HTML coding a thing of the past?

I noticed two things today when I tried to put some HTML coding into this blog to show the diigo group on the right.  The first is I have absolutely no idea how HTML coding works, after 20 minutes the best I could do was it hanging at the very bottom of the page.  The second is that with a gadget allowing me to insert HTML code given to me from another site, I will never need to learn.

Keeping up to date

Wow, am finding it pretty difficult to keep up with the blogging.  I find I am inspired to write about something at school, but the filters prevent me coming onto the blogger, so I either just make a note of it for the MA or forget about it.

Ning isn't free apparently.  Back to the drawing board!

Collaborative learning at school

Been reading some interesting ideas over the last couple of weeks for potential collaborative learning methods.  I am trying to setup links with schools in foreign countries for the humanities department to use, but google groups seems a bit boring and text-based sometimes.  You can obviously post links to other sites there but I was hoping for a more interactive website.  Apparently Ning is pretty good for that, so I will have to explore there over the next week or two.  Pod and videocasting, as well as screencasting, are also areas that I want to focus on over the next months - I reckon we can get some good stuff going there in MFL.

Using Facebook for school-based work is also an interesting idea, but I really don't think that school will buy it for now, it spends too much time stopping people getting on there to look at the possibilities for collaboration.