Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Logging in again & module 3

It has been a week since I last blogged and it feels like an age. I can see that people could get quite attached to their own blog - it really is a little piece of you and you care for it!
It was so good to get the first assignment in and that's what has kept me away. I am now trying to catch up on the modules - I have felt behind all through this course. SP4 is not a good time to study! The kids went back to school today and I haven't started work yet, so hopefully these few days will allow me to catch up.
Have spent the day and evening working through module 3, writing html. Got off to a slow start by not being able to find my Notepad file easily. (It wasn't till the tutorial mentioned that Notepad was a text editor that I realised that was what I should be using.) I then saved it as something else and got all confused about versions. Decided to just start the whole thing over and finally got under way. As usual, it's all new, but am enjoying it and feeling a sense of achievement. The html tutorial is well written and relatively straightforward. I've noticed my attitude to things has changed - I'm not quite so scared of trying to find my own answers now. Should be able to finish the html part of module 3 tomorrow - it's a very big module. Am way behind...

Monday, January 22, 2007

The week so far

Not much to report, except of course hard at work on my assignment, which as usual, I have left rather late. Despite the pressure, am really enjoying exploring new sites, software and online resouces like articles. There is some amazing stuff out there. Have decided to use a range of resources for the annobib, not just things like 'How To...' tutorials. Will have to add my learning links to my page and get some screen shots on too.
Have decided to stay away from the discussion board for a couple of days. I've been spending a lot of time on it, mainly just reading (which can be fruitful) or sometimes posting comments/questions. But it does keep me away from the assignment and finishing off the modules which I am yet to do.
Confidence has definitely grown and curiosity definitely sparked through this course.
:-)

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Something new...

Finally!!! I've been able to upload a picture to my blog. Has taken a long time to be able to do this - I know it's meant to be easy, but just couldn't get it to work when I went through the Template, Add Page Element, Add Picture path. Finally asked Blogger for help and found if I just use the pic icon in the top bar it was easy to use. I also posted a question on the db which two people were kind enough to answer for me, even though I still couldn't get it to work. I can see I'll enjoy this feature, though important not to overdo it I think.
Next challenge, uploading some screen shots. Have also just learnt what Labels are and how they work. There is so much to learn, and am finding Blogger pretty good for someone not technical like me.

Online chatting

Participated in my first ever online chatting today through webCT with classmates. Had no idea you had to press enter to post your message, but finally worked it out. It's a strange thing - very immediate, fast and can take a while to read three messages that pop up together. Threads of conversations can get lost - I asked a question or two that didn't get followed up, or sometimes non-related things come in first before an answer. As others commented, being able to touch type is an advantage! I guess since we were just having a general chat and had nothing specific to chat about, our subject matter went all over the place, and because of that, you can't necessarily participate in everything. But I can see that if a group met to chat about a specific topic it could be very rewarding and fruitful. It was certainly nice to 'meet' some classmates in a different way to the discussion board. It was nice knowing that someone was in from overseas. And I really liked the immediacy in comparison to the discussion board.
I can't imagine what it would be like having a large number of people chatting at one time together. We had about 8 today by the time I jumped in.
I installed ICQ yesterday but now every time I turn my computer on it tells me there is a problem with it and I can't use it. I asked about it on the chat, but no-one seems at all interested in using it - I guess it's old hat, but I wouldn't know.

Friday, January 19, 2007

Module 2 - ICQ

Something else I haven't done or heard of before. Downloaded and installed the ICQ software OK. As advised, put the minimum stuff about myself - it's easy to gain the impression there are lots of people out there who are happy to meet strangers online for just about any purpose. Was happy to have a nickname option. Don't want anything to do with the whole dating/relationships stuff! My ICQ number is 479579941 and have found a discussion board thread that gives a lot of numbers of classmates, so I will have a go at chatting to someone just for the experience! (Have missed all the webct chatroom get togethers - hopefully can make it to tomorrow's one.)
Didn't note the early postings about the ICQ tasks for advanced studies nickname and number - they no longer exist, so went through that until I found mention in someone's blog and then realised. Don't have much more to add until I have a go at chatting.
I do have to add all the ICQ nos of classmates - I'm assuming that is on the ICQ page and not on my learning log? That's where I'll do it until i know better.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Module 2 - newsgroups

This part of the tasks has taken some time. I had never heard of newsgroups before. Got into it using Mozilla. It took an age to find something. Tried www.newzbot first including searching: gardening, teaching, desperate housewives, and the singer Pink (which came up with lots of unsavoury stuff!). Usually got the message that there were no articles in that newsgroup or that it did not allow posting.
I then tried www.usenet which was instantly easier. I went to discussion groups, and there found an Australian parenting forum know as 'kidspot'. It's very attractive, relevant, friendly and looks well run, so I think I'll stay with it even after NET11. My first post to it is below. It looks like a busy site and it took no time for my post to show up, so people can discuss things almost immediately - that is assuming things always post so quickly.
Still having some trouble getting my head around the differences between newsgroups, lists and discussion boards.

Module 2 cont. - newsgroup post

pengee

1 Posts

Posted - 16 Jan 2007 : 22:51:07 Show Profile Email Poster Edit Reply Reply with Quote Delete Reply
Hello everyone. I thought I'd introduce myself too. My name is Penelope and I live in Sydney ("Seedney" to my NZ relatives). I live with my husband and son who is 9 and daughter who is 6 on Australia Day. She is nursing a broken arm at the moment - not much fun for the rest of the holidays. I am about to embark on a new career as a primary school teacher and am wondering what impact this will have on family life - don't think my partner realises how busy I will be, but he was great at supporting me through my studies and with the added bonus of a new income, he should be keen to help! There is a great sense of community on this site.
Cheers P.

Friday, January 12, 2007

A long absence & more on module 2

I have been three and a half weeks away from my blog and NET11 and was a little nervous about coming back in as I feel so far behind - nothing for it, but to jump in again. Started by forgetting my password for my blog but now it's reset and I've written it down!
So, to Lists. Have had a look through the two links provided on webCT to explore some lists. Tried 'main groups page' for women's soccer (175 lists given), then herb gardening home. Liked the info provided on the 'contents' page, especially seeing how many people belonged to a list and rightly or wrongly this influenced whether I might look at the list archives. Saw a list relating to the Matildas but it was membership required. A lot of the initial lists that came up were USA-based. Don't know why. Herb gardening home came up with only 6 lists. Tried knitting on topica - quite a bit available. Overall though, each list I looked at seemed quite old and in some cases now inactive. Very little dating from 2006.
I've realised I do however belong to a list, though it was not something I actively chose to join - I belong to the NSW Teacher's Federation and am on its list. I get quite a bit of mail from them about campaigns general teaching issues. There is no member discussion, it is a one-way thing, simply for information. I chose to join the Federation and membership includes the list emails.
Back a notch though, also noticed some odd entries in my earlier searches, such as lists for surgical clubfoot, and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen (!!) under my women's soccer browsing. How did they end up there? Must be something in the words they use that make them pop up on this list.

What are the pros and cons of email lists vs discussion boards?
Discussion boards allow the managing of different subjects or 'threads' such as on our course. As long as people use the threads correctly, it enhances use of the board. It's great being able to search for certain topics or authors on a discussion board, using the search tool.
Lists are hard to find in my experience! They also may or may not allow posting. They are good for sharing information to members, such as my Teacher's Federation list and I can unsubscribe at any time.

Are there certain kinds of communication or purposes more suited to one than another?
The example above of the NSWTF is an ideal use of a list - a large, active organisation with lots of busy members with whom it wants to share information. Also the discussion board for study is excellent - a community is formed all around the world and people can ask questions, get them answered or provide answers or comments.