Reconnecting to my blog on Web 2.0

I have been very busy and away from my blog. I am back now and hope to be able to continue adding some new and useful online tools for you to use.

Animoto as an Introduction to Digital Storytelling

Animoto is another Web 2.0 tool available online that will allow you to create mutlimedia clips integrating pictures, text, music and sound. It is very easy and fun. I invite you to try it. :)

Ning is awesome!

Social networking is not new. Many persons are participating of popular social networking sites such as My Space and FaceBook. So what is the big deal about Ning? It allows you to create your own personal social network site where you decide who is allowed to join thus creating a safe environment for collaboration. This will be of special interest to educators since Ning allows for students to be able to virtually network with their peers in a hazard free site. I found that creating my page was very easy and fun. Students will enjoy having this private space on-line to interact with their teachers and classmates. I invite you to check out Ning and create your own network. Then come back and leave me a comment about your experience. http://www.ning.com

This is the new me!

Social Bookmarking is cool!

Web 2.0 online, tools allow us to connect, share and collaborate from anywhere and at anytime. Social bookmarking is one of these tools. It allows users to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web pages on the Internet. After you have created a social bookmarking account you can share your finds on the web with others. I recommend you try creating a bookmarking site on http://www.delicious.com/ . I have created one on the topic Web 2.0 using delicious. You can find what I have posted under arli2u. I also plan to use this tool with my students. I will keep you posted on how that goes. See you online.:)

New WEB 2.0 Tools

I have been busy " playing" with some new Web 2.0 tools. I am now tweeting on www.twitter.com and yamming on www.yammer.com. Both these tools are microblogging tools that allow people to be connected and sharing what they are doing at anytime during the day. I was able to find people on twitter that I had not seen in a long time. I have been able to keep connected to my course mates through Yammer and they have shared ideas and links. Both tools are a great way of keeping in touch with others without having to write an email or doing any type of extensive writing. Yammer additionally allows you to exchange files with other. If you are short on time yet you want to keep in touch with friends and colleagues I suggest you start yamming or twittering as soon as possible! See you online. :)

Finally got the podcast to work!

I am sitting in my office and it is 12:23. I am trying to post a podcast on this blog and I finally got it! How did I do it? Well, I recorded my introduction using the voice recorder on my computer. I downloadeded a audio file converter and converted the file into mp3 format. I then opened an account with podbean, a free podcast host site. I uploaded my mp3 file, and got the embedding code. I used the embedding code to embed the podcast on my blog. Bingo! I got it to work. It sounds like a lot of scrambling but it is really simple. Try it, you'll like it. :)
Teaching implications: I can post oral comments on my blog that my followers can listen to and react to. It can be kind of a weekly talk show where I share ideas on what else can be done with all these Web 2.0 tools. Hope you keep track with all my blogperiments (blog+experiments).

Adding a video clip to a blog.

I started thinking of all the things can be added to the blog and thought that I should first add a video clip to show how to add a video clip to a blog. So here it goes, enjoy. :)

Introductory Podcast 1

This podcast is an oral introduction to my blog. If I have finally figured out how to post these other podcasts will follow. Stay tune. :)

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Beginning of my connecting to Web 2.0 journey!

Web 2.0 is allowing people to create and manipulate collaborative tools online. A blog is one of these tools. Now everyday common people can keep an online web log, blog, on any interest or thoughts they want to share. The collaborative part comes in where others read the blog entries and leave their comments. Thus, the blog keeps expanding and archiving the entries for others to read whenever they wish.
Blogging allows anyone to become a writer and publish their works. Teachers can share their teaching ideas and best practices. Students can keep journals and reflect on their learning experiences. This empowers students as they see their thoughts online for others to read and comment on. It shows them that their thoughts are valuable too.
I used blogger.com to create this blog. It is very user friendly and allows you to put up a blog quickly.
I urge anyone curious to set up their own blog and post the link in comments. Happy blogging!