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