Investigating web conferencing applications (updated 8th May)

This morning I got to test out live the dimdim web conferencing application which went live earlier this month, following a long period of beta testing. The reason for the test is that currently in our online professional development environment which is a Moodle Virtual Learning Environment. We currently use a 'wimba' tool called 'Virtual Live Classroom' for synchronous online teacher training. Wimba tools are built to fit into the Moodle environment, and Live Classroom enables the online mentor to their share their desktop environment and files with participants.

However the past year has seen the growth and development in this area, dimdim is an open source application ( runs from browser either standalone or from within a VLE) which allows :

• video conferencing
• desk top sharing
• File sharing - powerpoint and pdf
• an interactive whiteboard ( which can be locked)

The dimdim environment is very easy on the eye and non threatening to participants, it appears to work smoothly with file transfer note being too delayed. There is a limit of 20 people per room which is probably enough for most general uses. We were very impressed with the look of the interface, the only problem that we hit was that pdf files were re sized to the landscape rectangular main window which made the pdf's very difficult to read - especially as we use pupils assessment material which is often handwritten.

Other applications that are of merit are :

The Gong Project from Hong Kong University of science and Technology - they have an additional snazzy tool that I might try out called 'nanogong!'

Unfortunately in the literature the Gong Project does own up to the fact that there is a lag in audio due to all audio routing through their servers in Hong Kong however you can run it from your own servers ( at a price I guess)...

WiZIQ which allows quite a range of file and flash sharing, it allows more people in a room, it is a free application as well and is being developed, having changed technology from Adobe Flash to Adobe Flex recently.Another web conferencing application that I have used before, as part of the 'When Night Falls again' session of K12Online 07 is of course Elluminate.

Elluminate has great application sharing capabilities, including desktop sharing and breakout rooms- of course it is not free ( the V Room for 3 participants is however if you wan to give it a go) but again has Moodle integration as do the others above. It requires a download which some of the others do not - but is much more powerful with more features ( it depends how many of them you actually use!)
I have long been a fan and advocate of Flashmeeting a UK based web conferencing application as many people will know.


Flashmeeting is good as a standalone web conferencing application again requiring no download - it is limited to either a whiteboard session or web cam session but you cannot toggle between each as far as I am aware with ease - it is easy to use and uses a small amount of bandwidth as only 1 person can talk at a time. Unfortunately Flashmeeting doesn't stack up against the newer and more capable competition quite as well as expected - it scores on its simplicity which going back to the beginning dimdim seems to have matched to some extent.
It all comes down to looking at your priorities, how do you plan to run your online classroom, what tools are essential to the environment and for us and others how are they integrated into VLE's - you pay your money ( unless its a free open source of course!) and make your choice, one thing is for sure the applications here are only a step along the way and this year there are undoubtedly others out there waiting to give us greater scope in online learning.

Following a comment from Andrew at Mikogo, which you will find here I was pointed towards another open source application called Mikogo It looks cool though as yet I have not tried it out - will do over the weekend - Wow how many more will appear??
One more to make a late appearance following a comment left today (8th May) is Batipi which is a paid for hosted service.
" We help you to plan, and host online presentations and training. Whether you need to schedule a video conference with the management team, plan for your next upcoming webinar, or create memorable sales presentations, our event consultants are standing by 24/7. Experience the difference, experience Batipi."

The Podfather returns !!!

After too long away from the microphone The Podfather returns with a short roundup of some EdTech news...... it is really good to be back as an educational podcaster.


Click here to get your own player.

Jo McLeay and family visit Wales

Wow!! now this is a first, Jo McLeay, hubsand Bob and son Kieran ( with iRiver) who are currently touring the UK, have come to a slightly damp Wales today for some Welsh hospitality ( you will have to ask Jo about the man from the B&B !!! sorry Jo not quite what we meant by local hospitality!).
It was on Thursday of last week that Jo Twittered, that she and the family were in the UK, in London at the time and heading towards Stratford Upon Avon for Friday and Saturday. A suggestion was made about it being an idea to meet up for a meal or coffee as they were so close to us here in Abergavenny, and that is just what happened. We met up in Abergavenny at around 1.45pm and headed off for lunch. Jo received a gift of a rare mini Dylan ( a Welsh dragon - the other one is in Nelson New Zealand with Allanah King), and a Welsh flag..... It was also very interesting for the spouses of online junkies to meet, Bob and Debbie having quite a lot in common with their nocturnal spouses!!!
Of course there was wireless broadband at the lunch venue and also at the Hotel where Bob, Jo and Kieran are staying on Sunday evening, so it didn't take Jo long to break out the Asus Eeepc for a spot of Twittering ( unfortunately much of Oz was asleep as it was 1.20 in the morning!!) - above you can see Jo, Bob in the background and mini Dylan sitting on the table.Cuddly Kiwi also came along for the meal - he seemed to enjoy the drinks more though!!!! But he did get to meet Jo and her family :-)
I hope that again the extended family members did not find the Web 2.0 chat a bit obscure, after all Jo and I had much to catch up on from Web 2.0 to discussion about IB online learning and blogs

Tomorrow ( Monday) the McLeay's will be doing some sightseeing around South Wales before heading north to Edinburgh prior to heading back to Melbourne.
We wish them well, it is always great to meet people that you have only previously met virtually and meeting the McLeay's was certainly a pleasure - we thank them for their company today.
Thanks also to Sue Tapp, Judy O'Connell and Allanah King and many others for their best wishes on the day - as first as an Aussie blogger visited Abergavenny (yes there was a song in the late 60's by Marty Wilde about Abergavenny - is this our only claim to fame?)
Now the Harrington's simply must visit New Zealand and Australia to meet up with all of our antipodean friends :-)

Yes Mr Sutton (@HGJohn) I have used Ping. In fact this post from Ping.fm has been posted to Twitter, Blogger, Facebook and Pownce -lazy way!

Hey try out Ping.fm - a way to post to all of your sites from one place - a beta app (beta code - techcrunch )

Paul is trying out Ping.fm - a beta app which will publish directly to all of your web applications from the one place - cool app :-)

Del.icio.us Links

Our Personal Learning Network Journeys....

Check out Jeff Utecht's article from 3rd April regarding how we develop/grow our personal learning networks. Jeff's blog post sprung from David Warlick's article ( My Personal Learning Network needs a ########! )....both of the guys are suffering as many of us are from information overload. How many times have you stayed up those extra few hours past midnight ( wherever you are) in order not to miss a conversation? I know for certain that I have, to listen to Ed Tech Talk chats which don't start until 2amGMT!!! and even to the extent of getting up at 5am to join in a Ustream discussion from Bangkok International School and the list goes on.....
There certainly comes a point which Jeff says in his article when something ( usually your family commitments!!) takes you away from your network for a period, this is a good thing as it allows you the time to reflect on the networks that you are involved in.... and is bad as in my case friends and colleagues thought I had dropped off the edge of the world!!!! It even got to the point were Allanah King in NZ left a message on my answering machine at home in Wales wondering where I was!
I can relate directly to Jeff's graph above ( from Flickr - Creative Commons licence) where I guess I have entered Stage 5 where I don't strive to be involved online all of the time, I make time for the family ( when you have grandchildren you have to - they don't understand unless they are at the centre of the universe - and who would deny them that?).
I think that you have to strike a balance otherwise a bit like I found around the start of the year 'bloggers block' can set in and then you might actually find that you switch off from your PLN for a period in order to re-adjust your body clock ( it helps to know which time zone you are in - let alone everyone else!)
I realise as well that a change of role also has an effect on your PLN, I feel a little on the outside looking in these days as I am not in the classroom anymore, it affects the way I interact in the online community as it is bound to do..... so in closing I apologise to those who missed my rather boring Welsh accent for a few months but I am in Stage 5 and am gradually getting back into the networks that I find most valuable and thought provoking.
Incidentally if you want to see how we have grown into the use of online applications which is also a driver of our PLN's check out the top 100 apps here ( thanks to John Sutton from Creative ICT)

The Asus EeePC Mini notebook

Having seen the Asus Eeepc in action at BETT08 in January, I have finally ( a bit late as James Forbes-Keir here at the IB had on a delivered a few days later!)taken the plunge and bought the Eeepc for my daughter to use at home and in school- it actually has now appeared on the shelves of our local IT store ( Curry's Digital) at a fairly reasonable price for the 4G version of £249.00.
Laura uses Google Docs/Spreadsheets to save work at school and at home and now has her own small laptop to keep updated on ( important in her AS year in school), in addition of course to the obligatory social networking that all teenagers are involved in ( at least this old foggey has some idea of what his kids are up to!!!).
See an excellent down to earth ( and British) review of the mini-notebook below.

First impressions are very encouraging - I have managed to borrow it on a few occasions and found it fast and efficient ( the Linux operating system fires up really quickly) and it manages easily to find our wirelss network even though it's 2 floors up from the router. The new addition has its first day in school today when Laura returns after the Easter break to continue her 6th Form studies...... more news to follow.

Thanks also for support in the cause of the Asus and its Linux Kernel from my colleague and well known tech genius James FK .

Related posts updated on 3rd May 2010:

• OLED transparent screens for new breed of laptops (link).
• New slate/pad computers (link).
• The swivel screen laptop battle (link).
• Asus 900 meets OLPC (link).

Another Hockey Season closes!

Abergavenny Chronicle Thursday 20th March 2008

I must admit to a certain amount of relief that this hockey season has finished. It has been a frustrating season with me as 2nd XI captain having to cancel too many matches due to a lack of players ( thanks largely to us having to provide players for our promotion chasing 1st XI). Ultimately it left my side floundering at the bottom of our division, however our 1st's did get their promotion, so for the club I guess a good result in the end.

The report above form the Abergavenny Chronicle is a fair reflection on the match, however I am still not sure whether to take paragraph 6 as a compliment or not???

Flu! and Radio 2

There must be a law which states that when you take a few days off you fall victim to a cold ( Mrs H calls it man flu!!!) When I was teaching this didn't really matter as everyone is on vacation anyway or would be as it is the Easter Break still here..... however when I now have to take annual leave to get the days off, and have to look after the 27 1/2 of them very carefully, it is reallllly reallly annoying to spend 3 out of the 4 this week, in bed taking paracetamol and keeping up my fluids!!!
There was me thinking that I would be immune from colds now I was out of the classroom, another myth broken!
BBC Radio 2 and the Steve Wright in the Afternoon has kept me amused over the past few days in bed with nothing much else to do. Do take a listen to the podcast of their hilarious interview with Donald Sutherland from this afternoon.... however all of this is not what I wanted to post. Listening to Miles Mendoza's website of the week feature today he mentioned a new site Adobe Photoshop ExpressThis site from Adobe will allow you to upload your photos and use a full range of photoshop tools to enhance you images, you can also store up to 2GB of images on the site - looks good especially for those of us loathed to pay for Photoshop!

Questionaut from BBC Bitesize

Thanks to John Suttion at Creative ICT for this new addition to the BBC Bitesize revision material, which looks to me suspiciously like an excellent link up between the BBC and those people from Samorost!, as the BBC describe it :
"Journey through strange worlds and test your knowledge of English, Maths and Science on this magical mission to recover your friend’s hat."

Tiny Ted is going to Arizona, USA

An old friend resurfaced recently( thanks to Moturoa School), Tiny Ted who began life at Cefn Fforest Primary School on a damp October back in 2006( thanks to Miss Watson - a great geocacher) and has travelled the world visiting classrooms and pupils on his way ( from New Zealand to the USA).... he now appears to be graduating and is going to Arizona State University to work with Dr Alice Christie, no doubt giving her his insights on how a geocaching toy can be used bring pupils from different continents together to discuss their lives and experiences. I know that everyone involved with Tiny Ted wishes that they could have travelled along with him...... We look forward to the continuing story of Tiny Ted's Big Adventure and will conitinue to keep you posted.

Below is the post from Moturoa :

Tiny Ted is going to Arizona, USA

We haven't heard from Tiny Ted in a while but he is now off on a new adventure to Arizona, USA He is going to have a visit with the Post Master in Trussville before beginning the journey to Dr. Alice Christie at Arizona State University. She teaches geocaching to teachers around the US and has volunteered to help Tiny Ted find a good home in Arizona.

Thank you for letting Tiny Ted visit Alabama. We will miss him greatly!

Mrs C, Birmingham, Alabama, USA

CoverItLive.com

Thanks to John Sutton of creative ict for the invitation to try out the CoverItLive live blogging trial on Thursday evening.

Environmentally friendly learning

Learning online can save the planet? Is there any evidence to prove that in addition to being a new and interesting way to learn, that by taking part in learning online we can save energy, acording to WorldWideLearn.com, a directory of online learning, there is a significant saving
made by online learning.
"Their assertion is backed up by a study by the UK’s Open University Design Innovation Group (PDF) which found that distance learning courses produced 85% fewer CO2 emissions and consumed almost 90% less energy than taking a conventional campus course. The majority of the energy and carbon savings comes from the absence of output on things like travel, heating, facilities and the like for online education. Interestingly, they also found that part time campus study, as opposed to being a full time on-campus student, cut carbon emissions by nearly two thirds." Celsias February 4, 2008 · Filed under Education by Leslie Berliant

When we look at this from the perspective of training teachers in an online environment, where the teachers are based in their schools around the world ( perhaps 13 countries represented by 20 participants in on online workshop) - the economy of scale for the presenting organisation plus the global energy savings are a huge driver of this form of education in the fututre.

"Online learning, which grew by 10% in the US last year and now accounts for 3.5 million students, has also had the added benefit of bringing education opportunities to populations that ordinarily can’t afford it, financially or in terms of the time commitment."Celsias February 4, 2008 · Filed under Education by Leslie Berliant

Twitter by CommonCraft

Many thanks to Miguel Guhlin for showing the way to this latest offering from Lee LeFever and the CommonCraft gang to explain Twitter to the masses!
Check it out online or at Youtube

Bottom Up does it work ?

Part of the frustration that I believe has persuaded myself and others to either leave the education sphere or radically change their roles within it is linked to the nature of the bottom up/ top down issue of the use of web 2.0 technology in schools in England and Wales..... I exclude Scotland as I believe that in Scotland the movers and shakers 'get it'.
Pretty well all of the developments in using web 2.0 tools to assist in global collaborative projects have come from teachers not administrators. There has been some stirling work done by a growing group of teachers right across the country( Sharon Toner's voices of the world, Linda Hartley's Flickr Group on Classroom displays, and many school podcasts across the country) and indeed some teachers are being recognised by the developers of the applications that they have been using and asked to contribute to the knowledge base of these organisations. The spin off of this is that these teachers have shown new ways that the technology can be made relevant to the classroom, however this is still isolated teachers acting on their own initiative to develop an approach to teaching and learning.
Until we have the ear of those who shape the curriculum we are whispering in the dark( a clean version!), and even risk believing that the group who appear to be inside the goldfish bowl are representative of the majority of teachers, when we know that this is certainly not the case.
So, how do we break out of this and reach a tipping point for the use of the technology in England and Wales? An interesting question the answer to some of which we have in our own hands, leading practitioners such as Joe Dale who has developed his reputation firmly in the area of Second Language teaching, Tom Barrett in the use of web 2.0 tools in the Primary Sector and Doug Belshaw in the use of technology in the Secondary sector would be ideal as advocates of the technology to the QCA et al - but how do you achieve this without taking those teachers away from their first love, which is of course teaching children?
It is difficult, and actually what seems to be happening is that some of the early adopters of the technology in the classroom become frustrated with the painfully slow process of change and actively seek an alternative, be it becoming an independent supplier of web 2.0 solutions to schools or switching professions..... we in the rest of the UK need to adopt a system akin to the Scottish model where the use of collaborative applications is actively encouraged from above. If you want to read more about community building from top down or bottom up take a look at a recent post on the topic from Ewan McIntosh.
My firm hope is that all of the effort that has been put into projects using an array of excellent 'free' tools will some day become the norm rather than the interesting oddity that it appears to be at the moment.
I am speaking now from a position where this style of communication and use of tools is seen as vital to the development of teachers and pupils in our schools, where the international/collaborative ethic is a key component of all of the programmes, which is why I opted into this as a system which is working top down, rather than opting out of the state system!
I would like to hear if this view is only my contorted wrangling or if it is felt in similar ways in education systems in other parts of the world..... or as Terry Wogan would say....'Is it me?'

The Blogging world does care!!!

Yes it is me, after a long time offline I have suddenly realised that it is the community of fellow bloggers that I have missed over the past 2 months...... to put things into context, I have now moved into what may loosely be called a 'proper job'.
I have joined a small keen group of web 2.0 savvy colleagues in the PDRD ( Professional Development and Research Division) at the International Baccalaureate. I find myself amongst people who understand aggregators and the use of web 2.0 techniques such as blogs and podcasts.... it is like suddenly visiting a new planet where they understand the language you speak perfectly and indeed even talk back to you and ask advice. In this environment, my new role has been to develop and promote online workshops for IB teachers and this is what I have been doing - all day every day ( an interesting change from teaching where in a day I might never actually achieve what I had planned to do - now I DO!!!!).
There is another strange spin off from the change ...... weekends actually exist as do evenings when one does not have to take out huge files and fill them full of writing that no one will ever read.
Obviously there are the things that one misses such as the inspiration that pupils can be, also I am not involved in global projects with other classes which is a big miss. I do not miss the fact that as a teacher one feels pretty beleaguered on occasions, knocked as I was by changing policies and the seemingly low esteem that we were held in by some parents.......those I do not miss at all

However I am in my element all day being online viewing material that teachers are producing and getting involved in planning new online opportunities for IB teachers. However one spin off of the new job is that spending all day online means that the burning need to be online at home in the evenings has receded, over the past month I would be more likely to turn a computer off at home rather than turn it on....... my email in box actually got to 600 unread emails, which tells its own story!!!!
However as this blog title states the blog community does care, When I got home from work on Thursday evening this week our answering machine was blinking its red eye, and on pushing the play button, I heard Allanah King from New Zealand checking up on how I was!!!! I have found out since that that wasn't the first time Allanah had tried to ring me, following concern from Lisa Durff. Now for someone to ring from New Zealand on a pay call is something and has shaken me from my blogging wilderness..... I actually posted on my Skype page a question ....Can one suffer from Bloggers Block? I now believe that you can, it happens if you change your outlook and lose regularl contact with your circle of friends...... I hadn't realised how much it had happened to me!

I feel bad as I have had a hazy view on what friends have been up to such, as the ULearn conference in New Zealand and other projects...... so if you will forgive me for forgetting my friends or seeming to Ddraig Goch would like to announce that he is back, and you never know The Podfather may well be roused into podcasting again.... perhaps with more thought to production values! Or perhaps not!

Ddraig Goch Returns

Facebook woes

The social networking site Facebook has had a difficult couple of weeks in 2008. Firstly there was the fact that of course Facebook is a business and as such attracts businesses and others trying to 'make a buck' from the millions of individuals on Facebook.... some of us in the education field tend to disregard this fact, but again it is a business and is there to generate money. To be fair the originators of Facebook have never denied this fact.... it just requires more vigilance on the users of the site, particularly in the information that you put on your profile page.... remember this is viewable to some extent by any other Facebook user, and as the discussion later in this post, is very difficult to hide or delete from the site.
The second piece of news which I found disappointing was the news on Wednesday that Scrabulous, a great little application in Facebook has had to be removed, another business decision as reported on the BBC Technology News page.

"Facebook has been asked to remove the Scrabulous game from its website by the makers of Scrabble.

The Facebook add-on has proved hugely popular on the social network site and regularly racks up more than 500,000 daily users.

Lawyers for toy makers Hasbro and Mattel say Scrabulous infringes their copyright on the board-based word game.
The move has sparked protests by regular fans of Scrabulous keen to keep the add-on running."

I first found my way to scrabulous when invited to play by Dean Shareski over the Christmas break, it was great fun to play a game between me here in Wales and Dean in Moose Jaw, Canada. It was great fun to play the parlour game while around 5,000 miles apart. The battle is between Hasbro and Mattel and is of course driven by money as much as rights. I tend to agree with Karl Savage who was interviewed by Radio 5 Live in the UK
"A lot of people are saying shame on Hasbro, shame on Mattel, if you wouldn't be so short-sighted about this then you have an opportunity to actually make some money from this rather than alienate your existing customers. I'd say find some common ground. Look at licensing," added Mr Savage. "Perhaps sit down together and say look, these guys have created this fantastic piece of software that lots of people use why not employ them or have a similar product on there that is licensed but use that to advertise your other products?"
Apparently again as rumours abound at a time like this, there are suggestions that the 2 companies are in talks to bring out their own Scrabulous style game..... business, money again!
The most recent Facebook related questions appeared on Friday when I was listening to the radio and heard of the problems some users have had when they wanted to remove their details from Facebook.
Again form the BBC Technology feed,

" Facebook is to be quizzed about its data protection policies by the Information Commissioner's Office.

The investigation follows a complaint by a user of the social network who was unable to fully delete their profile even after terminating their account."

"At present, Facebook users who wish to remove their profile from the site are given the opportunity to deactivate their account. But once deactivated the information, though no longer accessible, remains on Facebook's computers.This is useful if you might reactivate your account later, but not the same as full deletion."

All of these issues just reinforce in my mind the vigilance that we all need to exercise when using any of these web based applications..... I hope that those in charge don't use these issues as scaremongering to put in additional blocking of sites. Just again as with other posts of mine lately, it seems to be a bit of a theme, to use the opportunity to make a learning/teaching opportunity for online citizenship..... I hope so.

Networks enable Discussion

It was sometime yesterday while following my Twitter network ( for those who have been living under a stone for the past few months ) - (Twitter a 140 word instant messaging system that enables people to create their own personal learning group).

I was following the chat between friends in the US and Australia when I picked up on a discussion about the Future Learning in a Networked World travelling Conference ( which runs from 16th to 28th January), in particular that an online friend Kim Cofino and her colleagues at the International School Bangkok were hosting a live Ustream'ed discussion from the school this morning ( 5am UK!).
This is interesting for me, because not only have I been following Kim and her colleagues work for quite a long time, but for me now they are a highly motivated Online connected IB school.
The discussion today was largely lead around reading acquisition...
In the room at ISB were staff from ISB including foreground right Justin Medved and left Kim herself. To Justin's side is Michael Coghlan and John Eyles, to Kim's side is Webhead Vance Stevens, further down the table are staff from Bangkok.
In the discussion area were up to 20 educators again from around the globe. The discussion was very much a dialogue -
Vance talked us through his presentation

| View | Upload your own

While the discussion ranged around how children acquire reading skills in the modern world, whether technology is always the panacea, or that technology has to be part of a balanced approach to educating our pupils.
Again the discussion came up to a well known hurdle - how many teachers are actually switched on to using these new technologies ...... even such obvious ones to those 'in the loop' such as Delicious and Twitter.
I will leave you to listen to the discussion here - also if you want to see what things looked like from the other end of the conversation look out for Flickr photographs tagged flnw08 - this will grow I am sure as things progress..... thanks to all in the real and virtual room for a lively and interesting discussion .... special thanks to nzchrissy for acting as a link between real and virtual rooms :-) and of course to Kim, Justin and the staff from ISB.
It also shows The power of personal networking in the 21st Century.

Was this the 'Star of the Show' ?

The ASUS Eee PC 701 ( or the mini mac )

This cool little machine the Asus EeePC 701, it certainly made all of those who saw it sit up and take notice - my fellow IB staff and I certainly gave it a thorough check out and found it quick enough to pick up a wireless network and also it handled a web page pretty well, just cutting extreme edges.The Asus runs the Linux operating system with 4 GB solid state memory( with SD card slot for some expansion) and a good suite of pre-installed software :-
Google Docs ( allowing for online storage of text and spreadsheets)
OpenOffice Suite
Skype
Mozilla Firefox Browser
and all in a package which charges with a mobile phone style charger ( giving about 3 1/2 hour battery life), and a very small desktop footprint :

Dimensions / Weight

Dimensions (W x H x D)	225x35x165mm
Weight	0.92 kg
Available colours	White

It would certainly for the price from RM of £169 +VAT make a great deal of sense for classroom use and help towards One Laptop per Child.
in the UK Education sphere the Asus is being distributed by RM ... read the full CNET.co.uk report here.

** Keep your eyes open for reductions in prices as a new ASUS Eeepc is due out in June 2008**

First Impressions of BETT 2008

( Mr McIntosh the photographer caught at BETT 08)
The previous post may seem a bit odd!!! however it was a challenge laid down by that lovely Mr McIntosh at the TeachMeet that he would give 7 £1 drink vouchers to the first person to blog about what BETT would look like in 2035....... Draig Goch can never miss the challenge of something for free ( Welsh !!!!).
BETT was its usual self and I will probably post over the next few days on the 'wow' objects of 2008. But for now I want to praise the organisers for giving Prof Stephen Heppell a 'Learners of the Future' ( Stephen Heppell, Alex Savage (back to camera) and Ewan McIntosh in the background)
space in the middle of the main floor. Here among the 'SALESMEN' :-( from all of the heavyweight educational suppliers, was a haven of good practice.
There were children actually showing visitors how they used an interactive whiteboard. Prof Heppell had also arranged for a group of Advanced Skills Teachers to show how they actually approach the curriculum using new technology.... of course as we already know, ( but need to let our colleagues now!) most of these are FREE and OPEN SOURCE.
The talk that I caught with a good audience was Alex Savage from Notre Dame High School in Norfolk.Alex and his pupils have used a range of applications from wiki's to blogs and podcasts to develop the set curriculum in ways which are meaningful to pupils and again mostly not with proprietary stuff but with freely available applications ( it was quite good that Alex was talking alongside Softease and the PODIUM podcasting product ..... actually mentioning Audacity ... well done Alex).
Looking at Ewan's later question on what BETT will look like in the future, I realise that big money companies pay towards the show, but wouldn't it be better to have a slightly smaller show where pupils and teachers actually show how relevant products, not those bored staff from big providers.

All of the best stuff that I saw on Friday was being delivered by teachers!(no bias honest!!!)
Flashmeeting of Teachmeet08 (watch from 1hour on....)
This was exemplified by those who waited until the witching hour of 6pm for the great Teachmeet 08, (as Mr McIntosh said, the first time TeacMeet has left Scotland), it was a room full of the great and the good of the Edublogosphere and web 2.0 world in the UK..... a list would be bound to leave people out, but here goes :
Doug Belshaw ( formerly Teaching Mr Belshaw now Doug Belshaw) EdTechRoundup
Dave Stacey ( Olchfa Secondary School, Swansea)
Anthony Evans ( Skinny Boy Evans and Redbridge ICT)
Terry Freedman ( Coming of Age and ICT in Education)
Linda Hartley (Acting to Improve: Informal Learning)
Karyn Romeis (Karyn's Erratic Journey)
Lisa Steven ( Lisibo and ¡Vámonos!)
Jo Rhys Jones ( Primary MFL Ning Community)
Jeff Howson ( E2BN - Flashmeeting and Making the News - IT Consultant)
Drew Buddie ( Moodle King)
John Warwick ( E2BN - Flashmeeting, Deputy Head of St Luke's School)
Lee Davis ( IBO OLPS Blog)
Joe Dale ( MFL in my Classroom)
Mr Doug Dickenson (Dougmuses)
Alex Savage ( Notre Dame High School)
Leon Cych ( Learn4Life)
Mark Pentleton ( Coffee Break Spanish et al )... on the flashmeeting catch Drew Buddie's excellent presentation ( at 3 hours 1 minute and 6 seconds)..... Monster Presentation Drew :-) .
Apologies if anyone has been missed from the list.... it had been a long day, it was a shame really that the best bit was at the end ...... a great big thank you to the wee man Mr Ewan McIntosh for getting the whole thing going ...... thanks from Mr H.... more on BETT later :-)

Teachmeet 2035!!!

Virtually no one in the room ...... but everyone in the virtual room ........ what will the suppliers do??? no bags..... no sweets...... no goodies!!!! Just the people who actually want to be there :-)

It will save many teachers and presenters from becoming exhausted by spending 4 days of their lives trudging around a large hall full of other exhausted people !!!!

Google Presentations are now Embeddable

Thanks to Twitterpal - Alex Couros ( courosa) for this tip off from WebWare ( Cool Web 2.0 Apps for Everyone).
"The Google Docs team, has posted on their blog about the availability of a few new features for Google Presentations to start off the new year. The most significant of the new features is the ability to embed slide shows in web pages. It's not a surprise that Google decided to go this route, given the huge success of embeddable video with YouTube and other embeddable content around the web." Harrison Hoffman

Here is the collaborative Google Presentation that was amended by a whole host of teachers last year.



To find this go to the Publish option in Google Presentations and you will now see the embedding code which can be copied across into your blog. As you can see below:

I have to agree with Harrison in his article, that to truly move the game on Google need to work on adding to Google Presentations a wider range of add ons which will give a more professional aspect to people's work - however if 12 months ago someone had said, that we would be able to save presentations on the web which could be amended/ added to by colleagues anywhere around the world, I for one would have been sceptical ..... these days we sometimes expect too much :-)

Once again thanks to Alex for the heads up on this one....

Del.icio.us Links

Heard on the radio.......

I should be concentrating on my reading ( blogs and bloglines.....), but I just heard these and they tickled my odd sense of humour -
BBC Radio 2 - question from Mark in Carlisle :-
Why is the word abbreviation so long?
Why is there only one word for a Thesuarus ?
I know, it takes all sorts, but I was just in the right mood for it too really make me giggle !!!
It is a little like the Uxbridge English Dictionary Terms, from BBC Radio 4's - I'm Sorry I haven't a clue!
( Warning UK humour)
lavish -(def) a little like a toilet.
gravy - (def) cemetery like.
pantry - a place to hang your underwear.
ladish - a chinese vegetable.

Time now to go and lie down - I can't read now! :-)

Passionately Curious!

I have tried edublogs out a few times before, and have never found it as user friendly as Blogger, but with a new year and new role/responsibilities I thought that the time was right to try again - if it takes off 'Passionately Curious' ( part of an Einstein quote) may well take over from Ddraig-Goch, time and Edublogs permitting, we will see - I tried it out with the live issue of the banning or not of new tech gadgets in schools ..... let me know what you think !
"Thanks to Allanah King who has commented on Twitter before the virtual ink is dry on the post!" I still don't know how that lady manages to be the first to read and comment on blogs - I don't think she sleeps :-).

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 .......)

I just couldn't resist this one :-)

I know, I know !!! I have posted too much already... but this I couldn't resist -Thanks to Karl Fisch and Alec Couros for this gem from YouTube via Nokia .... it just makes you think what happens if our kids come up with 'out there' ideas today... who really knows what will happen.....?? thanks guys.

How organised are you??

I must admit .... personally..... and professionally.... not very. I notoriously have at least one miscellaneous space ( often more). Doing the usual reading of blogs ( it must be that time of year!!)I came across Kathy Shield's RipplingPond blog post on David Weinberger's work Everything is Miscellaneous, it certainly struck a chord with me ( I can't think why -lol). I began only planning to catch a few minutes of the presentation.... and stayed hooked for the full 48 odd minutes... it is definitely worth watching at this time of year as one considers re-organising, do take a look I don't think that you will be disappointed.

Thanks to Kathy for finding this YouTube gem :-)

Author David Weinberger discusses his book "Everything Is Miscellaneous" as part of the Authors@Google series. David Weinberger is the co-author of the international bestseller "The Cluetrain Manifesto" and the author of "Small Pieces Loosely Joined". A fellow at Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for the Internet and Society, Weinberger writes for such publications as Wired, The New York Times, Smithsonian, and the Harvard Business Review and is a frequent commentator for NPR's All Things Considered. This event took place May 10, 2007 at Google Headquarters in Mountain View, CA

Google Talk v Skype v Twitter !!!

Since I had to return my marvellous MacBook to school, I have been struggling with the problem of not being able to connect with colleagues and friends over Skype , as I have done for the past 9 months or so - I have found this hugely frustrating, I hear part of conversations through Twitter ( pj23harry).
My Dell Inspiron 1300, doesn't like Skype, and in fact I lose all internet connection with Skype running on the laptop.... Today on my trawl through my Bloglines I came across a few articles by Darren Draper on Google Talk (beta). Google's Applications have of late been coming along plugging many gaps in the online experience and Talk appears to plug another. I guess it will be a matter of time and take up as to whether Google Talk becomes a chosen means of communication in the blogosphere, but it certainly has a few plus points going for it - ( although by means of a health warning I haven't yet carried out a conversation using it - pj23harry@googlemail.com/ should find me though if you want to add me to your list of contacts)
Talk has :
Group Chat
You can now invite multiple people to chat with you in a group using the Google Talk Gadget. When you're chatting with a friend, just click on the "Group Chat" button to invite one or more friends to join the conversation.
Popout support and Flickr slideshows
You can now do more with the Google Talk Gadget. In addition to putting the gadget on your Google Personalized Homepage, you can now pop out the gadget into a separate, small window anytime. This way you can navigate to other websites and still keep your contact list and chats open. And just like running the gadget on your homepage, this way of using Google Talk is completely web-based, and requires no download.
Google Talk Gadget on your Blog
f you have your own webpage or blog, you can also add a button to your site so your visitors can pop out the Google Talk Gadget when they visit your page. If you want them to chat with you, just list your username next to the button and ask visitors to sign in and add you as a contact.
File Transfer
With this top requested new feature, you can send unlimited files and folders to your friends through Google Talk. There is no restriction on the file type or size and the peer-to-peer transfer is fast and reliable
Voicemail
If your friends aren't around to answer your call, you can leave them a voicemail message instead. Just record your voice after the "Meep" and your friends will get an email to their Talk contact address with the voicemail attached as an audio file. They can play your message when they check their email and save it for as long as they want.
Languages
There are a wide range of languages which are supported within Google Talk.
Additional goodies
You can also it appears go to private offline conversation person to person if you wish ( similar to the private chat feature in Flashmeeting. You can copy over YouTube and Picassa Albums which can be played directly in the Google Talk Widget.

I can see Google Talk giving the people at Skype some sleepless nights if this catches on, especially as Talk comes into a growing comprehensive suite of 'free' online tools and applications which Google is currently developing. I for one hope that Google Talk will be more reliable on my laptop than Skype has been ..... let battle commence :-)

The debate about Learning in the 21st C by 21st C Educators

I am endebted again to Kim Cofino and her colleagues Dennis Harter, Justin Medved, Struan Robinson and Teresa Belisle from the International School in Bangkok, for their energy and enthusiasm for embracing Web 2.0 technology into the curriculum in their recent discussions on Embedding 21st Century Literacy into Curriculum Planning ( Kim is 21st Century Literacy Specialist at the International School) , and also internalising tech such as blogging for their own means of reflection ( this kind of joined up thinking using new technology tools is what, I, for one tried and failed to get embedded in my school/ local area - and may be why I ultimately sought to find people to work with who have this degree of 'vision').
To have teaching colleagues embrace not only blogging but also collaborative Google Docs as a means of not only communicating their ideas must be truly galvanising, but also allowing the wider community to make changes to the document, making it a truly 21st Century work in progress- in Struan's words
"Why do I share this thinking and this story? I come back to the opening anecdote about our visiting literacy specialist who was impressed with our intellectual thinking. It made me reflect- through our daily collaboration, I am challenged everyday. We are asking big questions and although we don’t have all the answers, we are hungry for more. 21st Century thinking… bring it on!!"

It was on Dennis Harter's blog that I came across his post on Why they need us, in which he had used Mike Wesch's thought provoking video as a discussion point on the effectiveness of education in the classroom or lecture room of the 21st Century.

a short video summarizing some of the most important

characteristics of students today - how they learn, what they need to learn, their goals, hopes, dreams, what their lives will be like, and what kinds of changes they will experience in their lifetime. Created by Dr Michael Wesch in collaboration with 200 students at Kansas State University.

Thank you again Kim and the progressive staff at ISB for your work, which I am sure others grappling with implementing and embedding 21st Century Literacies into their Curriculum will find really useful.

Tools and Applications of 2007

Reflecting on the year - just Wow!!! what a plethora of tools and applications have appeared in various guises this year - there have been Beta releases of some interesting and very useful tools for the education community this year.
But I believe that as the year end approaches we really need to critically appraise those which have merit and allow those which do not to quietly leave the stage.

For me in the classroom this year :

Voicethread - comes in at Number 1 - great interactive tool allowing almost synchronous commenting on short slide based podcasts ( Allanah K's class did an excellent Voicethread on Money, money, money which received comments from around the globe). Kids love the immediacy of Voicethread - simple, just upload your pictures and make your slidehow, then add your commentary.

Voki is an application which pupils also love as it allows simple recording along with the ability to chose an avatar to speak your words allowing the anonymity which pupils in Primary classes need.

Skype - has allowed us to chat in class to friends in Europe ( our E-Twinning Group) and across the world in New Zealand... though I must say that Skype is now being caught up by other similar applications.

We have continued to find Audacity the winner over Garageband as a podcasting recorder this year.... sorry Apple! ( Garageband is great for creating media as are the rest of the Apple Mac creative media suite) - personally I wouldn't touch anything other than iMovie for dv film making in school ( Digital Blue - poor relation).

For my personal contacts both keeping for keeping in touch with colleagues globally and CPD ( Continuous Professional Development) :

Twitter has been a revelation this year ( many thanks to Sheryl Nussbaum- Beech for introducing me to it) - just great for short notes to friends and colleagues and also a great place to tell people about what you are doing to drum up an audience.

FlashMeeting - has been excellent as a video conferencing application, I have used it for Global Educators Meetings this year - it has also been used for meetings of the UK based EdTechRoundup Group ( more of this in 2008!!!). It has also been tried out by Sharon Toner as a means of communicating to the Voices of the World Group.

Wiki's - I have used Wikispaces to create a place for students to carry out research on The Tudors - which was really useful as a webquest. there are as they say - other wiki sources out ther PB Wiki to name but one. Wiki's have also been a place for organising meetings with teachers - again through EdTechRoundup.

I have dipped my toe into the murky commercial world of Facebook - great for keeping in touch with friends and colleagues - but I like others worry about the commercial use of our data on Facebook. I have also been looking into the uses of Ustream.TV - this could revolutionise the way key notes are given at conferences - live streaming I believe will eventually become the norm.
I must also put in a word for the K12 Online Conference 2007 feeds ( both audio and video podcasts - subscribe and grab them to your iTunes) - and also my aggregators - Bloglines, Netvibes and more recently Google Reader....
Jing also for a while was a great favourite of mine allowing excellent screen capture with audio for walk throughs of programs.... as was Skitch for a while on the Mac.

Top 2 for 2007
School/Class Use - Voicethread
Teacher Use - Twitter

2008 looks like being just as exciting as many new variants of the above programs appear - with a twist - I hope to make greater use of Google - Docs, Spreadsheets and Presentations in 2008 along with video streaming applications for teacher training..... so from Ddraig - Goch - I hope that you receive all you wish for on Tuesday - Happy Holiday and Best Wishes from Wales