Sharing the Addiction

The Power of Technology

This post is not really to do with education but I wanted to share with you the power that technology can have once you are using it personally. I am a Facebook user and love the way that it keeps me in touch with friends and people I had lost touch with until I got in contact with them again through Facebook. The power of this social network became apparent to me when one of my best friend’s father was killed in a car accident last week. New Zealanders may have seen this on the news - his name was Graham Condon and he was a councillor in Christchurch and a paraplegic and was killed when riding on his modified bike when a 15 year old girl crossed the centre line. I had often called Graham my ’second dad’ and he hosted my hen’s party earlier this year so I was pretty upset and went down for four days to be part of the funeral.

Before I headed down, I felt that I wanted to do something for Graham and this is where technology became a way of expressing how I felt. I set up a group on Facebook called Tributes to Graham and then went through all of the news articles about Graham and made a video about him celebrating his life’s achievements. People started joining the group and started writing stories about Graham. My friend Craig started reading these and was really touched and a little comforted at how many people wanted to let him know that his dad was important to them. He also really appreciated the video. I was able to post of photos from the day of the funeral so that people on the other side of the world who would have wanted to be there were able to share in the day. Facebook really showed me the power of these types of networks during this time.

I think that social networks have a long future ahead of them! What are your thoughts about social networks?

Meeting Reflections

I have just been to Hastings this week for a two day meeting with other key staff in clusters. I enjoy these meetings as it is a great time to be around like minded people with a real passion for the use of ICT in education. There is so much expertise in the room at these meetings and it is wonderful to be able to swap ideas and information.

For instance, Sara is a facilitator for another cluster and she gave me a handy tip about a piece of software called Umajin that is great for layering images and video (some with the use of blue screening). This is so easy to use and much more affordable than Photoshop and easier than GIMP. They offer discounts for bulk buying and that includes buying through clusters of schools.

Tessa highlighted her great collection of resources on her area in Centre 4 - the managing change section is excellent.

Other than that, I have found a few new things on my own. I have now managed to sign up for Imbee (a safe social network for teachers, parents and children) as they now support New Zealand. I think it looks like a very interesting platform and may use some people in my cluster as ‘children’ guinea pigs (or anyone else that indicates being interested). It would be great if I could get a test group of children involved in a project around this tool. Watch this space…
I am also enjoying looking through the blog and wiki of Wes Fryer. He has a lot of interesting things to say and has fantastic collections of resources including a page on Digital Storytelling.

I also like the layout of Soople which shows you all of the advanced Google search options in a really user friendly format.

Well, that’s about enough from me for the moment To bed!