Aug 25
Podcast number 14 August 25th, 2008.
[ICTGUY0814.mp3 Running time: 19:36 mins, size:18.1 MB]
Today’s Links!
Math screencasts
http://mathtrain.tv
Alan November and the BLC conference
http://www.novemberlearning.com/
Aug 19
A couple of days ago the MathTrain sent through a link about an application called Uuorld (don’t ask me how to pronounce it!) This application reminded me of one of my favourite Ted Talks by Hans Rosling where he brings vital global data to life through a series of visualisations.
Well, Uuorld turns out to be a great application for visualising data with students and adults. Once downloaded, you can choose from a variety of ‘data sets’ and then choose which countries (or the world) and the time frame for visualising the data. There are a large variety of ‘data sets’ made available through the application. At this stage you can’t import data but the future for these sorts of tools, in encouraging higher order thinking, looks good!
In additional to taking a still image of your data, you can also export your visualisation in a number of different video formats. They have versions for Mac, Windows & Linux.
Jul 20
Podcast number 13 July 20th, 2008.
[ICTGUY0813.mp3 Running time: 12:22mins, size: 5.8 MB]
Today’s Links!
Create PowerPoint for the web with 280slides - http://280slides.com
Also mentioned http://www.sliderocket.com
Mashable - 30+ Presentation services for the web
http://mashable.com/2007/08/12/online-presentations
Gone Google: Integrating project-based lessons with Google tools by Cheryl Davis
http://picasaweb.google.com/cheryl.davismhs/GoneGoogle
And the Google Educator
http://www.google.com.au/educators/activities.html
Persistent ‘tag’ search for video from feedKey
http://www.feedky.com/
Example with the Moodle tag
http://www.feedky.com/w.php?c=0862732001213692646
Free virtualisation software for Windows, Linux & Mac
http://virtualbox.org
NECC 2008 podcasts
http://edcommunity.apple.com/ali/collection.php?collection=2956
NECC 2008 Webcasts
http://www.kzowebcasting.com/necc/
Jun 25
I don’t often mention my other podcast ‘The Ed Tech Crew” on this blog. However, in the past week Tony and I have been fortunate enough to have interviewed Will Richardson from weblogg-ed.com. Will is one of the earliest educational bloggers that I know of, and has been pioneering learning in online spaces. He is very articulate and passionate about working with students online. If you have the time, I strongly recommend a listen. Also check out his ‘Powerful Learning Practice‘ network site. Enjoy!
Jun 12
I’ve just finished reading Sartz’s blog where he has been discussing the usefulness of flickr in education (and making bad horse puns!) Flickr is a photo sharing site powered by Yahoo! that allows users to upload and share their photos. Sartz explains quite a few services based on flickr such Taggalaxy, Flickrcc, PhotoSoup, Bubblr and 10 by 10. All interesting sites based on mashing up publicly accessible photos.
Which leads me to one of my flickr favourites flickr-storm. ‘Flickr storm‘ is a simple tool that allows you to search flickr based on a keyword, select the pictures from the results, and then save those results as a web page that your students or friends can access. In addition, it also adds a link to the flickr user as well as the licensing terms. My short bridge example is here.
In actual fact, I hardly ever use Clipart for presentations anymore, preferring to use pictures that are in the public domain or licensed under a creative commons license and making sure that I give attribution to the author. For creative common searches on flickr try http://flickr.com/creativecommons You could even add it as a keyword search in firefox!
Jun 10
Podcast number 12 June 10th, 2008.
[ICTGUY0812.mp3 Running time: 16:12mins, size: 7.5 MB]
Today’s Links!
Cyber Safety via Anne Bubnic
http://www.ctap4.org/cybersafety
Seeqpod - Playable search
http://seeqpod.com
Author Stream - Share your Powerpoint
http://www.authorstream.com
Chris Betcher’s Blog and post on getting teachers to commit to online PD:
http://betch.edublogs.org/2008/05/21/a-letter-to-teachers-about-learning
Jun 05
A humorous video via the Cool Cat Teacher blog. You’ll especially enjoy this if you teach in a primary setting!
Jun 04
Searching for content within podcasts and videos has always been difficult given the nature of any audio or video file. While text is easy to search, audio and video is not! So the next best thing is to able to search by topics and/or related content. I’ve just discovered this new search engine for audio and and other rich media called ‘seeqpod‘. It appears that it uses a combination of topics, keyword and other data for determining results.
… instant playable search results. Clips, tracks, and presentations can be played, embedded, or shared immediately …. From video to audio, slideshows, and Adobe Flash, the vast multitude of rich media files …
The best part about this search engine is that you can play and preview the material without having to downoad it. Particularly useful given the size of rich media files! I’ll definitely be investigating further the possible uses of this search engine.
May 27
Podcast number 11 May 27th, 2008.
[ICTGUY0810.mp3 Running time: 15:03 mins, size: 7.0 MB]
Today’s Links!
Digital Chalkies:
http://www.digitalchalkie.com
ICTEV conference
http://ictev.vic.edu.au/event/conference.htm
Margaret Meijers & Mindtools
http://www.mindtools.tased.edu.au/
Make Mp3’s from text and more ..
http://readthewords.com
Hey Jude’s Blog - http://heyjude.wordpress.com/
And the Mark Pesce post:
http://heyjude.wordpress.com/2008/05/26/wackykids/
May 24
The 2008 ICTEV conference is on this Saturday with a whole variety of different ICT sessions taking place. I am fortunate enough to be taking a 2 hour session on using Scratch in the classroom. Scratch is free software for developing programmable multimedia from the ‘Life Long Kindergarten’ group at MIT. Think of it like ‘Logo’ for ‘web 2.0′ but much more graphical and much more fun!
“When students create Scratch projects, they learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also gaining a deeper understanding of the process of design.” http://scratch.mit.edu/about
What makes Scratch so successful is that it has a low entry point and high ceiling for learners, it is constructivist and constructionist by nature - students learn by doing, building, playing, constructing, modifying and debugging. With Scratch students create interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art.
I am very much looking forward to working with teachers who are considering using Scratch in their classroom. My presentation notes for “Scratch in the Classroom” are below.
Scratch is great for helping students develop 21st Century learning skills.
May 20
Podcast number 10 May 20th, 2008.
[ICTGUY0810.mp3 Running time: 14:11 mins, size: 6.6 MB]
Today’s Links!
Helen Otway’s blog - http://helenotway.edublogs.org
Google Posters - http://www.google.com/educators/posters.html
Matrix of Technology Integration - http://fcit.usf.edu/matrix/index.html
Maths Screencasts - A website by Eric Marcos - http://www.mathtrain.tv/
David Warlick blog’s - http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/
School AUP 2.0 - http://landmark-project.com/aup20/pmwiki.php
K12 Online Conference - http://k12onlineconference.org/
May 16
Many educators and students are discovering the enormous value of using Google Docs for creating online documents (word processing, spreadsheets and presentations). Wherever you have an Internet connection you have access to your work. Add to this the ability to do ‘real time’ collaboration, export and import different formats, and save your documents offline - you have a real killer app!
But it just gets better because with Google spreadsheets you can create online forms to collect data via email or via the web, the data goes straight into your online spreadsheet. This is can be an awesome way to collect student data and student responses (and I know there are some great free survey tools out there but they don’t always allow you to get the raw data) A recent upgrade to Google Spreadsheets now allows you to embed the online form in your blog or wiki. Have a try at the one below and go sign up today. Students can sign up using their school email account, they don’t need a gmail account.
May 12
Ninehub.com is offering free Moodle hosting for anyone. Fantastic!
Everyone who reads this blog will realise that I am a big Moodle fan. In fact, the very reason we registered the need2learn.net domain was so that we could allow any teacher in the district to have their own Moodle classroom without the need to setup and maintain their own servers.
The good news is that anyone can now have their own Moodle setup free of charge with their choice of name eg myschool.ninehub.com You also have full administrator permissions.
The bad news is that you will need to suffer Google ads at the bottom of each page. These are not intrusive but would it be acceptable at your school?
May 11
Podcast number 9 May 10th, 2008.
[ICTGUY0809.mp3 Running time: 10:57 mins, size: 5.1 MB]
Todays Topics:
Gliffy for online diagrams - http://www.gliffy.com
The Podcast workflow - http://www.gliffy.com/publish/1425568/
Classroom 2.0 from the iTeacher
http://iteacher.edublogs.org/2007/09/15/classroom-20/
May 06
If you feel the need, please send the link to the survey to your friends to get them involved as well. We are hoping to get a good sample size and share the results on the Ed Tech Crew podcast.
Thanks 
May 04
Podcast number 8 May 4th, 2008.
[ICTGUY0808.mp3 Running time: 10:48 mins, size: 5.1 MB]
Todays Topics:
Call Graph - Skype recorder - http://callgraph.in
Blog Post from Chris Lehmann
Andrew Churches - Bloom’s Taxonomy goes digital
http://edorigami.wikispaces.com
Apr 27
Podcast number 7 April 18th, 2008.
[ICTGUY0807.mp3 Running time: 19:02 mins, size: 8.8 MB]
Todays Topics:
Australian Education Network - Edna - You can subscribe here or via iTunes.
Bill Mackenty’s blog & his post about Games in Education
Google Docs (Online Word Processor and collaboration tool)
Apr 24
One of the professional action learning teams we run in the Sunraysia Mallee Schools Network is the “New Tools & New Media” team, which is basically the Web2.0 team. But if I used that term, most teachers wouldn’t know what I was on about!
This year’s team is another great group of committed teachers willing to try new learning in their classrooms. The big difference I’m noticing with this new team is that those teachers with either a Facebook or MySpace account seem to understand ‘virtual spaces’ and communicating online so much better. No surprise I suppose? But the teachers involved in this form of social networking seem to ‘grok‘ the whole ‘collaboration, connection & communication’ thing, that is so important when trying to understand the value of web2.0 tools (blogs, wikis, podcasts etc).
Teachers are comfortable commenting to a Moodle forum or a blog, adding a voice annotation to Voice thread or sharing their knowledge by uploading to a ‘team space’ on the Moodle or a wiki. It’s great, it makes my job so much easier.
So thank you MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, Twitter, Ning, and the the thousands of other ’social networking’ tools that help people understand that we live in a global community where these types of conservations can take place for both socialising and learning. I’m sure our students won’t mind being involved in more online learning with their ’social networking’ savvy teacher.
Photo credit: Leigh Blackall
Apr 20
Podcast number 6 April 18th, 2008.
[ICTGUY0806.mp3 Running time: 14:49 mins, size: 6.9 MB]
Todays Topics:
Konrad Glogowski’s blog & post on 21classes & personalised spaces
Facebook group for 21classes.com
iTunes University K-12 Lesson Plans
Apr 13
Podcast number 5 April 13th, 2008.
[ICTGUY0805.mp3 Running time: 10:53 mins, size: 5.1 MB]
Todays Topics:
Classroom blogging platform - 21classes.com
SLAV Conference featuring Will Richardson
Unlearning Curve
http://weblogg-ed.com/2007/the-steep-unlearning-curve/
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