Week 4

I am one of the many FaceBook addicts, and love interacting with others on this social site, I am also conscious of the dangers of sites such as these and seek to keep my privacy as much as possible from those who I don't consider 'safe'.

This week we are asked to engage with images, creating resources, uploading artefacts and discovering sources online. My mind is almost overwhelmed with this task. I love learning and engaging with technology, but feel out of my depth wtih many elements of this area and am struggling this week, but a positive mind shall prevail and I shall endeavour to engage with and learn in this area.

Resizing images
I am having a lot of trouble engaging in this activity, I have always just uploaded photos and cropped images till they 'fit' in the space. I realise that this is an area where I need some learning, but actually engaging in the learning is almost painful. Its not that I am not interested in images because I certainly am, I think I need a friend who is competent in this skill to walk me through it, so I am off to search for such a friend.

Podcasts
I have had a small introduction to podcasts during study via distance education at a previous university. This experience was limited to downloading podcasts from the university website and saving them onto my iPod in order to listen to lectures. I found this to be very helpful as I could listen to the lectures more than once and rewind or pause them as needed. I could also listen at times convenient to me, such as when walking or driving. The university's sole purpose for these podcasts were to convey important information to me as a student. The purpose of these podcasts for me was to gain information in order to learn and pass my courses and assessment.

Digital Videos

YouTube is a site I am slowly warming up to, and find that when the right subject comes up I can spend hours searching and viewing clips from this site. I often find my children on this site and this is not always pleasing as there are so many questionable clips available for viewing, I have come to the conclusion that my children do not enter the YouTube sight without adult supervision to guide their searches and viewing. I also realise that YouTube contains many educational clips that can be used in the classroom to enhance learning for students and have used this site several times in the past to introduce and enhance lessons with classes.

Movie maker is a great program for students to use to edit the vidoes they have created. It is engaging as students are using their own work and producing it to a higher standard. Higher order thinking is involved in this activity as students seek to problem solve and enhance their work.