsletter, letting people know that the new shopping-cart style website is up and running!! It’s taken me much time this year to get the site all updated and e-commercey, so i’m very happy that we’ve finally launched. Woot. You can read the newsletter here. Take a look at the site, tell us what you think. Oh, we need a feedback form don’t we. If you’re not subscribed to the PageTurners email list, you can join via the website.
iPad apps especially for Seniors??
I wondered if there are any iPad apps that would be especially useful for people over 55, so i searched the web for “best apps for ipad for seniors“. Sure enough, there are many many lists: “16 helpful apps for seniors”, “27 bet iPad and iPhone apps for senior citizens”. But are any of them useful.. and how many of these apps are FREE..? Well, some of them are designed to help people by improving things like: Visual accessibility: Silver Surf is a web browser with “large navigation buttons, dynamic text Read More …
Some help files for blogger
Here’s a basic intro that Michael made – for low level students really (link: pdf stored in google drive). GCF LearnFree don’t have an intro to blogger, but they do have a great section talking about blogs in general, and an intro to Tumblr instead. Tumblr is much more visual than blogger, which can be text-heavy. Google themselves have a fairly decent help section. Grovo has a few videos showing the basics, including this overview. But they’re a commercial mob, and they’ll want you to pay for more. What good Read More …
Skills you may need (blogging)
What are the the basics of blogging? make new blog, with title & web address (URL) hopefully at a time when google is not policing your IP address make new post add & format text add images make links save draft / publish get people interested in reading your blog post knowledge you may need Ideas for engaging learners with online activities. Ideas for adapting your already brilliant teaching and learning knowledge into online spaces. On writing for the web keep it as visual as possible make your text very Read More …