Hello everyone. I am an Ultranet coach in the Echuca area. It seems that Netspace blocks more sites than Editure.

Recently we conducted a professional development session with principals. We used Glogster (www.glogster.com/edu) and Voicethread (http://voicehtread.com/). While the main purpose of the activity was to share strategies on how to implement the 1:1 laptop pilot next year, the glog was an easy way for them to share their ideas and the Voicethread was used for them to give us feedback on the session. However, principals were keen to have these tools used in their schools so there have been a lot of requests to unblock these sites recently!

We set up a Ning (www.ning.com/) to support teachers in the 1:1 laptop pilot next year, but as Netspace has blocked Nings and they are a large Internet provider across our region, we may have to think of an alternative. Pity, as it would have been the ideal tool to use in this situation...

Another problem we have encountered are computer technicians and coordinators. After polite requests they still refuse to unblock some sites as they say it will increase Internet use and result in budget blowouts. I was recently told not to encourage the use of Google Docs for this reason.

I really hope that the students in the 1:1 laptop pilot get to use their computer for more than word processing and Internet research. I hope that there soon will be more acceptance of web2.0 tools for communication and collaboration in education.

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my favourite application is tiddlywiki - www.tiddlywiki.com -an agile & versatile freestanding open source wiki platform powered by a javascript engine, with hundreds of free 3rd party javascript plugins/macros.

i had discovered tiddlywiki on a moodle list, while trying in vain to get moodle's wiki working

since discovered tiddlywiki, i have been working extensively with it - with thehelp ofa wonderful tiddlywiki googlegroup and seems wonderfully well-suited to classroom, e.g.each student / group of students can download their own copy of a curriculum, and use the file to record their comments and notes and independent findings, etc.,and can customize the appearance/ display of their workbook, and reorganize the information with the use of plugins

you can find links to some examples of how i have beenusing tiddlywiki at http://www.congo-education.net or at http://habitat.igc.org/

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If you would like to order your own copy of John's book you can do this online at:

http://www.nelsonsecondary.com.au

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What a rapt audience for Steve's keynote presentation - he had us eagerly awaiting his spin on the 10 trends and 7 steps in Web 2.0. Steve introduced us to Classroom 2.0 and put out a challenge - the membership is currently approaching 9,500 and the Classroom 2.0 is aiming for 10,000 participants. Take a look for yourself at: http://www.classroom20.com/

Here are the 10 trends:

1. New Publishing Revolution
2: Tidal Wave of Information
3: Culture of Increased Opennes
4: A Culture of Participation
5: The Age of The Collaborator
6: An Explosion of Innovation
7: The World Is Getting Flatter and Faster
8: The Long Tail
9: Social Learning Moved Toward Centre Stage
10: Social Networking

And here are the 7 steps that you can take now:

1. Learn about Web 2.0
2. Lurk
3. Participate
4. Digest this thought: the answer to information overload is to produce more information
5. Teach content production
6. Make education a public discussion
7. Help build the New Playbook

What will you be doing next?

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