Where was Anne Last Sunday?

I just wanted to make sure I got these pictures of last weekend up before I go away this weekend.

Two very different events! Wisteria Festival at Parramatta in the morning, and Earthdance at Sydney Park on Sunday afternoon. Perfect weather for both - have to show my age and admit I liked the Wisteria Festival more than Earthdance, or was more comfortable at least anyway.





Flowers and sunshine with the one you love are hard to beat! However, the buzz and the music at Earthdance were huge (so were the queues for beer, I just had an icecream) at Earthdance and there is a feeling of being out there and alive(but the bass was giving me actual internal pain!)

TwitterStory!

I have been inspired and informed by Al Upton and his minilegends after getting the link through Sue Waters on Twitter I think!

If you read this blog you will know I have been working on Twitter based literacy activities, using mobile phones to post, and to be displayed on a blog or wiki via twitterbadges or Apollo Twittercamp. These activities are for the purpose of engaging young people who have so far not had positive experiences of learning in institutions.

This fantastic slideshare below by Angela Thomas has it all, I love slide two - types of digital fiction , slide 14 Mobile phone fiction, slide 29 SMS Text Poetry and slide 30 TwitterMicroFiction! Yes! Yes and Yes! This is exactly what I am on about. Perfect. Thank you Angela!



So the idea has morphed from TwitterVerse, as it was seen as too demanding for the available literacy levels of the learners. Then we thought about TwitterFiti, or twitter that reported graffiti from around the place, but seemed a bit limited, then TwitterTag, but again didnt seem to give enough opportunity for literacy development.

Then Al Uptons blog, complete with instructions for six word stories, he used this with 8 - 9 year olds, we will use it with young teenagers and I am sure the content of the six word stories will reflect this. So, thank you to Sue Waters networking on Twitter, and Web2.0 for Al Uptons blogare, and Angela sharing through slidesh we will be able to go ahead and do this!

Will let you know how it goes!

I WILL work it out!

I did! I did! I worked it out, although not without a little help from my friends who patiently explained, explained again and in then in one direct stroke provided the missing piece of information.

I knew about Audacity, in fact had it ready on my computer to edit audio files. Fiddled around with it to make it work, cursed myself for not taking more notice the first time Sean and Stephan showed us how to do it,. Cursed myself again for acting like I had known the whole time how to podcast.

I knew about Podomatic, so I opened an account – only to realise again that I didn’t know as much as I thought. My Podomatic page doesn’t look right, will work on it but it just looks incomplete somehow, and I get the feeling I am only half using it correctly. I would really like to get a link to my podcast badge on my blog, so I will work on that too. Will have to look back at the impressive Casting the Net pages, and Talking VTE and work out what I need to do!

I knew the files had to go on Podomatic as MP3 files, and I could clearly see the “Export as MP3 menu item” - but then came the message lame.enc.dll file missing. OK, get lame enc file put it in audacity folder. Next message, must ilocate file for Audacity. Now I was puzzled and panicy (panicy because now was confirmed that I really had no idea at all), the lame file was in the Audacity folder, where exactly did it need to be located, it was in the same folder for goodness sake, couldn’t cosy up any closer.

Heroic Leadership

This book speaks to me about the way I think the world should be.

Chris Lowney describes the Four Pillars of Heroic Leadership as Heroism, self-awareness, ingenuity and love.

Love and valuing of the individual by management, I would like some of that! . Loyalty built of affection and commitment to shared goals. Supporting individuals to imagine and strive toward heroic ideals. Quick footedness and use of the intellect in responding to global needs, sounds like innovation to me..

Everyone is a leader, everyone is a hero, all we need to do is love each other. Very much a mentality of plenty for everyone. Chris Lowney explains how, even when your achievements are not heralded, or you don’t achieve the desired results, your acts are still those of a leader and no less heroic.

He points out that all the medical researchers who didn’t discover cures made it possible for others to follow another track perhaps proving to be the right one
Explorers who weren’t able to put a new country on the map were heroic for showing us what wasn’t there, so other explorers could look somewhere else.

I am only early in the book but I am sure there will be more in it that I will want to talk about here later.

Gnostic Corner – Woy Woy

We were only an hour from Sydney but the heavy chains that weigh over us in our working week lifted, giving a light and feathery feeling to our upper bodies, helped by a rigourous breeze that gave my hair life by moving it friskily in all directions. It was like this poem that was recently brought to my attention by Michael to help me feel happy.

Fresh, fresh, fresh and renewed. A tapestry of seagulls, warm sunshine, and brisk breeze. Pretty shops, and shops with pretty and interesting goods and services. Stepping back into old ways of knowing – natural food store, natural health and beauty servies, a plant and flower nursery, a café that you wanted to go into because the food on everyones plates looked so good, and everyone was smiling.

Image Gnostic forest. Out of them all Gnostic Forest held my attention for over an hour, not just all the sparkly things, but the wide range of unique and colourful clothing, the luminous crystals set in ornate rings and lively bracelets, silky embroidered bags and scarves, all vivid and rich. An impression of timelessness in the pace of the shop, personal attention to help you find what you were looking for. Surprises of every kind on the shelves.

It was fun and I want to go back again.

YWCA Online!

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It is Spring and the YWCATraining07 Learnscope project is bringing forth the fruit and flowers that have been tended by Scott, Judith, Kerrt, Sandra, Alice, Caecilia and Paul.

There are many elearning achievements of this group – the combined and advanced use of Edublogs and Blogger including vodcasts and the use of some Web 2.0 tools like a newswidget and a shoutbox as a two-way interactive delivery system. The use of YacaPaca to create and deliver assessment items and gather evidence. The development of a team blog with learners to build community and share learning.

There is a pregnant pause now as the community that is this team coalesces around collaborating on the development of online training for a wide range of VET qualifications. The application of the skills of the team is impressive, but no less than the synergy created by this group of educators in getting their training online. They will use the models and systems they have developed – by Christmas all of their online training offerings will be born. We will be able proudly show our progeny at the end of year workshop!

The YWCA LearnScope team's work has generated interest in the rest of the organisation in new communication tools & strategies. Two programs delivering community education in multiple locations across the state have asked Learnscopers for help in setting up blogs or wikis to facilitate communication amongst their program participants, so we have invited them to share their explorations on thier own pages on our team's Learnscope

Listen to how Scott and Judith have worked together in getting their courses on-line, and then hear Sandra talk about how YacaPaca works as an online assessment tool!



Scott and Judith talk about putting courses online!

Sandra talks about YacaPaca