new zealand

Things are going great in New Zealand. The three of us girls are closer than ever. After sleeping in the back of a van in on a airmattress for the majority of our trip, that is the only option. We have been sea kayaking, glacier hiking, jade making, driving (lots of driving), and today we went sledging(doing white water on a board). It was amazing. Internet has been far and few and expensive so pictures will be coming when available. Anyways catch ya later

scubadiving

Hey hey...
Well we made it up to Cairns and went scubadiving and snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef. This is me and my mommy.


Things are going great... we are heading to Naideen and Allen's today. Anyways... short and sweet, thing to do and see.

quick

Well my mom has made it here safe and sound and we have been at Conrad and Carols for the last couple days. It has been extremely hot 38C. We have been busy harvesting garlic and visiting with Peter and the rest of the family. Everything is going great and I will hopefully get on here and write a longer account when we get to Cairns.

no computer for awhile

Well I have decided that I can't hull my computer around with me for the next two weeks, so I'm giving it up tomorrow and leaving it at a friends place. I'm going to feel naked without it, it has really been my lifeline to everything. Schedules for trains, buses, phoning, travel info, homework and anything and everything else. So I won't be writing on here for a while. I should get the opportunity to do so at either Conrads or the hostel along the way. No guarantees. I have almost everything packed, I don't know how I'm going to fit the rest in my bag but that's okay. I've had to give alot of stuff away, at least to people who will use it. Anyways that's it for a bit.

travel expo

Well classes are finally finished. Hooray!!! I'm just putting some final touches on my last essay and I have one exam. I'm glad I only have a few things left because my roommates and I are not seeing eye to eye and I have to move out the day my mom gets here or pay rent for two more weeks. So out I go. Luckily I have met some really nice people and I can store my excess luggage at their place until I leave to NewZealand. Today I took a break and went down to the travel expo and then down to Bondi Beach. It was nice to get out and go down to the water and find more information on Cairns and NewZealand. I'm getting very excited, my mom leaves to Calgary tomorrow morning and flies out. She will be here in 4 days.... doesn't seem real. Anyways here are a couple pictures of the travel expo.

didn't get there

Well the weather did not want to cooperate with me this weekend. The majority of the weekend was cloudy and rainy. So I did some shopping at the markets and some homework. Then I spent all Sunday morning loading programs back on my computer because it decided to crash over night and all my information was gone. Was not a happy camper. It is the second time that it has happened to me. Needless to say I spent the rest of the day and still continuing to do assignments that were erased and starting new ones that are due. I haven't checked to see if I still have my pictures on my camera or not... I'm too scared to look. Next weekend will have to be my weekend to go to the mountains and to the beach. My classes end on Friday and I only have one exam, so I can sit on the beach and study and study on the train to the mountains. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.

nearly over

Well I have less than 2 weeks of classes left and two assignments to go. Hopefully this will mean that I can go to the Blue Mountains this weekend and do some exploring. I'm also trying to get everything organized for when mom gets here. Booking hostels and diving and all that good stuff. We are all getting excited. I just got an email from Con and Carol and they are starting their garlic so they may be done by the time we get there. There may be no rooting or stripping left for us to do.

crunch time

Well it is down to the last month of classes and I have a million assignment to do and don't want to do any of them. I'm getting excited about my mom coming, it is less than a month as well. Time flies when your busy. The weather is getting hotter and hotter here, it was up to 30C today.

a couple more pictures

A few more pictures

The guesthouse we were fixing

My home during my visit



Flying kite

long time no write

Well I had a really long unexpected visit at Conrad and Carol's this past week. I went up there last weekend just to stay the weekend and ended up staying a week and a half. They asked me to stay and do some work there instead of coming back to Sydney and working in the daycares. I enjoyed working with them much more than coming back to Sydney. It also gave me the opportunity to visit and meet more of their friends and family. We worked on getting their guest house finished and harvesting some of their garden to sell at the market in Braidwood. Luckily I didn't see any snakes and only a couple big spiders. But I did see a few Wombats and wallabys. Saw one Wallaby way closer than I wanted... Conrad hit it on our way to Canberra. While in Canberra we checked out Floriade, which is quite impressive but at the same time I think it needs to be seen from the air. It is a whole bunch of flowers in different shapes to represent different things. Here are a few pictures of my visit to Little Oakley.

Brian, Conrad, Carol, Ellie


Me at Floriade


Canberra city




Wallaby



Nelan's place

two weeks off

Well for a little while my life will slow down slightly. I have 2 weeks off from school. But smart me has decided that instead of going travelling I would stay in the city and work so that I can afford to live. And get some extra homework done and out of the way. I am also planning on going to Conrad and Carols again next weekend. Looking forward to that. I actually made it down to the harbour yesterday and took some pictures of Sydney's landmarks. The Opera House and the Harbour bridge.

swamped

Howdy,
Well I've been swamped with assignments this week and trying to get somethings organized for New Zealand. New Zealand took priority over assignments of course. We have finally decided that we are going to fly to Christchurch which is on the south island and drive upwards in a cargo van. We will buy a bed to throw in the back and crash in there if we want or if we need to. We are all looking forward to the trip and trying to decide what to do and what we have time for is occupying alot of my thoughts anyways.

more pics

Little Oakley Creek area



Conrad Fire Twirling and me attempting to do so

conrad and carols

Well I had a really good time catching up and seeing Conrad and Carol and Carol's mom Elly. The only down side was that I was sick the whole time I was there and it rained the whole time. So they were stuck babysitting me and my cold. I lost my voice almost completely but they were all really good and kept pumping me full of echinacia and tea. I am feeling alot better now, not 100% but better. I took a few pictures and I was going to post them on flickr but for some reason I don't remember my password or log in name... it's been a long day. So I'll post them right here.

If you look really close you can see the joey in mom's pouch.


Carol and Elly and Conrad in the far back

Conrad walking

slide show

Well I have to do a project about me so I used the pictures that I had to create a slideshow.

long time no write

Well time really is flying by. I'm heading to Conrad and Carols on Wednesday and staying until Sunday. I'm really looking forward to seeing some familiar faces and getting out of the city. The buses and trains have been all messed up because of the Apec so getting around is more difficult. School is going well, lots to do. I will hopefully be posting pictures when I get back from my trip to Conrads... I still haven't gone anywhere worth taking pictures of. Anyways next week.

officially working

Well I have officially begun working. I worked for 8 hours yesterday a few train stops north of me and then I worked 4 hours south today. It is really hard going into a different daycare everyday but at the same time if you don't like the daycare one day you never have to go back there again. Luckily the daycares I've been at so far have been good. I forgot how much work there is to do and how much I like working with children.

been awhile

Well I haven't posted anything for almost a week...

I found a job, not the one I was hoping for but it works out better for me. I am working for an agency that fills daycare positions when people are sick or on holidays. So I can work when I want and not work when I want. Which works out great for me because I have plans of going and visiting my cousin(Conrad and Carol) here in Australia and then I think I'm going to head to Melbourne and area for a bit and see the great ocean road. My mom finally officially booked her plane ticket to here and in turn I booked us plane tickets to Cairns to go snorkellin/diving and make a didgeradoo, and then to Brisbane to see my aunt and uncle (Allen and Naideen) and the Australia Zoo. I can't believe it is only 3 months until she is here and then we are off to New Zealand where my sister will meet up with us and we will have a girls trip around New Zealand for 2 weeks. I really can't wait. School is flying by and I just found out that I recieved another scholorship, so that will really help. I've been really lucky in that way this year.

brad paisley

I just finished watching the ECMP455's last session, unfortunately I had to leave early so I missed being interact with the dream team as Dean calls them. But I really wanted to post the music video of Brad Paisley's song on here because I think it really reiterates the fact that you need to watch out with who you are talking to on the computer. The person you are talking to could be a pedophile or they could be completely normal... just be aware.
I can't embed the video but just click here and away you go.

research

I have a big assignment that I am doing over here in Australia. I am doing a policy analysis about youtube, social spaces, and internet sites being banned in schools. Also about anyways in which schools are accepting the programs and using them to benefit the children. I am comparing Australia with other countries and what is going on in classrooms around the world. I'm looking for anyone who comes across an article to paste it in the wiki that I just started to create. I would really appreciate the help. Thanks
http://youtubeinternetschools.wetpaint.com/

teacher-astronaut

I stole this article from Collette Cassinelli's blog. I really like the comparison between teachers and the importance that the article places on teachers.


We explore, we discover and we share.
By Colette Cassinelli

Teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan took questions and spoke to hundreds of youngsters packed into the Discovery Center of Idaho in Boise:

“Astronauts and teachers actually do the same thing,” she answered. “We explore, we discover and we share. And the great thing about being a teacher is you get to do that with students, and the great thing about being an astronaut is you get to do it in space, and those are absolutely wonderful jobs.”

We explore, we discover and we share - yes - it IS the greatest job there is.

Image: Clockwise from left are STS-118 mission specialists Dave Williams, Barbara Morgan and Alvin Drew and Expedition 15 Flight Engineer Clay Anderson. The astronauts participated in an educational event with students asking questions from the Discovery Center in Boise, Idaho. Image: NASA

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animal youtube

I don't know what to think of this video. I like Animal Planet but this was almost too much for me.

prospects of a job

Well I am so so so excited. Today I had class out at Kuranggui so I wasn't home all day and when I got home it was too late to phone home so I started doing homework. When my room mate got home she said there was 3 messages on the phone for me. I had applied for a couple jobs on the weekend and they had phoned me back today, The one is not to exciting, it is working in the childcare field at various places. The other one is the one I am extremely excited about. It is a job going from school to school in Sydney and taking 3 children from a classroom and working with them on the computer until I have gone through the whole class. I don't know all the details yet but I will find out more tomorrow and can't wait. It will really give me a chance to work with children and technology. I can really see myself leaning towards this in my educational career. I think technology is going to be huge in school systems in the next 5 years and I want to be the one that is helping the other teachers adapt and grow to use the programs. Anyways that was my excitement for the day. So hopefully all goes well and it works out.

busy busy busy

Well I've been really busy this weekend... not really but it feels like it. I've been trying to get ahead on some of my classes. Trying to convince my mom and sister to come to Australia and New Zealand and looking into flights for them. I've discovered different features on Skype. I've also discovered in regards to Skype that Canada is behind the times for allowing Skype to have telephone numbers. There is a part of Skype where you can get a telephone in a different country than where you are and then people can phone that number and not pay the long distance and get you on your computer. It is an amazing feature but like I said it doesn't help me because everyone I talk to is in Canada and that is where there free calling is. Oh well... maybe in the near future. I hope. I am planning on trying to get out of the city and see my relatives for the first weekend in September... the G8 is in the city and it is going to be crazy, not to mention I have pretty much a whole week off right then. So I'm looking forward to that. I'm also trying to plan what I want to do for spring break... I have 2 weeks off and want to travel and see some of the things that I didn't see last time when i was here. So I've been glued to the computer for the last day and a half, looking for info, completing wikis, reading rss feeds, doing homework, reading for classes.... I'm glad I have my laptop and internet access.

blogging, are you addicted.

55%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Mingle² - Dating Site

I don't consider myself as addicted to blogging. I mainly blog for my ECMP class and occasionally through some interesting tidbits about what is going on down under. But apparently I use it more than I thought.

Well I think I our collaborative project is as good as it is going to get. I have had a good time working with the others in my group. It has definately been a learning experience. Trying to decide what to do, how to do it and having a deadline and expectations to meet. I learned how to embed music into a wiki, create a wiki, contribute to a wiki, absolutely everything I know about wikis. I had never created one or been involved with one until this project. Our page is laid out so that others can continue to add to our site and hopefully it will grow and grow.

video about math

This video shows that different teaching methods really does make a difference.

interesting to find

I found this article and it absolutely shocked me. We have been learning in our ECMP455 class how to incorporate technology into the class room and I think that youtube is a big part of that. In Victoria, Australia they have banned youtube.

State bans YouTube
By Stephen Withers
Thursday, 01 March 2007
Access to YouTube will be blocked from computers in public schools in Victoria, Australia.

The ban will be achieved by adding the popular video sharing site to the blacklist already applied to school's Internet feeds.

The primary reason for the ban is not (as you might expect) the waste of time and resources involved. Instead it is part of an anti-bullying policy.

Last year a group of male Victorian students gained notoriety when they attacked a female student and distributed video of the assault on DVD and YouTube.

Education Services Minister Jacinta Allan said "The Bracks government has never tolerated bullying in schools and this zero tolerance approach extends to the online world."

She also noted that it was parents' responsibility to prevent students posting harmful content from outside schools.

I don't see how one incident of bullying at a school should mean the banning of a useful resource. There are so many good messages on YouTube that if you teach children the difference, it is a great tool.

education in australia

I'm finding some of my classes really interesting because I am learning about the education system in a different country. It was really interesting to learn that they have the curriculum and the hidden curriculum like we do in Canada but they have added in their curriculum values to teach. This is a very controversial issue here and for the most part people I have talked to, think there is no place for it. How can schools teach values to such a wide range of cultural backgrounds. When you come from a certain culture you grow up with certain values and then you go to school and are taught a different set of values that may contradict those of your parents. The values that are listed in the curriculum are listed on this site. Although they are basic values that sure we would try and instill in the children I found it really odd that they are part of the curriculum here and that you are suppose to teach them. This came about because alot of people were taking their children out of public schools and putting them in private schools and the gov. wanted to stop this and supposedly this was suppose to do it. I don't know what to think... you have to teach values or you should teach values in the hidden curriculum. So what is the difference? The have to and the should.

figured it out

Well I figured in out and now I just have to find good music to stick on here.

I really like this blog music site they have almost everything on there and make it really easy to add music to your blog.

Trying to embed music into blog.

meeting

Today I met with Niomi and Pam on Skype and discussed our collaborative project. Gillian had problems connecting to the meeting so she had to be updated afterwards. We decided that we would keep the comparative page and keep all the other pages that I started so that they can be added to in the future. We decided that we would try and add music on the home page and help each other finish off our pages and help find info for the comparative pages. We talked and discussed for about an hour. We discussed the pros and cons of keeping somethings and adding somethings. We also discussed what we thought the outcome should be and what our teachers are expecting from the project. I think that we did a good job meeting the expectations and exceeding them. We have laid a really good foundation for the site to continue.

classes in Australia

Classes here are going okay... I have two teachers that I absolutely love and they are going to be amazing classes. And the other two well the teachers are pretty boring and so is the class content. That's not to bad half and half. I still haven't done a bunch of exploring or touristy activities. Maybe this weekend. I did make it to town hall and hyde park.

Other than that my room mates are great, we joined a gym close to our place and have been attempting to get healthier. I over did is on Monday and had problems walking for 2 days. I'm much better now and went swimming this morning.

I'm spending way to much money on food, and small things that I need for school and my room but I guess that comes with being away from home.

I'm really really missing my car. I hate taking an hour to go somewhere when it would only take 10 min in a car... or hauling groceries and killing my arms on the train.
I miss everyone else at home as well but I have been talking to everyone pretty constantly, except my baby (dog) I miss him lots.

ECMP455 session

Well todays session for me was a bust. By the time a location was found I had to go to class here in Australia. So I am again left to play catch up... but that is okay. Technology again is good in some situations and not so good in others. If everything is working well technology is applauded but as soon as something goes wrong then everyone is complaining. It is always good to have a backup plan which Dean had.

copyright materials

I'm not to sure what to think of digital copyright materials. I have been posting my pictures on our wiki, on flickr, and on my blog and I don't want someone else to say that they are their pictures but at the same time I don't care if they use the pictures. I guess that is where creative commons comes in and is a great idea. This way you still get credit for your work and the other person can still use the information/pictures.

Many people download and burn movies and music. You aren't suppose to, it is illegal and the artists don't get their credit for their work. I don't know thought.... some people download music to check out the artist and if they enjoy it then they go and buy the cd and they go to concerts and they buy clothing at the concert... so are artists still not getting the credit for their work??? But then you have others that will just download the whole cd and not do any of the other things, so what is right and what is wrong? Before the internet people shared music by bringing their cds to their friends house and listening to the music. Downloading and uploading is just a broader form of this. You get to listen to music from people that want to share their favorite artists.

So what is right and what is wrong? Is copyright realistic? Many people don't care that an item is copyrighted and use the information/music/pictures/movies anyway. This youtube movie shows that copyright is constantly changing and is exploited constantly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWR6eiiBhf8

So is copyright good, bad, or inbetween? I don't know. Depends on how you view it and what you know about it.

project

Working on our collaborative project is going okay. There are some small bugs that we need to work out and will be talking more on Wednesday. Pam suggested adding and did add a comparison page but i think that it really limits the sites ability to expand. The purpose of the collaborative project is to expand and for others to add and to keep growing. I think that the site is a good base and that others will add more pictures and info to the site to create virtual tours of cities/towns/places they have been, and use the wiki as a place to explore places they want to go. At least that is my view of the wiki that we are creating.

wiki

Well I have just created my first wiki. I don't have a whole bunch to put on it right now but I thought it was a great idea. It is a place for Saskatchewan teachers to put their lesson plans and exchange ideas and thoughts. It should be a valuable resource for teachers and education students.
http://sasklessonplans.wetpaint.com/

collaboration

Well our collaborative page is slowly turning into a final project. I have alot of information to add still. It is taking alot more time than I anticipated and it needs to be completed by Friday, so it is down to the crunch.

how far

How far should teachers take technology in there classroom?

I love technology and the idea of incorporating it into my future classroom. Is there such a thing as overdoing it? If the material you are using is relevant and couldn't be done any better than with technology could you use too much?

future of education

I was reading through my feeds and came across Chris Lehmann's blog. In his blog he links to this video and I just had to include the link in my blog. The video talks about the value of creativity in the educational system. http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/66

Ted talks about the value of creativity in education. I believe everything that Ted talks about in this video. He describes the education system as forming children into professors. Schools value the learning of math, science, and language. Ted also says that all the school systems throughout the world value the same things. None of them focus on the arts. Is this because the arts have fewer job opportunities? Is it because teachers teach what they know?

The main point that stood out the most was:
Children lose creativity by being wrong or being scared of being wrong.

So as teachers how do we change this?
What can be done?

quick post

I was looking on my facebook account and Alec Couros has added a link to a support blogging wiki. I thought I would add it on my blog to help spread the word

interesting feeds

There are so many good ideas and thoughts out there and I love the idea of this one. http://thinklab.typepad.com/think_lab/2007/08/on-the-road.html#comments Travelling around in a RV for a month with students and teachers. Exploring the country where you live by taking the backroads, eating healthy and bonding/fighting with other students/teachers. I would sign on to this project. It reminds me of my time spent in Katimavik. http://www.katimavik.org/section/index/id/1 This program was instramental in my discovering the joys of teaching, helping to adjust to living with others, team work, responsiblities, and budgeting.

I love the idea of taking time during the school year to explore. Working, travelling, and being in close proximaty with others is a learning process that can not be gained by any traditional school. So much could be learned and discovered... possiblities are endless.

collaborative project

Well I joined the touring cities collaborative project yesterday. I thought it was a really good idea. Being able to share pictures and information about places you live and have been. This project I can see growing and growing. There are so many little towns and places that not many people know about. This will give those places more attention as well as will provide valuable information for people looking to travel. http://citytours.wetpaint.com/

Time

I finally have time and internet access to read some of my RSS feeds. I was looking though and found this blog very interesting. http://thinklab.typepad.com/think_lab/2007/08/which-story-cat.html
In essence it asks what story catches your attention. I would really like to know which story does get the most attention. They are all very interesting stories but the story that caught my attention the most was "e-Learning market predicted to top $52 billion by 2010" http://www.thejournal.com/articles/21046 This one caught my attention just because I take alot of online classes and didn't realize that the market was so large for e-learning. I actually think that expected number will be even high than that. With e-learning being so accessable and easy to fit into scheduling many undergraduate degrees will be gained this way.

face book

Facebook is it good or bad???
Here is an article that I found while browsing.

Alarm over Facebook predators
Email Print Normal font Large font Saved July 31, 2007 - 4:28PM
Page 1 of 2 | Single page

Facebook came under fire on Monday from a state attorney general who accused the fast-growing social networking site of falling short in protecting young users from sexual predators on its site.

Facebook came under fire on Monday from a state attorney general who accused the fast-growing social networking site of falling short in protecting young users from sexual predators on its site.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said in an interview his office had learned of "at least three" convicted sex offenders on Facebook's site and that may be the "tip of the iceberg."

"These individuals are using their real names after convictions for felony sexual offenses," Blumenthal told Reuters. "There may be thousands or hundreds of thousands using aliases or false identities who have never been convicted."

The state official said Facebook appears to suffer some of the dangers from predators and pornography that larger and more freewheeling social network site MySpace does. Last week, MySpace said it had deleted 29,000 convicted sex offenders from its own service, which attracts 60 million US. visitors.

Started in 2004 by then-undergraduate Mark Zuckerberg as a socializing site for fellow Harvard University students, Facebook opened up more than a year ago to allow users of all ages to create personal profiles to share with friends.

Facebook, with privacy features encouraging members to share personal details like phone numbers, political loyalties or dating status for an approved circle of friends, has grown by more than a third to 33 million members in the past two months.

Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly said Facebook has privacy features unlike other social network sites that segment users by age, organisation and region and make it hard for adults to contact users under the age of 18.

In particular, Facebook protects users under 18 by preventing adults from contacting them if the adults are not affiliated with a specific school network, Kelly said.

Kelly acknowledged Facebook has detected sexual predators and other abusive practices on the site but said the numbers were small.

"There is a non-zero number. We have been able to handle abuses with the accountability of having a real-name culture versus a 'screen-name' culture," he said.

Kelly said Facebook had been notified Monday afternoon by the Connecticut attorney general's office of three specific profiles set up by known sex offenders and that the Palo Alto, California-based company had quickly removed these web pages.

"There is no city in existence, let alone one that has 33 million citizens, that doesn't have occasional crime," Kelly said. "The question is: Does the site make it easier or harder to commit crimes and what does it do to address them?"

Blumenthal and attorneys general from other states have been pushing for state and federal laws to require social network sites to seek age and identity verification from users as well as parental consent for minors to join such sites.

But critics of laws that rely on voluntary verification measures say there is no simple way to screen for sex offenders and kids masquerading as older users or to ensure whether parental authorization actually is given by parents or by kids pretending to be their parents.

Companies such as Facebook and MySpace are scrambling to develop technologies that automatically seek to protect underage users from predators as well as other forms of abuse including pornography and threats against individual users.

"We believe, and they (Facebook) agree, that screening out those images as well as age and identity verification are all affordable and feasible with today's technology," Blumenthal said after a meeting between his staff and Facebook on Monday.

"Their response, simply, was that they want to cooperate and do the right thing," he added.

MySpace has turned to background verification company Sentinel Tech Holding, which has co-developed the first nationwide database of convicted US sex felons to make it easy to detect offenders online. There were 600,000 registered US sex offenders as of May.

"It's when adults and kids play in the same space that things get sticky and the effectiveness of age verification seems to go out the window," Sentinel CEO and founder John Cardillo said of the dilemma facing social networks.

Kelly said Facebook has designed its site from the outset to protect users' privacy and has developed additional technologies since then to offer further protections. The company is evaluating technologies from outside vendors to help it increase its surveillance of potential predators.

"It is better to have some sort of verification on the front end and various forms of behavioral verification on the back end," Kelly said of Facebook's approach to site safety.

Reuters

http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/alarm-over-facebook-predators/2007/07/31/1185647889575.html

I recently bit the bullet and signed up for a facebook account to extend my social network and link with people that I don't often see. Watch who you are adding and what you are sharing.

Yahoo

My class today deals with current issues and policies. My teacher gave me this article to examine and I found it extremely interesting. It really makes a person think about what is discrimination and what is protection.

God is fine, but internet users take the name of Allah in vain
Email Print Normal font Large font By Nick O'Malley and agencies
February 27, 2006

YAHOO! has changed its rules on the words it allows in email addresses after a man discovered he could not register an account because his surname contained the word Allah.

Ed Callahan said he tried to establish the email account with the internet portal in the US after his mother, who has the same surname, could not get one.

He discovered that email addresses with other religious words were allowed, but not those that included Allah.

"On one level this is just silliness. But we have a war on terrorism and it's migrating to be a war on Muslims - this just shows the confusion there is between the two and how pervasive this is," Mr Callahan told the online journal The Register.

The incident has become a talking point on technology blogs. Many engaged in the debate have noted that Yahoo! was at the forefront of a recent campaign to keep the internet free of Government censorship in the US.

Yahoo! now says it has changed its policy to allow the word. In a written statement, the company defended the previous policy as an attempt to protect users from hateful speech.

"A small number of people registered for IDs using specific terms with the sole purpose of promoting hate and then used those IDs to post content that was harmful or threatening to others, thus violating Yahoo!'s terms of service," the statement said.

Another internet user with the letters of Allah in his online name, "Kallahar", claims to have tested Yahoo!'s system before it was changed to see which other words were banned. God was allowed, but Allah was banned; Bin Laden was banned, but "terrorist" was allowed.

Mr Callahan, who set up a webpage in protest at what he saw as discrimination against Muslims on behalf of Yahoo, has a new email address which includes the phrase "alla is in Callahan".


http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/god-is-fine-but-internet-users-take-the-name-of-allah-in-vain/2006/02/26/1140888748193.html

So is it right to block certain names to protect themselves from having inappropriate material posted? Or is it just plain discrimination?

social networking

I was reading the paper on the train and found this article about Piracy hits high note. I can't find the article online so I will type away.

"Social networks are changing the way people consume music at a time when piracy is on the rise.
Apple today boasted it had sold more than 3 billion songs at its iTunes online store.
But researchers said the growth of legal downloads had slowed and industry players had to adapt or watch profits fade.
A survey by Entertainment Media Research found that more than 50 percent of people surfed social networking sites to find music.
A further 30 percent said they went to buy or download music they had discovered on a social network site.
On popular sites such as MySpace and Bebo, the numbers of people who use sites to find music rises to about 75 percent.
John Enser, head of music at the law firm Olswang that coauthored the survey, said social networking sites represented a new platform for the music industry.
"Discovering music is widespread with the latest generation of consumers, but the process of actually purchasing the music needs to be made easier," he said.
The survey found music was increasinly key to social networks.
The number of people claining they illegally downloaded music tracks had risen and legal downloading was in decline.
Russell Hart, chief executive of Entertainment Media Research , said the findings represented a new era of "democratisation" in the way consumbers interacted with music and artists.
"Social networks are fundementally changing the way we discover purchase and use music," he said."

This article was interesting because it touched alot on what we have been discussing in our ECMP455 class. We have been talking about social networking as being the key to the future. Sharing each others work and learning new ways to teach and explore. I never thought of finding music on someone elses network. But if information is being shared I guess everything else is being shared as well.

photostory

This is my photostory that I created for ECMP455. It is my trip to Europe last summer.


europe 2006 from janine and Vimeo.

my new place in Australia

Well I am sitting here and listening to one of the two classes that I have missed in ECMP455 and heard that Dean would like me to post pics and other things in our blogs. So I will post a pic in here.

pictures

Once I get organized I will be adding pictures to this website.
http://www.flickr.com/people/janinesmits/

australia

I'm finally here. I arrived in Sydney yesterday and stayed at a bed and breakfast overnight. I also found a condo being rented out by a couple to rent. So far they seem very nice. I tried to write on here the other day and check my feeds while i was in the airport but the comps there wouldn't let me, they had those sited blocked because they may be malicious. I'm not sure what they expected to find but anyways. I am overly tired and ready for bed.

started my journey

This last week has flown by. Everyone kept asking if I was excited and I really wasn't but as I sit here in Calgary my stomach is doing flips and I am getting nervous. The apartment that I had tentatively lined up fell through so now I'm back to square one. Looking for a place to live!!! I'll be homeless for the first few days and stay in a hostel. My brother drove me to Calgary yesterday and we arrived at 2am.... was suppose to be earlier but there is something with my car and me travelling. Everytime I am getting ready to leave to another country I swear my car gets lonesome and puts a hole in its tire. The last three trips I've taken I've had to either replace my tires or patch my tires on the day before or day I am heading out. Oh well, at least it didn't happen during my drive to Calgary. I'm falling behind a bit in ECMP 455 I haven't had time to read feeds, do assignments, post blogs, nothin.... but hopefully I will have more time once I get to Australia and get settled in. I'm off to surf for a new place to live. Wish me luck.

Listening to our webconference tonight was great. David Jakes was talking about stories being very important to learning and I think that they are essential. Storytelling is how I learn about my grandparents and what it was like when they grew up. It is where you come from!!!

I also enjoyed the link http://www.uthtv.com/. It is important to listen to the children they have alot to say.

Well I was just reading a few of my rss subscriptions and I found this one really interesting. It talks about incorporating childrens learning into building games and working in the classroom.
http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/2007/07/15/games-%e2%80%a2-learning-%e2%80%a2-society-classroom-strategy-guides/
I really like the idea of the children making up their own test on wiki and then use that information. I think the children would learn more because they would have to create. You learn by teaching.

Technology

Technology is great!!! I have been searching online for a place to live in Sydney and with this wonderful system I have found a place, seen pictures of the place and can even make a deposit on the place (won't but could) if needed. I couldn't imagine just going and trying to look for a place... to much hassle. Did it before and spent way to much on rent for a crappy place with fleas and cockroaches.

Transfer credits

If you can help it never transfer from University to University or College to University. You get royally screwed over. Or you have to fight for over a year to get any kind of credits. Or you have to do all the work yourself and figure out what classes will transfer and then pass them on and they don't transfer as what you think they should. It is not fun!!!

ECMP 455. Looks like it should be a good class. I'm hoping that I can still attend the online sessions with the time difference to Australia but I'm not sure because I have class that day. We will see.

New Blog, New Look

Well it's my first blog for a few months. I find it difficult to blog when I'm on dial up for the majority of the time.

I am going to Australia on exchange to the University of Technology in Sydney. I'm getting excited it is only two weeks away.

That's it for now.