Finished the course

Actually, I haven't quite finished the course as I ran out of time but I think I will keep playing with some of the things that were available to us, so I will try to keep this blog going for a while. No-one seems to be looking at it, so I'll treat it as my playground for learning.
There is just so much to look at and so many topics that can distract us that I have been a bit slow at getting anywhere with the final modules.

Google Map

I can see that you could spend hours looking at the maps, not sure how often I would like to use it. I also found my place from Street View and am a but freaked out that a van went past our place taking pictures. I wonder if there is much privacy left in the world. You can see our rubbish bins, where we keep them in our yard, from Google maps. I don't think I will have much use for this site apart from the occasional interest to see where some of my friends live.

Looking at iGoogle

Finally I understand why so many other of the participants have talked about working for Google! I have not made any changes to my Google page but it is interesting to see what is possible. I don't usually go to many of the options that are available but I may take the time, later, to put in some gadgets I think will be useful.
There is a whole different world out there and I am not sure I need to be in all of it, but it is interesting to see what some people are doing.

Trying to make my own podcast

Actually, I have made a podcast, about Darebin Parklands, but I have had trouble putting it up on the blog, so here is another attempt.

It is strange to hear my own voice and I notice that it is artificially slow. I would need to practise if I wanted to do more podcasts. But this one was only to see if I could do it, so it doesn't matter.

Found some podcasts with pictures!

As I was looking around I remembered visiting Apollo Parkways Primary School many years ago as part of a professional development day and so I visited the site and found this one. It has pictures with the sound, much more interesting.

Still looking at podcasts

I am still looking around at podcasts. I went to the tutorial on how to podcast and am convinced now that I do not want to make one. I don't have a topic of interest. But I did listen to a few. As I come from an educational background, I can see that you could make purposeful podcasts as part of your curriculum. There is an example here from Brunswick East Primary School, where the grade 3&4 children were working with a grade 3&4 group in the United States of America.
I also listened to a podcast about education ABC. However, I found that I am not used to just listening, I like to have pictures to go with my audio, and I found it hard to stay focused. I have heard that podcasts can also have pictures with them but have not come across any yet (not that I've looked very hard).