Today we want to cover two important topics.
The first is to address the issues that some people have had accessing digital resources from PDs through eMails. To combat this we will not be eMailing out digital resources anymore in favour of more reliable ways to make sure you get them!
The first way is quite simple. If you have a Laptop, Netbook or flash drive, we will give you the resources on the day and you can simply copy the resources straight to your own storage device. This will ensure you have them right there on the spot. It's a little time consuming to do on the day but we will make sure it gets done! Getting it this way you will receive all the files ready to just open in your office suite!
Of course not everyone will want to be dragging around a laptop with them so we are going to make them available through Skydrive too. Skydrive is a free file hosting service attached to Microsoft online services like Hotmail or Windows Live Messenger. We took a while checking out different file hosting sites and Skydrive is by far the best for us to use. It's advertisement free and doesn't require you to install anything to use. You simply follow a link and download the file to your computer.
For those who missed out on the digital resources for the Michael Ymer PD, as well as those wanting to try out Skydrive, they are there now! Here's the steps for those who aren't familiar with Skydrive and .zip files:
1) Click the link below.
2) Click on the Michael Ymer folder
3) Click on the Michael Ymer.zip file.
4) SAVE THIS TO YOUR COMPUTER in Documents (called My Documents in earlier versions of windows).
5) Navigate to Documents.
6) Open the Zip File by clicking/double clicking just like any other folder on your computer.
You should now be looking at all the documents from the Michael Ymer PD. If you have ANY problems don't hesitate to email for some help!
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=0d641ad8750d17a5
You can bookmark this Skydrive because it's the one I will be using for all PD downloads. However, be aware that future PD resources may be limited to those who attended the PD depending on the wishes of the presenter. In this case you will receive a link to the skydrive and instructions on how to access the files.
Because some have expressed a download-limit concern for their internet accounts, these files will always be contained in a compressed file like this one. File compression reduces the amount you have to download and turns multiple files into a single file so you only have to download one thing. We will be using the .zip format for this and the reason is simple. Every version of Windows from XP and newer (Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7) can open zip files just like a folder once you have downloaded it. You won't have to download any extra software in order to be able to get your resources!
For PDs containing very large amounts of resources we are trying another approach. We have received funding from the department for a number of flash drives to use in our upcoming Autism PD because it's simply the cheapest and most reliable way to get the job done. You'll get a flash drive in your goodie bag containing all the files, ready for you to use! We see no reason why this will not be approved again in the future.
We hope that between these 3 solutions everyone's needs will be met and no-one will have any fuss getting their digital resources ever again! If you think these solutions don't cover you, eMail us! It's our goal to make sure that everyone is covered fully and has the access to the digital resources for the PDs they attend!
The second topic for today's blog is getting the monthly meetings happening again! We realise that people have busy lives and just because you are a CRT and finish work when school gets out, that doesn't mean you aren't taking your kids to dance, sports or whatever in the evening too. For this reason we don't want to schedule something like "the first Wednesday of the month at 6.00pm" which might ensure that some people are never able to come.
So what we'd like is for you to tell us when suits you. Of course you can't please everyone and it's unlikely that everyone will pick the same day and the same time. What we will try to do is if we have it on Wednesday this month, we'll use Thursday the following month for example. In rotating it like this we hope to make sure that everyone gets to attend a minimum of twice a year but are aiming at maximum attendance for everyone.
The purposes of the meeting will be to discuss the network and network issues of course, but we would like to get that out of the way quickly which is a big reason for making the blog more active. We want to focus more on ourselves as teachers, be able to compare notes on schools, trade resources, share information on new resources we've found (and anything else that we feel we want to discuss), all in a social atmosphere created by us for us.
We hope that by following this format we can do a bit of self education, vent some frustration, get ourselves some answers and have a social outing all at the same time!
The next blog:
In the next blog I'm going to cover social networking and the all-important scheduling of PDs. Be sure to check in and eMail afterwards to have your say!
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