Google me.

Kathy Grant, gospel diva, teacher of pilates, Bing Crosby's daughter - not I!
UniSA homepage, Facebook, LinkedIn, that's more like it. Phone numbers are work. Then we are back to the radio host, an acipuncturist (I don't think so, can't even spell it and needles...), an Ed, no. Many Kathy Grants are listed, very few are me. There is nothing there that I did not already know about. So it goes on for over 8.5 million entries.
My parents did not think of a very original name.

Week 1 Activities and ponderings

Week 1 In discussing and comparing your experiences with the week's activities you might like to consider:

Was anything unexpected?

Do you have ideas to share on online introductions or developing online identities from classes you run?

How might you use Flickr - or the application you chose - in your work/teaching/learning.

I am hoping to use the blog facility of Moodle to create class blogs on different Elements of a course I teach. Instead of the students writing individual reports they will be involved in creating a Wiki using the blog facility. As it will be possible to monitor the entries, I can use it for assessment.

What value might it add?

A course I teach has several Elements and Performance Criteria which require the students to research and submit what they have found. At the moment the students are writing individual reports from what may be collaborative or individual research. Group reports have resulted in near riots when some members of groups have refused to work (or speak English) and the rest of the group became upset. The general policy of the company is Wikipedia is not to be used but there is no mention of the students contributing to their own Wiki or blog. Moodle is currently being phased in and there are various add ins which the company can choose from. At the moment no decisions have been made regarding which are to be included. My hope is that the students will do the value adding when researching their topics and refining group findings. Research may be written as a group blog or Wiki depending on what we are able to use. Hopefully this will also make life a bit easier for students who struggle with English. My classes are mostly a case of "spot the Aussie".
The value added will hopefully be the refining of the research findings from the students.

What - if any - issues around ownership, copyright and security might arise?

We have huge plagiarism issues but it may be possible to either get an add-in for Moodle or copy and paste to Turnitin.com With the Privacy Act in Australia, there could be issues if a student or student does not want to be involved in this type of activity.

How did you decide the nature and extent of personal information to provide?

I kept to work related and fairly safe personal info. I am aware that once something is in cyberspace, it is not possible to call it back and be sure that your info has definitely gone forever. I did not allow the blog to be detected by search engines.

If you chose a picture and it is not of you - what did you intend the picture to convey to us about you?

Chose one of the few photos I have that contains only me. As I am not comfortable having my photo taken, there are not many photos of me about.

If we can't 'see' others in the class and there is no photo - are we missing anything?

I am not too concerned with not being able to see people. If people are not comfortable with having heir photo displayed, that is fine.

So far for information on myself I have provided a 'persona' in Flickr and a personal blogsite - was that sufficient information about me as a tutor? If not, what else would you expect?

This again is not something that bothers me. I think there is some info about you on the Oxford Brookes site anyway. I believe that I should respect others' right to only reveal what they are comfortable revealing.

Please respond to at least 2 other postings here -though as many as you choose.

Useful links

Wiki referred to in preface of text

http://socialnetworking.wetpaint.com/

Start here

Well now! This is the beginning. Let's see where it takes us.

Here is the link to my homepage

http://www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/staff/Homepage.asp?Name=kathy.grant

I have just realised that I should update it.