Yugma Session

Two nights ago I had a Yugma session with Glen. Thanks! It was long but excellent in the sense that it allowed me to set up my tool bar to include the del.icio.us bookmarks and tags.  This, for me, was the missing link.  At least for this application.  The  interaction also allowed me an insight to an ongoing weakness in my ICT approach.  That is the understanding and use of proper terminology.  As much as I consider myself a wordsmith; I am not in this language.  That is where a glossary page comes in.  I haven’t, as I write this, set one up; but I will.  Not knowing the terminology can cripple communication.  I think that a topic of differentiation and ICT may be the paper topic for me.

Yugma

Well, the good news is that Yugma is not an enigma for me … get it, Yugma … enigma (humour me, it’s rare that I get any of this right off the hop … ) Now I need to seek out a coach or coaches.   I’m looking forward to doing a little problem solving.  I guess that, that is one of the skills that we try to encourage in our students.  For now; I am trying to encourage it in myself.

Skype

Well, I’m temporarily discouraged. Here I was already, I thought, to participate in today’s Skypecast. Nope.  I did, initially, get on, but it wasn’t with Glen and the class.  Instead, another student and I were on a Skypecast held by a third student; for a brief time.  Yikes!  After that it was all downhill for aperuse2 until the conference was really and truly over.  It’s at that time that the adage that “but for a ______ the _____ was lost” (I can remember the meaning but not what filled the blanks) came into play.  I was able to get past the invalid number notice to get to the message that no one was in the conference at that time.  I’m thinking, now, that going back into my gmail and discovering a + at the beginning of the number had something to do with my failure to succeed on the first tries.  (I never did have any reference to conference room # show up on my screen). Now, under other circumstances, I could find this amusing.  The other circumstances would have not to include me in the scenario. During the course of the conference I did try to contact a few others but they were busy.  O.K. After the conference I called a Skype contact who advised me that the conference was moved out of Skypecast that allows a max. of 9 participants … and so it goes.  Anyway,  the feeling of screwing up lingers.  I understand that there has been a certain amount of discussion on final paper having taken place.  I also understand that there may be another Skypcast (or equivalent) held in the near future.  I hope to try, try again … and have some success.  We’ll see.  Bye for now.

Done … one

O.K. So I am a believer. I have been able to set up a Del.icio.us account and a widget. It’s little things that through me in setting up these tools/resources … many, many little things! Ah well, enough … now for the tag(s) …

G-mail, Del.icio.us, etc.

I’ve been working off and on for the past two hours and had a brief, albeit delayed, ah hah! moment with my g-mail account which led to a review of messages and deletions where necessary.  I don’t know about anyone else out there, but I have a need to clear away.  Then I start to move forward. Anyway, bloglines … I get it … I’ve got some.  However, can anyone tell me why I would have a del.icio.us indicator in my g-mail that shows a ‘no reply’. I was quite certain that I set this up but upon trying to log in I am asked if I remember my password.  I thought that I did.  I tried altered versions. No go. Then, I decided that, maybe, I wasn’t registered.  Hmmm.  So, I attempted to register.  That’s when I was told that the user name was already in use.  That’s what I thought … by me … but … I’m not making any headway here.  Suggestions?

Thanks!

Thanks to all (6) of you that responded to my Skype contact plight. I can’t read my own writing? Anyway, it has gone up in the world and is at the top of my side bar now if anyone is interested.

Skype contact

I have been unable to add my Skype contact through the widgets under presentation.  Text 1 looks as if it appears in my sidebar but does not actually appear with view site! Hmm … if you know how to solve my dilemma without my changing the presentation; please share.  Short of that my Skype contact is aperuse2 and you are welcome to use it.

Hole in the Wall

I found that the video, Hole in the Wall, made me think of Maria Montessori and her work with impoverished children in Rome. Montessori believed that these children had a lot of experience socializing within their family units and within the slum community but lacked individual time and space to learn. In her teaching she created the time, space and tactile resources of beautiful materials (brass, wood etc.,) for her students to learn independently. I wonder if one of the Hole in the Wall’s biggest draws for its young students was their ability to figuratively step out of the busy slum community and into a relatively quieter, focused learning environment where independent experimentation and play were possible. They could, then, take their new knowledge back into the community to share, extend and consolidate. It does not surprise me that the children were able to learn independent of an instructor when they were given access to the technology. That they would be able to build on the community knowledge is, in my opinion, a given because they would share much of the same socializing and world view experiences. I am not certain where this leaves us as educators or in this ICT course. I think that we need to know the community of learners that we’re teaching and tailor the curriculum. Where in technology could the slum children not scaffold each other or be scaffolded from? Cell phones? What are the commonalities amongst the participants in this course? That we are all educators and … ? My experience with the Montessori approach is that it somehow became for the privileged … the opposite of what it was intended. It will be interesting to see what develops with Sugata Mitra’s study.

So it’s late

So it’s late and I feel as if I’ve accomplished some … if not all … that I’d hoped to.

I was successful at setting up my camera, mike and headset. Yeah! I’ll test them with an interaction tomorrow. Also, I was successful at reading all of the individual blogs that I have commented on thus far. Good. Just as with the children in my most recent classroom … if they can make the effort to write it then I can make the effort to read it and comment on it. It’s a relatively pedestrian approach but … okay. The blogs have been very informative.

Stymied at Skype

I’m stopped at Skype in my ‘catching up’ on the course blogroll resources. I installed Skype on my e-mail address as opposed to my g-mail address. The instructor says that g-mail is e-mail. Electronic mail. Okay. It is simple things like that, that throw me. I wonder how the students perceive instructions? Do they, for the most part, take things literally like I do?

Another thing that I find I am challenged with is the simple movement from course blog presentation to course blog comments to my blog comments to g-mail ? to … Why does it seem so confusing?

I’ve commented on Web Tools in Plain English, Your Blog Your Personal Learning Environment, and Anonymizing and Web Proofing all in the comments section of the course blog but have failed to do so on my own until now. It seems to me that there is a double entry going on so that finally I am not certain whether I should be responding to one, the other, or both. Hmmm. Anyway, having the blogs of my coursemates to begin to refer to is providing some guidance.