Inspired by Mike

Never was hosting a podcast so easy as using soundcloud.com I cannot wait until they come out with a RSS feature, for now it is perfect for me to make podcasts in audacity and edit them, then upload them right to soundcloud.  I am sure to exceed the free amount of space on my account in no time.  Thank you Mike, in honor of your share I made a quick and dirty podcast about the edmodoCon conference I attended this week. I did not bother to edit out my uuuummms and aaaahhhhhhsss because I was doing it on the fly for a last wildcard fun exercise. Normally I script out my podcasts, but this was just a quick reflection. EdmodoCon by MichelleWendt

Meeting our classmates

Last Wednesday was a fabulous evening.  I was able to meet Angela and Mike for the first time; I realize I have never been to actual class this semester.  The first time I met people in person was at the Graduate Orientation. I also had to chance to meet some new students who have not been in our classes so far.  I am glad I brought my laptop, we enrolled for classes right there at the table, even the newbies!  Mike and I got right to work on a project- we both learned new tools. We played with soundcloud. I like how social this podcasting application is- people can annotate your podcast in the timeline and the annotations play along in text format during the podcast.  Soundcloud reminds me of MTV's Pop-up video. The new Campus Center is beautiful, and I hope to be able to spend some time there eventually and reap the benefits of all that construction.

Wading through the debris

I always feel busy, so this is a fun picture that gives me
an attitude adjustment. I am very lucky to be so busy...

In the process of trying to get my life in order this weekend, I am supposed to be working on many projects at once.  How can order be achieved by chaos?  I do not know... and seriously hope someone steps in to help me make sense of it all.  As I sit here, trying to catch up on homework, work projects, and cleaning up the house/closets/drawers/fridge/laptops, I feel like a mountain is sitting on my head.  I am going to try to focus for at least the next ten minutes on my orientation reflection homework.  Since I am seriously disoriented working on everything I do NOT want to work on, I thought it was a fine match.

 Last week some of my teachers attended a three day institute on technology integration.  On the final day they had to plan a sustainability plan for technology use for the year. I had to talk one of them (let us call her Mary) off the ledge because she could not believe that she was going to use this document during the year. She was convinced that she would never open it again because that is not the way she works.  Mary's orientation to learning demanded that she have a real-life application for her time spent on this project. Since she did not participate in the the planning of this activity, she couldn't see the connection to her own classroom and would rather have spent her day on something that was important to her. Although Mary learned how to use google docs and wikis on this day- skills she can carry back with her, this teacher would have benefitted from being involved in planning the learning objectives and activities. The next day, as we worked at our school on projects we had all planned together- there were no ledges or cliffs. I could tell that every teacher appreciated being in charge of their own learning, and were more oriented to learning. I see this trend in adult learners and do not see it as much in the pedagogical model. I think younger learners may be more conditioned to work on projects they did not select than older students.

Add Facebook and Twitter to Google+

I found this very useful post today and installed the plugin, it works properly, I am pleased, so far.
You do want to read the whole post and take the three minute tutorial that they suggest.  It is worth
the time to work these social networking sites to your best advantage.

Here is the link to the extension.
http://www.vikitech.com/4817/add-facebook-twitter-to-google-plus

 I now need to find a plugin for edmodo and  linkedin. The one I found for linkedin says it has a verified author, but I still have the willies. Extended Share for Google Plus

Verified author: mohamedmansour.com

Free  

I now have the willies about all manner of plugins and extensions.  I have to go back and check them all out because google+ is still so new.

Unplugged

Me against an insane asylum background

Amazing that I am getting stressed out because my laptop battery is dying and I have to totally move to plug in somewhere. I do not want to interrupt the session.  That is what happens when you go to a training and want to use your own equipment.  Half the outlets in the room wouldn't work-had to run out to my car to get my trusty 50ft extension cord.  BTW this is a photo booth shot with an imported background. If I had a pop-up green screen- that I keep forgetting to ask Santa for- it would have looked better.

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