Catch up time!!!!

Have just got back from a fantastic week in Spain where I will admit to doing no study at all!!! First time since September 2007. In fact I wrote a TMA on the last family holiday so I reckoned I deserved the break!

So I'm now home and there is no pool, no stunning view, no 30+C heat :-(

Instead there is Week 21/ 22 to catch up on and everyone will now have started Week 23...aaargh!! Doesn't help that the house is full of kids with no school or college to go to. However this happened last year and I coped!!

Got TMA03 back which was fine...now know where I need to focus so not too bad.

TMA 03

Finally decided on use of Blogs and Elluminate for the ECA. The design will be looking at how Elluminate could be used as a substitution for f2f tutorials for my European students.
Going to have to get a wriggle on with the next week of course work as I'm off to Spain for a week and want to have some quality time with the family....so no study allowed!!!!! I haven't taken a break since starting on H808 in September 2007!!
I'm enjoying twitter just for the info updates and the sites they've suggested for blogs and elluminate. Not sure I'll continue with it was I've completed the MAODE though.
Beginning to dread the end of September and ECA submission day....not because I'm unduly worried about the ECA (which of course I am!!) but because the studying will stop and then what the heck do I do with my time?!!

Twitter

Oh blimey...yet another technology to take up my time!!! Well I've tried to avoid it but as part of H800 I have to get myself an account which I have dutifully done. I've decided not to use my phone but just stick to using it on the web.
I was surprised that there were people I could follow who were linked to Elluminate, blogs, elearning etc and that some of them decided to follow me. I'm being quite picky about who I allow to follow me...had to block a couple of very dubious people already!!!! Not sure what, if any, value I'm going to get from this in the long run but for the moment its given me a couple of links to some helpful websites.
With regard TMA03/ECA I seem to have fathomed something out thanks to my tutor...designing an intro to Elluminate for European students...well something along those lines!!

TMA 03 (ECA proposal)

TMA 03 is due in next week and I need to decide on the 2 technologies to discuss. At the moment it looks like I 'll focus on Blogs and Elluminate but that could well change. I also have to come up with a designing a learning activity, or creating a specification for a course or training package, that uses this technology!!! Going to go back over E123/4 course material and see if there is a way of designing an activity that could be used in Elluminate/Blog.........

Weeks 17 to 18

Blimey I am sooo far behind and we're now starting week 19!!!
Have just spent the last couple of weeks marking and verifying over 100 ECA's...first time marking so took a while to get into the swing.
Had a quick look through week 18...definitely need to go back and do some reading. But I have looked at Google Reader......hmm......may use it may not.....not sure yet.
There are not enough minutes left in my day to start using Twitter.....its a bit frustrating that you just get a snippet...don't think this ones for me at all. Mind you I do say this about most technologies and then I seem to love them lol!!
In terms of social networking I've used social networking via the University of Manitoba which has worked well but I have to admit that I still tend to visit the blogs and websites and not rely on RSS feeds/Google Reader or Twitter.
In terms of personal use as I'm moving to Ontario I've used two social networking sites for research
http://britishexpats.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=33 and
http://www.mymuchmor.com/home.php .....I'm 'Northernlass1'on both.

Have had a look at TMA 03 and the ECA....have a few ideas which are waiting to be ok'd by my tutor.
Off to check through the course work and make sure I can catch up this week.