Wednesday 26 August 2009

Continuous Partial Attention

What an interesting concept! How can visualise exactly what that means.
This quote neatly summarises:

"I believe attention is the most powerful tool of the human spirit. We can enhance or augment our attention with practices like meditation and exercise, diffuse it with technologies like email and Blackberries, or alter it with pharmaceuticals. In the end, though, we are fully responsible for how we choose to use this extraordinary tool."

Visit this site to learn more: http://www.lindastone.net

Sunday 23 August 2009

NSW Education Twitterati-What Concerns Them? Part 2


What's being mentioned in the Twitterverse?

Often, it is about "change" and how hard to is to get traction.

Horse to water etc versus don't let them get you down!

Also, various tweets about DETNSW:

DETNSW laptop rollout.



My thoughts? It's all good!

Must-read for Teachers Evaluating Online Products

Fine print.
We were always told not to forget to read the fine print for any service, product, contract etc.

What about the fine print at the bottom of websites in truly tiny print?

Website review checklists are in abundance on the net. Caution, most of them were designed for reviewing regular content-based web pages.

What about the web2.0 or social media websites?
Those that are in fact commercial services or products.

It's all in the Terms of Service (ToS) and Privacy requirements.

Much, much more to follow.

Saturday 22 August 2009

10 Most Dangerous Things Users Do Online, The Staff of Dark Reading

10 Most Dangerous Things Users Do Online, The Staff of Dark Reading:

"End users — god bless ‘em. You can’t live with ‘em — but without them, you wouldn’t have a job. They’re the reason you have an IT infrastructure; they’re also the single greatest threat to the security of that infrastructure.

Because, in the end, most users have no idea how dangerous their online behavior is.

No matter how many times they train them, no matter how many classes they hold, most IT professionals still watch helplessly as end users introduce new malware because they 'just couldn’t resist looking at the attachment.' Security pros cringe as their users download software for personal use, turn off firewalls to speed up a connection, or leave their passwords stuck to their laptops."

My comments: Follow this link to read the whole article. It is a must-read if you are an end-user in any enterprise.

It is also vital reading for teachers as they review website products and services for student access.

Tuesday 18 August 2009

Online Safety: Opportunities for Learning with Social Media Applications


Great UK interactive esafety website

The site reports:
"The keynote addresses were all well-received, and these can be found on the ICP website. The one from Michael Furdyk was particularly interesting in this digital age, and one should check out http://tigweb.org/ to see the value of social networking as a learning tool. It is extremely powerful and would be worth sharing with teachers and students. Let’s hope that the nanny state mentalities of some politicians and media commentators don’t prevent Australian children from being able to use this wisely as part of their learning, as social networks can be there for a social good. Michael also referred to a site that could be useful for young people in handling
cyberbullying, so you might like to see what your students think of http://www.thatsnotcool.com/

My comments:
My delicious bookmarks for online safety are a starting point for gaining the knowledge necessary to make informed decisions.

I love Google Part 2

A wiki devoted to using google docs

34 Interesting Ways to Use Search Engines in the Classroom

Google Images Adds Usage Rights Filters, Simplifies SafeSearch

PC World - USA writes about how Google has made explicit image filtering much easier.

Google Apps Case Study - Maine Township High School District

Lucy Gray's Google custom search engine


Easily incorporate Google Apps into your curriculum with these classroom-ready lesson plans.

Look at all Kevin Jarrett's google links on the left side of his blog.



12 best places to get free images for your site

12 best places to get free images for your site:

Another set of useful Jane Hart finds:

12 best places to get free images for your site, TechRadar, 12 August 2009

Social Media In Learning: This week's blog postings

Social Media In Learning: This week's blog postings: "

Check out these useful links via Jane Hart on her Social Media in Learning Blog .


Thursday 13 August 2009

The National Safe Schools Framework

The site explains:
"The Australian Government has a strong interest in the wellbeing and safety of young people. It believes that all students have the right to learn in a safe and supportive environment that is free from bullying and victimisation.
This Government continues to work closely with state and territory education authorities to ensure that all measures are taken to deal with bullying. There are a number of initiatives being undertaken to address this issue in Australian schools. "

Read the advice at the SafeSchools website.

'Teens Don't Tweet,' Study Says

Does it matter? Why?
Who cares exactly?
What are they missing?
Why is this conversation important?

Chronicle of Higher Education study.

I am not sure students can benefit greatly from using twitter. I am sure there are lots of opinions out there.

Monday 10 August 2009

Future Thinking-Vision Works

Vision Mapper
If you are embarking on school redesign, planning a curriculum change or need support for long-term strategy setting, then Vision Mapper, a free online resource, will help. Vision Mapper has a wide range of practical group activities and inspirational materials, including six possible future scenarios, current trends to consider when planning for the future and case-studies of successful long-term planning initiatives to help you create a reliable long-term vision and strategy for your organisation.

Try the Beyond Current Horizons for scenarios too.

More school related thinking comes from Wes Fryer in this post.

Professional Learning- Topping up ICT Skills

More sites to enhance professional learing with ICT skills.

HP and intel "Digital Learning Environments and Resources" has a range of resources to explore on professional learning with web 2.0 tools, laptops and other tools.

This link highlights some Twitter users whose tweets are worth following.

Monday 3 August 2009

Learning about Wikis and Blogs - Great Resources Abound!

Introduction to wikis, a useful YouTube video.

Anne-Maree Moore has a useful wiki dedicated to IWB tips and tools.

A very comprehensive web 2.o tools wiki by Sondra Munro.

The following are some super wikis by American teachers.
http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/
http://www.digitalpencil.org/Wikis.aspx
http://t4.jordan.k12.ut.us/t4
http://www.jabernethy.com/portfolio
http://monarchlibrary.wikispaces.com/dialastory
Using wikispaces tutorial

Team blogging ideas for professional learning.

Managing your personal brand through blogging

Using YouTube for Teaching

Why not set up you own page for saving favourites?

YouTube also keeps you up to date with what is new from those people whose videos you like.

Check out my page and you may want to follow some of these people too.

http://www.youtube.com/user/etpet900

How to Use YouTube in the Classroom
Offers a brief video tutorial about educational uses for the video-sharing Web site.

Other video sharing sites include:
http://edublogs.tv
http://vodpod.com

Online Safety-Useful Links and Concepts

Security company McAfee has an advice centre useful for parents and teachers.

A useful site for educators on being net savvy.

My delicious links on online safety will also be a good place to start to find out what guidance is available nationally and internationally.

Miguel Guhlin has written about revising AUPs to keep up with threats and issues related to social media learning.

A school district internet safety links

More on cybersafety.

Exploring OneNote for Learning

I don't know anything about this Microsoft product. These are my finds so far.

I'll be keeping an ear open to what functions this tool will be put to by students and teachers in NSW public schools.

http://blogs.msdn.com/onenote_and_education/

http://blogs.msdn.com/descapa/archive/2009/07/14/onenote-included-in-all-office-editions.aspx

http://www.iheartonenote.com/#meteor=mTyDfezLjkb

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdi67tnx6nA

Sunday 2 August 2009

Should I create a new blog on a different platform?

I have been thinking about setting up a new blog.

In fact, yesterday I even got the edublogs sign-in page up and ready to go!
But, at the last minute I hesitated, thinking, do I really need another blog?

The sensible answer is probably no. The emotional answer continues to be yes.

I believe, I can separate my posts into websites useful for learning for my new blog and other types of posts to remain with this blog to ensure I do justice to two blogs.

I still use "Blog This!" an awful lot as the lazy person's way of blogging topics of interest.

I will spend time checking out the useful information at these sites.

Getting started

Check out these class blogs

New edublogs features

This is a work in progress ... what are the issues?