Finito!

Well, I finished! Or have I only just begun?
It has been great to be able to work at our own pace. For a few weeks, I thought I'd never get time to complete the course, but I'm there now.
The course has opened my eyes to different possibilities for my day to day teaching and certainly the need to keep up with emerging technologies. I don't want to just keep up, but make sure I'm using the tools that are relevant to the students I'm teaching; hopefully engaging them in their learning and creating curious learners.

#22 Audiobooks and #23 Downloadable Media

Audiobooks, e-books, eReaders...we have come a long way with technology. Say goodbye to Borders and whatever other book stores are trying to survive. Digital books have arrived!
Well, not entirely.
Audiobooks will become more and more common across society and over the next five years we will see a massive influx of digital content from novels to recipe books, all in digital format.
Student textbooks and novels are the main items i'd like to see in digital format for use on an ipad or other device.
The ESL or curriculum support teams at school will benefit greatly from audiobooks and i can see them being widely accepted over paper versions. Anything that students can listen to on their ipod's or phones will be more attractive than reading a novel.
As for where to get audiobooks, I especially love the fact that Project Gutenburg is absolutely free.
Copyright is a major hurdle to overcome, but with digital rights management software, I'm sure audiobooks will offer some copyright protection system.

#21 YouTube and TeacherTube

It's a sad day when you show this clip to a class and a student asks 'what's the problem' with this maths.
Abbot and Costello Maths Problem

It's sadder when the same student can't find the left-handed screwdriver or the can of striped paint...but that's another funny story altogether.



YouTube is blocked for student use at school, but it is open for teacher use. I find clips are quite handy for prompting discussion on various topics, but sometimes it's hard to find the most appropriate clip.
TeacherTube refines the search even further and also searches files, docs and photos if you want education based content.

#20 Podcasts

What do you think about podcasts?
Podcasts are GREAT!!!
Do you already or think you will now use them?
I first started listening to Hamish and Andy podcasts each week. I could listen to them on the way to work or on the weekend and feel like I had not missed a show. That said, I now only use podcasts occasionally, but when I find one I like, then it's worth it's weight in Gold, particularly if it is useful in class. From 'Greatest speaches in History' to the 'NASAcast video', as long as it is applicable to class then it can be useful, especially for students to listen to outside of class time.
Can you see uses for podcasts educationally? Yes!
Science- Biology http://douchbiocast.blogspot.com/
ICT in My Classroom http://tbarrett.edublogs.org/

#19 Rollyo

While I'm happy to trial Rollyo in class, and it may help narrow the search window for students, the only issues I have are the need to regularly update the 'searchroll' trusted links as topics or technology changes and the fact it doesn't work well in ie9. Even the Rollyo site itself doesn't open correctly all the time. Oh well! As I use it more it will probably grow on me. Maybe i'll become a High roller one day!

#18 Wikis

Wiki's - the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

Wikis are great for sharing info and collaborating on tasks, but most need to be private to avoid 'others' possibly changing the content. They can be great for planning camps, events and group activities where team members find it's not always possible to meet on a regular occasion. Wiki's allow students and teachers alike to collaborate on tasks and while there are some inaccurate pages, 'most' content can be relied on to be accurate. As a rule, it 's always worth cross referencing information to check accuracy.

#17 Delicious

Well I can't say I am too eager to use this site, Yet! Too many usernames and passwords to remember, plus bookmarks can't be that important or can they? Anyway, I have exported some of my favourites and uploaded into the Delicious account, but I can't see it saving me time or being very useful when I already have my favourites on my laptop. The import/export feature built in to the browser already allows for bookmarks to be shared on multiple PC's.
Maybe Delicious would be good for research tasks or finding the bookmark you use 'once in a blue moon'. Of course the more people tag the more it may be useful in class to students as they could find popular themed sites more readily. That said, the reliability of tags is always going to be an issue as you can tag anything with anything. I guess I'll wait and see just how user friendly it is. Happy Tagging!