Wishes on the wall

Most of us have heard of the song, "When you wish upon a star". But what about "When you wish upon a wall"? There's no song of that name, but if there was, the former would be a classic while the latter would be the latest song on iTunes. Wishing upon stars is the thing of the past, while "wishing" on walls (using Wall Wisher) is the thing of the present (and hopefully of the future). Wall Wisher, a gem of an app in my opinion, allows its users to make announcement to many people at a time, hold online debates and conferences, etc., and is a new way to communicate. Of course, it has its limitations. There is a 160-character limit on each post, which makes getting long messages across quite hard. Also, if too many people post things onto the wall, it gets quite hard to read certain posts. However, the positives of using Wall Wisher outnumber the negatives of using it, so I'd still say that it's a good application to learn how to use. Wall Wisher can be used in many ways by SST students. To me, the most important ways in which it can be used are to conduct silent debates and class discussions, conduct online conferences within project teams, notify students and/or teachers of certain events, conduct online surveys in which the surveyer can get instant responses and answer questions and get to know other students and/or teachers better by chatting in a wall. For example, there could be a question and answer session regarding a certain day's lessons, in which the students' questions as well as the teacher's answers to those questions are shared among the other students so that they wouldn't miss out on some information. All the students would, therefore, be informed about everything discussed among the students and teachers. Note: Below is the wall which I have embeded into my blog.

Web 2.0 Tools that I am familiar with

The websites on which these tools can be found are: Twitter.com (Twitter), Wikipedia.org (Wikipedia), Google.com (Google, Google Accounts and Google Apps), Blogger.com (Blogger), Youtube.com (Youtube), Yahoo.com (Yahoo!), Wikimedia.org (WIkimedia), WallWisher.com (WallWisher), Bubbl.us (Bubbl.us) and Skype.com (Skype). It's hard to choose a favourite tool, but I've got to admit I like Google Accounts the most as it enables the user to do the most things with one account. I personally hate having to get a seperate account for each feature, so Google Accounts allows me to use just one account for many tasks. This is why I like Google Accounts the most out of the mentioned Web 2.0 Tools.

SST Pre-Term Task 2b- Creating Customized Maps on Google Maps

In October, my family went to Bali. There, we visited many places of interest, the majority of which are listed on my map. We stayed at the St. Regis Bali, visited the Uluwatu Temple, Tanah Lot and Ubud and even drove up a mountain to see Mt. Batur and the lake (a crater) next to it. All in all, I feel that Bali is one of the most beautiful places that I've ever been to.

View SST Task 2b (Balram Sharma)- Bali in a larger map

Creating balramsharma-sst.blogspot.com: My experiences in creating this blog



Picture Courtesy of library.stmarytx.edu

When I heard that I had to create a blog as part of the pre-term preperation activities for SST, I was thrilled. I had ever created a blog before and I really wanted to try creating one. I couldn't wait to start creating my very own blog for the first time. I quickly read the instructions on th SST Students' Blogspot and proceeded to Blogger.com to create balramsharma-sst.blogspot.com. At first, it was easy. All I had to do was to choose a name and theme for the blog. But then, things started getting a little tricky. I accidentally clicked the "Publish" button while I was composing my first post. I had to figure out how to edit that post. But then, I forgot to give the post a title. I had to edit it once again. After finally getting the corrected post published, things became easy again. I then started composing this post, and that's still what I'm doing now. So far, my first experiences blogging have been enjoyable, even when things went wrong. I feel that blogging plays an important part of my learning experience at SST. This is because blogging is one way to connect with teachers as well as other students. For example, I can post a part of a project on my blog to see what my classmates think of my concept. Or, I can open up a blog as part of a project (If I'm allowed to-I think I will be.). I can even post an enquiry about what was taught in class on a certain day to find out about something. In these ways, blogging can be part of my learning experience at SST.

How I felt when my place in SST was confirmed- Post #001



Picture Courtesy of files32.com

The moment I was asked by my school, SST, to post an image that represents my feelings and reactions when I received the letter that confirmed my place in SST, I knew exactly which image I wanted to post. This one. Now you might be thinking, "Why did this guy post a picture of fireworks exploding?" Well, the reason is quite simple. That day, I was revising for the then-upcoming PSLEs when I got a text message from my mom. She had said that I had gotten into SST, the school that I had been praying to get into for months. At first, I looked at my mobile phone in disbelief. However, after a while, I realized that my prayers had been answered and that I had really gotten into SST! I went off like fireworks, telling my dad and my best friend the good news almost immediately. I was so ecstatic that I was running around, shouting, "Yeah, I got in!" I felt like a firework, too. I forgot about that day's revision and just kept on telling people that I, Balram Sharma, had gotten into the school of my choice even before the PSLEs. Okay, so maybe I was being a little bit (or rather, very) arrogant. But I was so happy, I didn't have the time to be modest! And that is why I've chosen this picture of exploding fireworks to represent how elated I was and how I reacted on the day I got into SST.