School’s out Friday

My husband sent me this video during the week and it brightened the day for a colleague and myself. It was uploaded to YouTube in 2006 so you may have already seen it. How they put this together intrigues me -there are definitely some very clever people out there.
We are melting here in Melbourne [...]

Flickrstorm – easy search for creative commons photos

Tonight I’ve been sourcing a picture to use for a slide that is going towards a collaborative presentation stemming from our Powerful Learning Practice cohort.  Darren Kuropatwa, our community leader, got the ball rolling (excuse the pun!), for Presentation Tennis.  We’re creating a slide deck using google docs (their presentation option) and creating contrasting slides to represent [...]

Why do we blog?

I’ve mentioned recently that my friend Nina has started writing a blog focusing on the early years classroom. She’s doing amazingly well, but already the questions have started.
Why are you doing this?
What do you think will come of it?
etc, etc, etc.
Anyone who blogs has heard it all before. The lack of understanding from some and [...]

Google and the Future of Books – Robert Darnton’s must read article

Image by clarissa~ via Flickr

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 If you are at all interested in the future of books and the digitising of collections you must read Robert Darnton’s article ‘Google and the Future of Books’ written for ‘The New York Review of Books‘. In it he discusses the efforts by Google to digitise millions of books from the collections [...]

Clustr maps get archived – Shock! Horror!

Anyone who puts a clustr map on their blog knows how you feel when you first see the little red dots appearing.  First up, you’re amazed that anyone is reading at all, and then you’re amazed to find that they’re coming from many different parts of the world. It’s one of the visible signs of [...]

School’s out Friday

School will really be out for me next Friday. It’s a return to work for me next week; a dose of reality after the heady days of nothing on my agenda. Enjoy this ditty from Weird Al Yankevic as he ponders the wonder of Ebay to the tune of the Backstreet Boys [...]

Kickyoutube – Easy download solution for YouTube

One of the best ways to start converting colleagues to the wonders of the Web is to introduce them to the vast array of content on YouTube that is suitable for education purposes. If you work in a school with a slow connection then you will be familiar with the circular loading indicator that can [...]

Obama. A new day.

Image by m-c via Flickr

Up at 3.30 am to watch a moment in history. A great day for the world. President Barack Hussein Obama represents new hope for a challenged United States and the world.  His much anticipated Inauguration speech was impressive and delivered with consummate confidence. I particularly liked this passage;
For we know that [...]

Digital Storytelling – my ‘how to’ guide.

In October 2007 I presented at the ASLA Biennial conference about my experiences with Literature Circles and Digital Storytelling.  For that conference I submitted a paper that was to go through the peer review process  for possible publication in ASLA’s Access journal. That paper was submitted in July of 2007 if my memory serves me correct. [...]

Nina’s Arena – visit if you can

My friend Nina and I have been walking together for the last six years or so. We’ve been getting up early over this holiday break and walking 5kms nearly every day. I think it’s making a difference for us, but I know it’s making a difference for my dog Bella who has shed some of her bulk [...]