The Vacuum: Part 2 (suck it up!)

At the end of my last blog, I said I'd been thrown right back into the craziness - and almost shuffled back into that vacuum cleaner for a bit of peace! Instead I girded my fluff and hitched a ride to the English Australia conference, where I hoped to get excited again about exploring and connecting with other people.

It was a massive fluffy shock for me, I have to say! As well as talking about teaching and learning, there were presentations about business, marketing, visas, government and regulations - who knew there was so much going on in the background whilst teachers and students are working away in the classroom? I decided to ignore a lot of it for fear of getting overwhelmed again, although I might have gone a bit too far the other way when I had a drink that evening...

I also saw a presentation about using technology that compared it to an adventure, looking at '6 impossible things' - something to do with a girl called Alice who explored 'Wonderland'. Sounded like she was copying me, actually, but without the fluff. Anyway, she did have some good ideas, and because I'd just had some delicious Rocky Road I especially liked her one about 'a cake that can make you grow'.
 

It wasn't dieting advice (though I am a little over-fluffed after those treats), but about how technology and social networking can help teachers develop and learn new things.

So, in the spirit of getting out of the vacuum, I'm re-connecting and asking everyone, "what's the technology 'cake' that made you grow this year?". Email navitarconnects@gmail.com,  drop your ideas in the comments below, or tweet using #6thingscake so I can find it!

The Vacuum: Part 1

After my amazing time at the Big Day In I was on a massive fluffy high after meeting so many people and learning so much. Pretty soon, though, I came crashing down to my dusty computer again. How could I possible use all the ideas I'd heard? Which ones were best? Where could I start? And why couldn't I get my computer to even turn on?

I went for a stroll to calm down and get my fluff straight, but then disaster struck! It was evening, the cleaners were around, I got too curious and too close to that evil vacuum cleaner and - schlooop! - I was in the vacuum before you could say 'dustballs'! I wasn't sure if I'd been sucked up by mistake or not, but after a while, once the dust had settled, I actually started to relax and enjoy myself. So peaceful in there without phones, computers or people! Even if it was a bit dusty *cough*. I even found time to read this book about going on a 'Digital Diet' and managing technology better.

I had some dark thoughts in there, for sure, and for a while I considered stopping my explorations in technology altogether. In the meantime, though, someone got the message out that I was trapped, and there was a vote about whether I should be saved! Amazing! I was so sparkly and fluffed up when I heard people wanted me to come out.

It reminded me that it's the people, the ideas and the connections I make through technology that count - not the technology itself. Sounds simple, but I needed that time alone to figure it out and find my fluffy mojo again. Since I got out, I've been thrown straight back into the craziness...but more of that in Part 2!

Fluff or snuff?

Big Day In: Best Day Ever!

Last Friday I was at the Navitas English Big Day In, and it was fluffin’ amazing! I met hundreds of teachers and people who work in different places, saw heaps of presentations on teaching and technology and even appeared on the big screen myself! How embarrassing!

Prashant Hari

There were so many different presentations and activities I can’t possibly mention them all. There was some great stuff on ‘Digital Literacies’ and mobile learning (mlearning) from my friend Gavin Dudeney, and lots more detail on Personal Learning Networks (PLNs) that Mark Pegrum and I didn’t manage to discuss when we did our interview. There was some fluff-raising research on social media from Prashant Hari too, and heaps of examples from teachers who are using Facebook, wikis, video, social media and all kinds of websites to help their students learn English!

I tried to get involved myself during the day, and tweeted when I could. People also wrote ‘real’ tweets on my tail and some took me home too. I hope their children don’t eat me – eek! I even got a new hairstyle or two once people figured out my fluff isn’t as solid as it looks. Not sure the koala-style is for me!

I listened to a lot of conversations during the day and as well as lots of excitement, there were a few worrying things I heard. Some people think that technology is only for your learners or certain types of students, which seems weird to me – isn’t it part of everyone’s lives now, from job-hunting to finding love online?? I also heard some people complain that there was too much information, which I understand but I think the world moves pretty quick now and we have to find ways of filtering and analysing what’s out there. Imagine what it’s like for me –I’ve only been exploring since March!

On the plus side, I found out that when you dig deep into the fluff, everyone knows something about technology and nobody knows everything. I think what I’ll remember from Friday is that everybody is still learning and anyone can have a go. The most important thing is to keep your ears, eyes and mind open, talk to other people and be part of the conversation, whether it’s online or face-to-face. If I'm not trying it, how can I know if it’s useful or not?

I’d better go as I can hear the cleaner coming with the vacuum and if there’s one thing us dusty types hate, it’s those pesky sweeping things and vacuum cleaners! Oh…wait…*cough*…he’s coming in here? *cough* No one comes in here! Wait! *cough* No…I haven’t finished…turn that thing off! *cough* Help!



Frustrations, Facebook and friends in the fluff...



Gavin Dudeney

 Things are so up and down these days! One day I'm all sparkly and I think I've finally got the hang of things, and then I try something new, get confused and I go all grey and negative again.
After watching too many videos a while ago, I decided I needed some face-to-fluff interaction, so I got in touch with Mr Dudeney from The Consultants-E. We had a lovely chat over a coffee about how to get started with technology and I felt much better. The video I made of the conversation is here.

My Facebook Page

Then I set up a Facebook page because I noticed lots of students use it all the time in the computer room, and I wanted to see what they meant when they said 'Facebook me'! It sounded quite painful. I couldn't have my own profile becuase apparently I don't appear to be a real person *cough* but I could have a 'page' which people can 'like' if they want to see what I'm up to now and then.

Mark Pegrum

I was still a bit befluffled by the whole Facebook thing, so I went to another nice chap called Mr Pegrum, a clever man who works very far away at the University of Western Australia. He told me about PLNs (Personal Learning Networks) which can include Twitter and Facebook, but also real people and resources. He also told me about some pages I can 'like' from my own page, so I can see updates and ideas from other people using technology for learning. You can watch the video of our chat here.

I still find everything quite overwhelming, despite all the help I'm getting from everyone. One problem I have is remembering all the useful sites people have recommended to me. I started writing them down but mis-spelled all the long URLs, so then I copied and pasted them into a Word document but forgot where I saved it. Now I've set up an account on Diigo, where I can save links to websites, and add notes and highlight bits I think are interesting. I hope it helps! I'm off there now to watch my favourite Dusty Springfield video..."I don't know what to do with myself....don't know just what to do with myself..."

Video killed the Navitar!

Oh...my...fluff. What a crazy few weeks it's been! My eyes are dry, my fluff is all dusty because I haven't left the computer room, and I think I'm hallucinating too as I thought I saw a zillion little Navitars marching past the window yesterday...

I've been exploring video websites, and what a ride it's been! I've watched more funny cat videos on YouTube than you can shake your fluff at, strained my tiny brain by watching much bigger brains on http://www.ted.com/ and seen some amazing animation and uploaded my own videos on http://www.vimeo.com/.
I think YouTube is great. You can find anything on YouTube, from teaching videos by Scott Thornbury (I saw him on Twitter!) to how to reset a Flipcam when it freezes! You can also see useful stuff for people learning English like the BBC Flatmates series.

TED hurts my brain but shows me what experts and famous people think about lots of issues like the environment, science and of course technology. Because I'm exploring things like Facebook and Twitter, I found this talk about 'Filter bubbles' really interesting, but this song about sharing online was really fun too! Funnily enough, it's on YouTube too!

Finally, I love Vimeo because it's where my videos live. It's a super-creative space where you can see things like this 12-minute film 'Zero'. It was actually a bit scary, and because I'm a ball of fluff I really understand how the little stringy guys feel.

Finally, here are my tips for how not to get overwhelmed by all the great video out there:

1. Plan how much time you want to watch for, and stick to it!
2. If you find a film useful, email it, tweet it or post the link on Facebook. Make sure you say what it is and why you like it, so that other people can decide if they want to watch it without wasting their time
3. Have some fun by making your own! I use a really easy Flipcam and the free Moviemaker thing because that's all I have, but you can use anything! You can probably make a film on your mobile phone right now!

Talking of which, I made a new film this week. More on that soon....

Two more twitter tips

It's been a super-busy few weeks for me. I have a few more new followers on Twitter and I've had lots to explore to try and answer questions from people who are still getting used to new things, like me. I'm trying to be helpful but I'm just having a go myself and then I tell people what I found. I hope that's okay!

Twitter is great, and is teaching me heaps, but I've been getting a bit dizzy with all the information on there! Last week I found really useful things like URL shorteners (I like http://www.bit.ly/ and http://www.is.gd/). These are handy because you only have 140 letters in a tweet, and often a website address can be really long! I made a quick video to show what I do here.

One thing I've also noticed is that after you follow more than 100 people, it feels like quite a lot of information if you want to quickly look at your Twitter stream, or newsfeed, or whatever you call it. One tip I saw was that you can make 'lists' to categorise people you follow. If you follow some teachers, for example, you could make a list called 'teachers' and add them to it. Then you can just choose to look at that list if you want to quickly see what they're talking about. Or you can just do what I do and try to read everything, then get confused and hide behind your computer until it goes away.

I've seen heaps of really good videos recently, so I'm going to explore some video-sharing websites in the next week or two and see what I can learn. Wish me luck!