My First Slideshow on Blogger

Here's an attempt at a slideshow. Not sure if I will be able to do this on a strange computer in Japan, especially if all the menus and websites are completely in Japanese!!

Japan 2010

Inserting Videos and Photos - a Test

Okay, this is a test before I travel to Japan at the end of the week. I will writing a blog about our trip to share with parents and the school community, and I would like to include photos and short videos if possible. I bought a really cheap ($70) Kodak Zx1 video camera, and I'm hoping to use it for both videos and stills. The still camera is only 3MP, but that should mean I can upload the pictures a lot faster than if I use my Canon EOS DSLR, which is 8MP. I will also use the basic video mode, suitable for publishing on the net.

I think the video was actually a HD one - it took quite a while to upload.

Which Thing is Best?

I really can't decide which of our 23 Things is my favourite! The one I have already used at school is Voki, and it has been a hit with my students, so that is definitely on my list of "Great Things".

Personally, I love blogging (actually, I prefer reading other people's blogs rather than writing my own), I think RSS feeds and Google Reader are fantastic (I'd never keep up, otherwise), Delicious solves the problem of different Bookmarks on each computer, Flickr is a wonderful resource (I've also used it a little in my classes already), I've already shared Wordle with staff at my school, and Twitter is great fun and fantastic professionally. I can't wait to use VoiceThread - I think it has amazing possiblities or collaboration with students in Japan. SlideShare is also on my list of things to use in the classroom. I think Google Docs will be the way of the future (Cloud Computing), but maybe not so useful in my primary classrooms at the moment.

I didn't put YouTube on the list as I was already using it a lot before this PD, but I love that, too, especially searching in Japanese.

So... I think they are all great!! I wouldn't take any of them off the list.

Thanks, Penny!

Tweet! Tweet!

Okay, I decided it was time to check out Twitter. I know it's not one of our "Things", but it's been in the news a bit lately, and also mentioned in a few blogs I am following.

Twitter has been described as "micro-blogging" - you post short updates about what you are doing in 140 or less characters. I am already "following" 11 people, and (surprisingly!!) 8 people are "following" me! Most of them are Languages teachers who are interested in integrating ICT into their teaching.


Once again, like blogs, the key to Twitter being useful appears to be managing all of the incoming and outgoing messages. There are so many messages flying around, some of them general updates/info for everyone, others directed at specific people (eg replies to someone's post). There are lots of Twitter "apps" around that are designed to help with management. I have installed "TwitKit", which adds a sidebar in Firefox so that I can see what's happening, live.

I also need to find and read some on-line Twitter guides I think, so that I can learn some Twitter etiquette, and what some of the common abbreviations mean.

VoiceThread - Voices Of The World

I would love to do something like this with a sister school in Japan. We could name objects, like in this VoiceThread, or share information about families and school life. It could almost be used as a simple picture dictionary. How wonderful for the students to be able to hear a native speaker of their own age when practising vocab.

Common Craft Videos - What a Great Find!

I know this isn't strictly languages-related, but I really love these videos! I think they will be useful in the Languages classroom because they will save time when explaining technology that you want to use as part of your lessons. When you only see a class once a week (in the primary school), time is at a premium, and having to teach the skills before you use the technology eats up valuable class time. These videos simplify everything - both the audio and visuals are clear and concise, suitable for middle to upper primary students as well as secondary students and adults.

Here is an example:

Web Search Strategies in Plain English

Gorgeous Sakura - Another Creative Commons Photo

IMGP3552
Originally uploaded by hayami

I am blogging this photo direct from Flickr, now that I have signed up and have an account. I am hoping it will acknowledge the photographer automatically.

It is currently ohanami (flower viewing) time in Japan, a short season in late March/early April, when the sakura (Cherry Blossom) flowers begin to bloom. Japanese people like to stroll or picnic under the beautiful trees. I like to share this event with my students, so photographs like this are great to explain what ohanami is all about.

Creative Commons - Using Photographs

I love this photo I found of "玉入れ" (tamaire), a traditional ball game played at school Sports Days in Japan. I am looking forward to using it next term when I talk about Sport with my Year 4 students.

Japanese students are usually divided into two teams on Sporst Day, red and white. On my last trip to Japan I bought a class set of the reversible hats that the children wear. They are a great idea - red on one side, white on the other. Every child has one as part of their sports uniform. You form teams for games during sports lessons or on Sports Day by asking half the students to turn their hats to the white side, and the other half to the red.

I'm not quite sure how to use Creative Commons correctly. I'm guessing I'm supposed to acknowledge the photographer, but I'm not sure of the rules. Does the acknowledgement have to be in a particular place, or of a particular size relative to the photo? (ie is very small text under the photo or at the end of the document in which it is used, acceptable?) I'm also confused because I did a Creative Commons search on Flickr, but the small print next to this photo includes a copyright mark, not a Creative Commons symbol. (By the way, this photo was taken by "cheboo".)

I watched one of the videos on the CC website. Maybe I should watch a few more to understand it better!!

Need to learn a bit more about this....

Google Docs - our Group PowerPoint

Here is our Group's attempt at a shared slide presentation (I guess we can't really call it a PowerPoint because that is a Microsoft copyright!).

I'm looking forward to seeing how it updates itself in my blog as people add more slides. At the time of writing, there were only five slides. We should be able to make it to at least ten!