Archive for the ‘school’ Category

• Simple tool to help educators vote

  Date: 2010.04.07 | Category: politics, Primary School, school, schools | Response: 0

  Worried the general election might be about leaders and not policies? Not to worry, remove any external influences by simply voting on 26 educational policies. Say which you like then it tells you which parties policies you prefer. The site has no government ties or associations and only takes a minute or so.

  Important or not?  This is the link to the tool.

  • Election timetable: this week’s deadlines (libdemvoice.org)
  • Last Chance: Write to MPs on Digital Economy Bill (mt-soft.com.ar)
  • A good poll to kick off the short campaign (lukeakehurst.blogspot.com)
  

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• What a Google purchase of T-Mobile would mean for schools

  Date: 2010.02.14 | Category: google, ICT, school, t-mobile | Response: 0

  I’m not going to speculate on if Google are going to buy t-mobile. I’ve been asked about it a lot today and here are some things that could be of interest to schools.
  Q) Will google provide completely free handsets and phone contracts, funded by Ads + % revenue from Google Market (Androids App store)?

  A) Android is open source, even if an Ad is required the openness of the operating system makes it very easy to work around any Ad delivery so it’s a BIG risk for Google.

  Q) Would a Google purchase of T-Mobile mean my kids would get free handsets and phone contracts?

  A) Probably not. Google know they can’t advertise to kids and the cost of the handset is too high to give it away without any ads.

  Q) Would a Google purchase of T-Mobile or another phone carrier make perfect sense?

  A) Due to all the augmented reality computing being pushed out of both Microsoft and Google then yep.

  

  
  

  Q) What do I want a Google/T-Mobile purchase for my school?

  A) I’d love free handsets and contracts for all staff. Do I expect this? No.

  Q) Do I want my phone provider to change from T-Mobile to Google?

  A) Only if Internet connectivity (as in 3/4G/HSDPA coverage) improves dramatically because of it. Google has an incentive to get you online, especially onto their search pages so it is in their best interest to make the web aspects of the device as accessible as possible.

  I kinda get the feeling Google is going to be the provider of the famous star trek communicator..

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• Is Email a form of Social Media #edchat

  Date: 2009.09.01 | Category: #edchat, email, school, social network | Response: 0

  Yes it is.

  
  

  Social media are media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media supports the human need for social interaction, using Internet- and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many). It supports the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers. Businesses also refer to social media as user-generated content (UGC) or consumer-generated media (CGM).

  Quote from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media
  Email does allow multiple recipients. Email is user generated.
  Email is a form of Social Media. Email as a standard (SMTP) has been used for years and will continue to be used. It is one of the oldest protocols used on the Internet today. So why do some people forget that Email is a social media tool?
  Who broke email’s social appeal? Blame your boss.
  The phycological impact of using the same tools at work as at home is measurably negative. We like the ability to separate our work and play and we consider “socializing” a play event. Play is something you do with friends & people with similar interests. Can you say that is true about all of the people you work with?
  Do we need to fix email’s social appeal? Not really.. We seem to know it’s place in society, we like where it is. We will keep using it for what it is. Having alternative media platforms such as micro blogging, blogging and other platforms where you control who can send and receive posts is what I would call “Controlled Social Environment”.
  PS I hate the term Social Media. Educationalists come up with these ridiculous terms to try to summarize a new tech in as few words possible – get over it.

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• Explaining the #edchat poll options – Need help!

  Date: 2009.08.17 | Category: edtech, ICT, poll, primary schools, school | Response: 0

  I found some of the options for the #edchat poll a little confusing so I figured someone else must too.. Please help me try to clarify the options.

  Option: Should teachers digitally open their gradebooks to parents?
  Explanation: Teachers and educators assess pupils performance constantly throughout their education, do you think that this information should be constantly available to the parents of the pupil throughout their entire education, some of their education or not at all?

  Option: What edtech standards should be included State wide?
  Explanation: Some states are starting to incorporate standards for using technology. However, these standards are not uniform and often filled with difficult jargon. What standards would we include if asked by our schools to come up with standards? What should students be able to do with various technologies- problem solve, collaborate, etc.?

  Option: How should administrators and school leaders take an active part in edtech Professional Development?
  Explanation: How should school administrators and leaders be trying to encourage other teachers and leaders to improve on their technology skills

  Option: How do you prevent burnout on Social Media?
  Explanation: We become much busier as the school year starts. However, teachers still want to keep up with their Twitter, Ning, LinkedIn, Facebook,and other social media accounts. How do we balance our lesson planning, grading, personal lives, etc. and still keep active with our personal learning network?

  Option: What objectives are necessary for effective edtech integration?
  Explanation: What goals are necessary for effective technology integration into education? How can we assess these goals and decide what they should be? Can be it “Graded” or is it a mistake to think a grading system will not get dated quicker than a system is implemented?

  The poll is available here: http://twtpoll.com/oh1hfj

  Please provide comments to help me update this post! Some updates thanks to Shelly

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• EEE Desktop is super slick

  Date: 2009.07.17 | Category: desktop, eee, hdmi, Primary School, school, touchscreen, vga | Response: 0

  Had a demo of the EEE desktop in our office today.

  The unit was sent to us to use in a primary school. They cost about £340 exc vat or so.

  My only beef, no VGA/HDMI output on the model we had This may not be accurate for all models.

  

  But first meet our moody Engineer aka Cuddles

  
  

  

  webcam

  

  handle

  

  clean -_-

  

  cables + ports

  

  low profile kb

  

  slick design

  

  save desktop space

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