Exciting news! My buddy Simon and I have both had our presentations accepted for the Learning@School07 Conference, to be held in Rotorua, New Zealand, 20-23 February. Many thanks must go to Gary & Jenny of Sitech for believing in us and encouraging us to put forward our applications to present at this conference.

Our presentations will be on Skype Talk and Write and Cross Curricula Learning with the Digital Weather Station.
We have set up wikis for both of these so that you can either follow along as we build for the conference or offer some suggestions that you have found work for you or if you’re going to the conference you won’t have to worry about taking notes if you’re attending one of our presentations.

Me thinks Simon and I are going to be rather busy over the next few weeks!

A few posts ago I shared my 6 Web2.0 resolutions for 2007.   It’s time for an update on what’s happened so far ……………..

1. Maintain a class wiki  It’s up and running - take a look!  
   
2. Explore Google Earth   I did find an informative article to help me with this resolution – you might find it useful too.  Since there’s a bit going on now we might not use this till Term 2
3. Join a collaborative project    Thank you OP4T (and Jennifer Wagner) for putting me in such a fabulous group of teachers.  We’re going to be using wikis and videos.  Now all I need is for the School Year to start!  (1½ weeks to go!)
   
4. Have a go at podcasting  This has it’s own post!
   
5. Skype with a class in another country 
   
6. Use flickr for a class assignment
   

And I was right – tomorrow was so much better.  After a little bit of thought I decided to try to download another version of LAME mp3 encoder after I found this very helpful website …….. 

how to set up a podcast   which led me to this even more helpful wikispace ……….

Lame Installation - Audacity Wiki   which led me back to the LAME mirror site but this time I chose the lame-3.96.1 – www.overnet.org version

Looking, looking, looking … Yipee there was the magic, long awaited file I was looking for!  Back to my audacity project to try exporting to mp3 again, and, as they say, the rest is history!

Is podcasting easy?  Yes!  Just make sure if you’re using audacity, you have downloaded that magic little file called lame_enc.dll  and your speakers are on!

Is uploading your finished podcast to edublogs easy?  Yes! and it looks good there too! 

So what are you waiting for?

Two down, four to go!

Having a go at podcasting.  Right.  Well everything I’d read so far suggested that it was a relatively simple thing to do.  Ok.  I’ll give it a go especially since it was No. 4 on my Web2.0 Resolutions for 2007.  How hard can it be?  What a hoot!  I was particularly tempted to do this resolution by the Technospud Newsletter for January 2007.  Jen Wagner’s Technology Tip was “Creating a Podcast without the Pod Part 1″.  The instructions looked really easy …….. and ……… they were! (Brilliant Jen!) 

Recording the podcast using audacity (which I already had been using last year) was an absolute breeze.  I only made one mistake so it only took 2 takes and it’s called First Ever Podcast .  I just had to figure out how to put it on this blog – didn’t think of that did I? But as usual the help section (Edublogs forum, in this case) came to the rescue with these very simple instructions!
Next step involved saving the recording to a file that could be uploaded to my blog and that’s where the fun began!  Now this bit’s quite long so if you don’t want to read it I have recorded this and it’s called …… very original ……. Second Ever Podcast  sorry having technical problems with this one!  (It helps if you turn on your speakers) Second Ever Podcast
Audacity gives you several options:- wav, mp3 or ogg vorbis (didn’t know what that was?!?), so I figured that with my little knowledge of how things work, that the mp3 file would be the most suitable.  Right!  Click file, export to mp3 – easy.  NAH!  An error message!  

“Audacity does not export mp3 files directly, but instead uses the freely available LAME library to handle mp3 file encoding.  You must obtain lame_enc.dll separately by downloading the LAME mp3 encoder, and then locate this file for Audacity.  You only need to do this once.  Would you like to locate lame_enc.dll now?”

Yes, I would.  Another error message!

“Could not open mp3 encoding library.”

Ok.  It’s not that bad.  I’ll just use the help files in audacity.  (Always use the help files … they are surprisingly helpful! Usually!).  By this time it’s a bit late, 11.30pm but as I’m a night owl and I am on holiday still, it’s ok.  So….. help files …… very helpful …… the links for the mp3 encoders are on the Audacity webpage.  No problem!  Took a bit of detective work to find what I was looking for ….. scroll to optional downloads, click on Lame mp3 encoder, click on the operating system you have (in my case, Windows).  Not hard so far.  Click on the latest LAME version 3.97.tar.gz.  Save it, unzip it (have to use classic interface & not wizard in WinZip). Searching, searching, looking, looking,  No lame_enc.dll !!  Oh *%$#!  What did I do wrong?  Quick flick back to the help files …. you dufuss …. wrong version!  It needs to be 3.96.1  Ok.  I can cope with that.  Delete files downloaded and start again this time from here.  Perhaps while I’m here I better download the latest version of audacity while I’m here.  Didn’t take long but time was certainly ticking along quite fast.  12.30am – that’s ok – I won’t be long.  (Famous last words!) Right, right version this time!  Toilet stop while it’s downloading, check the kids, turn off the hall light, make a coffee - …… always multi-tasking!  Unzip archive, looking, looking, searching, searching, No lame_enc.dll !!  Oh *%$#!  What did I do wrong this time??  Re-read the instructions again.  By this time, I’m really tired, and a weeeeee bit frustrated.  Only one thing to do.  Bed! I’m sure it will be so obvious ….. tomorrow! 

A few posts ago I shared my 6 Web2.0 resolutions for 2007.   Here’s an update on what’s happened so far ……………..

1. Maintain a class wiki  It’s made and waiting for students to start our school year! Never thought I’d be thinking “I wish the holidays were over ………”
   
2. Explore Google Earth
   
3. Join a collaborative project   
   
4. Have a go at podcasting  Now this was hilarious and a real learning curve for me!  Fun though and it so totally deserves it’s own post! so that I can tell you all about it.  Coming soon – I promise along with the podcast itself!  Now posted!
   
5. Skype with a class in another country 
   
6. Use flickr for a class assignment
   

I’ve just had an amazing session in the Tuesday Chat of WOW2 (Women of Web 2.0) over at EdTechTalk with WorldBridges  So many things were achieved today for the first time and it was so easy too! (Just a few hiccups on my part!)

Today I’ve managed  log in to a chatroom and chat, (actually got the timezone right this time!) and stream audio to hear the podcast (although for the first 20 mins I was happily listening to music in itunes!  For some reason itunes wouldn’t let me hear the podcast but a quick click on trusty Media Player soon had me hearing my inspirational angels (aka: CoolCatTeacher, Cheryl Oakes, Sharon Peters and Jennifer Wagner) interviewing today’s guest.  Unfortunately I missed the conversation with Terry Freedman. 

Next I had a go at asking to join the K12 wiki Social Networking Acceptable Use Policy Project – whilst still reading the chat & listening to the podcast as well as opening another window to see the links from the Tuesday Chat going up on the Women of Webchats wiki! 

Today’s guest was Kathy Shields.  What an amazing lady!  This teacher podcasts with Kindergartners!  (That’s New Entrants to my fellow NZers)  Kathy uses audacity, photostory3, uses video and blogs with her kindergartners.  YES that’s right – 5-6year olds blogging!  How cool is that?  You can download the podcast of this interview.  Kathy discusses issues such as parental permission, organisational issues – must be organised and sequencial! – and keyboarding. 

All too soon the hour was up and so too was the 30minutes or so postchat and nearly everyone was saying goodnight – which was kinda weird as I was saying goodbye from tomorrow and going off to find something in the freezer to thaw out for tea!  One thing I will certainly be checking out some more (as I don’t know much about it) is Podomatic.
My verdict on Tuesday Chat?  Mark it on your calendar!  Now!  I can see many ideas sprouting from just listening to this valuable happening on the web! Awesome!
Every Tuesday – 9pm EST, 6pmPST, or Wedneday 3pm New Zealand time (goodie…. I can tune in after school finishes for the day!)

I’m smiling, I’m smiling!  I was just reading the blogs I subscribe to when my heart skipped a beat!  There was my name!  Well my blog’s name anyway!  I’d made a comment on the Days in Sentences blog set up by the reflective teacher (Nobody knows).  I really enjoy reading this blog as it makes me laugh and usually puts everything into perspective for me!  I finally plucked up enough courage to make a comment the other day.  Here it is.

Thank you reflective teacher, you’ve made my day, week,  year!
It’s so humbling (& exciting) to know that someone else has made a comment about your blog on their blog!

I have been tagged by one of my new online collaborative project partners Ms Cofino so now I must think up 5 interesting things you may not know about me from reading this blog! 

 So here goes ……………………

1.   I collect Seahorses.  Yes that’s right, seahorses.  I have an entire wall in my living room dedicated to various seahorses hangings!  I’m very lucky to not have any double ups and have everything from tapa cloth, swizzle sticks, shot glasses, plates, teatowels, mugs, pegs,  paintings etc with a seahorse on it!  My students have even clicked onto giving me seahorse chocolates (not so go for the waistline but excellent kind thoughts).  Last year a wonderful student managed to find me a bulldog clip with a seahorse on it and a beautiful keyring with moveable parts so that it won’t snap in my pocket!  Now that’s clever! 

2.  I’ve always wanted to be a teacher.  Way back in the day when I was at Intermediate I remember carefully saving the worksheets my favourite teacher used to give us thinking that these would be good to do when I became a teacher!  Thank goodness I lost them somewhere in the various house moves I made! How lucky am I to get up in the morning and want to go to work everyday?!

3.  The journey to becoming a teacher was not without it’s digressions first though.  I started work in an office  ringing places for their butter and egg orders, then another office that handled milk distribution (notice the dairy theme anyone???) then the office of a petrol station (no dairy!) then, a bank for a number of years!  It wasn’t until after the birth of my second daughter that I decided it was time to go to Teacher’s College.  Whilst I was studying I worked in a couple of bars to pay my way through university.

4.  I love the sea. I love to fish and sail.  I’m a certified open-water diver and just think that the ocean is another world to behold!  In the holidays I stay at the beach; fishing, diving, fishing, fishing and reading!  I’ve just bought myself a new boat rod and reel and am fishing in a Ladies Day competition on the weekend.

5.  I went to Jenny Craig and lost over 26kgs.  That was 10 years ago now and I’ve managed to keep it all off! To celebrate I had laser surgery on my eyes and got rid of the milk-bottle glasses that made me miserable all my childhood and early adulthood. Yahoo!

 Well that was easier than I thought but that’s not really the part I was worried about ….. it’s finding the next 5 to tag!  I think that everyone whose blog I’ve been reading has already been tagged, and not many of my colleagues have discovered the joy of blogging yet.  So I’ll cheat and just add to list as I get to know more people!  Simon Evans, you’re first!

Here are my resolutions for 2007 …….

1. Maintain a class wiki
   (kinda started this already – just need Students to start school year now!)
   
2. Explore Google Earth
   (like this assignment that Chris Craft has done)
   
3. Join a collaborative project
   (Just got an email today from Online Projects saying there’s a match! Yahoo!)
   
4. Have a go at podcasting 
   (check this site out - it’s great!)
   
5. Skype with a class in another country 
   (might be a possibility with my Online Project Partners!)
   
6. Use flickr for a class assignment
   (this teacher has used flickr in Maths – awesome!)

What are your resolutions for 2007?

Just had to share this with you ……..
please be aware of the last image - (it contains nudity) ……. it’s not my video.

What makes you feel good?