EdCompBlog

Fun On Friday #136: Emoji

2012-02-05T23:01:00.000Z

I encouraging my students to blog but have fallen behind myself. Clearly I need to practice what I preach.

So, I know it's not Friday, but here's something fun I just discovered recently: Emoji - a character set of emoticons that originated in Japan and are beginning to settle down into an Internationally agreed standard.

How did I stumble across this? Well, I've known for some time that my iPad and iPhone can use different keyboard layouts but what I only just discovered is that one of those keyboard layouts is emoji.

This means I can type a range of emoticons directly into anything that can take text. Of course, I'm not sure how it will look outside the iPad. Apparently, it is built into most Japanese handsets, and as a result, many other handsets too including iPhones and Windows phones.

So have a look around in the settings of your devices and email programs to see if you can do emoji too.

Fun On Friday #135: xkcd

2012-01-21T00:05:00.001Z

I think it's time for xkcd to feature properly. Here are some of my favourite tech-related xkcd comics. (Note, click the comic to go to the xkcd site and see the comic full size. Also, once on the xkcd site, leave the mouse on the graphic and enjoy the description that appears after a short pause!)

This comic may only make sense if you understand that there are 10 types of people: those who understand binary and those who don't.

I was thinking again this week about ICT verses Computing Science? I wonder where it would be placed on the "purity" continuum?

I would guess somewhere between Physics and Maths... but no doubt many other scientists would slap me for even suggesting this.

And finally, something I have printed out and laminated:

Do you have a favourite xkcd comic?

Say hello to BEd Bloggers

2012-01-19T10:46:00.003Z

I am working with three groups of students just now and want them to use a blog as a learning log and/or a tool for professional reflection.

#271 eLearning, a photo
by adesigna on Flickr.

The group that has been going longest is a BEd 3 class that started before Christmas but most haven't quite taken to blogging... yet. I hope to encourage them to get more into the spirit of blogging over the next couple of weeks.

I'd like, therefore, to ask three favours:

Could you suggest how I can help the students to develop a blogging habit, how I can encourage them to keep blogging? What evidence can you offer that blogging is a useful activity for student teachers?
Are there any educational bloggers that you think they should follow?
I'll share some links below of BEd 3 blogs that have been updated recently. If you could look in and reply to some posts or send them some enoencouragement - that would be great!

Thanks in advance.

And here are some that haven't been updated since last year... at least not yet!

Computing in schools

2012-01-12T00:18:00.001Z

...Well, Computing in English schools.

So many things I've been meaning to write about but just not finding the time. Couldn't let this one go without comment though. Today, it was widely reported that Michael Gove, the education secretary for England, announced that the current ICT curriculum is "demotivating and dull" and a "mess". (See for example, School ICT to be replaced by computer science programme and Michael Gove to scrap 'boring' IT lessons.)

Computers, a photo
by amberlynnlane on Flickr.

Three comments. One: it's about time. I reported the the extreme grumpiness expressed when Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, spoke at at the Learning Without Frontiers conference in January 2011 (see The creative and digital economy). The grumpiness was not with Mr Vaizey, the techno-savvy auidence was largely in agreement with what he said. The grumpiness was directed at Mr Gove and can be seen in two of the three questions I managed to capture:

Q: Why is there no one from Department of Education here?
...
Q: Why was technology/computing not mentioned by Gove?

While Mr Vaizey was talking about the "digital economy" and the importance of game design, Mr Gove was talking about Latin and the Kings and Queens of England. In November 2011, when the government finally got around to commenting on a report published in February 2011 (Next Gen - Transforming the UK into the world's leading talent hub for the video games and visual effects industries), there appeared to finally be an acknowledgement of the importance of a Computing curriculum in schools (see for example 'Seismic shift' in computer education), as well as some attempt to make a distinction between ICT and Computing.

Two: I think Mr Gove is still hugely underestimating what children can do with technology. He is quoted as saying:

"...we could have 11-year-olds able to write simple 2D computer animations using an MIT tool called Scratch."

-- The Guardian

Never mind "could have", it is amazing what 11 year-olds are already doing with Scratch! And not just 11 year-olds but children much younger than that too. And as for "simple" have a look what an 11 year-old has already done and tell me it's "simple"!

Three: In Scotland, we have had a Computing curriculum for over thirty years and have trained and qualified teachers in Computing teachers since the mid eighties but we are not without our problems. We too are seeing falling numbers of pupils taking the subject and see reports of children bored in the early years of secondary school with courses that lack relevance, excitement and challenge. Seeing that there is a problem is important. Knowing how to fix it is trickier. It's something we have been wrestling with in Scotland for some time. I wonder though if English and Scottish Computing education people are talking to each other?

What do you think? How do we develop an appropriate computing curriculum for schools and how do we re-engage the pupils that we have managed to put off the subject? Any thoughts?

Fun On Friday #134: Back to the future!

2012-01-06T20:23:00.002Z

Happy New Year.

The New Year is traditionally a time for making resolutions and looking forward, so, today's Fun on Friday is FutureMe - a website that lets you send emails to your future self. You go to the site, enter your email address, write yourself a message and then choose when you want it delivered. An astonishingly simple, yet stunningly brilliant idea.

Why not make your resolutions, then write yourself a note to be delivered later this year and encourage yourself to keep going. (Assuming you haven't broken this years resolutions already!)

Is there a nice class project here? Get a class to set targets, choose a deadline and then write emails to themselves to check in on the deadline. Or write an email to themselves for when they leave school... or reach 21... or... I guess you can come up with your own ideas. And if you do, leave a comment here to share it with other readers.

While we are on the subject of time travel (which we are sort of) here's my favourite bit from The Big Bang Theory:

My New Year resolution? To blog more often in 2012. So far, so good!

eBooks can damage your reading?

2012-01-04T13:31:00.000Z

Two things collided and I thought it was worth noting.

Kindle, a photo by ...-Wink-... on Flickr.

First, I caught a short chunk of a programme very late on Radio 4 (or possibly the World service). I think it was a business programme and they were talking about Amazon. Among other things, they were saying what a smart move (for Amazon at least) the Kindle was and, almost as a throw away, they stated that Amazon were now selling more eBooks than paper books!

I was surprised by this, especially since (in my opinion) many eBook editions are too pricey - I have even seen paperback versions of a book on sale in Amazon for a lower price than the eBook. How does that make sense?

While this was still fizzing around the back of my mind, I came across this blog: Why Books Are Better than e-Books for Children. The article asserts that if parents read eBooks with their children, it "...may actually impede our child’s ability to learn". If true, this would be worrying. The post referred to research from Temple University: Traditional books provide more positive parent-child interaction according to Temple, Erickson researchers. (It is worth noting that while the blog post is dated 28 December 2011, the research is dated 2006 - and five years is a very long time in the world of tech!)

Despite it's age, a couple of the points the research raises are interesting. One of its findings is related to the way eBooks can read the text to you:

'"It turned out that reading electronic books became a behaviorally oriented, slightly coercive parent-child interaction as opposed to talking about the story, relating it to the their child's life, or even talking about the book's pictures or text," Parish-Morris said. "Parents were under the impression that when you are sitting down with a book, you are supposed to read it," she added. "But what was happening with the e-books is that reading was not even part of the process, probably because these books literally read the story to the child. So parents are not needed. The book makes commands and tells the child what to do; it encourages them to play games and reads to the child, so parents are essentially replaced by this battery-operated machine."'

[Temple Times Online Edition]

This is an important point but it seems to me that this is no different from the story tapes we used to play for our children. They were not, of course, a substitute for reading to our children but they were a supplement. For example, it was while reading to my children at bedtime that I discovered Mr Tumnus has an Irish accent and (later on) that Aragorn sounds a bit like Clint Eastwood! But there were times when story tapes were invaluable, for example when we were going long journeys in a car. So I would argue that the problem here is not eBooks per se, but rather the way they are used.

The New York Times blog goes on to suggest, "Readers with an e-reader were focused on the device, not the story." I can see this would be an issue but probably only while the devices were new and novel. I remember having to teach people how to use the back button and hyperlinks on the first web browser but now the focus is on how to use the information accessed rather than the means of accessing it. If it is true that eBooks are outselling paper books, I think we can safely say that that we are well past they days of them being novel (pun intended) devices.

I am less than concerned therefore by the issues raised in the New York Times blog. It seems to me like another example that shows the truth of the phrase "It's not the tech, it's the teach". If the focus is on the reading and the parent child interaction, I suspect it makes no nevermind whether you use an eBook or a pBook!

I suspect though that this is worth further investigation. I must have a look for some more up-to-date research.

Fun On Friday #133: Christmas on YouTube

2011-12-24T13:41:00.002Z

A late fun on Friday comprising of three seasonally appropriate YouTube videos.

First, some Blues:

And next, something for the Prog fans:

And finally, the real meaning of Christmas... at least, the real meaning as told by puppets to a tune by Queen:

Thanks to Jane Thomson for the last video and Paul Thomson (no relation?) for the Prog video.

Right. Off to wrap more presents.

Have a great Christmas.

Fun On Friday #132: Christmas QR Codes

2011-12-17T13:49:00.001Z

Christmas goes QR

Thanks to a Tweet from @QR_BarCode I found my way to an article on the iMedia Connection blog: All I Want for Christmas is a QR Code. It tells the story of a family in Philadelphia's Christmas decorations, which this year include a banner with a QR Code:

Scan the code and you are taken to a Christmas video and links to Christmas music, recipes, photos...

Great stuff.

Fun On Friday #131: Snowball Fight

2011-12-10T10:36:00.001Z

Tis the season to be jolly. Peace and goodwill to all... And snowball fights with tanks:

Annoyingly difficult.

Fun On Friday #130: Elf Yourself

2011-12-05T00:05:00.001Z

Late again I know... but here's the first Fun On Friday of Advent.

It's an old favourite - Elf Yourself is back and it's bigger and better than ever. This year, I've gone for the singing option.

If you elf yourself, share a link here so we can all enjoy.

Update: Not sure how I missed this, but thanks to Daughter Number 2, here's a link to the Elf Yourself eCard maker.

Better than Elf Yourself?

Fun On Friday #129: QR Code Picture

2011-11-26T23:44:00.000Z

You need a facebook account if you want to play with with today's toy.

Go to the Intel Visibly Smart facebook page and create a QR Code that links to your facebook page with a picture of your choice as the background to the QR Code:

Interesting... but probably works better with some pictures than others.

Fun On Friday #128: Oolite

2011-11-13T20:06:00.001Z

Another link from the student who directed me to ClassDojo. (And another very late Fun on Friday.)

It also links to a previous post: Fun On Friday #97: Retro Gaming because this week's fun is provided by an open source attempt to bring an Elite style game to modern machine. It is called Oolite (for Object Oriented Elite) and looks to be pretty close to the original. Elite was an awesome game with a great mixture of arcade style shooting, tactics and trading. Frustrating and elating in more or less equal measure.

Docking was always tricky, but here's a video tutorial that may help:

I have played the new version and found docking to be just as tricky and frustrating as I remember... but I am ridiculously pleased to say, I did it on my second attempt. How many goes does it take you to get your docking skills back up to speed?

Fun On Friday #127: TweetPortrait

2011-11-05T00:12:00.000Z

What do you give the Twitterati who has everything this Christmas? Thanks to Computing's BackBytes and How to look like a total tweet! you need wonder no more!

As BackBytes says: "...a picture made up of all the exciting things you’ve said on Twitter printed very small, making it simultaneously very profound and entirely meaningless."

Purchase your TweetPortrait at Firebox.

So who will you get one for?

Fun On Friday #126: Star Treking

2011-10-21T23:34:00.000+01:00

So... I love Star Trek; especially the Original Series with Kirk and Spock. And I would say that Star Trek IV: Voyage Home is in my top ten favourite movies.

Then there's Queen - a great rock band with an outstanding front man. And Bohemian Rhapsody; probably one of the greatest singles ever released.

So, iconic TV series and an iconic song. Now wouldn't it be a great idea if we could combine the two somehow? No! Of course not! It's a car crash of an idea. And yet...

If you just heard this version, you might think it was quirky or even, in the manner of the Chinese curse, "interesting" but the video! The word "bonkers" doesn't even come close to beginning to hint at the merest smidgeon of an idea of how completely and utterly deranged this video is.

And yet I was amused. The first snigger was when the cut out mouths of the paper star sign figures started singing but by the end I was just howling with laughter.

What about you? What do you make of it?

Fun On Friday #125: ClassDojo

2011-10-14T23:42:00.001+01:00

Hmm! An on screen merit/demerit chart.

An on screen chart that you can update from your desktop, from your smartphone, from a tablet device...

A behaviour tool complete with colourful, cuddly avatars.

One of the PGDE students showed me this and I'm still not sure what I make of ClassDojo. Good fun but practical, useful, effective? What do you think?

Fun On Friday #124: Crazy Paper Thing

2011-10-07T22:30:00.001+01:00

Now I must admit, I haven't tried making this yet but really, the question is "When?" rather than "If"!

If you make it before I do, take a picture and post the link here.

Fun On Friday #123: Dinosaur songs

2011-09-30T23:45:00.000+01:00

Short and sweet this week. A video that Daughter Number 1 brought to my attention:

My favourite bit is where the dinosaur is stomping on the car and it's owner at the 1:12 mark - does that make me a bad person?

A flip chart pop-up book. An interesting class project?

SLF11 - Blogging In The Primary School

2011-09-22T12:47:00.001+01:00

Brian McLaren - Clackmannan Primary School

Why is blogging useful?

Awareness of audience - lifting their eyes beyond their own classroom. (The children especially loved seeing the dots appear on the map showing where in the world visitors were coming from.) Choice and personalisation - pupil blogs reflect their own interests. Describes a learning journey - it is not just about recording an end point.

Started with class blogs. Let's parents and others see what is happening in their children's classroom. With younger classes, they used a buddy system where older children typed up what the younger ones wanted to say. The technology use is embedded in the work of the class - the posts are about real work and not stuff invented to tick an ICT task.

Each teacher has a reflective blog where they evaluate and reflect on their own blog. They do this at least once a fortnight. Shared with SMT and a partner of their choice. Leads to a rich, regular evaluation process. Teachers are fully engaged and asked for feedback on their blog posts. As part of their reflection, teachers are linking to pupil blogs as part of the evidence.

Third use of blogs was to move away from just diary entries to pupils using blogs to reflect on their own learning. They personalise the look of their blog and include links to relevant pages for the learning they are describing. They tag their own posts and choose appropriate categories. They do not just describe what they have done but they set target posts and also evaluate their work linking to evidence and peer assessment as appropriate. As well as the posts in the main area, there are pages for each of the four capacities where they link to appropriate posts. A pupil described his blog and presented what he had done very effectively. He said it made him more organised and that it was "fun". {Assessment is fun! - DM}

A pupil asked asked how teachers knew what to teach. The teacher directed him to the Experiences and outcomes on Glow. The pupil then said to the teacher that he had been given the wrong target and that he should be at level 2. {Brilliant!} S pupils now link their personal targets themselves and link them to the My Experiences and Outcomes sections. the outcomes a general but the pupils and teachers set more specific tasks.

The blogs do not just use text. They use a variety of tools including: Voki, Glogster Edu, Anymaking, Graffitimaker, Lego Minimizer, Prezi, Zooburst and they are already looking for more!

How did they start this process?

Started with a whole staff (teachers, admin, support...), whole day training event. The SMT made a commitment to allow teachers the time to do this - time spent on planning and assessment is now allocated to the blogging activities. The school make extensive use of Glow help which they find very useful. Also make extensive use of Big Buddies - the pupils offer the support, it doesn't just come from a teacher. The depute head also makes extensive use of his Personal Learning Network through Twitter.

They now have 11 class blogs, 11 teacher evaluation blogs, approximately 200 pupil blogs, a head teacher blog, the depute's blog and Eco blog (used as part of the school's evidence to get a green flag) and an RRSA blog. They have a policy governing the safe and sensible use of blogs but this document also justifies and explains why they are using blogs and why they are valuable. They have a clear progression of tasks and skills through the school.

The blogs are about communication. About reading and commenting on other people's blogs. Reading as well as writing.

It is having an impact. There are logistical difficulties about looking after 200 blogs but the impact and value is clear.

The depute's blog is: http://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/cl/abbdiara

TMSLF - Two Minute presentations

2011-09-21T20:28:00.001+01:00

Carol Parish ClickView - sharing media clips. Searchable and sharable.

Doug Belshaw: Change MOOC and purpose/ed - purpos/ed debating the purpose of education. Conference coming up. MOOC - a Massive Open Online Course. In education, all to often we work in silos. With MOOC, every week a new educator talks about stuff. A Great place to go.

Mark Riches: National Music competition ( Next BRIT Thing ) - A competition for 11-19 year olds. Create music and upload. Music is voted on (by visitors to the site?) to create a shortlist. Panel of experts judge and best are invited to perform at various venues. All sorts of musicians and music industry people involved. Two hundred entries in the first 24 hours.

TMSLF11 - Cool Tools

2011-09-21T20:10:00.001+01:00

Colin Maxwell - Seven cool tools in seven minutes (or 5 cool tools and a camel in the face)

1) Google Forms

Create quizzes, polls, questionnaires. Entries timestamped and easy to collate.

2) TimeGlider

Collaborate bon making interactive timelines. (Paid for service if you want multiple, i.e. Class accounts.

3) Adobe Photoshop Express

Great free online photography application.

4) Adobe Education Exchange

Lots of shared lesson plans. Not a lot of UK stuff yet. Resources can be rated and Haredim.

5) Screenr

A fantastic free screen recording tool. Works in the browser. Free version limited to five minutes. Pupils can use it to record what they do rather than writing an essay about it.

TMSLF11 - QR Codes

2011-09-21T20:03:00.001+01:00

Joe says a great way to introduce QR Codes is to use the video from Common Craft.

Easy QR - create QR Codes on your phone on the fly. Or check out the QR Code bookmarklet.

How do we use in education? one way is to use the QR Treasure Hunt Generator. Qwikvotes is an easy way to generate a chart by people scanning a code. How to use Google Forms: A step by step guide - Grade QR Forms with a QR Code. Make a poster of Mobile Learning links. Make your classroom 4D - sticking QR Codes into text books and jitters. Use something like SnipURL to change where a code takes you, so one code that goes to constantly updated info.

TMSLF11 - Unplugd

2011-09-21T19:55:00.001+01:00

Jen Deyenberg Unplugd Scotland

Talked about her experience going off into the wilderness of Canada with a group of educators, leaving their technology behind, and just talking about education. Topics were themed around "Why ______ Matters". For example, Why Joy Matters in Education.

You can see what they did at Unplugd Canada. Jen has set up Unplugd Scotland and invites us to join with other educators and talk about what matters.

TMSLF11 - Paper.li

2011-09-21T19:00:00.001+01:00

Joe shows us a newspaper style syndication of your Tweets with paper.li

TMSLF - Jaye Richards-Hill - The Simplicity factor

2011-09-21T18:55:00.001+01:00

What engages children? Jaye explains how a hammer can be used to teach anything. For example, smash a pot in Art and then be creative with the parts. Got to think creatively but children will have a laugh and will be engaged.

The low-tech hammer can lead to great things.

TMSLF11 - Jim McDougall

2011-09-21T18:48:00.001+01:00

Jim McDougall - Comenius, Photography and CfE

This was good... But I failed to write anything while he talked.