Kia+ora+from+Hazel



Kia ora. My name is Hazel Owen, and I thank you for inviting me in to this vibrant community space, and encouraging me to have a look around.

I am based in Auckland (please don't hold that against me :-) ), but my heart is based on the Purerua Peninsula where my husband, John, and I have a 'bit of dirt'...and recently a shed that's big enough to sleep in.

My work is very much around ICT enhanced learning and teaching...but not the tools and the glittery toys, rather what can be achieved through communication, communities, empowerment and equality of access. I've been working in the area for over 10 years now, and if you'd like to find out a wee bit more you are very welcome to visit the Ethos Community site and please feel free to join - we'd love your company.

Clarence has asked for a few ideas and guidelines to build on what you have been working on to date, and I would be delighted. Please rest assured - they are guidelines only and feel free to 'just ignore' if they're not your style.


 * I would suggest that even in a community where you all 'know' each other from face to face contact, it is great to put together a really short introduction, with an image (doesn't have to be you - can be your favourite person / thing / place). I've been a member of communities where we've all done this and have found out lovely snippets that have helped build the community and ongoing participation within it.
 * Really like the idea of having a 'sandpit' - it is a place to play, add images, links, and general 'stuff'. Something you can do to make it a private space to play in is to change the default privacy settings. At the moment the page is"Protected: Everyone can view pages, only members of the wiki can edit pages". This could be set to "Protected: Only members of the wiki can view page" (although it would mean paying more cash). **However**, if Wikispaces __is__ to become a tool that is used to discuss a range of issues it may be one way of addressing to a certain extent questions around privacy. For example, a page that discusses students (where names have been removed but it may still be possible to identify the student) then a page protected in this way may be a good solution - the community can see, but not visitors (like myself) to your site. I would only be able to see those pages you have given me permission to view
 * When setting up a community it is a really great idea for the group to state the purpose of the community (maybe on the home page) - could be as simple as "to organise the End of Year 2010 events". The reasons you might want to do this are 1) it helps give the community ownership, direction and coherence; 2) visitors to your site can work out if this is the place they wanted to visit and if they have anything they can contribute. Clarence clearly stated his purposes for setting up the site, and it would be very positive to now have a discussion if these purposes still hold true or if they could be added to / changed.
 * Loved the embedded video on the home page...multimedia - images, audio, and video can really add texture to a site. I'm really visual and love to see images of people and places, and would often watch a video over reading a text if I have a choice. This doesn't mean you have to start roaring around taking your own photos, recording audio and making your own videos etc if you don't want to. There are heaps of great resources out there on, for example, Flickr, Blip TV, and Podsafe Music.
 * Remember - if you are sharing your own photos, make them small otherwise people will have to go away to make a cup of tea the time each one will take to download ;-) (This is a tutorial on how to do this - alternatively, you can just upload your photos to Flickr (and you can make them private) and it gives you the option of downloading them again in square, small, medium, large, and original!)
 * Another thing you can consider is stepping back from all the pages you have created and have a think about how they are related (if at all) and if they could be linked. For example, I have just had a look at the 'orphaned pages' in this site (i.e. no links between them). I made a guess (and took the liberty of adding a link) into the Year 10 Activity Week page the Year 10 Activity Week Roster. By linking the two like this you can cut down on the number of pages that appear on the left hand side navigation panel, and it also helps people work together around what goes with what :-)
 * Once you get going, you may find it useful to, as a community, develop a few page templates. This would mean for things that are shared / done / reported regularly it makes it really easy to add information (the job is already started), makes it easier to find information / ideas once it has been shared with the community, and also helps with the consistency of the type of information / ideas shared.
 * I believe Clarence has already started the ball rolling around the development of a community policy - developed by the community, for the community.
 * I would also strongly suggest that you make the most of some of the communication 'widgets' for Wikispaces. So I have added my Skype widget below...please feel free to ask questions or make suggestions :-)

media type="skypestatus" key="hazelowendmc" ARG0="bigclassic" width="182" height="44"

I think that will be enough to be going on with for now!! I think what you have all achieved to date is awesome. It is great to see so much going on. Hope that something from the above list is useful, and please let me know if you need any help with setting any of it up.

Ka kite ano Hazel

Thanks for the help and suggestions Hazel. CY