The end of the beginning

Well, I've taken the plunge and have been consolidating my weblogs, web presence, etc... so I have rolled over my Blogger blog to edublogs.org.

My edublogs weblog is Ed(ge)ucation design: learning about design...from experience

Please update your feed to: http://edge.edublogs.org/feed/

Blogger has served me very well since I started blogging in 2003, but I've been loathe to go to the new blogger version since Google have taken over (I am a Google user in many respects too), and I want to support the great service James has provided via edublogs. Plus, I have a bit more to learn on WordPress and I certainly wish to keep on learning! :o)

Do you have a project for 2007?

If not, then you might like to read Marica's post about Project 365 - it's a project where you take a photo per day and blog it as a visual diary for the year. It's a lovely way to focus your blogging I bet and, judging from Marica's first few days, seems quite effective too!

I had started Freire Fridays partly for the purpose of focusing my blogging and making sure I posted at least once during the week. It worked for a while (and I'll admit that I've sifted through Pedagogy of the Oppressed enough times to now find I'm repeating myself with quotes! I found it rather an interesting way to actually read the book too :o) - and the process was focused AND fun to do too! I did revisit Freire more recently...

If you're not sure why you're blogging or what you should be blogging about, perhaps starting your own project could be a starting point?

Thanks for sharing your project with us Marica! I'll look forward to reading your project and watching it develop over the year (and of course...no pressure!) :o)

technorati tags:project, photos, diary, 365, 2007

Blogged with Flock

miniSeries: movies for your mobile

miniSeries: Episodic adventures for mobile phones

The ABC have pulled together some wonderful little movies that are mobile-sized! It costs you to download them to your phone, but you can preview them (in full) online as well. These movies would be good little tasters for your students, especially those studying communications, arts, moving imagery and so on, not to mention potential cross-subject activities!

The Perils of Flossy held my attention well - loved the combination of music with the visuals. Each episode is quite short (say, a couple of minutes, making downloading to your phone easier, and hopefully cheaper?). Each episode links well in true series fashion. This illustrates how series are constructed too - as viewed on television for example; that is, they consist of relevant narrative links from one episode to the next, along with overarching themes and strong characters, yet have an immediate impact, narratively speaking, within each episode.

Very nice learning tools in themselves, these little movies, as well as telling a good story!

Well done to the movie makers, the ABC and their miniSeries partners m.Net, South Aust Film Corporation and The Aust Network for Art and Technology (ANAT) for making these available.

technorati tags:mobile, movies, ABC, mini-series, filmmaking, mobilephone

Blogged with Flock

New Year resolutions for teaching and learning

I don't normally contend with new year's resolutions, but for some reason talk about resolutions insists on wandering into my arc of hearing :o)

I've listened to some comments on the local radio and have skipped through articles that share new year's resolutions, most of which are the standard... lose weight, be happier, don't smoke, etc (not that these aren't admirable of course!) ... even gardening!

I thought to myself, "self, what about some resolutions to do with teaching and learning for 2007?" "What about them?" I replied, "I feel I have yet to resolve 2006!!"

So, here is my list of aspects of teaching and learning I will resolve to engage in over 2007 (and perhaps I'll be back to this list January 3rd 2008 to see how I did!):

• see things through (learn from the past but don't stay there)
• less is more (don't get carried away)
• think out aloud (others can hear you more clearly!)
• if all else fails, learn from it (failure is good m-key!)
• do something that alters the status quo (for me and for learners!)
  
• tell (and listen to) stories about learning that are good and not-so-good
• make room for the difficult questions (goes well with 'less is more'!)
  

A happy new year to you all.

[2007], [new year], [resolutions], [lists]