Oct 10, 2010

TedxAkld 2010

An inspiring day out with fellow colleagues - inspired by the stories of some amazing creative minds.

By far the most inspiring was the Team OneBeep fellows - whose vision is to supply laptops to the world. Specifically third world children with the use of a laptop and radio waves to transfer data and files. An outstanding concept from four undergraduates who are defiantly destined to go far. mega links here to see and catch-up with these inspiring fellows.

Highly amused by Ken Ring - an amazing predictor, weatherman and magician. Cleverly uses humour and magic to astound you and capture your attention. Amazing ability to predict the future - knew the ChCh earthquake was coming some 12 months before it happened. http://predictweather.com

Also got inspired by the photographers/film makers - Plum Jungle - a beautiful coffee table book of photographs in Hyde Park Sydney, and then taken on the road for Australia day and filmed with music.

Jun 13, 2010

World Cup fever 2010



An innovative idea to get 32 schools around the world to blog during the World Cup. All primary aged children, each class having their own country blog to maintain.
A massive learning curve for some of us to master the use of wordpress blogging.
Children set up as individuals so they can comment on others blogs and make their own World Cup predictions too!


Check out the progress http://blogtheworldcup.net/

May 4, 2010

Serious Mind Bender

This will freak your mind out
Give it a try and work out how it was done......

http://www.quizyourprofile.com/guessyournumber.swf

It's also appreciate a teacher week too check out some cool ideas to appreciate teachers and colleagues

May 3, 2010

Google Lit Trips


An exciting use of Google Earth within the classroom - possibilities are endless.
Using Google Earth create a trip - using place markers and information descriptions using movies [use embed code], images and words.
An excellent example can be seen here at Point England School. They used a book base for their trip and made a trip around NZ using research for each place using information from the book. Further information on Google Lit Trips can be seen here.
Other uses:
  • historical research - trips around historical venues
  • fairy tales - imagine where these 'may' have taken place
  • trip of the places visited in a book
  • vacation sharing
  • following an inspirational person
  • amazing race from the classroom
  • countless others
Thanks so much to Dorothy Burt for the inspirational poster session.

May 1, 2010

ITSC 2010 - Apple Conference

Cool to meet new peops [Lorraine on left and Belinda on right] and old buddies [Mary] love being at a geek fest!

Just some random notes on the learning gathered from ITSC Auckland 2010:
First up Apps on a Mac

TextEdit
- free app on a Mac
  • will speak text [speech option under edit tab]
  • copy and paste block of text - use speech option for children to hear text
  • useful to pronounce words they don't know
  • listen to their own text and hear how it sounds
  • useful for researching options
  • more useful tips here and here
QuickTime Player [Snow Leopard]
  • screen recording inbuilt - demo here
  • audio recording inbuilt
  • utilize experts in class to quick demo 'how to's' and upload to a resources page



iPhone/iPod touch Apps
  • for current use can only be bought and used on 5 devices [this may change]
  • utilize the iTunes store apps search - educational and fun [need an iTunes account]
  • easily syncs to devices, but apps stay part of library
iTunesU
  • Universities and Schools - lessons etc can be downloaded for free - also Beyond Campus
Second up useful Web 2.0 apps
  • Memiary - Record up to five memories of your day and make them memorable forever. Memiary is the weightless pocket diary - cool for listing 5 things ch'n have learnt each day
  • Weebly - free website set-up and blog options - possible usage for E-portfolios online?
  • Telescopic Text - text editor - demonstrates how a simple sentence can be extended into a creative story including description and developed punctuation
  • Chogger - a comic strip creator, can add own photos or drawings also
  • Fotobabble - talking photos for adding to blogs or twitter etc example from ITSC
Check out this blog for other links from the Conference too ITSC2010

Quote for learning: Some people skate to the puck.....others skate to where the puck is going to be... Wayne Gretsky