Channels on Jaiku

Set up a channel for the first time in Jaiku yesterday. Did this for Techdis, so if you use Jaiku and want to follow the news from Techdis, join the channel by starting a post with #techdis.

To start your own channel, you click on the channels tab at the top of the Jaiku page.

Some ideas for using channels:
Say you're a tutor and you have 3 classes that you want to use Jaiku with. Rather than having all the students as your contacts, and no way to differentiate between them, start 3 channels, say #classA, #classB, #classC. Tell your learners to get a Jaiku account and post to #classA for instance, to join that class.

On your own page, starting a post with #classA means that only the members in #classA will get notified of that post. (All your contacts will as well) A post starting #classB will only notify those who are members in #classB etc.

Maybe someone can try this feature out and let us know how they get on with it from September?

Wii on the internet - wifi and network solutions

Colleges may have a problem getting the Wii on the Internet because it only accepts WPA or WEP security.
Try http://tinyurl.com/58amla for a network connection via the LAN.

I've managed to get my Wii on the Internet using a USB wifi connector (http://tinyurl.com/5q7hvm) on my Q1 Ultra. I wanted to be able to take the Wii around to demonstrate it's capability once connected to the Internet, but wasn't able to do this easily until I bought the wifi connector.
Now my Wii will try to connect to the Internet by looking for the USB wifi connector on my Q1 Ultra! Marvellous! I'm off to play Plumber on the Wii...(http://wiiplayable.com/game.php?gameid=256)

Connecting the wii on a college network

In the last few days, I've tried to connect the Wii at Selby College and tried to connect it at Bradford University. After hours of trying and searching on the web, I've realised that for colleges to connect the Wii to the internet, they will need to purchase the Nintendo Wifi usb connector:
http://wii.nintendo.co.uk/424.html

I'm going to try it out and will report back if it works! Fingers crossed!

Veotag about Rotherham College's MoLeNET project

I filmed Bill Jones, Asst Principal of Rotherham College talking about his MoLeNET project on 3rd April 2008 when I went for my visit as a Mentor. As you can see, he's a very enthusiastic person and very supportive of using technology in the classroom and beyond. Link to video.

This video needed an airing but didn't feel varied enough as I didn't have the chance to film other people or to film cutaways. Using Veotag, however, has made the film more interesting because you can read the summary of points covered and even jump directly to a point in the film!

Of course, if we could then Voicethread it so people can leave (nice) comments, that would be even better! Someone needs to make a Veothread!

I'm not sure why my camcorder (Samsung HMX10) has given the video such a blue cast but will explore further, and remember to bring a tripod next time. Have also realised (too late) that I cannot set it to 4:3 aspect ratio, so this will have to be done post-production or left as it is, in the hope that people start viewing their web pages on their nice widescreen teles!

By the way, a lot of teles have gone widescreen. How soon before the pc screen follows?

molenet voicethread

Capturing video for blogs/podcasts

I find that the video function of my stills camera (Fujifilm Finepix F30) is sufficient for capturing small videos (like above) for blogs or podcasting. No need to buy another cheap video camera if you already have a digital camera that will do the job! My Finepix records in AVI which makes it easy to edit in Windows Movie Maker. Many cheap little video cameras record mp4 files that are easier to edit on the Macs in iMovie.

Getting your Wii on the net

I thought I'd collate some useful links on how to get your Wii on the net for any colleagues in colleges who have just purchased them to use with learners. (This is applicable for some Learning for Living and Work projects in the Yorkshire and Humber region. May not apply to the MoLeNET projects but maybe another project in future? )

(For those who are just unpacking their recently purchased Wiis, don't throw away any bits of card! There should be a postcard size white card with a code on it and if you set up an account on nintendo.com and register your products, you get points that can go towards the purchase of any downloads for your Wii.)

1. http://wii.nintendo.co.uk/54.html
Connecting your wii to your wireless network. The wii already has wireless built in so you shouldn't have to attach anything else to it. Not sure how it would work in a super tight network environment but this just proves the point that we may need to relax the rules a little or risk strangling progress.

2. http://wiiportal.nintendo.co.uk/26126.html
On your PC, create an account on nintendo.com and register your products for some stars.

3. http://wiipointscard.nintendo-europe.com/faq/uk_faq.html
On your Wii, link your account to your Wii shop channel. In theory, this should allow you to convert your stars into points to purchase Opera with, but if this step doesn't work, then use a Mastercard ;-)

4. http://wii.nintendo.co.uk/340.html
On your Wii, buy some points, then click on Wii software and buy the Internet Channel. This will download Opera browser on to your Wii and away you go.

I wish I'd written this while I was in the process of doing it, but hopefully the links will help you through the steps.

Here's a video of the Wii on the internet, in wmv format.