A Quick Update

OK, so there's no such thing as a quick update in the blog-osphere!
Let's face it, apps emerge faster than we can search for them, so what's a teacher to do?
It's been a long time between posts so I thought it was time to start sharing again.
Today, it's padlet.com
Have you been looking for that starter activity that gets technology into the equation without dominating it?
Perhaps you want to encourage responses whilst maintaining some anonymity.
Maybe you just want to find out what your students really think.
This might be just the tool for you.
Padlet.com let's you set up a wall, at which your students can throw ideas.
Be careful. The cover of anonymity encourages both the honest and the brutal in terms of responses, but you'll soon train the students to use this tool as a way of finding out what students already know and what they can do.
So give it a go.
Set up your own wall and get cracking.
If you need an idea starter, check back tomorrow, and I'll share my first effort with you.

Don't let your students escape from your classroom until you've made them think. :) 

New Approach to a New School Year

Whilst students in the Southern Hemisphere feel the warmth of spring and the promise of imminent holidays, those in the Northern Hemisphere have only recently returned from the summer break. In the UAE, Eid Mubarak is the focus of the week before we start to think about the impending school year.

Of course, it's not easy to be a teacher and completely switch off. Just as people make New Year's resolutions on January 4th, so the new academic year can be a time of change, not just for studnts but also for teaching practice.

Technology continues its relentless march towars the classrooms. Some teachers have welcomed its arrival and have changed their pedagogy, or their methodology, for the better. Others have been more resistent.

If you are unsure about how to get started with Web 2.0 in teaching, this blog is a good starting point. Setting up a blog for your classes can encourage them to read your posts, keep updated on assignment deadlines and class projects as well as the content for the day. Blogging takes very little time and can make a big difference to the way your students learn and how your class operates. Setting up a blog is easy and once you get started, you can keep it simple while you gain confidence. Before you know it, you'll be setting quick questions which your students will be answering online and dsicussing in the classroom.

Every journey begins with a single step. Take a step today towards effective integration of technology and see the difference it makes to your teaching.  

iPad 2. It's time.

Has anyone else experienced techno-desire?

I’m not kinky, but my desire to purchase new technologies when they hit the market is quite organic. I know these objects will provide fulfillment in my life, even if it is only temporary, and I know I will forsake them when a newer, better, more attractive model hits the market, but that doesn’t stop the wanting.

Hi, my name’s Col and I’m a techno-holic.

Fortunately my bank account places adequate restrictions on my compulsive urges to run out and buy technology willy-nilly, providing me with enough deterrant to take a few moments to analyse the object of my present covetousness.

The iPad 2.

Yep, I know you’ve been there and done that, but I’ve been vassilating over this purchase for, well, a while. I’ve supported Bill over Steve for many years now and that’s despite being the proud owner of an iPhone for the past 2 years, and an iPod for 5. No, you can’t have them!

I get hooked up on the barbed wires of compatability. So much of what I do relies on the exchange of ideas and documents with others, flipping between formats just makes my head spin.

A recent dinner party quenched my pusillanimous fears on this score. The iPad was our hosts portable of choice and had “changed their lives”. The work of a scholar, academic and tutor seamlessly blended every aspect of the multi-facetted roles through a versatile iPad which not only reduced the back strain but also the number of trees being hacked down for assignments which, once submitted and evaluated, would soon be forgotten. These were being submitted online, assessed on iPad and resent without a single leaf being shed. Administrivia, home financing, entertainment all neatly packaged into an attractive touch-sentitive screen.

Some logistics were identified re: online ‘office’ readers/converters, but the problems had been minimal and insignificant. Here were two champions of the cause.

Yes, Steve, it’s time.

The future of technology in education

What do you think is the technology we should be focussing on for our future technology needs?
Laptops get the best press. They are common amongst students and often located on cows (computers on wheels) in schools. Banks of laptops remain connected and charge as they wait to move from class to class.
iPads are growing in popularity. iPad 2 gave us two cameras, but still no usb connection. The apps are getting better and more broad in their outloook and these computers are lighter, cheaper and easy to use. Training for teachers is improving and the ipad is proving to be a worthwhile prospect for mobile technology in education.
But my award goes to the mobile phone. That ubiquitous computer which has become progressively smaller, lighter and so multipurpose, most of us forget that in addition to being a game player, music player, camera, gps, calendar, email exchanger link to the internet and text messager, it can also be used as a phone! It's major drawback is the fact that there are so many about. In fact, too many brands on too many platforms with too many different options all requiring slight tweakings of the software code so the same application can run across different platforms. Yep, this is a problem, but not a terminal one. Let's face it, nearly everyone has a mobile phone these days, so instead of trying to discourage their presence in the classroom, why not get a supplier on the line, come up with a great bulk deal and mobile up your school? I'm sure the students will be keen to upgrade.

Concept Animations

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what is a talking picture worth?

Creating a simple animation is easy and pretty cheap on the web these days. Go Animate is an easy to use animation creation platform.

I am always looking for motivators to use with my classes and animations are a great tool. You can add scenes, select from a range of characters, or design your won. You can also give your characters pre-stored voices, or again record your own.
You write the script and build the animation scene by scene. This sort of animation is unlikely to win you an Oscar, but it is so easy to use you can even set it as an assessment item for your students.
Testing concepts in this way is great motivator and a useful tool for identifying prior student conceptions.
Read more in Concept Animations Street Article. or visit  PassingNotesOz You Tube Animations to see some sample animations.