Mimobot – what drives your flash!

Posted on April 14, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

I’m currently on school holidays which means time to do fun things online as well as offline – in between ongoing commitments to school or my professional associations.

Watching twitter, I saw this post from Amy,
a librarian tweet friend, writing about funky Art Toy USB flash drives.

Mimobot Art – Leading the creative revolution in personal electronic accessories and functional designer toys, These toy USB Flash Drives are little friendly data fiends available in 512MB up to 4GB capacities, that hold all your essential data (tunes, pics, etc.). They come preloaded with removable bonus content like games, music, and animations!

Well off I went, and checked it out!

Yes, my fun holiday purchase coming right up! Couldn’t get the Star Wars ones that I wanted, so settled for Owlbert – ’cause, well, I am a librarian (as well as a teacher geek).

Check the video – very cute! Hope FedEx is fast 🙂

Jokaydia for teachers

Posted on April 1, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

I’m so lucky to know so many fabulous educators in Australia and around the world. Apart from the usual social networking connections, I also enjoy what I learn through my interactions with my colleagues in Second Life.

So I must promote the work of my most favourite Second Life educator, Jo Kay – and highly recommend a visit to her newly designed blog at Jokaydia.com.

Please drop by and read the blog, because there is a wealth of information there. Check out the latest projects too. Better still, come on over to Jokaydia, and visit ‘in world’ and make some new professional connections.

Thanks Jo!

Virtual tips and tricks

Posted on March 26, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

The enormously wonderful thing about social networking and passionate Teacher Librarians is the ease with which they can source just the right information for your daily needs.

OK, I’m smiling as I write this 🙂 But I do want to bring another blog to your RSS reader – especially if you are looking for quick hits of useful bits and pieces related to learning and literacy in schools.

Joan joined me at St Joseph’s College just a couple of weeks ago in the role of Teacher Librarian – and is already a hit with her wonderful enthusiasm and depth of knowledge. She keeps us all on our toes!

Joan adds value to her daily work by writing JDS Blog – A Blog for professional learnings “Teaching without learning is just talking”.

Drop by; say hello; and collect some great snippets of information.

Photo: what lies within?

Creative Commons

Posted on March 5, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

Thanks to Mark for this very nice presentation on Creative Commons. An excellent discussion starter with students and teachers alike!

Vegemite on toast

Posted on March 4, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

I learnt a few things today!

You can do stuff with vegemite and toast that I never dreamt of 🙂
If YouTube is blocked, you still might be able to check Youtube videos via another country. Here’s what I found at mx.youtube.com
Kids will always find a way around filters and blocks.

Mini-legends 08 – sweet stuff

Posted on February 20, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

You’ve got to love blogging and the Web 2.0 platform! Today I ‘met’ my mini-legend called Zelda. How did I do this?

Well, Al Upton is at it again – a new group of kids, a new set of wonderful learning experiences.

Al Upton and the miniLegends 08 are going to be interacting with the world through a unique mentoring program.

Al says:

If you’re an educational blogger of any kind (or visitor) and would like to ‘mentor a mini’ then please leave a comment on THIS page saying who you would like to be connected with. The idea is to drop into their blogs from time to time throughout the year and leave a positive comment .

Very simple … why not join in this educational adventure with the miniLegends of 08? They are after mentors for all students from as many different countries as possible. They are adding additional mentors, so there is still time for you to share a miniLegend with an international friend.

Photo: Sweet Stuff

Welcome to St Josephs College

Posted on January 29, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

2008 heralds new directions for me – and I have had a wonderful start at St Joseph’s College, Hunters Hill here in Sydney.

Joey’s is a wonderful school with an imporant history amongst our Sydney schools, and is exemplified by a strong academic and sporting tradition. A ‘joeys boy’ remains a ‘joeys boy’ for life, due partly to the boarding school environment and partly to the Marist community of learners.

A recent twitter question asked me “what is Marist?”

As a Marist School, St Joseph’s College derives its charism from the founder of the Marist Brothers, Saint Marcellin Champagnat (1789 – 1840). A priest of the Society of Mary, St Marcellin was a man of warm personality, deep faith and great vision. The Christian education of youth, particularly those of rural areas, was his first love, following the terrible religious persecutions of the French Revolution. That is why he founded the Marist Brothers in 1817 at La Valla, a little village in the Loire region of France. Marcellin’s pastoral approach to students epitomises the daily work at the college and drives the values of this community of learners

“WE MUST LOVE THEM AND LOVE THEM ALL EQUALLY.”

Like many schools, St Joseph’s College is also undergoing a transformation in e-learning.

As Head Library & Information Services I’m looking after the Resources Centre and its team, where we will focus on literature, literacy, research and a strong integration of e-learning initiatives. We are going to undergo something of a transformation starting this year and into the future – and this journey of change will become part of my blogging narrative. There may be something in our journey that inspires your own adjustments to the exciting demands of 21st century learning.

Hear are some images of the outside entrance area of the Resource Centre.

Some day the inside will look equally magical!

Walkway to the Brother Ligouri Resource Centre

Standing at the front foyer, looking out to the school

Looking at the same view on the left as you approach the Centre

…..And the view from the right as you approach the Centre

And now ….. a Webtrend map for 2008

Posted on January 27, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

Here’s an interesting find from the Information Architects Japan. This is sort of appropriate given the release of The Horizon Report – a fun way to map trends for 2008!

This time we’ve taken almost 300 of the most influential and successful websites and pinned them down to the greater Tokyo-area train map.

Enjoy the clickable online version. You’ll notice that it incorporates people, tools, and a variety of media services. Unfortunately there are lots missing – as spotted by Gary Barber on Twitter, who mentioned Seesmic as an example. Fun anyway.

The map is available two formats – ready for you to use.

1. Big, A3 PDF
2. Clickable online version

Will Richardson and the Why 2 of Web 2.0

Posted on January 26, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

You’ll excuse me if I get excited by the news that Will Richardson is going to be here in Australia later this year to share his professional wisdom with us all.

Thanks to Sybasigns, who run some excellent professional learning seminars for us here in Australia, Will will be presenting two seminars: Brisbane 7th May and Sydney 9th May.

For more information and to register visit The Why 2 of Web 2.0: How it transforms everything!

Join their online seminar Ning The Why 2 of Web 2.0!

If you like, grab a copy of the 4 page flyer The Why 2 of Web 2.0 right here!

Oh, and I am thrilled to be sharing both events with Will, by participating in the seminar along with my friend and colleague Westley Field from MLC school in Sydney. I’m also really looking forward to meeting and listening to Christine MacKenzie from Yarra Plenty Regional Library in Melbourne.

If you’re a blogger – you’ve got to come along to a seminar! One spare bed at my place for a Sydney visitor 🙂

Playing with text widgets in wordpress

Posted on January 26, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

Sue Waters has been having fun getting ideas on widgets and helping bloggers using edublogs via the new blog The Edublogger.

I have used WordPress.com as my preferred blogging platform, though I also use blogger from time to time. But for classroom use, I have always preferred to use edublogs.org (another wordpress system), because of its various options for use at schools for students, teachers, or for whole campus.

I’ve provided all sorts of support to people with blogging over the last two years, and so have learnt a few tips and tricks along the way.

Sue has asked us to share these with the edublogs community, via our own blogs. So here is one that I used for my super(woman) friend Danni Miller at her blog The Butterfly Effect – an inspiration to girls and women here in Australia. Danni’s blog was nominated for Best New Blog in 2007. I’ve been honoured to provide consultant support to this fabulous dynamo and advocate for girls and women!

Danni particularly wanted to be able to promote her various ideas and resources to her readers. Of course Vodpod took care of her video recommendations. Library Thing was the ideal choice for her book recommendations.

Here’s the code that I used to display a random selection of books from her Library Thing Book Collection as it appears on her blog The Butterfly Effect. This is placed into a text box in your widget tools and can be used in WordPress or Edublogs. I have substituted words in square brackets to indicate where you will need to insert your own links or LibraryThing profile name.

Clicking on either the image or the random selection of books being displayed will take your readers directly to your Library Thing account.

Enjoy!

Oh, and if you need consultant support in your organisation or school for introducing, establishing or using blogging I just might be able to help you out too! 🙂