Wikis and DET filtering

Doesn’t this just sound like the most exciting blog entry ever in the history of mankind. No I seriously learnt alot today.. yet again. I worked heaps on the class wiki I have set up for next term today. I learnt about guidelines and what I should and shouldn’t have in a wiki. I had to get this right because I needed to get the site unblocked so that it was accessible by kids at school. Eventually after a few changes and change in html codes I got it right. UNBLOCKED WIKI….YEW!!!!! Ok now I am really starting to sound lame. I am happy about what I can do with a wiki after being such a newbie 3 days ago. I also worked on photoshop but am still getting a bit stuffed up on layers when using multiple photographs. Will work on this next week. Have an awesome weekend. :]

Web 2.0 tools and Wikis

I will keep it short and sweet today. Spent the majority of the day looking at the tools we use such as me.edu.au, blogs, rss feeds and finally wikis. I was most interested in the use of wikis and how to set one up with my class. I learnt heaps today and at one time screamed out and scared Martin who was sitting next to me…because I learnt how to connect links or something with wikis…lame I know. Anyway I have a decent wiki under construction but I will be keeping it private because that is the only way det will allow you to unblock it for classroom which kinda sucks but I suppose it’s a necessary measure in today’s world with so much technology and try to keep a decent control of who sees and it and what you need it for.. especially with kids. Anyway I will keep working on this wiki tomorrow to make sure it’s up to standard so that I will be able to use it next term.

VC and PS

Was working on a couple of video tutorials in Photoshop that seemed fairly easy this morning. Im goinig to work through some of the harder elements this afternoon.

Just watched and participated in a video conference with St Ives High School, St Ives PS, Gordon East PS and Murrumburrah PS. It was a 20 question game in which the students from the other school had to guess my occupation/role in the community. I took on the role of a surf lifesaver and showed a powerpoint using photos. I was then off cam as they asked questions that gave them more clues about who and what I did in the community. When Murrumburrah guessed correctly on the very last question I then came back on cam and talked about the importance of volunteer lifeguards in my community. They then asked more questions. It was quite interesting how it all worked. I plan to maybe do some work on Bridgit and share my desktop. Myabe even teach something in this way to a school etc.

Garageband and Syllabus Stuff

Today I spent a little time on making a song for a video/film I made on animoto. I then imported it into itunes so I could use it etc. I then spent a lot of the day looking for relevant sites for film making and how to make it into a relevant unit of work across Stage 1, 2 and 3. There are some good sites which I bookmarked on delicious. I was disappointed in the lack of resources from Australian sites. The ‘old’ Science and Technology Syllabus has not be updated in what seems like decades but seems to be getting finished in draft format in the next 6 months or so. There is a Unit in Stage 1, 2 and 3 using film making but it is very out dated and there is no real use of current outcomes. I am attempting to still put something together with this regardless by using Movie Maker, imovie, Photoshop etc in a unit of work for Primary Students moving up into High School if possible.

Photoshop again

I was working on these two pics this morning when looking at colour replacement and extracting images from a background.

Today I have been pretty much working on Photoshop since I arrived at work. It’s a complicated program at times but I am slowly beginning to understand some of the features. I was using the extract tool today along with the colour replacement tool. I am starting to understand the layers alot better. I am keen to look at simpler programs such as Picassa and Photoshop Elements as I think Photoshop CS3 which I have been using would be too hard for primary age students.

Photoshop CS3

Today I stayed at home ( so good to sleep in for 2 hours) and went to a friends home office to have a good look over PSCS3. Features are huge and its going to take a while to be at least half competent in this program. At the moment I am trying to grasp the filters and the ideas of the layers. All I want to do at the moment is grab an image and put it in front of another image…. seems easy… yea right. This IS photoshop. Oh well. Gimme time. Nice to have a swim in my lunch break.

Another day another learning experience

Yesterday we looked at Filemaker Pro which is software they use here at the centre to put in and send info about all the courses as well as the organisation adn set up of the centre. A little bit complicated but I won;t need to be concerned with the whole program. Just parts of it such as filling in my course information and possibly making it an accredited course for the institute of teachers professional development. I also finished a 4 minute movie that I made using animoto. It was quite good and fairly simple. I think I would use it more in conjunction with Photoshop and showing finished products rather with movie making as it doesn’t really highlight the skills in editing and making a movie. Talked to Sue about Wikis and setting a decent one up for my class when I get back but will need to wait unit Pam gets back as she is the expert here. Going to have a look at my proposed course for digital film making today and how to assess participants properly. Want to get a heads up on Photoshop before I get into it tomorrow.

Blogs

I emailed all staff at Curly North about some of the things I have been doing here and included a link to this blog. It was encouraging to get numerous replies and interest in creating a class blog. If there is enough interest I will come out to Curl Curl North and run a professional development session. I have said to a number of staff at Curly that it will follow them up so they can get their blog underway.  Today Im going to continue making a movie from a site called http://animoto.com/ which is sooooo easy to use for those with little or no video editing experience. Im also going to explore http://twitter.com/ in detail today and set up an account. I will keep you in the loop. Lastly I also want to start looking at Photoshop so they I have some knowledge when I look at working on a Photoshop project on Thursday.

Social Networking

We have just had a good discussion on social networking sites such as myspace and facebook. We joined an educational equivalent of these called http://me.edu.au . It has some really good applications such as the sharing of resources and links from other teachers in the same boat as we are. You can add friends/ colleagues and write on their whiteboard similar to commercial social networking sites. I will be trialling out the use of this over the coming months. I also have my blog connected to this as well. I will be looking at continuing to use this for the rest of the day along with a site called animoto which makes videos for you and a site called twitter.

Hope you’re all having fun.

First blog

surfing movie

The quicktime movie above is something I made today. Sorry about the poor quality for the blog.

Where do I start?? This is my first blog after what has been a very busy week and introduction to mac ict. Firstly, I love it here. I have no playground duties. Just kidding. I started last Tuesday with an inservice course for Cammeray P.S. I taught about 15 staff how to use imovie 6. I then sat in on an IWB rundown in the afternoon using ActiveStudio.

On Wednesday I had an orientation of the mac ict and a staff meeting about all the programs and projects the centre is involved with. Was asked to create a blog, a delicious bookmark account and soon a wiki. On Thursday I started to get into the programs I would use. I went and used a Canon PowerShot camera to take some footage of the uni with an aim to revise my skills with imovie 6. I set up my office space and loaded Adobe Creative Suite 3 and Adobe Premiere elements 3 which was suggested to me by John here at the centre as he uses editing software regularly in his line of work.

On Friday I spent the majority of the day making a movie using Premiere Elements of dan and me surfing ( mostly dan). I learnt an enormous amount in this and will attempt to revise and deepen this knowledge on Monday or early in the new week..