My Brain Hurts

It’s very good to know that although time moves on, young adults will continue to find zany ways to have fun. As reported in our local paper yesterday, Flashmob is a growing movement around the world with Flashmob events have already taken place in major cities such as Tokyo, London, Madrid and New York. It is described as a sudden gathering of people who spontaneously perform something unified and unusual then disperse.

A local university student had the idea to bring this to Canberra. Advertised on Facebook, participants were to turn up at a prearranged venue (Floriade) with hidden pillows and upon a given signal a pillow fight was to erupt until a second signal when all participants were to disperse into the gathered crowd of onlookers. They then moved to a nearby shopping area and repeated the event. It was obviously a lot of harmless fun that would have really had onlookers wondering what was going on.

A video of the event is naturally on YouTube, just enter a search for Canberra Flashmob. Searching simply for Flashmob brings up rather a large number of hits.

This wonderful little utility is a DVD to mpeg-4 converter. I’m yet to find any DVD it does not work with. Really useful to convert to iPod format. It gets a giant thumbs up and should be an essentail part of your ulility cupboard. Runs on Mac, Linux and Windows.

http://handbrake.m0k.org/

These words were uttered to me today by a friend who only uses PCs. For a long time I have used both a Mac and a PC, nowdays its an Intel Macbook that runs both so at least I only need one computer. I really wouldn’t like to be without both as each has its own advantages, but if I had to make a choice the wonderful creativeness of the Mac and it’s associated software wins hands down. But this is not about me.

My friend’s statement referred to his wife who also has a PC only background but was issued with a Mac by her school earlier this year. He stated that “She had put it in the cupboard and left it there, having only used it about twice. So much for the user friendliness of the Mac”.

The Mac vs PC thing is really boring so let’s not go there as this is not about that.

The real issue here however is an all to familiar one in education. Lots of money spent on the technology and precious little on staff training.

I know that she has had bugger all PD on how to use her new Mac. Teachers are incredibly busy so unless they have a real techno drive they are not going to invest the necessary time required to learn something new. A person can not become an instant expert on a new machine after only limited exposure.

Has she been shown the basics of using it? Has she been shown the way it uses Word, Powerpoint, Excel and the Internet exactly the same way her PC does? Has she been shown the highly creative iLife suite of programs preloaded on it? Has anyone shown her how simple it is to create and publish really high quality podcasts with GarageBand? Widgets anyone? Or how easily a class lesson can come alive using Comic Life? The inbuilt camera, ichat, webcams or downloading podcasts and organising audio and video content via iTunes? How to download a file from uTube to use in class, converting video formats with iSquint? Has she been exposed to the wonders of Google Earth? How easily files can be dragged and dropped into other applications or the wonderful level of interactivity between various programs? What about the use of virtual worlds? etc, etc, etc

I doubt that she has been made aware of any of this.

In reality she has been given a Ferrari and all she has been shown how to do is to put on the parking brake. Given the above situation I’d probably put it in the cupboard as well.

It’s been stated by many people many times over that for every $ spent on technology a $ needs to be spent on training. Some schools and districts have wonderfully supportive PD networks, but some others . . . . . .

Some Year 10 students today were telling me about their web site where they post short movies they have created which also appear on YouTube. They have 5 “movies” posted and were rightfully proud of their small site. They were using MovieMaker and agreed with me that it is a toy program and that they would love to update to some real software like Final Cut Pro. Seems like they need part time jobs. At least the school uses FCP so if they enrol in the correct unit next year they can fuel their movie passion with some real tools.

This does show how creative students want to be and their willingnes to take on new learning to fulfil a desire. The instant success of YouTube is the end result of that. Also makes you wonder what these students have to put up with if these creative spirits are not encouraged in a pencil and paper school system.

These are really high quality, very motivational and a great teaching tool. There are 12 different categories of podcast that you can subscribe to. They are free and NG permits broader use within educational settings as defined in their conditions of use.

For more information and to subscribe visit:

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/podcasts/

As educators we are all well aware of the need to keep an open mind and not letting pre-conceived notions cloud our judgement. Having been indoctrinated with the TV view of New York I was never really keen to go there – that thinking was a mistake. It really is nothing like the image presented on TV. In fact it was a very impressive city. Spacious, crowded, vibrant and alive. Quite the opposite of the other US city we hear the most about, LA. Apart from Disneyland the best view of LA is the one in the rear view mirror.

New York offers such a great range of attractions. Spamalot on Broadway was hilarious in true Python style. The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island were fascinating. The view from the top of the Empire State building was everything expected. The Ground Zero museum was a very moving experience as was Strawberry Field in Central Park. New York is full of icons that must be visited. A last minute detour found us at the Ed Sullivan Theatre but the Hello Deli eluded us.

Riding the subway at midnight was perfectly safe as was every other second of our stay, perhaps the very obvious and plentiful police presence had something to do with that.

Would we go back? Definitely. Hopefully a future NECC will be the lure.

This was an amazing conference attended by a staggering 18 000 delegates. Infinitely larger than anything I had ever been to. Leaving a frosty wintry Canberra to land in summery Hotlanta, Georgia was a welcome weather change. The conference kicked off with a night at the Atlanta Aquarium, the white beluga whales and the giant glass walled tank were fascinating.

The large number of concurrent sessions made it difficult to choose between presentations. Some sessions were podcasted so no need to go to those, instead download the podcast later. There were also poster sessions, student showcases, special focus playgrounds, birds-of-a-feather sessions and workshops ( for an additional fee). More than enough to cram into a mere three days. Most of the presentations I attended were very informative. These included blogging in the classroom, virtual schooling in Second Life, web based tools, online PD, teaching with emerging technologies, information fluency and podcasting – all of which were very informative sessions. Unfortunately there were a couple of dud sessions also but it was simply a case of bail out and sneak into another.

Then there was the trade display, this was HUGE and I mean really HUGE. So many companies on display offering insights into new and existing products – and of course the freebies.

While in Atlanta, it’s well worth a visit to the World of Coca Cola, but be wary when the sampling room attendant makes a recommendation – grapefruit flavour . . . yuck!

This was a great excuse to take a month’s long service leave pack up the family and see the east coast of the USA. We had a great time visiting New York, Washington and Florida. Next year NECC moves to San Antonio, Texas. Very tempting to go back . . . . .

Let me start by stating that I am an IWB convert. Like many people, I once thought they were little more than an expensive gimmick until I started to use one. I quickly realised their great potential to enhance learning in my classroom.

Like 450 other people, I have just returned from the 2007 IWB Conference at Emmanuel College on the Gold Coast. Well organised and well supported in a location well suited to the event. It is always great to be among like minded people and to pick up new ideas from collegial networking (particularly while enjoying the night view from the top of Q1) and seeing what innovative work is being done by others. There was the usual mixture of people, from the experienced to those on a fact finding mission who come to ask a lot of questions and seek a lot of answers.

Strangely enough one major board manufacturer was missing which makes one wonder why buy their board if that aren’t really interested? An interesting post at http://betch.edublogs.org/ says it better than I could.

So how does an IWB improve student learning? By itself it doesn’t, an IWB is just a piece of plastic hanging on a wall. However, in the hands of a creative teacher it becomes a powerful teaching and learning tool that promotes “engagement” and “interaction” between the participants and the lesson. Yes this can be achieved in other ways but an IWB is a great catalyst for achieving this. Its more about the pedagogy than the tool.

Maybe one person in a hundred will be convinced of their usefulness by talking about them. Maybe 50% will be convinced by seeing them in action. Very few people who have used one will want to go back to teaching without one. I was a classic non-believer in IWBs until I actually used one. It was then that I started to see ways in which I could enhance my lessons using this great tool. In my first day of IWB operation with a class, a bright 6 year old raised his hand and asked “When do we get to use the board?” and guess what . . . he was right. From then on my students control the board as much as I do and this makes our lessons more interective, engaging and realistic. Not everything revolves around the board, like all good tools its use should be left to the tasks it does best.

So stay open minded and don’t just talk to people, go into classrooms and get some first hand experience with them. One thing I will guarantee is that once you start using an IWB you will change the way you teach – and it will be a beneficial change.