I just happened to be in a Comet electronics store today rummaging for bargains (looking for a good quality widescreen monitor today) when I caught a conversation between a store salesman and a couple looking at netbooks this is the part of the conversation I heard.......
"(man)Which system should we go for then?
(salesman) I would go for the XP version that is newer, that Linux is an older type you won't want that, better go for the XP one.
(man and woman) OK, we prefer the newer XP we'll have that then please"
I just wonder who trains these people...... and why windows is seen as good?
Linux rocks :-) as does Apple now it uses a Linux back end for its OS!
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Friday, January 16, 2009
The battle of the swivel headed touchscreen notepads
( image from http://i.gizmodo.com/5124948/asus-t91-your-1+inch-thick-convertible-eee-pc)With the unveiling of the new Asus T91 swivel screen touchpad mini notepad (no price as yet!)at the Consumer Electronics Show last week I sense a new benchmark appearing for mini netbooks for 2009. The battle ground in UK schools will be joined by the Intel Classmate with an in school price of around £260.
Source BBC Technology
Both use the battery saving intel atom chip.
The T91 :
The T91 comes with a swiveling 8.9″ touch screen monitor. It runs an Intel Atom Z520 processor with 1 GB of RAM built in. Asus built both solid state and hard drives into the T91 for a combined capacity of 52 GB.
Asus also included a few first-ever features in the T91. The netbook will be the first to offer both GPS and a TV tuner card built in.
The T91 will ship running Windows XP home and is expected to support Windows 7 once it’s released. Asus has stated that a Linux version is possible, but has not said definitively whether it will offer a Linux version. (tech.blorge.com)
The Intel Classmate :
CONVERTIBLE CLASSMATE AT A GLANCEScreen swivels 180 degreesTouch screenWater-resistant keyboardBuilt-in rotating cameraRugged outer case60GB hard-drive512MB memoryPre-loaded software
The classmate as you would expect looks to be more robust and will stand up well to a hard life in the classroom, while the Asus is an unknown quantity on that score - however previous Asus models have been a hit with both teachers and kids.... let battle commence
Bonfire of the Vanities
The quote comes from the burning of seditious literature by Savonarola in 1497 but has come to represent to destruction of material by those who are supposedly our betters. What is happening in 2009 sounds a little more like the goings on of the Borgia's.
Some quite well known web 2.0 tools have become victims over the past 2 months.
Pownce first appeared in June 2007 as something which offered more than the already existing and ultra basic Twitter ( August 2006) this is how Pownce glowed brightly and was all to quickly snuffed out (from Wikipedia) :
Its launch, on June 27, 2007, was covered by outlets like Wired,[5] Business Week,[6] Webware,[7][8] and the San Francisco Chronicle,[9]with most of the coverage focusing on Rose, known for his involvement in Digg, Revision3 and TechTV. Due to this media exposure, invitations for Pownce were in high demand and were being sold on sites such as eBay.[6]
On October 30, 2007, Pownce launched their public API.[10] The developers have also created a Pownce API Google Group . Originally, it was primarily for discussing the release of the API, but it now serves to gather feedback and help developers.
On November 12, 2007 Pownce launched a custom theme editor for Pro users.[11] They also added eight more preset themes for non pro users to use.
On December 20, 2007 Pownce launched a mobile version of their service.[12] This version can be accessed from a variety of mobile devices at m.pownce.com.
Acquired by Six Apart
On December 1st, 2008, Pownce announced they were shutting down .
December 15th 2008
We have some very big news today at Pownce. We will be closing the service and Mike and I, along with the Pownce technology, have joined Six Apart, the company behind such great blogging software as Movable Type, TypePad and Vox. We’re bittersweet about shutting down the service but we believe we’ll come back with something much better in 2009. We love the Pownce community and we will miss you all.
The story of Pownce is one that I think we will have to get used to as Web 2.0 meets the real world, products need to 'turn a buck' or be put out of their misery. I don't think that this will put off web developers from coming up with the next big thing. The problem with this is that consolidation by the industry narrows the choice for consumers - take the rise and rise of :
From a slow start where to utter the phrase 'to tweet' was a peculiar code understood by a narrow group of semi-geeks, now two and a half years on where most events in the world -from terrorist attack in Mumbai to plane crashes in the USA are said to be first reported by 'citizen journalists' via Twitter..... it is becoming the known face of micro blogging ( and possibly an acquisition prospect by the owners of Blogger itself - all these double letters!!! 'oo' hence the death of Jaiku).
This is great for the process of micro blogging and also for growing the community, however we have to be careful that this does not spell death or more 'withering' for applications such as Plurk ( never really got it myself!!) Yammer ( great for setting up micro blogging within an organisation/school - a walled garden) or Edmodo another protected micro blogging area designed for education ( championed by Jose Picardo).
Is this shake out of web 2.0 tools a bad thing? Not necessarily as there are still developers out there searching for a new solution to problems that we don't know that we have, also shouldn't the strongest survive?
My answer is yes the strongest should survive, it is just a shame but inevitable that an applications 'strength' is going to be decided in the present climate, in the boardroom of the big fish in the pond....... taking care that smaller fish don't grow too big for their own good......welcome to the real world. I wonder what the rest of the year has in store for social networking sites ( watch out for the big fish circling the pond!!!)
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Diigo Tags 01/14/2009
Open Source Schools
Welcome!
By Admin - Posted on September 30th, 2008
Open Source Schools is here to share information about open source software in schools. Our aim is to help you decide whether open source software might offer benefits for learning, teaching, engaging pupils and parents, managing information and resources, or school administration.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Moblog from G1 smartphone
The android market for the G1 smartphone has now begun to really gain pace. Last week a Skype beta client arrived and looks good apart from the fact that calls automatically use Skype credits ( I guess without a computer this has to be so - still a cheap option.Today a blogger client allowing direct blogging via the keyboard. It looks good for posting thoughts, sadly no photo upload, tagging or hyperlinking facility......yet.
Tags and labels and photo's can be added later in editing.
Tags and labels and photo's can be added later in editing.
Time for new form of education?
Thanks to Alice Barr for this link form her The view from my window blog.
On viewing it seems to say what many of us within education have been saying for quite a while now .... the current education system has failed you, however I do wonder quite what the education system can do to address this - it is a little bit like trying to stop a supertanker.... I feel like a tiny tug which has tried to nudge education in the right direction and I guess that the rest of the edublogger community has been doing the same, but I don't see a change of course as yet?
Saturday, January 10, 2009
We meet at last.......
For the first time since 2 classes 13,000 miles apart in 2 different hemispheres began to communicate with each other via podcasts and blogs in October 2006, the 2 instigators of this link actually met. Above is yours truly with Miss Allanah King and below are the pair at a chilly ( you might just be able to tell!! yes it is a chunk of ice that Allanah is holding and it did snow......just!) Caerphilly Castle.
Allanah arrived by train in Abergavenny on Saturday 3rd January 2009 and left with TriciaS (Twitter) for Leicester all too soon on Tuesday 6th January en route for London and on then to Londonderry. Allanah will be departing the UK on Wednesday 14th January and will visit NZChrissy ( Skype) in Bangkok before heading back to Nelson and school.
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Monday, January 05, 2009
Allanah King visits Cefn Fforest Primary School
On Monday 5th January 2009, Allanah King and Mini-Dylan came to visit the pupils from Cefn Fforest Primary who had begun the conversation with their friends 13,000 miles away at Appleby School, Nelson New Zealand in October 2006.
It was a chance to actually say hello face to face rather than over a skype line with 11 hours difference between each other - actually to meet in the same time zone was fantastic.
Cuddly Kiwi who has many adventures since arriving back in 2006 and has been much loved was handed back to Miss King for his journey back home - we hope to keep up with him when he returns to the classroom in February...... in New Zealand.
After a good walk around the school looking at the excellent displays Miss King and Mr Harrington left on their journey to Caerphilly Castle where it snowed!
It was a chance to actually say hello face to face rather than over a skype line with 11 hours difference between each other - actually to meet in the same time zone was fantastic.
Cuddly Kiwi who has many adventures since arriving back in 2006 and has been much loved was handed back to Miss King for his journey back home - we hope to keep up with him when he returns to the classroom in February...... in New Zealand.
After a good walk around the school looking at the excellent displays Miss King and Mr Harrington left on their journey to Caerphilly Castle where it snowed!
Saturday, January 03, 2009
Diigo Tags 01/03/2009
What is Web Science? Hear Professor Nigel Shadbolt on this exciting new discipline.
November 2008Carol's thoughts on life, ICT and whatever comes: Digital Storytelling in Second Life
Digital storytelling in Second Life
Group chat from anywhere using the web, IM, email or your phone.
SlowTV | The Brain: How it can change, develop and improve. Featuring Dr Norman Doidge | The Monthly
In this Melbourne Conversations event, Dr Norman Doidge, author of bestselling book The Brain That Changes Itself discusses his research and relays strange and fascinating stories of the workings of the brain.
A Much Cleaner Way To Get Those Twitter Messages To Your Email
dougbelshaw.com/blog » Blog Archive » History KS3 Programme of Study for QCA 2008 orders
Andys Black Hole: storage storage and backup
Welcome to Andy's first blog what's this blog going to cover Technology to support learning Pedagogy of supporting learning with technology Communities of practice Some fun stuff to you didn't know about me. Why Andy's Black Hole well it was going to be called Andy's Ramblings from edge but Katrina Lambert came up with a better suggestion . what's it for? A place Andy Can dump all the things he come across that might be useful to those people living the dream of promoting e-learning.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Diigo Tags 10/15/2008
Not school - not home - schome - the education system for the information age.
SciLands Virtual Continent » About
The SciLands is a mini-continent and user community in the virtual world platform Second Life devoted exclusively to science and technology. There are over 20 science and technology related organizations in the SciLands, including government agencies, universities and museums
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Virtual Worlds and Social Networks at HandHeld Learning2008
An interesting panel discussion involving danah boyd, Ian Hughes, Dave Taylor, Kurt Squire, Kathy Trinder, Ron Edwards and a representative of Disney online (Club Penguin)-followed presentations by 5 of the group which ranged from the 'soft sell' of Disney's virtual worlds ( not really doing a whole lot to break down gender issues with Disney Fairies which is highly unlikely to attract many boys....!)through to Dave Taylor using the Virtual World training doctors in safe simulated environments and Ian Hughes from IBM and Ron Edwards ( Ambient Learning) with their recreations of ' realworld' spaces for work based training and work with hard to reach disaffected kids.
The discussion developed from the initial issues around access to some of this technology in a school setting and moved more interestingly into the field of how we can use these spaces in new and novel ways.....getting away from as Ron Edwards would say 'the sage on the stage'. I have attended 'in world' presentations of this kind, and while for me this feels comfortable ( back to lectures with good visuals) and the chance to interact with colleagues many miles away, this style of experience will need to change for the 21st Century.
I was pleased when Ron, Ian and Dave Taylor showcased how we can use the 3d nature of the environment to model 'realworld' situations.
Ron showed how in his examples from Ambient showcased their in world peer mentoring within a safe and secure area and also the fusion of mobile phone and virtual world with the Virtual Worlds London project. Ian took us into the work that IBM took us into the world of 'inworld' staff training and also IBM's virtual Forbidden City. Dave showed us a little of the work that he has done with SciLands in Second Life......
All excellent stuff, tomorrow my main focus will be looking at affordable implementation and sustainable development of mobile technology with the Sottish LTS group including Ian Stuart from Islay.
The discussion developed from the initial issues around access to some of this technology in a school setting and moved more interestingly into the field of how we can use these spaces in new and novel ways.....getting away from as Ron Edwards would say 'the sage on the stage'. I have attended 'in world' presentations of this kind, and while for me this feels comfortable ( back to lectures with good visuals) and the chance to interact with colleagues many miles away, this style of experience will need to change for the 21st Century.
I was pleased when Ron, Ian and Dave Taylor showcased how we can use the 3d nature of the environment to model 'realworld' situations.
Ron showed how in his examples from Ambient showcased their in world peer mentoring within a safe and secure area and also the fusion of mobile phone and virtual world with the Virtual Worlds London project. Ian took us into the work that IBM took us into the world of 'inworld' staff training and also IBM's virtual Forbidden City. Dave showed us a little of the work that he has done with SciLands in Second Life......
All excellent stuff, tomorrow my main focus will be looking at affordable implementation and sustainable development of mobile technology with the Sottish LTS group including Ian Stuart from Islay.
Diigo Tags 10/14/2008
SMART - SynchronEyes classroom management software
SynchronEyes classroom management software connects a teacher’s computer with every computer and mobile device in a networked classroom. SynchronEyes software is easy to use and offers a variety of features that enable you to keep students focused on learning and redirect their attention if they go off track.
Handheld Learning - learning with mobile and ubiquitous technologies - Home
Monday, October 13, 2008
Pecha Kucha at HandHeld Learning 2008
Dan Sutch from Futurelabs concluded an excellent show and tell (Pecha Kucha) session at HHL by encouraging all educators to get involved in the discussion and discussion on the way education should be preparing for 2025..... how will education look in 2025.....will or should institutions such as schools still exist in 2025..... help Futurelab out by joining the debate here. Also follow their blog. Handheld Learning08.
HandHeld Learning Conference 08 Day 1
The Opening session at this year's Handheld Learning conference at The Brewery deep in the heart of The Barbican was hosted by Andy Black from Becta. Andy had assembled a group of teachers who have achieved some extraordinary results from bringing technology into their classrooms. Most importantly using technology as 'an enabler' to achieve a teaching goal - the classroom is not tech driven but the tech is curriculum driven. Above is Nic Hughes from Nightingale Primary School, who introduced the Robosapien as a means of teaching control. Andrew Davis from Clunbury Primary School also showed actual work with 'real' children. We also heard about the Learning2go handheld project from Wolverhampton. There were other presenters in the session all excellent in their own right which certainly started the conference well...... this afternoon Pecha Kucha session on emerging technologies.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Diigo Tags 10/12/2008
free_elearning_tools2.pdf (application/pdf Object)
JISC RSC Wales has produced 103 free e-learning tools in their publication entitled Free E-learning tools. A great place to start browsing
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Diigo Tags 10/11/2008
The Forbidden City: Beyond Space and Time
Welcome to The Forbidden City: Beyond Space and Time. This website provides you with access to an immersive 3-dimensional virtual world where you can celebrate and explore aspects of Chinese culture and history.
Friday, October 03, 2008
Diigo Tags 10/03/2008
Learning to Learn: Project Colleagues
Yoram is currently the Director of the Mandel School for Educational Leadership in Jerusalem, Israel. From 1994 to 2002 he was at the Branco Weiss Institute for the Development of Thinking in Jerusalem; Director of the "Intel-Lect Schools" Project, Director of the Institute's theoretical publications and a post-doctoral fellowship program for teacher trainers. Concurrently he was editor of the Institute's journal, “Educating Thinking”, author of the Position Papers of the Institute and presented at the international conferences of The Association of Education for Thinking in USA, Canada and UK.
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