Monday, 25 August 2008
Yep it is just awesome..
I know it has been everywhere, but I just love the idea. Just like the man who gives free hugs we need to celebrate that which we have in common and Matt does this so if you have been living under a rock and haven't seen this -enjoy!
Friday, 22 August 2008
Tuesday, 19 August 2008
Monday, 18 August 2008
Thanks Dave Truss -a cure for Monday-itis
It was a Monday and I had just had a double with my very demanding Year 9 class writing resumes and job application letters. My cat had come home to die and the thought of how much work I had to do and the constant sense that to create change in my school that is a wet, muddy building site filled with litter and kids who would rather be home in bed, would be akin to moving a mountain.
So, in the middle of my bout of Monday-itis, I turned on twitter and Dave Truss tweeted about a slideshare that was about not going quietly into your class. Take a look and there it is - a fabulous presentation that lifts my spirits and talks about how change must happen. Great work Dave and thank you.
Sunday, 10 August 2008
A Spot of Snow
Ok so now I have worked out the basics of IMovie, I have worked on my footage of a recent snowfall here and I am posting it as my second movie. Hope people enjoy the beautiful, but very brief moment we had. I love living here!
Saturday, 9 August 2008
Catching up. Keeping going. Getting the Picture.
So here it is on a rainy Saturday night and finally I can compose my thoughts enough to write a post. Well, thanks to a tweet from Lauren O'Grady I have downloaded Screenflow as a screen capture tool and it seems easier than some of the others around and it captures movies as well. This is my first try to celebrate the fact that the OZ/NZ educators ning has reached one hundred members. I am so pleased that such a little idea has grown . The main thing now is to make sure it is useful and provides a connecting point for educators of all skill levels and allows them to be able to find support and ideas for using ICT for better teaching.
The social aspect is growing too. I had such a great time at NECC and on the ACCE tour meeting people and connecting to voices that became real people as a result of the trip. We are planning a third Blogger's Feast this Thursday at La Camera in Southbank. This time we have many of the group who came first time and several who went on the trip so we can all catch up. the connection keeps going through emails and little threads about how much we all want to go to NECC next year in Washington, but at AU$8000 it is out of reach for most of us.
It has taken me awhile to sit down and actually write about NECC and the tour. I noted that the day I flew out was the anniversary of my blog and that the fact I was going to a computing conference in America was a reflection of how much this has changed me and my understanding of my job.The trip now seems to me to be something really special- a lucky moment in time where everything was wonderful and the meeting of a group was meant to happen. Sounds soppy possibly, but the more I think about the members of the group, the more I see what a remarkable crowd they are. I do hope we will all meet again.
The places we went, the conversations we had, the weather, the food, the fun all seem like a dream here on a cold Melbourne night, but the fact that my perceptions of what can be, have shifted so much make it real.
I am now using a new Mac powerbook computer, not a department loan machine, but my own one and adjusting slowly to having to use both platforms.It is a beautiful machine in design and use and I am enjoying exploring its potential.
One of the most immediately usable experiences of the trip was seeing the TV stations that two schools in New Zealand had created. Since coming home, my plan is to establish one ready for use in the new learning centre. My principal has given me the money for the software- Adobe Visual Communicator 3- and I have been spending time understanding the programme and working with Euan Bradley to make it happen. We have a blue and green screen, we have cameras and the space is still under discussion. We are working out lighting and the students are on the go with programming and design ideas. I have been watching School TV Made Easy tutorials and playing with settings and it is really absorbing me.The potential is huge and so hopefully soon I will be able to post the first episode.
Another change is that I have ordered Macs for the class to use for the learning centre and some flip videos. All of this is such a change for the school
So these changes are the immediate and obvious ones. I am hopefully - weather permitting - going geocaching tomorrow and have found the school does have GPS units. Maybe I can organise a staff one or one for the kids?
Thursday, 7 August 2008
Wednesday, 6 August 2008
Monday, 4 August 2008
Sunday, 3 August 2008
The Anthropology of You Tube
Thanks to Jo Mcleay for the link to this amazing video. The links between the web, the audience,the choices we have and change just pop out of this and Michael Wesch's understated presentation of this are so riveting. A longer one but well worth the watch.
Saturday, 2 August 2008
Inspiration for When the Well Runs Dry
So when I started blogging I guess I was hoping that this would be a focus to me thinking more deeply about what I am doing in this job which I have defined myself by for nearly thirty years. Maybe I could put some great ideas on the blog in the hope that they would not slip to the sides like papers on my desk do when the day to day rush of what I do. Maybe I could experiment with software, maybe it would be the ubiquitous 'sandpit' that many bloggers write about.
Only occasionally though has my brain been lit up as it was by this talk which I found from the Constructing Modern Knowledge blog. It is a talk by Dave Egger who won the prize for 2008 from the TED organization- a source of great ideas and reflection. His development of a programme for students needing language support. It is simply inspiring and I hope that some day I can show it to parents at school and some retired staff and maybe we could do something like this. An idea has to start somewhere- this man is a visionary.
Only occasionally though has my brain been lit up as it was by this talk which I found from the Constructing Modern Knowledge blog. It is a talk by Dave Egger who won the prize for 2008 from the TED organization- a source of great ideas and reflection. His development of a programme for students needing language support. It is simply inspiring and I hope that some day I can show it to parents at school and some retired staff and maybe we could do something like this. An idea has to start somewhere- this man is a visionary.
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