• "As I've said many times, the future is already here. It's just not very evenly distributed." William Gibson 1999
  • Blogroll - look at the Blogroll page

  • Archive

Video blog

letter V L O g14

Butterfly 42 has suffered a little since Christmas, doubly, from lots of  stuff to do and from  my personal challenge  of creating a Vlog  Flick-a-day .  I’m aiming to have one ‘life and times’ clip per day for 365 days, here’s the rational .  It is a challenge but making me think about techniques and  content.

On the whole a video clip needs action and sometimes action needs to be created, the action in real  every day life is often very mundane. On  really bad days I console myself that I could be creating  social history. How long will there be  school buildings for lollipop ladies to stand outside, helping  children cross very busy roads ????

Here are a couple of clips I took at BETT 2010 in January. It has become an education event where evidence of the practitioner voice is often low level but  feature of this years show which I was pleased to be involved in, was  Teachmeet Takeover where expertise and  experience  in using free online tools was shared and it seems appreciated by visitors. Others have recorded the event very clearly, take  a look at what  Tom,  Danny and Kevin have to say.

The first day of the 2010 BETT show underway. Not as busy as usual as there was another snowfall over night, in some areas snow on ice so no transport running.

Still at BETT 2010. On the second day it was much busier, the weather has improved and transport easier. So here’s a selection of the worlds educators in full discussion in one of the refreshement areas at Olympia.

From the 2010 video diary

5th January 2010 from Tricia Neal on Vimeo.

In the morning there was news that most of the country had heavy snow or even blizzards and settling fast. Leicestershire and parts of Nottinghamshire had little and as the traffic moved in to the city the roads began to clear.

Late afternoon the snow began to fall, first barely noticeable but then came flakes that said ‘I’m staying’.
The homeward bound traffic leaving Leicester began to slowdown but the volume meant that snow didn’t settle on the carriage way.

Tracking Santa

santa-in-the-air1Attribution: Photo Fat Dude Flying from the collection of  Tony

For all children, everywhere, on Christmas Eve, ‘Track Santa’ with the aid of Norad ( bi-national US-Canadian military organisation responsible for the aerospace and maritime defence of the United Sates and Canada) is an exciting prelude to  the long awaited Christmas Day. Norad have been doing it for over 50 years now, using  the technology of the time to make fantasy real.

This year Santa can be followed using Google Earth, downloaded to computer or mobile phone, and strategically placed web cams give real time glimpses of his journey.  Last year I was not the only one tracking Santa on my I-phone while listening to Christmas carols in the Town Hall Square!

The frequently asked questions section in ‘About Santa’ gets the adults off the hook by providing  sensible answers to  important questions and, useful for some, technical details about the sleigh (dimensions are given in ’sweety’  units.. great for early measurement activities) There are seven languages to choose from at the beginning.

noradsanta is now on Twitter, click follow for realtime updates, sparse at the moment  but I’m sure will  increase as we get closer to Christmas

The real action is of course from December 24th but the site with it’s simple games, video and information about Santa, countdown tool (in seconds) and the option of text in seven languages would be a valuable tool for creativity and fun in the days before. And children could follow via home school links during the holidays……..So have fun on Christmas Eve!

Advent calendars are not only for children

advent-candles-2

Attribution: Photo Fjarde Advent from the collection of  Steffe

For communities celebrating Christmas the first of December is the time to start counting down to Christmas day, either to contain excitement or to raise it according to your perspective. Schools have always harnessed them for learning through making or using. They are a useful  supporting activity  for counting and ordering, for the passing of time and to reinforce  aspects of a  great festival.

Where once we constructed them with card and pictures cut from last years Christmas cards, now we have the Internet and the opportunity to use it’s power and a whole range of multimedia techniques to provide content for calendars than can be seen by the world.

And of course the calendars are not only for children, they have been  harnessed by a variety of establishment to share the arts with adults.

So below is a selection of calendars I found last year, some available for this year.

Woodland’s Junior School in Kent has a global audience for their annual calendar which provides Christmas activities, information, web search and teaching ideas making it a focus for the month.

Their KS1 offering is bold and bright with repeatable colouring and games that children can use at home as well as at school.

Porchester Junior School are all set to start their Advent Calendar on December 1st with it’s links to a new Christmas web site every day.

Nrich have a mathematical calendar every year, this year 2009 has a picture puzzler every day.  Previous calendars can be found here

The Kidszone Finland advent calendar is a  “delightfully illustrated, 24 part story about sharing the gift of happiness with others.”

The Kidzone Finland site, designed  to for  children to find out about Finland, tells us that Over 24 days the free calendar follows the hilarious exploits of the little elf  Zac, taking readers on a journey through one of the funniest Christmas stories from the home of Santa Claus.”

HelpKidzLearn  advent calendar is  a mixture of  simple, bold,  online  and printable activities for younger children.

Boowa & Kwala an Early Years site  have an advent calendar made up of  24 stockings on a line …not to be opened before December 1st.

How could I have missed the CBeebies Advent Calendar or the CBBC  Countdown to  Christmas?

Children from  Coteford Junior School, Middlesex chose their favourite works for the Tate Kids Advent Calendar ’so for 24 days you can see their choice and what it meant to them’

For the older audience

Showcasing  young people’s  creative use of media for 10 years now is the  Electric December advent calender.   This year there  are links to all of the  presentations, interesting to  watch.  

Music soothes the savage breast, so if it’s the end of a day with a lively bunch of children go to the BBC Bach Christmas Calendar

For further rest and relaxation after a busy day take a look at la previous  calendar from The Tate, already completely open,  strong people will be able to restrict themselves to one picture per day.

From the museums Liverpool has a calendar for this year, but it’s not yet open so can’t tell more.

Saltaire Villagers,  a world heritage site,  have used their homes to create an advent calendar here  2006 and 2007 can be seen. Their decorated windows are lit up every evening until  Christmas  Eve.

For added awe and wonder try the Hubble Space Telescope Advent Calendar 2009

And finally for  itouch and iphone users there are quite a selection of downloadable Apps called ‘Advent Calendars’ offering pictures, sayings, music and recipes. Prices vary from free to 5.00+. However the Porchester Junior website is optimised for viewing on mobiles so perhaps I’ll use that.

If you know of any other examples or have one of your own please add it to this as a comment.

It’s not all about computers

Early last week  I was invited to work with  some early years practitioners,  and it transpired,  a scattering of  ICT leaders, heads, deputies,  to look at using ICT  in the early years (3-7) .  We were considering how digital technologies,  other than the computer could be used to support and enhance learning and teaching.

While some may argue that the i-Phone, i-Pod touch and Nintendo DS are computers. I include these to help move thinking towards acessability and  away from the computer in the corner or even the  computer room for early years children.

It’s something I’ve done many times before with a range of early years practitioner groups and where possible I like to take  a  selection of  the actual technology  rather than images or description, to  hook the discussion onto.  This means I’m  that  presenter/ lecturer going  backwards and forwards to the car  with plastic boxes rather than  arriving in the room and  connecting the  laptop to the presentation system…

As I was  packing my boxes the day before, checking that batteries worked and everything charged I decided to  photograph my ‘presentation’  as a starter for the sessions and a reminder after.   The pictures are below.  This is by no means an exhaustive ‘list’ of  digital tools, role-play, street and  home technology are not there but that’s for another day.

It was a super day, with thinking people  so that  as ever,  although leading I  learned much from them too.

More about the Talktime postcards

Early Years Technology on PhotoPeach

Bubbleshare - the demise

bubbles-4-sideAttribution:  Photo Bubbles from the collection of  Jeff Kubina

I’ve finally found a moment to  go to BubbleShare and  reclaim my  photo albums before they disappear altogether.  BubbleShare, a photo storage and sharing site is closing down,  along with my  early photo albums.  Especially those with funky borders and speech bubbles putting witty  words  in the mouths of my unsuspecting family!  Although they soon found out when they looked at the family blog where I had embedded the jovial albums! There will be some gaps there now in November when it closes down.

To be fair users were given a few month notice to rescue their photos,  and reminders sent  in between times,  but I’ve left  it until the last minute ( along with many others) and it’s taking time for them to package up the photos  into a download package.

It’s a while since I used BubbleShare for  my early attempts at  online albums and embedding. I’ve moved on to  applications that offer clever and  innovative ways of presenting, AnimotoPhotoPeach, Photosynth are just a few.

I noticed this week that Geocities has also closed down. It was a  longstanding free web hosting  service, allowing many  early websites to be trialled and used by others. But we’ve all grown up since then and  Yahoo are now offering a  ‘paid for’, more sophisticated, service that many  will go for.

Both a  reminder, if we needed one, that nothing in the  world of digital technology stands still and that we must be prepared to move along with it,  having  the adaptability of  econfidence, finding, using and  adapting  applications  that we need.   And also  to have a pause for thought about the value of free applications over ones we pay a lot of money for.

Storybird

I’m having a’ Sneak Peek’ at  Storybird version  0.1 an open beta.  It’s billed as

“Collaborative Story telling for families and friends”

but I could  quite see it as collaborative story telling for the ‘home school’  link.

“we’re building Storybird in the open, collaberating with the artist and  enthusiasts to  produce fun, simple tools to make short  visual stories.”

Storybird  provides a very simple  format for making a book  using the  individual, fun bright and quirky  art work on the site for inspiration. Then there’s space for adding text on  every  page.

The  completed text  can be published for   everyone and anyone  to see and embed in their own sites or  published and kept private so that only those sent the  address will be able to read.

A great way for familes to create and share via school or independently. The the parents page is good to read

Take a look, create  a book,  share it  here  or there, wherever.  Let me know what you think about it.

Here’s my first solo book, I’m working on a shared one too.

Funny Friends on Storybird

Vocational training for 5 year olds?

lomo+loveliness

Attribution:  Photo  from the collection of  karolien taverniers

This was reported in both the Telegraph and the Guardian and I suspect in all the local papers.

The Telegraph tells us that…

“Pupils fed up with ordinary primary schools are being given vocational training at a young age to stop them dropping out altogether in their teens.”

So…

“12 infants in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, are spending one day a week doing practical training normally suited to pupils aged 14 to 19.

Lessons in hairdressing are carried out using toy hairdryers that work but fail to heat up. Pupils also learn to prepare cakes, although the baking is done elsewhere, and construct walls using plastic bricks.”

The Guardian  adds to this by reporting the course leader as saying….

“We’ve been carrying out risk assessments on plastic bricks. “  (!!)

Lots of questions to beg here but first thoughts go to … play… isn’t this  play,  structured play, role play  whatever it’s called,  recognised by all  practitioners,  Early Years and beyond (and incidentally, mummy elephants, tigers etc,) as being vitally important for all  children’s development and so part of all foundation stage  settings.  So it’s great these children are getting opportunities to  be involved in such  supported role play activities.

But  shouldn’t all children have the  opportunity to use such interesting real tools and take part in  such interesting role play?

And why aren’t children getting enough of it through the already  established  free education system, play  planned to fit in with the EYFS goals,  to promote learning and thinking  suiting their developmental stages?

Then ..vocational training… no mention of   Vygotsky et al.  There will surely be much socialising, conversation and exploration of the roles but will there be opportunities to work in groups, cooperate  and solve problems?

vocational training at 5 … Isn’t this creating a glass ceiling for these children, placing them in a niche from an early age, this is the sort of  job you are going to do.   May be  one of then would have been a doctor or  film maker or….?

Coming to the end of the first decade of the 21st century there is an understanding that these children could  live a very long time and that occupations available to  us all  will include  jobs that are not yet thought of.  How well equipped with  they be for the changes and opportunities.

As a foot note I’m sure that  the children will have alot of fun and enjoy the extra attention and the wonderful toys, children are like that.

It’s not rocket science…

Technology is never the whole solution. The recent history of technology in education always tells us that however good it is, it achieves little without the complementary human and organizational changes needed, and these are always more difficult. Using technology to improve education is not rocket science. It’s much, much harder than that.

Diana Laurrilard - Open Teaching:  The key to Sustainable and Effective Open Education 2009

A Bill Shankly type quote to emphasis the  complexity of  what many of us are trying to achieve. This is from Diana’s chapter in   Opening Up Education.  Not only is it published in traditional  book form is is also available  as a downloadable pdf file from the site, either as the whole  book or in separate bite sized chapters covered by a Creative Commons Licence

mindset Image from the collection of Superkimbo, Bangkok


Technology and Teachers TV

There are lots of videos about using ICT on Teachers TV but this week it’s …drum roll.. Teachers TV ICT  Week !

The 8 videos are  current featuring  experienced practitioners sharing  their use and support of  current technologies, mainly web 2.00 and the key issue of Internet safety. Each video is accompanied by excellent support material, links to resources and lesson plans.

15 minutes with a cup of .. whatever… every day this week  could  leave you better informed and  ready to have a go yourself.   And coordinators…  what excellent inset material!