Creativity

Hey Stacey and Kara,

So recently I have been dicussing in one of my classes creativiy and its diferent elements. It has been really inspiring for me learning in class about what people enjoy doing and seeing there passion conveyed through there stroies. I decided though that there must be a lot more people like this in the world who thrieve of creativity so did a google search and found honestly 100’s of results under creativity blog.

It was creativity in all different forms from business, to marketing, music, visual and even teaching. The topics that where discussed amongst all of these where diverse, intelligent and some a little bit boring but over all interesting. I realized at this point that blogs are a great tool for everyone who wish to express, learn or participate in particular conversation.

The teaching blogs in particular where interesting Kara in that people where trying to express that schools just were not preparing and teaching children the knowledge they need to know to get by in today’s world. They stated that the school system and it’s teaching methods are dating quickly and that serious emphasis needed to be placed upon this topic.

I agree with this personally and as a art student I believe our current primary and secondary school system are all trying to develop university students. And whilst I am very passionate about my art and I have lucky enough to have been excepted into a university, it very was hard for me to gain entry with scaling systems that rewards you for doing subjects such as mathematics and science.

How do you feel about this? I know that if I had to be put into a science class it would be very difficult but on the flip side it would also be very difficult for a science student to participate and do well in art class for example.

You hear in a lot of places that we are living in a world that is constantly changing and developing at a rate that is un-comprehensible and my argument is how are we meant to keep developing when what are teaching children who are going to retire in 2070 things that are clearly going to be outdated and require a creative mind to solve them.

Let me know what you think cheers Mick.

the artlog!

hey it’s stacey! i was just looking at other versions of blogs and found the ARTLOG. this is a blog which is primarily art and not words. the point of the artlog is both to promot an artist’s compositions and to communicate messages through picture and not language. the artlog can have written communications, to clarify and discuss, however, it is mostly pictures.
the artlog works similarly to a facebook or twitter as you have to sign up and log in to the site. http://artlog.com/
some of the features of an artlog inclued- Add your work
Build portfolio sites
Publicize events
Comment, Bookmark & Share
Network with artists, art lovers & industry insiders
Stay connected with Member Events & weekly newsletter.
the artlog is a fantastic resource for upcomming and established artists!

Blogs; Put to Use.

Its Kara here
Third time lucky,
Thanks to Stacey’s previous post, I think we all now have a clear understanding of what a blog is and how they are useful. Now its time to dig a little bit deeper and get into the specifics.

Seeing as I am Studying the Bachelor of Education, I thought perhaps that it might be fitting to look at blogs that relate to my field. So I goggled away and decided to research the use of blogs in Primary Education. Heres a small squiz of what I found:

Blogs can be a very useful tool in the field of education.

I think the most important thing to remember is that the technology is being used because it is the best vehicle to deliver the teaching and learning. Blogs can be used for a variety of purposes in the field of Education:

- As a communication vehicle for homework
- Communication for students absent from class.
- Learning activities for class and home use in Literacy, Numeracy,  Internet safety & Typing.

A really powerful component of a blog is its international, collective nature and ability to involve a wide number of participants from various places and organisations. Its fast becoming the way of the future, so why not include it in the classroom?

Below are a couple of links that I feel are excellent examples of blogs aimed at Primary Education.

http://www.deanmore.learnerblogs.org/
Deanmore Primary School Year 4/5
This blog in particular has a very ‘child friendly’ user interface. Each topic is divided into tabs with clear, bolded text. Each week the teacher has created a blog outlining the week’s homework tasks which I think is very clever. This information is accessible to both students and parents, and if there are any questions about the homework tasks after hours, students are able to jump on board and ask their teacher via the internet.

http://yatessplc.blogspot.com/
Ms Yates SPLC
The teacher who has created this particular blog is posting blogs full of resources so that her students are able to research for their class projects. She asks her students to dicuss the resources she has given them through posting responses in the form of comments after each blog.

So as you can see, there appears to be blogs for just about any topic you can think of. All you have to do is search.
Happy Blogging.

Other References:
http://oedb.org/library/features/top-100-education-blogs
Online Education Database (2006) Viewed 19th March

hey its stacey talking blogs… just some facts

i’m currently looking on a blog.com.au which is like a search on different issues to do with blogs or a search to find blogs. according to a site (http://www.webbriefcase.com.au/2008-01/blogs-what-are-they-why-use-them/) blogging started out as on line journals and then moved on to the business, political and… well… every kind of area you can think of. the point is simply to share with the world your thought and ideas. i found some blogs that are used simply to give out information on how to use products and stuff. like certain softwares. basically the owner of the blog wanted to talk everyone into how good the product was. showing the the benifits and stuff through diagrams. in this way… blogging is useful in persuasion. it’s a non confrontational way to have a debate with someone over something you want to sell or support.

another great thing about blogs is that you can have one in just a few clicks of a button. like… if you go to wordpress!

some people are using sites like twitter to promote their blogs as well. by disscussing topics with others before you start or post a blog, you can have more of an idea of what people want to hear before you start up. A man on this web site http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/03/25/how-i-use-twitter-to-promote-my-blog/ explains just how twitter was used to double his viewers for his blog. it’s actually interesting.

Blog vs. Forum

Kara here,
and time for my second attempt at input.

So the theme in creating our blog was to distinguish what a ‘blog’ actually is. What I’ve found interesting when researching various types of blogs is that often enough, I’ve been finding ‘forums’ instead. So what is the difference between a forum and a blog, you ask? Continue reading if you dare:

It is fair to say that blogs and forums share a lot of common features. They both allow you to post content. They both allow users/members to comment on posts and to comment on other comments. In this way, both blogs and forums create a ‘space’ for conversation, so to speak. So how to differ? (Gees I beat around the bush, sorry)

One difference…

Forums usually ask for registration before users can post comments. Once registered, members are allowed to send private messages to one another. In a sense, forums encourage ‘community.’ When people register for a forum, they are not only able to find information on topics that interest them (eg, cars, books), but they can also connect a group of people who share the same interests. So that being said, forums are just as much about linking people as they are about providing information.

Now, as for a blog…

Blogs also promote discussion between users, but in a different way. First of all, blogs don’t always ask for registration when you use them (although in this case on Weblog09 we had to register). Unlike forums, blogs do not allow private conversation in the same way that forums do. The point of a blog is more about posting personal opinions, articles or other topics of interest. Whether the blog is useful (information wise) or merely a place to share opinions on selected topics, users interact with this content (or at least with a focus on content).  They do not necessarily interact with each other.

I don’t quite know if I’ve explained that in a way that shows a difference between the two very well, but I hope the general idea is there.
Forums – discussion between a community of people with similar interests VS. Blogs – the sharing of opinions which are not necessarily posted to encourage discussion. Maybe the best way to summerise a blog is just to call it an online diary that others can view.

If anyone has a more clear-cut way of explaining what I just tried to explain, feel free to do so!
Have a great weekend.
Ta, guys.

jjj

Hey guys, so I sussed out JJJ’s website in reagrds to hopefully finding some new blogs on music (CD’s, gigs etc.) and found that their site is almost completely oriented around blogs.

They allow people to discuss new CD’s, artists, gigs and issue they have discussed on the radio. It was really interesting just reading some of the comments, a lot being just casual conversation, but also a lot of useful information about venues and what gigs were like that I may have missed on the weekend.

Here is the link to their home page if you are interested.

www.abc.net.au/triplej/

I found most blog’s so far to be a lot of people with just a littel bit to much spare time but as I investergate more there seems to be some really informal blogs that are defernatley worth checking out!

HTML

I thought I should begin with a blog to test the basic html we can use on this site when posting a blog.
Now, although I’m aware there is the option to highlight the text and apply automatic html codes to it, I thought it would be good practice to do it manually and type all the html out. Afterall, it is what we were learning about in our tutorial yesterday..

So we’ll start with the headings.
If the text in this sentence appears to be bolder than the rest of the text, then I’ve achieved something so far!
Now lets have the reverse effect and turn the text on its side!
So far so good? Perfect.

I’m feeling creative at the moment, so lets see where this takes me.
Testing, testing, one, two, three??

I hope that looks exciting,  because it sure was a pain in the **** to type!

Thats all for my first post guys, mainly because I can’t remember any other html codes off the top of my head at this current time. Lets just hope my next blog is slightly more entertaining, and actually has content worth reading.

Until next time,
Kara.

BLog BLog BLog

The word is finally starting to have meaning. I have found some really useful blogs so far just within wordpress it self, which is helping me to understand the purpose a creating and having a blog.

How are you girls finding the whole thing? Please let me know of any good blogs to check out that may help us understand what and why blog exist.  Cheers Mick.