web2what

Waiting for Adam

noreply@blogger.com (James Green) — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 03:14:12 PDT

I have been fortunate enough to have started to use an ipad in my daily work. The ease of use, flexibility and apps helps create a great resource to support Learners use of the Internet and Learning environments. BUT, cost, lack of a camera and GPS start to undermine the whole experience. Is Apple to be beaten at its own game. The new Adam due to be launched in late December early January 2011 will be cheaper, include a camera, run using Android and have GPS.

This market is due to explode over the coming months and will give learners and teachers a new flexible tool that will add additional flexible access to the classroom.

Notion Ink Adam Technical Specifications:

System on Chip
NVIDIA TEGRA 2
Dual Core Cortex A-9
ULP GPU

Storage
16 / 32 GB eMMC / SD

Communication
WLAN – 802.11 b/g + BT 2.1 A2DP
WWAN – 3G HSDPA
GSM (TBD)

Display-Pixel Qi Display
10.1″ TFT Liquid Crystal Display module with LED backlight unit
WSVGA (1024 x 600 pixels) resolution
Transmissive, transflective, and reflective display modes

Touch Screen
Capacitive touch panel with multi-touch
Matt finish/ Anti glare Coating
Scratch resistant and Finger print resistant surface

Camera
3.2 MP Swivel Camera**

Audio
Two loudspeakers
3.5 mm Headphone jack
Microphone Jack
Built in microphone

Input/Output Ports
USB 2.0 Host – 2
HDMI
MicroSD slot
SIM Card slot
DC connector
Docking Port

Power & Battery
Universal Charger
3 cell standard battery

Sensors
3-Axis accelerometer
Ambient light sensing
A-GPS

Keyboard / Mouse
On screen keyboard
Back side trackpad**

Display***
10.1″ TFT Liquid Crystal Display
Capacitive touch panel with multi-touch
Matt finish/ Anti glare Coating
Scratch resistant and Finger print resistant surface

Size and weight
Height : 158 mm
Width : 239 mm
Depth : 13 mm*
Weight : ~ 600-650 gm

* Measured at outer edge, ** NotionInk Patents, *** With touch screen only

A prezi presentation

noreply@blogger.com (James Green) — Mon, 18 May 2009 12:49:32 PDT

Here is a prezi presentation. Take a look

It is looking at elements of challenge , vision and support Local Authorities require to deliver the e-strategy.

CBBC: A world to discover

noreply@blogger.com (James Green) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:38:27 PDT

My eldest has been talking to me about Mash ups.

This certainly surprised me. But together with her sister aged 4 they have been creating wonderful title sequences for CBBC. They have been creating, altering, sequencing, thinking, sharing and arguing (well they are sisters) about how to get the best design so that it will be shown on the TV. I am once again amazed by how quickly they pick up the skill set to manipulate and change this graphic design package.

My role in all this...

Simple, i'm their critical friend.. ;-) What about...? Have you thought about...? What is the narrative that you are trying to achieve? Not really, but once you see this simple tool you can see the possibilities for Teaching and Learning. Literacy and thinking skills are overflowing from activities that are available from the creative suite of resources. Beat the Boss... addictive....
Me and My Movie... Creative, fun and an audience of millions....

Teaching and Learning potential is out of this world

ICT ? What's that ask my kids! ;-)

Toondoo

noreply@blogger.com (James Green) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 06:10:07 PST

Toondoo is a great way to stimulate and frame writing tasks, i also love the way the page moves as you flick from page to page. Simple sign up why not sign up your class today. Cheaper than Comic life as well!

MR.JOE by arun Create your own Cartoon at www.toondoo.com

testing the challenge machine

noreply@blogger.com (James Green) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 05:21:58 PDT

View collection of web 2.0 challenges on The Challenge Machine.

View Web 2.0 & the future on The Challenge Machine.

10 in 10

noreply@blogger.com (James Green) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:49:22 PST

| View | Upload your own

As part of the Mobile Learning Conference myself and Pam Yates decided to put together a 20 things in 20 minutes presentation. Needless to say we went way over, but i thought that i may as well share my 10 in 10 with you. Unfortunately, i haven't included any text with it , but the main concept was about the new development of the Internet and the subsequent rationalisation of it. Especially in education there is a need to deliver resource to the learner when and where it is required. Within Worcestershire we are driven by this premise to help learners develop the skills they will need in the 21st Century.

The concept of rationalisation is a term that defines the Learners' need to organise and develop their learning communities. A number of the slides recognise this and are showing technology that supports this. There is nothing sparkly and new, i didn't think that that was going to be helpful, it was a reflection of what is already available and being used and trying to tie it together. That was the idea anyway. Interested in your thoughts...

You’ll want chips with that…

noreply@blogger.com (James Green) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:49:22 PST

The way the Internet we is going it takes me half an hr a day to catch up with what is happening. The more networks and services I sign up for the more fragmented they seem to become. It’s time for a spring clean! I have started to use Swurl http://www.swurl.com/ to help me organize myself a little more. Think of it as my desktop of social networks, image banks and twitterings…
I just want to go to one place and interact with all these things…
With this in mind I bought a new phone Nokia n95 which will now give me access to all this when I’m on the move. It even has built in GPS if I get lost. I reasoned with my wife that it would be useful when we went abroad. She agreed!

Consolidation of information may make me far more productive and the same should be true in education. The Worcestershire Learning Gateway is the starting point for this and will be the aggregation point for all users to access their resources. Obviously, the only mechanism for doing this will be clean and up-to-date data supplied by schools themselves. The significance of data is only now being realised with the onset of Learning Platforms, Portals and even 3G connectivity. This will all hang off the Global ID type of concept that will need to be adopted at a National Level with Identity Providers supporting the standard attributes that suppliers need to bind product with user.

With this in place and everyone swimming in the same direction or at least participating by the same rules we should be able to really explore the personalisation agenda and begin to realise the potential impact of Learning Technology. The skills are certainly in place ask any five year old how to use the Sky+ remote. It is time to build the infrastructure to deliver cogent learning opportunities to the user.

I just want it all on the same plate. Oh, and tell me what my friends are having as well, just incase I’m missing something.

Byron's roadmap for - esafety

noreply@blogger.com (James Green) — Wed, 07 May 2008 05:49:56 PDT

Acceptable use policies (AUPs), meanwhile, need to be treated less as a tick-box task and be updated frequently to take account of technological innovations and how children are using them. Social networking is a case in point. The review states: "AUPs also need to promote positive use of technology, rather than just spelling out a list of 'don'ts'." states an article in the education Guardian.

This is a positive move and one that I fully embrace, but it lacks the consolidation of the document with the learner's themselves. Surely a document such as an AUP should be reviewed by all stakeholders to inform each other of potential uses and misuse of technology. This apparent lack of dialogue between all stakeholders creates a digital divide which will become even more stark as the technology develops exponentially.

AOL acquires Bebo social network

noreply@blogger.com (James Green) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:50:13 PST

I wonder why?

Time Warner's AOL internet division is buying the social networking site Bebo for $850m (£417m) in cash. Bebo is the third-biggest social networking site in the US, behind MySpace and Facebook. AOL says that Bebo has more than 40 million members worldwide who view an average of 78 pages per day each. The price-tag is tiny when compared with the valuations of similar websites. Microsoft bought 1.6% of Facebook last year for $240m.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7294174.stm
Stop filling out all those profile requests before you get more unwanted junk mail.

Growing Up Online

noreply@blogger.com (James Green) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:50:13 PST

Real food for thought as we start to re evaluate the roles of teacher, learner and the acquistion of knowledge.

Do you Sparkit or readit? What are the requirements of a modern curriculum?
Watch Fontline from the US station PBS to get an insight into the philosophy of the digital curriculum and web literacy.

Create your own tv channel

noreply@blogger.com (James Green) — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 12:45:25 PST

A little Christmas Cheer

noreply@blogger.com (James Green) — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 06:48:33 PST

Created using Apple ibooks with Year 3 pupils

Film making 101

noreply@blogger.com (James Green) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 01:05:30 PST

This weekend my daughter was given a project on Penguins. She had to continue the work that she had made in class and compile a brochure.
Instead i helped her make a film (we made the brochure in Comic Life which is a little like Publisher but turbo charged), purely for professional reasons obviously and also i thought it would be fun making models out of clay. I wanted to see how easy it was for 5 year olds to use a MacBook and work through the process. The results speak for themselves. She grasped the concept of stop frame animation at once and then created her film with little input from her parents.
She made the scenery and models and then we set the Macbook up using the built in camera. Simple reason we used this was that we couldn't find a tripod! It worked nicely as the results show. We made over 90 shots to produce this, yet the whole experience took no more than an hour and 2 hours in total. The editing was simple as the pictures simply import into imovie and with the simple effects anyone could sit down with children and support this task it's only drag and drop.

Worcestershire already have ten ibooks that schools can freely book out to support this type of project and i'm sure that moviemaker would be just as useful on the PC. With Worcestershire's Digital Awards being launched this week now is the best time to start using the digital medium to enhance and support learning.
Have you got any examples that you want to share?

Mr. Jim Knight

noreply@blogger.com (James Green) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:50:14 PST

Podcasts will help define the first decade in the 21st century. Home access and the digital divide needs to be addressed to support the digital underclass his aim is to give access to everyone. Working with the Home access taskforce to make this happen, which Worcestershire is engaged with.
The 3rd way which is the cultural change. The democratization of knowledge and the ability for the Public can set their own agenda. This will also have an impact in the classroom and the role of the Teacher.

Moore's Law outlines the pace of change and we will have to keep up with pace of change.

e-safety the gov is in meetings to explore the mechanisms to support a dialogue between unions and schools, this should be available in the near future.
The Byron Report will also look into the issues around 'digital Responsibilty'

Gave the example of what is happening in Alberta as a good model that we might be able to replicate and aspire to.

CLC's do they have a future?
It is the wrong time to pull the plug on them all.

VAT issue relating to the Universal Home Accesss programme he is aware of the issue and will be working with the Treasury to look at offsetting it. (maybe)

But it was all too much for some!

Apple RTC meeting

noreply@blogger.com (James Green) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:50:15 PST

New features of Garageband 08 were shown off by Joe Moretti
Nice use of phasing which will help support planning for Podcasts.
The rest i didn't understand! But it sounds ace.

YOUTube debate
Interesting debate around safety and the use of Youtube in the classroom. The host school has set up their own educational Youtube which seems to miss the whole point behind the Web2 collaborative functionality and once again educators seem to think that applications need to be educationally focussed otherwise they are inappropriate and unsafe. This type of concept seems to me to entrench Learning Technology in the 20th Century which is miles away from reality and keeps learning, learners in walled gardens open only to their own small, insular communities leaving them isolated and unchallenged. How are we going to modify behaviour and educate about how to effectively use the Internet if we continue to give a diluted diet?

CEOP Ambassador Training

noreply@blogger.com (James Green) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:50:15 PST

I am sitting in the Ambassador Training for CEOP which is highlighting the risk taking activities of young people in their use of the Internet and particularly Social Networking and online gaming. Highlighting chat facilities such as ClubPenguin that is now being used to groom through the sharing and purchasing of virtual equipment and extra functionality. It appears that victims are putting themselves in danger through ignorance and the desire to collect more 'gold coins' etc...

other apps include
Second life where commercialism is being used to attain contact

Google Hello picture sharing with no uploading or downloading but without the ability to track or monitor.

Runescape 140 servers each represent a different world the analysis of trade items to trade for cyber sex, sex or photos. This is where Contact meets commercialism. Players as young as eight. But there is a rec. of 13 years old. There are rules for player conduct 3 types of moderation by
employees, peer, forum but it appears that fee paying users get priority therefore newbies at the most risk of hacking, scamming and grooming

Webquest Awards 2007 by guest blogger Luke Mead

noreply@blogger.com (James Green) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:50:15 PST

BubbleShare: Share photos - Delicious Christmas Recipes.

We entered Thinkquest initially for the competition and promise of prizes! As we got into the work other aspects of the competition became apparent. We could use the competition to get our own message across and without the competition to drive us on, we would not have had enough personal motivation to create a website that other students can use to support their research of Water.
We decided upon water for the topic of our website for several reasons. We wanted people to realise the importance of water and try to make it so they did not take it for granted, as it is vital for life. Water’s devastating, and also helpful role in environmental effects should also not be forgotten. Aside from the dangers of droughts and floods, water could help to prevent the effects of global warming and preserve our resources by using water as a fuel. By showing people these aspects of water we also wanted to show that we, all being teenagers, do care for our environment. The final reason we chose water was because of its unusual chemical properties, which are also what make water such and important substance.
There are many benefits from entering the competition. By working together to create the website everyone gained team-working skills, for some they came in the form of management or leadership skills and for others it was just experience of how to successfully work with other people. The idea of acknowledging sources and making sure that accurate information was collected through research was learnt, time management became important towards the end of the deadline as well. The ability to criticize others work and take criticism yourself was necessary, as this allowed us to improve the quality of our work. All these skills are useful, if not vital, and can be applied in other parts of our education.
Luke Mead:Team H20
http://library.thinkquest.org/06aug/02085/
http://www.thinkquest.org/
http://www.ssatrust.org.uk/thinkquest/default.aspa

www.spokentext.net

noreply@blogger.com (James Green) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 02:02:06 PDT

Stumbled across this nice piece of conversion courtesy of Stephen Downes. Thought that i would give it a whirl. You can now download all future letters and blog posts to your ipod, imagine! I bet you can't wait. Either way this is a useful tool and completely free, which makes me like it even more.

Competitions and prizes

noreply@blogger.com (James Green) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:50:16 PST

A quick post to point out two resources to support the work many of us are doing with safer Internet use and Cyberbullying.
Firstly, the latest work from Childnet which i have refered to previously on this blog, I have just watched the film entitled 'Let's Fight it Together' which is a moving short perfect to start dialogues in the classroom around this subject.
http://www.digizen.org/cyberbullying/film.aspx
The site as a whole is worth looking at for a variety of issues around e-citizenship.

The other resource is promoting Safer Internet day 2008
Safer Internet Day is a yearly event, taking place in the month of February. It is organised by Insafe, the European internet safety network. In 2007, 43 countries from all over the world participated in Safer Internet Day. The 5th edition of SID will take place on 12 February 2008.
http://www.saferinternet.org/ww/en/pub/insafe/sid.htm

There is also a competition that you can enter based on the following topic : “Life online is what YOU make of IT”:
Is the internet a positive or negative element in today’s world? Are mobile phones only about “connecting people”? Can we believe everything we see on the internet? Do we behave differently online than in the “physical” world? How does our behaviour impact on the online environment?
Young people are invited to express their ideas about these and other aspects of the virtual world by creating a multimedia project for the Safer Internet Day 2008 Competition.

Orchestrating web2 for the classroom

noreply@blogger.com (James Green) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:50:16 PST

The Challenge Machine takes the work of Bernie Dodge and the Webquest idea and pulls it simply into the web2 environment for teachers and pupils.

This exciting development called the challenge machine http://challenge-machine.soda.co.uk has been developed with Soda Creative www.soda.co.uk.
The exciting part of the development is the ability to share and exchange resources which are developed using a simple wysiwg editor that also can wrap questions around text, graphics and widgets. What this does is allows the user to pull resources from all over web. Imagine a delicious cloud used to support project work on Henry VIII followed by a series of resources from flikr, questions, teacher tube or any widget from widgetbox and a free text reply.

The power of web2 then supports the learning experience and develops key components of personalised learning.
Is your classroom ready for it? Be a part of the next pilot phase reply using the comment

Identity Management - It is a big issue.

noreply@blogger.com (James Green) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:50:16 PST

The minefield of ID management is an area that we are currently getting to grips with. The promise of single sign on seems to be the only real and practical solution open to support the integration and management of multiple resources. But whenever you try to move forward you always feel that you are moving two steps back. The legacy of having started this process five years ago makes this switch even more difficult to manage as existing clients are using resources through the previous system and will need to be migrated across seamlessly into the new global id management system. This will mean that they will still want to maintain access to existing resources with no down time. With over 80,000 users currently on the old system this is a complex change.
But with single sign on I feel that we can really start to support and challenge our teachers and learners to integrate and realise part of the potential that e-learning has promised for the past decade. The investment of elcs will be built upon as the end users search, repurpose and share resources that they aquire through a variety of areas locally, countywide and with the aid of shibboleth regionally, nationally and beyond.
So the outlook is...
we will have intermittent rain for the short term followed by extended periods of sun there after!

Year4 work

noreply@blogger.com (James Green) — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 10:52:22 PDT

Subscribe Free
Add to my Page

I had a wonderful day working with a group of Year 4 pupils. This is one of a number of quality pieces of work that they produced in a limited amount of time. I had some amazing conversations with the teachers around teaching and learning, group dynamics, self esteem etc... not once did we talk about ICT. The more i do this the more i believe that the teacher has to focus upon success criteria aims and objectives and not find themselves overwhelmed by a minor part of the project. The year fours engaged with the software and it was all i could do to stop them from 'exploring' and keep them focussed upon the task.

If you are interested this was completed using Garageband on ibooks both of which neither the pupils or teacher had used before. The same project could easily be repeated using Audacity or Podium etc...

podcast 22nd September

noreply@blogger.com (James Green) — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 02:34:27 PDT

Subscribe Free
Add to my Page

snapshot

noreply@blogger.com (James Green) — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 11:11:11 PDT

Introducing Snap Shots from Snap.com

I just installed a nice little tool on this site called Snap Shots that enhances links with visual previews of the destination site, interactive excerpts of Wikipedia articles, MySpace profiles, IMDb profiles and Amazon products, display inline videos, RSS, MP3s, photos, stock charts and more.

Sometimes Snap Shots bring you the information you need, without your having to leave the site, while other times it lets you "look ahead," before deciding if you want to follow a link or not.

Should you decide this is not for you, just click the Options icon in the upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt-out.

e-safety: Moving forward

noreply@blogger.com (James Green) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:50:16 PST

I was fortunate enough this week to be part of a School's Student Council's meeting to discuss their AUP. A number of issues came out of the discussion which are possibily worth sharing.

They decided that they should have access to their school e-mail system so that teachers could pass on files to them rather than having to have printed sheets. They also wanted to be able to e-mail their work back.

They decided that any pictures of pupils in school uniform or pictures of the school should not be used in public websites (other than official sites) and social networking areas. They felt that these images created breadcrumbs that could give out too much information about them and their friends to others.

The Student Council wanted to be able to review and discuss with smt all blocked and filtering of sites since the previous meeting so that they could make sure that learning sites had not been blocked inadvertently. They would be a voice for others who wanted to review current blocked sites.

They wanted staff to give more structure to the types of tasks that they were being asked to do. They felt that tasks needed more direction from the teacher to support their research when using search engines.

This was their first session and i'm sure that they will develop an AUP that reflects their School's developing Learning ethos in partnership with the staff.It was refreshing to hear pupils engaging with their learning and shaping the opportunities for the future.

Has anyone else had students involved in the development of policy such as the AUP? What were the outcomes?