Idle Thoughts

Who reads blogs these days?

I tend to read blogs entries posted in Twitter

Although I subscribe to lots of blogs, I rarely open my RSS reader - feels too much like work

And so I miss lots and lots of thoughts and ideas

I use Twitter - but is that a simple replacement?

Who reads my blog? What is it for?

Ideas from TMNE09

How do you set up a TM?

Question asked of CHarte via Ning

Independent Learning

Example at TMNE was with Y12

What year groups would this approach work with?, Surely all of them, to an extent - but easier to start with VI form?, While some classes MIGHT benefit - can be a huge risk and requires some level of maturity, Start at the top and work down the school, expanding as you go?

Is it more/less useful with coursework or exam classes?

E-Twinning

Collaborate with other schools on a whole range of ideas, Databases (collecting/comparing data), Presenting information, HE - food from around the world

Early GCSE Entry

SLT support obviously needed

G&T targeted? Or subject specific excellence?

Would have to be extra-curricular?

Cost to school?

Benefit to school?

Presentation tools

Wordle

GoAnimate

Glogster

Prezi

Animoto

Voice Tools, Voki, Crazy Talk, Mashface

Wiki

XtraNormal

Museum Box

Comic Life (Desktop App)

Film Making

Links:, filminute.com (60sec), depict.org (90sec), northeastmovies.co.uk

Neural Impulse Actuator

THAT'S. JUST. COOL.

Stimulating discussions about technology and computing

While it is cool - what educational benefits are there?

PEEL

Look for more examples/structure

Brilliant example presented, Relevance to skills based subjects as well as knowledge based, Time needed to prepare exemplar levelling grids, How do I do that? Any guidelines out there?

What is there to the techniques?

Anderson's Taxonomy

Media Ideas

Century of Faces

Filminute

Students filming/editing school events

Using Ning as a classroom tool

Competing with Moodle?

Competing with Mahara?

Relative merits in comparison with ELGG and Edmodo?

Would need SLT/HoD/Tech support on board

Chat facility could be an issue, A good one, Communication skills, Back channel, Social networking in a 'safe' environment, A bad one, Abuse in lessons, Not just MY lessons, Filtering issues?

Can you lock it down?

Who to use it with

One Ning per class?, Seems a sensible start, but is it scalable?

One Ning per year group?

One Ning per school?

One Ning per subject area?

KS3? KS4? KS5?

Danger of online content

Lots of really useful websites host both good, and borderline inappropriate content

E.G. Images on 'sharing' sites like Flickr, Vimeo, et al

E.G. Exemplar websites we can use to demonstrate good ideas that host some borderline content

If website hosts clearly inappropriate content, then the rule HAS to be no

Mind Mapping as a tool

Amazed I have not done this before

Incredibly powerful

We use mind maps (a little), but do we really teach how to use them well?

Link between mind mapping and independent learning

Best examples of tools:

Mind Meister - At a glance looks very good for building up and publishing a very detailed mind map. Collaborative. Uses OpenID.

Bubbl.us - Pretty interface and doesn't require a log on if you take a screen grab. Can print as nested lists/bullets. Don't *think* it's collaborative.

Mind42- Looks OK, not really used. Collaborative.

Text2mindmap - A good introduction and alternative tool, Offering a choice to those with different learning styles

Freemind - Desktop app, over complicated? OSS

How do you assess a mind map?

Definition/examples of Level 3 / 4 / 5?

If we are going to teach the technique, we need some way to give feedback to students

Remember - the software is NOT the point, the skill level is