Lesley Anderson

Using Facebook - Wednesday 9/09/09

Working together to get things done!

Ken sent an email on Tuesday 8/09/09 which included an invitation to join the ITC 510/ITC 213 Facebook site in preparation for an online collaboration with the group on Wednesday.  Unfortunately I was unable to get the links etc to work for me, so I was unable to join the group. 

For one of our earlier topics, there was mention of a 510/213 Facebook page and I had gone searching for it.  Unable to find it - it is fairly well hidden apparently, I created a page that was accessible to the group and used the picture here as our ID.

I am only new to Facebook, so I’m still getting my head around it. My older children have been using it for ages and much prefer it to other online pages such as MySpace.  I think it is a great, personal, quick and easy way to keep in contact, either by instant messaging/chat or leaving messages on someone’s “wall”. Read the rest of this entry »

Using LC_Moo - 2/09/09

Using the Moo environment was definitely a new experience for me. I got my user name and log-in about 2 hours ahead of the conference meeting. It had arrived in my emails during the day, but I was unable to access it due to work committments. It took me several attempts to actually get onto the site, into the right place and work out how the site worked. I downloaded some of the user files and printed out a list of commands but I really don’t feel I had enough time to look around before the conference began.
Because of this lack of time and understanding of the site and its operations I felt like I was a bit out of my depth with the experience.  I also found that, although the conversation was entertaining while the group was  in the moo, it was disjointed and a little distracting.  I was expecting some real conversation about the tasks, and essays for the subject but that unfortunately didn’t eventuate.
As a secure site - requiring specific invitation and issued user name and password, I could see how an environment like this would be ideal for an educational situation. It would certainly create opportunity for group discussion and  lateral thought - particularly if students are creating rooms or artefacts within them,  following particular instructions about how to use them and perhaps instructing others on how to use the site as well. Being a bit unusual would probably appeal to students as they learn the idiosyncracies of using the site. Unfortunately it left me a little cold but I would be willing to explore the Moo further - perhaps with my POD group?

Using Skype - 26/8/09

I have used Skype quite a bit over the last few years.  We have used it for connection to our IT support group  to set up software and go through processes with it. This saves them travelling  a 120km round trip to help us each time we might need it.
The conference we attempted on Wednesday 26th August would have to be deemed as unsuccessful. We did have the same issues last semester when we tried to use Skype for a large conference. The software copes more than adequately with audio input for small groups or one-to-one and is great for text chat but as soon as you put a large group of people together all trying to connect at once over differing bandwidths it fails dismally.  Read the rest of this entry »

Using the Chat Facility at CSU Interact site - 19/8/09

I found the use of the CSU Interact chat facility quite difficult. The size of the chat window was small and that made it difficult to follow the conversation/s occurring.  I did make a couple of requests in the window to see if others knew how to change the window size but it seemed that no-one else from the group had any ideas about how to.  The number of people attempting to chat at once was also difficult and I feel that also contributed to the difficulty of chatting.  

I have used the Interact chat facility before but there have only been two or three people chatting and that is quite a manageable number and I feel those conversations have been quite productive sessions when we have discussed our learning or difficulties we might be having. So I can see how it would be a useful tool to use in a classroom setting, to link learners across classrooms or schools when required, I just don’t feel I got a lot out of this particular session.

Using the chat facility on Gmail - Wednesday 12/8/09.

Setting up to chat on Gmail, took some organising. Firstly, I had to resurrect my Gmail account and remember my user name and password. That done, I downloaded the software required by Gmail in order to enable chatting to take place. This was important, as without it Gmail is only an email facility like many others. After that was completed contacts had to be added to the list. I actually invited a few people and then realised that Ken invited everyone into the group chat for us.  Quite a few people turned up to chat. I know a couple of people had technical difficulties getting onto the chat side of Gmail.

Once invited into the group chat we were up and running and the chat was quite thick and fast.  I chatted with a couple of people and then Ken called me for a video chat. Even though I have used some of these technologies before, I am not all that comfortable with video chat. It certainly gives a more personal feel to distance education - putting faces to names etc. Ken and I chatted for about half an hour about various topics such as, location, work setting, general ITC510 stuff etc. Then we both hung up from our video chat and joined the group chat for a while.

The group chat continued for another 15 minutes or so and the log of the chat is included here. Read the rest of this entry »

Using Etherpad 5/8/09

Ken sent  a link to enter etherpad through my normal email address a few days before the meeting was scheduled to occur.

Email:-

Ken Eustace has shared an EtherPad document with you. 

View it here and can we meet there again this WED 5 August at 11am or 7pm AEST?: 

http://cyber.etherpad.com/1 

–

Sent by cyber.etherpad.com at the request of an EtherPad user.

It was a little confusing as when the link was clicked on it went through to a site and then the screen hung with a message in the middle of it that said waiting acceptance. After a while it came up as being denied.  The meeting was scheduled for 7.00pm on the 5^th August so around that time I tried to log in again.  This time I went through to a screen that looked similar to this, although there were more people logged into the pad and their names were listed on the right hand side of the screen. 

Etherpad Screenshot

The left hand side of the screen is for collaborative document creation and on completion can be exported out of the website as html, text or pdf document. The right hand side of the screen is for chat purposes and is much like any other chat set-up.  I find these a little confusing when a large group is using them as you are unsure who questions are being addressed to etc and the chat can often move so quickly that conversation can be missed or lost.After using the pad for a while we were encouraged to create our own pad so that each POD colour group - the groupings that Ken had allocated before these sessions began - could have their own pad to possibly use for online collaboration on tasks. Read the rest of this entry »

No comments POD Exercises