A mix of bits and bobs that make a geek?

GOOGLE DOCS- I AM READY!
Thanks to Paul Harrington I found this great example of collaborative work explaining and demonstrating Google Docs. Yes i know I am way behind with this one as it was done last year, but as they say , it is just in time learning for me and I am ready to try it out. Jo Mcleay and I have discussed creating a doc which has a repository of our ideas for blog posts for our classes.We both have year 8 classes and Jo and my colleague Pam both have Year7 ones and we are at two different schools, so it is a way for Jo to teach Pam and I.We are all using 21 classes as our platform this year as it seems to have less issues with my school firewalls than Edublogs does.
I started two weeks ago and now everyone is registered and it is going sooo well! All the research and writing about blogging is playing out before my eyes. The class is having a ball and many are starting to realise they have a voice and even the really nerdy boys are writing to me about their games world. I have some serious World of Warcraft addicts in the class, but they are happily writing detailed explanations of their games for me as well as the four posts I have requested. I am suggesting some posts and asking for their ideas as well. Some have played with 'Rockyou" and Animoto others with Imagechef doing mashups. They have written poetry, told jokes,commented thoughtfully and I am having to keep up with the increasing flow of entries for approval- which is really no effort at all- it is a joy! I keep trying to show my colleagues but they are all so busy that it seems an imposition on their time.I have been asked to run a follow up class on blogging after the one I mentioned in a recent post so maybe I'll be able to get some people having a go. Pam is interested and brave enough to actually try it with her Year 10 class as reflective journals on 'To Kill A Mockingbird'- go Pam!

A NEW COMPUTER?
After struggling to manage with a computer with no video card, I dropped an exercise book on my keyboard and the 'i' and 'o' keys popped off. This made for an entertaining weekend of incomprehensible and amusing - at times- tweets. The serviceman was called finally- I would have to do without it for an hour!!!- and he found a crack in the baseboard. The keys were fixed and he returned the next day with a new motherboard and a baseboard. This gives me an almost new computer I guess which is great and I am getting more RAM and a good webcam this weekend from our brilliant IT techy at school. The point of this is that the above photo is my old motherboard- I took the photo with the camera in my phone and emailed it to myself. Sounds ho hum I know but a first for me and I loved seeing all the insides of the computer and the serviceman was very patient explaining the bits to me. Only small amounts of cat hair had actually got in- bad luck Max and Nikki.

TOKBOX ON TRIAL.
My third WOW of the week as the gals would say on their podcast is an off the cuff trial of Tokbox. Jo has blogged about it but a six person video and sound feed done from a couple of call out tweets is pretty impressive. Certainly the bandwidth was a problem as we added people, but it was wonderful to see faces, hear voices and generally have a play with new apps. The screencast - another new thing I am mastering slowly- is of four of us using it. No whiteboard or chat room, but real people, real voices real time and three states and NZ as well. Not Bad for a late Sunday night bit of fun!!!