Sue Waters Blog

February 11, 2013
by Sue Waters
12 Comments

Getting More Out of Student Blogging

Through ETMOOC participants like Lorraine Boulos are realizing ”I am not just learning HOW to connect but WHY connect” and are now trying to transfer the skills they’re learning into their classrooms.

So I’ve put together tips for getting the most out of blogging with your student (you can watch the recorded ETMOOC student blogging session here).

For more information I recommend you work through our step by step guide to blogging with students.

About my work

But first to help you appreciate why I was asked to facilitate blogging session — I’ve been supporting educational blogs on Edublogs.org, Edublogs Campus and WPMU DEV since 2008.

We host over 2 million Edublogs worldwide in all educational sectors (K!2, Colleges, Universities, Vocational Education and Training, and more).

Pretty much 365 days a year I provide blogging assistance and get to see how blogs are used by different sectors globally.

The following ClustrMaps is from The Edublogger to provide you with an indication of the spread of educational blogging.

About Edublogs

How blogs are used

There is no one way to use a blog; educators use blogs for a wide range of purposes (as shown in the graphic below).

You can read a more detailed explanation of how educators use blogs here.

How blogs are used

The different blogging approaches used

While there is a wide range of reasons why educators use blogs; there are four main blogging approaches taken when educators use blogs with students.

These are:

Class blog only – the educator publishes all the posts on the class blog and the students may respond by leaving comments.
Class blog only – the educator and students both publish posts on the class blog.
Student blogs only – each student has their own individual blog and there is no class blog.
Class blog and student blogs – the educator publishes all the posts on the class blog and each student has their own individual blog.

Scaffold vs Struggle

The question is ‘scaffold vs struggle’. Can you be too helpful when introducing blogging to students?

Jan Smith‘s advice is:

The big idea is to go slow to go fast.

If you don’t lay the groundwork by building a community of trust, risk, support with your kids they fail big.

Reading and commenting have to be the core, or else a blog is just a digital bulletin board.

Being an expert at Grand Theft Auto on the X-box doesn’t mean you can jump in a car and drive it without being taught how to drive a car. We teach our kids to drive because we know they need lessons to scaffold them from needing driving instructions to becoming independent drivers.

By doing so we’re hoping this is less likely to happen:

Photo by UnkowIT licensed under Creative Commons ShareAlike.

It’s the same with our students when it comes to using technology in an educational context. They might have grown up with technology but this doesn’t mean they’ll know how to use it in an educational learning context.

Almost all educators who blog well with their students use scaffolding – regardless of the age of the students. It’s like teaching someone to drive a car. They break down the process into key steps from learning to blog to becoming independent connected learners.

Here’s an example:

Bianca learnt to blog in Grade 2 in 2010 (in Kathleen Morris’s class) where she progressed from learning how to write quality comments, to writing posts on the class blog to having her own student blog.
Bianca has been in non blogging classrooms for the past 2 years and has continued to blog independently on her own student blog.

Below are the key scaffolding steps when using blogs for connected learning:

Scaffolding your student blogging

Digital footprint and your role

Photo by jjay69 licensed under Creative Commons ShareAlike

But before talking more about blogging we need to discuss digital footprint and your role in your student’s digital footprint.

Digital footprint is becoming an issue for us as students become more aware of their own digital footprint and how to check it. We’re being contacted by former students, or their parents, regarding posts, comments or photos made of blogs back as far as 2008.

Google cache’s all websites so Google doesn’t need to constantly index webpages. We can remove comments, posts, images from a blog on our servers and it can take a looooong time for it to disappear from Google Search results.

You can read more about how Google Cache works here.

Google Cache

This is why it is really important to educate students on digital footprint and leave it for them to create their digital footprint when they are older (or if they are University students let them decide if they want the blog to be part of their digital footprint).

Our recommendations are:

Never use full names for students.
Use only their first name or a pseudo name and apply this rule to their username, blog URLs, any photos (including file names), documents, comments.
Educate their family e.g. encourage family to leave comments such as Matt’s mum or Samantha’s nana.

Developing quality commenting skills

As Kathleen Morris says:

If commenting skills are not taught and constantly reinforced, students will limit their comments to things like “I like your blog!” or “2KM is cool!”. While enthusiasm is high with these sorts of comments, students are not developing their literacy skills or having meaningful interactions with other members of the blogging community. Conversations in the comment section of a blog are such rich and meaningful learning experiences for students. Conversations begin with high quality comments.

Blogging is an authentic avenue for developing student literacy skills. When you invest the time in teaching, modelling, revising and promoting high quality writing of comments, students can make great gains in their overall literacy development.

Check out improvements in student literacy skills through commenting here.

Set your standards high from the start and reap the rewards!

Tips from participants in the student blogging webinar for developing quality commenting skills included:

Provide fast, good, meaningful feedback that models the type of commenting you are targeting.
Show Linda Yollis’s ‘How to compose quality comments‘ video.
Start with a paper blogging lesson which includes commenting using Post-it notes. We stress that you comment to keep conversations going (check out Learning to blog using paper).
Use an offline snowball activity. Teacher provides a writing prompt and students write a post. The paper is crumpled and tossed around the room until about 3 students have responded to their writing. It is then returned to the original writer and the class debriefs the process.
Tour of blog comments may be helpful to showcase how it is done (here are some blogs to check).

You can read more about Commenting and teaching quality commenting here.

Creating Global Connections

Connecting with other classes can have a huge impact on your class blog because:

Your students benefit from having an authentic and global audience
You gain from being supported by other educators — increasing your skills and developing new ideas that benefit your students

An authentic and global audience is important because:

When students are writing or publishing for an audience other the teacher, it impacts how they view what they doing and the intrinsic motivation they have.
Students love seeing their work on the Internet and adore getting comments from people. It motivates them to write as it gives them an audience that is real. The blog opens up a whole new world of people who can offer encouragement and feedback.
Blogging provides an authentic educational experience, where what they write is not only seen and commented on by their teacher, but by their peers and the “public.” For most students, it’s a bit of extra motivation knowing their peers will see their work.
There is an authentic audience – a global audience – one that is willing to connect, share, challenge, discuss and communicate with classes. This audience can provide further information, opinions, suggest resources, seek answers to questions and so on which pushes blogging further.
Provides real world problems and solutions to share.

Summarized from The State of Educational blogging in 2012.

Tips from participants in the student blogging webinar for global connections included:

It’s important to have a shared vision of what is blogging and what it can be when engaging in projects with other classes. Worth taking the time to research the other class (aka spy on them) to see if you have similar shared visions).
Joining a community like the Student Blogging Challenge, QuadBlogging and Global Classroom Project helps.
Join relevant eLists, connect, liaise and then propose collaboration.

Read more about connecting with other classes here.

Getting Family Involved

Class blogs are an excellent way for parents to find out what is happening in class and what their child is learning.

As Kathleen Morris says:

You can’t leave parent participation to chance. Parents needs to be educated and regularly encouraged and invited to be part of your class blog.” If you want to get the most out of your class blog you need to help parent and students connect with and easily find your class blog.

But there’s nothing more frustrating trying to find your teacher’s website and not being able to find it — make it too hard and they’ll quickly give up.

It’s quite common for educators new to blogging to assume their class blog is easily found using Google or that students will write the blog URL correctly in their notebook. These aren’t good approaches and decrease the chances they will be able to find your class blog.

Experienced educators use several different methods to help parents and students:

Understand what is a blog and how they can participate.
Easily find the class blog.

Tips from participants in the student blogging webinar for getting family involved included:

Having a family blogging month.
Have grandparents write posts (here is an example).
Have students teach parents how to comment on posts.
Add your blog URL to your email signature, communicate with parents often and choose an obscure name for the blog.
Link to the class blog from the school website.

You’ll find ideas on helping your parents and students connect with your class blog here and in Kathleen Morris’s A Guide to involving parents in your class blog.

Monitoring Student Blogs

The final key ingredient in student blogging is to make sure you monitor your student blogs.

It’s important to know what is happening on your student blogs and be able to act quickly if necessarily. Some educators do this by moderating all comments and/or posts so that only those they approve are published while others don’t and monitor student work using Google Reader.

Here’s what we recommend:

Add yourself as an admin user to all student blogs so you can easily log into their dashboard to make changes if necessary.
Monitor student work using Google Reader or some other option so you know what they are doing (you can do this using Users > Reports on Edublogs.org blogs)
Add a link to all student blogs from your sidebar – set up a blog roll or use Class Blog widget if you’ve set up My Class.

If you are using My Class on an Edublogs.org blog this is done automatically for you when you set up My Class.

You can learn more about My Class here or watch the following videos.

For more information I recommend you work through our step by step guide to blogging with students.

February 5, 2013
by Sue Waters
44 Comments

Commenting Counts (or does it?)

We’ve worked hard emphasizing that reading other people’s posts and commenting on posts are both a very important part of the learning process as a blogger.

Maybe we’re wrong? Or maybe we haven’t helped you experience it in action?

But what I do know is some have reflected they feel that commenting feels like a burden or that once you’ve made a comment it often goes no further.

I’m hoping this is where you’ll help out?

Please share your thoughts by leaving a comment:

Has commenting helped your learning? Yes or No? Why?
What advice would you give others on commenting?
What else could we do to improve the process?

January 29, 2013
by Sue Waters
9 Comments

Advanced Blogging: You asked for it!

I was asked to facilitate a series of blogging sessions the Massive Open Online Course on Educational Technology (ETMOOC). You can read more about connectivist MOOC’s and ETMOOC here.

This post is a summary of the ideas. tips and resources shared in the advanced blogging session.

You’ll find the recordings to the session here:

Complete list of archived ETMOOC Blackboard Collaborate Sessions
Introduction to Blogging – Jan 17 incl. Sue Wyatt, Peggy George (see supporting materials here).
Introduction to Blogging (Director Cut) – repeat Jan 23 incl. Sue Wyatt, Alan Levine, Penny Bentley (see supporting materials here).
Advanced Blogging – incl. Alec Couros, Sue Wyatt, Penny Bentley

The Advanced blogging session was a blend of what participants wanted to know mixed with skills they needed to know (Refer my Blogging questions Storify to see how this session was planned and the blogging tips shared by my network — thanks to all who helped plan this session!).

Warning:

This is a long post! Feel free to scroll down to the sections that interest you!
I’ve kept it in the same sequence as the recording so you can use it to supplement the information covered.
I’ve also added some quick videos to demonstrate some ”how to’
You can download it as a PDF by clicking on the PrintFriendly icon at the top of the post.

Stop, look, link

Stop look link Failure to link is a common mistake of all new bloggers! Linking to articles, websites or other blogger’s post when you write about them is an important part of blogging.

Your readers want to be able to easy check out the information without needing to Google.

Links are the building blocks of the web.

When you link:

You are crediting those who inspired your post.
Making it easy for readers to check out resources and information for themselves.
Building community, continuation of the conversation and reciprocity.

How to Link

Other common reasons why new bloggers fail to link include confusion on which words you link and which URLs you use.

It’s good blogging etiquette to link to:

A person’s blog if you mention a blogger
The post if you are talking about a particular post on a blog
Website or article if mentioned in your post

Here’s how simple it is:

Without linking:

Listened to Sue Waters’s session on Intro to blogging.

With linking:

Listened to Sue Waters’s session on Intro to blogging (here’s her post from the session).

And it looks like this:

How to link

Adding a link is as easy as:

1. Copy the URL of the website you want to link to.

Copy the URL

2. In the post that you are writing (1) highlight the text you want linked to the website and click on (2) Insert/Edit Link button.

Highlight the text

3. Paste the URL into (1) URL box and then click (2) Add Link.

It’s good practice to paste the link; it’s less likely you’ll type the link wrongly.

Paste the link

4. When you view your blog you should now see the text is now linked in your blog post.

Commenting Etiquette and Tips

Commenting is as important, if not more important, than publishing posts. Besides all the learning you achieve when commenting — it is important part of being part of a learning community and developing connections with others.

Commenting etiquette and tips include:

Stay on topic.
Contribute new ideas to the conversation
Be polite .
Respond back to comments on your own posts.

Here are tips shared by participants in the session:

Commenting tips

Digital Copyright and Fair Use

Photo by Mechanekton via Creative Commons ShareAlike 2.0

You can’t just use any image you like in a blog post.

Why? Because unless stated otherwise, the law automatically grants full “copyright” over any creative work a person makes.

I’m sure you’re probably thinking it is okay because as educators, we have a few more flexible rules, called “Fair Use”, to play by. Fair use, in some cases, if an image, text, video, etc. is being used for educational purposes, means you may have more flexible copyright rules.

The trouble is, most of the laws and rules that cover fair use and education were written well before the invention of the web. They don’t apply to use of copyright material on the Internet. Using copyright material leaves you open to copyright infringement.

So what does this mean?

You need to:

Learn what images you are and aren’t allowed to use, and why.
Learn how to attribute images you are allowed to use.
Educate your students that you can’t just use any images off the Internet in their blog posts, show them how to source and attribute images they are allowed to use.

Understanding digital copyright is an essential skill we need to understand and teach our students.

Refer to The Educator’s Guide to Copyright, Fair Use, and Creative Commons for comprehensive information on the use of images, curriculum docs, text and quotes, music, videos.

The safest way to source images for blog posts is to either use your own photos, images you created or use Creative Commons images (learn more about Creative Commons here).

Here’s a list of websites you can use for sourcing images:

Check out Joyce Valenza’s Comprehensive list of Copyright Friendly Image websites.

Using Creative Commons images

It’s a requirement of all Creative Commons Licenses that you attribute the original author. This means you can’t just use a creative commons image without acknowledging the person who originally created it.

Below the image or at the end your blog post you must:

Attribute the image
Link the photo back to it’s original photo page
Specify and link to the Creative Commons license used.

Image attribution

Check out links below to see how they work:

Photo by Darwin Bell licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic.

Tools for Sourcing Creative Commons Images

The easiest way to do this is using a Flickr Creative Commons tool such as:

Check out this video on how to add Creative Commons images using the Compfight Plugin:

The faster option!

Check out this video on how to add Creative Commons images using the Compfight:

Use this option if you don’t have access to the Compfight plugin!

Using your own photos in blog posts

An alternative option to using Creative Commons images is to use your own photos.

However it is important to realise your photos are automatically copyrighted to you unless you state otherwise! So you let others know how you allow them to use your photos.

This is easy! Add a Creative Commons licences to your blog.

It’s as simple as:

1. Go to Creative Commons Licences.

2. Complete the form to choose the type of license you want to use.

3. Copy the code.

Copy the code

4. Log into your blog dashboard.

5. Go to Appearance > Widgets.

6. Drag a text widget into your sidebar.

7. The widget will automatically open — just paste the code for your Creative Commons licence, click Save and then Close.

Paste the code

8. You should now see your license in your blog sidebar!

Post Sharing Etiquette

We’re far more social now and more likely to use social network sites like Twitter and Facebook as a buffet; consuming whatever we want at our leisure by selecting posts from links shared by our networks.

So whether we feel comfortable or not — we need to be sharing our posts on social networks. The trouble is how do we balance sharing our posts? What is the appropriate etiquette?

Larry Ferlazzo provides excellent advice on this:

Use other social media to develop an audience for your blog, but don’t primarily make it about you.

Check out how Larry balances sharing his own posts with sharing other people’s resource’s here!

Here are tips shared by participants in the session:

Post Sharing etiquette

Making posts visually engaging

If you look closely at blogs you’ll notice many of them add cool interactive tools to their blog post.

They do this because things like slides, videos, comic strips, quizzes, polls in blog posts grab attention, engage and create opportunities for interaction in ways not achievable using plain text and images.

How you embed, or if you can embed, depends on what blog platform you’re using.

Here’s where you’ll find more information on embedding on Edublogs.org blogs:

Check out this video on how to embed media using the URL:

Your Post Workflow

Some bloggers find having a workflow of how they create their blogs helps the process.

Here are the workflows shared by participants in the session:

Post Workflow

Here is my post workflow:

January 28, 2013
by Sue Waters
2 Comments

Staying Sane: Letting Go To Learn More!

A common challenge with connected learning is you want to learn it all NOW!

But some times it is better to remember:

Adapted from Photo by pareeerica via Creative Commons ShareAlike 2.0

I’m keen to see ETMOOC participants celebrating their learning and achievements in March like this:

Jumping Over The 3rd Largest Pyramid In The World

Adapted from photo by Anirudh Koul via Creative Commons ShareAlike

Rather give up feeling overwhelmed like this:

Photo by jazbeck via Creative Commons ShareAlike 2.0

Remember you don’t need to follow every link, think about every conversation.

Thinks about what you want to learn and focus your time on this. Sometimes quality is better than quantity.

Adapted from photo by >viZZZual.com via Creative Commons ShareAlike 2.0

Prioritizing your Learning

Below is a visualization of my work flow to show how I manage and prioritize my learning.

Hopefully it helps you?

Sketching my workflow helps me:

Reflect on what I’m doing and areas I want to improve or make more time effective.
Share with others so they can provide their input in other aspects I might consider.

PS:

I normally do this as a quick sketch, share it on Twitter and ask my followers for their input by asking them questions about it.
I’ve made it prettier using SnagIT so it is easier to see how I prioritize and manage my workload.

You’ll find my tips for working smarter in a learning community here.

My workflow

Thanks for Debs Seed and Sally Wilson for sharing their visualizations that reminded me that this is part of my practice; and Serge for spotlighting the benefits of creating a workflow.

And remember!

ETMOOC is all about your learning and what you want to learn!

January 22, 2013
by Sue Waters
33 Comments

Work smarter and stay connected in a learning community

A key skill working online is working out strategies that save you time.

It’s all about:

Working smarter not harder.
Saving time while maximizing outcome.
Learning to focus on what you want to learn - you don’t need to follow every link, think about every conversation. Learn to let go!

And when you’re participating in a connectivist MOOC like ETMOOC where over 1,500 participants are interacting through their blogs, Google+ community, through the ETMOOC Twitter hashtag and a wide range of tools working out strategies to work smarter are essential.

Off course developing strategies to work smarter is often easier said than done especially if you are new to this type of learning environment.

That’s where someone like me comes in. As an experienced user I’m constantly fine tuning my strategies to work smarter.

Here are my strategies for working smarter as part of ETMOOC that will help you!

Take ideas from what I do and then find what works best for you!

I’ve included tips for those who have an android tablet or iPad as they both are time savers since the apps make reading and interacting faster than using a computer.

Interacting in BlackBoard Collaborate

1. Saving the Chat and Whiteboard

Trying to focus on the chat, what’s being said and the Whiteboard can be overwhelming.

Don’t stress or worry too much about keeping up.

You can easily save the Chat log and Whiteboard just before you leave the session; and then reflect on the conversations in your own time.

This is as simple as:

1. Go to File > Save > Chat and save the chat log.

Save chat

2. Go to File > Save > Whiteboard and save the whiteboard as a PDF.

Save Whiteboard

2. Trouble shooting Collaborate issues

Some participants have had issues logging into the Collaborate sessions.

The best option is to visit the Blackboard Collaborate’s System Requirements page to ensure your systems meets their requirements and to test it using their configuration room.

All recorded sessions are archived here.

Interacting in the Google+ Community

1. Turn off Email notifications

First tip that most are aware of is turn off the email notifications

The Google+ ETMOOC community has been so active that email overload has been an issue.

Google Plus notifications

Then all I do is twice daily check the Google+ ETMOOC communiity and quickly review that latest updates.

You can learn more about using Google+ here.

2. Use the Google+ app

Next tip is it is faster to interact in the Google+ community using the Google+ app on an Android Tablet or iPad. Also works quite well on an iPhone.

All I do is twice daily load the Google+ app on my Android tablet and quickly review that latest updates.

Below’s what it looks like reading on my Tablet:

Google Plus on an android tablet

Interacting with blog posts

1. Subscribe to the ETMOOC blog hub post feed

The fastest way to read and interact with participants’ blogs is to add them to Google Reader using ETMOOC blog hub feed as follows:

1. Logging into your Google Reader account

Here’s how to set up Google Reader if you’ve never used before.

2. Click on Subscribe.

3. Add this URL http://etmooc.org/hub/

For those using other types of RSS readers you will find the RSS feed at http://etmooc.org/hub/feed/

4. Click Add.

Google Reader

Benefits of using the ETMOOC blog hub RSS are:

It’s faster to quickly read recently updated posts.
The full post is pulled into Google Reader, unless the blogger has used the Read More tag, so you can easily read the entire post inside Google Reader whereas only the post excerpt is display on the ETMOOC blog hub page.

2. Read posts from Google Reader on a tablet

It’s faster to read posts in Google Reader on a tablet:

Google Reader app - android tablet
Reeder - iPad

Alternatively you can use a magazine style app like FlipBoard (use http://etmooc.org/hub/feed/ to subscribe using Flipboard). Magazine style apps are personal preference. I prefer to easily read the full post using the Google Reader app whereas magazine apps show the post excerpt in a magazine style layout.

Below is what a post looks like in the Google Reader app.

Reading in Google Reader app

Below is what the feed looks like in the FlipBoard app.

Reading in FlipBoard

3. Subscribe to email notification of new comments

When you leave a comment on another participants post select the subscribe to email notification of new comments if they have this option.

This notifies you of any further comments on that post and makes it easier for you to continue the conversation in the comments — if you choose.

Subscribing to comments

If you’re using an Edublogs.org blog you need to:

Go to Plugins
Activate Subscribe to Comments plugin

Interacting with the #etmooc Hashtag on Twitter

1. Set up a Twitter client and monitor the #etmooc hashtag

A twitter client is a MUST as they provide instant notification of the latest updates and easy response to the tweets. Which Twitter client you use is personal.

If you are new to Twitter start by first checking out this Twitter Guide.

Here is what I use:

TweetDeck – on my computer.
FlipBoard – my tablets

2. Monitoring hashtags using TweetDeck

Here’s where you’ll find information on setting up TweetDeck.

Monitoring hashtags using TweetDeck is as simple as:

1. Add your hashtag term to the search box in TweetDeck and press Enter.

2. When the search window loads click on Add Column.

3. Your search column will load in TweetDeck and all tweets using that hashtag will be updated as they’re tweeted.

2. Monitoring hashtags using FlipBoard

There’s a range of different apps you could use to monitor the ETMOOC hashtag on Twitter however personally I think FlipBoard is one of the better options as it pulls in the post excerpt, videos and images if someone shares links in their tweet.

Below is what the #ETMOOC hashtag looks like in FlipBoard:

Hashtag in FlipBoard

Here’s where you’ll find information on setting up FlipBoard.

Monitoring hashtags using FlipBoard is as simple as:

1. Tap on Search

2. Add your hashtag ( #etmooc) to the search field and tap on search.

Add your hashtag

3. Tap on the + sign next to Tweets mentioning your hashtag to add it to your FlipBoard.

Tap on add

Automating the sharing and collating process

IFTTT is a service that allows you to automate tasks. It is pronounced like ‘gift’ without the ‘g’ and stands for “If this then that’.

What you do is set up different IFTTT recipes for the task you want to automate and each recipe is a combination of a trigger and an action.

For example, I can easily share posts I star in Google Reader with my Twitter followers automatically using IFTTT.

It sounds more confusing that it is!

About IFTTT

Here’s how to automate sharing posts from Google reader using IFTTT:

1. Sign up for IFTTT account.

2. Go to Browse Recipes and find the recipe you want to use.

Just add the search terms and click Search.
I use the Tweet starred Google Reader post recipe for sharing posts

Find the recipe

4. Click on the Arrow next to the recipe you want to use.

Click on Arrow

5. Click on Activate under each channel first.

Follow the instructions to authorize IFTTT to access the channels. In my example. I have to allow it to access Google reader and Twitter. It’ll ask you to log into your account and then Authorize access.

Authorize the channels

6. Scroll down and review what the Recipe does then click Use Recipe (if you want to use).

Click on Use Recipe

You can customise the recipe to suit your needs. For example, I changed the order to tweet Item title and then Item URL.

Changing a recipe

Some followers assume I’m sharing a post I’ve read. I could add this customisation:

Customising a recipe

7. Now when I star a post in Google Reader it is shared automatically by my Twitter account.

Click on Star

Here’s an example of a tweet shared this way:

Learning and Reflecting — bit.ly/11KZlEZ

— Sue Waters (@suewaters) January 21, 2013

8. IFTTT doesn’t process your actions immediately.

It’ll tweet links to starred Google Reader posts several minutes after I’ve starred them.
If you want to check if your recipe is working properly just click Check Now and it’ll immediately trigger the action.

Check now

9. You can disable a recipe at any time by clicking on Turn off.

How you can use IFTTT

You can use IFTTT to automate a wide range of processes. Check out IFTTT recipes others use for ideas and think about the tools you use regularly to see if there are recipes that will speed up the process.

These are the IFTTT recipes I use are:

Tweet starred Google Reader post recipe - good for sharing posts you recommend to others on Twitter.
Send Favorite Tweets to Evernote (workaround to Twitter trigger ending) recipe – great for collation links from Twitter to Evernote to refer to later.
Tweet my blog post – good for automating the tweet of blog posts.

Learn to let go

When you’re new you think you need to know everything and keep up with it all right now! You don’t!

Learn how to interact more time effectively reading blog posts. using Google+, Twitter hashtags and then focus on learning what you want to learn. You don’t need to follow every link, think about every conversation. You can always come back or ask others to help fill in the information you missed.

What are your tips?

These are my tips and what speeds up the process for me. There are lots of different ways you can work smarter rather than harder.

What has helped you? What advice would you give others? Is there anything I’ve included that you want covered in more detail?

January 18, 2013
by Sue Waters
40 Comments

Learning through blogging as part of a connectivist MOOC

I was asked to facilitate sessions on blogging for the Massive Open Online Course on Educational Technology (#ETMOOC). You can read more about connectivist MOOC’s and #ETMOOC here.

I’ve written this post to help participants better understand the ideas I discussed in my session and to make it easier to access the resources I recommend.

You’ll find the recordings to the session here:

Complete list of archived ETMOOC Blackboard Collaborate Sessions
Introduction to Blogging – Jan 17 incl. Sue Wyatt, Peggy George
Introduction to Blogging (Director Cut) – repeat Jan 23 incl. Sue Wyatt, Alan Levine, Penny Bentley

Introduction to blogging session was repeated and there are differences between the two versions.

Purpose of this session

My session was meant to be an Introduction to blogging.

I’ve spent the week interacting with #ETMOOC participants through their blogs, Google+ community and through the ETMOOC Twitter hashtag to identify what they really needed to know.

All participants have been ask to participate through their own blogs. Quite a few participants are new to blogging and it’s really hard to appreciate how you might learn through blogging as part of a connectivist MOOC if you’ve never blogged before.

So I’ve decided to focus my session on what they really need to know to get the most out of their blogging as part of #ETMOOC; as opposed to a more traditional introduction to blogging session.

More of an intro to the pedagogical aspects of blogging as opposed to the technical.

Hopefully I’ve got the balance right –since I’m writing this post before the session –but if not this post should help them work through the concepts I covered (or wanted to cover).

And for those that haven’t interacted with me before –

My waking hours are mostly spent helping others use their blogs effectively with students or for themselves; in all educational sectors around the World.

Getting started blogging info

Here’s where you’ll find our step-by-step series to help you get started if you are new to blogging:

Strongly recommend you take the time to work through our kick start your personal blogging. It takes you through the mechanics of what new edubloggers often want to know, and need to know.

You’ll find a comprehensive review on how educators use blogs with students and the blog platforms they use (and why) here.

How you learn through blogging

It’s an easy trap to focus too much on publishing posts while failing to appreciate that reading other people’s posts and commenting on posts are a very important part of the learning process as a blogger.

Blogging is a constant cycle of:

Evaluate
Review
Reflect
Revise

The idea of reflective blogging is you’re evaluating, reviewing, reflecting, revising while reading other people’s posts, commenting on their posts, writing your own posts and commenting back on comments made by others on your own blog.

By following this process you’re learning at a deeper level and differently from how you’ve learnt previously; and you’re doing it as part of a community.

How to quickly read participant’s posts

With a connectivist MOOC like #ETMOOC there are so many participants having so many conversations on their blogs, Google+ community and through the ETMOOC Twitter hashtag that it can be both overloading and overwhelming.

Key is to find effective strategies that make reading time efficient.

Making reading time efficient is really easy once you know how!

All you need to do is use the ETMOOC blog hub feed in Google Reader as follows:

1. Logging into your Google Reader account

Here’s my introduction to RSS and Google Reader if you’ve never used before.

2. Click on Subscribe.

3. Add this URL http://etmooc.org/hub/

For those using other types of RSS readers you will find the RSS feed at http://etmooc.org/hub/feed/

4. Click Add.

Subscribe to the blog hub

Benefits of using the ETMOOC blog hub RSS are:

It’s faster to quickly read recently updated posts.
The full post is pulled into Google Reader, unless the blogger has used the Read More tag, so you can easily read the entire post inside Google Reader whereas only the post excerpt is display on the ETMOOC blog hub page.

The ETMOOC blog hub is amazing work and even better than chocolate – if that is possible. Thanks Alan for making it happen!

You can submit your blog to the ETMOOC blog hub here.

PS personal rant!

If you’re using the Read More tag or set your RSS feed to Summary and not full text — DON’T.
Reader like me hate excerpts because it slows our reading down and means we’re less likely to bother reading your post.

Bonus tip!

Tablets It is faster to read the posts using a tablet than using Google Reader on your computer.

If you don’t have an iPad or an Android tablet it is worth having one. Feel free to tell your partner that Sue Waters said I needed one — if that helps! On my android tablet I use the Google Reader app and on my iPad I use Reeder. I prefer reading on my android using the Google Reader app.

How to quickly comment on participant’s posts

Now you’re able to time effectively read other participant’s posts adding a comment to their post is as simple as just click on the post’s title to visit a post to add a comment.

Remember:

Commenting is as important, if not more important, than publishing posts.
Besides all the learning you achieve when commenting — it is important part of being part of a learning community and developing connections with others.
Goal is to make time to comment on other participants posts; and ensure you respond back to comments by other participants on post on your blog.

Reading posts

Make sure you’ve select the subscribe to email notification of new comments if they have this option.

And finally writing posts

Notice I put posts last? Deliberate

The idea of blogging as part of a constructivist MOOC is that you’re reflecting and sharing your learning. Ideally what you’re looking for is to learn from others while building on, and adding to what you’ve learnt. That’s why I’ve put writing posts last.

Sure they’ll probably give you some tasks to blog about — like they did for the orientation week activity but the idea is it is all about what you want to learn so you should also write posts about whatever else you’re learning or want to share.

The more you read, participate by leaving comments on other participant’s posts, engage in discussions and conversations — the more you’ll learn and want to share — and this is when you REFLECT on it by writing a post!

I strongly recommend you also read these tips for writing better blog posts — it should help!

Check out Alan Levine’s Blogging as pointless, incessant barking post – packed full of excellent tips!

Where now?

The challenge with longer posts like these are you can feel like the blogger has said everything. Which I haven’t.

Now’s your opportunity to ask the questions about the:

Stuff I didn’t have time to cover.
The technical aspects on blogging I choose not to cover.
Share your ideas on how you’re learning through blogging as part of a MOOC.

So leave a comment or write a post to reflect on what you’ve learnt.

July 16, 2012
by Sue Waters
1 Comment

An Aussie’s adventure in USA Part II: New York and Niagara Falls

As promised here’s the summary of our adventures in New York and Niagara Falls for those who have been following our Journey on Twitter and Instagram.

As mentioned in my previous post:

Connecting with other educators on Twitter has enhanced the experience. My twitter network have helped recommend places to check out and it has been invaluable for connecting face-to-face with other educators in the different cities we’ve visited. You’ll find my guide to using Twitter here.
Instagram has been a great way to quickly share photos from our trip. Here’s how to use Instagram.

Here is where you will find all our photos:

Apologies but it is another long post. Feel free to jump to the sections that interest you!

Day 1:

Rockefeller Center
Empire State Building
Grand Central Terminal
Times Square
4th July Fireworks on Hudson River

Rockefeller Center

We started off the day with a visit to the Rockefeller Center where we saw the Today Show being filmed outside as part of the 4th July celebrations. It was great walking through the crowd seeing all the people wearing 4th July clothes.

Today Show being filmed live outdoors at the Rockefeller Center for 4th July

Empire State Building

Visiting the Empire State Building was a prefect way to start off our visit to New York. You can now purchase an audio-visual tour, which uses an iPod Touch. As you view sights from the Building the tour provides an excellent introduction to New York and the Empire State Building. Well worth paying the extra for the audio-visual tour.

We also visited the Empire State Building 102nd floor which is something I didn’t do last time I was in New York. My Mr13 hadn’t been keen to go up to the 102nd floor but was really glad when we did and thoroughly enjoyed it. Being less crowded made viewing the sights better.

Empire State Building

Grand Central Terminal

Grand Central Terminal is an important New York landmark and is located 5 minutes walk from our hotel. Well worth the visit to check out the beautiful architecture, Grand Central Market and the Apple Store (a must visit for all Apple lovers).

We had wanted to do the audio tour of Grand Central Terminal but ran out of time.

1. View of Grand Central Station from a balcony 2. Grand Central Station 3. Apple Store in Grand Central Station 4. Grand Central Market

The Apple Store is located on a Grand Central balcony overlooking the Station and is one of the most impressive Apple stores I’ve visited.

Apple Store in Grand Central Station

Times Square

Times Square is one of the World’s most visited attractions. The zoning ordinances in Times Square requires building owners to display illuminated signs which gives it a very distinctive feel.

It is also where you’ll find most of the Broadway shows. And before any one asks — No! We did not go to a Broadway show. We were time challenged!

Times Square at night on the 4th July

4th July Fireworks

We finished off our day watching the 4th July fireworks near the USS Intrepid Museum on the Hudson River with our Aussie friends Ann Mirtschin, Kathleen Morris and Nate Morris. The best part of this was spending time with our Aussie friends.

I didn’t enjoy the fireworks but am glad we went to see what it was like. I really had expected it to be much bigger, and better, than Perth’s Australia Day Sky Show when in reality it was the opposite. It made me appreciate how special our Sky Show is and the work involved in making it happen. But I also appreciate now why they couldn’t do the same as our Sky Show in NYC.

Our sky show has a crowd ranging in size from 200,000 to 400,000 supervised by a strong police presence. It is a full on event with scheduled activities happening all around the Swan River during the day and into the night. The fireworks are coordinated to Australian music which is simulcasted through a local radio station; and everywhere you can hear music while watching the fireworks. The fireworks stream off tall buildings and are on barges on the Swan River.

They also start our fireworks with an Australian flag being flown around the Swan River under a helicopter with our National anthem playing.

NYC has millions watch the fireworks and it would be impossible to supervise that number of people if they tried to hold an event similar to ours.

4th July Fireworks in NYC

Day 2

Central Park
Museum of Natural History

Central Park

I really love Central Park. You could spend days in Central Park and still never see everything Central Park has to offer.

Central Park, NYC

Museum of Natural History

There is a trick to not getting lost in the Museum of Natural History and I still haven’t learnt it!

This time I downloaded their Museum of Natural History Explorer app (you can check out all their apps here). The Explorer app is packed full of lots of great Museum adventures including Dino Tour and Night at the Museum Tour. Even with the built in directions and GPS I managed to get lost. Fortunately Mr13 is good at reading maps!

We really enjoyed the Museum of Natural History. We would have loved to spend a lot longer there. Our favorite exhibit was the Ocean Life Hall.

Museum of Natural History

Day 3

Manhattan Experience (8 hr)
Top of the Rock

Manhattan Experience

Each city we organised an all day tour so we make sure we see the city highlights. In NYC we did the Grayline’s Manhattan Experience. The tour was okay but I preferred the See it All NY tour we did last time I visited NYC.

With the See it All NY Tour you get off the bus with the tour guide at each stop. The tour guide walks you to the location so you get a really good view of the sight and an excellent overview of what you are seeing.

On the Manhattan Experience you drive past most the sights on the bus, which I struggled to see, and only stopped at four locations to get off the bus. One of the stops included 40 minutes at a souvenir shop. I would have rather spent longer at General Grant’s tomb so we could have gone into the tomb or gone to China Town and walk through it than spend time at a souvenir shop. The tour included a stop at Little Italy and people could have brought their souvenirs there.

1. General Grant’s Tomb 2. Little Italy 3. Charging Bull 4. Statue of Liberty

Top of the Rock

The Top of the Rock was included in the Manhattan Tour but you could use the entry ticket at any time so we decided to visit it at night because we had already done the Empire State Building during the day.

The Top of the Rock and the Empire State Building both give you views of NYC. Personally we liked the Empire State Building more because the audio-visual tour enhanced the experience. I also preferred the view during the day rather than the NYC lights at night.

Day 4

Rest day

Day 5

Subway
Brooklyn Bridge
Wall Street
Charging Bull
Trinity Church
St Paul’s
The High line

Subway Adventure

The NYC subway is one of the oldest and most extensive subway systems in the world and we decided we wanted to learn how to use the subway. We did feel a bit intimidated initially because it is big subway system and we rarely use public transport at home.

The main things to be aware of are:

Use with caution during rush hour as you may get trampled – almost happened to me).
Don’t use at night – use taxis.
Watch out for pick pockets – pretty sure a woman tried to pick pocket me on my first subway trip.
Learn which direction is Uptown and which is Downtown – or in my case use the HotStop app (see below).

The subway is definitely the cheapest way of getting around NYC and all you need to do is buy a Metrocard. You just swipe the metrocard as you enter into the subway. We purchased 7 day unlimited metrocards but we would have probably been better sharing a Pay-Per-Ride Metrocard.

Easiest option for finding your way on the Subway is to download the HotStop app which you use to work out which subway station and subway you need to take.

Only other point I would make is last time we used a 3 Day Hop on Hop off bus pass. This was good for the first day but wasn’t time efficient for other days because you are restricted to waiting while the bus stopped at every stop to get to the location you want to go.

Brooklyn Bridge

I’ve always wanted to walk the Brooklyn Bridge because it is one of the oldest suspension bridges in USA with an interesting history. So we were both very excited to walk across the bridge!

I really wish I had read Jo Hawke’s post on Brooklyn Bridge before doing it as she has so many cool tips of extra things we could have done!

The Brooklyn Bridge

Around Wall Street

Wall Street is the financial District of NYC and is what makes NYC one of the World’s principal Center’s.

Wall Street is a key tourist location as people come here to see sights including the NYC Stock Exchange, the Federal Reserve, Federal Hall National Memorial, The Trinity Church, St Paul’s Chapel, the Charging Bull, the Bowling Green, the World Trade center and it is close walking distance to all major ferry piers (such as Statue of Liberty tours, Staten Island, Governor’s Island).

Since 9/11 there is a very strong police and security presence in this area. The biggest change since last time I visited NYC is they now have 24/7 police guards on the Charging Bull.

The Charging Bull is located in the Bowling Green near Wall Street and represents the aggressive financial optimism and prosperity. It is one of NYC’s most photographed artworks and a popular tourist destination.

The aspect that had the biggest impact on us was visiting St Paul’s Chapel and learning more about their work during 9/11. St Paul’s churchyard is opposite the World Trade Center.

1. Wall Street 2. The Federal Hall National Memorial 3. NYC Stock Exchange 4. The Charging Bull

The High Line

The High Line is 1.6 km linear park built on a section of the former elevated rail road which runs along the lower west side of Manhattan.

The High Line park was a sight that my Twitter network recommended that we visit and I’m really glad we did. It is very spectacular; they’ve done an amazing job building this park along the elevated rail road. It is an extremely popular tourist destination.

Day 7:

Statue of Liberty
Ellis Island

Statue of Liberty

I was undecided if we would go to visit the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island because it was very busy at this time of the year and the Statue of Liberty is currently undergoing 12 months restoration.

But I’m very glad we did. The queue to visit Statue of Liberty wasn’t bad and nothing beats standing on Liberty Island looking up at the Statue of Liberty.

Audio tours for the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island are now included in the cost of the visit which makes it one of the most economical NYC full day activity.

We started off our visit to Liberty Island in the Information Center watching the Story of the Statue of Liberty. This provided us with a very good introduction to the history of the Statue and then we followed it up by checking out the sights while listening to the audio tour.

Rather than being put off by the restoration work I found it fascinating. I enjoyed watching them transporting the concrete trucks on the barge.

1. Looking up at Statue of Liberty 2. Close up of Statue of Liberty 3. Statue of Liberty Restoration work 4. Transporting equipment for restoration work

Ellis Island

Ellis Island was America’s largest and most active immigration station. From 1892 to 1924 over 12 million immigrants were processed on Ellis Island.

Last time I visited Ellis Island I struggled to get a lot out of the visit. This time I was determined to get a better understanding of it’s role in immigration.

This time we started our visit off by watching the “Island of Hope, Island of Tears” Movie. This really helped me understand it’s history so when we walked around listening to the audio tour we could visualize what it might have been like for the immigrants. Our afternoon on Ellis Island made me reflect on why my ancestors decided to migrant and why they chose Australia.

An interesting fact I hadn’t appreciated before was steerage and third class passengers were processed through Ellis Island where they underwent medical and legal inspection. Whereas first and second class passengers normally weren’t subjected to this process, unless they were obviously sick, and were free to enter USA because it was believed if they could afford the cost of the ticket on the ship then they were financial enough to support themselves.

1. Ellis Island 2. Registry Room 3. Registry Room ceiling 4. Board of Special Inquiry Hearing Room

Niagara Falls

While staying in NYC we organize a 2 day trip from NYC to Niagara Falls. It’s probably really good that I never checked how far Niagara Falls is by bus from NYC or we might not have gone

We covered over 1400 km (over 800 miles), and over 8 hours per day traveling on the bus, to visit the USA and Canadian side of Niagara Falls. It was worth every minute!

You really need to see Niagara Falls to appreciate how incredible it is!

Hopefully my video of Niagara Falls gives some sense of how impressive it is?

You can check out all our photos from Niagara Falls here!

We hadn’t appreciated the amount of mist Niagara Falls produces. The volume and speed of the water flowing over Niagara Falls creates an incredible mist plume which you see from miles away as you’re approaching the falls.

Mist rising from Niagara Falls

When we stopped next to Horseshoe Falls the mist was being blown at us and it was like standing outside in the rain (which is why Mr13 looks so wet).

The amount of mist and height of the mist plume is directly related to the temperature difference. The greater the difference between air temperature and water temperature the more mist produced and the higher the plume.

Mr13 getting wet from mist falling from the Horseshoe Falls (Canadian Falls) at Niagara Falls, Canada.

Probably like most people I hadn’t realised that Niagara Falls is made up of three falls. American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls are located in USA.

View of American Falls from the Maid of the Mist viewing platform on USA side.

The Horseshoe Falls (also known as Canadian Falls) is located mostly in Canada and 90% of the water flow from the Niagara Rivers flows over the Horseshoe Falls.

The Maid of the Mist going under the Horseshoe Falls.

Viewing Niagara Falls from both sides is definitely the way to go. A visit to Goat Island in USA allows you to get scarily tooooo close to all the falls.

American Falls from Goat Island.

And yet again Twitter was invaluable! We had an excellent time exploring Goat Island with Heidi Chaves.

Visiting Goat Island with Heidi Chaves.

Final thoughts

Hope you’ve enjoyed the highlights of our travel so far. Our next destination is Los Angles which I’ll cover in my next post.

July 7, 2012
by Sue Waters
3 Comments

An Aussie’s adventure in USA Part I: ISTE, Washington DC, Travel Tips and Understanding all things USA

Those that follow me on Twitter are aware that I’m currently traveling around USA introducing my 13 year old son to the wonders of America after attending ISTE.

We’ve been learning a lot, and it’s really hard to explain everything in 140 characters, so I’ve decided to share everything in more detail here.

Apologies for the long post but I’ve tried to include a bit for everyone from travel tips for Aussies. ISTE to what we’ve been doing. Feel free to jump to the sections that interest you!

And educators feel free to get me to Skype into your class to discuss differences between Australia and USA.

ISTE and San Diego

ISTE is an annual conference held in USA where 20, 000 people from around the World come to share and learn more about educational technology. It’s impossible to explain how much is gained from attending ISTE.

Networking online is great but you gain even more when you make those face-to-face connections. Check out more from what some of my friends gained here:

Please let me know if you’ve written some posts about ISTE so I can add them to my list!

Sue Wyatt, Tracey Watanabe, Ronnie Burt and me

Too many highlights to cover but an important one was meeting Ronnie Burt, my work colleague, face-to-face for the first time.

We’ve worked together now for over two years and talk almost daily so it did surprise many that that this is the first time we’ve meet.

Final comment is that ISTE was held in San Diego this year.

I was surprised to see that San Diego is very similar looking to my home city Perth. Lots of the same vegetation including Kangaroo paws.

You can check out my complete set of San Diego and ISTE photos here!

San Diego

I really need to learn to check the climate when traveling. I’d assumed that San Diego would be hot whereas the temperature was very similar to the current daytime winter temperatures in Perth.

Current Perth winter vs San Diego summer

Understanding all things USA

I’m always caught out traveling in USA; I find it harder than any other country I travel in. I think it”s because I assume it should be very similar to Australia when there are so many subtle differences that you don’t appreciate watching American TV shows or networking online with Americans.

The Food

Food has been my most exciting adventure this time. Most American food is very different from what we eat in Australia, and how you order meals is different.

This trip I’ve encouraged my American friends to surprise me by ordering food.

1. Memphis styled Pulled chicken burger with corn fritters and cinnamon butter. 2. Refried beans, Spanish rice and beef enchiladas 3. Indian Taco 4. NYC Pizza

Here’s some food facts:

Pulled meat is any meat that has been slow cooked for 6-8 hours and then pulled apart using a fork. It’s quite common for chicken, pork and beef.
Sandwiches are anything between pieces of bread. Burgers, rolls and buns are all called sandwiches in USA. For example, on a McDonald’s menu you will see burgers listed as a meal or sandwich price. Australians use the term sandwich to mean any food between two slices of bread.
In Washington DC, Jeff Meade took me to the Native Food Cafe in the Museum of American Indians. Mr13 and I enjoyed trying out the different Native Indian food. Our favorite was the Indian Tacos.
There are containers of garlic. Parmesan cheese, oregano. chili etc which you sprinkle onto your NYC pizza after it has been cooked and before you eat it.
Aussie meals tend to be as per the menu while in USA you’ll have lots of options so you need to be prepared to say what sides (e.g. fries, rice, salads, potatoes), what type of cheese, what type of dressing, how you want the meat cooked when ordering your meal. Good luck working out what some of the sides are!
The trick to ordering a McDonald meal is to say the meal size and number of the meal e.g Medium No. 1 means a medium Big Mac Meal. In Australia we would say it as a medium Big Mac Meal. If you say that here you might get a Big Mac with a drink minus the fries. Also here there is no such thing as a small meal at McDonald’s. The smallest size is the medium and the largest meal is considerably larger than McDonald’s meals I’ve eaten any where else in the World.
Most cafe and restaurant include free top up of soft drinks so you only pay once for a soft drink (soda).
A USA biscuit is similar to what we call a scone while a biscuit to an Australian is a cookie to an American. But to make it confusing they also do occasionally have scones
What they call a pickle is what we call a gerkin.
Donuts here are apparently a breakfast food while in Australia we eat them any time of the day but not for breakfast.
Our method of cooking bacon is known as Canadian bacon while bacon cooked here is very crisp and commonly eaten with fingers.
If a salad comes with the meal it’ll often be served before the main meal in USA where in Australia the salad is always served at the same time as the main meal.

Our Aussie language

Besides differences in food you also need to appreciate that Americans can struggle to understand Aussies when we speak. When they get that look in their glazed look in their eyes you know they haven’t fully understood everything you’ve said. Our use of different words and phrases with our accent makes it confusing for them.

Tipping

The other aspect Aussie’s struggle with is tipping. Tipping in Australia is considered un-Australian and tipping makes an Australian feel uncomfortable. Tipping is part of life in American. Take the time to learn how to tip and get used to tipping.

Please feel free to leave some tipping tips as I still struggle with working out when to tip and how much

Flying

Finally flying! Make sure you’re domestic flights are linked to your International flight or you will have to pay additional costs for each bag and as an International traveler you generally can’t use the self check in — bypass self check in and find some one on the counter who can organise your boarding pass.

It’s common for flights to be delayed and overbooked — don’t stress if you miss a flight due to delays! They will always get you onto another flight.

PS always hold onto your luggage claim receipt. Flights can be tight in USA and your luggage can arrive later or earlier than you.

Washington DC

Lots of people have asked for more information about what sight seeing we’ve done in each location, what we’ve enjoyed the most and any tips. Here is the information for Washington DC. I’ll cover New York in my next post.

You can check out all my photos from Washington DC here.

Day 1:

Smithsonian Air and Space Museum
Smithsonian Museum of American History – lunch at Mitistam Cafe (Native food cafe)
Smithsonian Museum of Natural History
Smithsonian Museum of American History
Walk down National Mall to Washington Monument
Walk past Reflecting pool to Lincoln Memorial

Here’s some facts:

All Smithsonian Museums are free and most are within easy walking distance from each other on either side of the National Mall. Best option is to start at a Smithsonian at one end and work your way along the National Mall to check out the Museums you want to visit.
Each Smithsonian Museum is packed full of things to do and you really can spend as much or as little time visiting each. We comfortably visited four Museums in one day but could have easily spent a day in each.
Like all important USA sights you have to go through a security check before entering. Remember no food allowed and if you are allowed to bring in drinks you can only carry water.

Favorite moments were:

The Star Spangled Banner exhibit and Lighting a Revolution at the Smithsonian Museum of American History. There are lots of really interesting exhibits in the American History Museum that I hadn’t expected and well worth the visit.
Mr13 enjoyed all the different Museums. His favorite was probably the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. I loved The Wright Brothers & The Invention of the Aerial Age and Barron Hilton Pioneers of Flight
Lunch at the Native Food Cafe in the Museum of American Indians. There was so many different types of foods to try that you wouldn’t normally get an opportunity to try.
Walking the National Mall to the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial. The National Mall is currently undergoing major restoration and the Washington Monument is closed due to Earthquake damage but still a great walk.

1. Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. 2. Smithsonian Museum of National History. 3. Washington Monument 3. Lincoln Memorial

Day 2:

We did the Gray Line’s DC in a Day Tour.

It was a good way to learn more about DC and included stops at the following sights:

Tour of Capitol Building
White House Visitors Center – you need to walk across the road to see White House
Smithsonian Museums
World War II memorial
Martin Luther King Memorial
Roosevelt Memorial

We had sufficient time at each stop to check out each location well.

Our personal highlight was visiting The Capitol. It is such a beautiful building and we learnt a lot about its history on the guided tour of The Capitol.

1. The Capitol 2. Interior view of the Capitol Dome 3. Martin Luther King’s Memorial 4. Roosevelt Memorial 5. World War II Memorial

Day 3:

Personally I wasn’t a fan of the International Spy Museum but Mr13 really enjoyed it. We paid to go on a Spy mission which he really loved.

My favorite was the National Archive. Best place to start the visit is watching their Introductory movie on the National Archives. The exhibits at the National Archives were informative and interactive.

Loved the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom

Declaration of Independence
Constitution
Bill of Rights

1. White House 2. National Archives 3. White House

Day 4:

We did the Gray Line’s Mount Vernon and Arlington Cemetery tour.

We thoroughly enjoyed this tour as it gave us an opportunity to see sights outside of Washington DC while learning about George Washington. Mount Vernon is the home of George Washington. It is where he died and is buried. A visit to Mount Vernon should definitely be included on your list if you have time when visiting Washington DC.

This tour included stops at the following sights:

Mount Vernon and guided tour of The Mansion
Christchurch in Alexandria
US Marine Corps memorial
Tour of Arlington cemetery including visits to the Kennedy’s graves, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Changing of the Guard Ceremony
Lincoln Memorial, Korean War Memorial and the Vietnam War memorial

1. The Mansion at Mount Vernon 2. George Washington’s Tomb 3. Kennedy’s grave at Arlington Cemetery 4. George Washington’s pew in Christchurch 5. Arlington Cemetery 6. US Marine Corps Memorial

Staying connected

And finally for those wondering how I’m staying connected Internet access is always my first priority as I’m working as I travel.

There is a range of options for International travelers in USA. This time I went with an AT & T 3 GB Prepaid Sim card from mrsimcard.com (I’ve hired USB Internet Access Card for my computer on previous trips).

Here’s what you need to know if you use this option:

Make sure you select the correct SIM card. I selected the wrong one which they correctly fixed before sending the card.
Delivery to Australia is really fast. You can also have it sent to your hotel.
Telstra unlocks iPhones for free but you need to organise this several days in advance of travelling as it takes a couple of days to unlock and you need to connect to iTunes to complete the process. I had to do a factory restore to make mine unlock (remember to back up your iPhone before doing a restore).
mrsimscard.com sends an email with an app you need to install on your iPhone before you can use the card.
I had planned to hotspot my iPhone, like I do with Telstra in Australia, but you can’t using this plan with AT & T in USA. If I had been aware of this I might have brought my 3G iPad.

Having a pre-paid SIM card really is worth it; makes life easier and enhances the experience! I’ve also installed IM Pro+ on my iPhone so I can quickly IM with my work colleagues if needed.

Final thoughts

Hope you’ve enjoyed the highlights of our travel so far. Our next destination was New York which I’ll cover in my next post.

Only other things I would add is:

Connecting with other educators on Twitter really enhances the experience. My twitter network have helped recommend places to check out and it has been invaluable for connecting face-to-face with other educators in the different cities we’ve visited.
Instagram is a great way to share your travels with your network and is a great instant way of sharing your experience. You’ll find my Instagram photos here.

Here’s where you’ll find my guides on:

May 9, 2011
by Sue Waters
4 Comments

Visiting Melbourne…Want to catch up?

I’m going to be in Melbourne from May 11 to May 18.

My mum’s attending a conference from May12-13 and asked me to join her as she doesn’t get much opportunity to holiday.

Perhaps explains where I get it from my craziness from.

But at 72 she leads an incredibly busy life. Still works 3 days per week plus does volunteer work. Between that and family commitments — it’s no surprise there’s not much time to holiday.

Getting to the point

I’ll be in Melbourne and happy to meet up with any one between our holiday commitments.

I’ll be attending the 2011 DEECD Innovation Showcase on May 12. I’m using it as an opportunity to catch up with people I’ve been networking with online while she is busy at her conference. Please watch out for the lost person at the conference — that’ll be me!

Feel free to also suggest must see places to take her in Melbourne. I don’t think she has visited Melbourne and has made the incredibly BAD mistake of leaving me in charge of all travel plans. We could be in serious trouble since she isn’t aware of my dirty secret that I can get lost in the simplest locations.

PS needs some extra special suggestions for Saturday May 14 as it is her birthday!

And wish my mum luck — there is a chance I might lose misplace her in Melbourne during one of my famous ‘I’m lost’ incidents

March 19, 2011
by Sue Waters
3 Comments

My chances of winning all the chocolate ARE?

Life’s been a bit tougher the past 12+ months which is why there’s been less of Sue around than previously.

And off course, during the same period I’ve also been a bit accident prone so some of my friends, who have been there when I’ve needed them, have decided it’s time for a smile and laugh.

So as a bit of harmless fun they’ve created the Sue Waters’s Injury Sweepstake.

I’ve been lead to believe if I make it to 30 Sept, 2011 without an injury I win the prize of REAL chocolate

As Phil say’s it all started from his gentle teasing of me being prone to accidents and perhaps we should run a sweepstake on it.

Considering I’ve injured myself three times in the past 12 months — there might be some truth in being accident prone.

History of accidents are:

April 2010 – Grade 2 tear of calf muscle in right leg trying to change the tyre (tire) on my car while on holidays
July 201 0- drove car into a concrete pole in a car park breaking fourth metacarpal of my left hand
Feb 2011 – fell over when car stuck behind boon gate in public car park damaging ligaments in left foot

Injuries ‘

But am I really accident prone?

My accidents were annoying, and let’s be honest, quite funny.

But evidence suggests that others are like me

In the same time period my sisters both injured themselves (walking):

Aug 2010 - middle sister badly fractured left ankle
Dec 2011 – oldest sister broke her left arm/wrist and shattered right shoulder ball joint

Placing your bets

So for a bit of a chuckle, and fun, check out the current suggestions of how I might next injury myself, when and the cause of the accident. There are some really funny suggestions.

And off course, while there add your own suggestions to the Sue Waters’s Injury Sweepstake.

Wish Phil had made it so my children couldn’t enter They’ve been plotting how they could rig it