to blog or not to blog

being on this course has reminded my why i have not kept an regular activity log, because it needs to fit into your work style. however, for the purposes of the course it will be useful to be able to reflect on things and to let course/members see and share.

as weeks 3 and 4 are about team working, i only logged on monday to complete a few loose ends from week 2 see that we are now in group mode.

i printed out the task to read off line, did look for my team members to read some of there submissions didn't find every one.

i wrote this blog entry on tuesday night - using pen and paper and was going to type it into on wednesday but time did not allow. and i must say my thoughts were a lot clearer for not being around a computer.

i am not sure what topic/theme is going to be used as i work in a museum which focuses more on the national curriculm then life long learning resources which seems to focus on informal learning.

current possibilities

just before this course started i had already began to explore how i could use some of the web 2.0 technologies to exploit the museum's online visitors to form groups of specialist interest. so what the course has given thus far is a frame work for this to happen now.

the important part of what is missing from the museum's online presence is a greater interaction from it's online visitors. so using some the strategies described in the course and its reading list i will be able to run a pilot project so that members of the museum's online public will be encouraged to create their own exhibition. so i know many of the things that we have discussed already will be raised again but this time it will include a museum focus.

my online presence

one reason for some of my professional online profiles have been from invites which started off as being nice jesters, but when realise how time is need to describe yourself - unless you have some of these things written down not everyone wants to fill in a form on the fly. having said that once you have done one then you can then cut and past!!!!

so that is something for the 'to do list'.

liverpool and some light reading

i was in liverpool yesterday to visit the national museum and how they utilise ICT in there galleries. i had the pleasure of being shown around by the New Media Manager. As the national museum , liverpool is funded directly by the government it means that a lot of the systems that they have in place and maintained internally which help to employ standards and any branding used, which is in contrast to how a lot of regional museums operate.

as i have said i enjoyed the day immensely, especially as i was able to do some of the reading in the thick envelope that came with the course an it was useful because i was able to focus, but while reading some of the printouts i was part way regreting not bring my laptop so that i could create some of the accounts mentioned.

in reading i was also reflecting on how i had started to use web 2.0 technology before it was being called that ie sharing the birth of my son with the friends and family over 7 years ago via yahoo photos now flickr and collecting bookmarks and sharing with yahoo bookmarks now My Web2.0

The image is a floor plan within the museum, which i think makes finding things very easy?

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Originally uploaded by onyemachi

this my flickr persona, i have choosen this Ghanian Adinkra symbol in light of its meaning. i think it represents how we need to be with ourselves and with others.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

reflections on week 1

well due to time off and work based activities i was unable to complete week one activities, i looked and thought about them but it's not the same. so i know that i have some catching up to do.

i did how ever do the search on my name and was surprised that google showed that i was present on the web. my presence on facebook is duly noted together with a few other professional networking sites. but very few links to current work.

regarding my levels of privacy and disclosure i think in most of my entries i have given the minimum amount of information, because i hate filling in forms and as we know to create a presence on the web we have to disclose something. how ever i would have to confirm to be able to network properly you do have to disclose more than the basics.

so as i am behind i will be writing a few entries close together.

initial activities

this is week 0 on the course run by oxford brookes university. looked through the hardcopy of things that came through the post which was good as they help put the social software into an academic context.

i had time on tuesday to look around the vle (blackboard) and was automatically comparing it to the moodle vle which i have installed to test and create a mini course have never manged to finish things off. so getting used to the components and functional of this vle was straight forward.
i will have to remind myself at times that i am a student and not the tech guy to solve any issues.

i must admit i did really take that much notice of the activities for week 0 as i probably would have written a short profile and intro on the tuesday when i login but in reading the other intros on the thursday i decide to write it on the spot, normally i would have written it off line and edited it a couple time before posting.

but it was good to read the initial posts to see where other course members are from. as for the next month the first thing i will be doing each morning after checking work emails is to read the posts from other course members.