John McLeareducation | John McLear

Microsoft Kinect shows potential – Your classroom next?

johnyma22 — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 20:11:57 +0000

Unless you have been living in a dark shell for the last 6 months you will know about Microsoft kinect. In my opinion the advertising for kinect doesn’t show the actual potential of the kinect technology. I think the most promising aspect of Kinect is the Speech recognition and it looks like Microsoft may of actually got this right..

Each bing = good.

So it appears to work, and if we can just say, y’know. Collect 3 stars there is no need for incidents like this:

This video shows the potential of using Kinect’s depth perception to control a user interface with multitouch.

Finally, The facial recognition is supposed to really good. Sounds like the Kinect hardware is going to be a winner. I don’t know what % of users will end up owning a 360 so my recommendation to you is to treat the Kinect as a separate platform.

If you are a developer I would consider focusing on preparing your offline and online material for “Kinect aware” devices. If Kinect aware adobe flash content begins popping up it could create a whole new market place and genre of game.

This video shows how the Kinect can replace a conventional smart board:

This video shows it’s potential use to control puppets!! Awesome!

Here is a video that demonstrates how game creators are compensating poor control quality by adding auto steering to make the gaming experience feel less detached..

This is nice, it shows using multiple Kinects to map a physical space to a 3d model.

Remind anyone of the Eyes to the front proposal I did?

Kinect gesture recognition controlling web browser(chrome)

Some guy in Essex has written a driver for controlling Windows 7 (sort of like a touch screen)

If MS release face detection as part of an API then a simple facial detection system for class registration.

Kinect could also be used as a tool for assigning IWB control to pupils.

I think we should look past the obvious of just UI control in a touchscreen format, we must remember the potential for depth.

Here we can see a kinect being used to pass control from one user to another..

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Scrobbling Learning

johnyma22 — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 22:43:25 +0000

Scrobbling is a process last.fm uses to figure out the type of music you like. It is about 90% accurate and over time builds a more and more accurate profile about what you “might like”. A while back we have entered into an Internet age of recommendations. Amazon adopted it a long time ago, it is about 20% accurate for me.

Recommendation engines do work but they must rely on users not only “doing” tasks but feeding back if they felt it was a positive/negative experience and if the recommendation engine should of recommended the item or not. For example even though last.fm is 90% accurate for me sometimes I block a song but get the rest of the songs from that artist.

A project called ROLE intends to profile a learner based and recommend content based on their learning profile.

Currently the project is in an abstraction and development phase. I appreciate the concept. I think it is possible, doable and feasible and should have a number of practical purposes.

ROLE has many more challenges to face, such as what type of content is being delivered and is the learner more focused on a type of content IE biology or a type of learning style or will it approach it with a 3d angle of trying to profile the style of learner and the content desired?

The largest challenge ROLE faces it the natural opposition from educators feeling like their workload is being converted into a factory style process. I hope ROLE get a decent video up on YouTube explaining the challenges they face and how they intend to address them. It appears for an open project they are having lots of problems communicating to the wider public exactly what they are trying to achieve and why developers should get involved. I hear some recent employees have been brought in to address this and I think that is a huge + and I’m looking forward to seeing what they achieve!

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Teachmeet Yorkshire & Humber presentation (Google’s Hidden Gems) #tmyh10

Admin Admin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:30:00 +0000

I’m doing a 7 minute presentation on Google’s Hidden Gems at Teachmeet Yorkshire and Humber 2010 at Doncaster South City Learning Centre on 26th March.

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Future of Education and the role ICT will play

Admin Admin — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 19:17:00 +0000

Thanks to Education Future for the heads up

Source: Education Futures

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Conservatives will be radical on Education

Admin Admin — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:06:00 +0000

Recently the Culture spokesman for the Conservatives was on hard talk.

He said conservative policies would focus on:

Putting information out to the public
Openness
Transparency
Technology
Competition (both public and private sector)

The idea is that by using technology they can reduce public spending, I have done a few posts on how ICT can be used to save money in Primary Schools before so this ties in well with my views.

“The democratisation of information – primarily through technology – has revolutionised the way we act and interact. Individuals have direct control over what they want to know and when they know it” – Conservative party education policy 2009.

To summarize: The conservatives know the internet is a big deal… Well done……..

Technology or ICT barey gets a mention in the policy however there is space to mention “Strict school uniform policies, with blazer, shirt and tie and with a zero-tolerance of incorrect or untidy dress.”

How a policy can prioritise the issue of school uniform over the use of technology baffles me and shows a backwards approach to 21st century learning.

I’m not pro or against any party, I’m still convinced labour will whip an ace from up it’s sleave a few months before the general election and David Milliband will replace Gordon Brown which will have a massive impact on opinion polls.

As for the lib dem’s I can’t even find their education policy and as for Labour when I go to their website I can’t get over the fact the main focus their page design points to is to donate money to the government, is the economy really that bad?

To summarize:

Labour: No mention of technology.

Conservatives: Well sold policy but no real substance.

Lib Dems: ArgleBargle.

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Example Google Apps Education Edition Acceptable Usage Policy (UK)

Admin Admin — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 02:18:00 +0000

I wanted to make sure schools had an Acceptable Usage Poilcy if they chose to use Google Apps so I put one online.

I have modified this AUP written for the USA for use in the UK.

Here is the link to the UK version – Example Google Apps Education Edition Acceptable Usage Policy (UK)

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10 Android Apps for Primary School

Admin Admin — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 19:49:00 +0000

To use an Android phone in your classroom you will find a great deal already available to you on the device however you will probably want to get some applications from the market…

To get an application simply goto your home page on the device, Click Android Market, search for one of the below apps:

FEATURED – Classdroid is an app I work on. It is open source and free. It is used as a simple assessment app where a teacher takes a picture of a pupils piece of work, grades it and assigns it to a pupil. The work is then uploaded to the pupils learning portfolio. Visit here to find out more about Classdroid

1. Zebra Paint – Paint with your fingers! Pick your favorite color and paint the image. Use the menu button to pick one of the dozen built-in templates. When ready, save your images and share with the world! Tested with 4 to 5 year old kids. Requires a touch screen.

2. Maths Workout – Test your mental maths and exercise your brain once a day. Maths Workout is a daily routine for thousands of players worldwide – both young and old. Get competitive! Play the World Challenge and submit your score for ranking with other players around the world.

3. Brain Genius Deluxe – Get a head start to getting smart by playing through a daily dose of teasing and original brain exercises. Brain Genius Deluxe is the Android game to train your brain, with 24 touch and motion-controlled games as well as bonus puzzles including Sudoku! It’s pure Genius!

4. WordPlayer Art of War – WordPlayer is a book reader that allows you to add to your library from amongst thousands of instantly downloadable books or load epub books. WordPlayer’s page navigation, highlighting, bookmarking, and customizable settings make reading a breeze. Comes with Sun Tzu’s classic book of strategy, Art of War, already installed.

5. My Maps Editor by Google – Create, edit, share, and view personalized maps on your phone synchronized with the My Maps tab on Google Maps. We provide full editing functionality for markers, lines, and shapes, plus you can mark your location using GPS or attach a photo directly from your phone.

6. WikiMobile Encyclopedia – Being a walking encyclopedia is now at your fingertips. With WikiMobile, you carry 2+ million Wikipedia articles with you, including pictures. Faster and uses just a fraction of the network data vs. the Android browser. Download free for a limited time!

7. Google Sky Map - Google Sky Map: A star map for Android. Google Sky Map turns your Android-powered mobile phone into a dynamic window on the night sky. When you point your phone up you will see a map of the brightest stars, constellations, and planets in that part of the sky.

8. Pintail (not educational but useful) – Lost your pho

ne? Find it with an SMS: Pintail replies automatically with your phone’s location to a PIN protected message. Let friends and family ea

sily find out where you are by sharing your PIN number with them: They send an SMS, Pintail replies with your location.

9. School Email (UK only as of yet) – You don’t need to download this! School Email is the easiest and safest service for emailing between pupils and teachers. Pupils emails are checked for sexual predators and bullying. The service runs over Activsync which means pupils are always “up to date”.

10. Keepy Uppy – If you are struggling getting young boys who enjoy football(soccer) to use their device you may want to think about using an app such as Keepy Uppy as a reward for good work.

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The "Open" arguement and how it changes learning

Admin Admin — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:44:00 +0000

Why do I publish everything I do?

I don’t, I publish about 90% of what I do. I don’t publish all of the School Email source. I do publish nearly all of my music work and most of my educational source code especially the php work I do. I also create free to use resource sites that enable learners and educators to quickly and easily access the content they want to access.

Why be open?

I’m a computer geek, we have an entire community dedicated to sharing code, ideas, thoughts and knowledge. It’s great. In fact its probably the best part of working in IT. For example, Primary School Teaching has 900 man DAYS of code yet 890 of those days were provided for free, by a community of contributors.

How does this translate to educators?

Education created IT, yet IT seems to of outdone education when it comes to sharing resources/ideas/plans and knowledge. How bizarre is that?

I have spent the last few days trying to encourage educators to spend 30 seconds a day uploading their lesson plans to Primary School Teaching and the #1 argument I face is why should I share my hard work with someone who will just steal it? For me this just doesn’t compute. I don’t see how it does in teaching, I don’t understand why teachers won’t share as much as I’m used to.

It should be free to learn.

Shouldn’t it?

When to have closed systems

Only when security is an issue (ie child details) should a system be “closed”. Certain niche systems that require lots of revenue to fund them and have large start up capital may also be closed. If the content is of a high quality then this can be justified.

But if everything is open then how do we make money?

This all sounds a bit communist… Not at all, schools will steal need teachers, learners will still need resources. I get paid for what I release publicly too. There are lots of revenue models other than the simple pay for knowledge.

Today’s great debate

Today was great, I was using twitter(A free service) while talking to some resource creators who felt it was inappropriate that Primary Games Arena(A free service) had an iframe linking to other websites which had games for kids(All freely available games). The argument was that it looked on the website like Primary Games Arena is taking credit for the resources it links to. On each game there is some text that displays who the publisher is of the game.

In my nature I feel that if something is available on a website then referring to that resource should never be a problem as you are making it easier for the learner to learn and/or teacher to teach.

After our short < 1000 word debate we decided that Primary Games Arena will now email each resource creator asking for permission to put games on Primary Games Arena. This is a simple procedure that will take a matter of minutes to accomplish and should keep everyone happy.

Thanks for everyone who got involved in today’s debate.

I do hope we can encourage teachers to share more and for websites to show more respect to the resource creators/authors and publishers who create the content.

This post will probably spark some conversation and I hope that it does because I feel this is an important issue that needs addressing.

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How to implement a wireless solution in a Primary School – Part 1/6 (HD)

Admin Admin — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 11:26:00 +0000

The first part to the long awaited wireless presentation I did for curriculum ICT in Bradford. It is taking me a day a video at the moment to upload them to youtube so I will blog each time a new parts finishes uploading.

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Second Life or Virtual 3d Worlds in Primary Schools

Admin Admin — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 23:11:00 +0000

Naace are running a conference on using 3d virtual worlds in education. I can’t help but feeling this is mostly focused on the secondary market but I guess it has some relevance to Primary.

Right now, even though I feel it has relevance I feel skeptical that this is a good idea but I could be wrong, it’s happened before

Try to remember most primary school kids don’t even have email addresses provided by their schools yet and we’re going to open them up to a second life (be it walled or not)

I’m not going to rant about security or child safety. I want to focus entirely on the point. Right now, I just don’t get it.

I’m not going to download it or try it out, I don’t want to know if it feels good or clever. This isn’t a particularly new concept. Games have been used in Primary Education for years, mostly cartoony games that are very simple. Why do I need my character to walk to a piece of work to pick it up when its available on my VLE.. (I’m pretending I’m a kid…)

I do however think games is a great way to encourage kids to learn, Primary Games Arena is having huge success worldwide with engaging children in fun learning.

Virtual worlds should be all about engaging with other people, school mates for example.

Maybe the whole Digital Citizenship is what I don’t get. Being that I started with BBS, moved to IRC + LPMUD, now I have every possible way of being “Hailed” 24/7… Come to think of it I think I probably learned a lot of social skills through LPMuds (Multi user environments)..

I think I will go spend some time thinking about what Digital Citizenship is and how it will feel in 3/5 years time when virtual worlds MAY be at their peak. They certainly haven’t peaked yet and all the hype from Second Life is blatant hot air..

I may have just begun a revolution in my head.. Oh dear..

If you read this all the way through then you may wish to consider reading this article of Terry freedmans interview of Miller – its focused more at secondary but you get the picture..

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