the 23 things

Hello! Welcome to the Tassie Toolbox, 23 things for VET practioners and content developers. This ongoing tutorial is part of the Australian Flexible Learning Network Toolbox initiative. On this blog you'll encounter the tools of the new Internet: Web 2.0 tools that are bringing our students and trainees in touch with the entire world through social networking, video, audio, and virtual reality. As a group we'll spend the next 10 weeks exploring and enjoying 23 tools of this new Internet. There are many places for you to discover, experiment, use in creative ways to deliver your training.


Tutorial Format:

Each week begins with a brief explanation of a new web 2.0 topic, followed by discovery exercises. These exercises give you the background you need to understand the tools you're learning about. Don't skip them! After the discovery exercises, you'll find a thing -- activity -- to complete. After each thing you will write about the experience on the blog you will be creating in week 2. In other words, you will comment or "post" to your online log (Blog). This is a tool to communicate your thoughts, new found skills, ideas, questions, and favorite websites. You'll receive feedback and encouragement from other participants. In turn, you will provide feedback and encouragement to others. It's your space!

The program kicks off in May, but I've put up the first two weeks ahead of time, to give you a taste of what's to come. From May 21st on I'll be filling in the links below to take you to each new week's specific lessons - so remember to come back each Thursday for a new week's worth of things to explore.

Week 1: (May 7th)
1. Please begin by reading this blog & finding out about the program.
2. Discover a few pointers from lifelong learners and learn how to nurture your own learning process.

Week 2: Blogging (May 14th)
3. Set up your own blog , add your first post, add an avatar.
4. Register your blog and begin your 23 things journey.

Week 3: Photos and Images (May 21st)
5. Explore Flickr and learn about this popular image hosting site.
6. Have some Flickr fun and discover some Flickr mashups & 3rd party sites.
7. Write about something technology oriented

Week 4: RSS & Newsreaders (May 28th)
8. Learn about RSS feeds and set up your own Bloglines newsreader account.
9. Locate a few useful VET and training related blogs and/or news feeds.

Week 5: Roll your own resources (resuming after the school holidays: June 18th)
10. Tell a digital story.
11. Build a resource of your own using ARED
12. A look at open courseware (wikiversity, MIT, Rice, the Commonwealth of Learning, iTunesU)

Week 6: Tagging, Folksonomies & Technorati (June 25th)
13. Learn about tagging and discover Del.icio.us (a social bookmarking site)
14. Explore Technorati and learn how tags work with blog posts.
15. Copyright, Creative Commons, and What's Coming Down the Road with Web 2.0.

Week 7: Wikis (July 2nd)
16. Learn about wikis and discover some innovative ways that educators are using them.
17. Add an entry to the Tassie Toolbox wiki.

Week 8: More free tools (July 16th)
18. FOSS (gimp, audacity, kompozer), eXe, hot potatoes
19. Take a look at some online productivity (word processing, spreadsheet) tools.

Week 9: Podcasts and Video (July 23rd)
20. Discover TeacherTube and a few sites that allow users to upload and share videos. An introduction to camstudio and wink
21. Podcasts - no iPod required!

Week 10: Downloadable Audio and wrapping up (July 30th)
22. eBooks and Audio eBooks
23. Summarize your thoughts about this program.