Moodle Girl's Blog

Who got an iPad for Christmas?

2010-12-28T08:58:00.005+13:00

Well I bought myself an iPad a few months ago... when you get to a certain age you don't wait til Christmas any more to get your gifts, you just buy them when you want them - it's one good thing about being an adult!!

Once you have your iPad though, you need to learn to drive it. That is where this quick post comes in, because the iPad has been named best gadget of the year by Time Magazine there are heaps of blog posts teaching you how to use it.

1. Getting started with the iPad is a good place to start.

sMac down

2010-10-17T16:29:00.006+13:00

If there is one breakout I wish I could have attended in person it would have been the Apple sMacdown breakout ran by Dorothy Burt and Fiona Grant. They had 6 Apple Distinguished Educators (aka. ADE's) & 2 guru's share 6 tips each.

Sure not all tips will be *NEW* to everyone but it should never be assumed an "old hand" knows it all. Not that I consider myself an old hand, but having been a Mac owner for 5 years I did not know that if you held down the shift key while adjusting your volume you don't get the beeping! I love tips like that! (Thanks Lenva ;-)

The link to their Google site is here.

Drop Box - A filing cabinent in the clouds

2010-10-12T15:10:00.003+13:00

Dropbox is a easy way to store your files and then access from any computer, including your iPhone.

First step: Download the Dropbox application from iTunes - here.

Second step: Go to their website here and create your FREE Dropbox account.

You will have 2GB of FREE storage space up in the clouds. Accessible from anywhere as long as you have an internet connection and can get to www.dropbox.com.

On your phone just click the dropbox icon and your documents are sitting there waiting for you to access them.

Social Networking that gets you up off the couch!

2010-10-10T13:11:00.010+13:00

I have been exploring apps which you can use running, the winner for me at the moment is the Nike+GPS app. Nike released it on the 6th September 2010 - so it is very much in it's infancy and already they have put out an update to enhance the app (introducing the Facebook Cheer Me on Feature). There are quite a few apps available, I have compiled a list of the ones I am familar with below.

These are the running apps in the iTunes store that I am aware of:

Nike+ GPS - $2.59
Roadbud Pro - $13.99
Runkeeper Pro - $13.99/FREE option too
Runtastic PRO - $8.29
Runmeter GPS Running Stopwatch - $6.49
iMapMyRun+ - $6.49
LogYourRun - $4.19
Get Running - $4.19
WalkJogRun Running - $4.19
Kinetic - $4.19
Strands - FREE
Personal Running Trainer - FREE
miCoach - FREE

For me I have chosen to use the Nike+ GPS app.

The Nike+GPS has a ton of features:

tracks your run and maps it using the GPS built into you iPhone (no cellular data required)
posts your run to the Nike website
displays your route, elevation and pace for the whole of your run
posts your run to social networking sites (twitter & facebook) if you want it too (this can be disabled).

gives you voice feedback on your distance & pace through you headphones while out there running
you can hit the "boost" button to hear your power song when you are having to dig deep

This article compares the Nike+ app with Runkeeper. Two of the leading running apps in the iTunes store.

For quite sometime I have been logging my runs on the DailyMile website. To date I have ran 2,163km. It is hard to desert that site when I have logged a lot of "hard yards" and it turns out I don't need to as there is a Sync feature on the DailyMile site so it will automatically update when I post my run data to Nike+. Which automatically updates from my iPhone as there is a built in Sync feature, as long as your iPhone has a wifi signal (or cellular data) it auto syncs when you finish a run. It is all too easy!

The DailyMile site is a tidy way to keep all your running data together and they go to the trouble of giving you a few extra pieces of data like how many donuts you have burnt off and how far around the world you have traveled! It turns out when you have ran 2,163km you have burnt off 699 donuts.

Links to other reviews:

AppAdvice - posts about the new "cheer me on feature"

Other health centred apps:

WiScale - track your body composition - FREE

Another App Idea

2010-10-09T09:37:00.008+13:00

Genius Scan - when you read through the blurb that comes with this app it is more about the fact that you can scan for example a receipt for the accounts department and not worry about keeping the original receipt. Why don't you just use the camera feature on the iPhone??

The other example was taking a "Genius Scan" of a whiteboard covered in notes - hmmm.... I do that already using the camera app that comes on the phone by default.

So what benefits does Genius scan offer? Why download another app when you can be using the camera feature?

What I thought was quite ingenious regarding this app was a specific idea: instead of carrying around a stack of business cards (which you wouldn't do as you would have them in your "contacts") you GENIUS SCAN the business cards!

At the time I heard someone tweeting this idea I thought "hey, that is cool" but considering it now I'm thinking this idea is a bit redundant, hello; put the details from the business cards into the contacts! Better still use your Address Book on your computer so your can use the computer keyboard to quickly enter the details instead of mucking around with the touch screen keyboard on your iPhone.

Genius Scan is a FREE app! So I have downloaded it and will play with it and see what the pros and cons are.

I think until you have used a app for a few weeks it's a bit tricky to really know if it will be in your top 25 apps. Something tells me this is not but I'll test it out and report back.

iPad, IPod & iPhone App. List of Lists!

2010-10-07T18:26:00.027+13:00

A lot of people have compiled lists of applications for the iPod touch, iPhone and iPad.

This blog post (which I will come and add as I discover more) is going to be my "List of Lists" of iApps that I come across.

10 Useful iPhone Shortcuts - Mashable
Fraser Speir's iPad list (via @rbvandijk)
10 Useful Apple iPad Tips and Tricks - Mashable
My Collection of iPad Apps - Joe Fahs
iPods, iPhones & iPads in Education - Jacqui Sharp
International Society for Technology Education - ISTE

Science Based Apps:

Virtual Frog dissection
Stellarium - Free
NASA - Free
Optical illusions - Free
BrainPOP Featured Movie - Free
Periodic Table - Free ( not the best app for periodic table but it is FREE)

Geography Based Apps:

Topographic maps - Memory Map - Free
Tectonic plates - Free

Art/Photograhy Apps:

Movie Apps:

Movie Vault - Free Full Length Classic Movies Streamed To Your iPhone

Food Apps:

Epicurious Recipes - Free

Productivity Apps

Simplenote - Free - Syncs from iDevice to laptop and vice-versa - AWESOME APP!
Wooji Presentation Remote - control your keynote presentations
Air Mouse Pro - this makes your iPad into a massive trackpad
GoodReader - for reading & annotating pdf's
Skype - Free

Reference Apps:

StuffNZ - Free
Flipboard - Free - viewing range of media
TEDTalk videos - Free
Engadget - Free

Miscellaneous Apps:

Tying knots - Free
Vodaphone - Free - Check your balance, calling & txt rates and buy top-up credit.
Official All Blacks App - Free
Live Rugby Scores - Free
Strip Designer - make your own comics
Dragon Dictation - US store only

Miscellaneous Readings:

Do iPhone/iPad apps make your kids smarter? - Blog post
iPod/iPad user group - Wiki

If you have lots of time on your hands checkout the AppShopper - here.

If you know of an app that should be amongst my list please leave it in the comments :)

Google Googles - WOW!!

2010-10-06T14:27:00.009+13:00

Google Goggles has been around for about 10 months, December 09 they launched the android app and today I downloaded it from iTunes for my iPhone. Yes it is a free app!

The app processes pictures taken with yur phone and recognizes the text within it, creating search results for things like books and business cards. It also recognizes landmarks, paintings oh and did I mention it is quite good at recognising labels on wine bottles! It is not able to recognise animals or food (YET).

Here is a quick review: brace yourself this is one cool app!

Remember this app is only in it's infancy but imagine how awesome it will be with a bit more time.

Read more here.

Ulearn 2010

2010-10-06T11:10:00.029+13:00

This year I made the decision not to physically attend Ulearn. I have attended the last 3 Ulearn conferences and I am HUGELY appreciative of my school for being so generous to allow me to attend 3 times but I know the professional development budget is tight and needs to be spread around.

So I am using twitter to keep in contact with #Ulearn10. Videos of the keynotes are being posted here later.

The first Keynote was Lee Crockett this is his book - Understanding the Digital Generation. you can get the first three chapters for free here.

Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad. - I like that!

Erin Freeman is using posterous to keep a record of her "Raw Notes" while attending keynotes and breakouts and kindly shared it with her PLN (personal learning network) - thanks Erin. (@efreeman). Erin sent out a link to her Diigo which is lots of bookmarks of learning games.

Martin Levins (@emmell) has written a really nice summary on his blog which is worth a visit.

I also had this link sent to me which is a COLLABORATIVE Google doc, I'm not sure who the authors all were. It was organised by @Davein2it.

Other links that came out from my PLN twitter stream:

The invisible gorilla
Books online link from a breakout 1 presentation by Lorraine and Gail via @mjbuckland.

It wouldn't be Ulearn if you didn't come away with a blog post that has 100 pieces of software you could integrate into teaching and learning. Seriously - the first one on this list is Alice now that on it's own is going to take more than a few hours to master - but I LOVE lists like this so thank you @dakinane! Below is a slide show of his breakout:

90 tools in 90 minutes – revamped, revised and relevant90 tools in 90 minutes – revamped, revised and relevant

View more presentations from David Kinane.

Here is another list that ranks for top 100 emerging tools - thanks to @dakinane for the link

I came across a new twitter person who I think is a Computing teacher - @gradgetgurl42 this is her blog.

Wow there has been a lot of references to the infamous iPad
It seems iPads are all the rage...

I am currently writing a proposal to my senior management to justify buying one for my computing students. My approach is a little different. My students want to create their own applications for the devices and while some have iPod touches it is not the majority and obviously if they are creating the programmes then they want to test it on the device.

That is where Ange Armstrong-Lush who is presenting at Ulearn about creating apps for these devices is of great interest to me.

I am really looking forward to hearing more from @AngeNZ (Ange Armstrong-Lush) who is doing a workshop on iPod application building. Ange has a blog here with some of her pre conference material.

These are some useful links I will come back and visit:

Gamesalad which I am already familar with but I think there is a newer version

Build Web Apps for iPhone using Dashcode

I have just come across Sam Jarman (@Samjarman). His twitter bio reads: iPhone Developer | High School Student | Twitter Addict | General Geek | Science geek |Passionate about all things tech! He has 8 apps in the iTunes store, check out his list! He co-presented a pre-conference workshop on Developing iOS Applications for Learning. He very kindly sent me a copy of his presentation and a full outline on how to best get started. Thanks Sam, very appreciative of your help!

Here are a few additional links that I came across:

Worth a read: iPad adoption rate faster than DVD - from TUAW
iPad trials hit Tasmanian schools
@rbvandijk sent this link to a list of iPad apps for secondary school students
here at Cybrary Man's Educational Web Sites there are heaps of iPad links - must visit
Megan Iemma (@megsamanda) has a mLearn blog with some great content, she also shared a pdf from her workshop here
An iPod for your Classroom Toolbox - on slideshare
Pearson (text book company) launches iPad Social studies curriculum - news article The iPad program includes three components: App with interactive learning games that introduces concepts to students through puzzles and fast-action challenges; eText on iPad where students access the social studies curriculum and take control of their learning by creating their individualized texts; and the personalized assessment with remediation App for students to review and self-test.

Some links I wanted to make a note of:

you can create spoken text as itunes track automagically in OSX?

(broken in iTunes10 fix: http://bit.ly/bycp5X )

Google URL Shortener & QR Codes

2010-10-04T08:51:00.017+13:00

Google now provide a URL shortening service - goo.gl.

This is nothing new! There are many different URL shorteners around eg. tiny.cc, bit.ly or ow.ly. The beauty of the Google service is that it also provides a QR code for the shortened URL.

For beginners: URL is an acronym for Uniform Resource Locator. Sometimes URL's can be really LONG so when you are wanting to share them with someone you can make it more convenient by using a URL shortening service. You copy and paste your long URL into their website and in return they will give you a modified and shorter URL to use that will still take you to the original URL's destination.

Google's URL shortener not only takes a long url and converts it to a short one for you, but it also provides a QR code for the URL address you just shortened.

QR Code..... what is that?
It is a square that looks something like this:Now it is not going to be of much use to you unless you have a QR code reader.

Some mobile phones have QR readers built into them. If you have one of the smart phones (or 4th generation iPod touch) you will be able to download a QR reader application - they are available free o n iTunes.

Once you have a QR reader on a device you are set. When you come across a QR code, scan it using your QR reader and wait for all to be revealed behind the code. It may take you to a website. It may contain a message, perhaps it will reveal an image sitting on a website like Flickr... this is where you are limited by your imagination as to what lies hidden behind the code.

The QR reader for iphone allows you to then share the "mystery link" via email, SMS, Facebook, Twitter or simply take a copy.

Now I am thinking about the authentic and genuine uses QR codes could bring to the classroom. Your comments in this area are most welcome.

First and perhaps the most obvious use is in the Physical Education curriculum. It could be used in orienteering type activities where the students scan the code to reveal the next set of co-ordinates. At the end of the year we run school camps and one is based locally so it could be incorporated into one of those activities.
ummm... how else could be used authentically in a class??

I'll come back and edit this when I think of some other ideas... Well I have not so much come back with other ideas but I would highly recommend this blog post by Joel Buckland - 30 interesting ways QR codes are being used.

This is a Google presentation - at the time I posted this link it contained 14 INTERESTING ways you could use QR codes in the classroom.

QR codes will become commonplace, Likify is one site that has come up with a unique way of using them. Basically you create your own likify page for which you get a QR code for. You then put your QR code into the public arena for people to scan, this takes them to YOUR likify page where they can "like" your page. Check out this MakeUseOf article for a clearer explanation.

Another cool app - WhatApp Messenger

2010-10-01T21:32:00.004+13:00

WhatsApp messenger is a smartphone to smartphone messenger. It allows you to send and receive messages, pictures, audio notes, and video messages at NO COST. All features are included in the $1.29 purchase price without the need for extra in-application purchases.

* You can use it as much as you want - send a million messages in one day all for FREE. It uses you internet connection or Wi-Fi when available.

*MMS: send video, images and voice notes (3GS required to send and save video)

*No International charges - just like sending emails overseas, as long as your overseas mates have WhatsApp Messenger installed you can avoid those extra international SMS charges.

*No PIN or Password to remember - it works with your phone number, just like sending a text and integrates flawlessly with your existing phone address book

*Your Address Book is used to automatically connect with your contacts. Your contacts who already have WhatsApp Messenger will be automatically displayed under Favorites.

*Offline messages - if your turn off your internet access and not on a Wi-Fi network, WhatsApp Messenger will save your messages offline until you retrieve them

*Status feature allows you to inform your contacts what you are up to, ie in a meeting/busy.

*Extra features: share location, exchange contacts, custom wall paper, customise notification sounds, landscape mode, precise message time stamps, email chat history, broadcast messages and MMS to many contacts at once.

Switch - sound file converter

2010-10-01T10:35:00.005+13:00

I have been using Switch for a while. It is a free piece of software which you can get from NCH software. I use it for audio file conversion to mp3.

There is a range of software that does this job, Switch is the one I have been using. I find it simple to use, an intuitive interface with no hassles.

This is what it does: Switch Audio Converter Features

Batch converting to convert many audio files at once
Import and convert a playlist (m3u and pls)
Import video files and extract audio (avi, mov, mpeg)
Extract and convert audio from DVDs
Customizable right-click "Quick Convert" options
Convert from multiple file formats at one time
Access online database to add song information
Listen to tracks prior to conversion
Automatically normalize audio while converting
MP3 encoder supports constant or variable bit rates
WAV encoder supports a range of sample rates
Use as a command line plugin for automation with software to convert or compress audio files

This will be handy for my students with iPods

2010-09-30T21:16:00.004+13:00

Being a high school teacher where my students range in age from 13 to 18 I know some of my students have an iPod touch but I do wonder how they can get apps for their devices when they more than likely don't have access to a credit card. Well it turns out you can create an iTunes App Store account without a credit card!

This was a very handy little piece of information I got via my twitter friend @melaniem8

To create an iTunes App Store account without a credit card go to this link and follow the steps. In order to create an account without a credit card, you must make sure you are in the App Store, not the iTunes Store.

Neat little tool - Google Notifier

2010-09-29T22:07:00.005+13:00

I discovered this little tool from my Twitter feed.
(Twitter is awesome, not just a time wasting social networking tool for celebrities. NO! Twitter has real educational value).

I follow @Mashable. They have an amazing blog and they tweeted this blog post.

Going down the list I came across this Gmail Notifier.

Gmail offers a free Notifier as a quick download that will alert you with a visual pop-up and audio cue when new mail has arrived, even if you don’t have Gmail open in a browser.

It automatically checks for new mail every two minutes, with the icons changing to show unread mail in case you miss the notification. The app is available for both Windows PCs and Macs. It should be noted that downloading this will also make Gmail your default e-mail program, which you might need to consider if you don’t want this to be case.

So now I have two additional icons on my menu bar and I get a beep when new mail arrives in my gmail in box.

iPods, iPhones, iPads - Legitimate Educational Devices?

2010-09-28T18:28:00.004+13:00

I am yet to integrate these devices into my day-to-day teaching. I am more focused on my students actually creating the apps which run on these devices now that I teach Computing.

I digressed... the reason I am posting today is that I am always on the look out for educational apps. So today when I was browsing @klbeasley's blog which is called Tip of the Iceberg and came across her post titled: 50 Educational Apps for the iPod touch I couldn't help but share the link to her wonderful post as I know how valuable lists like these are to teachers who are wondering what value these devices would bring to their classrooms.

PRO HDR - another iPhone app

2010-09-28T17:07:00.008+13:00

I don't consider myself a photographer in ANY sense of the word. I normally hand the camera over to hubby whenever a proper photo is needed but this app might just stop me doing that.

Today while trawling through me twitter stream over a cup of coffee I came across this tweet:

So I went to the link.

On this blog is a 5 minute You Tube clip really worth watching. First and most importantly he explains what HDR stands for: HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE. Honestly it will be 5 minutes well spent watching that video clip. Or just go straight to 3min:44sec and see the comparison of the built in iPhone HDR versus the PRO HDR app photo.

Needless to say, I paid the $2.59 and bought the app. It's cheaper than a Big Mac - go on do it!!

I am now going to go test it out. I'll post the pictures to Flickr (photo sharing site) and come share the link.

iPhone Apps

2010-09-21T22:26:00.010+12:00

In my opinion the iTunes store makes it quite difficult to find cool apps. There is just so many to browse so I have taken a new tack and started researching recommendations from my PLN.

First stop was dougbelshaw's blog - he has a post titled "iPhone apps I currently use". Interesting I'd already installed a number of the apps he has on his list!

I note that Doug Belshaw had also blogged about a running app called Roadbud. It seems there are loads of GPS capable running apps. I have just started using Runkeeper, meanwhile I am told iMap My Run does the same thing and I believe with the iOS4.1 software Nike + app no longer requires the special shoe tag and does similar things. Problem is I don't like running with my phone so I'll post about these running specific apps at another time after I have done some "user testing".

So what app did I choose from Doug Belshaw's list to pursue??

Dropbox had already been recommend to me by a friend and when I saw it on @dougbelshaw's list I decided to go through the process of downloading the app to my iPhone and then installing the necessary software on my MacBook Pro and now I have 2.2GB of space up in the clouds to put files. It was a very simple process. Dropbox allows me to put files into the "clouds" and then access them from any computer/device which connects to the internet. It also allows me to "share" files or folders with others. This is nothing new. I've been doing the same thing with Google Docs.

I have also recently downloaded Docs to Go, which also syncs files to Dropbox. It is all very new at the moment and over the coming months I will evaluate the ease of use and determine what I prefer but this is a glimpse of what I am "playing" with at the moment.

Incidentally, Docs to Go is a Office suite to support viewing & editing of Word, Excel & PowerPoint files! Also with iOS4.1 the iPhone now connects via bluetooth an external keyboard and this software supports this.

How to add pdf files to you iBooks on your iPhone

2010-09-18T14:06:00.010+12:00

Firstly this is not my own original idea! My source is Macosxhints. They posted this hint a few months ago before I was an iPhone owner but I made a careful note of the hint because I knew I would utilise it.

Basically I can take any file on my laptop and save it to my iBooks now with 2 clicks and a sync. This is how I did it.

1. Create an alias of itunes in the applications folder.
(for those who get lost on step 1 check out image below:
Applications > iTunes, Right click on iTunes > Make Alias)

2. Drag this alias to ~/Library/PDF Services
[that is the system one (for TBC teachers it is our Teacher Build) not the user!].

3. If you have not yet downloaded the iBooks app from iTunes you will be prompted to do it the first time you attempt to sync your iBooks to your device. It is a free app.

DONE - It is that easy to set up!

Now when you're browsing the web or viewing documents and you decide you want to read them later on your iPhone or iPod touch or iPad just hit Print, click the PDF button on the bottom left corner and choose iTunes alias.

iTunes will launch and recieve the PDF.

To actually get the file on your device don't forget you will need to "sync your device" and then the file will be sitting in your iBooks app.

If you have another way that you think is better please leave me a comment, I know there is more than one way to skin a cat so to speak so I would love to hear anyone else's great ideas/handy hints.

ET Phone home.... on your iphone of course!

2010-09-16T12:35:00.009+12:00

Despite trying to avoid being the typical Apple consumer, I have relented and purchased an iPhone 4.

It has so many cool features:

Multitasking
Folders
FaceTime
Retina display
HDR Photography (High Dynamic Range)
HD Video Uploads
Wireless keyboard Support - I used this website to help me connect my wireless keyboard to my phone!!

The applications are truly what sells me the iPhone over any android. Despite the fact that Apple has such tight control over the operating system and applications for which some you have to pay for, I am a very happy iPhone owner.

I am now eyes wide open for what the next iOS update will feature, so far I note that it will have AirPrint - automatically finds printers on local networks and beams text, photos and graphics to them wirelessly over wi-fi without having to install drivers or software.

The free iOS 4.2 update due this November (2010).

My storymaker

2010-05-07T17:58:00.005+12:00

I have handed this link out to loads of people. It allows students to write a story with characters and ultimately makes it as a flash file. Have a look it is really neat.

This is the web address: http://www.carnegielibrary.org/kids/storymaker/

My Story Maker by Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

So busy!! So here is a link to someone else's great work

2010-04-16T10:09:00.005+12:00

I have written a few posts for my blog but they still need work and so are sitting in the drafts folder until I find a spare moment to finish them.

In the meantime I am just linking to a wonderful Google Doc presentation by Tom Barrett.

It will explain itself when you go to the above link: If you've been thinking about Google Doc's this will convince you to give them a go.... the possibilities are endless!

Thanks Tom for sharing your presentation, and by linking to it here I will definitely comeback and re-visit again myself!

Mac with the PC option

2010-01-01T20:29:00.012+13:00

I have been looking at my options lately with regards to Virtualization/running a PC operating system on my MacBook. Last year I trialled Bootcamp but found that the PC software I wanted to run just didn't work properly. So I started looking into other options. While running a holiday programme for kids I trialled VMware fusion, the week I used it I found it did what I wanted and requested that we trial it in our computer labs but our techie was not keen. So I kept my eye open for other options. I then came across Parallels, Andy Feild was the one who mentioned it and I downloaded a trial but just before I bit the bullet and bought the software Miguel Guhlin mentioned in a New Years Day tweet VirtualBox. Here is a link to a beginners guide.

S0 thanks to Miguel I think I saved some $ and have a PC operating system on my Mac!

Wait, there is more.... here is a ning that Miguel linked me up to all about virtualisation!

New Year Reminisce - 10 years ago...

2010-01-01T11:47:00.008+13:00

Life really changed for me in the last decade and a lot of it was thanks to technology. 10 years ago I had made the decision to do the big O.E to the UK. To keep things brief I was very fortunate to land a job teaching Chemistry at Highgate School. I still remember the overwhelming gratefulness when they told me that they would supply me with my very own laptop, that I would be allowed to take it home with me each night (TELA laptop scheme did not exist back then). So there my love affair with technology started. Oh and did I mention I had a SMART board too? this was in 2001 so I really did think I was in heaven.

Now I'm an ICT teacher (with emphasis on programming), big Moodle fan, I keep in touch with a valuable PLN via twitter, share my day-to-day comments with friends and family on Facebook, display photos and pictures of all sorts of things on Flickr, ramble on blogger, keep track of valuable urls on del.ici.ous, collaborate via Google doc's and I'm still trying to work out GoogleWave and that is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of my online presence.

10 years on and I'm very conscious about the "security" of having such an online presence. You really need to keep on your toes with some of the social networking sites and their evolving changes. To quote mashable, "Lately it seems like Facebook changes its privacy options more often than most people change their statuses" and I would reccomend people read this link about HOW TO: Use Facebook Privacy Controls on Your Fan Page.

If you have not gone and tweeked your privacy settings I strongly urge you to consider what the world (particularly your future employer, or for that matter your students) can find out about you and whether you want them to have this informaton. Facebook gave the world open access to your "Wall" and if you don't want Tom, Dick and Harry reading what you did last summer then you need to go and click some boxes to limit that access.

While I'm handing out links about Facebook the other one I would suggest worth reading is this one titled Facebook: 5 predictions for 2010.

Why reinvent the wheel?

2009-12-30T09:13:00.004+13:00

Although I am an advocate for Moodle, I don't sit down and create lots of screencasts on how to use it unless I have an original idea, something that I have seen no one else present. Which reminds me I should get on with the Homework block idea that utilises the random glossary entry block.

So someone else has been busy creating these Moodle resources and I just wanted to help spread the word as they look really good. They are from Moodle monthly and I suggest you visit their site! Some really good screencasts on how to use the gradebook feature there at the moment.

Etherpad

2009-12-27T15:24:00.005+13:00

Collaborative learning, there are so many different web2.o tools that support students collaborating together in order to learn. I have used etherpad a number of times and the students really enjoy it. While I'm a Moodle advocate, that does not mean I limit myself to Moodle activities. There is nothing stopping you adding a link on your Moodle page that then takes students to another web activity. For a really nice example of how a teacher has utilised Etherpad for collaborative learning check this link out.

Moodle Wikis - as document lockers

2009-12-19T10:47:00.005+13:00

I came across this excellent jing video which explains how to use a Moodle Wiki activity as a means of students uploading documents/file repository. It is well worth watching! Yes there are many ways you can set up a file repository system on Moodle but I particularly liked this method. I believe the video was created by Digidoug whom I have since located on twitter. So if you enjoy his video you may want to go follow him and thank him for such a neat idea and well presented how-to vidcast.

Moodle Books & Screen Capturing

2009-12-17T10:46:00.010+13:00

I have become a real fan of the Moodle "BOOK" which is a means of adding a resource onto your Moodle. It is not a default module so you will need to ask your administrator to install it.

The reason I am such a fan... I find the teenage boys that I teach don't like accessing powerpoints that I put on Moodle because they have to wait for their computer to download the file, then they need to wait for the powerpoint software itself to open and this all takes precious time. Then there are the students who don't know where their downloaded files end up on their computer as sometimes the settings have it go to their documents folder and it all gets a bit confusing for an impatient 13 year old.

So I started using the Book. It opens to reveal the contents in the browser so they don't need to wait and they can easily turn the pages by clicking on the arrows or use the page titles on the left to jump to the necessary information they are after.

So I have been taking screenshots of powerpoints and various other things and created these Moodle books to replace content I once was sharing via powerpoint presentations. That has created the need to find some screen capturing tools - I have found two pieces of software which I am using. Yes I know I can do the old "command+shift+4" on my mac but then I was opening these screenshots in fireworks to annotate them and it was a very time consuming process. So I found some user-friendly software to help me out.

Skitch - is super-easy to use and did not cost me anything!
I like the way that instantly I can annotate the screenshot, crop it or resize it and then with a quick drag of the mouse it is saved as a useable file. It is super easy to use and a really handy tool.

Snagit - I have just downloaded the beta version of Snagit. I was impressed when I watched the video and it showed that it could scroll down a page and continue the screen capturing selection for the screenshot - but this feature has not worked for me. It would be really good it this scrolling selection worked and give the developers a bit more time I'm sure they will get it working. It has some excellent annotating tools and I'll keep trialling it.

Become an animator within minutes

2009-12-17T10:22:00.006+13:00

Thanks to twitter.... I cam across animation - ish. It is software you need to buy... but it looks like a load of fun. Not something I would use in the classroom as my curriculum is more about programming but this would make a cool extra-curricular lesson on two! They have videos to show you how to use it - in fact there are 12 lesson videos. So you are definitely well supported. Most importantly I think students would be really engaged with this software without a doubt! Will keep you posted as to whether I take the leap and buy it/use it, I do think the boys would love it though so it is very tempting!!

It's official!

2009-11-30T21:22:00.007+13:00

It is official, I am no longer a Science/Chemistry teacher. I am now an ICT teacher, although predominantly I will be teaching programming and not the usual software that the title ICT conjures up.

There is going to be loads of challenges. I know that. One will be teaching students who are incredibly limited in their ability. Which brings me to the point of this post.... the paper laptop. Watch this video produced by Josh Burker.

I thought it was a great, simple idea that I may very well need to employ next year and now I will know where to find the 1 minute video to re-fresh. Thanks to Josh Burker.

Have fun with your photos

2009-11-21T14:41:00.003+13:00

Have fun with your photos using this website.

There are so many things you can do with this website, including making a 3d cube with your favourite photos. It is so intuitive to use. Highly recommend you visit particularly if you want to do something creative with your photos. What's more, you can link your flickr account directly to this website so you don't even need to upload your photos.

Apple Distinguished Educators

2009-10-24T11:02:00.011+13:00

I took these notes while listening to the tweets of the ADE's (apple distinguished educators).
Pedagogy for 21st Century Learning

The 3 R's - Rigor, Relevance and Relationships - from schoolkit

3 factors DRIVING innovation according to Apple - Mobility - 24/7 access

User created content #adecamp09 - "kids need to learn to be the CEO of their own personal brand"

Social interactions for learning #adecamp09 classroom is perfect model to teach social interactions ... "80% of employers look at social media as a formal part of applicant review" - kids as CEO of own brand, re content publishing. Every student should have access to - a studio - to create, a stage - to show their work, a community - chat drives creative conversations.

Note in QLD teachers are banned from social interactions with their students. TEACHERS have been banned from contacting students on Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and other social networking sites amid growing concern over inappropriate relationships.

Our students need to be taught: Digital Citizenship, NetSafety & DigiFootprints (@Nexus)

How often do we reverse engineer our lessons - by asking our 'end users' what they want??? "reverse mentors"

Challenge Based Learning (CBL) advantages? - Faster progress to better result - shorter timetable, higher expectations. The CBL framework seems to build on the Thinking for Understanding Framework but adds the Challenge and Publication stages.

Providing students with opportunities to draw on their knowledge and resources to create appropriate solutions to challenges.

I liked this tweet from @tonitones who was at the ADE camp: it's not about getting kids to school - it's about getting them want to come BACK to school after lunch! is the mindset in your school built around a culture of creativity and a strive for innovation?

Awesome Moodle People

2009-09-13T07:32:00.008+12:00

Andrew Field (@andyfield on twitter). He is Head of ICT at Neale-Wade Community College, Adobe Educational Leader & effective ICT enthusiast.

Andrew has several websites: Effective ICT - on this site you will find some of his inspirational presentations he has done for example "40 ICT ideas in 40 minutes" I thought this was a really fantastic idea to get colleagues sharing their successes of incorporating ICT into their curriculum and teaching. He has produced a presentation which you can view on his website or slideshare. He has others on slideshare too.

He is the father of the Content Generator games that I use on my Moodle site. The kids absolutely adore these games, I use them predominantly for revision as a change from the Moodle quizzes. They introduce a fun aspect which really increases the engagement with revising. Andrew is now in the process of making his games SCORM compliant, meaning scores can be tracked in the Moodle gradebook!

Recently he released a Moodle course which allows the participant to create a poem using flash. It is really professional and again really engaging for the learners. He has allowed me to put a copy of this Flash Poem Moodle course on the TEK Moodle site. It is a great example of how you can use Moodle to make a customised course for your students.

Andrew is definitely on my list of "Awesome Moodlers" his work has had a real influence on my use of Moodle.

iMoot 2010

2009-08-29T11:41:00.007+12:00

There is going to be an imoot - a virtual Moodlemoot. It is to be held 7th - 10th January 2010. You can register now on this website.

You can follow the iMoot on twitter and what all the tweeple have to say about the iMoot because people are using the hash tag #imoot in the twitter posts.

This will be fun particularly because it falls during our NZ school holidays so I can stay up and participate without the worry of being tired for school the next day.

Awesome Moodle People

2009-08-29T11:37:00.013+12:00

Moodleman (Aka: Julian Ridden) is on twitter, and has a cool blog too! He is the man in charge of the inaugural iMoot which I will blog about soon. During daylight hours he is the IT Knowledge Services Manager for Saint Ignatius’ College, Riverview. An independent private boys school in Sydney, Australia.

Julian has made a lot of Moodle videos which you can watch on You tube. His blog has loads of really useful tips and "how to" posts. His posts are clear and easy to follow. Check out his post about podcasting supported with a video, or this one which is sneak peek at conditional activities which is one of the new features that Moodle 2.0 will offer, also supported with a video.

This is a Moodler worth keeping tabs on if you want to keep up to date with all things Moodle.

Awesome Moodle People

2009-08-29T11:22:00.006+12:00

In preparation for ulearn, I thought I would mention (again) some awesome people who are great Moodlers.

First on my list is the Moodlefairy (aka: Mary Cooch). She is also on twitter. Her blog has really useful tips and she supports a lot of her tips with screencasts which makes it even easier to follow. Her work is definitely worth looking at, particularly if you want to become more competent at Moodling.

Mary has helped me out numerous times, I contact her via twitter but she also answers queries on the Moodle.org forums and so is on my list of Awesome Moodle People.

Getting Ready for Ulearn09

2009-08-29T11:00:00.004+12:00

Richard van Dijk the founder of TEK (The Educated Kiwi) has got a Moodle site up and running so we can demo Moodle to those who choose to come along to our uLearn presentation.

I have been creating a course to give our participants a taste of Moodle's capabilities. There is just so much you can do and I don't know how we will cover it all in the short time frame we have available but as long as our participants get enthusiastic I'm sure they will keen to explore it more after the conference, well that would be the goal of our presentation I think.

Here is a glimpse of what the course is looking like at the moment:

You can log on as a guest if you would like to have a glimpse of what I have done so far but it is still under construction. Here is the link.

Apples and Moonfruit

2009-07-05T08:36:00.008+12:00

Well this is not a serious post but just a means of sharing some humorous links

To start with, a macbook that converts into a spaceship:

The website I found this video is here. Incidentally on that website are some very cool screen savers like this one here:

Highly reccommend this video

2009-06-01T13:57:00.004+12:00

Mobile Learning Institute - Stephen Heppell

This is a link to Stephen's website.

Stephen Fry, he sums up learning nicely

2009-05-18T19:03:00.003+12:00

Stephen Fry is one celebrity that I do follow on twitter.

Being a Chemistry teacher, I regularly get asked why do we need to learn this. What use is this information to me?

This is a short clip that has Stephen Fry sum up kids learning what might not necessarily be seen as critical material:

Moodle Development

2009-05-06T22:06:00.002+12:00

Moodle is constantly developing and evolving....

Check out this slide from Martin Dougiamas. He did a presentation at the Educause conference and this is what he had to say:

Checkout this slideshow for more details.

Tweets recieved after a "call out"

2009-04-30T21:34:00.005+12:00

Big thanks to all those who replied to my "call out" today.

Twitter

2009-04-30T19:43:00.007+12:00

A few students I teach came into class today talking about twitter. They had been shown this video:

This video also does not help promote the "coolness" of twitter:

Twitter is a great tool. I have referred to it regularly in my blog, often calling it my personal learning network. It is just that PERSONAL. Someone wanting to utilise twitter can not just start an account and then start "following" all the people who I follow and have a meaningful experience.

To have a positive experience with Twitter you need to start your account, edit your profile - add an avatar and give some details about yourself in your bio. It does not need to be personal info... generic details that you are an educator is fine.

The next step is to start following people who are of interest to you. If you have your avatar and bio in place there is a much greater chance they will follow you back.

Next steps for those who want to advance are to use a twitter browser such as TweetDeck. It makes it a lot easier to track your tweets.

For more info this link will take you to a "handbook" for teachers using twitter.

A link to help you find teachers on twitter.

23rd October... Mole Day

2009-04-30T19:26:00.002+12:00

I thought I'd blog about this video here: Happy Mole Day so I don't forget to play it to my Chemistry students on the 23rd October. I have put it in my google calendar and set it with a sms (text to my mobile) reminder.

I know it is a terrible video clip but I bet deep down they will love watching it:

Stop Motion

2009-04-24T21:43:00.005+12:00

A good friend of mine Toni Twiss introduced me to something new (for me) stop motion. This week she made a video to explain her view on how new technologies have made our world a smaller place and how this impacts the role of both the teacher and education. To get the effect with the spinning globe I think she used istopmotion software.

This is a great example of stop motion - Lego Thriller.

Shawshank Redemption summed up in a minute

2009-04-24T21:32:00.006+12:00

This is a 2min 30sec (1min 19sec is credits at the end you don't need to watch) summary of the Shawshank Redemption. If you have seen the movie you will find this youtube video entertaining.

This is a link that has 99 movies on YouTube you should have watched. Note they are not all educational.

You won't believe what MIT students are making....

2009-04-24T20:51:00.003+12:00

This is a gadget which is truely unbelievable.... what next?

Moodle Tutorial Video's

2009-04-20T19:47:00.008+12:00

Cool - a whole website dedicated to Moodle tutorials.

No excuses now... not to be an awesome Moodler.

Self explanatory really. Definitely worth a visit!

Impressive! Danny MacAskill - Inspired Bicycles

2009-04-20T14:55:00.008+12:00

This guy is one talented cyclist!

WARNING: You are not try any of his "tricks"... he is obviously a professional. So that's the disclaimer now for the vid:

This is the web-link if you would like to go and see more of Danny's videos. He has a few. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z19zFlPah-o

More Moodle Material - Lesson Activity

2009-04-20T13:55:00.009+12:00

Moodle is clever! There are so many "activities" that you can create without being a computer genius. One of those that I have not explored in great depth is the Lesson Activity. I have made two attempts but I did not feel they were particularly good and consequently I have not spent a huge amount of time developing in this area.

Until today. Today I was inspired. I was checking out my list of "must view" blogs. On that list is Mary Cooch's blog: Moodle Blog. She has gone to the trouble of making this must see video which clearly explains how to make a Moodle lesson.

Well now I have a much clearer understanding of how to make a Moodle Lesson the hard bit is coming up with my own context to start my creation. Any help out there? I am currently teaching a Physics unit on Speed etc to my Yr 9 Science class. Perhaps I should focus on creating one for the next unit - it's Biology based with emphasis on Food Chains, Food Webs, classification etc. Any one with ideas for a context to create a lesson please leave me a comment. I seem to be a little brain-dead.

MoodleMoot.org

2009-04-20T10:54:00.012+12:00

I would be the first to admit that the title of this blog is very misleading. There is virtually no posts about Moodle so if that is what you came to read about then this blog will disappoint!

Til now that is!!! I live in New Zealand for those who don't know. I did not go to the UK Moodlemoot 09' (7th - 8th April) and the small logistic that NZ is +1200 GMT does not help when you want to keep up with what is going on at the UK Moodlemoot. However that is where technology plays a massive role and without too much trouble and a great website (MoodleMoot.org) I have learnt some new new Moodle tips and tricks which I thought I'd share here!

First up GLOSSARIES!!
Within a Moodle course you have a primary glossary which collects together ALL glossary entries. So to create an individual topic specific glossary you need to set up as a secondary glossary. Also students can only make entries to a secondary glossary (V1.8).

Put more simply when you create a glossary, use the secondary option and you won't have any problems.

Ideas then on how to use the Moodle glossary: think outside the square... it can be more than a traditional glossary:

Book reviews - using the authors name students put that in the concept box and then write their book review in the large space. Remember if students use firefox for their web browser they get an html format toolbar so they can format their text - ie. Change colour of text, make it bold, italic, centred etc
Homework diary - each week you create an "entry" in the glossary and outline the homework task. To be extra nifty - create a Random Glossary Block and connect your homework diary glossary to this block. Set the Random Glossary Block to display the latest entry and that way it will automatically change when you create a new entry.
Home economics/Food technology - need I say more. All those scrumptious recipes. Yep... post them to a glossary and then 24/7/365 students can access their favourite class creations. It is possible to link images/photos to glossary entries, so when a student/class has created their favourite dish, take a photo and display it along with the recipe.
Introducing... most fitting at the start of the academic year no doubt... each person (staff and/students) write a short brief introduction about themselves. This one could also be displayed in a Random Glossary Entry (RGE) block. It is possible to have multiple RGE blocks.
Dictionary/Encyclopedia - CREATED by STUDENTS. At some stage when students have a grasp of the content in the unit they can brainstorm common terms in the unit. (or the teacher can make a list). Then each student is assigned one of the terms to then add to the glossary. Remeber to tweak the settings so editing is/isn't allowed depending on your circumstances.
A novel idea - Each student gets a character from a novel/shortstory to write a "character thingy" for. Again, depending on the class and how you want to operate the task you can allow other students to edit the original glossary entry. You could effectively allow editing and then the task would become more wiki like and in fact a wiki could be more suitable.
MFL - Languages I have not forgotten you. Obviously there is a lot of vocab for a student learning a MFL but it could be that students research their own little phrase, joke, or quote in the language being taught.
ESOL (Basic) - picture based glossary of everyday objects. A thought, if students were able to edit this glossary it could be a task for them to add the word from their language so each term would have the English term, a picture then the chinese, mandarin, samoan etc term too.
ESOL - each student makes an entry which includes an image of their home country and a liitle about that country like how many people live there and the climate so others can gain an appreciatian for where their fellow class mates are from

Useful modelling software for Science, Maths, Computing and Technology teachers

2009-04-20T09:37:00.007+12:00

Yenka - This is a new generation of educational modelling software from Crocodile clips, which allows teachers and students to simulate concepts.

I have had a brief look at the electrochemistry, it looks very manipulative and the user has a lot of variables that they can select/control.

Physics is cover well, there seems to be a lot of simulations that would be useful when teaching topics in Electricity, Optics/light, Motion and sound.

The software is not free but they do give you a free 15 day demo! Check out their website to get started.

Finally, to quickly acknowledge @andyfield who tweeted the link - Thanks!

Lastly: evidence a PLN (personal learning network) is hugely valuable to professional development

A "FLASH" Flickr Widget

2009-04-19T19:48:00.005+12:00

I was visiting @sunshinetalia's blog because she had tweeted that she had a yummy chocolate brownie pudding recipe and while reading her blog I saw this cool Flickr widget.

Roy Tanck's Flickr Widget requires Flash Player 9 or better.

Get this widget at roytanck.com

If you would like this widget then you will need your Flickr feed url and Roy Tanck's website. It was very easy to do and I like it! Thanks to Talia and Roy.

App for the ipod touch (& iphone)

2009-04-16T15:38:00.004+12:00

Here you have it: A recording Application for your ipod touch. I was reading Nick Rate's Blog today and came across his entry titled "ipod touching". He highlighted a few applications that he is using and the iTalk really took my fancy the only problem is you need a 2nd generation ipod touch and mine isn't.

But in the future I may get a second generation itouch and thought I'd mention it here anyway so that I know I can find this information in the future. The software iTalk is available from Griffin Technology the only other thing worth pointing out is that you do require a headset obviously with a microphone and Nick to mention that this would be handy given that they have apparently released Skype for the iPhone/Touch! Something else worth investingating.

I love holidays

2009-04-15T13:17:00.003+12:00

Well it is the holidays... AGAIN... for me. I love the holidays! Most of the time I'm fairly inefficient during the holidays. I spend time reading newspapers (online of course) with a coffee when I first get up, eventually wean myself off the laptop and into the shower and then off to take Millie my boxer for a walk.

Throughout the day I pop on to my laptop to check out what my twitter buddies have to say, check me email accounts and of course re-visit the newspaper sites.

My (twitter) friend Michael Fawcett (aka teachernz) posted a link to this YouTube video:

I thought it was really creative. Actually my first thought was how much time would that have taken? I am sure one day I will have a spare 4 minutes to show it to a group of students... I'm interested to hear what some supposedly "digital natives" think of it.

New Toy - and it's NOT an iPhone!

2009-03-14T12:31:00.006+13:00

I have it in my hot little hand.... my Nokia 5800 ExpressMusic

Here are some of the reasons I chose not to buy an iphone and instead chose the 5800

* My number one reason is my phone had to have a radio. I listen to the radio in the mornings while walking my dog. I have an iPod touch and rarely use it because it lacks the radio function.

* A very high screen resolution screen. The 5800 has a 640x360 compared to the iPhones 480x320 - pictures and videos look better on the Nokia.

* Battery - 8.8 talk hours or 35 hours of listening to music compared to the iPhones dismal 5 hours claimed talk time (in reality 2 hours) and 25 hours of music. PLUS the Nokia has a removable battery so you can buy a spare battery or replace the battery after a while while with the iPhone you must go to a special shop for an iPhone battery replacement "surgery" which will cost you 350 NZD.

* Camera: iPhone is 2MP, no flash no zoom, basic lens. Nokia 5800: 3.2MP, flash and a very high quality Swiss Carl Zeiss lens. Also on the Nokia you get a second camera on the front for video calls and chat.

* Video Recording - the iPhone doesn't allow you to record video - you must "crack" it to enable this and thus void your warranty. The 5800 of course allows you to recording videos in High Quality.

* Video Calling: iPhone - no. Nokia - of course.

* Voice dialing: iPhone - no. Nokia - yup.

* Cut and Paste: iPhone - no. Nokia - yes.

* the touch screen can be used with a stylus of which you have two choices. The one which is housed in the phone and the plectrum-shaped alternative.

Here are a list of its fatures:

3.2" 16M-color TFT LCD 16:9 touchscreen display (360 x 640 pixels)
Symbian S60 5th edition
ARM 11 369 MHz CPU, 128 MB of SDRAM memory
3.2 megapixel autofocus camera with dual-LED flash
VGA video recording at 30fps
Dual-band 3G with HSDPA support
Quad-band GSM support
Wi-Fi
Capable GPS receiver and Nokia Maps 2.0 Touch
microSD card memory expansion, ships with an 8GB card
TV out
FM radio with RDS
Bluetooth and USB v2.0
3.5mm standard audio jack
Excellent audio quality
Landscape on-screen virtual QWERTY keyboard
Proximity sensor for screen auto turn-off
Accelerometer sensor for automatic UI rotation and motion-based gaming
Rich retail package
Affordable price
Office document viewer
OVI and MySpace integration (direct image and video uploads)

One trillion dollars....

2009-03-06T21:00:00.001+13:00

To put it into perspective you should check out this website.

The Cleversheep... yes you are

2009-03-01T15:36:00.004+13:00

If you want a very quick and easy way to get youtube video's then this is for you:

I got this very handy tip from my twitter friend @cleversheep

OK. I need to learn how to resize this video so in the mean time if you want the original source check it out here: http://blip.tv/file/1660808/

Thanks to @jaminLietze he twittered this other site "tooble" which does something similar.

Lack of blog posts... term time

2009-03-01T14:37:00.003+13:00

School has been back for 4 weeks. I am sitting here planning week 5... live gets so hectic and busy and that is my excuse for not blogging. Simply no a spare moment. But I like to post things here that I now one day I will want to find again and so that is why I am embedding a Youtube video here.

It has some questionable language but as a Rugby fan and Chemistry teacher it makes me giggle:

So til next time, I hope you enjoy the twist of Rugby and Chemistry.

You guess it... more free stuff

2009-02-13T20:51:00.010+13:00

The website jeopardy labs allows you to create “jeopardy” games for your class... a great way to introduce a little competition into your lessons.

We all know boys particularly like competition!

Have a look at this sample jeopardy game with the topic: MOODLE

You can use the Jeopardy template to make a quiz checkout a sample QUIZ game I made: <http://jeopardylabs.com/play/redox-chemistry>

You could play this as a class using your projector or put the link on Moodle and have students play individually or in small groups.

NB. If you want to make it like a quiz game (like I did in my Redox example) put the question in the answer box and the answer in the question box – remember Jeopardy is backwards.

More Free Stuff...

2009-02-08T22:00:00.004+13:00

ClockLink is a great website that gives you html code for a FREE clock.
It is possible to add one of these clocks to your Moodle site using an html block.

I have big problems at times with my Moodle site going really slow when all 30 students log on together... I am still unsure what causes it to go slow but I have a feeling that adding html code that requires a separate website would not help with the speed issues I have.

You will see that I did add one here to my blog as I don't get the volume of visitors all at the same time so won't cause the slowing down effect I dread that it may cause to my Moodle site.

We all love FREE stuff - admit it!

2009-01-28T13:51:00.018+13:00

Here is one for New Zealand teachers, a FREE eportfolio tool - My Portfolio - FREE for NZ schools over 2009. Before jumping in "boots and all" it would be worth finding out what it would cost to use My Portfolio in 2010 and beyond. I have not found that bit out yet... need to find the small print.

I did read each student gets 1GB of space to upload their work!

My Portfolio is a nationwide ePortfolio service managed and supported by Flexible Learning Network.

My Portfolio uses the open source software Mahara. Mahara was established in mid 2006, the Mahara project started as collaborative venture funded by New Zealand's Tertiary Education Commission's e-learning Collaborative Development Fund (eCDF)

In the past few weeks I have come across a few schools who utilise Moodle around the world and are now incorporating Mahara as their eportfolio system. Mary Cooch of Our Lady's Catholic High School, Preston has been passing on a number of good links to her work with Mahara. The two (Moodle & Mahara) work nicely together although I am in no position to elaborate as I am yet to use it myself. I have registered with the Myportfolio programme and I am looking forward to seeing how I can develop it in my classroom before I try to sell it to others.

Here is a good video to watch, Moodleman is also well underway in hosting a Mahara eportfolio system along side his Moodle site and this video is a brilliant introduction:

A blog worth putting into your RSS reader

2009-01-27T08:45:00.008+13:00

This blog is worth a visit: http://www.freetech4teachers.com/

Written by Richard M. Byrne It is packed with useful resources and will need regular visits - he has already made 98 posts on his blog and it is only the 27th January. Needless to say you will need a few hours to go through his archives.

If you do find a great resource and you want to share that with me please leave a comment. Would love to hear about it.

Vimeo, an alternative to Youtube

2009-01-26T21:22:00.006+13:00

There are alternatives to Youtube. This one is vimeo:

Here is a very entrepreneurial use of vimeo to promote one-self.

Stop-Motion App-uh-lu-cat-ion from Judson on Vimeo.

The other one I like to use is teachertube.

You do not risk having risque adult themed movies pop up on the side of your videos on this site. The also have a very active admin team who delete any "in appropriate" videos. I learnt this first hand - I uploaded student work created to explain the digestive system. One group used a short, but very bloody scene from the Blacksheep. It was deleted within the hour of me loading it. I did not think it was inappropriate but the teachertube team obviously saw it differently.

Penguins Fly'

2009-01-26T18:37:00.004+13:00

There are many skills we need to teach our students, particularly with the inevitable use of online research. So many of my students (13 year old boys) will find one source for their research and it takes a lot of convincing to get them to explore the subject more fully. They need to learn the skill of validating the material and not relying on a single source.

I'd would be very appreciative of any "handy hints" on how to get students to research more thoroughly and to use multiple sources in order to validate their material.

This is a great video for teaching kids to validate online information.

Thanks @turrean via @thecleversheep. Link: http://bit.ly/10uQv

Lost Generation

2009-01-24T16:19:00.003+13:00

This short (1 min 44 sec) Youtube clip has a wonderful little twist... a very clever piece of work that I wanted to share. Check it out:

Thanks to Andrew Churches and Jamin Lietze for sharing the link.

The Supervolcano Game

2009-01-23T10:15:00.004+13:00

I find these types of activities provide very meaningful learning experiences to reinforce the material we cover in class. The word "game" in the title helps encourage students to attempt the task as there is some implied fun aspect to be experienced.

Here is the link to the actual website.

Don't forget that you do not need to write a long url onto your whiteboard and have students waste precious time trying to get to the website. Moodle allows you to provide links to websites and I understand Moodle V2.0 will have a "conditional sequence" feature which means students who have completed the set tasks first will only then be able to go onto the "reward" tasks. (No having the treat first).

MLE - Managed Learning Environment

2009-01-22T22:21:00.007+13:00

For those who are also interested to see what the New Zealand Ministry of Education are doing about MLE's you can join their google group here.

Managed Learning Environments: School Consultation

View more presentations or upload your own. (tags: mle lms)

Virtual Learning, "slow to take off"

2009-01-19T10:02:00.008+13:00

Having read Derek's blog post this morning I was eager to reply and thought I had best come and share my response/ideas on my own blog too.

His post was sparked off by a recent (14 Jan 09) Ofsted report and he also provided a link to this nice little video report (2min 4osec).

The basic finding in the report was that "Despite expectations, the use of Virtual Learning Environments across schools and colleges has been slow to take off". They also found that "none of the schools had a VLE that covered every subject area comprehensively". (This is the problem I am facing at my school as I ponder my public presentations to parents in order to encourage parental involvement in their son's learning).

Personally I believe there is value in offering students a VLE to support their learning. Not to act as a substitute for attending face-to-face classes but as an additional form of reinforcing content and a "safety net" to help students who have missed work due to sports exchanges, illness or those who are disorganised and have lost their class material. I also believe parents value the easy access to relevant and up-to-date class material as a means of supporting their son/daughters' learning at home.

While often the initial practice for teachers is to make available such things as class notes, worked examples and lab write-ups (static learning resources), with experience and confidence teachers will hopefully develop and provide more dynamic and interactive opportunities such as forums, polls, self-marking quizzes etc. I believe this is best encouraged by providing "just in time" professional development when staff are ready and not in the early days of the VLE introduction.

I've talked to colleagues from a range of schools and the general consensus is the VLE in their schools has not been adopted by many teachers. Most commonly a few teachers have grabbed the opportunity and embraced it whole-heartedly while the remaining staff have ignored it. What I think the government should consider is the AMOUNT OF TIME it takes to create a VLE. The amount of non-contact time a teacher has during their day is thought to be better spent on the day-to-day tasks required to be an effective teacher face-to-face and leaves little time to provide a "replica" of their work and additional interactive tasks which students may or may not use to reinforce their learning on the schools VLE.

While there are many reasons VLE's are not adopted as readily the "officials" may like, I believe TIME is a major factor! Particularly when NZQA are increasing the amount of internally assessed NCEA achievement standards which requires teachers to: 1) Write/modify the assessment task, 2) Mark the assessments, 3) Internally moderate the assessment. I would much rather invest my time preparing, developing and enhancing a VLE for my students than spending that time conducting the internal assessment.

Perhaps those of us who have embraced the VLE concept and developed engaging tasks which foster creativity could be provided with an external assessor to carry-out the NZQA internal assessments to help ease the work-load burden placed on the 21st-century teacher these days.

Derek also mentioned that the New Zealand Ministry of Education has convened a reference group. I heard the list of people who made up this group read VERY quickly at ULearn08' but have not managed to locate this group or any of their work. The only name I remembered was Kelvin Maine, Katikati school, whom I wrote to but seemed he was dealing with more of the hardware side of the matter. I am very interested to read their guidelines and practical solutions. I thought (ideally) there would be an element of consultation with NZ teachers who are using a VLE or perhaps a forum where people could contribute but it seems this is not the case.

Time to get Bootcamp

2009-01-15T20:56:00.005+13:00

Often I come across great links to software I can not use as it is PC only. Tonight I came across "Stu's Double Jeopardy". Stu is a genius! I think this would be a great activity for class revision or those hot friday afternoons using a projector or IWB. Plus the new version (v3.3.0.0) is completely portable on USB stick.

Only problem I have, I need to get Bootcamp on my mac before I can use it. Tomorrow I'll go see the IT manager at school and see if I can twist his arm. Wish me luck ;-)

Adding a Flickr badge to your website

2009-01-14T10:58:00.006+13:00

This is the link on Flickr: "create badge link"... and it is four easy steps.

Flickr - how to add notes to an image

2009-01-13T23:03:00.005+13:00

Thanks to @teachernz I learnt how to add notes to an image on Flickr. It is so simple!

The result is an image that when you roll your mouse over small pop up windows containing the text you enter appears. VOILA! Check out my sample one here.

Sources of short Science videos

2009-01-13T22:52:00.007+13:00

A short video clip can be an excellent starter to a lesson but a lot of time can be wasted on the internet trying to source an appropriate clip. Here are two sources worth visiting:

www. simplescience.net

Not sure that the videos are as good as those you find at Brainpop but its always good to have multiple sources of short video clips.

7 things you probably didn't know about me... Meme

2009-01-11T18:40:00.029+13:00

I recieved a tag from Mary Cooch (@Moodlefairy) to share 7 things about me: A meme. I don't usually participate in these sorts of things but I'm on holiday with more than 2 weeks to go and not a lot of work to do. I read Penny Ryder's Meme and thought it was cool she shared some of her background with us so I thought I'd play along... I also see Sheryl Nussbaum Beach has been tagged too!

1. I collected stamps when I was a kid - now that makes me sound a little nerdy and I'm just beginning. I loved it when a new miniature sheet came out, I'd race off to the Post Office to get it. This is the first one I bought.... My husband still looks at me funny when I mention my stamp collection but I'm sure it would be worth a fair bit now. At least I was thinking about investment at a young age.

2. I was a horsey (town) girl, I started on a Shetland pony called Pee Wee. I competed mostly in eventing and dabbled with dressage. I stopped riding when I went to university. In the photo is Rocky whom I hunted in the Winter, jumping an 8 wire fence was no big deal for him.

3. I had a promising fashion-design career. My mother was a dress-maker so it was in the blood. It started at a young age when I won The Bernina "Creative Design" Award (twice) but I only entered for fun and never planned to take it further...

4. I'm a retired (international) 1/2 marathon runner - I ran in the Windsor half, 21 km in the Queen's backyard, from memory my time was 1hr 27 min. The Taupo half was my favourite New Zealand event.

5. I've travelled all over Europe with my husband on a motorbike. We had a Honda Africa Twin while living in London and each summer we would pack the bare essentials (it's all that would fit in the paniers) and the Michelin Maps

6. I got married on the 16 December 2000 at 5.35 AM - Bluff Hill, Napier. We were planning on a beautiful sunrise and champagne breakfast but it was a little cloudy. I'll need to scan a photo as digital cameras weren't that common back then...

7. I love white chocolate and white wine

Now to "tag" 7 people who may like to continue this "7 things". I appreciate it may not be your "thing" and you won't have any spell cast over you or a year of bad luck if you choose not to continue the game.
Sharon Harper (Digital Edventures)
Toni Twiss (Upwardly Mobile)
Andrew Churches (Educational Origami)
Michael Fawcett (his other blog )
Erin Freeman (m3teacher)
Barbara Reid (@barbs1)
Justine Driver (Digital learning)

Apple - you are the coolest!

2009-01-08T15:36:00.002+13:00

Check this out for the next cool apple laptop!

Fine print: Think about it. charged battery lasts 19 minutes! With a few hundred clicks.... 45 minutes to write an email. Seriously do you really want a laptop with no keyboard? Well if you do... all I say is good luck SUCKER!

How did I live without a PLN?

2009-01-08T13:28:00.010+13:00

I keep going on about Twitter... it is still a fairly unique way of communicating but for those of us who have embraced it I doubt there is any looking back. Twitter is the basis of my PLN - Personal Learning Network - an amazing group of professionals that I collaborate with daily (I try to limit my collaboration time but it is VERY addicitive and collectively I think we could solve any problem). My PLN is constantly growing, I currently follow 149 and am followed by 164. I try to limit who I follow so that the "tweets" remain relevant to me and education.

I have also thought it would be useful to have a completely separate twitter network of "chefs, cooks and home-makers" as I often spend time each day thinking "what should I cook for dinner tonight" and it would make our meals a whole lot more interesting if I could collaborate with a group of relevant professionals.... food for thought.

Getting back to the actual reason I started writing today. I discovered or should I say started "following" @andyfield. He is the creator of Fling the Teacher, Walk the Plank, Teacher Invaders to name just a few of his Flash games. He is also a big Moodle fan and shared with us the new-look Neale-Wade VLE. I was impressed! A very clean and user-friendly home page I thought. I also like how they had a link to their college email on the home page too. May try to convince my school's web developer to adopt a couple of these ideas.... what will my chances be???

But it was a "tweet" from one of his followers @sethdickens that led me to this cool flash website: http://www.bio-bak.nl/
It is worth a visit to this website. It is particularly interactive, has some great sound-effects (some x-rated language too)!

Let's be Creative.... make yourself a newspaper story

2009-01-03T17:39:00.004+13:00

Today I cam across The Newspaper Clipping Image website.

Again... it was via twitter that I came across this. Tweets to and from @mghulin caught my attention and a link lead me to read his post about the worst edublog: Around the Corner (Miguel's blog). There was a supporting newspaper clipping on his blog too.

Given that the twitter community is a very supportive environment he soon had 10 supportive "suckers". I say that because if you read the "fine print" at the bottom of his post it was clear this was a hoax utilising The Newspaper Clipping Image website. It was a clever little prank which caught out some very experienced educators and I particularly liked this little web2.0 app. used to authenticate the prank.

RSS in plain English

2009-01-03T16:38:00.004+13:00

There are many tools that help us with the ever increasing complexity of using the world wide web. RSS is one of these tools. You probably see the icon and ignore it, possibly because you do not know what it does or how to use it. Well this youtube video explains it very nicely.

Personally I use Google Reader. I have just my favourite blogs feed to it so that it remains manageable.

At ulearn08 there was an RSS presentation and I walked out thinking anyone who watches literally hundreds of websites either has no job or does not need to sleep. While I was already a fan of Google reader before the presentation it did illustrate the need to keep it manageable.

Controlling the Mac

2008-12-14T13:33:00.017+13:00

I have always found it frustrating having my Macbook sit at the front of my classroom on my desk connected to the projector when I like to "wander" around the room while teaching.

When starting a lesson I like to go and stand quietly behind the "least settled" student and while using a prepared presentation containing a few relevant images I kick off a lesson talking about what it is we are learning - it enables the visual learners to "see" what it is while the "auditory" students listen and at the same time I manage to have the class quickly settled and focused.

More and more I felt my Macbook was like a ball-and-chain tying me to the front of the room when I needed to change slides. So utilising my love for gadgets I bought a Logitech VX nano cordless mouse (it has the smallest USB receiver pictured on left). I have used it extensively in the classroom and I feel lost without it.

The first few lessons the students were wondering how it was the images on the projector were changing while I stood quietly down the back of the room behind the fidgetting adolescent. It made perfect sense and I wondered why other colleagues did not see a cordless mouse being an essential teaching tool. It gave me the freedom to walk all around the classroom and maintain full control of my Mac. I was no longer tied to the front bench!

Having already mentioned a love for gadgets... this year I "invested" in a 32GB itouch, my first ipod. Very similar to the iphone but (obviously) without the phone and camera capacity. Most app's for the iphone are compatible with the itouch. This introduced me to alternative ways of controlling my Mac.

First was "Mobile Air Mouse"

It works by installing server software on your computer and transmitting the data over wifi. It has two modes, you can use the iPod/iPhone accelerometer to move the mouse as shown in the video clip (which doesn’t work too well on the mac yet) or you can use the iPod screen like a laptop touch pad. The bonus is the keyboard function. Allowing you to wander around your class and interact with your laptop as if you were sitting right at it.

I would like to say at this point... I have found that it is NOT the easiest to use and would not recommend using it in a professional/serious context due to the fiddly nature of it. Perhaps with practice I will feel more confident but there is nothing worse than fumbling around when you are trying to present a "polished performance".

The second app I came across for controlling my Mac using my itouch was Stagehand.

While it ONLY controls keynote presentations and nothing else, it does it with a huge amount of finesse. It gives you all your presenter notes on the itouch/iphone screen for the current slide. It allows you to move to the next slide (or previous slide) in fact any slide! Turning the device (itouch) to the landscape position actually gives you the slide itself on your device. In this mode you can two-finger flick to the next slide. If you want to highlight a point on the presentation, using ONE finger will bring up the highlighting capacity and where ever on the presentation you are touching it will appear highlighted.

If you are a Mac user, chances are you do not use keynote. You probably use powerpoint for your presentations. Just remember Keynote is very clever and can open powerpoint presentations and that means you can save it in the keynote format which then allows stagehand to work.

The only final point I have not made is the stagehand software links with the laptop via wifi so you will need wifi for this application to work!

There are lots of other ways to control the Mac from an itouch/iphone. Here are a few others I have come across:
PearPad
Snatch
iClickr
Jaadu Click

Good luck with controlling your Mac from your itouch/iphone and please feel free to leave me a comment if you have any experience with any other applications I'm always keen to refine the skill of "Controlling the Mac".

*** stop press***

With the release of iwork 09' there is a new app and it is 1/10th the price of stagehand. You can check it out here.

Screentoaster

2008-12-10T20:44:00.003+13:00

With only two days of school to go, it has not sunken in yet that this time next week I will be well and truly on holiday.

I have heaps of new things to blog about these holidays I have great hopes that I will be able to add something every few days... well that is my intention, we'll see how it pans out!

This is Screentoaster, an online screen recorder tool. It allows you to record your screen in one click. Also has the facility to share videos on the internet in flash or you can email them.

The big plus for Screentoaster is it is a FREE ONLINE tool. Other options for recording your screen are SNAPZ PRO and I SHOW U but they are not free!

I have used snapz pro a fair bit over the last couple of years. I like it. You can record the audio that accompanies what ever it is you are capturing or even record your laptop microphone - ie. do a voice over. You have the option of capturing the mouse arrow too if you wish so useful if you want to point things out. You do need to wait after capturing the file for it to "render" which can take several minutes sometimes. I SHOW U does not have you wait, it saves instantly.

Well those are three tools of the many available to capture your screen. I look forward to hearing anyone's comments.

Power Teaching

2008-11-09T20:11:00.005+13:00

A clip from you tube which spells out power-teaching.

I say "class", you say "yes". "Class, class". "Yes, yes". Hmmm... not sure this is me. I like the silent glare to capture the attention of the 13 yr old boys I teach. Perhaps because I know they find it difficult to separate business and fun. Being a relatively small and short person, I find it more effective to keep some level of "mystery" than to come across as over enthusiastic and a load of laughs. Don't get me wrong, I am all for a laugh or two but at the right place and time in a lesson.

What did you think?

I might come and look at this again the week before school starts next year.

13 year old boys do find it challenging to judge "appropriate behaviour" at the best of times and I don't think encouraging them to mimic me is going to establish the orderly environment I like to maintain in my Science lab. Something to think about.

Fun with Photo's

2008-11-08T09:52:00.014+13:00

Thanks to Andrew Churches (Ulearn buddy) - he told me (via a tweet) about this website called Photofunia. I have had a few hours of fun playing with my head shot and Millie's (my boxers') photo - you can check out some of them here.

You would need to be careful letting a class use this site for creating avatars, there are a couple of more risque templates. I let my Yr 9 students spend 10 minutes on the site at the end of one lesson last week and those who chose to update their profile used acceptable templates. The class had 10 minutes of fun and half of it was using photo-booth on their macbooks.

This week, also via Twitter I came across heymilly's wikispace. Heymilly tweeted a link to her wikispace:
She has very generously made available a huge bank of resources, tips, tricks and a whole lot more. What secondary school English teachers would find invaluable on Milly's wikispace is her "5 frame story telling". Ewen McIntosh also mentioned using flickr and 5 frame story telling at ulearn07 in his keynote - I can see how student's could have not just an amazing learning experience with this activity but a huge amount of fun too! (is fun allowed at school?).

Professional Development Feedback

2008-10-29T13:02:00.000+13:00

I am very grateful to the PD committee/BOT at my school for funding my ULearn experience. Part of the PD process at my school is to give feedback about what you got out of the opportunity and how you are sharing it with colleagues. I thought rather than hunt down one of the forms why not "blog it" and then send the appropriate people the web link... we are in the 21st century and ULearn is about using this type of technology.

Ulearn08 was in Christchurch. It was attended by OVER 1600 teachers. It was 4 days packed with inspirational people giving keynotes and workshops sharing their amazing ICT. The internet connection was alarmingly fast and we were able to blog and twitter (watch the back channel) while listening to the keynote speakers.

I got so much out of attending this conference. The keynote speakers were motivating and filled the audience with enthusiasm for integrating ICT and making the pedagogical shift that the revised curriculum will demand. A focus on the 21C student and when, how and why they learn. They did not give us the answers but definitely inspired us to embrace the changing times.

Over the last two years I have been focusing on implementing a virtual learning environment (aka LMS - learning management systems) Moodle to deliver my lessons, I have made some pretty satisfying progress. This conference enabled me to meet so many other like minded people and the opportunities to learn from these people were endless. Endless in the sense that many of these people I now follow via twitter on a daily basis. We "tweet" about all our developments and problems but to non-twitterer's I'd call it being "connected".

Andy Coltham (ePrincipal WelCOM) ran the first workshop I attended, he is a Moodle guru! He taught me how to embed video, sound, websites and learning objects. I now understand some html code. As a result of completing his workshop we have now implemented "books" and "gold stars" into our Moodle site. I shared this information with the digital learning teachers and we agreed that this will enable us to make more sequential for lessons that require this type of structure.

I attended 7 workshops in total. I blogged my reflections each day so for a more detailed account please go to the blog entries dated October 7th, 8th and 9th.

What have I done on returning back to school since attending the conference? I have been offering *bonus* PD sessions to our staff on Thursday mornings. While the number of staff have been small they tell me that the information I am passing on is invaluable and allows them to implement more student-centred ICT tasks. The biggest problem is finding a time which suits everyone as we all know teachers have very busy lives.

I really hope that the school will see value in allowing me to attend ULearn09 in Auckland. I know that I have had my fair share of the professional development pie (and I am very thankful) the experience was incredibly valuable and I am more than willing to share what I learnt with the rest of the staff.

Google Docs

2008-10-26T09:56:00.000+13:00

5 interesting ways to use Google Docs in the classroom and tips (Google doc presenation). To give credit to my source and to emphasize the usefulness of twitter - I was looking at tombarrett's tweets and this is how I came across the link to the "5 interesting ways" presentation.

For those who think that you need internet access to access your google docs, I have some news for you. You can access your docs offline/no internet connection, it was a new feature introduced in March 2008.

The Google Docs Offline function is powered by Google Gears, which is a browser extension that allows developers to store application data offline and sync it back up again later when users are reconnected.

So to use the offline mode, just click on the "Offline" link on the top right corner of the Google Docs main page. A pop up window will appear and promp you to install Google Gears.

2008 has been a challenging year in the digital classroom, my students have not been given the microsoft suite (No word, excel or powerpoint) and it has caused unnecessary barriers in their learning. I had albeit breif word to Douglas Harre about the ministry not buying the licenses for macs and he fobbed me off with Neo-office but now that I have become more knowledgeable of other web 2.0 applications I can see us becoming more independent, less reliant on microsoft's office applications. We still have a way to go so that all the staff teaching digital learning classes are comfortable using the web 2.0 applications but it is the way of the future (it is the way now).

Time for some WEB 2.0

2008-10-25T11:29:00.000+13:00

Sharon Harper and Toni Twiss mentioned "Twitter" to me back at Ulearn07. I did not really understand how it would be beneficial for me. They said it was microblogging where you tell people what you are doing... I could not see why you would want to do that.

Before attending Ulearn08 I joined twitter (I was still skeptical about why you would want to tell people "What are you doing". I made my twitter-name "Moodlegirl". It was not until I was in the first keynote and I was using the "back channel" that I started to see how twitter works. Now I twitter day and night keeping in touch with teachers who are themselves ICT guru's and I learn so much from hearing their "tweets" about what they are doing.

Today I started following heheboy (Heath Sawyer) and while having a quick look at his old "tweet's" I came across this reference to WET PAINT TIPS it is all about using wiki's in education. - The easy way to get students to join a wiki.

I have not really used wiki's before but my last unit this year for my year 9 students is going to be partially inquiry based, looking at the sustainability of NZ fisheries. I have some good ideas on how we can do this but I am still trying to figure out how to get the students to "buy in" and I have not really worked this part out...

More Gadgets

2008-10-14T13:16:00.000+13:00

The projected keyboard:

I heard you thinking that a mobile phone is not sufficient for learning because you can't type text into it fast or easily.... think again

There is also the students who are faster at texting than typing on a traditional keyboard.

How about the computer in the pen? Would you like one?

My Reflections of Ulearn08

2008-10-13T10:55:00.000+13:00

It certainly was an awesome experience. If I had any criticism it would be the information overload - just too much info to digest, but over the months I will slowly work my way over the material I collected and the resources generously made available by the presenters on the Ulearn website.

While twittering I came across this cool video of the "Tactile Google Earth"

Day 3 - 3rd and final day at ULearn

2008-10-10T11:37:00.000+13:00

Mobile learning with Nathan Kerr (MINTs)
Electronic Lessons on the Go

Here is something to thing about... a furby has more "grunt" than the lunar lander!

Dave Hampton, the inventor and engineer who designed Furby, said his creation contained a chip with more processing power than the electronics inside the original lunar lander. The 21,600 lines of programming code on Furby's main two processors are devoted mainly to communicating with the many sensors in the toy. Furby's forehead has a light sensor as well as an infrared transmitter and receiver, for Furby-to-Furby communication

A mini SD adaptor from Dick Smiths $10, but only $12 from www.flashcards.co.nz

The mini SD cards come in a maximum size of 8GB.

Put the files in the media player folder

Size is not a issue. Projector on the phone (www.chinavasion.com) they cell phones with a projector. Screen size 30 - 50 square inch. Nathan suggested the price was around the US$500 mark and postage was $16.50. Will projectors be a thing of the past because they are built in??

In fact it is worth doing a google search on "projector in the phone" there is heaps of cool stuff here or coming.

Remember you can always move data from your laptop to your mobile using bluetooth or you may have been supplied with a USB cord. There is also the download from internet, but that is a very expensive option!

Here is a little promo video for a phone with built in projector, it is only $365.63 here is the web link if you are interested:

Hey what about using the mobile phone to bluetooth the projector in your classroom. What else will there be in the future?

A website to visit for opera mini

Liz Kolb's website - cellphones in learning was also highly recommended.

Then there is Toni's website

Other tips:
Turn your mobile phone into a scientific calculator - I will need to email Nathan for some more details on how though.

Nathan gave me a CD with a load of stuff on it which I am keen to have a look at.

I am meeting heaps of Moodle people. I met and emailed Malcolm Roberts at Wintec because he invited Shazz and I to visit him and do some moodling. There is a chance that we may be able to show off our stuff at Hamilton Girls too because he is facilitating to them next year.

Mark Callagher - an efellow and from Wellington College is also a Moodler - sitting next to Sharon at lunch has been VERY valuable.

Douglas Harray - I must write to him and suggest he looks at the GLOW system Scotland has. Not that I am suggesting we get GLOW, what I think we should look at is going in unison - one open-source system, people can do their own thing but we use the same LMS so we can help one another. Pool and share resources amongst all schools not spreading it thin.

Derek wrapped up the Ulearn conference with this video:

It certainly made me think. Well it is certainly evidence that "failure" is all part and parcel of being a champion/winner/leader.

Michael Jordan sums it up nicely in this add:

Day 2 At Ulearn08'

2008-10-09T09:53:00.002+13:00

Day 2 started with a keynote given by Steven Carden, New Zealand author and businessman. Steven Carden talked about collaboration between business and education.

"Education is about the community and the community is about the education" - it really summarises the revised curriculum.

Steven Carden was such a good speaker.... I went online during his presentation and bought his book "New Zealand Unleashed", I was enjoying his presentation that much! He also used this updated "Did you know" video to support his points.

The take away message from this keynote:

We are experiencing rapid, extreme change - discussions are needed about our future. What sort of society do we need to be to survive in a changing society?

Steven argued that we are not ready for this change. We forget how small we are (NZ) on the world's stage. We do not have any profound answers... yet. Dialogue is needed.

Tony Ryan - Being a transformational teacher
I heard Tony Ryan talk last year and I have a couple of podcasts where he shares his view, so when the opportunity to attend one of his workshops presented itself I signed up. A simple explanation of what Tony Ryan is all about is summed up by his 4E's - ENERGISER, ETHICIST, ENTREPRENEUR (and intraprenur) and ENVIRONMENTALIST.

He focused on being an ENERGIZED teacher, you have to go in each day and be full of life, you have to give it everything - we need to model it to the students. He saids that he is convinced that it is not so important what we teach in classrooms, it is who we are. To focus on the spirit and the passion of who we are. This lead him to showing us this You Tube video of Matt:

Cool video link: "Where the hell is Matt" - You tube it, I dare you to! (It has had over 11 million hits)

So how do you get traditional Huli Wigmen to dance with you?

This video explains how Matt has managed to travel around the world ALOT and have it all paid by a sponsor:

Other things I have learnt:

I learnt about Jump Cut for making video/movies using still shots and you can add voice bubbles and sound.

Quicktime pro - I have learnt that you can make audio recordings. ie. no visual. I have also learnt how to join movies together and that a .flv file (which will open in quicktime if you have instored perian) then you can save it as a .mov file

Ulearn08' continued - being Googled

2008-10-08T09:49:00.000+13:00

Will Richardson brings up the very important issue of being "GOOGLED"

They talk about our students being "clickable" - they should be creating their own networks, sharing and making connections. Creating communities.

We need to educate our students that what they put on the internet could have big consequences - both positive and negative. Prospective employers - you should anticipate that they will google you. But hey it does not need to be all bad, if you have a great blog that tells a great story about you then you have an amazing addition to your CV. If this prospective employer finds nothing but photos of your boozy nights then maybe they will get an insight you don't necessarily want them to know.

So in class do we monitor ?? (give em' free speach) or do we moderate?? well first you need to get your students connecting.

Teachers come in all shapes and sizes - the example of Andrew in Scotland teaching Will's kids to use scratch using skype and an online desktop sharing tool. From the twitters I got this website "Alice" will look later.

Using twitter while these keynote-er's talk has been insightful found another place to spy too!
Made my first "twitter" to Allanahk

The first two keynote speakers got a bit boring towards the end. Nothing new - talked about "drive-bys" go in for a day to teach teachers to blog and pod-cast and then gone... well we know that does not work!

Ulearn08'

2008-10-08T09:00:00.000+13:00

Ulearn08 has started!! It is so Cool.

The internet is SUPER fast.... I can't believe it. There are 1600 of us on wireless and it is not lagging in the slightest - It would be so awesome if we could have something up in the sunny Bay of Plenty.

While waiting for it to start they had a video montage... just a reminder I need to go back and have another look on You Tube ... "tom lehrer elements". I downloaded one video but there were heaps there that would be worth going back and having a look at.

I have met some people in real life... Allanah King
Racheal Boyd and Andrew Churches. I had been a lurker on Andrew's blog Educational origami blog for a while now, it is a shame I was not able to get into his workshop.

Chris Carter - he has his own blog. Kevin do you have one? He had not updated it since 15th September though. Anyway, he talks about individualised learning, being connected, sharing best practise. He mentioned that secondary schools were getting two teacher only days next year to develop the revised curriculum - he also stated that primary school teachers would get one day, this caused a bit of noise amongst the audience. EEC ?? perhaps they might get half was joked.

The 1 GB connection here is awesome!! I have been able to do a few internet searches during this blog and they have been lightening fast.

Dean Rogers introduced the keynote speakers Will Richardson, Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and Bruce McIntyre.

Will Richardson - talked about a little girl who started a blog based on doing good deeds, must go and look at her blog 25 DAYS TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE .

Air Mouse

2008-10-06T14:18:00.000+13:00

I have just discovered thanks to the "tek" blog that I can make my ipod touch into a mouse - watch the video to see a demo.

That is so cool!

The Human Blog

2008-10-01T22:16:00.000+13:00

This is a blog written by Tomaz Lasic. He is a Moodle guru. This is his blog.

He also made this wicked little video about Moodle...

Twitter

2008-10-01T21:55:00.001+13:00

It's been a busy day! I have started my twitter account. All signed up and ready to go.

http://twitter.com/mrsgibb

I'm not entirely sure that I'll use it much but you've got to give these things a go.

This youtube video helps explain what twitter is for those who still wonder what it is:

Moodleman

2008-10-01T21:29:00.001+13:00

My friend Sharon introduced me to Moodleman's blog - well it had not changed much but I have just found Moodle man's NEW blog/website. It is here. He writes: Can Moodle change a school? YOU BET! Well I was impressed with his blog and thought it worth making the blog entry here to remind me to go back and visit his blog now and then.

The blog bug has got me!

2008-10-01T10:53:00.000+13:00

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Holidays and only 5 days til ULEARN08'

2008-10-01T10:10:00.000+13:00

Holidays... You have to love em' - finally I have a moment to fiddle and play with some IT stuff without the interruptions of normal school day stuff. I have actually learnt a fair bit in the recent weeks but not reported it here (tut tut).

First thing to report: a new Moodle module we added last week "books" very cool. Great sequential presentation of information.

Second thing: I have learnt: how to embed stuff like video, sound, web sites, learning objects into my Moodle site thanks to Anton Coltham from WELCom - he is a Moodle Guru!

Third item to report: wink. Wink is a Tutorial and Presentation creation software, primarily aimed at creating tutorials on how to use software (like a tutor for MS-Word/Excel etc). Using Wink you can capture screenshots, add explanations boxes, buttons, titles etc and generate a highly effective tutorial for your users. The only problem is it is PC software but hey its freeware so thats a big plus!

And not to forget the successor to the hot potato module, I believe it is going to be called QUIZPORT. It has been Gordon Bateson doing all the work behind the scenes on this and he has invited people to try it out here:

URL: http://bateson.kanazawa-gu.ac.jp/moodle/19/mysql/
course: Course Fullname 101
username: guestteacher
password: quizportv09

This link will take you to the Moodle forum where I first learnt about it.

Google Chrome

2008-09-06T08:46:00.001+12:00

When I first saw the Google Chrome icon it reminded me of a game my brother had when we were kids - an electronic "Simon saids" the lights flashed in particular sequences and you had to remember them and replicate it by pushing the 4 coloured wedge like buttons.

But Google Chrome will it be the #1 web browser? I have not used it extensively yet but will be trying it out more and more over the next few months to see what all the hype is about. In the meantime here is a website worth checking out - digital inspiration. I do like the idea of having it all on a usb stick so there is no need to carry a laptop around any more!

Games for Learning

2008-08-20T13:43:00.000+12:00

This is a great to visit for information on using video games as learning engines. It was a link that Sharon Harper gave me.

It is also a very interesting way to present ideas with the words on the mindmap - hyperlinked to further information or video demonstrations.

At least I can breathe again...

2008-08-03T16:49:00.000+12:00

I have decided this week full time teaching and post grad papers don't mix very easily and I made the decision this week to pull out of the post-grad paper. I was actually enjoying the paper but I just did not have a single spare minute to breath and I could see it was only going to get worse. I'm not one for giving things only half effort and so juggling my classes and the paper was basically going to destroy me.

It does mean that I now can focus on literacy and Science which is the department goal but also an area that I want to give some time to with my digital Yr 9 Science classes.

So I have been snooping around the various blogs that I try to visit on a regular basis and I came to this link on power-point presentations - it definitely had some very good points!

Now that most teachers have a projector in their classroom our students are probably exposed to a few every day so the tips given in the PowerPoint Reform could be very useful to share with our teachers.

I also had a quick read of Sharon's blog (Circle of Wise) and it reminded me to use animoto for some variation. I have blogged about animoto before so no need to go into detail here but I had not considered getting my students to use it so thanks Sharon for the tip! As our tool boxes expand we forget things and it is always good to get little remind now and then!

Learning online

2008-07-26T12:15:00.000+12:00

I know I am slack and don't blog regularly, but know it is going to be even less regular as for the next 12 weeks I am doing a post grad paper online with Waikato Uni. I had a shaky start and strongly considered withdrawing from it but I think ultimately it will be good for me so I will battle on.

I have been givent he subject matter expert role for mobile learning, mobile technology. I am preparing a powerpoint which I need to present using Breeze video conferencing to the rest of the class. I am currently researching and I came across this you tube video which I wanted to share. Mobile learning with mobile phones is still very foreign to me but this was a good introduction.

I'll post more as I have time but I have a feeling we may need to change the school rules with regards to banning mobile phones being used in class room!

Free Stuff (mostly)http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

2008-06-22T22:23:00.000+12:00

Let's face it we all love free stuff. I love this stuff because not only is it free (mostly), but it is brilliant software. I'm looking forward to the holidays which are two weeks away so I can spend more time exploring this stuff