1. Blogging Towards Scholarship: Using open-source software and free on-line hosting to work with Scholarship students Toni Twiss TIC Media Studies Waikato Diocesan School for Girls www.tonitwiss.com/evolvingeducation

2. Today’s Objective To introduce you to a RANGE of possible ways of using the web - particularly with Schol students in mind.

3. Current techniques for working towards schol Small group discussion Extension activities within units Extra readings Interviews Guest speakers

4. Social Networking and Web2.0

6. Blogs for learning Blog = web log - an online diary on a topic of your own choosing. www.tonitwiss.com/newmediatech

7. Why Blogging? Linking Collaborating Reflecting Discussing

8. Blogs to learn from Blog search engines www.technorati.com www.blogsearchengine.com blogsearch.google.com Keeping track of blogs www.google.com/reader Live bookmarks (IE7, Safari, Firefox)

9. Learning Blogs There is huge potential for students to keep a detailed, interactive set of notes and reflections on-line. Accessible anywhere, anytime - and by anyone should they so choose - students can enhance their notes with links to readings, video clips and sound files (podcasts). Manageable through the use of content management systems, such as tags, the content is easily reached and grouped with other like information.

10. Building blogs Software Pre-installed ie. Macs with iLife06 come preloaded with iWeb. Open-source downloads www.wordpress.org www.blogger.com

11. Hosting Free hosting services FREE! Quick and easy initial set up No on-going fees Domain name eg. www.wordpress.com/yournamehere  www.blogspot.com www.blogspot.com  www.wordpress.com www.wordpress.com Host your own More freedom/flexibility More space Control uploads and privacy Control where your data and information is stored Own all of your content Choose your own domain name ie. www.tonitwiss.com

12. Student Learning Blogs My recommendations

13. www.edublogs.org Free software (wordpress) and hosting Designed SPECIFICALLY for education Searchable by other users and Google IF WANTED Options for managing feedback/comments Simplified student version No advertising Good safety measures in place

14. Blogger cautions Blogger/Blogspot is blocked at my school due to not being able to guarantee the content of blogs. Blogger allows you to browse other blogs without knowing what they will be about and encourages you to do so even on your own webpage by clicking the next blog tab.

15. Navigating Blogspot.com

16. How would it work Teachers could blog posting work on their own edublogs site. Students would create their own learner blogs and use these to work on material from the teacher’s blog plus their own research. diomedia.edublogs.org

17. Keeping Track of Information RSS, Tags and Social Bookmarks

18. RSS: Really Simple Syndication RSS is a way of breaking down blogs into individual articles that become portable. RSS keeps track of new information that is posted on sites you like. Use an RSS reader programme to keep track of your favourite websites and be instantly updated as soon as a new post is made. www.google.com/reader

19. Del.icio.us Social bookmarking… storing your bookmarks on- line so they are visable to anyone you choose. Del.icio.us provides a button in the web browser tool bar so you can instantly bookmark sites. Within del.icio.us you can network with others and easily share bookmarks via email. Bookmarks can be tagged and are searchable by tag. You can also add del.icio.us to a website via specific tags. Del.icio.us

20. Tags Tags are a way of categorising information depending on its specific relevance to you. Posts can be sorted by tags De.licio.us and technorati can be searched by tags

21. Collaborative Tools Software that allows groups to work together to create documents without being in the same room

22. Wikis www.wikipedia.org an encyclopedia made by us - the users (produsers). www.wikipedia.org www.wikispaces.com Students usually need guidance when they begin a wiki to keep them on the right track. They are able to create a set of notes based on the knowledge of the whole group. They can link to other media forms and extra readings to supplement their ideas and extend their knowledge.

23. Google Docs docs.google.com sketchup.google.com

24. Podcasting and Skype www.skype.com Free phone using VOIP Contacting other schol students Contacting experts eg. Lecturers, people in the industry etc. Concerns over Skype in the media podcasts.yahoo.com Students can create their own accounts and store podcasts at the above site and link to them as often their free hosting sites can restrict a file of this size. Listening to podcasts created by experts in their fields.