The excitement of being involved in the PLP project was enormous for me at the start of the year. I had been blogging and connecting with other educators for 18 months and had established the OZ/NZ Educators network. The online meetings and the Bloggers Feasts were all part of developing a community of like minded educators who could talk freely about their exploration of Web 2.0. The opportunity to give a formal title to what I was doing and to allow some fellow staff who were starting to share the interest the chance to learn and develop a PLN was fantastic and so we started off with a team of five. The first session was like oxygen for me but for others it was confusing and perhaps overwhelming. Within a week one overcommitted staff member had basically backed out and another was in danger of losing her contract position and so had to withdraw from the group and concentrate on her core teaching. So five had become three and our third member was only able to be involved at a minimal level due to a number of family issues. The remaining two came from one faculty area was good because we had a similar focus , but it was also a problem as we didn't have the spread we had in the original group. Issue one- make sure the group is broadly based and fully committed to ensure a more successful result across the whole range of subject areas.Try and have at least five people in the team who want to be challenging themselves and who can speak to a number of faculties. Pam and I blogged, discussed and planned a number of projects together and tried to include other staff in our activities with varying degrees of success. Marie-Josee started blogging in her classes and really moved into web 2.0 with enormous enthusiasm. We created wikis for our Year 11 classes on a number of texts, we used Inspiration for mind mapping and started discussion forums for our students. As the year began we were in the middle of a $4 million refurbishment of the school which caused major disruption

Following a post by Adam Brice at Skoolz Out I took a second look at Simply box . In the constant onslaught of new apps and variations of new apps - it is easy to say this is too hard I will stick to what I am doing, but after watching the video and reading the post i am going to give this a try with my Year 8 class that is studying the topic of Refugees. Simply Box seems to have so many ways to teach social book marking in such an accessible way. Sure I still love delicious and Diigo, but this has more power in terms of selective capture and the use of visual prompts rather than just text. I am sure the kids will love it. Adam has also written about Shelfari and I am going to get my students to construct a Shelfari of their fave books on their blogs for all of us to read what they like. Thanks Adam for your timely posts. I have seen these tools before many times but your posts have made me rethink my attitude to these and I am looking forward to trying them out. If you go to Adam's blog make sure you check out his new book all about Digital storytelling and the work he has done with primary school students on film making- it is absolutely fabulous!!

One year one from my ACCE tour to NECC and I stop to look at how my world has changed. I spend so much more of my life online but I am also feeling more connected to people in a broader sense. Fellow bloggers are at NECC in Washington or watching from afar like me. I am trying to stay awake at night to catch sessions online and I am missing the social magic that came from meeting people whose work I so admire face to face. It only lasted four days but I still think about it all so much.Other bloggers are travelling the world and I keep connected by their blogs and tweets. At the moment I am dithering around being a presenter- still so terrified of the gaps in my knowledge, but wanting to move on to the next level. I have just picked up the green chromakey and a stand from the post ofice and have organised lights and a spare computer so we can have the TV station actually working in the Year 8 centre. I applied for a secondment position as an Innovator Trainer at the Ed Dept two weeks ago and actually got an interview, but not the job. I applied for another emerging Tech grant for using Ipod Touches in class and didn't get that either, but that is ok cos we did get one last year. I am still working on how to complete our PLP project with only three of us to work on it- this one is tricky but I will keep at it. I have requested being released from a two period class so as to do some regular coaching in others classes. I am trying- I am seeing ways into moving things forward and I am wishing I was over there for another drink of the Cool- Aid!! The plan for the Year 8 Centre is to run the Murder Mystery unit as a cross curricular one in english, sose , maths and science. I will use the resources we have built up plus the ideas from the Sleuth English festival I ran as part of what happens. Incursions, dress up days and across the centre displays will be all part of what we do. Maybe a Detective TV edition? This is a catch up ramble here and my thoughts are racing ac

Web 2.0 Tools to InspireView more Microsoft Word documents from tippydawn.

Web 2.0 Tools to InspireView more Microsoft Word documents from tippydawn.

Visual Definitions of Web 2.0View more OpenOffice presentations from edvibesproducer.

How Our Kids Are Using the Internet in 2009View more presentations from bermandry.

Jane Hart has created her newest collection of tools for 20th century teachers . Which tools do you use? Thanks jane for all your great work . The twitter list is still growing and full of lots of interesting tweeties. 25 Tools: A Toolbox for Learning Professionals 2009View more presentations from Jane Hart.

Creative Commons: What every Educator needs to knowView more presentations from Rodd Lucier.

The next thing I need to get serious about is podcasting so here is the commoncraft vi by Leeleefever for me to use to explain to others. This isanother video about using audacity and podomatic by Shaun Wheeler . So now I have no excuse- I need to learn how to do this. I am going to add one more video- please bear in mind this is for personal stuff.

Change happens one person at a time . How can I use this to challenge my students this year?

Check out this SlideShare Presentation: Power Up Your Professional Learning NetworkView SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: education technology)

History of the Internet from PICOL on Vimeo.

Judy o'Connell blogged about this video so i just want to keep it as a discussion starter for next year.

Thanks to Ali Hall who had noted this video by John Travers about the notation of students work using a bookmarking service such as Diigo.I love Diigo as it combines the best of many other tools on one site but I am not so sure about the kind of use John is describing is one I would rush into with high school students, probably more with tertiary ones. To me the business of commenting on blogs is still hard- I am forever wishing I was better at commenting and being able to write reflective and useful points, but my brain struggles to think of anything apart from the mundane in response to blogs and I feel I let the kids down in this area. This video seems however to make the commenting process even more separated from the personal relationship which the classroom provides. Blogging is a step away from the personal, but also opens up the process to peers in the class and others outside. This idea as shown in the video to me seems something maybe appropriate for senior classes or tertiary work. What do you think?