Common Craft videos

Common Craft have put out a great new video about Google Reader:

Cool Planet

Cool Planet is from Oxfam and is a site for teachers and students. Each part of the graphic has links to use.

For example I clicked on "Milking It" to go to an area where students are asked to compare the lives of two dairy farmers in very different countries.

• How are they affected by international trade rules?
• Who makes these rules?
• What can we do to change them?

There are activities for the students to do as well as resources for the teacher. Great site for classroom teachers.

Educators and ICT usage

In Australia a report was commissioned, using McGregor Tan Research, to provide informed data to enable the development of new products and services relevant to educators and its key markets.

This findings from this report would, I suspect, be similar to one done in New Zealand.

Key findings include:

• 85% of participants use the internet daily but
• 41% said that they experienced barriers or blocks to effective use of the internet
• a lack of investment in providing teachers with the techniques and strategies to use computers in their classrooms.

Free online mindmapping

Here are some videos showing how to use different online mindmapping.

Bubbl.us




Gliffy

Storm in New Zealand

Last week I was in Nelson to teach the students up there. During this time a storm hit New Zealand. A few doors from where I was lecturing a tree was uprooted nearly hitting a passing car. Someone videoed the scene as it was happening and posted it on YouTube.



I am pleased I was not outside at the time!

Portal to media literacy

Michael Wesch has a new video on youtube about 'portal to media literacy'. This is a great video giving ideas about what people are learning in the classrooms - he asks the students! He then continues about what is happening in the classrooms. He makes some very interesting comments about questioning which is so important in our classrooms. While he is discussing a university campus most ideas are relevant to all areas of the school.

He talks about Web 2.0 and its impact on education. Some really interesting view points.

Tim Berners Lee on the Semantic Web

Very interesting video from Tim Berners Lee about the semantic web. I do wonder a lot what is going to happen next and how this will fit into our education systems.

Graphical online dictionary

Visuwords is a great online tool for educators, writers, students etc.

You put the word you want to use in an area at the top of the page and press the "go" arrow or "enter".

"A network of nodes or 'synsets' will spring out from the word that you entered. A synset is essentially a single concept that is represented by a number of terms or synonyms. Synonyms are words with different spellings that convey the same idea. For example when you lookup "seem", you see that the word is connected to four synsets each represented by a green circle. Green denotes verbs so all of these synsets represent verbs. Two of these synsets have the lone word "seem"; one has two terms: "appear" and "seem"; and the third has three terms: "look", "appear" and "seem". Each of the four synsets has its own definition. Hovering over a node with the mouse will reveal all of the synonyms for a given synset as well as its definition. Some synsets will also show a few examples of usage. These synsets link to each other and to other synsets according to entries in the WordNet database.
You can zoom the model in and out by rolling the wheel on your mouse. You can click the gray background within the applet and drag the mouse in order to shift the whole model around so you can explore. You can grab any node and pull it away from the others to clarify connections."

By hovering over any word a dictionary meaning will be displayed.

Wonderful tool for the classroom.

21st century skills

Wesley Fryer has made an interesting video which is on his blog 'Moving at the speed of creativity' (love the name) about the skills our students will need to develop to enable them to take their place in society.

He lists the keys as helping learners of all ages to "regularly create, communicate, and collaborate with digital technologies as they further develop their higher order thinking skills."

Social Media

Another great video from Common Craft which describes the basics of social media. Social media allows everyone to be a producer and allows everyone to have their say.