Not the road to nowhere

Have just started looking at some wikis that aren’t “wikipedia”. I have to say, I didn’t realise their potential. I have tended to steer students away from wikipedia, because I fear they will rely on it as their only resource. 

After what I have read today, I realise it’s far better than I thought, but I do like the comment I read which says that “it’s a good starting point, but not a good end point”. I think wiki (whether pedia or not) could be a good starting point, and also a way to teach students to cross reference, double check for accuracy etc. 

I had a look at some specific library and school wikis, I would like to see some Australian based ones, does anyone know of any??

New to podcast downloads so only a couple so far. Will add to as I find new ones.

Is it Just Us – Wendy Harmer and Angela Cattearns

The Conversation Hour with Richard Fidler/

As part of the SLJ “23 things” activity, I have just started downloading some podcasts. I have actually done a few seminars on downloading podcasts and creating/uploading them. I have to admit that as yet, I haven’t done any more than attend a few courses. 

The podcasts I have so far are “Is it just us?” an online podcast only show with Wendy Harmer and Angela Cattearns. I’ve always loved Ange from her Simon Townsend’s Wonderworld through her JJ days and now online. They’re fun to listen to, chatting about life for those who are no longer young teens. I’m actually a bit younger than them (their target audience I think is 50 year olds, but they’ve been hitting on a lot of interesting topics – not the least of which is how teenagers know so much more about technology than many of us adults do.

I’ve also downloaded The Conversation Hour, which I really enjoyed listening to but usually can’t because I’m at work. 

I used I Tunes to find my podcasts, simply because I have a Macbook and an Ipod. We don’t have these at work, so I will need to talk to my techies about what we should/can use at school.

I think there’s a value for podcasts, both for our vision impaired students, and those who are better aural learners than visual learners. I also think that producing a podcast, whether audio or video, would be a great learning tool for students and would make a change from the ubiquitous powerpoint presentation.