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.
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!
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.
The podcast I do with Tony Richards called the EdTechCrew needs your help. We have constructed a survey about software use and we need you to help fill it in. It is very short, easy to do and completely confidential - please take the time to check it out: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=l7yJs0sT6kHDRS8NtBBEuw_3d_3d
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
I recently wrote a post about videos to use as discussion starters for professional development when working with teachers, and particularly those that highlight the need for 21st century learning skills. So this morning via the twitter network Clay pointed out the video below which I’ll also be adding to the collection. The video was created by Matthew Needleman.
Heyjude pointed out that commoncraft have another great video explaining how twitter works. While I’m new to twitter and still coming to terms with the nuances of the world of ‘microblogging/text messaging‘ via the web, it seems to have some useful applications for education. I personally find it very useful for the ’synchronous stuff’ - someone puts out a tweet and says “Edtech live in 5 minutes” and gives the URL, or “I’m doing staff PD can some drop by and conference with us”, or “I’m trying this web app can you help at this URL?” In the past week I have conferenced with a school in Melbourne, tried out tokbox and skyped with someone who has won an EE PC. It’s also great for networking with other educators and following their links, blogposts and thoughts but you may get sick of the inane tweets like “Just going to walk the dog …” and “Having a lovely tea at home …”
Tony, my partner in crime from the from the Ed Tech Crew is currently experimenting with his ‘5 by 5 rule’, where he picks one person and then adds 5 people from their network. Each time someone adds him to their network he adds five people from their network. He’s currently following 247 people with 65 following him. I’ll be interested to hear about his experiences! It seems that proper twitter etiquette is to add someone to your network when you’ve been added to theirs. Anyway, enjoy the video. I’m the ictguy on twitter (of course!)
I will update with a non-youtube video when it becomes available - sorry to all Victorian schools!
Here is the flyer I recently sent to all principals regarding three professional learning programs that will be running in the ‘Sunraysia Mallee Schools Network’ in term 2.
Online Curriculum using Moodle
Exploring curriculum delivery in an online environment using a ‘Learning Management System’.
Interactive Whiteboard Learning Team
Exploring the use of IWB’s in the classroom and to develop a network of skilled IWB teachers.
New Tools & New Media
Exploring online tools in the classroom.
I just came across a new technology call iPaper which looks really promising. It basically takes a large range of documents and converts them into the Adobe Flash format. This means that it will basically work on 95% of all web-browsers. So if you want to publish or share a document, you no longer have to make it available as an external download, you can embed it right into the page. The iPaper has a number of document controls which allow you to zoom, select, search etc. You can watch the demo here.
Update: It seems the the embedded ipaper kept crashing the Internet Explorer web browser so I have removed it. Although it might serve as another good reason to use Firefox
I thought it might be useful to post some of my favourite Internet videos on ‘Educational Change‘. With a new year started, we have four new coaches working in our district and many schools looking at trying to get teachers moving with ICT. Hopefully, some of these videos can be used at staff meetings and professional learning opportunities to start rich discussions and conversations about learning in the 21st century.
This is another great video from the folks at commoncraft. They’ve explained wikis and social networking in ‘Plain English‘ and now you can watch their take on blogs. Enjoy
A while back I linked to the video “The Machine is Us/ing Us” created by Dr. Michael Wesch who is a cultural anthropologist at Kansas State University. Well, he has created a couple more great videos. Firstly, the “Information R/evolution“, which again points out the changing nature of knowledge and information in a globally connected, digital world. And secondly, “A Vision of Students Today“, this has some really interesting statistics about students and what they think of their learning.
Thanks to Tony from the Edtechcrew and Deb (with the most organised bookmarks I know) who gave me the heads up on the new videos.
Well done to the hard working grade 5 and 6 students at Irymple South Primary School!
They have been using Scratch to create their own games and have published them to the Scratch website. All of their projects can be found here. I have embedded an example below. Enjoy! (Java is needed to play the games)
As part of the ‘New Tools & New Media‘ ICT group we have running in the Sunraysia Mallee Schools Network, we make extensive use of Moodle for online learning. We are also exploring lots of the Web 2.0 tools as well. So I thought it was about time I demonstrated how to combine the two. This tutorial outlines the steps needed to embed content from the web into Moodle. With all of the great content on the web (including your own Web 2.0 stuff), it becomes a really useful way of gathering and presenting resources to your students. You can use this method to embed content from Teachertube, Youtube, Slideshare and other Web 2.0 sites that allow you to ‘Embed’ content.
Update: Jason Hando has put out a video of how to embed web 2.0 content in Moodle. He offers a few other ways to do it. It’s part of the k12 online conference and can be accessed here.
The ‘K12 online Conference‘ has started! Here is a great opportunity to tap into the knowledge of other educators all over the world. Learn new things, build new networks, and discover new classroom practices. Join the discussion, download the podcasts, it’s free and open to everyone.
The K-12 Online Conference invites participation from educators around the world interested in innovative ways Web 2.0 tools and technologies can be used to improve learning. This FREE conference is run by volunteers and open to everyone. The 2007 conference theme is “Playing with Boundaries� This year’s conference begins with a pre-conference keynote the week of October 8, 2007. The following two weeks, October 15-19 and October 22-26, forty presentations will be posted online to the conference blog for participants to download and view.
The holidays have been a great time to catch up on those unfinished ICT jobs, the reading list, and also to reflect upon the term that has gone. I have a large number of RSS feeds that I follow through Google Reader but more and more, I find myself going to the local Aussie bloggers first, when it comes to reading new content. A small selection of some good posts follows. Some holiday reading perhaps!
John has great post about the politicization of the “Internet Safety” debate. (Is the Internet that bad?)
Tony has a great post about Halo 3 coming out just before the exams. (What will the impact be?)
Anne explains about her real world collaborative project for her students. (Want an authentic purpose and real audience?)
Andrew talks about teaching in the 21st century. (What should learning look like?)
And finally, HeyJude explains Literacy in a We2.0 world. I’ve embedded her slideshow below.
Screencasting involves capturing the video of what is happening on your computer screen, and the audio as you talk your way through what you are doing. It is most often used for creating software demonstrations and “How to’s”.
Jing is a free piece of software from TechSmith that allows you to do this type of ’screen capture’ on both Mac and Windows and then save to your hard drive or share it with the world! Jing can capture still images or video and the audio of any application that is running (including your voice as well!) The final file output is a flash swf file which will play in all modern web browsers. With a little effort this can be converted to other formats for further editing in video editing software.
Why not get your students to create some demonstrations on how use various software packages? Get them to plan, outline, storyboard and think about their audience. There is some complex, high order thinking that goes into making a good screencast!
This is probably a good reminder that there’s lots of great FOSS (Free, Open Source Software) out there! And this includes lots of great open source programs that run on Mac and Windows, not just Linux! It’s always available for download but the great guys at softwarefor.org have once again compiled a downloadable CD titled “Software for Starving Students”.
“Software for Starving Students is a free collection of programs organized for students (but available to anyone). We’ve gathered a list of best-in-class programs onto one CD (one disc for OS X, one for Windows), including a full-featured office suite, a cutting-edge web browser, multi-media packages, academic tools, utilities and more. “.
Why not burn some disks and hand them out to your students? Why not install some programs that students can use at school and at home?
Here’s the impressive list of programs for the 2007.09 release:
One of the things I have enjoyed the most this term is working with students to create games in Scratch. Our students have benefitted greatly from having access to this free, constructionist software. Oh yeah, it’s been great fun too!
So in an effort to put something back into the Scratch community and create some resources for teachers and students, I have created a screencast showing how to create the game of ‘Pong’ using Scratch. Feel free to leave a comment and tell me what you think.
Google has added a great new feature where you can embed a ‘Google Map’, just like you can for a youtube video, a slideshare presentation or other web2.0 media.
This is awesome, not only have I learnt how to use the “My Maps” feature where you can:
Mark your favorite places on your map
Draw lines and shapes to highlight paths and areas
Add your own text, photos, and videos
Share your map with friends and family
But now I can add all this to my blog! Here is map of of a recent boating trip we had on the Murray River. We boated from just below Wentworth to Ned’s Corner. (I didn’t take any pictures on the trip but you’ll get the idea)
This is probably a good reminder that there’s lots of great FOSS (Free, Open Source Software) out there! And this includes lots of great open source programs that run on Mac and Windows, not just Linux! It’s always available for download but the great guys at 
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