Watershed http://blog.larkin.net.au Thoughts on teaching, technology, learning and life in an era of change. Mon, 12 Jul 2010 12:26:59 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Teachtechhttp://feedburner.google.com Test Post http://blog.larkin.net.au/2010/07/12/test-post/ http://blog.larkin.net.au/2010/07/12/test-post/#comments Mon, 12 Jul 2010 12:26:59 +0000 John Larkin http://blog.larkin.net.au/?p=1134

]]> http://blog.larkin.net.au/2010/07/12/test-post/feed/ 0 Meetup with Rob Newberry http://blog.larkin.net.au/2010/07/10/meetup-with-rob-newberry/ http://blog.larkin.net.au/2010/07/10/meetup-with-rob-newberry/#comments Sat, 10 Jul 2010 08:39:31 +0000 John Larkin http://blog.larkin.net.au/?p=1132

Finally got to meet with Rob Newberry last night. Rob and I have been exchanging notes via Twitter (@RobinThailand and @john_larkin) and also email for some time. Rob had been teaching in Thailand and he recently transferred to work here in Singapore with an international school as a director of IT. Very nice role indeed. We had a jolly good night. It always excellent to met members of your network face to face!

We met at Bugis MRT station and then headed off to Bukit Batok on the MRT to have dinner and few ales at the “coffee shop” where Shao Ping and I used to regularly eat back in the late 1990s and earlier this decade when we lived across the road in Block 254 and later up the road in Regent Heights.

We then cruised into the city and took up a posse in an outside bar to watch the world go by in a seedy part of town. Shao Ping and I often had a Mexican meal at the same place and engaged in some people watching. Rob and I must have looked out of place last night as I brought along the iPad and we were exchanging notes regarding apps and its use in the classroom. We talked about our journeys, music, teaching and working with tech in the classroom.

We hit the turps a little. We are kindred souls in many respects. Rob is a nice bloke and if you ever have the chance to work with him go for it! I am sure going to try and collaborate with Rob during my next trip to Singapore in October. Bring it on!

]]> http://blog.larkin.net.au/2010/07/10/meetup-with-rob-newberry/feed/ 0 Mobile technologies in the classroom… http://blog.larkin.net.au/2010/07/05/mobile-technologies-in-the-classroom/ http://blog.larkin.net.au/2010/07/05/mobile-technologies-in-the-classroom/#comments Mon, 05 Jul 2010 05:08:34 +0000 John Larkin http://blog.larkin.net.au/?p=1119 Mobile technologies in the classroom. Well, that is a bit of a misnomer. Mobile technologies should take one out of the classroom of course. I am conducting a presentation on this topic

This year the school at which I teach took delivery of about 120 iPod Touches. They are maintained in these secure cases not unlike a camera bag within foam that was cut to hold 20 of the devices. Teachers can collect the case and then distribute the iPods to the students. They can access the Internet wirelessly. I have observed students using literacy apps. The students sit on stairs, the floor, at desks, anywhere. Inside. Outside. Walls have no meaning. After all, the students are portable.

The school has also obtained two iPads and I have been working with two of our disabled students. Each student has found the iPad to be a worthwhile tool. It is still early days. They have worked with WritePad and Brushes and found the tools accessible. WritePad incorporates hand writing recognition software which I find is quite useful. The iPad is proving to be a remarkable device.

Personally I think the school should sell all the iPod Touches to the students and purchase iPads with the proceeds.

There is much to consider when deploying mobile technologies in teaching and learning. All of the usual suspects apply of course: curriculum integration, suitability, accessibility, staff training, privacy, cost. Then there are the pedagogical considerations… constructivist, situated, collaborative, informal and so on. Read this and this for more ideas.

I have been building a mindmap with some of the ideas that have crossed my mind. I began this mindmap on the MRT between Tiong Bahru and Boon Lay here in Singapore. I used Mindnode on the iPhone. After lunch on Sunday. It was quite easy actually. I emailed to myself and completed it on the Mac. Have a look. I should make it shareable so others can add and subtract. Let me look into that. What do you think?

Mobile Technologies MindMap

This is a work in progress. If you wish to explore more on this topic you may like to consult the excellent references linked to below.

Educause ~ Mobile and Handheld Computing
Educause ~ Cloud Computing
Educause ~ Mobile Learning
New Media Consortium ~ Horizon Reports: 2009 and 2010
Futurelab ~ Mobile technologies and learning
Educause ~ Seven Things You Should Know About…

Cloud Computing
Mobile Apps for Learning
E-Readers
Microblogging
QR Codes
Geolocation
Multi-touch Interfaces
Skype
E-books
Augmented Reality

]]> http://blog.larkin.net.au/2010/07/05/mobile-technologies-in-the-classroom/feed/ 6 Links for 2010-06-26 [del.icio.us]http://del.icio.us/John_Larkin#2010-06-26Sun, 27 Jun 2010 00:00:00 PDThttp://del.icio.us/John_Larkin#2010-06-26<ul> <li><a href="http://mindmapblog.com/">The Mindmap Blog</a><br/> According to Wikipedia, a Mindmap “is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged radially around a central key word or idea. It is used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, decision making, and writing.”<br /> <br /> Today, however, with the wide array of mindmapping software (desktop and web-based), mindmapping has become a great deal more than the Wikipedia definition.</li> </ul>Links for 2010-06-19 [del.icio.us]http://del.icio.us/John_Larkin#2010-06-19Sun, 20 Jun 2010 00:00:00 PDThttp://del.icio.us/John_Larkin#2010-06-19<ul> <li><a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mguhlin/~3/lWkkz0SaIZs/welcoming-visitors-your-moodle-front.html">Welcoming Visitors - Your #Moodle Front Door</a><br/> A nice front page of your site sends a warm welcome to you every time you get there, as well as other folks when they visit. It&#039;s fun to have have an eye-catching door that adds appeal to your online presence and makes people anxious to explore what&#039;s &quot;on the other side&quot; of a login.</li> <li><a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/46lUTvAgAps/us-department-of-energy-asks-i.php">U.S. Department of Energy Asks, Is Cloud Computing Fast Enough for Science?</a><br/> With cloud computing gaining acceptance in the business world, the U.S. Department of Energy wants to know if cloud computing can also meet the needs of the scientific computing. The National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) has launched Magellan, a cloud computing testbed to explore this question, with facilities that will test the effectiveness of cloud computing for scientific projects.</li> </ul>Links for 2010-06-14 [del.icio.us]http://del.icio.us/John_Larkin#2010-06-14Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:00:00 PDThttp://del.icio.us/John_Larkin#2010-06-14<ul> <li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jun/21/observer-profile-twitter-internet">Twitter - The tweet that shook the world | Technology | The Observer</a><br/> Twitter: The tweet that shook the world<br /> Beloved by celebrities from Stephen Fry to Britney Spears, the social messaging service, with its limit of 140 characters, is now a global phenomenon and, as the Iranian crisis has proved, a powerful political tool</li> <li><a href="http://projects.minot.k12.nd.us/groups/chris/weblog/5ce29/Why_an_iPod_Touch_in_education_.html">Why an iPod Touch in education?</a><br/> The iPod Touch is device that I hardly use as a music or video player. Instead, I have chosen to mainly use it as an &quot;Internet Device&quot;.<br /> <br /> I can check email on it, surf webpages, check my Tech Requests (for work), and even keep up with my Twitter friends on this device. I see some real neat uses for it in education, and intend to buy one of the video cables [cable] [Apple&#039;s cable] for it soon so I can show off the pod&#039;s capabilities using a teacher&#039;s classroom projector.</li> <li><a href="http://www.teachingdegree.org/2009/06/22/100-tips-tools-and-resources-for-teaching-students-about-social-media/">100 Tips, Tools, and Resources for Teaching Students About Social Media | Teaching Degree.org</a><br/> Some educators have expressed an appreciation for the irony of experienced instructors who have had to learn about social media later in their careers teaching it to younger students who have grown up in an Internet environment. Despite what may seem to be somewhat of a disadvantage, the experienced teacher brings life lessons and the ability to guide students in a positive direction no matter the topic being taught. The following tips, tools, and resources can assist any teacher with the basics about social media and ways to share that information with students.</li> <li><a href="http://www-nlp.stanford.edu/courses/cs224n/2009/fp/">Index of /courses/cs224n/2009/fp</a><br/> Index of /courses/cs224n/2009/fp Research projects on linguistics including an analysis of Twitter Refer 22.pdf</li> <li><a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/who_uses_social_networks_and_what_are_they_like_part_1.php">Who Uses Social Networks and What Are They Like? (Part 1)</a><br/> A new study by Anderson Analytics looks into the demographics and psychographics of social networking users on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and LinkedIn with a goal of providing marketers with information about users&#039; interests and buying habits as related to their network of choice. The end result is a detailed look at the profiles and habits of social networking users on the web today.<br /> <br /> Some of the study&#039;s findings echo things we&#039;ve already heard. For example, Facebook users tend to be old, white, and rich. MySpace users are young...and fleeing. Other info is new: Twitterers are more likely to have a part-time job, LinkedIn users like to exercise and own more gadgets.</li> <li><a href="http://www.guide2digitallearning.com/professional_development/10_technologies_use_laptop_tablet_classroom">DIGITAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS: Tools and Technologies for Effective Classrooms</a><br/> As more and more work migrates to the web, these ten+ technologies are particularly effective for classrooms and schools with one-to-one programs. They could be used in traditional classrooms with some modification too.</li> <li><a href="http://voicethread.com/?#q.b558435.i2984199">VoiceThread - Group conversations around images, documents, and videos</a><br/> Voicethread tutorial</li> <li><a href="http://shortcomp.edublogs.org/2010/02/18/ipod-app-and-blogging/">Ipod app and blogging | shortcomp</a><br/> For months I have been bemoaning the poor state of my blog. I’ve been so busy at school that it seems like 2009 has gone with the wind and taken with it almost two months of 2010.<br /> <br /> So, my March resolution for this year is to focus on being a better, more efficient and effective blogger. With this in mind I have spent th last couple of weeks trying to find the perfect blogging app for my iPod touch(which is a new gadget I haven’t blogged about) followed by exactly zero blogs for the month of February so far.</li> <li><a href="http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/2009/02/different-approaches-to-educational.html">Bill Kerr: Different approaches to educational reform</a><br/> Different approaches to educational reform<br /> Standards approach, Expert teacher approach and Fundamental restructure.</li> <li><a href="http://digitalroam.typepad.com/digital_roam/2009/03/the-credit-crisis-explained-part-2.html">Digital Roam: The Credit Crisis explained, part 2</a><br/> Jonathan Jarvis&#039; wonderful animation of the credit crisis is the best explanation I&#039;ve seen yet.</li> <li><a href="http://www.ictineducation.org/">Articles - Educational Technology - ICT in Education</a><br/> Excellent education technology site with news, tools, reviews and more</li> <li><a href="http://amnesiablog.wordpress.com/2009/03/22/how-to-spot-a-twitter-user-with-a-fake-follower-count/">How to spot a Twitter user with a &lsquo;Fake&rsquo; Follower Count. &laquo; Amnesia Blog</a><br/> ‘They’ have thousands of followers, they adorn themselves with Bio’s which are occasionally obscure but often that of a self proclaimed Guru …and of course you’ve never heard of them before. Should you follow them? Seems reasonable to think that IF they have tons of people following them they MUST be legitimate, right? *cough*. I have been observing various Twitter users for the past three months who offer little value, but do know one thing above all other skills they possess …how to manipulate their follower count to get ahead in Twitter.</li> <li><a href="http://www.macworld.com/article/139486/2009/03/printandshare.html?lsrc=rss_weblogs_iphonecentral">Print &amp; Share for iPhone Review | Mobile | iPhone Central | Macworld</a><br/> Print &amp; Share is a simple, elegant iPhone app that enables you to print e-mail, attachments, images, contacts, documents, and Web pages to any network-connected printer you’ve made accessible via its free sister program, WePrint. Provided by EuroSmartz, WePrint is a print server that comes in both Mac and Windows versions. Like the iPhone app it supports, it’s stable and easy to s</li> <li><a href="http://www.ascd.org/research-a-topic/Understanding-by-Design.aspx">Understanding by Design&reg; - ASCD</a><br/> &quot;The framework outlined in Understanding by Design (Wiggins &amp; McTighe, 1998) offers a three-stage, backward design process to assist teachers in centering their curriculum and assessments on big ideas, essential questions, and authentic performances. This framework works for both curriculum design and school and district improvement efforts.</li> <li><a href="http://www.anzacsite.gov.au/5environment/submarines/ae2.html">Henry Stoker, DSO and the AE2 | Submarines in the Dardanelles | Gallipoli and the Anzacs</a><br/> Article about submarines in the Dardanelles</li> </ul>Links for 2010-06-13 [del.icio.us]http://del.icio.us/John_Larkin#2010-06-13Mon, 14 Jun 2010 00:00:00 PDThttp://del.icio.us/John_Larkin#2010-06-13<ul> <li><a href="http://www.ancientgreece.co.uk/">Ancient Greece - The British Museum</a><br/> British Museum site on Ancient Greece.</li> <li><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/ancient_greeks/">BBC - Primary History - Ancient Greeks</a><br/> BBC web site on ancient Greece</li> <li><a href="http://vlog.rheingold.com/">Adora Svitak: A 12 Year Old on Digital Literacy</a><br/> Adora Svitak: A 12 Year Old on Digital Literacy<br /> I interviewed Adora Svitak after being introduced by her mother and watching her TED presentation. I’m writing a book about 21st century literacies and thought that a 12 year old would give a good perspective. Which she does.</li> <li><a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/Adults-and-Social-Network-Websites.aspx">Adults and Social Network Websites | Pew Research Center's Internet &amp; American Life Project</a><br/> The share of adult internet users who have a profile on an online social network site has more than quadrupled in the past four years -- from 8% in 2005 to 35% now, according to the Pew Internet &amp; American Life Project&#039;s December 2008 tracking survey.<br /> <br /> While media coverage and policy attention focus heavily on how children and young adults use social network sites, adults still make up the bulk of the users of these websites. Adults make up a larger portion of the US population than teens, which is why the 35% number represents a larger number of users than the 65% of online teens who also use online social networks.</li> <li><a href="http://www.caudit.edu.au/educauseaustralasia09/">EDUCAUSE Australasia Conference 2009 - Innovate, Collaborate &amp; Sustain</a><br/> Perth, Western Australia was the host for EDUCAUSE Australasia Conference from 3 - 6 May 2009. This was the premier event for professionals working in higher education who manage technologies to advance scholarship, learning and teaching. With the theme Innovate, Collaborate &amp; Sustain, this conference explored the challenges in areas such as how to innovate in the knowledge economy, collaboration with virtual teams and the ever present green agenda and action.</li> <li><a href="http://www.conceptispuzzles.com/index.aspx?uri=info/article/292">Japanilaiset ristikot laboratory: teaching mathematics in Finland with Japanese puzzles</a><br/> Schools in Finland have a national part of the curriculum which covers most of the studies all students must have in order to graduate high school. Yet, there are also optional studies In Finland. We have nationally agreed for what we call &quot;special advanced studies&quot; in all the common subjects and schools are allowed to develop their own special courses for that matter. Thus, for two years in a row I have had the wonderful opportunity to include a course about Japanese puzzles to my teaching schedule at Turun iltalukio, night gymnasium for adults in Turku, Finland.</li> <li><a href="http://digitalstory.ca/digitalstory/Home.html">Digital Story.ca</a><br/> I would like to welcome you to the newly re-designed Digitalstory.ca.<br /> <br /> More than ever people just like you want to tell meaningful, heartfelt stories about their lives or lives of family members and friends. I’ll help you with the process. <br /> <br /> Browse through the site and when  you are ready, contact me to book your digital storytelling session.</li> <li><a href="http://www.onlinecollegedegrees.org/2009/03/19/100-tips-apps-and-resources-for-teachers-on-twitter/">100 Tips, Apps, and Resources for Teachers on Twitter | Online College Degrees</a><br/> Twitter can be at first glance a strange phenomenon and many don’t understand its purpose right away. However, Twitter is a powerful tool that is growing in popularity as word spreads of its potential capabilities. The idea of writing small blog posts of 140 characters or less to a group of your followers is actually a revolutionary new way to bring communities together, learn from each other, and keep updated with all that is happening. Busy teachers may feel that taking the time to learn how to use Twitter isn’t worth the return for the students benefit, so that’s why this list of 100 tips, apps, and resources is worth browsing. Find out how to get started with Twitter, ways to use it in an educational setting, and tools to help you use it better with these resources below.</li> <li><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2521717.htm">ABC The Drum Unleashed - Web of secrecy</a><br/> It&#039;s been a busy week. <br /> <br /> It began with a blacklist. The Australian Communications and Media Authority has one - URLs pointing to web sites and web pages deemed too offensive for Australian eyes. <br /> <br /> Fair enough: as the Government regulator they have the statutory authority to block content which wouldn&#039;t receive a classification in Australia. But here&#039;s the thing – no one except ACMA knows what URLs are on the blacklist. In other words, not only are the URLs censored, but the list of censored URLs is itself censored.<br /> <br /> Welcome to the rabbit hole.</li> <li><a href="http://wefollow.com/">Twitter Directory and Search, Find Twitter Followers : WeFollow</a></li> <li><a href="http://sites.google.com/site/wesfryer/Home/macapps">macapps (wesfryer)</a><br/> The following is a list of applications I (Wesley Fryer) am currently running on my Apple laptop. A February 2010 archive version of this page is also available. I have listed this applications in the order in which I re-installed them / installed them after doing a clean install of my operating system in late February 2010, using Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard. I reinstalled these, more or less, in &quot;priority order&quot; in terms of the applications I use the most / need the most. I do love and use both iLife and iWork, but they were installed first because I was offline / without Internet access when I started my &quot;clean installation&quot; process.</li> <li><a href="http://bookmarks.insuggest.com/">Bookmark suggestions from inSuggest</a><br/> This tool will analyze your online bookmarks and recommend other bookmarks that matches your taste. Provide your del.icio.us username to see Your personal suggestions.</li> <li><a href="http://www.noupe.com/wordpress/25-unique-uses-of-wordpress-as-cms.html">25 Unique uses of WordPress as CMS - Noupe</a><br/> WordPress is often thought of as little more than a blogging platform. But it’s capable of so much more. Through a little customization and the use of plugins, WordPress can easily be transformed into a full-featured content management system. Here are more than 25 sites who have done just that (and done it well).<br /> This is the second article in the three-part series, “The Comprehensive Guide for a Powerful CMS using WordPress”.</li> <li><a href="http://www.icids2009.ccg.pt/">ICIDS 2009 International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling</a><br/> ICIDS is the premier international conference on interactive digital storytelling. It was successfully launched in 2008, superseding the previous two European conference series, TIDSE (“Technologies for Interactive Digital Storytelling”) and ICVS (“Virtual Storytelling – Using Virtual Reality Technologies for Storytelling”).</li> </ul>Links for 2009-11-19 [del.icio.us]http://del.icio.us/John_Larkin#2009-11-19Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 PSThttp://del.icio.us/John_Larkin#2009-11-19<ul> <li><a href="http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/">Information Is Beautiful | Ideas, issues, concepts, subjects - visualized!</a><br/> AN incredible site with rich examples of data visualisation.</li> <li><a href="http://www.cats-pyjamas.net/2008/08/7-habits-of-highly-effective-online-discussion-participants/">7 Habits of Highly Effective Online Discussion Participants - Cat's Pyjamas</a><br/> Excellent article by Joyce Seitzinger on the effective use of Discussion Forums.</li> </ul>Links for 2009-10-06 [del.icio.us]http://del.icio.us/John_Larkin#2009-10-06Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:00:00 PDThttp://del.icio.us/John_Larkin#2009-10-06<ul> <li><a href="http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/06/04/the-best-ways-to-make-comic-strips-online/">The Best Ways To Make Comic Strips Online | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...</a><br/> An excellent set of resources and links relating to the educational use of Comics in teaching and learning.</li> <li><a href="http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/">Clipart ETC Homepage</a><br/> An excellent collection of clip art available for use by educators. Nicely categorised.</li> <li><a href="http://www.pics4learning.com/">Pics4Learning | Free photos for education</a><br/> An excellent collection of photographs available for use by educators. Nicely categorised.</li> <li><a href="http://tell.fll.purdue.edu/JapanProj//FLClipart/">Clip Art Collection for FL instruction</a><br/> An excellent collection of clip art available for use by educators. Nicely categorised. The clip art includes black and white illustrations that convey concepts relating to verbs and adjectives. Excellent for teachers of a second language.</li> <li><a href="http://hcmc.uvic.ca/clipart/">UVic's Language Teaching Clipart Library</a><br/> This library consists of about 3000 images which the creators hope will be useful in the teaching of basic vocabulary in a variety of languages. The characters and objects depicted are as culturally neutral as they could make them.</li> <li><a href="http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/10/11/the-best-online-sources-for-images/">The Best Online Sources For Images | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...</a><br/> Larry has yet again compiled a brilliant set of resources for teachers.</li> <li><a href="http://plasq.com/comiclife">plasq.com - Comic Life - Version 1.5</a><br/> Comic Life is one of the most exciting software applications released in recent years. It allows anyone to express themselves in a manner that is simply fun and memorable. People, animals and inanimate objects can be given their own words and thoughts. Great for storytelling for people of all ages.</li> <li><a href="http://www.readwritethink.org/student_mat/student_material.asp?id=21">ReadWriteThink: Student Materials: Comic Creator</a><br/> A collection of ReadWriteThink lessons that use Comic Creator. The Comic Creator invites students to compose their own comic strips for a variety of contexts. The organizers focus on the key elements of comic strips by allowing students to choose backgrounds, characters, and props, as well as to compose related dialogue.</li> <li><a href="http://comicsintheclassroom.net/">COMICS IN THE CLASSROOM: a comic site for teachers, parents and librarians</a><br/> A comic site for teachers, parents and librarians. Lessons, resources and ideas.</li> <li><a href="http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/631">Comics in the classroom</a><br/> A recent explosion of academic interest in comic books and graphic novels has stirred the creation of comics curricula nationwide. Several colleges and universities are now offering courses in comics literature, and high school teachers are exploring graphic novels as a new way to stimulate young readers’ interest in literature.</li> </ul>Links for 2009-05-26 [del.icio.us]http://del.icio.us/John_Larkin#2009-05-26Wed, 27 May 2009 00:00:00 PDThttp://del.icio.us/John_Larkin#2009-05-26<ul> <li><a href="http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Tech%2Band%2BScience/Story/STIStory_381812.html">Ancient Sloth Fossil</a><br/> Interesting news report regrading sloth fossil</li> <li><a href="http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Tech%2Band%2BScience/Story/STIStory_381778.html">Online mags reach for future</a><br/> Interesting article about online</li> </ul>