dougbelshaw.com/blog

Welcome back!
#uppingyourgame: an educator's guide to productivity is now up to v0.4!
(I'm looking for people to translate it into other languages when finished - if you're interested get in touch!)

As the first term of the school year nears its end, the time has come to reflect on the blog that’s accompanied my new role. The start of this year saw me become E-Learning Staff Tutor at my school, a newly-created role for which the job description was only finalised two weeks ago!

It made sense to me to set up a blog to accompany this role, for a few reasons:

1. It’s a useful way to disseminate e-learning resources, links and guides to staff at my school.
2. It means my work can have an impact beyond my school via blog readers and RSS subscribers (up to 129 of the latter so far, according to Feedburner).
3. It’s a handy record to show the work I’ve been doing as Ofsted will be coming knocking sometime this year.
4. It serves as a point of contact above and beyond email and gives me a ‘home’ (as I’m without an office!)

This shows you what I’ve been blogging about, mostly (courtesy of Wordle):

…and this is a complete overview of posts reflecting the sessions I’ve run this term (in reverse order):

• 5 interesting web applications to mess around with when you’re bored over Christmas!
• Beyond boring Powerpoint presentations.
• How to use Google Earth more effectively.
• Glogs – create interactive and rich media web pages quickly and easily!
• Take your computer with you with PortableApps!
• Getting to grips with the school email system
• Using del.icio.us to synchronise bookmarks & find new, exciting stuff
• Give your students a voice with VoiceThread
• How to create engaging video starters without any creative talent using Animoto
• Never lose a document again: how Google Docs can change the way you and your department work!
• Creating a homework blog in 3 simple steps using email
• Librarian blogs and social networks
• How to find and download YouTube videos for use in the classroom
• 10 ways to use your interactive whiteboard more effectively
• How to use your interactive whiteboard more effectively
• Posterous
• Welcome!

I hope you find them useful!