Kicking Crunchy Leaves

I really don't like the limitations of MindMeister. I found it great to begin with but just didn't allow easy enough organisation of the initial brainstorming! It has become incredibly frustrating trying to get it o do stuff. Every time I move ideas around the page it can't handle it and will only let me do about 4 moves before it stops working. Have had enough of it now.

While I'm kicking around waiting for a number of invites to get back to me (for flow charts etc) I thought I'd mention that I keep on seeing stuff about Google Reader...I don't know exactly what this is and I am struggling to grasp how effective a tool this could be for me just from the Google Blog info I stumbled upon...again I will keep you posted!
Or if anyone knows - let me know please!!!!

Labels: Google Reader

I am not having much luck with the whole mindmapping, flowcharting thing. One site I went to was down for maintenance and the other is taking forever to send through my account details to the email. Hmmmmm.

Labels: Flow Charts, Mind Maps

I took a look around the Newsletter creator LetterPop and had a play. This could be a useful tool for all those newsletters people might like to create. I liked the idea of creating invitations on it. I didn't really want to sign up for an account so I don't have my sample work available for all to see.

I have used Microsoft Publisher before (I often made brochures for Information Nights, handouts and a myriad of other things for my students to make school work more interesting), so I can see the benefits of a free version.

Labels: brochures, Information Nights, LetterPop, Microsoft Publisher, Newsletters

Having had a look at the various wikis suggested by the Learning 2.0 Progam, I was surprised at the variety of things people are able to talk at length about. I was drawn in by the Zombies wiki (people take this very seriously) and found a few books from the Princeton Public Library Book Lovers wiki that I look forward to reading.

I am not sure how much I can personally contribute to any wiki but it is pretty entertaining reading them.

Labels: Books, web 2.0, wikis, zombies

There have been so many wonderful exciting discoveries made on the Learning 2.0 program. I have managed to learn so much and I am not yet near finished. Google has a huge amount to offer but I am not particularly taken by Google Books. It doesn't even come close to the sort of experience I get when I go to a bookshop and browse the shelves. I struggle enough to find books I want to read so trying to find them on Google isn't really helpful.

I can see where Google Books could be helpful and the digitisation of books is a fantastic idea. The e-readers (when they come down to being a reasonable price) will be wonderful (imagine how great it would have been at school or uni where you had to lug around all your textbooks). So I look forward to this next step in the whole reader experience - but until then I am not sure if I will other too much with Google Books.

Please let me know if I have missed the point...

Labels: Books, e-readers, Google Books

Well - I had some issues to begin with but otherwise I think this could be a terrific tool! I still have difficulty emailing an attachment and having that attachment saved as a new document. The sizing is fairly restrictive - since apparently Word docs can be rather large. Nevertheless I am really excited about further getting to grips with this marvelous Google instrument.

As you can see in my example (above right), I have been playing with the lovely colours for different folders (a brilliant idea if you ask me) and also had a go at sharing a document. I'll leave it at that for now. Definitely not finished with Google Docs yet!

Labels: Google, Google Docs

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Sometime my Streetview pic shows and sometimes it doesn't...

Anyway this is a picture of the place I house sat (or actually dog sat) one Christmas in the UK. It was the house on the right at the end of the little street. Although the area is lovely, the house backed onto the woods (Queen's Wood) which was quite spooky, particularly for someone all by themselves (picture Bridget Jones singing that song with a massive glass of 'Red').
Problem was it actually got spookier. I was walking the dogs one morning when a neighbourly neighbour stopped me (he recognised the dogs) and asked me if the police had been in touch? I was very confused and thoughts of my terrible singing came to mind, concerned that someone may have complained. But he explained that there had been a murder around the corner and the Police were door knocking for information. This revelation left me feeling pretty scared, jumping at every branch sraping against the window. I still don't know what happened.

Labels: Bridget Jones, dogs, Google Streetview, Queen's wood

Google maps has been a very handy tool indeed for us trainers having to travel the countryside. Google directions can sometimes get it wrong and doesn't really take into account traffic bottlenecks and roadwork. Still, I have found that thier travel times are pretty accurate and is much more up to date than my 1990 Melways.

I love Google Street view and am very excited to see that the UK has finally caught up with the rest of us so that I can now see my old place in Wimbledon. I have included a distant streetview shot of my favourite pub called 'The Hand in Hand' up on Wimbledon Common. After a pint of Banana bread Beer you could sometimes make out the Wombles (cleaning up all the rubbish left by some grotty humans).

The Hand in Hand had a lovely open fire place and there was always a gorgeous dog asleep in front of it after a ramble through the woods; its owner, wearing wellingtons (I call them gumboots), chatting to the bartender. As pub it had pretty great food - a huge burger with extra chilli con carne, bangers and mash and shepherd's pie were my favourite.

Anyway - it seems to be the place where all the cars are parked through the trees.





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Labels: Banana Bread Beer, Google maps, Google Streetview, Hand in Hand, Pubs, Wimbledon Common, Wombles