Great news for a friend

Excellent news today for Allanah King a great friend from Appleby Primary School in New Zealand ( seen above on a visit to Cardiff in 2009). Allanah made the following Facebook announcement today:

Happy to announce that I have just won the position of ICT facilitator of Link Learning Cluster of 31+ schools starting next week (one day a week) but I am going to keep my day job- for this term at least- thereafter four days a week so I can still do exciting innovative stuff with my class. 2010-2012

Allanah is a 'world class' exponent on the use of Web 2.0 technologies seamlessly into education for kids, which bring excellent results.

Well Done AK :-)

We meet at last.......

For the first time since 2 classes 13,000 miles apart in 2 different hemispheres began to communicate with each other via podcasts and blogs in October 2006, the 2 instigators of this link actually met. Above is yours truly with Miss Allanah King and below are the pair at a chilly ( you might just be able to tell!! yes it is a chunk of ice that Allanah is holding and it did snow......just!) Caerphilly Castle.
Allanah arrived by train in Abergavenny on Saturday 3rd January 2009 and left with TriciaS (Twitter) for Leicester all too soon on Tuesday 6th January en route for London and on then to Londonderry. Allanah will be departing the UK on Wednesday 14th January and will visit NZChrissy ( Skype) in Bangkok before heading back to Nelson and school.

Allanah King visits Cefn Fforest Primary School

Cefn Fforest
Originally uploaded by allanah_k

On Monday 5th January 2009, Allanah King and Mini-Dylan came to visit the pupils from Cefn Fforest Primary who had begun the conversation with their friends 13,000 miles away at Appleby School, Nelson New Zealand in October 2006.
It was a chance to actually say hello face to face rather than over a skype line with 11 hours difference between each other - actually to meet in the same time zone was fantastic.
Cuddly Kiwi who has many adventures since arriving back in 2006 and has been much loved was handed back to Miss King for his journey back home - we hope to keep up with him when he returns to the classroom in February...... in New Zealand.
After a good walk around the school looking at the excellent displays Miss King and Mr Harrington left on their journey to Caerphilly Castle where it snowed!

5 Top Images from 2007

Top 5 (well almost) Images from 2007

Following Ewan McIntosh's Five favourite photo's from 2007 post,
I see that many edubloggers including AllanahK, are joining in so why not?
Here are probably my 5 favourite images from 2007, they are a mixture of the personal and professional.

1. ( even though there are 2!) just have to be pictures of two of the sweetest grandchildren in the world - Abi ( Abigail) aged 1 on 17th January 2007 - the day Jaycob Isaac was born. The top photo is my favourite one of all - not shot by yours truly as you can probably tell ( too in focus and arty!!!), but by Laura ( youngest daughter aged 17!)
The lower shot I love for the look in Abi's eyes towards her brother - they love each other dearly - honestly :-)
This holiday time we have had their and their mother's company many times and as all grandparents will testify that time is precious - even when they wake everyone up at 5am on Christmas morning!
















2. Is one of the many we had of our visitor from Moturoa Class, Nelson New Zealand and their teacher - the inspirational Allanah King - Cuddly Kiwi.
CK arrived in October 2006, following our sending the geocaching bear Tiny Ted to New Zealand. These two cuddly toys were the symbols of the link between out 2 schools which grew during 2007, to the extent that Dino from Moturoa came into school to see us while in the UK on holiday and we skyped back to his classmates 12.000 miles away . CK has been much loved over his time in Wales ( presently entertaining my grandchildren before he returns home in the New Year ).


3. This year, like some of my friends who will remain nameless, to spare their blushes - I seem to have passed the milestone of managing to stay alive for 50 years!!!
I wanted a low key celebration unsure of whether I was truly cool with the idea ( I'm still not sure - but just have to live with it).
( Mrs H has this to come in August - also our 25 Wedding Anniversary).
The family did buy me a Ferrari Experience at Silverstone, which in true low key fashion I managed not to actually book until a rainy Saturday in November!!!

4. Is a shot of Joe Dale (looking at the camera) and Mark Pentleton (Radio Lingua Network) - (not looking at the camera!). Having lived life in the virtual world - some may say - get a life!!!! It was great to actually meet up with 3 online colleagues on the last weekend in August this year at the first PodcampUK - the person not in shot, possibly as he wasn't still for long enough is David Noble ( of the influential Booruch Podcast) - David decided to travel from Dalgetty Bay Scotland to Aston Birmingham and back again within the day !!!! he really must be bonkers! Podcamp was a good opportunity for us, education people to meet the commercial guys and gals of the Podcasting Community in the UK - the uncinference nature allowed Joe to do a presentation which was simultaneously video streamed and watched by some of our socio/education network in the US and New Zealand - the power of Web 2.0.

5. Is back to another personal choice - I am sometimes known, ( especially here in Abergavenny!) to bang on just a bit about hockey ( the field variety - not ice!). Abergavenny is a small town with a small club( we run 2 men sides, a ladies side and a range of junior teams), which has been running since 1897 - strangely, no, I haven't been around from the beginning, only since 1973-ish. In my time I have held most of the organisational roles - as people do in small town clubs - I am presently Chairman, 2nd XI Team Captain ( I know I'm too old and decrepit!) and Junior Lead Coach - and to cut a very long story, much shorter the photograph is of our Under 11 team of 2006-2007 who have been playing together since they were mostly 9 - they have come a very long way and in their final tournament in their age range ( now they are a young Under 13 team) they finished runners up in the South Wales Finals in Swansea in May 2007 - a very proud moment for not only me, but also their parents and the club. There I will get off my soapbox now !

I wish everyone who reads or just follows my blog a special and prosperous 2008 - and look forward to the photographs that will be posted :-)

One door closes..... and another opens!

Today marks the change in career for Ddraig Goch. (31st December is my last day working for my LEA - yup I even have my P45!!)
It was a very strange experience to be leaving a job (vocation) that one has tried your best at for 19 years...... but it definitely felt like the right time to change.
It is really only in the past 2 years that my horizons have been broadened. I well remember when I began to podcast myself, before introducing it to my pupils, that I left a comment on Ewan McIntosh's EduBlog asking whether there was anyone in my locality doing the same stuff. Ewan's reply that you will find people in many locations interested in the same ideas, started me on a journey that has not yet stopped..... yet.
Many have said that collaborations within the edublogger community have given them the best CPD ( Continuous Professional Development) they have ever had, are not wrong...... the chance to sound ideas out with colleagues on a global scale is truly liberating..... plus you get to meet ( in my case 99% virtually) such a wonderful group of teachers and administrators who are always pushing the boundaries of what the technology can achieve.
I for one certainly didn't expect to be meeting and collaborating with the edublogger community on such a scale when I started..... and I have certainly met more educators in the past 18 months than during the rest of my career.... and they are everywhere from right here in the UK to USA, New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, Shanghai..... the list goes on.
There have been some strange experiences such as taking part in Educational 'Speed Dating sessions with teachers in the US and New Zealand, and taking part virtually in conference presentations for friends.... indeed I was able on a few occasions to bring those same friends into my presentations for teachers here in Wales. I was asked by another friend, to be a peer assessor for her strand of the K12 Online 2007 UnConference, which was a huge honour.
All of this networking does begin to take over from the daily tasks of teaching, it is very seductive and draws you in - very like the debate over 'how hooked we are to social networking?' ( today I received requests to collaborate with people in both LinkedIn and Pownce).
When the opportunity came along to be more involved in online activities with the International Baccalaureate, it was time for me to weigh up, whether to continue with more of the same or to take that step into the unknown, and face a new challenge...... it was time for change.
I looked recently at the 'Did You Know?' series of presentations started by Karl Fisch, where he looks at the fact that our 7 and 8 year olds are being prepared for a future where the jobs they will do, haven't been invented yet..... there are educators all around the globe who have been involved in Web 2.0 projects who are also at this time considering what the future is for themselves.... changing career or just changing roles?..... many looking at jobs which probably 2 or 3 years ago didn't exist..................in the end you just have to go with your gut feeling.... I think that 99% of the time your first reaction is the right one.
I fully intend to stay fully involved in the Web2.0 edublogger community, looking at new ways for integrating the tools into learning, but from a slightly different perspective, that of looking for ways to enhance the Professional Development of teachers..... yo don't get rid of this Welshman that easily.
I am also really looking forward to meeting many UK colleagues at the TeachMeet08 on Friday January 11th at the BETT Show in Olympia, London ( for those not lucky enough to be there look out for a live stream either in FlashMeeting or possibly UStream.TV .......)

Transglobal Edubloggers Meeting 3

Using the Open University's FlashMeeting Video Conferencing site, last night we held the 3rd informal discussion between Web 2.0 enthusiastic teachers. The discussion ranged across a variety of topics from why we blog and podcast, through possible pitfalls with the technology, to Mo-Blogging. I am grateful to all of the teachers who turned up -

Uploaded with Skitch!

Joe Dale (UK), Lisa (Spanish teacher from Sutton Coldfield UK), Kristin Hokanson (US), Joe Thibault (US), Lisa Durff (US), Jo Rhys Jones (UK),Jane Nicholls (NZ), Vinnie Vrotny (US), Allanah King (NZ), Kristian Still (UK),Iain Cook Bonney (NZ)and myself here in Wales.

As you can see from the Skitch screenshot above there was a great geographical spread of teachers. Here you can see this using FlashMeeting's excellent meeting details.

Uploaded with Skitch!

Below is a screenshot taken by Jane Nicholls during the meeting.


Image Courtesy of Jane Nicholls ICTUCAN
The next Skitch image is what the public relay now viewable looks like -

Uploaded with Skitch!

FlashMeeting also allows you to keep an eye on the pattern of viewers of the meeting-

Uploaded with Skitch!

The general feeling among those online last night was that there should be a further meeting, and everyone who wishes to attend is asked to bring along a friend - I will ensure that we are booked for 25 people.
If you need any information about FlashMeeting itself or on how to attend don't hesitate to contact myself, Jane or Joe Dale.

** Plug for Joe - on Saturday 13th October (and on Friday evening where there will be a Show and Tell in a local hostelry) at Nodehill Middle School Joe will be hosting The Isle of Wight ICT Conference. Joe has lined up an excellent group of presenters who will ensure that there is something for everyone - plus heaps of networking opportunities check it out here at Joe's Blog.**

Embedded Podcast Audio

With thanks of course as always to the lady with her finger on the pulse of Web 2.0 - Allanah King and her 'Bling for your Blog' blog for her help with the code - the snippet needed to embed the podcast directly into your blog should be in the BOX.NET box in in the right side bar when you read this post - thanks AK you're a star:)
The UnPlug download is a Firefox plugin so beware all of you non-Firefox users it may not work for you.
One tip that I found is that you actually need to be on 'My Podcast Page' that is your actual podcast page before you engage the green frog (UnPlug) as this will then give you your mp3 or mp4/4a url for embedding then simply insert it into the code ( see BOX)

I had a slightly unusual request by e-mail the other day from a friend of mine, Chris Fuller of the Edgehill College Spanish Podcasts( check out Chris's European Championship Football -Soccer - wiki). Chris is currently wondering whether or not to spend his hard earned expenses ( thank you British Council ) on a video iPod or not ( friends also have iRivers!).
Chris's email contained a windows media file attachment of animals names in Spanish, he asked if i could put the file ontot the iPod and play it!!!???
Initially my answer was 'Sorry no!' my Mac won't even recognise the file extension, let alone place the fiel into iTunes!!!
I remembered then that a week or so ago Chris had blogged about the file conversion site Zamzar, here was an excellent opportunity to see if it could handle the task. The file was duly uploaded to My documents, browsed for in Zamzar - converted to .mov ( I also converted it to MP4 just in case). A quick conversion - followed by a few minutes wait for an email with the link - hey presto file found and set to open with iTunes.
I guess wit the whole operation taking around 10 minutes, the file was synced with the iPod and Chris's words and slideshow running on the video screen - Well Done Zamzar, and all thanks really to Chris for asking the question and for giving the answer :)
** amendment to post 11.25pm Friday 27th July **
Following a conversation with Allanah King in New Zealand who was kind enough to leave a comment earlier regarding her 80GB iPod, we were discussing downloading video to the iPod and AK suggested an online converter that she uses called Vixy. Vixy is still in Beta form and is a bit temperamental but will easily convert YouTube or TeacherTube - or I guess SlideCast video's to a form which you can then open in iTunes and sync to the iPod.
Yet another plus point for the iPod - Thanks Allanah

Pippy Ballinger's Adventures in Second Life

On the roof of The Bloggers Cafe (EduislandII)

Having been swift to make legitimate complaints about Second Life, I have spent the past week, trying to come to terms with the alternative world which exists there. I have found that my random entries into the cyber world have been interesting ( I learned how to build in SL for example), they have been ultimately frustrating as I never seem to be able to meet up with anyone in a planned way.

All of that changed last night when on another new place for me - Twitter ( as recommended by friends Jane Nicholls and Sheryl N-B ) - a great place for short pithy comments from a global friendship group ( mainly borrowed from Sheryl! thx). While Tweeting ( I think the correct term), I found out that Jojash Mcmillan (Jane) was around in Second life and that Scrumples Schneider was looking to come in - we tweeted about meeting at the Bloggers Cafe in SL (On Eduisland II just around the corner from the ISTE Building!!! sadly I know these things now!)
Inside the Bloggers Cafe

As you can see above we settled onto the roof area for a face to face chat ( even though we were 11,000 miles away from each other), also there IsabellaG Despres from Chicago. Now the chance to chat possibly even of using skype while in SL to have almost fully interactive discussions is a use that I see Second Life doing for me - could be great for say Next Gen Teachers meetings ( Naace are using it in the Naace Lounge in Huining) also for future K12 online 'Fireside Chats' around a SL fireside perhaps!!! the possibilities are endless.
Pippy Ballinger reporting for Ddraig-goch from Second Life!

Skitch

There was a flurry of activity over at Ewan's blog the other day as members of the blogosphere tried to get their hands on free invitation to Skitch. As you can see below Skitch offers a whole range of options for not only working with your saved photo's, (in flickr or other places) and adding various effects and finishes to them. But for me the best part of the software so far is the excellent - quick and easy screen capture, in addition to the very user friendly drag and drop aspect of working with your digital images.

I found that by the time I had got to Ewan, many others had been there before me, however I had read a post about Skitch on Allanah King's blog, so I tried the route of 'phoning a friend' ( well Skyping a friend actually!!), nothing ventured, nothing gained. It was almost as if we were working without the blogosphere - as Allanah had very kindly sent me an invitation to Skitch ( thanks Allanah - what friends there are here in the blogosphere!)
I thought that I would dedicate this evening to giving it a go, and having a 'Twitter' about it later...

Uploaded with Skitch!

Above is my desktop captured and posted very quickly (in around 2 minutes - capture to post)... sadly for many Skitch will only run on Mac at present, watch this space for developments - thanks to Ewan and Allanah for information on this program :)
By the way I now have 2 invites to give out for Skitch (yay!) so if you want to give it a try (mac) let me know your e-mail address...

Flixn
An interesting Web 2.0 tool Flixn which enables video to be recorded and directly embedded into a variety of blogs ( Yes Joe typepad included). It appears to offer a 5 minute recording which can then be viewed from your blog...


It seems very like the OU Flashplayer which offers a similar opportunity, I am not sure if there is a time limit on that. But for my kids 5 minutes of recording time would be enough. I will be checking tomorrow in school to see if the site is blocked ( we hope not!!). Thanks initially to Jane Nicholls and by association to Clay Burrell for that. Also to Chalkdust blog and by association back inevtably to Will Richardson for the initial post...

It is n't the only new tool available at present another one which I came across thanks to AK is Zentation which is a site where you can match a Google Video to a powerpoint slide set to produce a whole new idea of presentation. AK and I were looking at it as we cast around for a vehicle to present a double act for the K12 Online Conference in October !!!!!

Check out the MS Photosynth video on the right ( thanks for the link Allanah in New Zealand ) or watch the presentation from the TED Talks March 2007, where developer Blaise Aguera Y Arcas shows how this software enables the amalgamation of pictures stored on the web tagged with a specific place tag. These images can then overlaid via Photosynth to enable zoom in and pan functions using multiple images to give depth and detail - each image is brought via the web enabling zoom by only bringing you the specific data from required images. ( you don't ever store all of the images on your pc ). Cool stuff...

** Flashmeeting - Great for videoconferencing?**

Since my post on March 3rd, I had been keen to explore the benefits of using Flashmeeting over Skype, which has become the normal method of VOIP conversations recently. I arranged in advance to have an hour long discussion with Allanah King ( Nelson, New Zealand) and Jane Nicholls ( e-fellow - Dunedin, New Zealand). Thanks to a friend Stuart Brown at the Open University, much involved in the award winning UO OpenLearn Project

"I just wanted to share the great news that OpenLearn has won the IMS Global Learning Consortiums' top prize this year!!

Full press release below:

Vancouver, British Columbia – 19 April 2007 – The IMS Global Learning Consortium (IMS GLC) today announced the results of the final rankings in the first global competition of high impact use of technology in learning. Featuring the highest levels of innovation, adoption, and learning impact, the Learning Impact Awards (aka LIAs) symbolize the use of technology for support or enhancement of learning. A set of twenty-five finalists, from nominations submitted from around the world, were invited to the Learning Impact conference in Vancouver to be judged by a set of six expert reviewers and combined voting from the attendees, which served as a seventh reviewer. Nominations with superior measurable impact on faculty/teacher adoption, student achievement, and ease of implementation earned the finalist slots. For more information on the expert panel of judges visit: http://www.imsglobal.org/learningimpact/agenda.html#experts. The 210 conference participants were roughly split three ways among executive leaders in the education markets worldwide, chief technologists from organizations providing advances in learning technology, and information or academic technology leaders responsible for implementing, using, and selecting technology to support or enhance learning. For more information on the Learning Impact conference of which the LIA awards are a part, see http://www.imsglobal.org/learningimpact/agenda.html.

The LIA awards are also unique in that they recognize the use of technology in context. Nominations include not only information about the technology, but how it is used by an educational or training organization. The 2007 award winners are as follows:

Platinum Awards (top three rankings):

OpenLearn at the Open University, United Kingdom (supported by Moodle)
ETS Criterion Online Writing Evaluation service at Farragut High School, Knox County Public Schools
Cyber Home Learning System of Korea
Gold Awards:

HarvestRoad Hive & the Resource List Management System at the University of Western Australia
California State University Fresno Fast Forward Program
European eTwinning Action by European Schoolnet
Silver Awards:

Using Giunti Labs learn eXact LCMS at the UK NHS and Royal College of Radiologists R-ITI Project
Microsoft Research ConferenceXP at Australian School of the Air and Classroom Presenter at University of Washington
Respondus 3.5 and University of Alberta
Bronze Awards:

Tegrity Campus 2.0 at Saint Mary's University
Articulate at Jefferson County Public Schools
Wimba’s Course Genie: An Authoring Tool for Common Cartridge at Langside College
Honorable mentions:

eCollege Program Intelligence Manager at Iowa Community College Online Consortium
Desire2Learn at Office of Open Learning, University of Guelph
Microsoft Learning Gateway at Shireland Language College
BlueStream Digital Asset Management System At The University Of Michigan (supported by Ancept and IBM)
ANGEL at Penn State
UGO Online Academic Resource Management system at the University of Montreal (supported by Logiweb)
A study on how to enhance support for the Cyber Home Learning System by Korea Education & Research Information Service
Meeting the Needs of a Global Student Body with Jenzabar at Park University
Microsoft Partners in Learning at Ministry of Education, Thailand"
Well done to Stuart and the OpenLearn team... anyhow I have drifted from the point, Stuart was able to point me to the correct person at the Open University who could give me Booking Rights on Flashmeeting. I set up a 4 person (25 is the max)meeting for a 60 minute session. The resulting video conference is available here
It was a good exercise as I had taken part as a participant in one of Joe Dale's ( Joe has just held a VideoConference between his school and Sylvia Tolisano in Florida) recent Flashmeeting sessions, so was a relative novice while my 2 colleagues were completely new to the whole thing.
Once we had got used to the whole turn taking thing and the small details such as remembering to leave the mic open for a few seconds after you have spoken in order to avoid cropping the end of your speech, it worked very well ( I had a problem at the time in that my MacBook seemed dis-inclined to hook up the built in camera to Flashmeeting so I had to rig up a dv camera - this has been sorted out through reading the guides and downloading a small software update from Adobe).
You use a closed room where guests are invited to join (25 attendees limit seems plenty), there are a variety of additional tools which appear as tabs - these include:
* a list of those in conference.
*a chat area page.
*url exchange page.
* an image page where you can see your colleagues.
It operates on a hand up system where you signal that you would like to speak and you are put in a queue. The meeting times down at the top left and gives you audio warnings as you approach the time limit of you conference. Audio seems to be subject to similar fade in and out as Skype.
The Verdict
All of us who took part in the session found it to be a useful looking option holding out the possibility of having visual contact with colleagues in a conference which is not available using Skype, while having many of the extras which Skype also has. Plus some extras that you might expect from an academic institution - great stats on the conference ( check them out if you have the chance to have a look at our videoconference) I suggest a definite 8.5 out of 10 if not more, I think time and more use will see this rating rise.

** I know that the people who have developed Flashmeeting are very keen on its development internationally contact me and I will give you Jeff Howson's (E2BN)e-mail address.