Final Reflection on PebblePad - End of week 2

Hi,

I've found this week extremely useful in exploring the various functions of the program as I was only aware of the most basic elements.

I think that PebblePad could be very useful for students, for both the various functions available which could facilitate course work, but also as a means to trying to give them some form of organisation.

The only (slightly) annoying thing I have discovered is that when you cut and paste into or from PebblePad that all format is lost in text, it all just appears as a continuous paragraph... maybe I am doing something wrong?

After looking at the CV options I think that this provides a very structured means by which to compose a CV (the benefits of saving and returning to it later are also to be considered).

I can't say I was impressed by the Blogs, simply because the templates appeared a little dull for my liking - but I'm sure there are ways of jazzing them up that I'm simply not technologically aware enough to recognise.

Overall, I feel much more positive about PebblePad than I did by the start of the week, although I'm still worried by our PHE413 assessment (on which I have made very little progress so far!).

Anyway, I have finally caught up now and completed week 2.

I'm now about to set off to Doncaster in the hope that the Rovers luck must be due for a change some time soon... Here's praying for a Rovers goal-fest and a Paul Heffernan hat-trick tomorow!

Ian

Sharing Assets and Student Webfolios - The Benefits

Allowing students to create their own Webfolios could be beneficial as it provides a format for exhibiting their work from various sources via links into a Webfolio. The ability to constantly edit any content would allow them develop content over a period of time.

The used of webfolios, which could be shared and interlinked could also be a positive activity for Level 1 students as an icebreaker, and I would be interested in the practicalities of a groupwork based Webfolio assessment (possibly replacing a presentation). Presumably a group could create their own Webfolios on one aspect of a brief and then interlink them and share them to create an online equivalent of a group presentation?

I would be interested if anyone has tried anything like this for an assessment???

The process of sharing via PebblePad also has benefits, as you could compose material in the thought option and then share only the final work (keeping your drafts hidden). Only what you share is accessible to others, not your entire PebblePad content.

Another positive is that you can give those you share with permission to comment on your content, and also to edit it via the collaborate option (this could be useful for my earlier suggestion of an online group assessment).

I think those are my key reflections/advantages... I'm definitely interested in investigating whether group project assessment through PebblePad would be feasible - we are, after all, always being told to promote a variety of assessments.

Any thoughts?

Over and out...

Ian

Reflection on PebblePad, created in PebblePad

PebblePad Reflection

I have found Pebblepad to be extremely user-friendly. As I've already mentioned, I was aware of pebblepad on a basic level as my PhD supervisor has been trying (in vain to this point) for years to persuade me to use it. I have started to think she may be right, especially as I have found to be straightforward.

I like the fact that it has so many different functions - it seems to be a diary, organiser and planner all rolled into one enabling you to organise many tasks throught the one program.

I like the compatability with other programs and the fact that material can be linked and published to external programs and to the web. It is also extremely simple to upload files, which on some programs is made over-complicated.

I'm not sure if I would use the program if it wasn't for the simplicity of combining many functions. Other programs can perform the individual tasks as simply but there are nt many which have as many functions presented in such a simple way.

The layout with the 'pebbles' is also easy to use and self explanatory...none of that infuriating IT speak!All in all, I've found it to be simple and useful, I will probably use it much more in future.

Ian

Pebblepad has a spellchecker! always a positive function I find, not that spelling is bad but there are always those 'ie' or 'ei' scenarios where neither looks right when you type them.

I also like the compatibility of Pebblepad (you may have noticed my scepticism towards the (in)compatibility of technology. From playing around with the functions I have discovered that the information compiled on pebblepad can be published to the web, sent via email, linked from or to a web address and sent to a blog...

You can also record the time you spend compiling content, which could be useful when there are guidelines to how long you should spend on something (perhaps for assessment purposes.

It also seems straightforward to upload external files/content to Pebblepad, which means Pebblepad can be a centre point through which to organise much of your life

I think I am becoming a Pebblepad convert, perhaps my Research supervisor was right all these years...

Overall, the scariest thing this has shown me so far is how little I have done towards my 3000 word portfolio for the assessment! Aaaaaaaaaaaagh

Ian

The wonderful world of Pebblepad - a few surprises

After a quick 10 minute scan through the pebblepad menus, it actually seems much more complex than I had thought. When people discuss Pebblepad, they tend to talk of it as a means for keeping a diary of compiling a portfolio. Yet it seems you can organise your entire life through Pebblepad if necessary.

Some of the functions I was unaware of include:

Creating a CV
Planning meetings
Creating a blog
Webfolio compilation.

The fact that there are a diverse range of functions available, which are all accessible through a simple menu is much more efficient than all of the functions being provided by separate programs (one of my pet hates is programs which open up menu after menu to open files when one simple click could have done the same job! or having to have 15 windows open on your computer to organise your life).

I'm going to explore these functions in more detail now...

Any one else have any strong opinions re: Pebblepad???

Over and out

Ian

Week 2 - Pebblepad.

After much deliberation (and doing enough marking to make me feel like I can spare a couple of hours) I have decided to explore Pebblepad. I decided on Pebblepad as I need to keep a research diary and thought exploring the various functions would be a good starting point.

Here we go....

Ian

Now in the correct timezone

I've now accessed the settings and changed my default timezone to GMT (Thanks Nicky).
So I would have to say one key benefit of the emoderating course is being able to ask technical questions and draw on the expertise of others.

More later...

confused...

I'm now a little confused as to where google.com is based as it says I posted at 3.09 but it's actually 11.09?

starnge...

Welcome

Hi everyone.

The process of creating a blog is something which was pretty straightforward, although I had to enable cookies on my browser to be able to create a blog.

I haven't really used blogs before so it will be interesting to see if it is a positive experience (my PhD supervisor keeps encouraging me to use a private blog or pebblepad entries to keep a research diary).

More later...

Ian