OU Beauty!!!!

Exactly 20 years ago this month I was preparing to write the third or fourth TMA (Tutor Marked Assignment) of my Arts Foundation Course (A102) and preparing to attend my first Open University Summer School. My experiences over the following 6 years were great - 40+ TMAs, 3 Summer Schools (Stirling & York twice) loads of friends and 6 exams!!!

I remember being fastidious in my recording of the course videos and became adept at setting up the technology to record the programmes that were typically broadcast at 2.30 am!!!! It was the radio broadcasts, however, that really caused me the problems - it was much more difficult to set up tapes to automatically record in the early hours of the morning.

All of these difficulties - and memories of missed broadcasts - flooded back to me as I read about the Open University’s decision to make course materials available on iTunes U. No more piles of videos, no more missed broadcasts, no more writing up of sticky labels………oh joy.

My experiences with the OU led me into new career paths that I’d never have considered had I not undertaken the studies which effectively changed the course of my life.

I’m seriously thinking of going back to look at today’s updated versions of the courses I studied - perhaps I’ll even sign up formally for a course or two in this new era of anytime, anywhere access to audio and video resources for learning.

What did you do before the web, Dad?

I just loved Theo Kuechel’s blog post with this Retro MySpace picture and, of course, what he draws from it! It conjured up memories from my own schooldays when jotter covers were decorated with names and logos of favourite bands, girls, comments and, well………….doodles!!

……a notebook, made by Jill when she was 18, reveals most of the attributes of a MySpace, Facebook or Bebo page a youngster might create nowadays. Read the notes (do click here) Jill adds to the image on its Flickr page. My reason for choosing this image is that it establishes a connection between past and present that creates a context for those using digital media today……

Image credit Jill

Read Theo’s full post here and drop by to visit the sketch books and ideas of great innovators from the past

Time Honoured Tradition or the Modern Way?

Strathpeffer was the centre of attention yesterday: Doug Dickinson was in town (village just doesn’t sound right!) and tickets for two Kaiser Chiefs‘ gigs went on sale. I think whoever secured the Kaisers’ gig for the rejuvinated Strathpeffer Pavilion is very smart - injecting new life-blood and providing what young people want into such a historical, and perhaps, perceived traditional building must be one of the best ways to maintain it as a venue and secure its future. It made me ask what we are doing, as agents of educational development, to keep abreast of and maintain the interests of young people in our schools?

I had ‘booked’ Doug to talk to some of our school leaders about the use of ICT for today’s learners and the ways in which it may help them meet futures that are less predictable than ever before. The talks were, in equal measure, frank, provocative, interesting, and amusing. Doug raised many issues and challenges, as well as suggestions for our school leaders about how we can maintain our schools as relevant, exciting venues for learning.

Using the recently published outcomes for literacy and technologies from Curriculum for Excellence, Doug exemplified ways in which teachers and students could utilise a variety of tools to develop a multimodal approach and to capitalise on the ‘white space’ for learning that exists within the new structures. The new guidelines make specific mention of the use of text messages, blogs and social networking sites, web pages, catalogues and directories, and that, It is essential that all practitioners, in each sector, in each department and in all settings, find opportunities to apply reinforce and extend ICT skills. Accordingly, there needs to be serious reassessment of attitudes to, and practice in the usage and overall place of ICT in our schools. Teachers need to be better equipped, i.e. know the right techniques and have the correct equipment to make use of ICT for teaching and learning within their classrooms. This necessitates teachers making the decisions about what ICT they need rather than technical support teams specifying equipment and the levels of availability of software tools and content on their behalf.

Doug suggested that students will find ways to bypass any technology barriers schools put in their way - if they haven’t already done so. Current ‘block and stop’ practices such as overbearing Internet filtering, and a limited range of appropriate tools will make them look elsewhere for the information they need and for ways to use their chosen methods of communication. It is through educational support that children will learn how to appropriately use and be safe on the Internet rather than by, as he put it, ‘removing all the knives from the kitchen’.

I’m looking forward to the formal feedback from the day, but from discussions I had over coffee and lunch with a number of those present, there didn’t seem to be much disagreement.

Read Doug’s own blog here.

Notes, links, files mentioned or used during Doug’s presentations in no particular order.

As previously mentioned - also appearing in Strathpeffer (although not everyone’s happy about it): Kaiser Chiefs - Listen here: Time Honoured Tradition or Modern Way

Book your tickets here.

ps - Good luck to Doug with his participation in the British Orienteering Championships being held in Culbin Forest (by Nairn).

pps - Well done

My new alternative Pendrive!

Willie McGill from Auchenharvie Academy floated this one past me incidentally in a post last week and it’s definitely worth a look.

Simple private exchange.

Drop.io enables you to create simple private exchange points called “drops.”

The service has no email signup and no “accounts.” Each drop is private, and only as accessible as you choose to deliberately make it. Create multiple drops, add any type of media, and share or subscribe as you want. To make a drop just click the big red button that says ‘drop it’ (more)

If I know that I’ll have an Internet connection where I’m going to be working then this looks like a great way for me to bundle files for a course, take to a class, etc. without needing to carry my pendrive(s)!!! around with me. It’s so quick and easy that I envisage using it as a drop point throughout training days to create a categorised list of any resources discussed/used during the day. Participants can simply visit the drop point when back at school and copy down anything important to them.

Any number of new drops can be created for different groups/purposes - all free and very easy, there’s no registration or sign up but there is ample flexibility in terms of security options. See my first drop containing two MP3s for yesterday’s post and the two images for today’s.

I see this very much as a tool for temporary storage/transfer rather than as some sort of secure vault - just like my old friend the pendrive!!!

Quality MP3 recordings - no fuss!!

I’d like to flag up the blog of a music colleague, Alan Coady, from East Lothian. His website is also an interesting place to visit.

If you already know of Alan you’ll be aware of the the interesting flow of information that he provides on his sites.

One of his recent posts highlighted the wonderful Zoom H2 mp3 recorder. You can read the post and Alan’s helpful comments on the H2 here.

 

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This looks as if it will be excellent for recording on field trips, podcasts, conversations, choirs, ensembles, bands.

Its four microphones allow for a variety of stereo recording configurations.

 

Get full information about the H2 here.

Online Flashcards with a Zing!!!

Two associated online apps came my way today as I read some blogs from Scottish Educators.

The first: Quizlet

Quizlet is a tool for learning vocabulary

Here’s how it works:

1. You enter a vocabulary list of any words or data you want. (ex. SAT words, history dates, French-Spanish translations, etc.)
2. Quizlet gives you a specialized learning mode, flashcards, randomly generated tests, and collaboration tools for classmates to help you study those words.
3. You ace your test.

Here are some neat features:

1. Quizlet keeps track of the words you know and only retests you on the ones you don’t.
2. You can share your vocabulary sets with classmates and get email notification when others make sets for you.
3. You can import words from a file without having to retype them into Quizlet.
4. Quizlet has accent buttons for typing letters in foreign languages.
5. You can discuss sets (and gossip about teachers!) with classmates via instant discussion boxes.
6. Quizlet works in any language. If you can type it into your keyboard, you can study it on Quizlet.

Try a set on Poetry Terms, Spanish Adjectives, There are thousands of existing sets available on the site.

The second: The Mnemosyne Project (the same software team who brought us Audacity)

Features

These are some of the features of Mnemosyne:

• Efficient scheduling algorithm, so you don’t waste time on things you know well
• Support for languages using different scripts through unicode
• Support for pictures, sounds and html formatting
• Can be integrated with LaTeX to display mathematical formulas
• Support for three-sided cards, e.g. foreign words where you are interested in written form, pronunciation and translation
• Can be run from a USB key
• Can display some basis statistical info on your learning process
• Keeps a detailed record of your entire learning process for analysis
• Your cards can be organised in categories, which can be activated and disactivated to control your learning process
• Clean, deceptively simple user interface, yet fully customisable for advanced users through configuration files and plugins
• Available in English, German, Spanish and Dutch
• Support for a large number of import and export formats (text, XML, Supermemo, Memaid, …)

Both of these aim to assist in the memory process by allowing the preparation of sets of Flashcards & Answers that can be used by pupils to learn then test themselves. Must be great for language acquisition, for learning new vocab, for learning specialised vocab………

I’m sure that this could be used to set up word walls for dyslexic pupils - and combining the set with the facility known as Scatter (where you clear the screen, against the clock, by matching words to their meanings or associations) should be a great way of varying the overlearning process.

These are easy to prepare and deliver and, once signed in, you can download sets of data already prepared by others on a wide range of topics. Once you’ve created sets of your own you’ll be able to share them with colleagues all over the world.

As the learning and testing takes place on the web, pupils can, theoretically at least, use these whenever, wherever!!!!!!!!

Really cool!!!

Thanks to Ewan McIntosh and Alan Coady respectively for brining these to my attention.