Amazon Kindle2 E-Reader

At last yesterday my mystery object arrived and of course it is an....... Amazon Kindle2 e-reader!!!!! Sorry for those who believed it to be something akin to an iPad ( I would have to win one rather than buy one!!!
Below is the unboxing of the Kindle2 received from Simply Electronics and delivered rather fantastically by DPD who lived up marvellously to their next day delivery - tracking the order was very easy on their website where I could see that it had arrived at Newbury the night before , at 9am the following morning I could track its journey to Cardiff at 3.30am and onto a delivery van for delivery between 13.48 and 14.48..... it arrived at 13.46 Well done DPD impressive. I would certainly recommend them on the evidence of this service.

Now to unboxing the device... firstly remove outer packaging:

This reveals the inner box:

Including the rather marvellous opening strip:

Inside is the simple but classy machine itself:

Mmmm sleek and stylish:

Hidden below is the instruction manual and power cable:

The Kindle2 started quite quickly:

Revealing the start up instructions inside:

It was simple to join the Kindle Store at Amazon and then purchase my first two books:

The No.1 Ladies' detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith and Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett...... now to some reading.

Thank You

A big thank you to all readers of this blog as today at 21.58 the hit counter registered 20,000 hits since I started. Interestingly looking at the blog stats the most popular post by a very long way was a post on the Asus Eeepc mini netbook from April 8 2008, which is quite apt as I still have a soft spot for the Linux based net-book, and indeed I still own two of the devices (700 and 901) and the 4GB version bought then indeed saw Laura through her A Levels and has just become the property of my 4 year old granddaughter it is currently undergoing an Ubuntu overhaul and having some pre-school programmes installed by a colleague .
When I began the blog I had no real plan or idea where it would go, it began as those who have a long memory will attest as the outlet for tech and Web 2.0 discoveries that one excited if slightly aged primary school teacher was finding and sharing with his growing group of global friends.

As the map above shows there still remains a strong global audience and I hope that what is posted here has relevance even though the teacher has left the classroom possibly for good and the nature of the posts has somewhat changed.

It proves if nothing else that this new technology revolution is certainly a 'grass-roots' one as I would hardly call myself tech mainstream, I hope though to remain relevant.

It is possible that the blog may move to a new Wordpress home soon, I hope that you will come with me on the rest of this great adventure.

Thank You

Dropbox.com

Have you recently had the need to save a large file ( up to 2GB free!) in order to share it with others or to have it somewhere where you can access it on multiple machines including your smart phone?

If so why not give Dropbox a try, it even has an iPhone and Android app making you truly mobile. Other storage spaces such as Box.net offer 1GB but with crucially a 25MB file size limitation, whereas Dropbox offers unlimited upload up to your 2GB limit - check out the features here

Many thanks to @willfinch for the heads up on Dropbox.com

Parting is such tweet sorrow!!!

The Royal Shakespeare Company ( RSC) is using social networking ( Twitter) as the medium for delivering a 21st Century Romeo and Juliet. They have a cast of six who will tweet and supply links for those who want to follow the story over the coming five weeks. I heard Juliet ( Charlotte Wakefield ) Twitter @julietcap16 and Romeo on Richard Bacon's Radio Five Live programme this afternoon discussing the premise of the project:

Romeo James Barrett will make his appearance shortly. Michael Boyd, artistic director of the RSC, said: "Our ambition is always to connect people with Shakespeare and bring actors and audiences closer together.
"Mobile phones don't need to be the Antichrist for theatre. This digital experiment... allows our actors to use mobiles to tell their stories in real time and reach people wherever they are in a global theatre."

Interest must be high as their website http://suchtweetsorrow.com/ was recently down, but appears now to have come back on stream

Malcolm McLaren

Following the untimely death of the arch agent provocateur of the punk scene Malcolm McLaren at the age of 64 from Mesothelioma, Graham Brown-Martin of Handheld Learning 2009 where Malcolm spoke in October of last year has paid this tribute followed by Malcolm's presentation ( hopefully uncut!). It was great to hear Malcolm speak on this occasions to hear a speaker who sees PC speak and just blasts straight through - Love him or loathe him, we sometimes right off people who don't just follow the party line - thank you Malcolm for straight talking.

We first noticed that he was unwell when arriving to give his speech at Handheld Learning 2009 when he arrived later than planned complaining of fatigue. Diagnosed with the flu he continued but soon after the conference was admitted to hospital for investigation and removal of fluid from his lungs. It was only at this point was it was understood that his condition might be symptomatic of Mesothelioma. Even when we spoke over Christmas when Malcolm was working as hard as I have ever seen him we did not know how quickly this cancer would steal him from us.

For me Malcolm was not only a friend but a mentor & confidante. His passing leaves a gap in my life but also some happy memories.

This talk from Malcolm at the Handheld Learning Conference 2009 will, I believe, stand the test of time. The speech doesn't elaborate about the period of the Sex Pistols, New York Dolls, Vivienne Westwood, his impact on design, fashion and music culture and the many other important achievements of Malcolm's life that will be reported in obituaries over the coming days. Instead and in keeping with the theme of the conference Malcolm discusses in his inimitable style - his life, learning, authenticy vs karaoke culture and what we gain from the experience of failure. Ironically, failure was something Malcolm never achieved. The talk was anything but ordinary, it polarised our audience and instantly trended globally on Twitter but what else would you expect?

Bravo and rest in peace, Malcolm!


"Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Txt Pistols" Malcolm's McLaren's "Reflections on Learning" keynote presented at the Handheld Learning Conference 2009, London. Contains mild references to adult themes and occasional use of adult language.

The Global Digital Divide

Leading up to the Peterson Symposium in April a series of Reading Groups have been considering issues around the global nature of technology in schools by both teachers and pupils. Recently the issue of inclusion/the digital divide was on the agenda with the article ' Distance training of teachers in a rural area in Kenya' by Chiara Pozzi, Sociologist, e-learning didactic designer, Centro di Produzione Multimediale, University of Milano-Bicocca, as the main point of discussion. The study looked at the effective models that worked in the training of teachers in rural Kenya. The main reason for the selection of the text was the image which appears in the paper which shows the world at night with electrically lit areas glowing brightly while some areas of the globe are in darkness in more ways than one. The question raised was how do we bring digital literacy to those dark areas of the globe in Latin America, Southern Africa, India and South East Asia.

I must admit that my view is that we must make use of the technologies which are or have become part of the community - mobile (cell) phones and Television being two powerful media for digital literacy. I firmly believe that Stephen Heppell is an important voice which organisations should pay heed to.

If we are going to go down the route of 'one laptop per child' for the developing world then we should also consider the OLPC project:

Below you can see a video from Noah Dumahasi, project manager for Together Ghana, weighs in on the digital divide across Ghana and the development of communication technology in rural Africa. - Providing a Voice

Africa takes on the digital divide
And below an article about The digital divide or access to the latest technology, is far from being equal. An attempt to remedy this is the Digital Equalizer programme of the America India Foundation, started at the initiative of President Clinton in 2001. "We have learnt how to use the camera to record, edit and make a movie from what we have edited and to burn a CD," said J M Manu Kumar, a student.

Update - interesting reading to add to this mix - the 2008 Millennium Goals from UN
I feel sure that this will provoke a wide ranging discussion as we all consider what steps are required for the future.

Also thanks to Judith Fabian ( IB Academic Director)for the reference below to the recent Education Guardian article on the 'Hole in The Wall' project begun by Sugita Mitra to consider

Blog post from daily blog

Much of our work today has been in the design and completion of the IB online professional development web portal ( see below) - the astute amongst you will notice that the site http://onlineworkshops.ibo.org/ will now operate in English, French and Spanish and also that we have grown a 'work with us' tab leading to a dedicated page for those who wish to join us in the IB's online PD project

We would really appreciate feedback from readers

#savewordle

Sorry if I am late to the party however I was concerned when I read Jonathan Feinberg's news blog post from 1 March referring to the WORDLE site being taken down temporarily due to a 'perceived trademark infringement' the global alarm was raised by Techcrunch following the news being spotted by @jackschofield and @digitalmaverick - there was set up a Twitter hashtag #savewordle which swung into action, and thanks to a good IP lawyer it would appear that Wordle may be safe. We wish Jonathan and Wordle our best wishes and please feel free to join the hashtag campaign.

Improvements to the impressive DimDim

The message above arrived on Tuesday 23rd February from those great guys at DimDim who are constantly developing their product into I believe one of the premier online meeting spaces offered to professionals globally. I have long been impressed with not only their product but also in their drive to improve what is offered. Do take a look and perhaps try out a free DimDim training session, it is the ideal way to see how well the system works in your browser with 'no downloads'.

Below you can see a logged in view which shows the 'Big Red Button' with which you can start a meeting.
I am also a fan of the use of social media to spread the URL of your meeting space.

Don't just take my word for it..... do give DimDim a try, I think that you will enjoy the experience and also will instantly have ideas regarding how you can make use of it in your organisation.

No, I do not have any connection with DimDim I just rate it highly :-)

Blaise Aguera y Arcas and augmented reality mapping.... Wow!!!

For those who can remember the amazing TED video of Blaise Aguera y Arcas demonstrating Photosynth in 2007 where using Microsoft Livelabs projects he showed how you could render objects using photographic views of that object taken from different angles would not be surprised to find that in February 2010 the magician of the digital age is back this time to show us the power of augmented reality in mapping.

Watch and be truly amazed as we see the next stage of Photosynth as Blaise demonstrates the ability to overlay images over a 'streetview', in this case showing a scene with shots taken at different times of day.... but the truly magical experience is when we see live video overlay inside a 'streetview' scene which is itself from inside a building. This is truly the future where we will be able to render inside a map using user generated content both still and video to enhance our view of the digital world. There are obviously privacy and other issues that will have to be dealt with however the ability to view the world and places in this way is truly in the world of Web 3.0 or even Web 4.0 - I feel Web 4.0 will be our ability to actually place ourselves within this scene using whole body systems such as Pravan Mistry's Sixth Sense.... I can't wait!!!

BUZZ......off!

Oh dear! It would appear that Google released BUZZ without thoroughly testing it was reported today by the BBC Technology News resulting in security and privacy issues for users of the new social networking tool which operates within Google services such as GMail, Maps etc.

Google has admitted to BBC News that testing of its controversial social network Buzz was insufficient.

The firm has had to make a series of changes to the service after a ferocious backlash from users concerned about intrusions of privacy.

Buzz was launched on 9 February. The service, which is integrated with Gmail, allows users to post status updates, share content and read and comment on friends' posts.

One problem that immediately caused concern was Google's decision to automatically give users a ready-made circle of friends based on the people they most frequently e-mailed.Unless users changed settings in their profile, this list could automatically be made public, allowing anyone to see who a user corresponded with most frequently.

Mr Jackson told BBC News that the decision to create these automatic lists was borne out of the idea that Google "wanted to provide a great user experience straight out of the box".

But privacy experts immediately pointed out this could cause problems for journalists, businesses or even people having an illicit affair.

Evgeny Morozov, a Belarus-born researcher and blogger who looks at the political implications of the internet, also raised concerns.

"If I were working for the Iranian or the Chinese government, I would immediately dispatch my internet geek squads to check on Google Buzz accounts for political activists and see if they have any connections that were previously unknown to the government," he wrote.

As a result of complaints, Google said Buzz would now only suggest people who a user might want to be friends with.

The company has also announced steps to make it easier to disable Buzz altogether and to ensure that people's accounts do not automatically connect with online Picasa photo albums and items that people may store in their Google Reader accounts.

The changes were in part thrashed out at a company-wide meeting on 12 February at Google headquarters.

"We realize that we didn't get things quite right - we're working extremely hard to fix this," said Mr Jackson.

He said that "transparency and control" were "top priorities" and that users would "continue to see improvements".

Asked if the Google founders - Larry Page and Sergey Brin - or any of the executive team would issue an apology for breaching their user's trust, a Google spokesperson said: "Google has apologised - we're very sorry for the concern we caused."

Google Chrome Extensions :-)

At last, and I am not so sure how many days ( or possibly weeks) ago the new extensions for Google Chrome appeared but now they are here and ready to roll don't forget to give them a try. Unlike Firefox they do not appear to cause additional headers but fit in the the right of the address bar on the browser and either open as a pop out - as bit.ly does in the screenshot below, or as new tabs in the case of something like CoolIris ( which if you haven't used yet you absolutely should)...... Go get your extensions..... now!

Google Buzz new today

Google has announced on Tuesday that it is immediately rolling out Google Buzz, a location-aware social networking tool highly integrated with its Gmail client, Google Maps and a new Android app.

It was announced on the Google Blog today:
'Today, we're launching Google Buzz, a new way to start conversations about the things you find interesting and share updates, photos, videos and more. Buzz is built right into Gmail, so there's nothing to set up — you're automatically following the people you email and chat with the most.'

'We focused on making the sharing experience really rich by integrating photos, videos, and links. No more fuzzy little pictures: Buzz makes it easy to quickly flip through photos and experience them the way they were meant to be seen: big and full-resolution. And videos play inline so you can watch them without opening a new window.

You can choose to share publicly with the world or privately to a small group of friends each time you post. And you can connect other sites you use, today there's Picasa, Flickr, Google Reader, and Twitter, so your friends can keep up with what you're doing around the web — all in one place.

To make sure you don't miss out on the best part of sharing, Buzz sends responses to your posts straight to your inbox. Unlike static email messages, buzz messages in your inbox are live conversations where comments appear in real time. '

Once again Google wait and then enter the arena - I do like the way they are continually attempting to build in real time interaction into their applications.

I am looking forward to Buzz coming to my HTC G phone - an update for Google maps 5 minutes ago does include the new app, I am now awaiting the GMail update!

Bulbdial Clock

My love of timepieces ( blog post 16 01 2010) has been sparked again today in the 'Play Section of WIRED for March 2010 on page 058( see below) where lies the amazing looking Bulbdial Clock from the Evil Mad Scientists.

The clock using LED technology is an object of beauty as you can see below thanks to Oskay they are also being offered in kit form so that you can make one for yourself..... yay

All I can say is that...... I want one!!!!! See one in action below:

OLED transparent screens..... WOW!!!

You can keep your Apple locked iPad Mr Jobs the future is OLED......

Above is the transparent OLED screen of the Samsung laptop shown as a concept at CES 2010 it now appears that this device may be on sale before the end of 2010 ( T3 article 06 02 2010). Now this device really could be a mould breaker, I agree with the article that this object certainly is desirable.... move over Mr iPad, as the OLED device not only looks 'truly cool' and highly desirable, it also heralds the use of OLED technology for things such as Satellite Navigation devices built into things such as windscreens ....... Combine this with Augmented Reality ( as seen with Sixth Sense MIT )and all I can say is WOW!!!

Just the thought of having this kind of technology built into surfaces taking the computer out of the box and beginning to develop a truly interactive UI just has to be the way forward ...... seeing these I am transported back to when I was a boy in the late 1960's looking at the fantastical devices in my coveted Look and Learn magazines.

Apple's iPad Arrives......... is it a step forward?

The much anticipated Apple tablet the iPad arrived today. My first impression was, 'why is Mr Jobs holding that XXL iPhone?' Of course we are all aware of Apple's ability to watch a market (mp3 players, cell phones... and now tablet PC's) and then enter with the killer must have machine which re defines the market. On this occasion they may have done this again, however I was not convinced prior to the iPad's arrival and now having seen it and read the specs at TechCrunch I still remain unconvinced, it is a XXL iPhone!

I am not aware of the tablet market being that huge as yet ..... does this device help this grow? E-Readers have been gaining ground of late, however I still believe to a niche market ...... am I old fashioned, I prefer a book? The iPad may see them off ...... although they still compete on price and straight usability.

The iPad is of course an Apple machine and as such is locked to Apple software and I believe would need to be hacked to run something like Google Chrome, it also lacks a card reader ( even my TV has one of these!) and a USB much as the MacAir. There is the whole 3G contract issue ( there will be a wi fi only iPad first) for contacting to the web on the move. The screen size is a bit on the small side.

Battery life looks good as of course the device does with its lineage. However I believe that this machine is only a step along the way to where computing needs to go - things such as seamless user interfaces that can be controlled by hand gestures not a touch screen.

I see people with an iPad being a little self conscious of those looking!

I hope to see one of these in the flesh soon and will then truly be able to give a full report. I can't see this tech geek getting one anytime soon............. however they are pretty!

Update 28 01 2010 - it is sad when I here people say I will buy the next generation machine......why oh, why can't companies like Apple bring out the finished article at their first attempt? I am sure that this machine has been discussed and discussed at Apple and yet they have still produced a big iPhone without a camera that you cannot fit in your pocket!
Apparently it was unfortunately being called the 'iTampax' on Twitter yesterday... sad but true!

Time is turning - literally

I really like the idea of this clock it very much reminds me of the Mr Jones Cyclops watch that I really wanted for Christmas.

BETT 2010

Great gadgets at great prices? BETT 2010

Pranav Mistry at TED India November 2010

As many UK teachers prepare to head to the BETT2010 Show at Olympia in London I happened upon the video above delivered by Pranav Mistry at TED India late last year.

Pranav was showing the 'Sixth Sense' device which appears to offer cheap(er) devices allowing us to interact with the world around us. I was particularly struck by the paper based laptop which uses the microphone from a webcam attached to the paper to act as the receiver and the webcam to fix the image this is then projected onto the paper as a functional laptop and gaming device ( watch the driving game on the paper laptop!).

My mention of the BETT Show is that even though it does promote the innovative use of simple technology by teachers in the UK this is sadly swallowed in the horribly over the top commercialisation of the main show halls - I rather feel that Pranav would be pushed to the side by the likes of Promethian and Smart and MS with their new and expensive 'Interactive Table' ( unless there was a market and they could then push product).

There is a need in the UK for a series of conferences perhaps at the NCSL in Nottingham and other venues for the specific promotion of simple technology to schools - I know that this has been attempted by NAACE however I think there is the need now to develop this from grassroots teachers similar to the Isle of Wight conference organised by Joe Dale.... come on BETT it is time to evolve!

Semi-retirement of Ddraig Goch Blog

At least for the first month of the Flickr365 Challenge - a challenge to post one picture to the web a day and my decision also to post a daily to a blog set up for the purpose, it is likely that my posts to Ddraig Goch will be somewhat sporadic. I hope that as I get into the routine of daily blog posts I may once again find the time and content to blog here...... however no promises!

One thing which is giving me thoughts about blogging is my lacklustre decision to book for the BETT2010 Show at Olympia later this month. Having had the opportunity to visit the ISTE NECC Conference in 2008 (here for 2010) which I found to be a marvellously organised event where educators spend the majority of their time at seminars or keynotes and much less time visiting show stands. I am of the opinion that the BETT Show in London concentrates too much on the 'show' and commercial content, I realise that it is a free show, however if it did have a fee it may actually be able to shake off the commercial shackles that appear to bind it and become a seminar/keynote driven event which I think may actually be more appreciated by attendees?...... Discuss.

01 01 2010

With regard to washing machine repair mentioned in my new Ddraig Goch 365 blog. There were 2x 10p and 1x 1p stuck inside - as a result we saved a £40 repair engineer callout fee and made 21pence into the bargain! !!!

I was at : Maesygwartha Rd, Llanelly, Monmouthshire NP7 0,

New Blog for 2010

I am going to attempt to blog daily throughout 2010 on a new blog - Ddraig Goch 365 - I do caution that it is unlikely with my track record of being involved in projects like this that I will actually manage to last until the end of the week let alone the whole year..... but here goes. Blog post 01 01 2010.

I also caution that the blog is likely to be quite boring ( I am stuck with my prose style - I dearly envy those who are gifted word smiths however I do not count myself as one of these talents!) so don't worry if you fail to stay with it ...... I may even bore myself into submission, it may also cure me of my Web2.0 addiction as a form of aversion therapy?

The appreciation of innovation!

Many thanks to @josepicardo for this gem about how innovators are sometimes treated

It certainly rings true from my teaching career when trying to introduce new technology!

Grandma Jean's special birthday celebration

On Sunday last Grandma Jean ( Debbie's mum - on the left of the table) celebrated her special birthday at the Olive Tree Restaurant, Celtic Manor - she enjoyed a birthday lunch with her younger sister, children(2), grandchildren(3) and great grandchildren (2) plus myself and my parents ( my dad 83 on 3rd November).
Happy Birthday to a very special classy lady from us all.

TGIF!

Church Lane Gilwern 16.50 20th November 2009

Following the worst weather experienced by Wales and north western England leading to horrendous flooding including the sad loss of a policeman swept away when a bridge collapsed into the River Derwent it was a joy to see the blue sky above and as it went dark, the moon was just rising over the hills in the background ( apologies for the G1 shot - note to Santa a decent camera for Christmas please!).

It certainly raised the spirits at the end of a long busy week to see that the natural world is always a mix joy and disaster.

View Larger Map
I do feel extremely privileged to live in such a beautiful part of the world .... even when it is raining.

You can take a look at what has been taking up much of the past few weeks here [link]

21st century classroom presentation at Yokohama International School

Kim Cofino from ISB ( Bangkok) gave a presentation on Friday 20th November to an audience of educators at Yokohama International School.
Kim is always an enthusiastic presenter and took her audience on a journey showing ways of integrate web 2.0 technologies into their curriculum and classes using the 3 step method:
1. Design
2. Tools
3. Management
The Design element states that the use of the technology should be curriculum driven, the technology must not be the learning.
Tools of course is self explanatory however it is keeping up to date with these that is where teachers such as Kim and Jeff Utecht come into their own - every school or group of schools should have access to a good 21st Century technology practitioner who can show others how to integrate the new technologies into an authentic learning setting.
Management comes down to how teachers integrate the use of technology into the classroom, perhaps easier in a 1 to 1 school setting, but more of a challenge in others - there is also the need to show school management and curriculum planners that discrete IT time and use of computer labs for timetable sessions might not be the way to go!
Thank you Kim for a wonderful session and to Brian Lockwood for the video stream.

Cucku - social backup

Cucku is a new backup program come web service that attempts to take the best parts of each form of backup. First, Cucku lets you easily backup your important files and folders to your own hard drive and to portable drives you own. Then, in a unique twist on traditional online backup services, Cucku lets you store an encrypted copy of your files on your friends' and family member's computers through the internet using Skype.

This gives you the best of both worlds - the accessibility of a backup on a local drive with the additional security of a remote backup, all the while letting you keep your data on computers of people you trust instead of a datacenter.

From Cucku Blog

Chrome OS is on its way!

Google Chrome powered netbooks are around 12 months away according to the official Google Blog but they have today released the code and early design ideas allowing the open source community to begin the process of playing with Chrome OS and as in previous releases developing it for them. You can't blame Google as this not only has the effect of galvanising the community but also raising the profile amongst the general public.
After watching Google's video above I for one will find the 12 month wait for an operating system which is based on Chrome which has become my preferred browser over recent months very long indeed!..... the speed of start up will hopefully be quick as you would expect from a Linux inspired system.
Chrome OS taster:

I was sadly disappointed when visiting the tech shops in Cardiff recently and finding Windows 7 has taken over the netbook business..... it would appear that the Linux/Android revolution has been swamped for the present. The opportunity to increase the start up and speed of computing will hopefully be the big seller allied to long battery life.

..........Chrome OS soon please?

Teachers use of social networking sites

Following @twowhizzy's tweet last Saturday with a link to an article from Australia regarding legislation being considered to curtail and or dissuade teachers from using social networking sites, I must admit I have been waiting the opportunity to blog post about the issue.I am sure that I am not alone when I say that teachers should not be using these sites to interact with pupils - these are social not school networking sites and for me it is a big NO to blur the two.There are many reasons why this route is unwise no matter what age of pupils we are talking about. There is the vast difficulty of breaching the pupil/teacher relationship

'More than 30 Queensland teachers have had their registration cancelled for unprofessional relationships with pupils over the past three years.

Eight cases involving inappropriate behaviour of a teacher contacting students via electronic equipment were heard by the Queensland College of Teachers' disciplinary committee last financial year. '

Hey even my own kids refused to be my 'friend' on Facebook for ages, and I can't say I blame them, it's just not cool. If we as teachers rightly want to use the advantages of web 2.0 technology with pupils then we should use tools which look similar and do the similar things but are not-Facebook or Bebo such as a protected invite only Ning or Edmodo installations or of course the trusty wiki ( wikispaces, wetpaint and many more...). So please, please do not think that those of us who propose the use of web 2.0 tools in the classroom condone this activity - I for one do not neither do many others I am sure.

Apologies for the quality of this post it is being typed on the small G1 keypad following a long 8am to 7pm day in work and I couldn't bring myself to fire up a pc or a laptop!

Here comes the 'G Wave' let's surf!

Sitting in my Gmail inbox today was the above invite from our friends at Google with the message:

Once you've signed in:

Check out the videos and example waves Invite others to join you

Happy waving!

The Google Wave Team I presume that others amongst 'The Cloud Gang' will also have received their invites. My plan is to fully test out how useful this is in our workplace where we are running meeting and collaborations in a global setting. It will also be good to see how the IM and file sharing elements of 'Wave' begin to make inroads into sites such as Twitter and Edmodo.

I am personally quite excited in seeing how this works in tandom with Google Docs and Spreadsheets, also to see if this finally gives the joined up thinking that so many of us have been calling for over the past few years. Personally I am looking forward at last to having joint discussion where you are able to look back at a discussion threads using the history to give you a run down of activity within a thread over time ( Yay!). I still have my concerns over the complexity of the environment however I believe the 'GoogleGang' will have looked particularly closely at user interface and the ease of operability - however this is what we have to fully test out in the 'real world'

If you are still in the dark about 'Wave'...... where have you been? Go get your 'board and get into the surf. As you wax up your 'board catch up with the introduction of 'Wave' at IO09 in May of this year - intro and under the hood.

As you can see in the screenshot from my wave the surf is relatively low at the moment let's churn the water up and see how 'Wave' shapes up for educators globally. I am looking also to see how the community now grows up around the new product.

On a Google related day I also have to say that my G1 received its latest 1.6 update yesterday ( unfortunately when I was in the middle of a good tweet discussion regarding teachers use of their pupils social networking space.... more on this later. The G1 update unfortunately it killed my battery and I found that at 11.30am following an overnight charge I was out! Once I had returned home from Leeds ( I was at Leeds Trinity Uni College at the time of the update...bad timing!) I got a chance to try out some of the updates - they have certainly worked on the camera which now has good auto focus and even a new range of effects ( Warhol, fisheye, polaroid, pixel, sepia print etc) The User interface on many products looks great. I presume that the new Donut upgrade for Andorid platforms such as HTC Hero also came through yesterday to coincide with this latest and possibly last G1 update ( we cannot get Donut as the processor is not up to the task....... 6 months of my £40 per month contract to go!!!!)

I beg forgiveness for this apparently entirely Google focused post, however hopefully it is no less relevant for that.

I am about to dip my toe into the surf with my 'board and very much look forward to shooting the waves with many of my contacts in work and beyond.

[cue The Beachboys]

** Having just signed into Twitter mentioned earlier in the post I see that they are beginning the fight back with Twitter Team Lists ( see below)

Sorry for // says Berners-Lee

The father of the world wide web has apologised for those pesky //'s that appear in all url's apparently according to an interview in The Times today Tim has said a light hearted sorry as they are apparently unnecessary - Oh Tim!!!

'Sir Tim ruefully explained that when he started devising the network almost 30 years ago he could not have predicted the hassle that has been caused by his small error in thinking about the way a web address is written.

“Boy, now people on the radio are calling it ‘backslash backslash’,” Sir Tim told his audience, even though he knows they are, in fact, forward slashes.'

reported on BBC Technology News 14th October 2009

Thoughts on #HHL09

#HHL09 is the hash tag that was used last week for 'twitterers' at HandHeld Learning 2009 now that I have had some time to reflect on the conference and its standout sessions and my 'take aways' here are my thoughts.
One main thought is that HandHeld Learning was a bit of a misnomer this year as it was the uses that technology is put to that was and is more important. This is in my mind of a greater importance than the technology used. However the conference does deliver on the cutting edge technologies that can and should be used in education today, and long may it do so. Conferences like this are very useful and much more focused on educational issues than is say BETT which is really just a very big trade show with seminars tagged on. ( as an aside I believe that BETT should move to the model of ISTE's NECC conferences -where a large trade show is balanced with presentations similar in quality toHHL).
My second thought is that even though this was only my second HHL conference I noticed that the same theme - a need for a step change in education policy to affect the changes being 'showcased'. My fear would be that even with the high profile examples of excellent practice shown at HHL and with input from BECTA and others that this message is simply not yet getting through ( I refer back to my previous post on the PGCE students who were in attendance on the Monday who are even now unable to submit their assignments using basic web2.0 technologies )........will the step change ever come, this does seriously concern me.

These issues aside back to the 'standouts'and 'take aways':
Tuesday 6th morning session 'Reflections on Learning' Malcolm McLaren was excellently off beat with his take on the need for formal education ( as soon as the hopefully uncut video of this session is released I will post it). Malcolm's rather radical views were balanced by Zena Atkins and Yvonne Roberts however I still felt as if we had neen teased but without getting to the meat of the issues.
Tuesday 6th afternoon session 'Creativity and Innovation' for me Tim Rylands would have been the draw to pull me to HHL09 in his own right having with his Myst work which I found inspirational and used in my own classroom. Mr Rylands definitely lived up to the billing as a 'doer' and was for me the standout of the day if not the conference as a whole.

Wednesday 7th morning session 'Inclusion' I sadly missed the start of Niel McLean (BECTA) and his input on home access to ICT for poorer families however I did manage to hear Helen Milner from UK Online Centres. All of the inclusion opportunities were extremely inspiring apart from an 'exclusion' moment when I realised that these wonderful schemes are only on offer in England - my task now to lobby the WAG to check on projects like this being developed for families in Wales......nothing yet? I rather think that I didn't put my corresponding questions to the right people in the Q&A session on this topic.
The 'standout' of the morning session for me was Sir Tim Brighouse whose insight into the use of technology in education was very interesting,however he has had difficulties gettingthese views adopted by government in the past.
Wednesday 7th afternoon session was towered over by the technology colossus that is Ray Kurzweil, he did not disappoint in his wide ranging look at the exponential growth of all types of technology which he percieves will go inexorably into the future and how technology will change us all.
As you can see this conference actually managed to range across a wide variety of topics each of which would have made for a good stand alone event in their own right - fortunately they can find a place here in HandHeld Learning which is very much TED for Educational Technologists ( now there's a thought Graham?).... long may it continue as a showcase for practitioners, pupils and cutting edge thinkers.
I hope to be at HHL2010?

MirandaMod Session at #hhl09

My first session at this year's Handheld Learning Conference 2009 (link) was the MirandaNet MirandaMod discussion led by Christina Preston and John Cuthell where some interesting questions were posed about the use of ubiquitous technologies in education:

• Cant these technologies make learning for professionals, teachers and students more personal and relevant?
• How can we reconceptualise assessment, so that it better reflects the ways in which knowledge is developed collaboratively? Or should give upon the nostrum of online learning?
• What is the value of the learning experience balanced against the expense and the risk?

MirandaNet founded in 1992 is a free to join e-learning communityof educators offering the chance for members to contribute to the debate regarding ICT in education.

The debate was fascinating as it included a wide range of experiences from a group of new PGCE students who have just begun their education path to experienced teachers and academics from the UK and Australia. Trying to synthesize the discussion would be futile as it covered a wide range of policy issues to the use of ICT in a classroom so find and join the debate on the MindMeister mind map for this presentation.
One point that I took from the discussion is that sadly the formal teacher education system still may not be giving our new teachers the knowledge of the wider uses of ICT which can enhance education -it is a worry that these technologically switched on young people may be being untaught about the flexible uses of ICT in the classroom, which is quite ironic. Admittedly this group were media students and as such possibly more used to creative technology -it would have been interesting to hear from students in other subjects -I suspect the story may be different?
It was also good to hear Leon Cych and others suggesting that it is still not the 'tech' but the person/teacher using it that really counts...... we don't all need an IWB to deliver an interactive lesson.
It was interesting to follow this with the Learners Y Factor where the presentations were driven by pupils between 6 and 16 explaining the impact that technology has had on their learning - this showed the reason why the MirandaMod debate needs to be won and the ideas from this conference still need to break into the mainstream of education for all.

More to come from (follow the tweets twitter hashtag #hhl09) tomorrow, where the highlights for pj23harry will be:

• Malcolm McLaren ( yes that Malcolm McLaren!)
  
• Tim Rylands (The Myst man! and innovator)
• Henry Warren ( Rafi.ki)
• Mark Hardwick ( create.tv)
• Jennifer Groff ( Fullbright scholar and Futurelab)
  

Guest post from Educational Technology - ICT in Education

Web 2.0 Projects Book Deadline Extended By Terry Freedman Created on Thu, 1 Oct 2009, 15:26

I've had a great response to my call for submissions to this ebook, which seeks to collate information about interesting projects involving the use of Web 2.0 applications in schools.

The original deadline was 30 September, but last night I received some news which has led me to extend it until the 31st October.

Diane Brooks, who writes the ICT in Education blog in New Zealand (no connection with this website) very kindly posted a message about the book on her blog. However, she informed me privately that schools in New Zealand are currently on holiday.

Also, and more importantly, many New Zealanders, including some of her colleagues and students, have family in Samoa. They will obviously have more pressing concerns than a book about Web 2.0, so it seemed only right and sensible to extend the deadline for everyone because of the troubles in Samoa, Indonesia and that general area of the world.

So what is the state of play so far? I've received over 60 new projects, and they all look really interesting. The applications used include e-portfolios, social networking, video Es and the 'usual suspects': blogs, wikis and a fresh-faced arrival, Twitter!

Many, if not most, of the ideas are as simple as they are exciting. For example (and it's hard to single out just one or two from this cornucopia), Nancy Raff says:

"We're creating a virtual ribbon of 6 pieces with a photo showing why a student loves the earth and a statement of why they love it and what they will do to protect it. Many schools have joined this project and people from 59 countries. Spans all grades."

Or take this one, from Tom Daccord:

"The "Great Debate of 2008" is a collaborative project providing 130+ students from 8 states with an opportunity to lead an exploration and discussion of issues and candidates surrounding the 2008 presidential election."

I think you'd agree that these ideas are not only simple but also scaleable in either direction. For example, the Great Debate wiki could be run with just one class, and the virtual ribbon project could be run with classes in the same school or neighbouring schools rather than across 59 countries.

That's the whole idea of this ebook: to share ideas, rather than to share 'best practice'. So if you have been running an educational project with Web 2.0 tools, no matter how humble you think it is, please share!

Just one thing, though: some of the URLs provided by people in their submissions are passworded, or are to a general website or blog rather than a specific post or area about the project concerned. In order to make the ebook as useful as possible to others, please provide a useful and pertinent URL. Ideally, if the site is passworded, perhaps you could provide a guest login. Alternatively, if that would be problematic in terms of e-safety concerns, send me a screenshot or two which will at least give people an idea of what's behind the firewall. Thanks for your co-operation in this!

The online form should take you only a few minutes to complete.

Thank you.

Terry Freedman