Mike Tests Stuff

ECIS IT Conference

2011-03-04T08:49:00.005+03:00

At the end of this month, I'm off to present at the ECIS IT conference in Frankfurt.
I'll be presenting 2 sessions. With things being typically hectic at school, and the fact I've begun working on a Masters degree, I've got that feeling that I may have bitten off more than I can chew. Not a particularly unusual feeling for me, so hopefully I can muddle through.

I attended the ECIS IT conference a few years ago in Dusseldorf. We made a bit of a scene by living at the school in a camper van for the duration of the conference. The whole conference was a great experience that year, so hopefully Frankfurt will continue the trend. I'm planning to be a little more traditional this year, and stay in a hotel (not that I've got around to booking it yet).

My sessions will be as follows:

Inquiry, Creation, Presentation - a school-wide framework for purposeful technology integration

In this session we will explore the process of designing and implementing a technology integration framework, intended for use across all levels and subject areas. Participants will be introduced to a planning model designed for Riffa Views International School. Guided by Standards for the 21^st Century Learner, from the American Association of School Librarians, the goal of the framework is to encourage technology integration in a learning-centered planning model.

We will examine the process undertaken when creating the framework, look at the specifics of the RVIS model, and share what the framework looks like in a practical classroom environment.

Originally I was supposed to co-present this session with a middle school teacher from our school, but unfortunately he has had to pull out. It will be an exploration of our work-in-progress with regard to planning for integration.

1:1 Laptops, a thin client solution

In this workshop we will look at how the RVIS thin client system was planned and implemented, and discuss both the benefits and challenges of such a system. We will explore how our thin client environment impacts on both the technical staff at our school and the teachers and students who use it. We will also discuss how other hardware and software is being used alongside the thin client system to provide appropriate educational solutions.

This is an updated version of the session I presented at ISB last year. When I signed up for this conference, I'd hoped to be discussing our improved Xendesktop system, but the implementation has not gone smoothly, so the presentation may not be as significantly updated as I'd hoped.

Space Balloon

2010-11-24T09:08:00.002+03:00

How's this for a great High School science project idea?
http://www.brooklynspaceprogram.org/BSP/Home.html

The Things That You Think

2010-11-11T16:45:00.004+03:00

One of my favorite authors and one of my favorite songwriters made an album together.
What are the chances? It's like winning the lottery, only without the money.

Educational relevance? Well, it's kind of like a "Did You Know" video, only much less useful, and much, much cooler.

The things Pomplamoose are dong with video and multi -track recording are pretty amazing too.

QR Code - Really?

2010-11-08T09:21:00.005+03:00

Jeff Utecht recently blogged about QR codes, and predicts that 2011 will be the "year of the QR code".
While I'm still to be convinced that barcoding everything will be the biggest trend of the year, it is a neat little concept, and one I'd like to play around with (ipad with no camera? oops).

I was enthused by his little experiment - posting some codes around the school and seeing what happens - so I've emulated it in our middle-school hallways. If it goes to plan, kids should get a message telling them to visit the IT department (though, unlike Jeff, I have no t-shirts to give away).

My guess is that nothing will happen, but it will be interesting to see if there is a response.

Blogging what to the who now?

2010-11-03T14:17:00.013+03:00

Today I shared a previous blog entry, "Teaching Typing", with Simone, a Fourth Grade teacher here at school, who has shown a particular interest in this area of 1:1 computing.

This seemed stranger to me than it perhaps should have.

While I accept that my irregular blogging means I don't have many readers (thanks to those hardy souls who persevere), it seems perfectly OK to me that exceptional educators from around the world might read my ramblings and have an opinion on them, good or bad.

My blogging experiments are not a secret. However, actively pointing someone I work with to this little virtual space seemed like a big step. Now, I suspect it's unlikely that Simone will come across this blog again without prompting, but I was interested in the little "should I, shouldn't I" internal conversation I had (yes, I know - delving into my internal conversations is dodgy ground). My first impulse was to copy and paste the blog entry into an email, rather than simply directing her here.

I've shared something that I think is reasonably well thought out with someone who matters here, in the "real world". That's gotta be good, right?

I've written about 5 conclusions to this, without hitting anything cleanly. So let's call it a night.

URLfest

2010-10-25T20:58:00.007+03:00

Tonight, I helped my wife to set up a blog.

She's a long time teacher, first time librarian,and has caught on to the great resources that can been found through blogs. She decided she might as well give it a go.

My job was to help her set up her blog - "The Learning Librarian". Blogger is the platform of choice, simply because that's what I stumbled upon a few years ago, and I've got a vague idea of how to make it work.

So, we try http://learninglibrarian.blogspot.com.
Taken.
That's fine. http://thelearninglibrarian.blogspot.com.
No problem, lets try some more.

We did. A lot more. So many, in fact, that I was inspired to make a list....and I was interested enough to look at what each blog contained.
The following are all .blogspot.com URLs.

Librarylearning, last post 2002

learninglibrary, no posts

thelearninglibrary, last post Jan 2009

thelearninglibrarian, no posts

learninglibrarian, last post Jan 2006

librarianlearning, last post January 2007

librarydiscovery, last post 2007

libraryliteracy, active!

Library, no posts

library101, no posts

new library, last post 2005

libraryjourney, 2007

thelibraryjourney, no posts

librariansjourney, 2009

thelibrariansjourney, AVAILABLE

shhh, last post 2001

Thisisalibrary, AVAILABLE

thelibrarianisin, last post 2009

quietplease, no posts

I know that domain squatting is no new thing. But this is different, and while this is obviously a very small data sample, it shows that good intention doesn't often result in meaningful output. The "start a blog, everyone's doing it" philosophy doesn't always lead to piles of useful information - even in the hands of a studious bunch of librarians (I know, I know).

On the positive side, It's made me think of this modest little blog as something of a success!

I do wonder whether sites like Blogger are going to need to wipe the slate clean at some point....I can only imagine the fun that will be....cleaning out our 2 year old file severs is a scary enough task.

For the record, Tracey finally went with http://traceythelibrarian.blogspot.com

I'm sure it will be jam packed full of great ideas in no time.

Giga Pudding

2010-10-15T15:09:00.002+03:00

I've been thinking about trying to post at least once a week.
This is the best I can do.

Teaching Typing

2010-10-07T12:57:00.006+03:00

The following is a collection of my ramblings with regard to teaching typing.
I've finally committed to get these thoughts written down. At the moment this is little more than a loose collection of the thoughts which have formed the basis of my philosophy towards keyboarding in our 1:1 environment. In time I hope to develop them into something more coherent, but I figure that getting them down here was at least a decent start.

Keyboarding in the days of the typewriter was a high stakes activity. A single mistake could mean having to rewrite a whole document. Typing became a specialist profession, with courses at school dedicated to the skill.

Things have changed.

Keyboarding is now a low stakes activity. Errors can be easily corrected with the click of a mouse. Whole paragraphs can be changed, moved and formatted during the proof-reading phase. The concept of a typing pool has all but disappeared – most adult professionals are capable of keyboarding to a level sufficient to perform their computer-related jobs independently – whether or not they took high-school typing courses.

With the decrease in the necessity for perfect, mistake free typing skills, the necessity for a uniform approach to typing has also lessened.

In a 1:1 environment, children have ubiquitous access to keyboards. They should be using this daily. The already crowded curriculum it is difficult to justify spending hours each week focusing on typing skills. Instead, we should have them focus on writing skills, debating skills, reflection skills….and the keyboard is a great way for us to address these skills.

Basics should be taught:

Home keys – F and J

Two hands on the keyboard

Thumb for space

Use many fingers

But….does it really matter whether finger 4 or 5 is the correct one to use on the Q key?

What has more educational validity?

A typing video game (these have changed little over the last 20 years) with some variation on aaasssdddfff etc.

Engaging, short, focused writing sessions, where the focus is on quality of content, not quantity.

Children should be typing in a meaningful way every day for at least 20 minutes (this number is obviously up for debate and requires research). This typing should be purposeful – increased typing speed should be an additional outcome of the sessions, rather than their sole focus.

A goal of a typing speed equivalent to a child’s handwriting speed could be considered a valid target for the classroom, though it could be argued that with the added editing and publishing benefits of typed text that a significantly slower typing speed still has educational merit.

The average adult handwriting speed 22 words per minute when copying, 31 words per minute from memory (from wikipedia).

Keyboarding is here to stay in some form or another for the foreseeable future. However variations on the traditional keyboard are becoming more valid – notably smart phone based texting and touch screen technology. Fluency with these forms of input devices come largely from frequent, purpose driven use.

Have you ever seen a child texting at an amazing speed? How did they get so fast?

Like I said, just ramblings at this stage, so no succinct conclusion here. But hopefully I can refine this over time into something valid and useful.

Heading back to Bahrain

2010-08-23T09:15:00.001+03:00

This could well be useful this year...

http://techdirector.ning.com/

Websites of the Week, May 27, 2010

2010-05-26T11:57:00.003+03:00

Researching this one was fun. And maybe not the most productive hour of my life.

As any Google user will know, Pac Man recently celebrated its 30^th anniversary.

With that in mind, this week I’d like to share a few games – for those of us old enough to remember, it’s a chance to reminisce. For younger game players, a journey through time lies ahead!

Please note that all of these web pages contain advertising and links to other sites.

http://www.pacmanga me.net/

http://www.atari.com/arcade/asteroids

http://www.freespaceinvaders.org/

Website of the Week, May 20, 2010

2010-05-20T15:17:00.002+03:00

Yep, it's down to singular...looks like the slide is happening.

www.chesskid.com

This is a really high quality chess website designed specifically for children. It includes video tutorials, and the ability to play either against a computer, or against others online in a secure environment. Sign up is required for some features, and the free version does have some limitations, but the video for first time players is comprehensive enough to get children started.

Websites of the week, May 12, 2010

2010-05-12T10:15:00.004+03:00

It's amazing how quickly the weeks can get away on you.

This week we’ll look at two more creativity websites, this time focusing on music.

Monkey Machine

http://www.rinki.net/pekka/monkey

This is a simple drum machine, which allows you to create a repeating pattern. It is free to use and quite versatile with 10 different drum sounds and the ability to add accents. For those with higher music ambitions, you can even export your creation to a midi file.

In B Flat

www.inbflat.net/

The music here may not be to everybody’s taste, but the concept is fascinating. Musicians from all around the world have used Youtube to create something really different. It’s easy to spend a lot of time experimenting with the different combinations you can create here.

Websites of the week: April 22, 2010

2010-04-22T14:13:00.004+03:00

Volcanoes

Volcanoes have been the hot topic this week, so here are a few websites that look at what is happening in Europe at the moment.

Time Magazine - The Eerie Beauty of Iceland’s Volcano

http://tinyurl.com/y3s3f2b

This is a photo-essay showing some amazing images of Eyjafjallajokull.

BBC animated guide: Volcanoes

http://tinyurl.com/6q7zq4

This is a simple graphical explanation of what causes a volcano.

Time for Kids: Crisis in the Air

http://tinyurl.com/y6y6y79

An article written for children about how the eruption is affecting travel.

Websites of the week, April 15 2010

2010-04-18T11:18:00.003+03:00

To follow up from this week’s parent potpourri, we’ll look at two sites devoted to developing nutritional awareness and healthy lifestyles.

http://www.learntobehealthy.org/kids/

This is a large website with an extensive range of child friendly resources related to healthy eating and lifestyle. There are related sites for teens and parents. Free registration is required to access much of the website.

http://www.sugarstacks.com/

This eye opening website shows the amount of sugar that is in various foods and drinks. It’s a quick and engaging way to encourage thinking before you eat.

Websites of the week April 11

2010-04-11T08:31:00.005+03:00

A backlog of website articles will mean I'll be positively prolific over the next week or so.

www.seu ssville.com

“If you never did, you should. These things are fun, and fun is good.”

This is the place to go for anyone who is interested in Dr. Seuss! An information packed website that contains a detailed biography and bibliography, and dozens of interactive games with a Seuss theme. It is easily navigated by children, but does have links to pages where you can purchase Dr. Seuss material.

www.booksshouldbefree.com

This website is full of audio books that are free to download. It contains classic titles such as The Wizard of Oz, Heidi and Pinocchio. This could give an alternative way for children (and parents) to spend their time on the drive to school, or even on a spring break plane ride. There is a large children’s section, but the site also many books for adults.

Starting small

2010-04-07T15:26:00.002+03:00

I've been writing a little article for our school newsletter called "Websites of the week". It occured to me that the article looks a lot like a blog post.
So, with hope in my heart, and a little guilt that I completely ignored those that were probably the last 2 people gracious enough to keep me on their blogroll when they commented on my last post, I'm going to try to kick-start things here with the ol' links to websites trick.
Can't hurt.

Websites of the week

2010-04-07T15:19:00.006+03:00

This week we’ll look at some ways to be creative online, with a few web-based art tools.

Flame

http://tinyurl.com/artflame

This is an amazing tool that allows you to quickly create pictures that have a “flame” look to them. I haven’t got beyond some pretty doodles, but take a look at the gallery to see what a talented artist can do with this tool.

This is sand

http://www.thisissand.com/
This is a very simple tool that allows you to make sand pictures with a click of the mouse. Once you’ve started, it’s hard to stop!

Sketch-paint

http://tinyurl.com/sketchpaint
This seemingly simple sketch page has a surprising number of options to produce effects such as realistic looking paintbrush strokes. There are Google ads on the left hand side of this page, and links to unrelated games at the top.

It is what it is

2010-01-05T17:22:00.003+03:00

No new years resolutions, no promises..
I like the idea of blogging, I think about blogging often. In my head I write award winning blog posts on a weekly basis.
In real life, it seems I'm not a blogger.
I'll keep this here though. Just in case.

Home again

2009-09-02T21:45:00.006+03:00

So, there went the summer/winter break.

I'm back in Bahrain, much has happened (including my 2nd little girl, born a week ago, and still in NZ) and I'm settling in for RVIS year 2.

Lots to do, including preparing to go to 21st Century Learning at Hong Kong in 2 weeks - very excited about that one. In fact, it's motivation for this post...if there's an edublogger meet up, this gives me an excuse to go...I can (weakly) claim to be a blogger of sorts. Wouldn't want to pass on a chance to meet some of my blogging heroes.

I've also nearly built up the courage to submit a workshop proposal (just one) for ASB Unplugged 2010. I should get that sent off tomorrow, and will be excited to learn whether it goes anywhere.

As usual, high hopes for sharing more, but becoming a writer has eluded me so far...we'll see what happens.

Conferences on the Horizon

2009-06-16T08:55:00.003+03:00

I just sent this out to our staff....

Below are a couple of conferences coming up in the next year…I strongly
encourage you to consider them.

It’s important to know that these are not techie conferences! They are education conferences, with a focus on the teaching tools that we all have access to. The days of conference that are just for the tech guy are long gone. These are conferences for teachers.

21st Century Learning @ Hong Kong
September 2009
http://21c-learning.hk/
http://21clearninghk.ning.com/

“Join us in HK Sept 17-19 for a conference bringing together educators sharing visions of the use of ICT for learning of students everywhere”.
Yes, Hong Kong is a long way away, but this will be a great conference, with inspiration coming from the real high-flyers of 21st century learning.

ASB Unplugged 2010. Mumbai
February 2010
http://www.asbunplugged.org/drupal/ASB_Un-plugged/?q=node/18
http://asbunplugged.ning.com/

“ASB Un-Plugged 2010 is for those who wish to understand how students and educators have embraced innovation, change, and leadership in education for the 21st century. Hear educators and students sharing their best practices, strategies and techniques, ideas and applications that have proven to be successful in a one-to-one environment.”
The focus of this conference is 1:1 computing – the driving force behind our program. This conference has a reputation for being fantastic, and the list of speakers already confirmed is quite outstanding. And because it is not far away, there are really good opportunities for networking with other leaders in our region.

There has already been a lot of interest, and I'm really excited. If a large group of our faculty can get involved in event like these, the potential is enormous.

The trick is going to be deciding which to go to, and, for me, I'm leaning towards both. I'm toying with the idea of a couple of presentations at Bombay...with its 1:1 focus, I think I'm well placed to offer something a little different....working titles:

1:1 in K-5 Education
1:1 computing in a thin client environment

I've got until September to submit, so plenty of time to figure out whether I've got enough of value to share.

Seek and ye shall find

2009-06-14T22:02:00.002+03:00

I just love some of the key word searches that bring people to this little blog.

This week's lucky winner:

"how do I get stuff up to the roof"

Glad I could help.

What Happened on Thursday

2009-06-14T17:42:00.005+03:00

I like being an educator for many reasons. One of the ones I reel off all the time is that every day is different. And boy was Thursday different.

10am flight to Qatar. I thought it was pretty cool that I could get my return flight boarding pass when I checked in, as I was flying back the same day (turns out it was a good thing, because I cut it pretty fine with the trip back to the airport).

Delay on the flight was not so cool...I spent more time on the runway than I did in the air (Qatar is really close to Bahrain).

On the ground, and after nearly getting into a limo instead of a taxi (you never know in the Middle East, I just thought they had really sweet taxis), I was off to Qatar Academy.

After spending much time in the grounds, driving around in circles with a very friendly cabbie, I made it to QA. Very pleasant lunch with Julie, then a coffee with some of her colleagues (real coffee....at a Coffee Bean....in a school. Crazy.)

Then to Tedx. I got some attention (and a few rolled eyes and giggles) as the guy who'd come for Bahrain for this little thing. Was it worth it? Very much.

Fascinating coversations were had....It's summed up pretty well on the Tedex qa wiki.

I've mentioned Jabiz in this blog about as many times as I've written posts (his remixed talk is now on his blog)...I've now added Denny Roberts to my list of must read blogs, and I've got a book to buy this summer.

More amazing hospitality from Julie, and I was back on the plane before I knew it.

I came back to Bahrain buzzing, and feel like I've taken a little step towards coming out of the shell that is year one in a new school.

What Happened Wednesday

2009-06-08T08:56:00.004+03:00

During my normal morning routine of blogs and Red Bull (don‘t hate me – I don’t like coffee), I’m bombarded with the standard “Twitter is great” posts. Still unconvinced, but figuring I should give it another look, I found a few minutes mid-morning, dug out my password, and logged in. Right at the top, Julie and Jabiz were talking about some workshop or other happening at Qatar Academy in June.

I put it away at the back of my mind, promising that I would look into it closer to the time.

An hour or so later, going over my calendar, it hit me. It is June. Now. Further investigation, and it turns out that the thing in Qatar is on the 4th. Which was tomorrow.

The days plan went out the window. Twittering, Googling, researching. The thing turns out to be TEDx QA. Organized by Julie and others as part of their 21st Century Learners group, it sounded really interesting. On to the Qatar Airlines site, I could do it in a day – 10 am out, 9pm back.

Tweets to Julie and Jabiz made it look like it might just happen.

After school, off to the Qatar office. Stuck in traffic for an hour and a half. Office closing. Panic, panic.

Finally get to the office, and then the kicker….the air mile deal stinks. It costs about 5 times what an air miles flight to Dubai with Emirates costs me. Thing is, my thought process is a bit like a bungee jump….once I’m past the point of no return, I find it pretty much impossible to pull out. So out came the credit card, and I was going to Qatar for the day.

Nice one Twitter.

But yes, I still linked to Jabiz and Julie's blogs above, not their Twitter accounts. I'm not completely sold yet :)

What Happened on Tuesday

2009-06-08T08:18:00.002+03:00

My wife was going through our junk drawer, and found our Qatar Airlines frequent flyer cards. We got them in 2007, when we went to the US for Christmas.

“I might as well throw these out”, said she.

“No, you never know when we might want to go to Qatar”, said the hoarder.

Reporting the news

2009-03-18T12:23:00.007+03:00

A couple of days ago, I started to blog a rant about inaccurate an biased reporting, but stopped. After all, though the misinformation in the article was rather bad....

More than 60 per cent of youngsters in the Gulf have been contacted by a paedophile through chat rooms or via e-mail, according to a regional study.

....it was only a "local newspaper", and relevant to a small audience. I did make the effort to contact the author (and received a dismissive response), but left it at that.

Then, today another article, this time from the BBC, with a much bigger potential audience. The slanting in this article is not nearly as over the top, but still...

Of the British parents questioned, 81% said they were confident that they knew what they children were looking at online.
By contrast, 31% of the UK children in the survey said their parents did not know what they were doing online.

OK, so the survey shows a a discrepancy of 12% between what parents and children think on this issue. It would have made much more sense for the reporter to use this figure, but of course that sounds a lot less dramatic than the figures the reporter has used.

I know I might be clutching at straws linking these two articles, but I really do get annoyed when I see reports labeled as news pushing certain agendas.

Maybe teachers need to start teaching a new definition of the word fact.

See, I'm not the only one with the message

2009-03-05T09:27:00.003+03:00

In the February edition of Educational Leadership, Bill Ferriter has written an article entitled “Learning with Blogs and Wikis”. It’s very well written and very timely for me as I look to encourage the use of such technology in our school. I think a lot of why blogging is good is summed up in this paragraph:

…thousands of accomplished educators are now writing blogs about teaching and learning, bringing transparency to both the art and the science of their practice. In every content area and grade level and in schools of varying sizes and from different geographic locations, educators are actively reflecting on instruction, challenging assumptions, questioning policies, offering advice, designing solutions, and learning together. And all this collective knowledge is readily available for free.

While much of this article is not ground breaking for anyone who is even dabbling in educational blogging, what is important is where the article was published – not in a tech-geek magazine, but in a publication that will end up on the desks of the decision makers in our schools. I was forwarded the article by my director. That makes me happy. Thanks Bill.

Bloggers in the Midst

2009-03-05T08:05:00.004+03:00

I'm spending this month doing a series of sessions for teachers on web 2.0 technologies. My theory is that "How to use Word" sessions may be useful to some, but I'd rather focus on encouraging teachers to think technologically...start reading, learning and experimenting themselves. A school in which I'm the only one discovery new tools will not be making best use of the wealth of knowledge now available.

We're covering wikis this week, followed by delicious and blogging.

So I've been scouring the school for teachers already using these tools, and blow me down with a feather, we already have a couple of fantastic blogs growing at our school.

Librarian: Gwen's tmartoonies
Art: Art Lessons for Kids

I'm really pleased that this is happening in our school. I think these two great blogs are a fantastic starting point for my discussion about how blogs can make a difference.

In my own rather less successful blogging efforts, I'm trying something a little different. A little less ambitious that the "try everything, achieve nothing" approach I've adopted here, rvisit is an attempt to document the sessions staff are participating in here at school.

My Average Day as Director of Technology

2009-02-16T11:35:00.001+03:00

Up on the Roof

2009-02-01T10:54:00.006+03:00

I was on the roof of our school building this weekend, and this was the view.

I love it up there. Rather less picturesque was the reason I was up there.

We have a beautifully designed school building. However, the size and design of the building means that cell phone coverage is shocking. It’s not an uncommon sight to see the director running from his office to the courtyard shouting “wait, wait, I’ll be with you in a second!”
This little repeating device will hopefully fix things…at least in the key phone-heavy areas of the building.

Been there, done that

2009-01-28T14:50:00.003+03:00

Clearly I didn’t keep up with my trip updates. As usual, I've got a long list of excuses for this:

1. I was boring myself, let alone potential readers of this blog.
2. Course #2 was pretty demanding.
3. Evenings in London were great – people to meet, places to go.

But to recap…week 2 was a Microsoft course – Managing and Maintaining Server 2003. I nearly fell of my chair when we did the introduction thing on day one. Everyone else, and there were 11 of us, was some flavor of technician with 10 years+ experience .They were generally updating qualifications or preparing for a move to new hardware. When they got to me I squeaked “I’m Mike, I’m a teacher”, and wanted to run.

It all turned out very well, however. Obviously I understood things at a different level to the others, but they were a supportive bunch, and being able to bounce ideas off “real techies” was very useful. We covered lots of relevant stuff, especially surrounding Active Directory and permissions. I’ve come about as far as I want to go down the techie track now, but am really pleased with what I learned. I feel a lot more confident in overseeing aspects of our “behind the scenes” network now.

And London is great. I’m not sure I’d want to live there, but I did get a kick out of walking to work over London Bridge every morning.

This Makes Me Happy

2009-01-16T23:20:00.005+03:00

End of a week long era

2009-01-16T23:09:00.000+03:00

I broke the promise I made to myself about posting every day during the course. I have several excuses for this:

1. The course was very, very dull. Any readership who stumbled across this blog were I posting course details would likely never bother to visit again.

2. My laptop has some sort of hardware issue that means I can only access the internet wirelessly. I’ll need to call in the warrantee when I get back to Bahrain. In the meantime, the only options I’ve found for wireless access are McDonalds and a rather dodgy pub. Popping into either for a quick update is fine, but it’s not a great idea for me to spend in either place. I’ve been tempted to go out and buy a netbook so I can access the net in the hotel. I’ve resisted the temptation so far…..imagining the reaction of my wife is a pretty good deterrent.

3. Time. As usual.

Anyway, week one is in the books. I certainly learned something. The test will come in a few weeks when I’m back in the world talking to technicians. It’s funny…When at work, I’d spend a lot of time wishing I had the appropriate technical training. Now I’m training, I can’t wait to get back and be doing “real stuff”.

I’m typing this offline in a movie theater, getting some funny looks while waiting for “Slumdog Millionaire” to start. It doesn’t exactly sound like my cup of tea, but it’s got good reviews and there were few options at the theatre. I really just need some down-time, so sitting in the dark at a movie for a couple of hours seemed as good an idea as any.

Edit: I’m posting this now from the aforementioned dodgy pub. Getting more funny looks, so I think I’ll cut short any detailed movie review. It was very good.

Man of my word

2009-01-13T20:37:00.000+03:00

So I promised myself I’d post every night.
Today:
WAN technologies
LAN technologies
Fundamentals of TCP/IP

I think I was a little more on the ball today….still a mass of acronyms and dated technology though.

This is not glamorous.

.....and then he felt his brain melt

2009-01-13T11:31:00.000+03:00

I didn’t want this to be a negative post.
I’d imagined writing to consolidate little pearls of wisdom I’d gained on the first day of the CompTIA Net + course.

But…boy oh boy. What I got today was a crystal career reminder of why I chucked in the IT industry in 1994, and eventually found my way into teaching. Myriads of acronyms and theoretical models with little or no bearing on what I do from day to day. And this was only day 1…

Turns out that the other 3 who were down to be on this course pulled out for various reasons…so it’s me and the tutor…he’s a nice enough bloke, but combined with the subject matter, it’s hardly the most dynamic of learning environments.

We covered 3 modules today: networking fundamentals, physical links and interfaces, and network protocols and devices. Plenty of the material covered historical stuff - much of which I have vague memories of from my IT industry dabbling in the early 90s – things I won’t find “in the wild these days” as the instructor put it. Quite a bit of the material was covered “because it’s in the test”, rather than for any practical value. The teacher in me shuddered several times.

But I’m going to keep positive. Its early evening, and I’ve got a couple of hours to go through the material to try to strengthen my understanding. I can’t get the internet going in the hotel room, so I have precious little else to concentrate on! As painful as it seemed today, this course will help me to do my job better.

Here’s to the clouds clearing tomorrow.

Arsenal 1, Bolton 0

2009-01-11T22:07:00.002+03:00

I’ve supported Arsenal since I was about 8. I remember the conscious decision I made – a few English kids in our neighborhood were chatting about their favorite teams – Liverpool and Manchester United. I took the analytical approach- went home and opened the newspaper. Arsenal were top of the league. That was that – I supported Arsenal. They were top, so obviously the best. With what I’ve since learned about Arsenal in the 80’s, the season was probably 1 game old, and the only thing Arsenal were winning was the alphabetical order race.

But from that day I’ve been a fan from afar, initially getting a list of results on a Sunday morning radio show, and reading 3 month old sea-shipped Shoot magazines. I graduated to live games sometime in the late 80s, when satellite TV came in. It took my parents a few years to get the decoder, so my first live game was Arsenal v QPR, my recruited younger brother and I listening to the commentary over a scrambled screen at 3am.

Things have improved over the years, and I’m now able to watch most games live on TV, helped by the fact I’m now living in places where the time zone is a lot kinder than it is in New Zealand. I went to a live game about 4 years ago at the now retired HIghbury stadium. Arsenal v Fulham. Very, very exciting, though Van Der Sar in goal played like an octopus, and the score was 0-0. The first time in years that Arsenal hadn’t scored at home. Sigh.

So anyway – 2 weeks in London, and I was not going to miss the chance to get back to Arsenal – at their new stadium, the Emirates. I was like a little boy heading to the stadium. Got there 2 hours early, and spent the first 30 minutes wandering around the outside of the ground with a stupid grin on my face. I eventually went in, far earlier than the old hands, but I was too excited to wait. My first glimpse of the pitch bought all kinds of butterflies – I felt like a little kid. Then a chicken balti pie, and a nervous (and very, very cold) wait for the 3pm kickoff.

“Times like these” by the Foo Fighters is going to have special meaning to me from now on, as it was belted out over the stadium just before kickoff. Elvis’s “The Wonder of You” didn’t do so much for me, but it seems they’re trying to brand that as Arsenal’s version of “You’ll never walk alone”.

Anyway, to the game.
The first half was miserable. Bolton had not come to do anything except frustrate Arsenal, and it was ugly, ugly stuff. They played deep and tight, and while there was plenty of room on the wings, targets could not be found. Their keeper stalled the game at every opportunity, and Bolton were rewarded when only 2 minutes of stoppage time were added at the end of a half, where they’d probably stolen about 10. A friend texted me that BBC had described it as the worst half of Premiership football this year. It’s hard to argue with that.

It was getting colder and colder, and I was starting to get a sinking “here we go again” feeling. The 2nd half was brighter from the start, and things really picked up when Carlos Vella was subbed on. He looked very likely, but Arsenal still couldn’t break Bolton down. The crowd was getting really agitated, and that wasn’t helped when Niklas Bentner came on and started passing everything straight to the opposition. Arsenal were getting closer and close, but when Van Persie hit the post, I thought the chance was gone. Then, after 84 minutes, Van Persie got free on the left and crossed the ball. Just as the words “shoot, you idiot” were leaving my mouth, Bentner came in on the far post and drove the ball into the net. Pandemonium. Bolton came out strong after that, but were kept out.

And finally, finally, I got to sing with 60,000 people: “1 -0 to the Arsenal”.

UK - What's the big idea?

2009-01-11T21:49:00.005+03:00

OK, as I promised myself, I managed to write something on the plane…..

When I made my plan to type something on the plane, I think I’d convinced myself that the A380 was so huge that I was bound to get an upgrade. I was wrong. Things are a little cramped here.

So I’m on my way to England. Flying into Heathrow, a quick stop at Emirates stadium, then up to Sheffield for a week, then back down to London to spend another week there. What’s this all about then? Has Mike managed to swing the biggest jolly of all time for a bit of r&r? Sadly….no.
I’m expecting the next two weeks to be pretty full on. I’m taking two week long intensive techie-type courses. First, TIA network+, then a Microsoft Server 2003 Management course.

Turns out that the sales sheet claiming that a state of the art thin client system can practically run itself was…errr…ambitious. So the big idea is for me to get a crash course in some of the technical ins and outs of our network environment. I’m not going to be running the thing by myself, but having a bit of base knowledge to go with the “in the deep end” experience I’m getting will hopefully help me to manage things more efficiently, so I know the right questions to ask and who to ask them to. It’s a heck of an investment for the school to make. I’ve got to follow this through and make the most of this opportunity. Obviously the “saves money in the long run” philosophy plays a role here. It’s going to be quite a ride. Things at school are starting to stabilize, but there’s still a whole lot to get organized back there. My evenings will be filled by spending time on the newly working SSL VPN, which allows me access to my school desktop and all the goodness within.

So it’s all a bit daunting right now, and I’m anxious to see how this trip pans out. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve spent this long full time on the other side of the classroom. On top of that, 2 weeks away from my family is going to be a long stretch.

But I know I’ve got no business feeling sorry for myself. It’s amazing to think that a little (well OK, not so little these days) teacher from NZ can be getting his teeth into all these opportunities.

Toobusyland

2009-01-09T11:49:00.003+03:00

I’ve been away from blogging for quite a while. And I don’t just mean blog writing – that was hit and miss at its peak. To me, blogging is 95% reading. An avalanche of professional knowledge has passed me by in the last 6 months. And it can’t continue.

My time away in Toobusyland has made two things clear to me:

1. Reading the blogs of good educators is really important to me.
Not to everyone - I'm not trying to save the world here - but to me.While I’ve been immersed in the technical Rubic’s Cube that is our data center, I’ve really felt myself slipping. Focusing on work I need to do to make things work has taken my mind away from the other important stuff. The educating part. The kids. And not listening to (really listening to) 10 or 15 people a day discussing how to grow as an educator …..that’s hurting me. I can still talk passionately about implementing technology in education, but six months in a wilderness of wires and 10.101.10s has taken the edge off me as far as substance goes. I’m absolutely convinced that all the blog reading I did last year made me a better, more focused educator.

2. Not falling behind is hard.
And once you fall behind, it’s hard to catch up. It’s not like I haven’t read a blog in the last 6 months. But intense, brain bending school based stuff requires a whole lot more attention than the Arsenal blogs, music blogs and video game blogs that I skim.

I am busy. I’ll continue to be busy. I’m not silly enough to think that being busy makes me special or different. The trick is to make the blogosphere “important busy time” rather than “should be doing something else” busy time.

I know people can do it. I’ve read their blogs.

Setting a goal: The next two weeks

2009-01-07T21:51:00.002+03:00

The blogging thing hasn't really worked out for me.
So, here's what I'm going to do.
I'm doing some training in London and Sheffield for the next two weeks. It'll be intense, but a different sort of intense from what I've experienced these last few months. So, among other things, I'm going to have another go at kick-starting this thing.
Very simple goals.
Write at least one half decent blog post on the plane to London. 7 hours day-time travelling...I need to have something to show for it.
Daily update on what I've been learning each day on the course. Might only be 2 lines long, but I'm committing to doing at least something regularly.
The odd touristy post...definately one about arsenal versus bolton...the game I'm going to on Saturday!
So...I'm looking at 12-15 posts, over the next 2 1/2 weeks. I'm going to concentrate on quantity...If I wait for the right moment to write something that is high quality and deep and meaningful, the blog may continue to be the wasteland it's been for the last 6 months. I've gotta get some stuff down, try to get in the groove.

Getting through someof the great stuff sitting in my google reader is also a goal...as is sending the odd apology to some good people who I've ignored lately.

Right, there it is, written down for all to see. Well for me to see....but if you've kept me in your rrs reader all this time....I'd love to hear from you, and maybe you could explain why you have.

Come on Arsenal.

Red 5, Standing by

2008-08-08T21:36:00.002+03:00

I'm in Bahrain now. Boy, it's hot.
I've got every intention of getting the blog up and running again.....lets see how that goes. I know I'm going to be learning a lot over the next few months, and will share what I can.
A TV interview on Sunday (well, sort of) and then work on Monday. Not really sure what to expect. Computers, I guess.

Well then....

2008-06-12T15:02:00.002+03:00

That's that.....
School is over for the year. We leave Tanzania for good on Sunday, Singapore for 2 days, New Zealand, then off to Bahrain in early August. I'm sitting in my empty office feeling a bit...well...weird really.
But moving on is good. Time to start thinking about 1:1 laptop programs and thin clients.

Testing: Tooble

2008-06-02T11:43:00.001+03:00

3 posts in one day…is it obvious that I’m procrastinating?

I downloaded Tooble a while ago, but didn’t get around to installing it until Friday. And, so far, it does exactly what it says on the label. It allows you to download Youtube videos and store them for playback on your computer (in MPEG-4 format). Enter the URL for the video, and away it goes.

Teachers have often asked me about the best way to share Youtube videos, and this is looking like the answer for classes and presentations.

Much more importantly, though, my daughter has taken a liking to The Little Princess, and the creators have kindly put a few snippets on Youtube. They’re now front and center on my desktop. To be honest, they give me a bit of a giggle too.

Recommended. (both Tooble and the Little Princess)

I'm still a Tourist

2008-06-02T10:51:00.005+03:00

A friend of mine has a plane. That’s pretty cool. It’s even cooler when you live an hours flight away from the Selous Game Reserve. 2 weeks left in Tanzania, and floating down the Rufiji River amongst hippos and crocodiles as the sun went down is going to be right up there with the many memorable moments from our 3 year stay in this amazing country. The lodge wasn't bad either.

Jan’s plane was nice too.

It some of those excellent silver sun protectors to keep it cool when you’re not flying.

They have really useful instructions on them.

Another Lazy Post

2008-06-02T09:37:00.004+03:00

OK, it's another link to a Google video. edit: Obviously this is a Youtube video, but for whatever reason, I wrote Google. It's scary how much that funny little word has taken over. But I'm not sure whether thats scary good or scary bad.

I really should be doing better.
But I really liked this one, shared by Scott McLeod, and I'm pretty sure I'll be using it in my presentations to new staff later this year. This seemed like a pretty good place for me to store and share it.

Wobble

2008-05-23T10:03:00.003+03:00

OK, this is pretty cheesy, but the kids might get a kick out of it with the right photo.

For some reason, it reminds me of being in a Chinese takeaway restaurant in North Carolina.

www.watereffect.net

Water Effect

The Ol' Share A Youtube Video Trick

2008-05-16T08:05:00.008+03:00

I'm not a particular fan of the "sad face holding up deep and meaningful signs" video that is...well....everywhere at the moment. But I watched this one right through (shared by Simon at Educating the Dragon). It covers much of what I've seen in similar videos (no idea whether it's the innovator or imitator), but I was drawn into it for one reason or another - maybe it's the music.

All you hear is blah blah blah

2008-05-15T09:01:00.003+03:00

OK, this is waaaay off-topic, but I’m being self indulgent again.

In the fine tradition of Jabiz Raisdana, I’m going to share some song lyrics that mean a whole lot to me…this song hits me at every line (yeah, I’m a simple soul)…I’ve even managed to take “hard-drive” a lot more literally than it was ever intended. Yes, I know that Jabiz keeps this sort of stuff separate from his edublog, but I’m not even contemplating multiple blogs right now, and I don't think I'm being controversial, just a bit selfish, so you’re stuck with it.

The text doesn’t really do it justice, but anyway: Hard drive, written by Ben Lee, performed by Evan Dando on Baby I’m Bored.

This is the town I’m living in
This is the street I’m walking down
These are the friends I’m visiting
These are the clothes I’m wearing now
This is the house I’m building here
This is the girl I’m marrying
This is the chord I’m strumming now
This is the faith I’m leaning on

This is the child I’m bearing now
This is the love that I've always had
This is the face I make when I’m sad
This is the town I’m living in
This is the hard drive...
This is the ocean
Have you ever felt yourself in motion

Have you ever felt yourself in motion

These are the feet I’m standing on
These are the hands that build a world
This is the bed I’m sleeping in
This is the shirt I’m buttoning
This is the pace I’m moving at
This is the tune I’m humming now
This is the road I’m walking down
These are the lips that form my words

This is the stone that I want to turn
These are the people that I love
These are the eyes that look above
This is the town I’m living in
This is the hard drive...
This is the ocean
Have you ever felt yourself in motion

Have you ever felt yourself in motion

Original image: 'HDR Molo Sanità - Virtual Tour Panorama!'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/85223998@N00/2370890086
by: Giuseppe & Giacomo Parisi

Testing: Xobni

2008-05-12T12:12:00.007+03:00

I read blogs with introductions/reviews of new applications all the time. Now I’m trying to write one, it seems it’s not actually that easy. I’m not sure if this is old news – I’m aware of things coming and going quickly around these parts….Diigo, for example, which was all the rage a while ago, but is no longer a buzz-word being thrown about (I’m using it for bookmarking, like delicious, but not much else).

Anyway – Xobni.

Here’s the overview.

I was particularly interested in the “exposes email’s hidden social network” quote.

I installed it, and it analysed my 1500 emails in a couple of minutes. The data I have so far is obviously a bit skewed, because it can only look at mail I haven’t deleted. Some interesting (if not particularly useful) info about who has the fastest average reply time to my emails was given to me as the emails were compiled. Strangely enough, our school’s director ranked number 2.

So I’ve played around with the various functions, and while some, like certain graphs, seem quite gimmicky, there is enough here to convince me that this could be a real asset to anyone using Outlook (versions for other email clients have been promised).

The search function seems really powerful, and has come in handy already, as has the “files exchanged” option. This lists all files you’ve sent to or received from any selected person. It can really speed up the process of trawling through emails to find something you’ve buried in your to do list.

A comment on the Youtube video above stated

Outlook 2007 works great without this additional layer of junk..

I can’t speak to that, as I’m not using 2007.

However, Bill Gates seems reasonably impressed.

So in conclusion, I think Xobni is definitely worth downloading and giving a test-drive.

Missing the Boat

2008-05-07T14:49:00.004+03:00

The comment challenge. What better way to get more immersed in the learning community I’m scrambling for.

So what did I do? I got as far as the wiki. Scrolled the list of names. Typed mine at that bottom. Then came the visions – 400 report comments to write; sorting out everyone else’s report dilemmas; packing up to leave Tanzania in 6 weeks; sorting out handover for the person taking over my job; visitors…errrr….visiting. So I bottled it. Deleted my name. Ran away.

I’m not a big fan of the “I’m so busy” argument. We are all busy. All these other educators are capable of doing their jobs, running their lives, and blogging/commenting. Am I really that soft? I do see the value in it. I do want to develop an online network. But, when it came to the crunch, I made excuses for myself.

So, it’s the slow and steady approach. I will keep blogging. I will persevere with twitter. I will try to get my act together as far as commenting goes. But I think the big jumps are beyond me.

Pole pole.

Original image: 'Frosty Ladybower'

http://www.flickr.com/photos/81851211@N00/378834721
by: Rick Harrison

Sticking With Windows...But How to Stick?

2008-04-25T12:13:00.009+03:00

The IT team here have had a few good discussions about this recently – I thought I’d have a go at writing it down. Apologies if it’s as interesting as mud.

Background

We have approximately 350 computers spread across two campuses. Until recently, we had a really solid replacement policy, where new computers got put into labs, older computers were spread around the school as need dictated, and 5 year old computers were “retired” and sold to local staff at a good price.

Things changed a little last year – with an upgrade to facilities at the secondary school, all new computers went there, including a lab of Macs (until then we were exclusively Windows PC).

This year, we have changed the plan again. Apart from a few more Macs for the Secondary library, we won’t be buy new computers. Instead, we’ll upgrade every computer in the school to 1GB ram, and a nice new TFT screen.

This decision was made at the end of many heated discussions about Windows v Open Source v Mac. I know it’s not very IT-cool, but I leaned towards Microsoft in an educational setting, and as a team, we eventually decided to stick to this for the mid-term. The Macs at SS dual boot with Windows.

Our decision to go upgrade was based on a perceived need to move to Windows Vista. We wanted to make sure that when we moved, every computer in the school would be capable of running the software.

What’s happening now?

Yesterday we relooked at the options we have for a basic software setup. With our commitment to Microsoft, we have 3 basic options.

The Works – Windows Vista, Office 2007
Mix and Match – Windows XP, Office 2007
Status Quo – Windows XP and Office 2003

Windows Vista

For:

It’s new.
It looks nice. Maybe not the most compelling reason, but we are a fee charging international school, and the way our school looks is important – if we were still running Windows 98, it wouldn’t look too flash.
High system requirements. Should be addressed with planned upgrades.

Against:

It’s just not that popular with people!
Does it do anything that the average staff member/student at our school really needs above and beyond XP?

Office 2007

For:

It’s new.
We’re experiencing more and more compatibility issues with people bringing in 2007 files that are incompatible with our current 2003 setup.
Unlike Vista, it may well offer features useful to staff and students (can’t say for sure yet, as I’ve not had more than a quick play-around).

Against:

Retraining issues

The above is a very superficial look at things we considered. But what it led to is that next year we’ll go with mix and match - Windows XP running Office 2007. Hopefully.

Testing is going to start soon.

I’d be interested to know what other schools are doing.

And yes, I do know that open source and Mac OS are both much cooler.

I’m so not cool.

Original image: 'Peace Talks'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/42483899@N00/309439903
by: Dave Spellman

Off the Top of My Head

2008-04-24T13:23:00.000+03:00

It’s not like I’ve had nothing to blog about. It’s not like I haven’t written daily blogs in my head. But boy, life gets in the way. I’m not pretending I’m busier than anyone else, but it’s been so easy to not blog, I’ve wondered whether another one was ever coming.

I guess I’m at a very delicate stage with blogging. An audience, but a very small one. Possibly gone already. I guess this may be an indicator as to whether anyone added me to their google reader. The only way an audience is going to grow is if the writer is going to keep producing things worth reading. So what do I do? I stop. Nice one.

Twitter has died for me. Best intentions blah blah…I gave it a good to go but was putting out a lot more than I was getting back in terms of feedback. It’s back on my to do list – maybe I need to do more following.

Diigo has been really useful as far as the bookmarking goes, but haven’t got any further than that. Maybe I should have stuck with delicious.

I still read a tonne of blogs, now with Google reader. I am wondering if reader is holding me back a bit – with no comments displayed, I haven’t got deeper into any conversations, just a lot of skim reading.

Classroom blogging has been great, but I think it’s time to turn them over to the classroom teachers. http://istg5b.21classes.com

Anyway, thanks for visiting. Hopefully I’m back.

All Gummed Up

2008-04-14T11:20:00.007+03:00

I guess I've had my first bout of bloggers block....lots of ideas and intentions, not end product.

This is an attempt to get the ball rolling again.

This little game might not be useful, but it's fun. Reminds me of the old school theories about computers and hand/eye co-ordination.

GRID 16

He's Not a Rebel. My How and Why of Classroom Blogging.

2008-04-04T09:52:00.004+03:00

This started as a reply to Graham Wegner’s comment on my last post.

“Mike, how have you handled the permission aspect of individual blogs in your
school? And how are you handling the idea of others coming and leaving comments
for your students? Recent events here in Adelaide (of which you would be aware)
make me curious about how this is handled in other parts of the world”

However, as I started jot down my answers more things and bigger questions evolved in my mind, so I’m going to try to get it all down in a new post.

First, to directly answer the questions:
I haven’t taken the permission past the overall IT acceptable use agreement that all children and parents sign at the beginning of the year. It includes the phrase “I will keep myself safe when using technology”, but does not venture any deeper than that. Our school regularly posts pictures of children on the school website (http://www.istafrica.com/) and in various publications – to my knowledge there have been no safety concerns from the community. While it’s early days, I don’t foresee any problems with the information the kids will be posting. Having said that, once we get up and running, individual classroom teachers will be responsible for the content.
As far as commenting goes, 21 Classes has a setting which requires the classroom teacher to approve any comment (or even any blog post) before it goes live. I think this control is really important as far as commenting goes. I don’t want to close it off, as I think it’s fantastic that these kids can get a global perspective on their work – as international students most have family and friends living overseas, and I’m hoping that they will make use of this feedback forum. One limitation of the comment approval is that comments do not seem to generate an email to the teacher, so will have to be manually checked through http://www.21classes.com/ regularly. I’m hopeful classroom teachers will be will to keep up with this.

Reading Graham’s latest post (and the continuing saga over at minilegends) had me thinking about a few “bigger picture” issues last night. It’s not often enough that I sit back and reflect in writing on the personal philosophy behind a project I’m undertaking, but with this one I’ll give it a go.
Graham wrote the following with regard to the need to have blogging in schools (yes, I’ve just plucked out a small section – I hope I’m not messing with the context)

“….believe that students having real access to tools like blogs is key to
effective learning of online ethics, safety and responsibility”

Ethics, safety etc. Is that what my learning outcomes are focussed on? No, not really. They are valuable things to address, obviously, but are not the main motivation to why I’m entering this project. I’d consider them secondary learning objectives.

The real motivation to me is the valuable place a blog post can fill in the writing process. From as far back into my own education as I can remember, “publish” has been the big payoff at the end of any writing process. Break out the nice neat sheet of A4, rule on a colourful border, draw a picture, and write THE END in really big letters to cunningly mask the fact that you didn’t manage to fill the page. Get it pinned on the board for a week, with a little star if you’re lucky, then into the bottom of the desk, to be thrown out in the end of year cleanup.
Now, through a blog, kids can really publish. Great Aunty Gwen in Norway can read, and even give feedback, to anything the child wants to write. This is real publishing, to a real audience. A well crafted writing program will give the writing a real purpose.
Having said that, we haven’t yet got past the “hi, my name is” stage. But I have hope that we can go beyond this.
The ethics and safety issues will come along for the ride, but for me, it’s about the writing.

So, having established the why, the next question I ask myself is “how much do I care?”
What would I do if presented with an Al Uptonesque situation where I had to attend meetings with them upstairs wanting to “shut me down?”
As much as I love the idea of being a rebel (I still have my teenage size Che Guevara” t-shirt around somewhere) I think I’d roll over on this one pretty quickly. Maybe that makes me a big fraud. I think that blogging is a great way to engage children in the writing process, and learn about ethical and social considerations along the way. But it’s not the only way. I’m not willing to pin my career on it.
Don’t get me wrong, I applaud Al for fighting the good fight, and I support his right to put his case forward. Maybe when I’ve gained more experience, I’ll be in a position to offer help in a situation like this. I just suspect that if I was in a similar situation with the project as it stands, it would go into the too hard basket. Maybe I should be made of sterner stuff. Story of my life.

Now I realize that this view is unlikely to make me the poster boy for web 2.0 in education, but that’s not really what I’m looking for. At the moment, my fledging classroom blogging project is going well. I’m going to work hard to improve it and make it valuable for the kids.
Whatever works.

Classroom Blogging With 21 Classes

2008-04-03T12:04:00.006+03:00

I’ve now had a few sessions with each 5th grade class and things are starting to take shape with their blogs.

http://istg5b.21classes.com/ is probably the furthest along of the 4 classes – it’s starting to look good (though I’m not crazy about the background) and Alex, the classroom teacher, is adding some personal touches that I hope will encourage ownership of the site for her and her students.

21 Classes is working OK for me, though I’m not convinced that I won’t try something different the next time I do this. The way it is set up, with a portal linking to the various student blogs, is exactly what I was looking for. However, the interface isn’t very intuitive – it’s taken me a fair while to navigate to some fairly basic functions. The look of the blog isn’t as flexible as some of the others I’ve played around with. I’m struggling with little things – I’d like the news posts to be front and center, rather than hidden off in the side bar. I’m sure this can be done editing CSS in a custom layout, but I’m not really up to that, and would like to have something a little more WYSIWYG.

The big thing, though, is that the kids are excited. Today they created an avatar using Doppelme, next they’ll create a header and backgrounds using Twist, which arrived last week after being ordered in December 2006 (welcome to Africa).
I’m meeting the 5th grade teachers this afternoon to help them to jazz up their pages (and point out a few limitations)…early days yet, but I think the idea is gaining traction, and will hopefully be something that keeps going after I leave in June.

To keep up with the Mike testing stuff philosophy, I'm trying to post this directly from Flickr, using a screen shot I took with Jing.
Yes, I know I'm supposed to be laying off the new stuff for a while. Can't help myself. I'm turning into Supergimmickyweb2.0guy.

Pole Sana Arsenal

Band Wagon Boy Does Diigo

2008-03-28T11:51:00.005+03:00

Over the last few weeks, whenever anyone in the little group of educators I’ve been following through various blogs and forums have suggested jumping into something new, I’ve jumped. I haven’t asked how high – that would be pointless, because I’m not very good at jumping. But, to the best of my abilities, I’ve jumped.
And now, here comes Diigo. It’s been the real buzzword across Twitter and a number of blogs, notably here and here. And so, surprise, surprise, I’m jumping again.
But I’m promising myself this is the last time. At least for a little while. I still haven’t figured out how to use del.icio.us properly (yes, I’m a late starter), and now everyone’s saying that Diigo is bigger and better. I need to catch up. This is my Waterloo. Or something.

So today, I signed up. And so far, I haven’t made a lot of progress (the internet today in Dar es Salaam is even uglier than usual). The first thing I did was a little search. I can’t even remember what I was searching for now, but what I came across first was the Newspaper Clipping Generator. A nice little page, I think it’ll come in use soon.
From there, things have gone a little downhill. I decided that instead of starting from scratch, I’d import the 40 or so bookmarks I’ve made on delicious. After a fair bit of searching around (admittedly I was trying to do about 5 things at once, so I probably made hard work of it) I finally found this how to page. “Here we go, I’m laughing” he thinks. Unfortunately, all I’ve seen so far is a lot of these:

So, there are enough people to convinced by this to encourage me to keep trying. But I do have a sneaking suspicion I’m going to see a few more posts like this.

Come on Arsenal

What's Going On?

2008-03-25T12:24:00.001+03:00

When I was younger, I got myself into a bit of trouble. I did some things that I really shouldn’t have done.
Not in a “grrr, I’m a tough guy” sort of way. More “hey, look what they’re doing. I should do it too. Ooops.”
While on holiday, I’ve been reflecting on this part of my personality, an old habit that I’m not particularly proud of, and wondering if I’m back in the bad old days.
This year, I’ve made a conscious effort to jump into web2.0/blogging/twittering etc. I’ve been blown away by the number of talented educators blogging, sharing and innovating. I’ve (just today) started four 5th grade classes down the blogging path, and bored a few teachers with my plans.
But while I was in the middle of all this, something strange happened. Al Upton was threatened with legal action and had his well respected Minilegends blog shut down. Jabiz Raisdana lost his job in a mysterious blogging-related scandal. Graham Wenger postponed his blogging mentor program because of privacy concerns.
And here I am, desperately trying to immerse myself in the next big thing. What am I doing? Have I jumped in with the fringe freaks and geeks who are going to get me into some kind of trouble? Should I be keeping my head down? I mean, really – is this going to turn into a fight? Is it a fight I’m up for?
OK, maybe I’m being a bit overly dramatic. But I like my job. I like it a lot. I want to get better at it. So now I’m questioning myself. Is all this web 2.0 stuff helping?
For the most part, I think the answer is yes. We’re generally a good-hearted bunch, us teachers. Sure, we might get a bit carried away with the techie thing sometimes, but that’s just what geeks do. (I’m a geek and proud of it….If you’re reading this, you probably are too).

So, what then? Truth is, I just don’t know. Being careful is good. Sometimes I tend not to be (careful, that is, not good). I’m going to take a big breath and carry on.
Carefully.

Indulge Me, Please

2008-03-22T21:03:00.006+03:00

The focus of this blog is to document and share ideas about my journey as an IT teacher. I now believe I have something of an audience…thanks for visiting.
However, the blog is still essentially a personal indulgence. So I’m going to share some photos from the amazing safari I’ve just returned from.
Serengeti and Ngorongoro crater, right in the middle of migration. Not the river crossing, stomach churning, crocodile eating migration of the Discovery Channel, but a sea of grazing zebra and wildebeest, spreading in all directions, forming black seas of life on the horizon. Really, really breathtaking. It’s the last time I’ll make such a trip in the foreseeable future, and is one of the many reasons I’m going to miss this amazing county.

As well as indulging my need to share, this post gives me the chance to experiment with uploading photos to Flickr for the first time. I’m also going to try sharing the photos using Splashr, an idea I got from a recent post by Alice Mercer. I guess that fulfils the Mike testing part of my brief.

Come on Arsenal.

Web 2.0 - One Week Later

2008-03-12T09:35:00.003+03:00

Del.icio.us
This one has dried up a bit. Was interesting to realize that maybe I don’t visit as many websites as I thought I did. Blogs now going straight to google reader, which is taking up a bit of traffic. I probably need to look at the sharing side of this site.

Google Reader
It’s a guaranteed read every morning. Adding to my feeds every day – I’ve managed to keep it under control so far.

Twitter
This is the big one. I was wrong. Over the course of 6 days, I’m now following 11 people, and more amazingly, have 8 people bothering to listen to me! I’ve already been rewarded for this, with Sue pointing me in the direction of 21classes, which so far seems to be exactly what I was looking for.

Blogging
I found it really useful to write down my experiences with 21 classes yesterday. An interesting form of reflection. I’ve never been much of a one for writing things down, but for some reason, this seems different.
I’ve gotten over myself as far as not caring if anyone reads it though – an audience would be nice.

Facebook
Still don’t get it, probably will never get it. Virtual beer doesn’t do anything for me.

So, looks like the score is creeping up – 4-1 in favour of the 2.0.

Classroom Blogging - Building the Foundations

2008-03-11T19:46:00.002+03:00

I’ve spent a fair old part of this evening getting things ready for blogging with 5th grade.
After looking at the various options, I’ve decided to go with www.21classes.com. This decision was based on 2 main factors:
1. I like the simple teacher portal setup – the way it is set up with control for the teacher makes sense to me.
2. Edublogger seems reluctant to accept my login details, so that option is closed to me.

I’ve set out to make things as simple as possible for the classroom teachers, so have taken over the whole setup process to this point. First, I created a gmail account for each teacher, intended to be used specifically for their blogging experiments. I then created a 21classes account for each teacher, added a little class photo (something Al Upton seems to be having some concerns with – I don’t anticipate any issues here), then created 20-odd student blogs in each class. 3 out of four classes went fairly smoothly, but for some reason there’s a hitch with the last one. I’ve put an email in to support – will be interesting to see the response for that.

So, at the moment we have:

http://ist5a.21classes.com/

http://ist5c21classes.com/

http://ist5d.21classes.com/

Besides the class photos, there is nothing there of note at this stage.

Next step is a meeting with the classroom teachers, hopefully on Thursday.
There, I’d like to discuss how to best to introduce blogging to the students (planning on the first week after the break), and also explain some of the settings that the teachers have control over.

One of the frustrations of being a specialist IT teacher is that I only see these kids for a maximum of 80 minutes per week (usually 40). I can spend all the time in the world on this after school, but without the support of the classroom teachers, it’s not going to fly. Time to put my salesman hat on, and hope that I can convince the teachers of the benefits.

With only 10 ½ teaching weeks left in the year, this is very much a guinea pig arrangement – it will be interesting to see where this one goes.

Going all web 2.0

2008-03-06T15:03:00.004+03:00

OK, so I know it’s there.
I do think it’s a good idea.
Yes, to be honest, I talked about it my last job interview.
But, the truth I don’t really do web 2.0.
Sure, I read blogs. But anonymously, usually, with the odd exception starting to creep in now.
There are all kinds of excuses – probably the best of those being the quality of internet in Tanzania. But I need to know if it’s all worth it.
This blog is a start. With a confirmed readership of 2, I’ve jumped on the bandwagon.
But today, I had a few free lessons, so decided to have a go at taking some of this stuff seriously. Here’s what I achieved:

Del.icio.us
I’ve looked at this a couple of times before, but it just didn’t look exciting enough. But I spent some time both at home and school today, and I’m convinced. I’ll often find myself thinking “now, where did I put that…..”, before realizing I’d been working somewhere else (or not bothered to book mark at all). This is hopefully a solution to my lack of organization in bookmarking. I haven’t ventured into the sharing with others stuff yet, so I suppose calling it web 2.0 is a bit of a stretch. But I feel pretty good about how I’ll use this one in the future.

Google Reader
I logged onto this one a month or so ago, though “this is really great”, and signed up to about 10 news feeds that the site offered (BBC and such). After about a day, I was so bamboozled by the amount of articles coming in, that I gave up. When I logged in today, there were 1000+ unread articles. So, new strategy. I got rid of all the news feeds (if I really need to know about all that, stuff.co.nz is enough for me) and put in about a dozen blogs, mainly edublogs and Arsenal stuff. Now hopefully I’ll be able to be more consistent with my blog reading, leave more comments, create a network, etc.etc.blah.blah. Sigh, it seems so easy. So there’s another hit for me, I think.

Twitter
Miss. Online me is far too shy to punch in names of people I don’t really know for a bar of soap, and start chatting to them in real time. This may come later, but for now, I have a network of 0 people. Not convinced.

Flickr
I’ve only had time for a really quick look at this. It sounds great – I’d love to have a concrete example of something kids can use besides Google Images – that’s a tough sell for 5th graders:
“Will we get arrested?”
“No, probably not”
“OK, why worry then?”
“Errr….”
I’m still a little confused by the CC licensing….seems that’s an option for whoever uploads the photo. More research needed.

Blogging
Yep, I think I’m beginning to like it.

OK, so that’s 3 points for, 1 against, and 1 DNF.
There might be something to all this.
Now to try it with kids……

Late entrant: Facebook
I don't get it. Not at all. 3-2

The Friday List

2008-02-29T11:12:00.002+03:00

Friday is list day.
On a light week I only have 1 3rd grade class and a couple of meetings, so I try to spend the rest of the time getting through a list of stuff that has accumulated over the week (or month).
On todays list:

Moodle
We started the Jua site at the beginning of the school year, with mixed success. It's taken off with some teachers in the high school, which is where it's most obvious links lie. I've had sucess with some 5th grade classes, mainly using forums.
This morning some parents from EC 1/2 came in for training as Moodle Mums. They've volunteered to manage a Moodle page for their teachers. Basically a secure website with photos of recent events. I got the idea from the American School of Paris when I visited last year. There are still a few things to iron out, but I think it has potential. Getting the parents involved means that keeping things up to date is not as taxing on teachers time.

Keys
Man, what a hassle. And very boring to blog about too.

Blogging
In the 5th grade planning meeting yesterday, I dicussed the possibility of introducing blogging to the dhildren. After a few "what is a blog" debates, they've agreed to give it a go. So here I am, having made all kinds of promises about how great blogging will be. Now I've got to figure out how to impliment them in a way which will enthuse both the kids and their class teachers. If I don't keep the teachers on board, things will crash pretty fast (as they have with my 3rd grade podcasting efforts - a long and depressing saga).
So, the big issue right now.....
Where should the children blog?
Moodle has a blogging opition, but I've not heard good things about it - need to have a play.
http://classblogmeister.com Seems like a good idea, but I've yet to find one that has been implimented well.
http://edublogs.org/ Seems the've changed from learnerblogs.org, need to research that some more.
http://www.blogger.com
And the list goes on.
So many ideas, so little clue. Need to research a lot. I'd really like this one to be a success.

Yes, there's more to the list, but that stuff is even less interesting than the above.

For whatever reason, the spellcheck is not working on this post...apologies for the mistakes.

Come on Arsenal.

Google Earth - the Sky Button

2008-02-27T10:32:00.001+03:00

AlphaSmarts and Google Earth – I know I’m not breaking any new ground technologically here, but maybe that’s just where we’re at here in TZ at the moment!

I just had some great fun with a Grade 1 class using the new Google Earth (version 4.2). Lots of imagination going on as we entered the spaceship (lab)….space suits on, buckle yourself in etc. etc. Then, after a dramatic countdown, we were flying through space, zooming towards Dar es Salaam. After touring the city, we flipped around and visited the planets – a feature available in the new version with the Sky button. Lots of ooohing and ahhhing as we explored the solar system. With the younger children a 25 minute group activity was a really interesting way of kicking off their new unit. Unfortunately, with the bandwidth we’re getting at the moment, whole class is about as far as I can go with an internet-heavy application such as this. I’d love to use this later in the year in a similar unit that Grade 5 are doing, but I think I’m going to have to fiddle around with caching quite a bit before that’s an option.

I love it here, but can’t help looking forward to the internet resources I’ll have at my fingertips next school year in Bahrain.

Where to Blog? What to Blog?

2008-02-22T08:35:00.005+03:00

I've set aside some time today to concentrate on blogging.
I'll probably end up adding to/deleting from this post all day. Or writing many small posts, which is a style I prefer.
Blogging style is the focus of Graeme Wegner's latest post (one of my favorite places to lurk). It's almost convinced me to hit the comment trail again...maybe I'll build up the nerve for that later. It's definitely something I'll have to consider if I keep this up...how do I write? A lot depends on audience I guess, which may or may not be an issue.
I've pretty much committed to writing about computer/school related stuff. Of course, if something interesting like a George W. protest comes along, I'm not against posting about that either. One of the problems I've got in the "what to write" category is that most of the blogs I read have answers...seems all have is questions. Guess I 'll see how that goes, maybe I know more than I think.
The other big question is where to blog. Many of the blogs I lurk use Edublogs. I logged on there today, created an account, and played around. Didn't have much luck. So with my usual tenacity, I've given up and decided to stay with Blogger. It just seems...nice. Time will tell.

AlphaSmarts

2008-02-20T13:09:00.002+03:00

OK, I’m trying a bit of modelling here, typing this on an AlphaSmart. They’ve not ever really caught on here, which is a shame, because I think they’re a great resource in a school that can’t afford 1:1.
The big issue we have at our campus is the physical space – lots of uneven ups and downs, gravel ramps that go the long way around. This means teachers needing to pre-plan to book them, and they’re generally reluctant to do this as they’re not convinced that it’s worth the effort. If I could get them in and out of a classroom in 2 minutes, I don’t think it would be long before they were in high demand.
I tried a “model classroom” idea earlier in the year with Grade 2, but that didn’t catch on. Maybe the wrong teachers, the wrong kids, not enough support from me…maybe entirely the wrong approach. Kristy, a new 3rd Grade teacher, has shown some interest, so maybe I’ll try again with her class.
Something teachers have shown interest in is using the AlphaSmart in ESL or special needs situations. I’ve not been in favour of this – I like the idea of keyboards becoming an integral part of the writing process for all children, not just those who have difficulty handwriting. I NEVER write anything by hand anymore – typing on this AlphaSmart is the furthest I’ve been from a computer in terms of writing in a long time. I really believe that computers should be part of the writing process, including drafting and editing, and not just a publishing tool.
But maybe I’m wrong?
Anyway, the point of this little ramble is that I’m going to try to write posts with a point. I’m hoping that musing over things like this will help with my transition over to RVIS. I intend to write as if I have an audience – that may help me to stick at it. Then again, maybe I was right before, and this will be the last post I write. I hope not though. I get a kick out of reading other peoples blogs, and the community aspect of it really interests me. This might be what I need to light a fire.

OK – lots of maybes in the waffle above.
My plan:
-Move the AlphaSmart trolley up to 3rd grade.
-Call in for a couple of extra lessons with the kids.
-Drop by weekly for the next month and see if any progress has been made.

There. I wrote something down. I feel much better now.

Right, no more blogging (or thinking about it) until Friday. Addictive personality kicking in

Come on Arsenal.

Protest March in TZ

2008-02-20T11:06:00.001+03:00

Not sure if this is going to work - a bit of an experiment based on what I've seen on other blogs. Tracey and I were having lunch the other day when this anti-Bush protest came by - he was due in town the next day.

And a-one and a-two and...

2008-02-20T10:25:00.000+03:00

OK,I gave up on this a year and a half ago.

What did I learn from a blog that I left sitting for over a year? That people don't just randomly read blogs. Sure I've done it a bit - maybe seen about 30 or so with the next blog button. But unless some self promotion is done, it's unlikely anyone will read what you're writing. So I wrote a blog (6 whole entries!) that sat readerless for quite some time.

I'm still not going to do any self promotion. I am going to have another go at blogging though.

What this will probably mean is 4 or 5 earnest posts in the next week, then nothing for another year. But I'll give it a try. Maybe everyone else is right and writing things down is a good idea.I guess I should be setting a goal for the blog, but I think I'll go one step at a time. If I'm still writing anything in a month, I'll revisit that.More ramblings later today I imagine....that's how things usually go for me. Might post a little video. Then at least I'm learning something new.

Since writing the above, I've decided to scrap and start again from scratch, using my new gmail account. Gives me an excuse to play around with themes a bit more at least.