My Brain Hurts

Today began well with a trip underneath the Convention Centre for a sneak peak at what is happening at MIT. The presenter likened his job to being like a kindergarten child as his day allows him to : imagine – create – play – share – reflect – imagine. Sounds like a pretty good job. At NECC, MIT and  Lego launched WeDo which is an extension of robotics designed for K-2 students. They had had it running on MIT’s $100 laptop as well. The session was mainly devoted to Scratch which was something i wanted to learn more about. There is only one word for Scratch – Awesome. It may not look much on the surface but it contains a multitude of very powerful learning attributes. Apart from fostering creative and critical thinking to problem solve, projects can be shared to a central depository which currently holds 150 000 projects. Students share collaborate and improve on projects in very active community of users. All educators should seriously consider Scratch as part of their classroom toolbox.

Apple hosted a session on using podcasts to improve reading ability and showed some impressive stats from schools that have been using this approach. We mainly went through a “how to” using iTunes, whilst I would have preferred see examples of this process in action. Upon reflection it was probably more useful to use the limited time learning the skills to make it happen, so another very worthwhile session.

“HTML code wizardry”, using HTML to add functionality. Some would call it a hack some an enhancement but either way it was pretty cool stuff. Use a simple line of html to take control of an iPod, embed a floating head, video files and even a live video feed into Google Earth. As he said, kids are doing this sort of stuff so why shouldn’t we know how they do it. Embedding a video image through a place marker tag has enormous educational potential.

Next it was Ice cream time which seems to be be a last day tradition at NECC. Oversized choc nut drumstick type ice-creams – mmmmm.

The closing keynote “The Transformational Power of Social Media Technology” was presented by Idit Harel Caperton, founder of World Wide Workshop. She spoke about how “social networks, wikis and blogs are changing the informational, social, political and educational landscapes.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 3rd, 2008 at 4:45 am and is filed under Education, General, ICTPD. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.