Live feeds

I just remembered that, while my webquest may not have been going brilliantly lately, I have made a few technological advances. Mostly I've been gradually setting up my new laptop (yes, still). Firefox was, of course, one of the first things I put on it, and in process I realised that firfox now has a "live bookmark" function. I have now added all my friends' blogs to my bookmarks as "live" bookmarks, which means that when I hover over them with the mouse, a new menu of headlines comes up, and I can see if there are any new ones without having to go to the site and wait for it to load. It means I don't think I will bother with any RSS readers, as this does what I need.
Firefox has probably had this feature for a while, but I hadn't noticed until I was browsing their website while downloading it again.

Where did April go?

Just noticed it had been a couple of weeks since my last post. Don't know how that happened. I could swear it was just the other day.
So. A progress report. Or perhaps a lack of progress report. My webquest has been going backwards, really. Really not good. I've had the idea for the structure and task and everything for a while, and that hasn't changed, but my theme is now going to be castles instead of Pirates. I wanted something that was easier to base in reality and history, and there is way too much hype and hollywood about pirates. Also, I remembered a good project I did last year at the same summer school I am designing this for, and my plan now is to adapt it for a webquest, which will have the students finding much of the infor themselves (or so they think) without me telling them. Also, the summer school does excursions to a few different castles, so it will be relevent more than once over the 6 weeks (the students change about every two weeks, so repeating lessons isn't a problem).
The other change is that I think I may be using questgarden instead of dreamweaver. This feels like a bit of a cop out, but I think that's what I need at the moment! I know I could nut out the dreamweaver thing without too much trouble, but my life is all a bit insane at the moment, and the thought of a template into which I can just plug my ideas is a good one. And of course, I've been inspired by Owen's finished product!
So that's where I'm up to. Hope everyone else is doing a little better!

Serious Thoughts, as promised

Having two blogs is getting confusing. I am going to have to start being serious about the travel blog/serious blog disinction. I'm sitting here on an idyllic day in Sydney, and I don't know what to write where, or something. So you'll just have to read my travel blog for info on things like the beautiful weather and my peaceful surrounds. I will, however, add picture, as it has more to do with technology than travel. I have finally got my fancy new laptop into some sort of useable state, no thanks to the new fad for 'customized' versions of windows sold with brand name computers - it all had to be reinstalled so that I could use even basic features like the XP start menu. Anyway, I now have a webcam permanently perched on the top of my screen (it's built-in!) and have been trying it out. Unfortunately it isn't designed for outside, and only produces over-exposed pics of the lovely garden I'm sitting in (using what you could call "found" wireless) so you'll have to be happy with Yet Another pic of me.
Except blogger is timing out and making it difficult so I may have to add it later. So much for "instant" blogging! I'll post it to my travel blog instead.

Serious thoughts, serious thoughts. Ah yes, the workshop. Lots to take in, mainly in terms of new websites and tools and useful things to know. Also a lot we didn't get to that could have been interesting. Ended up quite exhausted, but then I sort of started pretty exhausted, so that might not say much...
OK, so we probably all should have had our webquests at least started before the workshop, but at least we should be more or less on track now. I have downloaded dreamweaver, and produced a very simple first page that needs lots more bells and whistles. I figure I should work out how to publish the simple version to the web first. I should probably also have another play in Quest garden or whatever it's called so that I know Idon't want to use it. I figure I should make the effort with dreamweaver, as it will be more useful in the long run. Like for the next assignment. I'm also about to look at hot potatoes, which I would like to incorporate into my webquest. I think I can use it to make little exercises that could provide an interesting way of presenting short texts for vocabulary learning (Avast, me hearties) and for research, without having my elementary 12 year old students too overwhelmed by real websites that are beyond them. That's what I'm working on today.

I think I might take my laptop for a walk - the harbour is only 10 mins away here. I might go sit in the sun by the water and see if there is an unsecured wireless network around... Ah, this studying thing isn't easy, is it!

Another trick

My other blog came up with a link that said "NEW! Ad your travel map to any blog!"
So I thought I would try it.


Also, it's a good excuse to post something (anything) to stop the big-me, little-me photo effect...
Serious thoughts about Saturday's workshop and whatnot will come. Once my brain is once again capable of serious thought. Or any thought. I'm off to bed.