I saw this tweet from @keishawilliams about TweetStats.  Curiousity got the better of me, so taking a break from Empressr and MyStudiyo (blog post to follow), I entered my twitter username.

Considering my family and I have just spent 5 days down in Nelson (blog post in progress over here) with the amazing AllanahK – it’s no wonder she’s top of my Replies To (@) list.  Ms Cofino – well everyone knows I just LOVE working with this highly motivating and intelligent lady (even have the t-shirt to prove it!!) so NO surprises there.  HeyMilly is absolutely gorgeous, witty and funny and I love reading her tweets – I wish I was as full of energy as she is – she’s loving life and taking us along for the ride – Go Girlfriend!!

Here’s the graphic I think is most revealing though – TweetCloud!  My top 5 tweets are a reflection of the last 5 days spent in Nelson on our first ever visit to the South Island – thanks, new, time, nz, great !!

But I like the fact that awesome, learning, students, skype, mac, think, need, time & blog feature heavily too.

Most of all, I’m really, really pleased that thanks features the most in the Tweet Cloud!  Without such a supportive, inspirational, generous and caring bunch of people in my PLN – my learning journey would be a half-empty glass.  Thanks twitter PLN! (And thanks Mum, for teaching me that manners matter!)

April 13-19’s essential question for CoETaIL.Asia

Enduring Understanding:

The communication tools that exist today are powerful mediums to help spread positive change and global awareness.

So what was the first thing I did? Asked my PLN (Personal Learning Network) of course!
First I asked my twitter network:

Then I asked my Facebook network:

And that was just the replies I got in 5 minutes.  Many, many  thanks to my PLN!!

Enough said.

I have to keep pinching myself because it seems so far-fetched that I’m flying to Shanghai, China in 6 days to attend the Learning2.0 Conference beginning with Edublogger Con on Thursday 18th September AND I get to fly with two fabulous friends and awesome bloggers Kim Cofino and Tara Ethridge AND catch up with fellow NZder Simon May who lives and teaches in Shanghai.

This is an amazing opportunity to catch up with invited guests David Warlick, Ewan MacIntosh, whom I have the absolute pleasure to meet and listen to already, as well as the chance to meet and listen to Clarence Fisher, Brian Crosby, Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, Alan Levine and David Jakes.  That in itself just makes me incredibly excited.

My twitter network was a-twitter last week with questions of “Are you going to Learning2.0?”  My excitement was pushed three more steps up as I began to discover that many of the amazing people in my twitter-network were going to Shanghai also. I’m looking forward to meeting lots of fellow educators/bloggers from Australia and Qatar (can’t wait to meet you finally Julie!).  There’s going to be so much meeting and greeting – I was beginning to wonder when we might get time to attend a conference?!

Who would have thought that my excitement could step up a notch after all that? I didn’t think it was possible, but Jeff Utecht made it so.  He asked if I would be interested in doing a 45 minute presentation at Learning2.0 Shanghai!  Oh my goodness!  Are you kidding me?  Me?  Present? With all those famous people you already have lined up?  What a fabulous chance to give something back to the very community that got me started on this amazing journey of Web2.0 in the classroom.  Thanks for the opportunity Jeff!

So here’s the blurb for my presentation ……….  now I just need to put the finishing touches on it.

Have I mentioned that I love my twitter network? A few days ago a joint post from Chris Betcher & Sue Waters was written about picassa vrs flickr born out of tweets on twitter. I’d already mentioned in a previous post about using flickr more in the classroom this year, so flickr was already on my mind.

This morning on twitter started by @Riptide_Furse …………………

_{Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!}

………….. and ended in a skype call between Fred and myself where he shared what Flickr tools he presented to his teachers at the workshop and their various ways of being used.

Here are just some of the things Fred so generously shared with me ………

1. fd’s Flickr Toys

_{Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!}

This site is full of great tools to use with flickr photos. You don’t need to sign up (athough you can if you’d like) and within a few minutes you can create the most professional looking motivational poster. Here’s my 2 minute effort:

Suggestions for use in the classroom:

• Have students take a photo that represents school motto
• Use Jigsaw / Mosaic Maker with photos from around the school/community representing maths concepts (ie Shapes, angles etc)
• Use Warholizer for Start of Year Activity with student photos
• Spice up class blog with Cartooniser, Framer, Billboard, Slideshow, Writer (list is almost endless possibilities with these gadgets!)

2. Befuddlr

_{Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!}

_{Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!}

Use in the classroom?
We talked this over for a bit and decided that you could have some major conversations about which photos would be easy or hard to un-bedfuddlr.

• What would make a picture harder to organise back to its original state?
• Fun problem solving activity to do for fast finishers
• An activity on a rainy day
• A taskboard activity
  

3. Dumpr.net

_{Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!}

You don’t need to sign up (but you can if you’d like) and within 2 minutes I managed to create this …………
A museum-photo of our Class Mascot Kawekakea meeting Ewan McIntosh at ULearn07 earlier this year.

_{Created with dumpr.net – fun with your photos}

Most of the tools in Dumpr.net are similar to fd’s flickr toys but there are a couple of different ones. Don’t mix up the url with Dumpr.com like I did –

Use in the classroom?

• Use Photo in Art Museum, Jigsaw, Make photos look old, Stone Mosaic, for Presentations, blog posts etc
• Use Photo to Sketch, Alien Vision for creating online avatars, profile photos etc
• Use Photo inside a photo for problem solving puzzles

4. Other Possibilities for the Classroom

• If you’re looking for ways to work REAL LIFE editing into writing
  What’s wrong with these pictures Apostrophes Quote abuse
• Spell with Flickr
• Animated GIFs with Flickr

Got heaps of time on your hands? You could check out this long, long, long list of The Great Flickr Tools Collection!

And if that wasn’t enough, those great folks from Commoncraft have released this:

Online Photo Sharing in Plain English

So, what are your favourite things to do with flickr?