Responding to another blog :)

<a href="http://sarah-stewart.blogspot.com/2011/10/any-ideas-on-how-to-teach-social-media.html">Sarah Stewart: Any ideas on how to teach social media without a computer or internet?</a>   My thoughts! (and practising how to do this :) )

Pages & a To do list / page.

Well that sorts that out.  The pages are static and you can't post to them like on the home front page. ok ... well for now I'll leave my to do 'page' but need to reconsider if I even need pages if they are not going to be 'interactive' ....  Hummm and I do know I could start another 'to do blog' ...  hummm I might have to think about that :)

Add a page to a blog

DONE!  Nothing like starting with a success :)  Humm 2nd edit. OK 50% success ... added the page - now just how to post this comment to THAT page and not this home one ....  hummmm

(thinking, scratching head and looking for ‘instructions’) ...

Oh ... I found you (again)

First up!  Thanks for the comments from the beginning of the year! As anonymous said “didn’t know anyone had been here” .. and getting back in was an a bit of problem .. BUT seems to be sorted now.

And ...

Sarah “serendipity” is one of my favourite words ... and I hope some of the things I posted on your blog about your current project were of value?

Clarrisa “Pragmatism . . .sounds like translational research”  - Ummm maybe? What is ‘translational research’? ... (will have to google that later J

Lee – pleased you like it!  So did I when I heard it and yes it was committed to memory J

Thanks Chris and Aditya for well wishes and thanks Rajettan for the links and info.

Well now I found my way back into my blog 3 things:

1. I registered and did NOTHING on the Facilitating Online Course in 2011.  So disappointed in myself that I let ‘life’ once again take over my true desires.

2. Well here is to .. Again starting again and

3. It fees like I have lost the last 4 months. I know I have been incredibly busy but how can it possibly be June already.

And I’ll answer that myself for myself ... It is June ‘already’ because ... each day has 24 hours and x number of days (ie groups of 24 hours) has passed. 

I always remember a wonderful older gentleman at some time management seminar saying ...

No one can manage time because time just is.  A second, a minute, an hour, a day, a year .. is and will always be exactly the same.  It is 1 second, or it is 60 seconds to equal a minute, or 60 minutes to be 1 hours ...  or 365 days to be a year (and then he made a joke about the pesky days in a month and leap years) ... BUT his point was ... ‘Time’ doesn’t go faster or slower and no matter what we do we can not manage or control or influence it. We can only control our actions within the concept of time or influence our own internal perceptions of the passing of time ....

I understand and agree 100%.

So could those minutes, days and weeks that I lost .. please come back because I don’t think I always controlled my actions or influenced my perceptions efficiently or effectively enough.

That being said, I really need to action the rest of this report in a very controlled manner over the next 4 hours (right after I just update a post on another important point!)

Hope you all have a GREAT Saturday afternoon

Talk more soon

Cheers Kathleen

PS while I so remember his message I am sorry I can’t remember his name. But I guess that is the sign a good presenter the information is more important than the person ... What do you think?

And so it begins ... (Again)

What a start to the year!  I am still digesting the experiences over the last week or so with the floods in Queensland and indeed the continued flooding around Australia.  As such, this post will not be about that; except to say, my heartfelt sympathy to all who have lost so much and even those of us who have lost a little (in comparison).

This post is just a ‘getting back into it’ post and to confirm I have made plans to be part of the Facilitating Online Course in 2011. http://wikieducator.org/Facilitating_Online . Now whether I will be informal, facilitated or formal, I haven’t yet decided, but I love the options and the accessibility of the experience.  I have heard such great things about this course that I am looking forward to getting into it.

I hope to blend, or maybe utilise is a better word, the skills of online facilitation with activities required to operate my (assessment only) RTO.  In particular, I am thinking about activities such as validation and moderation, industry engagement and the enrolment / induction process. 

I also want to build and enhance my PLN / PLE, digital identify and capture my professional development in such a way that is useable (showable?) for Auditors in order to demonstrate currency and competency.  

I am going to link my learnings and activities in the course to my ‘under construction’ eportfolio as well further strengthening other professional relationships and associations.

The plan is to do all this, while helping my adult children get back on their feet after their house flooded and continue to do the work that pays the bills.

It is going to be a big year! There is a lot I want and need to do and achieve but, funny enough, I am looking forward to it.  

Oh and I also hope for lots of ‘blue skies’ for all of us.

YAY .. it's back ..

Wow Cool!  My blog is back and now to get back into it!

... BUT having fun and learning heaps

Part of the reason I haven’t done everything I was supposed to on the forums this week is ... I found this AMAZING FUN and Fantastic bit of FREE software.  (First bit of proof that I find it hard to resist shinny thing!)

It is a movie maker software site and you can

a) find out more about it here and  you can

b) watch some other people’s movies here   and

c) They even have a You Tube Channel     *but I can’t vouch for the suitability of content   - But enough about them ... now on to me! 

I have made a movie!!!

If you want and have time .. Please do  check out my first attempt.  (detailed below)

Kathleen (aka the girl with so many questions) meets the ‘Webaster’!

The Blurb

Ever felt lost and overwhelmed with 100s of questions about all this technology?   Well you are not alone.   Watch Kathleen (aka the girl with so many questions) ask some questions to the Web Master. You may not feel so alone and you might even learn a new dance.

The Embedded code (?  I hope)  - NO - that didn't work - just lines fo 'text' (OK on the TO Do List - learn how embedded codes work! - I did copy and paste it!)  - sorry - just try the link OR  - It may work with me uploading from my computer ?  Here lets see ...

Hummm - It is definately 'doing something' at this end.  It appears to need to be played in Quick Time .. (hope it works for you!)

Ok NO - that didn't work either.  I think the file is too big to be direclty uploaded. I really hope some one can see my movie  - and perhaps help me find a way to make it a smaller file.  If not .. well i had fun anyway  ... )

You might have to turn down the sound let it load and then re-play if it keeps getting stuck!!  - sorry  - OR maybe save it to your computer then play it from there? 

OR the link (if the embedded code doesn’t work? - which it didn't - this link takes you to the softwware site where the moive is still 'on'

AND I have just uploaded to it to YouTube .. where if you have the time, I do have 2 other videos for my children (proud mother and all that J 

Web link for You Tube

Embedded code? (Just more lines of text - Must learn more about that!)

 

Unfortunately I do not think it has been ‘saved’ in the best format. 

If / when you look at it  ... IF  it stops and starts,   may I suggest you turn off the sound, let it download completely .. then play it. 

(Another thing to do .. learn more about the best format to save movies in!!)   

And having listened to it again I can hear and see some ‘errors’ – but I would really appreciate any comments you may like to make.

And again I have to say I have had a BLAST doing this.  If it appeals to you ... have a go yourself.  I'd love to be Movie Buddies with you.
(if it works out we can end up finding a way to share them! :)

Getting lost & Wasting time ...

I am so curious about this feeling I have of  ...  ‘being naughty’. 

I have all this work to do both for my course, and ‘work work’ (ie to pay the bills and look after my clients.  Not to mention the house is a mess and I need to wash my hair!   

But even with all these very important things to do ..

I have found myself spending pretty much all day yesterday and today ... 

roaming free, exploring, finding stuff,  collecting bits and pieces until my ‘burrow’ ( If I was a bower bird)  or my basket ... (since I am a person) ...  is full! 

Yes! I feel like a 5 year old in a meadow full of flowers and I am allowed to run through them all picking up any that I like! Until my basket is completely and totally overflowing.

In my grown up world of computers and doing something with all this stuff, that translates to ... my computer now having an extra 20 odd ‘folders’ containing almost 100 webpages / pdfs/ reports and articles (that I really do want to read!)

I’d like to say I have been very systematic during my rummage around and had a well conceived, highly thought out,  filing system established before I began and now everything is sorted and easy to be located when I need it.

Sadly, that is not the case. 

The reality is my ‘computer’ looks worse than a 15 year old girl’s bedroom which has just be subjected to 4 other 15 year old girls all getting ready for party.  (Can’t find a suitable image so just imagine  .. every piece of clothing strewn all around the room .. and everyone now frantically searching for the other pink shoe .. that was “just here a minute ago!”)

SOOOO – I guess I should spend some time cleaning, fixing and finishing up all the things I have to do .. in my course, my computer, my home and probably even my mind. –

BUT before I go  if you want to see and hear what I have been doing ..

Check out the next blog .. (might be a while before I can post it – LEARNING about embedding video! J

Why Bower Birds & Sunflowers?

As a first blog entry, I thought I should explain the name of this blog: Bower Birds & Sunflowers. 

As in most things in life, there are multiple meanings and overlaying connections in why I have called this blog this name. 

I love the reality and the ‘concept’ of Bower Birds. (Do you keep having to use capital letters for both words?)  ... Anyway,  I love the fact that spend their lives collecting things (especially shinny things and for some reason ‘blue’ things)  I love the fact that they seem to enjoy re-arranging them, displaying them, gather more, fitting new things into what they already have only to then begin the process again of ... re-arranging displaying and sorting things again.  I am no expert on Bower Birds and in fact when I the name of this blog ‘came to me’ all I wanted at first for a picture of a ‘Bower Bird’ to go on the blog.

This lead me to google “Bowwer Birds / Bowwor Birds”  obviously with no success  -  until I was forced to FB and tweet the question

Ok .. Who can help me out? .. I know there is a saying "... like a barrow bird" ? as in - you gather lots of stuff BUT I think I have the spelling wrong - any ideas what I am talking about :)

Within an hour I had the correct spelling (funny enough from my best friend. I probably could have just done the old fashion thing and called her!) and I was pleased to know my ‘idea’ of gathering collecting like a Bower Bird was real and not something I had made up years ago J



pic via highlightskids.com

  

If you are interested in knowing anything else about the real life Bower Bird, which I only just found out is native to Australia (Did anyone else know that?) ...

a couple of short clips through these links

From the BBC, the classic “David Attenborough observes the bower bird's intriguing behaviour”

With much more of a uniquely Australian feel and also talks about the ‘blue obsession’ watch this one 

And  even closer to home (for me) Toowoomba High has a page dedicated to their “Bower Bird”!

But two things.  If you know anything about Bower Birds, or watch these videos, you will see it is actually the male bird who does the collecting and the purpose is to attract a mate. 

Well one, I am female not male and two, this site has nothing to do with attracting ‘mates’ (in that  .. uumm ..  biological sense J) – BUT I do hope it will have things of interest for colleagues, collaborators, peers and friends .. or in the real Aussie sense .. My Mates!

Another point of difference, is the ‘hording and defending’.  Unlike its name sake, there is nothing on this site that can not be shared. Feel free to come and borrow, use, take and reference anything you see here.

Obviously, all the normal disclaimers apply, use at your own risk, all care and no responsibility etc etc.  I welcome open genuine sincere and respectful communications and interactions. 

I am not really into censorship but I do reserve the right to remove spam, offensive or not appropriate comments.   However I welcome and invite people to challenge my thoughts, correct my mistakes and point me in the right direction if any of my information is wrong or misleading. 

I like spelling and grammar and punctuation, but to be honest, I write how I speak.  (and I know you are not supposed to have a comma before an conjunction)  -  So feel free to let me know about any of those things, but please do not be offended if I do not rush to change them.  I have a bit of an obsession with the correct use of apostrophes, I have no idea why but I do always like to have mine in the correct place.

Anyway, getting back to the point of difference, re: the ‘hording and defending’ behaviour of the real Bower Bird, unlike the sharing, caring and supportive nature of this blog ...as a nice little segue, this is where the Sunflowers come in.  Besides being my favourite flower, sunflowers always seem to me to be open and friendly. 

I love the way they happily follow the sun (a bit like I do with my mentors, friends, colleagues and those I admire and respect). 

I love the fact that some of them grow so tall and strong and others are actually small. 

I love watching the parrots and birds harvest the sunflower seeds. 

But most of all I guess, every time I see a sunflower (real or in a picture) I find myself smiling. 

And that is what I hope for this blog.

I hope I and others who visit, find and share treasures (shinny things) things of substance and sustenance, opportunities to follow our ‘suns’ and most of all something to smile about.

PS there is another reason behind the linkages to Bower Birds  .. it relates to my Grandmother and the conept of  having or leaving a

legacy ... But that will have to wait for another post!  ...