Welcome to Andy's first blog what's this blog going to cover Tech for Good, Outdoor stuff and challenge Adventure and some fun stuff you didn't know about me. Why Andy's Black Hole? Well it was going to be called Andy's Ramblings from edge but Katrina Lambert came up with a better suggestion. What’s it for? A place Andy can dump all the things he come across that might be useful to those people living the dream of #Justdoinggood
Got a project or activity/approach in your teaching you want to talk about it. Can you do it in 7 minutes or 2 minutes well go on sign up at the teachmeet at BETT . Going to teachmeet never mind presenting can seriously change the way you think . What you think isnt that much might be a spark for someone else so go on sign up at http://teachmeet.pbworks.com/w/page/33799374/Teachmeet-@BETT-2011
Go on come along or even better be brave and sign up on the wiki to speak.
This look like an interesting event complete with a Mirandamod and those great people from sounds of the bazaar . Plus organisers who I was lucky enough to meet when presenting at Online Educa in Berlin .
What really impresses me is the aim to seek out the practice here and now and the emerging practice and attempting to look at new and emerging technologies seems great.
Well Ok I was on the selection team but what a great range of people nominated by other people . From the teachers battling to bring technology into classrooms and importantly sharing it widely to people doing massive global things but in a grass roots way Sugata Mitra ,Iris lapinski . To unsung Heroes like Leon Cynch Tom Cooper who are plugging away sharing others good practice or there own massive experience .
You've just got to vote and off course its by the stealth technology of SMS . So go on vote NOW and remember a bit like elections if you dont vote you cant moan . International and hyperlocal its got the lot. review list and voting procedure at http://www.learningwithoutfrontiers.com/lwf-awards-finalists-2011/
Just returned from the stimulating and stunning Online Educa Berlin conference http://www.online-educa.com. Cant put my finger on why it was so good. the location ( cold but beautiful) , The programme (amazing varied and trans sectoral and trans national) or the participants ( the back channel and networking outside session was huge) but it was great . I planned to present a lovely session on Ethics around use of new emerging digital technologies with good friends John Traxler,Karl Bell ,Geoff Stead, Frances Bell,Mark Childs and Steve Wheeler . But of course things turned out differently.
A big thing at Educa is the debate and this years was to be no exception This year’s motion being
Donald Clark board member of UFI was planning to be one of the protagonists supporting the motion along side
Suzanne Aurilio, San Diego State University, USA (for)
Richard Straub, European Learning Industry Group (ELIG), France (for)
Alan Bruce, ULS – Universal Learning Systems, Ireland (against)
Donald famous for amongst many things his robust debating style and his blog ironically called "there is no plan B" Got badly stuck with the snow in the UK and Gatwick being closed and via a twist of fate me being asked to fill his slot.
Hard act to follow/replace but at 4 hours notice !Now if I believe in the motion or not its irrelevant the thing was to have a good debate . My co debaters were brilliant fun.
Amazingly we managed to carry the motion taking a robust stance looking across all sectors of education and training.
The photo shows sight of seeing one a appearing normal size on the stage and 30 foot high image in projected HD behind you is somewhat Orwellian.
Great programme talk anbout the relationship with people and the development of the mobile phone. Nice piece http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00w6ljy I hope non uk readers can listen to it via the link.
I am thinking of starting a directory or maybe twitter campaign of venues for conference that say they have wifi but its not up to scratch . Its so disappointing and distracting when a venue say it has wifi and then you turn up and
its not free
it wont let you all sign in ( wifi for 1 or 2 delegates not all)
its f lackey either slow or throws you off with no explanation
Anyone fancy joining campaign for decent WiFI at conferences !
Facebook going for world domination if they havent already . While attending a great event "Mobile technology and Social Change, A view from the Global South": Arranged and hosted by Cambridge NetSquared Meetup Group ,Net2Camb co-hosted by the Humanitarian Centre I discovered 0.facebook.com never heard of it that because if your in europe you cant access it . But in Africa nad elsewhere its free on mobile devices ie you don't pay for data/connection costs . Interesting and not sure how I feel about it. I cant fathom if its paid for by networks ( I think so) or facebook .
Bet youve heard of it but it was news to me question is it differrent to mobile facebook site http://m.facebook.com
I attended Mobile technology and Social Change: in Cambridge last night A view from the Global South http://www.meetup.com/Net2Camb/calendar/15018978/ Ken Banks of Frontline SMS http://www.frontlinesms.com/ was the main speaker Ken has his own blog at http://www.kiwanja.net in my opinion one of those global good guys but a real pragmatist. He shared many thoughts but the one that struck a chord is if you going to build something for use in developing countries ( tech or non tech I think these principles apply . Ken Absolutely brilliant insight ! I think a modified version also could be applied for education technology applications but thats my own personal opinion.
must be obvious to plug together
if you have to buy stuff it has to be available locally
Pegging the price or free
go forth and multiply
the connection community choose technology that works maybe not the internet
connect your communities with no filters
multidisciplinary approach
thinking appropriately choose what works
collaboration not comtetion between NGO's
engage entertain connect
dont lose sight of the bigger picture
Met loads of very interesting people all trying to make a difference of which I will blog more later.
I had great pleasure presenting at #letstalkabouttxt7 in Leeds on Tuesday thought I would share presentation . Now its not just about education its the whole SMS phenomena . 160 characters can carry a lot especially with emerging use of short urls to smart phones
The education uses are obvious sharing links to sessions course etc and for presenters sharing links related to a presentation just got a whole lots easier yippee!!
Well the Graham Brown Martin a character described by tech commentator Bob Harrison as "a bit of a Marmite character tasty but only if thinly spread" has done it again. Digital agitator ,digital irritant creative spark what ever you call him has shook things up again with Ap(p)tly named Sunday service (let us play).
With Jason Bradbury's Dot.Robot Show for a start it is hardly likely to be lame . Chuck in a dash Experiences, Futures & Apps A chance to get hands-on with some of the latest tech and meet with creators and manufacturers such as Nintendo, Apple, Sony Computer Entertainment, Microsoft Xbox, Made In Me, Texas Instruments and Promethean plus the Learners Y Factor Final with Jason Bradbury With young people showing how there using tech above and below the education radar .
Bloody H*ll the list goes one There's an App for That!, Edu punk and a teachmeet .
The phrase never on A Sunday has well and trully been smashed . Plus its free registration and details http://www.learningwithoutfrontiers.com/sunday-service-ldn/#reg Having worked with Graham at the first festival day really pleased to see it brought to another level.
Now I know MACS dont suffer with viruses ( NOT true) but if your sensible this might be owrth dont loading. Apple fans dont leave yourselves wide open to attack . Nice hhome version is free to well done Sophos !
Thanks to my Glasgow correspondent ( alongside me we run the cynics column) John Trinder for providing some great links for those finding interest in QR codes (where have you been for the last four years). Yes they are going to be big yes even the Americans get them ( only joking) and the Japanese have been using them actively for years .
If Coca Cola use them in a promotion campaign they must be pretty mainstream
Yep there useful no there not the be all and end all . if you want to get some ideas do qr codes Japan or similar as a web search you will find a novel range of uses a lot around marketing of course .
Each MEX Scholar receives a full participant pass (usually £1499) to attend MEX on 30 Nov - 01 Dec in London. The MEX Scholarships are there to help people rich in ideas, but low on budget, to take part at MEX and share their thoughts on making better mobile experiences. details on the scholarship can be found at http://pmn.co.uk/mex/scholarships09m.shtml important closing date is Thursday 21October at 23.00 London time.
The 8th international MEX is entitled '6 pathways to the mobile UX horizon' and brings together 100 people from across mobile, media & design to actively create new ideas for enhancing the mobile user experience. The full agenda is here:
Telekom South Africa has 4.3 million fixed line users but saw voice traffic fall by 9.3%. Its now launched a mobile offering 8ta’s call charges will be about 60 percent lower than the average rates South African mobile-phone users now pay, . Customers will earn free air time by receiving calls, and 50 free text messages for the rest of the day after sending at least five messages.
“We are targeting as many users as possible,” he said, adding Telkom wants users to talk more on the phone. South Africa has an average of 90 minutes of monthly use per client, compared with 160 minutes in Chile and 190 minutes in Turkey, countries with similar levels of gross domestic product per capita, he said. What's good is now there are four mobile providers in South Africa as oppossed to three . The Mobile market is still a bit of a wild west but as alongside the likes of Kenya shows real signs of maturing. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-15/telkom-s-8ta-service-aims-for-15-of-south-africa-s-mobile-phone-market.html
US teen are sending and receiving 3,339 texts a month . Six an hour when there awake and remembers mobiles are banned in lot of US schools .
The growth in data use in specific groups is very notable. Much of this boost is led by males, who are more gadget-savvy and consume 75 MB of data, versus 17 MB in Q2 last year. Teen females use about 53 MB of data, compared to 11 MB a year ago.
Weve all the seen the amazing scenes of Chilean miners being rescued this week . But the most thought provoking was little 500ml water bottle being fed down the supply tube to the miners to keep them alive .
Clean safe water in one of the driest places on earth the Atacama desert contrast with recent flooding in Pakistan with millions of people surround by billions of litres of flood water and it all being unsafe to drink . So when you clean your teeth have a drink just think . Providing safe water isnt a luxury lets make it a right.
Plus if you do one thing just read this blog post from Neil Winton and pupils at Perth Academy where he teaches . Great example of young people helping other congratulations to the pupils and especially the pupils that pitched the idea read the great story.
The irony of mobile telecoms companies usurping the banks in parts of the world as way of moving money around in the aftermath of the global banking crisis is not lost on me .
Oh and by the way Apple ,Android fans its a Nokia!
Well I have seen DK for a while but the media snackers brand is one of truest to its brands of those working with social media. Working with Stakeholders and more importantly young stakeholders in the world of social
Great video for you to watch but also to show others who aren't convinced great delivery DK and strong message get on with it social media isn't a fad !!
Great competition (read below) if your a developer and your truly suggest they run a parallel competion for young people go on world bank how about ?
We're challenging the public to create innovative software applications that move us a step closer toward solving some of the world's most pressing problems.
Involving mobile and open data around the millenium development goals The Competition challenges participants to develop software applications related to one or more of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Submissions may be any kind of software application, be it for the web, a personal computer, a mobile handheld device, console, SMS, or any software platform broadly available to the public. The only other requirement is that the proposed application use one or more datasets from the World Bank Data Catalog available at data.worldbank.org.
Applications submitted to the Competition should address at least one of the following objectives:
Raise awareness of at least one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), or
Contribute to progress toward meeting one of the MDGs by 2015.
Applications which best satisfy the competition criteria will receive cash prizes and the opportunity to have their apps featured on the World Bank Open Data website. Competition participants are encouraged to also use other relevant indicators and datasets, and to be creative in exploring approaches for realizing the goals.
At Molenet conference today http://www.molenet.org.uk which is showcasing the good work from the Molenet project and funding over last three years . The project mainly based on capital funding has had some brilliant outcomes. You can down load some of the major research reports at http://www.molenet.org.uk/pubs/
Also following Ken banks tweets from Mobile Web in Africa conference http://www.mobilewebafrica.com/ both worth a real look and the compare contrast is very powerful .
Well worth a look mobile is a really diverse place long may it remain so.
Schools from across Europe are invited to participate in this exciting competition to demonstrate their achievements by saving energy in an effort to move towards a more sustainable future. The first round of the U4energy competition will be officially launched in September 2010. You can submit your schools' activities in energy consumption habits until May 2011 website and more detail is at http://www.u4energy.eu/
This report that came out on the 19th of August (Ok I missed it I was on holiday) The state of play in the communications market in the UK is full of hidden gems. I of course have chosen some choice ones here
Use of telecoms services continued to grow in 2009. Total mobile call volumes increased by 7% in 2009 (page 319), while the number of text messages increased by 25% . There was also a massive increase in data use: we estimate that total data volumes over the UK’s internet infrastructure increased by 68% during 2009, and data volumes over mobile networks increased by 240%.
Interestingly revenues have grown in some areas and declined in others but what are the trends I am no market analyst but
Mobile
Subscription services (TV)
Marked activity changes across age groups gender
Social network usage has grown massively but the platforms used have waxed and waned
If you believe learning take places outdooors and links to the land environment this is the event for you.
Those of my regular readers know my passion for the outdoors be it mountaineering cycle touring and canoeing . They also know my passion for tech but what links them all is my love of landscape .
I used to train and work with students wanting to work with wildlife trust national parks and the like . Teaching botany estate skills geography and even arboriculture (dab hand with a chain saw). Even in the late 80's I had students setting up mini companies selling bird boxes using the web to promote them and using some of the first GPS kit to map land.
But the best is discovery learning and environmental activities (there not just games) . I've also picked up a lot of experience around tech since then .
Martin Waller from Holly Trinity Rosehill CEVAP school is hosting the Growing Greener futures conference http://www.growing-greener.co.uk/conference/ and along with some great keynotes by Juliet Robertson of (CreativeSTAR Learning) doing a slot called ‘Beyond the Box: Creative Learning Outside the Classroom’ Ollie Bray (National Advisor for Learning and Technology Futures) ‘Outdoor Learning and Digital Technologies’
there are a whole load of workshops going on I am running a session (working title) entitled from Map sticks to memory sticks and Clay tablets to tablet computers . doing some very practical and low tech activities and building on them and adding a tech twist . Even doing it on a day off ;-)
The session ideas arose and to be frank the inspiration came out of attending Learning on the beach http://lob10.wikispaces.com/#Lob10 last June on the West Coast of Island organised By Angella and John Davitt /writer/broadcaster digital tool maker
Now this story if it comes true could be more of a game changer than the Ipad and one to excite and concern those working around digital literacy and especially e safety . It has the whiff of promotion but interesting idea and to be honest will happen maybe later than sooner its a logical step. The whole issue of producing stuff at scale for such a new and emerging tech is one to ponder but Apple have done it before .
The 17th International conference of the Association for Learning Technology istaking place in Nottingham on 7 - 9 September 2010 . The closing date for going is looming so go on book on it.
Why the title is intriguing enough but some of the keynotes swing it for me Donald (There is no plan B) Clark donald ex Ceo of Epic board member of UFI and digital agitator (sorry Donald) Sugate Mita of Newcastle Uni famous for the whole in the wall computer programme and loads of other stuff Sudhir Giri Head of Google Learning labs ex Nasa
The invited speakers are also great including my personal favourite David (Digital Visitors V Digital Residents) White of Oxford Uni and the upfront and honest Frank McLoughin Principal of City of Islington College
Charity text details of the framework can be found on the MDA Charity Text site http://www.charitytext.org/ basically operators have waived fees and allowed you to donate in units of of £5.00, £10 etc from phone credit . Basically a brilliant idea nad if the the tax people sort out ability to gift aid as well it could be even better. But for an industry some like to kick I would like to give them a huge thumbs up . Next time you see an appeal reach for the phone and use those thumbs wisely to send a charity text !!
Text messaging is still the universal lowest common denominator in communication using a phone other than voice .
Great article worth a read and please before all you Apple fan boys and girls and Android types shout at me just look at some of the global stats for SMS .
The UK’s most comprehensive broadband speeds research reveals that the UK’s average actual fixed-line residential broadband speed has increased by over 25 per cent over the past year.
Basically Google apps for government they have won approval under Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) certification. US based servers security etc. . Coming to the UK very soon I suspect very worth watching closely . Interestingly the cloud nature could support outsourced /franchised opperations more easily and maybe popular route with current UK administration .
If you haven't yet yet picked up on the work by Scott Newcomb and colleagues in Ohio you should.
Scott's school district has taken the great step of allowing every 3rd to 6th grade learner a mobile learning device. In my earlier post I mentioned how the US is catching up fast in the mobile space .
Scott's website http://www.smriders.net/Mobile_Learning is a great place to start if your looking for ideas , acceptable use policies helpful hints. It could save you hours of trawling the web and maybe costly time consuming mistakes. Now I am not saying cloning but look at it take ideas and give them your own twist/flavour . Now I am a fan of working with learner owned device but in primary (and secondary) that can be tricky so Scott's and colleagues approach is one way to proceed. .
But great work by Scott colleagues and his learners needs shouting about .
The strap line to the project of
The 4 C's with MLDs - Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration, Creativity
alone makes it worth visiting.
go on have a look I am planning on interviewing Scott later in the summer so anyone got any questions leave them as a comment.
I hate to say it but is the US catching up or overtaking the UK in the US of Smart Phones in education. Notable UK success such as Paul Haigh at Notre Damm school in Sheffield to name but one are begining to be matched by trialsd and sometimes big roll out in the US.
Interesting mix of state and commercial mobile phone company funding !!
75% of all teenagers (and 58% of 12-year-olds) now have a mobile phone. Almost 90% of phone-owning teens send and receive texts, most of them daily. Half send 50 or more texts a day; one in three send 100. In fact, in barely four years, texting has established itself as comfortably "the preferred channel of basic communication between teens and their friends".http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jul/16/teenagers-mobiles-facebook-social-networking
Seconldy from Bill Thomson technology correspondent of the BBC Another great headline step away from the Ipod contrasting current statements as mobile phones being legitimate items for student searches . http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10635333
both very funny but read and reflect a while !! Now where have I put my phone !
Now this has been out a while but just realised from twitter that people hadnt noticed so watch the slideshare(how else) to embed Youtube video into slideshare.
Mike Wesch of Kansas University along with Dr. Terry Anderson. Professor & Canada Research Chair in Distance learning my top two academic keynotes has done it again using his and his students medium of choice video. this specific video is nearly three years old . But still interesting
Great video
A Vision of Students Today
I also love his one on community college (FE in the UK ). parody of the wesch video interesting contrast to Kansas state.
Tony Vincent learninginhand.com has done this excellent post with the aim of helping people manage classroom or school roll outs of IPod touches all common sense but frankly tremendous advice all in one place . I would add one make the home screen image either number or name of iPod student so if you get confused try to power it up and you recognise the image/device. But great list Tony Cheers.
facebook style like and dislike comes to the real world in the form of stickers and staps this sort of amuses me and is blurring of virtual and real again. US based http://www.123print.com/Like-Dislike
take with a pinch of salt but interesting set of reviews of online whiteboard just shows much functionality is now available in this space. Its also going to grow and grow.
Thanks to David to pointing out this on the Microsoft Office Labs site .
Through it discovered a range of useful tools add ones pptPlex for PowerPoint. It uses Plex technology to give you the power to zoom in and out of slide sections and move directly between slides that are not sequential in your presentation. Watch the videos below to see how pptPlex can help you organize and present information in a non-linear fashion. Test drive pptPlex and wow your audience with your next presentation. Its a free add on for Office get it at http://www.officelabs.com/projects/pptPlex/Pages/default.aspx The Forgotten Attachment Detector (FAD) Great name does just that actually guys so does Gmail and Thunderbird 3
Speed Launch a short cut to anywhere Very neat drag any file into speed launch bulls eye area tag and any time you want it go to the bulls eye and click on the name you gave it it appears . Very cool! http://www.officelabs.com/projects/speedlaunch/Pages/default.aspx#
Well I am a huge Gmail user and have embedded skype and twitter names into the signature as well as my blog but uptil now its been plain text. Well those clever chaps at google have now allowed you to embed rich text so hyperlinks,colours,emboldened italics etc . It also allows multiple signatures for email email address associated with your account. Yet another sign Gmail is heading head long into the business and institutional area, . Well done chaps !!
Lifelong learning linked to mobile . A lot of research in Mobile has been in the area of formal learning and findings have been mixed. . But the area of informal learning and mobile has been under researched and you dont have to be guru to realise mobile has made huge impacts here . This project has looked at policy implication in area of Life Long Learning of mobile technologies four partners
Now I love the hero as an android phone but will acknowledge hands down as will others like @jamesclay the onscreen keyboard isnt great. The iphone does win there but I have been trying out the thickbuttons apps from the android market place. This changes the size of the keyboard buttons according to your previously typed words or by words its predicts spelling of. It takes a little while to get used to but I definitely like it . Worth having a look and of course its free!
The N-Quire project arose out of the personal Inquiry project involving Nottingham University and the Open University .
Involved developing a approach of scripted enquiry learning working with 11-14 year olds to carry out Scientific explorations . They approach linked classrooms, school environment ,homes and local area supported by mobile technologies shared spaces . They used 4 pieces of "mobile Kit"
asus eepc
garmin GPS
digital camera
date logger and sensors
The project developed a web or locally loaded computer toolkit (authored in drupal). Learners looked at
organic v non organic food looking at storage, and other issues. Including letting food decompose in learners mum fridges
The effect of noise and disturbance on wild bird feed habits around schools
fitness activity
Interesting projects involving working with learners from Nottingham and Milton Keynes schools
scripted enquiry tool can be used online or downloaded and hosted locally . The project is looking at future work using integrated devices for data collection ie Iphone Android phones
Is it a tablet is a pad is it a book. The new dual screen libretto by Toshiba showcased by engadget cant work out how to use it guys well use your imagination I can . the lower screen keyboard different language set up symbol set up for specialist users . The obvious games platform potential and the potential for integrating gps with maps on one screen satellite photo on other etc . the potential for graphics use in education is obvious to me and the touch pad is obvious in this area.
Proof of concept maybe but to be honest its got legs the price tag is an issue . The old libretto back in the 90's wasn't cheap but neither was the other ultra compacts like the Sony mini viao at the time.
so good to see Toshiba; leading innovation and not just sitting back on its current product range .
Now I and others talk of augmented books well this is an interesting take with each page have a QR code to take readers to areas to discuss the book look at interactive maps and basically follow the journey
Thanks to my London based culture correspondent @terriK for spotting this on the Southbank in London . The global poetry system gets users to record poetry geoegraphically tag it and up load . A simple but brilliant use of the technology
"Global Poetry System is a Southbank Centre project to explore and map the poetry of the world. It’s based on the idea that poetry is all around us, from gravestones to graffiti, from birthday cards to blogs, in the landscape and in our memories. GPS invites you to take a fresh look at where you are and find the poetry that inspires you. Photograph it, video it, audio record it or write it down - tell the world where it is on the map." info at http://gps.southbankcentre.co.uk/
This is is a useful list if your thinking of looking at embarking on a 1:1 computing initiativess. Not a blueprint but definitely a good starting point. Another top tip share widely your ideas and test them. Key thing is secret squirrels who keep ideas and control to themselves often (nearly always fail).
BlastFollow enables you to follow Twitter users who share your interests en masse. This is accomplished by searching for users who have tweeted with a particular hashtag recently. For example, if you are interested in event , you may want to search for users whose tweets have included the hashtags for example #event or #interest.
now this is great for conference type events or those following specific topics but also might be used to collect user accounts by spammer . You decide I quite like it
Here is an interesting one from the great QR and url shortening site http://splashulr.net theyve now added functionality to produce a QR code but to change where the code takes you so if you change hosting or run a series of dynamic events you can keep same produced/printed qr codes. Think publications; teeshirt logo's, beermats ( I kid you not) .
Basically the produced QR code is to a forwarding page that is editable and can automatically forward the enquirer on. Neat eh !
Site describes it this way
" Want a QR Code T-Shirt or badge? Use our new QR Code redirector. That way you can alter where the URL in the barcode redirects each time you wear it, rather than print a new one every time! It would be funky with stickers too sad)
Huge thanks to Mark Kramer for this great piece of info Yahoo South East Asia has released a study on Internet trends and media consumption. Great read but this is only the start and the trend of progression from wired to wireless telecoms, PC internet to Mobile just doesnt apply anymore especially outside the supposedly developed economies.
Now in its second year, the Net Index series has recently been launched in Southeast Asia. The study is based on an in-depth, large-scale cross-media habits study of online users that goes beyond Internet media habits. The study is conducted in Vietnam, Indonesia, The Philippines and Malaysia. Interesting range of countries from highly developed Malaysia to Vietnam at the other end of the scale with the market giant of indonesia in between.
You can read key finding yourself but how about this for a statistic
Indonesia, the largest and fastest growing online market in Southeast Asia, has recorded a jump from 22% (2009) to 48% (2010)
Vietnam, mobile Internet access is picking up fast, nearly doubling year-to-year, from 10% (2008) to 19% (2009). Popular activities are searching for information and listening to music
It also dsipels our fascination with high end smart phones in europe with this statistic from Indonesia
Mobile Internet usage is predominantly from a mobile phone with advanced features rather than a smartphone as only 11% own a smartphone
Now to depart from Yahoo report why do I keep banging on about Indonesia
its got 10million 3G 5 times more than it has broadband user (bmi report in mobi 2009)
150 million mobile users Indonesia is 4th largest country in the world with a population of 240Million people
Indonesia is missing out the wired stage of telecommunication and it appears fast abandoning the tethered computer internet model . Its gone from public interent cafes to mobile without the home computer step it appears . If you want to know more on Indonesia check out this great presentation
Bless Nokia all goes relatively quiet and Apple and Android take centre stage then they do this All Nokia smartphones released by the company from 2011 will come with NFC (Near Field Communication) technology built in, according to Near Field Communications World (NFCW).
NFC is technology used in oyster cards etc and can be used for location,data transfer and importantly micro payments .
The mobile phone is now not only to paraphrase Ray Kurzweil, "the gateway to all human knowledge but your wallet too
Electronic ticketing — airline tickets, concert/event tickets, and others
Electronic money
Travel cards
Identity documents
Mobile commerce Electronic keys — car keys, house/office keys, hotel room keys, etc.
No I have no family connection to Ireland except for my 100 year old granny was born in Belfast on a day trip from Stranraer.
Learning on the Beach 2010 Lob10 http://lob10.wikispaces.com/ came at a really opportune time . I booked on the wikki ages ago before the current turmoil around my current employment kicked off and went using annual leave. Billed as a unconference not a teachmeet but with some of the spontaneity and honesty of teachmeets .
John Davitt explains the concept while cooking on the barbecue (near the beach). Excuse the upside down video idea of turning learning on its head ;-))
Arranged if thats the word by John Davitt Angela Davitt and Eliza Mountford at Mulranny on the west coast of Ireland in County Mayo
Now learning on the beach or specifically learning on the move really took me back to my roots when I used to teach prospective Nature conservation staff who now have gone onto work for RSPB, Scottish Natural heritage etc at an FE college. My wife is also a talented environmental education specialist who I have observed doing smelly cocktails, smell maps Nature Palettes and map sticks . Plus to be honest I am a bit of a outdoor nutter cycling, walking, and recently swimming . My first introduction to tech was stealing a BBC micro from a computing department to write my poly dissertation plus doing loads of computer cartography in my degree (days before GPS yes I am that old !)
Now I realise the value of this approach and like Dughall huge fan of forest school movement But I hadnt really thought about its value when linked to edtech .
Now this first learning on the beach wasnt that tech heavy apart from a google map reference time to get to opening session and wifi up a beach with the help of some tech and car battery a standard router and an ariel
This involved us forming into three groups and being given the following tasks.
1) History of of Ireland as sand drawings on the beach.
2) Salt Marsh formation as a theatrical whisper
3) Tidal processes as a mini opera
The evening made me think non more so than the arrival of Chris and Sandra Kerndter and there two children who live on Achill Island come originally from Germany and just discovered the lob wiki on the web and just trucked up .
The Lob in my view is about space to think and taking yourself out of your usual environment "comfort zone" into the "inter tidal zone"
I made a statement about a LOB manifesto what discovered on the beach is gets off the beach to a wider audience whatever the means this post on day one of the Lob is start of that process . Can I also recommend you look at Dugghalls blog on Lob at http://shareit.yhgfl.net/kirklees/kcyps/ .
Automated service follows your twitter feed and feeds them into delicious strikes me as very useful for those links you lose in cascade of twitter. Andys memory is augmented again !
Thanks to Dave Miller for this lead. A simple no fuss youtube and other formats to quicktime converter works quickly with a minimum of stages impressive and useful tool. http://tooble.tv/?
Those great people at Pew research in the US have done it again. There description of themselves as a fact tank carries less baggage than the phrase over worked in some areas of education of being a Think Tank"
Just been reading the "Shaping the Higher Education Cloud" published by EDUCAUSE/NACUBO obviously US orientated but UK HE people need to read . It answers and poses many questions. which servers to keep in house which to place somewhere elese . cost data security and service levels are all addressed . It is the findings from a two conference http://www.educause.edu/Resources/ShapingtheHigherEducationCloud/205427 well worth a look over to help your formulate ideas for the shape of the cloud over your institution.
After recent events if one thing is guaranteed to raise my spirits and to paraphrase Gene Hunt of Ashes to Ashes "fire up the Quattro!" is attending Learning on the Beach 2010 http://lob10.wikispaces.com The idea of creative thinker and educator John Davitt www.newtools.org a man that has inspired a lot of my activity over the last 3 or 4 years . The space and creativity that programme contains will be personally a real fillip to aid my future thinking . I am taking a few days leave to attend at my own cost .
Cloud course simply integrates with Google Calendar to allow uses to build courses etc. Using Google apps engine this is a serious development for google in education . It also allows user profile . Interesting eh !!http://code.google.com/p/cloudcourse/
The Google job experiment thanks for @fireglo for pointing this out . Alec Brownstein has published a video called 'The Google Job Experiment', showing how he personally harnessed the power of Google's micro-targeting to land himself an interview with a variety of well known creative directors:. Basically he micro tailored so a specific search would yield this result yes he did get offered interviews
Now if you do one thing yes one thing today do this view the video as part of a submission to the digital media and learning competition supported by the MacArthur as part of the Hastac Initiative its about open mobile learning and is put it simply an attempt and a good one to suggest to educators how learners own devices can help with there learning . Worth a view and to be honest people express a view .I know my readers friends in Japan Australia Ireland and Scotland to name but a few will have something to say so leave a comment and support a simple but well thought out proposal. No tactical voting required just your view
Story telling tagging and a dash of good old QR codes from the BBC click on programme definitely one for myfriend John davitt to hook up with and of course it has an iphone app can we have android one please. But to be honest this is brilliant . The sites description says it all
Wouldn't it be great to link any object directly to a 'video memory' or an article of text describing its history or background? Tales of Things allows just that with a quick and easy way to link any media to any object via small printable tags known as QR codes. How about tagging your old antique clock, a building, or perhaps that object you're about to put on eBay.
Using data from PISA 2006, this book analyzes to what extent investments in technology enhance educational outcomes. One of the most striking findings of this study is that the digital divide in education goes beyond the issue of access to technology. A new second form of digital divide has been identified: the one existing between those who have the right competencies to benefit from computer use, and those who do not. These competencies and skills are closely linked to the economic, cultural and social capital of the student.
This finding has important implications for policy and practice. Governments should make an effort to clearly convey the message that computer use matters for the education of young people and do their best to engage teachers and schools in raising the frequency of computer use to a level that becomes relevant. If schools and teachers are really committed to the development of 21st century competencies, such an increase will happen naturally. And only in these circumstances will clear correlations between technology use and educational performance emerge.
American teens have got that SMS bug big time. whole report is about much more than this and is well worth a read .
"Daily text messaging among American teens has shot up in the past 18 months, from 38% of teens texting friends daily in February of 2008 to 54% of teens texting daily in September 2009. And it's not just frequency – teens are sending enormous quantities of text messages a day. Half of teens send 50 or more text messages a day, or 1,500 texts a month, and one in three send more than 100 texts a day, or more than 3,000 texts a month. Older teen girls ages 14-17 lead the charge on text messaging, averaging 100 messages a day for the entire cohort. The youngest teen boys are the most resistant to texting – averaging 20 messages per day."
Link to report here
vThanks to James for point this out now I am a huge fan of splashurl.net that not only shortens urls on the fly but displays them in a huge point size useful if your presenting but it also generates a large qr code . James Clay with his excellent blog has pointed me in the direction in Dave Hopkins blog http://www.dontwasteyourtime.co.uk/
Dave points out Google are now in on the url shortening act in http://goo.gl/ and suggests if you add .qr to shortened urls it generates qr codes not its on of those annoying under control of big G things at the moment but will I am sure creep out to wider use.
On a seperate note I have been looking a propriety (well I think it is is) embedded codes or watermarks these are codes hidden in images as a way of watermarking ownership of images or imparting hidden information behind a graphic picture. I am led to believe getty use it to mark there images . but its worth a look |Clic2c has an app for iphone and android phones http://www.clic2c.co.uk/ its currently used in marketing but certainly could be used in education
India according to this report has 52 million active internet users and up to 71 million occasional internet users may not be many in the context of a 1 billion population. but the figure I found much more striking is the growth in mobile 15 million mobile users a month (a figure equivalent to about 1/4 of UK population ). The move to rural areas over urban areas in terms of growth of internet use is interesting. As Gandhi said "the soul of india lies in its villages".
worth a look it may challenge the way you view the world the fourth fifth generation smart phones may excite us in the developed world but potential using simple 2nd or 3rd generation phones (SMS,voice and maybe simple browser email functionality ) in countries like India is quite simple a pocketful of worldwide possibilities .
Digital Natives a phrase that was launched by Marc Prensky in 2001 . Suggesting to some that young people have a universal propensity to use Tech and be comfortable with it. That is the central core of Marc debate but even in conservation has suggested its not universally true or at least becoming less relevant since he wrote.
I have and mentioned many time that the phrase isnt universal digital competency/digital comfort is not totally age or even gender dependent . I have seen a really valiant effort that in my opinion succeeds to move the debate on by Dave White of Oxford University with vehicle of digital Residents and Digital Visitors with a presentation at ALTC2009 http://tallblog.conted.ox.ac.uk/index.php/2009/10/14/visitors-residents-the-video/ This work has made me think over the last few months and I have thought of adding a phrase how to get your Digital Visa around training and CPD . It fits how I personally view the area than digital Natives V Immigrants even the the "V" suggest confrontation not difference . Whats your view.
Well those Teachmeet giants are having another outing described by some as the best evening CPD you will ever have this adult show and tell of teacher practices in relatin to Tech is not to be missed.
Ok its not totally tech related but he is using twitter face book and google maps. Adam Wooly a resident of that gem of Suffolk Countryside Saxsted is doing a small bike trip of 10'000 miles . On 2nd of January 2010 he left from London to cycle the 10,000 miles to Cape Town through 17 countries in around 7 months, all in aid of Malaria Consortium.
He is doing it as sponsored ride for the malaria consortium now first off all visit his website and donate some cash http://www.wheresadam.net secondlyfollow him on twitter as off this lunch time today he had only 242 followers I reckon between us we can give a boost and reach a thousand follow him on twitter @london_capetown so come on everybody follow his progress . 140 characters is a lot of encouragement !!
Yes TV does exist I suggest you catch the BBC programme on BBC2 "The virtual revolution ! The programme talks
"web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, journeys across four continents and six countries and speaks to more than 50 people who have made the web what it is today – including some rather famous names, such as Bill Gates, Al Gore, Stephen Fry, Jimmy Wales, Arianna Huffington, Mark Zuckerberg, Chad Hurley, Stewart Brand, Jeff Bezos … and the President of Estonia."' My wife a gorgeous non tech time said she's going to watch it so I suggest you 20.30hrs on BBC2 and UK players can watch it later on Iplayer. The programme home page is found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/virtualrevolution/index.shtml
Helpfully Dr Aleks Krotoski programme producer and part of team at the Guardian Tech Weekly team discuss the series in the later part of their weekly Guardian Tech podcast you can listen to it at
From the world banks blog on ICT use in Education well worth a read great list of countries looking at 1:1 access and other work around ICT Uruguay, South Korea Singapore Malaysia and Namibia link http://ow.ly/11Tng
also highlight up and coming conference on 1:1 computing
International Conference on 1-to-1 Computing in Education
Together with our co-organizers, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), we are proud to announce an International Conference on 1-to-1 Computing in Education hosted by the government of Austria from 22-24 February 2010 in Vienna.
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