Posterous for Learning & Teaching

Check out my Posterous blog web site – this has got to be the easiest method to read/write the web ever – EVER. No kidding; all you have to do is make sure you have an online email client (gmail preferred) and send emails plus attachments. That’s it – the web site is written by ever email posting you make.

I have now taken 3 sessions of science, maths and GTP teachers through the basics of Posterous and added a bit of value in terms of additional web 2.0 tools like Wallwisher and Voicethread. Ok, it’s note everyone’s taste – I accept that but I can certainly vouch for student responses. Try setting a read and discover homework on a topic of your choosing. Will you expect 3 or 5 bullets of info back? Maybe half a page with an illustration? Then try showing your students a Posterous blog and tell them you want a weekly posting with an image or Powerpoint embedded and ok try Voicethread or Wallwisher too. Guaranteed engagement!

The key to using tools like these is the emphasis on the learning rather than just the teaching – ok, not Masters level writing but certainly enthusiasm beyond that for the topic you love.

Web 2.0 for Teachers

This presentation is a collaborative effort using resources from the web – feel free to reuse but please respect CC-NC-SA creative commons copyright.

Principally maths teachers from across Doncaster’s 16 high schools attended a half day workshop (The Maths User Group or MUG). Web 2.0 technologies were explored and discussed and will now proceed as part of group practice.

To follow the group on Twitter: @mugdoncaster and tag #mugdsclc.

Best OS for Netbooks?

Now that Windows 7 has been launched as a kind of cut down version of Vista rather than an upgrade to it, perhaps it will become the OS of choice for Netbooks? Netbooks require a light operating system that performs well without a lot of hardware power. Typical Netbooks include the two I have used in the past 2 years, namely the 10″ EeePC from ASUS and the 10″ NC10 from Samsung. As a small, light and underpowered computer, the Netbook is designed just for Internet use and not much more – like the functions on a standard cell phone but with a way bigger screen and ‘proper’ keyboard.

Xandros

Xandros on Eepc

My Eepc came pre-installed with a Linux distro based on Xandros. It was incredibly easy to get started – all my Google account information and Firefox extensions took minutes to update. The web cam was fine and the Skype app did more than my Mac OS version at the time. I wanted to be able to add more functionality though and for this I needed to plug in a USB CD drive and explore the disk that came in the box.

This was fine for adding a PDF reader but where were image editors like The Gimp 3.0 etc. that I knew were available and even designed for a linux PC? Well, following we searches I found a bit of Shell/terminal editing was necessary – and I’m no programmer! After lots of faffing – I couldn’t get a bare basics that I wanted. What I should have done was return it to the shop and swap for a Windows XP model but instead I installed my own copy. I used it for about three months but found typing a chore on the tiny keyboard and anything creative had to be done on a ‘big’ computer anyway. So I reinstalled Xandros and sold the unit.

XP

XP on NC10

My next foray into Netbooks was nearly a year later and came down to a large work order of NC10s for a school project. These came preinstalled with XP and also with a 120gb hard drive space. The keyboard on these is far superior to the Eepc of the same size but the big let down is the mousepad – it’s terrible.

XP is exactly the right OS for this size netbook – it behaves as you expect and using Google Chrome browser means you aren’t limited in web screen space either. I had no problems at all with the system and installed extras for the net or disk as needed. So why did I swap the OS again? Well, Windows is so frustrating sometimes; apps can be slow, crash altogether or not even boot up  in a convenient time… and I’m not referring to Vista boot up which takes nearly 5 minutes. Also, the temptation is to ‘tinker’ – its so easy to install stuff and XP can be well boring then I (like others) can’t help tinkering with it. yes, I edited the start menu script but that wasn’t enough I decided to go for Mac OSX.

OSX

OSX on NC10

I do have a copy of the full install disks and don’t recommend using on a non-Apple hardware but this was a little experiment! It took quite a bit of tweaking around to get the disk image to install (just Google it and there are instructions, videos and everything).

The mousepad goes into hyperdrive (totally uncontrollable) and lots of functionality cease to work. No webcam, no wifi (unless you install your own), sound disappears… and yet the beauty of OSX does actually work at this scale!

I know the iPhone is supposed to be OSX but all the apps, the dock and familiarity of the full system make OSX on the Netbook a simple pleasure. I used a USB pen modem to connect whilst out and about and had great “Wow” comments when people saw my mini-mac. C’mon Apple the Macbook Air isn’t that small and portable even if it is slim. But – a big but – it was no longer a Netbook – no longer convenient enough to be able to use anywhere and quickly. So I installed Jolicloud…

Jolicloud

Jolicloud on NC10

This OS is based on a Linux Ubuntu distro that is specifically for and only for use online via WiFi… it is brilliant in it’s simplicity and goes back to the original aim of the Xandros I had used earlier. You can’t even think about putting extra apps on – you really only need the things you can get online and this means free Web 2.0 apps.

It would lend itself brilliantly to a touch sensitive screen and really deserves to be a phone OS as much as ‘Droid… however, same problem – I’m not always connected to the web or wifi as I don’t live or work in a particularly urban area. So although it worked really well on the NC10 – you need full functionality of the netbook whilst connected to the net!

Ubuntu Netbook remix

Ubuntu on NC10

As a free download straight to a USB drive, Canonical couldn’t have made the Netbook Remix version of Ubuntu any easier. A similar simplified interface forms your desktop and full functionality either online or offline too.

There is little in the way of personalisation and yet there is the full array of Ubuntu styled apps. Every feature works just fine including the web came and lid-down ’sleep’ mode. I did have a few problems making and keeping the screen brightness at a suitable daylight setting and this was despite changing power saving settings. The brown on black theme looks quite classy but isn’t suitable for summer outdoors (even in the UK). As an OS, its is just as good as XP and better than the others I tried.

Summary

If the pre-Windows 7 netbooks are on offer this Autumn/Fall, make sure you get XP pre-installed and a sizeable hard drive. As a second option, Ubuntu is great and is less processor hungry than XP and is better for smaller disk space. Most of all, don’t treat your netbook as a replacement for a PC or 13″ laptop – it makes a poor substitute. As a communicator rival to a Smartphone or PDA it is far superior, especially when connected via WiFi. Did anyone mention tethering an iPhone to a netbook? This is far the best option as offers the functionality and ease of use of both mini systems and still fits in a small bag.

Using Aiptek V10 pocket projectors

This is a review of an Aiptek PocketCinema V10. If you haven’t seen one before, the Aiptek is one of a range of pocketable (if you have big pockets) LED projectors. In the box are a mini-tripod, neoprene case, a remote control, a software CD, s-video cable, AV cables, USB sync cable and a mains plug. Approx. projector dimensions are 7cm x 4cm x 2cm and it is sold as a ‘pocket cinema’ capable of displaying .mov, .avi and .wmv formats. Product shots on the box include an image of someone displaying what appears to be a PowerPoint slide show. This is somewhat misleading…

The Aiptek V10 is actually a slide show projector more akin to a digital photo frame than a conventional digital projector. Photos can be stored on it’s 1gb internal memory and displayed in a timed sequence with or without an accompanying mp3 music track. The v10 does this fine, no problem. There is no VGA capable link to a laptop – instead a USB cable lets you access the internal drive to drag on images and files. Beware! None of the aforementioned formats work straight away – you need to use the (included) software to convert your video files into a format recognised by the unit. MJPEG4 anyone? No I never heard o it either… That done, you can drag files on successfully and as you can see from the above image the video projection is bright and clear. PowerPoints have to be exported as jpgs and then displayed as slideshows. It beams an image up to 50cm across although at this size brightness suffers a lot. There is no audio out from the unit, so you are stuck with the quality of the internal speakers – not that great unless you have the unit on your knee.

Where the v10 really comes into it’s own and has far more usability is when you hook up the AV connector to some composite cables and an iPod. The iPod 4G (Photo) and the the AV to RCA (white box, right above) means the photo slideshows can be controlled including your choice of music. No video though. The new Composite AV cable (black box, left above) works with iPod 5G, Classic, nano (3 and 4), iTouch (1 and 2) and all versions of the iPhone. Again, you can’t project your homescreen but it works brilliantly with videos, movies, You Tube and your own saved movies on the iPhone 3GS.

The images come through sharp and as you can see from this photo, it is truly a portable way of projecting – the image on the wall being around 30 cm across in a not too dark room.

How would you use one in your classroom? Well maybe take some video on your iPod Nano or iPhone 3GS capturing pupil voice, students in action, video diaries etc and share with a small group pre loading up to your laptop or You Tube account. Maybe, you want to share a way of representing a media genre idea or pop video style – just preload what you want straight on to the v10’s memory. If you have any ideas to contribute post them to this blog and I’ll include below.

Likewise, the v10 has plenty of home entertainment uses too – portability is limited by the battery life though. With video playing I got an hour and a half before it went to one battery bar (the green display glows red when the battery is finally going).

Luckily, the iPod headphones do function when plugged in and the v10’s speakers are silenced.

This is much better for watching movies from the iTouch or iPhone and due to the bigger projection truly makes a pocket cinema.

More experiments with Flip cams

This video was produced using a Flip cam held on the car dash:

I edited it in Final Cut Express and exported as a Quicktime (.mov) with settings adjusted to ‘Broadband: High’ for You Tube broadcasting. I tried a couple of different settings including the MP4 one – the quality was poor.

Using Twitter for Maths/Science teacher support

Twitter for educational uses is frequently blogged about and there are some great examples on the net of using twitter as a tool in conferences, getting instant feedback froma class, using twittersheep to find out who is worth following etc. However, when you have a group of mainly maths and science teachers who you are trying to explain the value of web 2.0 technologies to, it can be very hard to convince especially if you do not follow many teachers of their subjects yourself.

As it happens, I have come across some great maths and science twittering teachers (eg. @Maths_is_it) who have pointed the way to wonderful resources like Plus+ online magazine and even suggested some great web resources.

To prove the point to my visitors, I used Tweepl.org to search for educators across the globe and followed as many as I could who were obviously both frequent twitterers and enthusiastic techno teachers. I think I added 300 in a day to be honest and of that lot at least 150 followed me back – which was the point. Then I asked the twitter-stream for examples of great web 2.0 sites for maths and science teaching…

looking for web 2.0 apps for maths and science – pls advise! Need next Monday to show power of Twitter community – pls RT
Mon Sep 21 06:36:16 +0000 2009

I also tried different ways of asking the same question:

Pls post links to web 2.0 resources for maths n science ks3 or 4. Pls RT
Mon Sep 21 12:02:59 +0000 2009

and:

are all web 2.0 apps designed for communication? Are any useful for science teaching? Pls RT
Mon Sep 21 16:59:47 +0000 2009

I got quite a few responses but also some puzzled questions asking whay I wanted them etc. as if I was doing a survey of some kind. The summary I made after a day or so was:

top web 2.0 for maths/science so far today: chartle, geogebra, puzzles.com, touchspin, etherpad and bubbl.us – pls RT, more?
Mon Sep 21 20:14:30 +0000 2009

As this was down to just a few people I suspected that the teachers in my stream were all historians, english teachers and the like – maybe all computer science or ICT specialists!!! How could I tell what subjects they had specific web 2.0 knowledge of? So, I produced a very quick poll at twtpoll.com to try and find out!

Tweet teachers – what’s your MAIN subject specialism? Pls complete poll at: http://twtpoll.com/damoward – pls RT
Mon Sep 21 20:09:06 +0000 2009

I kept the stream informed at intervals even if they felt unable to vote. Some DMs from particularly US teachers for clarification on certain anglo-centric terms (MFL = Modern Foreign Languages, aka Languae Arts in the US). Also, I knew the poll design wasn’t perfect it was supposed to be a snapshot of who on my stream felt they taught mainly maths/science or other.

Looking at the poll results so far – only 20% math/science teachers on twitter results: http://twtpoll.com/damoward
Sun Sep 27 21:15:02 +0000 2009

Some great results to my call for web 2.0 resources now that they felt ‘part of the community’:

web 2.0 maths/science: chartle, geogebra, puzzles.com, touchspin, etherpad, bubbl.us, Voicethread, Glogster, DoInk, Screenr, Animoto – more?
Sun Sep 27 21:23:55 +0000 2009

Thnx to recent pollsters! Maths/science teachers up to 28% vs. English/techno on 64%! Simple poll – curious
Sun Sep 27 22:03:43 +0000 2009

I closed the poll after a few weeks and then tweeted results:

I know it wasn’t precise enough for some of you – it was meant to be a quick snapshot — 66 teachers managed to vote
Tue Oct 06 20:22:55 +0000 2009

58% tweeting teachers were mainly from IT/Tech or English, 23% Math/Science. It was the latter group I aimed to encourage obviously…
Tue Oct 06 20:25:26 +0000 2009

Showing the use of the maths/science community (for resource collection), web 2.0 tech for data collection (twtpoll) and the result that there isn’t as many twittering maths/science staff but there are some out there worth following made this a great little experiment!!!

‘Listmania’ of web 2.0 tools for teaching

There are loads of e-lists of the best, most useful etc web 2.0 tools for teaching and the trouble is, they get so outdated sooo quickly! I had a page on my blog dedicated to top tools and had to stop adding to it as things disappeared from the net or got renamed or something even better came along.

The gloriously named Sacredcowdung.com kept a really good list for a few years. They seemed to have passed on the privilege to another directory.

Onlinedegree.net have a good top 100 list that seems quite current and useful. The page says it was written in 2009 – let’s see if they update it regularly.

The best lists appear on Jane Hart’s web site as there are a Top 100 annual list, Tools of Learning Pros and personal Top 10s contributed by visitors to the site. I’m sure someone has sifted through all this stuff and separated each tool by usefulness to each subject? Maybe not…

My list of top 10 tools is:

Damo’s Top 10 Tools as at 16 May 2009

1. Jing

2. Evernote

3. Delicious

4. Apple Garageband

5. Xmind

6. Adobe Photoshop

7. Ecomschool.co.uk

8. Firefox

9. Twitter

10. Google Earth

On the whole quite web 2.0? Photoshop is too good to replace but I suppose a web 2.0 version is Sumopaint which does a similar job for free. Ecomschool is based on open source and god old Garageband isn’t really replaced by Mypodcast.com although that too is quite similar in output.

Chia (7) loves Moshi

My 7 year old loves to play on the Moshi Monsters web site (www.moshimonsters.com). Not only has it meant I can’t get near a laptop in the early evening, she is inspired by the imaginative characters and the interactive features. She can talk for ages about the shops, games and interior design (!) aspects. Given some plasticine and a camera to play with one afternoon, she insisted that her sister help her make an animation about Moshi Monsters. This is it:

She then went on to write me a report on why she should be able to play it at school:

On Moshi monsters you have your own monster and then you get your own house!!!! You can click on the door to go outside and buy things outside is like a map. You can click on the places you wold (sic) like to go. and by things. You press scroll to move your moshi left and right.. if you click another moshi monster you make friends with them. After you’ve ben shoping (sic) you might wont to play some puzzles time challange (sic) or hall of puzzles on time challange its a challnge  hall of puzzles you choose a puzzle and on to play. If you click on your pet it tickles it your pets eyes follow your mouse when it moves. You get your own garden and you can plant 3 seeds to get your own pet a pet!!! At the side of the house is some writing and pictures one is your pets happy and its tempiture (sic)…

and theres lots more youve got a box at the side of the screen and if you click on it, it will have all of the wallpaper. Now that’s all you need to know. Good luck and play it.

So that’s Chia’s review! She isn’t allowed to play it at school but must chat with friends about it and although they don’t live nearby they can play together in the evening in this virtual world.

What is notebook creativity?

What is Creativity?

The concept of “creativity” has been frequently researched but disagreement remains as to what it is and how it develops. Some maintain that creativity involves fluency of thinking, originality, perceptiveness of problems and the ability to redefine and elaborate (Guildford cited by Lynch & Harris, 2001). Others point to personality qualities making one more creative, including tolerance for uncertainty, willingness to overcome obstacles, openness to growth, possession of personal motivation, acceptance of sensible risk-taking and willingness to strive for recognition. Still others believe that a person is not generally creative in all areas but more often in specific fields often related to the concept of Multiple Intelligences (Gardner).

Why is Creativity important?

The cultivation of creativity is key to programmes and strategies to produce positive outcomes. Programs that teach children creative problem-solving skills help them to become successful adults who can question the accuracy of information and put information to constructive use. Moreover, learners involved in creative activities (such as performing and visual arts) have been found to improve motivation.

Creative thinking allows individuals to “avoid boredom, resolve personal conflict, cope with increasing consumer choice, accept complexity and ambiguity, make independent judgments, use leisure time constructively, and adjust to the rapid development of new knowledge” (Strom, 2000).

How could I use a notebook to improve my creativity?

Get yourself a paper notebook and a pen or pencil. Any will do, but see below for my thoughts and reasons for investing in a bit of quality. All you need to do is dedicate 15 minutes per day with your notebook in a quiet place without distractions. A little like dedicated meditiation time or even cultivating a garden, you and your notebook can boost your motivation, your productivity and your creative juices!

Here’s an activity from http://bit.ly/1wPwPp adapted slightly based on my usage:

Get a timer and set it for 15 minutes – I use the one on my phone or watch.

• Go to a comfortable place with few distractions – do not stay at your desk; music should be instrumental and calming or do without. I use iPod headphones but don’t plug them in.
• Open your notebook.
• Start your timer.
• Close your eyes and see what pops into your mind. A window on to a landscape or quiet seaside also works.
• Once a topic comes to mind, write it on your notebook or draw an image or bubble diagram and stop thinking about it. You’ve put it on your list to clear your mind. It might be an issue, thought, concern, action item, ‘to do’, discussion, etc. or whatever.
• Keep at it for 15 minutes. Keep thinking of the topics and wait for the next. Breathe easy. Stay still. For some of us that will be 15 minutes that feels like an hour. Others will fall asleep this time. Try not to do that next time. Some will have three things in the notebook for the session. Others will have 23 notes. The goal is to make room in your day and mind to let things come to mind.
• When the alarm goes off, return to your routine. Take your notebook with you and integrate the most important idea with your plan for ‘what’s next’. This works well after an early morning coffee or at 3.30 when you are assimilating the day’s events. It isn’t important to repeat the activity at the same time every day or even in the same location. The notebook is the important thing.
• Repeat daily.

 

Why you shouldn’t use a laptop or any other computer and not an old-fashioned paper notebook: there are far too many distractions. For one, as soon as I go online my homepage is Twitter so that’s my first ½ hour dedicated to reading my streams and replying to a few. Emails can distract you, so can calendars and games. The notebook is physical, tangible and not connected to multimedia!

Which notebook?

Any will do, if you prefer lined or plain, squared or storyboard blocks all are suitable. Your notebook creative sessions should be as pleasurable as possible but as it’s nicer to drink wine in a crystal glass rather than a plastic cup, why not invest in a quality Moleskine notebook? These are available from http://www.moleskine.co.uk  and at Amazon.  At about 300 pages per book, they last around a year and make a great creative resource to review and look back on in years to come. I also like to use a certain style of pen but that’s another post!

Using Flickr’s new search for PowerPoint

 

Flickr has updated it’s search facility. This video shows how to use it to get Commons images for your presentation. Incidentally, the video was also uploaded to Flickr! There is much more versatility to Flickr now and with more extensive use of the Tag tools I can use it a lot more with my students. I can see that uploading multimedia projects to a Group will help me see all at one and allow extensive peer evaluation.