Archive for July, 2009
- Why (teachers) should blog :: A spin on Godin’s (the bald one) first few sentences: Running a class blog for students gets the teacher searching for really good Web links that fit that particular lesson’s content and that help students understand it. As Dave C (the chemist blogger) has worked out, you can use those links next year and in [...] :: Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 :: Posted in 20 minutes, ILT | Comments Off
- How does your news get paid for? :: “A dollar for a newspaper or a few bucks for a glossy magazine feels like a fair price for a copy. Trees have been cut, presses have been rolled, trucks have been driven to get that copy into your hands.” John Gruber Daringfireball Pay Walls replying to “Content matters. And you must find a way, in the [...] :: Saturday, July 25th, 2009 :: Posted in Notes | Comments Off
- Accuracy (Google Earth and sundials) :: A colleague draws a short line at the edge of the whiteboard recording the image of the window frame when the Sun shines in the classroom window and then carries on. As he is an enthusiastic and engaging teacher, the students’ attention is drawn away from the mark. The students are always amazed at how [...] :: Friday, July 24th, 2009 :: Tags: accuracy, continuity, estimating, rounding
Posted in ILT, Maths, Notes | Comments Off
- Customise the header image in the default WordPress theme :: Use the GIMP to copy an image into the blue gradient area of the Kubrick theme, now the WordPress default :: Tuesday, July 21st, 2009 :: Tags: GIMP, web, WordPress
Posted in Web | Comments Off
- Mr Baker is not well :: Attempts to upgrade to WordPress 2.8.1 led to me not being able to log into the admin pages. The database tables updated OK, but my passwords were not recognised and attempts to reset the admin password using the MySQL database manager application failed. I’m not alone, although some people appear to be authenticating OK but [...] :: Sunday, July 19th, 2009 :: Posted in Notes | Comments Off
- Foreign currency :: Download one side on foreign currency conversion. It explains converting from Sterling to foreign currency and back again, and has a few questions of each kind. The worksheet assumes that students will use calculators. I was searching for Web pages with simple explanations of the topics in the Number unit of an access maths module so [...] :: Sunday, July 19th, 2009 :: Tags: access, currency conversion, handouts, Number
Posted in 20 minutes, Maths | Comments Off
- Moondust :: Nice photos from NASA in the Boston Globe with captions. Moondust by Andrew Smith is worth reading, despite the review, because its the only account of the thoughts and reflections of those who walked on the Moon that is easily available. The author felt a need to put Project Apollo into the context of his [...] :: Thursday, July 16th, 2009 :: Posted in Notes | Comments Off
- twitter for essays :: Twitter includes a 140 character limit on each twit. Sounds like an ideal constraint to me. Challenge to students: summarise today’s lesson in one twit. Provide a copy of the blank above to each student… Paul Constant has written a review of twitter as a series of twitter posts (via daringfireball.net). Now, what I want to [...] :: Tuesday, July 14th, 2009 :: Tags: communications, elearning, platforms, twitter
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- An unusual application of fractions :: Image detail taken from a scan of a notebook opening on Kyle Gann’s Post Classic blog. I’m just beginning to replan my teaching of fractions… I’ll have to get some simple music examples in there somewhere. :: Tuesday, July 14th, 2009 :: Tags: fractions, scans of notebooks
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- Mobile Broadband Coverage :: OFCOM have published comparative maps of mobile broadband coverage (Jan 2009) showing various providers for the UK. t-mobile 3G above… 3G coverage. No brainer, if you live in Scotland, you need a wired connection. What surprised me was the fractal holes in the Birmingham conurbation area on t-mobile (my current web’n'walk modem) and the contrast with 3G, [...] :: Monday, July 13th, 2009 :: Tags: platforms, web
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- Copyright free images :: Image*After and MorgueFile are Web resources where you can find and download high resolution photos for use in PowerPoint presentations or Web pages. MorgueFile’s name comes from the archives kept by newspapers and the Police of old photographs. You can used the ‘advanced’ search page in Flickr and specify only images with a Creative Commons [...] :: Sunday, July 12th, 2009 :: Tags: copyright free, images, Photos
Posted in ILT, Photos | Comments Off
- It doesn’t matter :: “… why am I completely incapable of putting non-verbal marks on a page so they do the same? What neural channels are so blocked that my ducks don’t just look wonky, they look like scribbles? Why does eye-mind-hand work about as well in me as I contemplate a teacup or imagine a tree, as it [...] :: Sunday, July 12th, 2009 :: Tags: beginners mind, craft, Learning
Posted in Learning | Comments Off
- Is Google making us Stupid or Smarter? :: Two articles from The Atlantic Is Google Making Us Stupid by Nicholas Carr Get Smarter by Jamais Cascio Both reference Proust and the Squid by Maryanne Wolf. :: Saturday, July 11th, 2009 :: Tags: brain science, Learning
Posted in Learning, a red herring | Comments Off
- Chrome OS and toasters :: Computers should be like toasters, they should just work for years and then when they stop working, you should be able to pop out and buy a new one. Toasters don’t need backups, and a major cause of problems with computers is loosing data (which may include family pictures and purchased music as well as [...] :: Thursday, July 9th, 2009 :: Tags: operating systems, platforms
Posted in ILT, Notes | Comments Off
- OFSTED VLE report :: Virtual learning environments: an evaluation of their development in a sample of educational settings is a report from OFSTED that looked at 18 college VLEs, with ‘reviews’ of 5 more. “We found that the exploitation of VLEs at curriculum level resembled more of a cottage industry than a national technological revolution.” Of course, if you want a [...] :: Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 :: Tags: policy
Posted in ILT, a red herring | Comments Off
- Geoff Petty’s Active Learning Pyramid :: The crux of the problem. Active learning is known to be more effective than receiving information, but we don’t use the active tools in Moodle. Geoff Petty gives out a large number of handouts on the downloads page of his Web site. The pyramid above was found in the Word file called Active Learning Works, [...] :: Sunday, July 5th, 2009 :: Tags: elearning, Learning, Teaching
Posted in ILT, Learning, a red herring | Comments Off
- East Side images and quotes :: This Red Herring post is about the images used in the Stance section of the presentation. I have strong views on PowerPoint, and prefer to use mainly images with a few words and diagrams. Nietzsche was fond of his schreibkugel. The Friedrich Nietzsche quote is taken from Friedrich Kittler’s book Gramophone, Film, Typewriter, Standford University Press, [...] :: Sunday, July 5th, 2009 :: Tags: images, Learning
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- Alan Staley: characterise Moodle courses :: Professor Alan Staley is Head of the Learning Technology Development Unit at BCU. He has introduced Moodle as BCU’s VLE and has used the introduction of a VLE to encourage more active styles of teaching and more focus on pedagogy. I attended a JISC West Midlands Regional Support Centre user group meeting some years ago [...] :: Sunday, July 5th, 2009 :: Tags: elearning, Learning, moodle, policy
Posted in ILT, a red herring | Comments Off
- Diana Laurillard and the conversational model :: Diana Laurillard is professor of Learning with Digital Technologies at the London Knowledge Lab. Laurillard wrote a very influential book called Rethinking University Teaching, published by Routledge, second edition with updated examples and a few modifications was released in 2001. Roger Rist has provided a brief summary of the conversational model from which I [...] :: Sunday, July 5th, 2009 :: Tags: elearning, Learning, moodle, theory
Posted in ILT, Learning, a red herring | Comments Off
- Interface for web site :: “Despite my passion for software I’ve been very interested in being outdoors and blending better my physical presence with the real world. If I could I’d prefer to just spend all my time outdoors; doing work such as annotating the real world with appropriate meta-data.”Anselm Hook’s use this interview Anselm Hook’s personal site has colour coded [...] :: Friday, July 3rd, 2009 :: Tags: web
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- A Red Herring :: Spawning a new category to host extra material, references and context for a talk I'm doing next week. :: Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 :: Tags: Learning, presentation support
Posted in a red herring | Comments Off