Innovation these days? New tools new options!

Posted on August 20, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

I’ve just set up a posterous account via email, and it totally blew me away. This is the quickest thing on earth to set up and get kids blogging. It’s the quickest thing on earth for cross posting. Well, I just like it …it’s fun.

What’s more you can attach any type of file and they’ll post it along with the text of your email.
They’ll do smarter things for photos, MP3’s, documents and video links

I’m off to test this with an email right now!! Cool. Thanks to Maureen for sending me a recommendation 🙂

Posted by email from Heyjude’s posterous

Phone a friend in exams

Posted on August 20, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

People beyond Australia will be interested to catch the news item “Phone a friend in exams”.

A SYDNEY girls’ school is redefining the concept of cheating by allowing students to “phone a friend” and use the internet and i-Pods during exams. Presbyterian Ladies’ College at Croydon is giving the assessment method a trial run with year 9 English students and plans to expand it to all subjects by the end of the year.

This is part of a pilot study to examine potential change in the ways in which the Higher School Certificate (HSC is the final pulic examination for all students in New South Wales) might be run.

Read more about it from Chris in The Truth is Out There.

Photo: Question Mark

Celebrating books for children and young adults

Posted on August 19, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

The winners of the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book Week shortlist have been announced. School and school libraries in Australia are very busy celebrating good books and good reading.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

more about “fym “, posted with vodpod

Google maps drive me mad!

Posted on August 14, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

I don’t usually drop a cartoon into this blog – but this time I give up! Sometimes ya just gotta laugh!

It’s the only thing to cope with the insanity at school driven by the latest upgrade to Google Maps in Australia. Every student is perusing streets (and more) in detail.

“Oh miss, look at the skidmarks on that road”!! Learning? Depends on your perspective 🙂

xkcd – A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math and language.

A quick tour of many many virtual worlds

Posted on August 13, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

Great video from Gary Hayes highlighting the extensive range of virtual worlds now in operation – then add some! I like the quotes – makes this video a good one to show at a PD session. There are over 40 in the clip below.

As society migrates into virtual worlds we become pioneers exploring new frontiers of the mind.

via Librarians Matter

The Lo-Fi Manifesto

Posted on August 10, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

The current issue of Kairos online journal exploring the intersections of rhetoric, technology and pedagogy, has an article by Karl Stolley – The Lo-Fi Manifesto – which I particularly enjoyed, given our penchant for fancy and flexible web tools for connectivity.

Discourse posted on the open Web can hardly be considered free if access requires costly software or particular devices. Additionally, the literacies and language we develop through engaging in digital scholarship and knowledge-making should enable us to speak confidently, unambiguously, and critically with one another……And as teachers, we should actively work to provide students with sustainable, extensible production literacies through open, rhetorically grounded digital practices that emphasize the source in “free and open source.”

Jump over to The Lo-Fi Manifesto and also checkout the substantial explanations in the drop-down panes for each element. Some of these concepts are highly relevant to our discussions about 21st century learning or the digital and design environment within which such learning takes place or is supported.

Manifesto

1. Software is a poor organizing principle for digital production.: “What program do you use?” is a question I often get about the slides I use to present my work. I have concluded that the proper answer to the question is to counter-suggest the asking of a different question, “What principle do you use?” John Maeda, The Laws of Simplicity
2. Digital literacy should reach beyond the limitations of software.: The ability to “read” a medium means you can access materials and tools created by others. The ability to “write” in a medium means you can generate materials and tools for others. You must have both to be literate. Alan Kay, “User Interface: A Personal View”
3. Discourse should not be trapped by production technologies.: In an extreme view, the world can be seen as only connections, nothing else. Tim Berners-Lee, Weaving the Web
4. Accommodate and forgive the end user, not the producer.: Don’t make me jump through hoops just because you don’t want to write a little bit of code. Steve Krug, Don’t Make Me Think, (2nd ed.)
5. If a hi-fi element is necessary, keep it dynamic and unobtrusive.: This is progressive enhancement: it works for everyone, but users with modern browsers will see a more usable version. We are, in a way, rewarding them for choosing to use a good browser, without being rude to Lynx users or employees of companies with paranoid IT departments. Tommy Olsson, “Graceful Degradation & Progressive Enhancement”
6. Insist on open standards and formats, and software that supports them.: Because they share a common parent and abide by the same house rules, all XML applications are compatible with each other, making it easier for developers to manipulate one set of XML data via another and to develop new XML applications as the need arises, without fear of incompatibility. Jeffrey Zeldman, Designing with Web Standards, (2nd ed.)

Wannabe shiny Web 2.0?

Posted on August 10, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

4 Web 2.0 Generating Tools

5 Web 2.0 Color Tools

Open Source Web Design

Shiny Web 2.0 Text

Checkout 15 photoshop tutorials that will have you churning out quality in no time!

Combine them to give your design work new shine.

What is Cloud Computing?

Posted on August 9, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

Cloud computing – the latest handle attached to the idea of hosted Web services used by people and businesses – is beginning to get considerable traction now that there are more companies offering services online. Elizabeth covers some good ideas in her post What is Cloud computing. This is a topic I am exploring for a PD session I’m presenting for the Computing Studies Teachers group.

But meanwhile, remember when we talked about ‘Web 2.0 as platform’?

Now its more and more what we are about, in schools, in libraries, in companies, in fact anywhere. Now we live on line, work online, store personal files online, and more. It’s not about locking to a single IT platform – its about releasing us from platform dependence.

With platforms getting a hold on the marketplace (and hopefully in education eventually) like the iTouch, iPhone, eeePC and more, cloud computing makes a lot of sense for schools – kids can access anything anywhere, and IT doesn’t have to be all centrally run from the school.

Is it really happening? eBay has a full time position open in San Jose for a Director, Cloud Computing Engineering.That’s a bit telling don’t you think? Cloud computing is what Google Apps are all about – and a good example of a major company making a play in this emerging field.

Is Cloud Computing Actually for Real?

The Editor of Grid Today reporting on Gartner’s Symposium ITXpo says that Gartner’s answer to this question is “Yes.” Among the myriad statistics thrown out at the conference was Gartner’s prediction that by 2012, 80 percent of Fortune 1000 companies will pay for some cloud computing service, and 30 percent of them will pay for cloud computing infrastructure. Pretty impressive if it comes true.

I really like where this is all going 🙂 The guys in this video clip are not all sure yet, but listen to their ideas, get the big picture and move with the times!

Vodpod videos no longer available.

more about “What is Cloud Computing“, posted with vodpod

‘Buy in’ is low!

Posted on August 9, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

We often talk about the challenge of developing our 21st century learning capacity amongst our teachers. But I, like so many, have to start at the beginning. Personally I love that challenge, because it makes me reflect deeply on my own core beliefs about learning and teaching as we find it today.

So here’s our latest challenge – introducing all of Year 7 to the Resources Centre (library).

Shudder – well at least that is what the older boys do when they remember their time in Year 7 undertaking their 7 week project. I have the blue printed book on my desk. I opened it once. I rejected it immediately. We now have the Science Research wiki instead!

So we are developing a new approach – the is of course delivered online, that builds in to the program key points of information fluency. Let me tell you, this is just the beginning! This is very new for my teachers, and is being welcomed with open arms so far. So that’s the trick isn’t it. Start small, turn around the tide.

This is what I wrote about it at school:

Staff in the Resources Centre are always keen to find ways to promote reading and literacy as well as thinking in all areas across the curriculum.
We believe that thinking should be treated as a fundamental literacy skill, whether the ‘language’ in question is Maths, Science, Art or English! There is no question that reading, writing, speaking, and listening are interconnected skills that develop synergistically and are key to teaching thinking. The more fluent students become as readers, writers, speakers, and listeners, the clearer, more coherent, and more flexible their thinking will become.
So we look constantly look for new opportunities – and a few have come our way this term.
We have launched a new Year 7 Science Research program in collaboration with teachers, to introduce students to what the Resources Centre can offer, coupled with research techniques, learning strategies, note-taking ideas, web evaluation, using a bibliography, and more. This new programme has been launched as a web-based wiki that provides the pathway for learning, without being didactic about the approach. Each class is different so though key areas are covered for all, the learning experience is modified to suit the needs of each student. You can find the Research Wiki at http://scienceresearch.wetpaint.com/