School 2.0 in SA

A mindmapping tool is a great way to quickly and easily brainstorm an idea or project. It is also a good tool to use for teaching and learning.

One of the tools that we had lots so fun with has been bubbl.us. It has a funky bubbly look and it is easy to add mind-bubbles, change colours, drag bubbles to where you want and link them up to show relationships. But in the back of my mind I have always felt that I would like to have a more professional looking tool and one where I can have sub-points in my mind-web.

So I decided to try Mindmeister. It defintely has a far more professional look and you can make 6 mindmaps for free.  For the rest is does all the normal things. You double click to create a subnode, drag and drop ideas on the parent node and it is quite easy to figure out how to use it. You also have the added advantage of using Skype straight from your mindmap, which is a great perk as far as collaboration is concerned

The one disadvantage, which is quite a big issue for me, is the fact that you cannot link up nodes. My mindmaps are always interlinked and I feel hierachal mindmapping does not suit my learning style at all. I do not think in a linear way at all and linking up thoughts to other ideas help me to clarify how I would like to structure my thought process. Now Mindmeister does not allow, as far as I can see, for this.

So, it looks more professional, have really fantastic features like notes, the ability to add tags and urls to your mindmap, but comes short on the inter-linkability issue. As this is an important one for me, I will have to think about if I will use it…

See Demo girl’s video tutorial on how to use Mindmeister

• For a quick excellent screencast of how to use mindmeister (from demogirl) click here

Excel is an amazing tool when it comes to calculating values and statistical data. Here is a basic intro to how to use Excel:

| View | Upload your own

Creating graphs from our very valuable data is also a breeze. The following video explain in really easy to understand term, how to create pie and bar graphs using excel.
Download Video: Posted by mathvideosonline at TeacherTube.com.

Hogsback is a quiant little town up in the Amatola mountains. There you will find forrests, waterfallsand very interesting people (as well as a few hobbits and fairies). Today we are going to do a web 2.0 exploration with a few of the enquiring minds to see how we can make Hogsback truly virtual!

Some of the outcomes we hope to achieve are:

• Create a web presence for the local school and some businesses
• Launch a social network for Hogsback in NING
• Become lifelong virtual learners
• Define what web 2.0 is
• Play with some cool web 2.0 tools
• ……..

Some of the tools we will explore:
Workshop content may include….but it is up 2 u….

• Create a blog in Iblog /Blogger
• Slideshare what to do with those PowerPoints
• Del.icio.us (Tag collaboratively)
• Flickr (create an online photo album)
• Social Networking platforms: (Facebook | Ning )
• Voicethreads (create a picture voice scrapbook)
• Make a cartoon
• Help create a mindmap
• Create a Youtube video and upload it
• Create a tutorial with Camstudio and upload it to YouTube
• Mobile learning and Mxit