I have been reasonably quiet on the blog side of things for about 7 days. Last week was the final week of the term. Year 12 finished up prior to their final examinations. I have been preparing for the NavCon Conference in Gosford which starts on this Tuesday and finishes Friday. On Sunday I fly to Singapore to give a week’s worth of Web 2.0 workshops and a presentation. I have to update my materials for that as well tomorrow. I plan to clean the swimming pool, have breakfast with fellow adventurer Diamond and sort out some clothes tomorrow. Plus fix up some photographs for the school magazine. Goodness gracious!

The NavCon conference is on this week and I have been updating my Podcast Workshop pages. I modified my presentation and created new documents for GarageBand, Podcast Maker and ProfCast. I also created a detailed document concerned with audio settings on the Macintosh.

This evening I tested four different methods for obtaining digital audio for podcasting this afternoon and I thought it would be worthwhile to simply publish the results. I used the following devices to record audio on my MacBook Pro.

Logitech Headset
Small stereo microphone
Lapel microphone
MacBook Pro built in microphone

You can see the equipment and hear the results here on my Podcast workshop page. Scroll down the page.

This evening I received a pleasant surprise in my In Box. Mark Pearson of plasq software had written an email asking if plasq, creators of Comic Life, could link to my Comic Life workshop page. They were also after examples and ideas for a future education site focused upon the software. I have promised to supply the Plasq team with some ideas.

Comic Life is an excellent software application. This is not a paid advertisement I should add. What can Comic Life allow you to do? Comic Life allows you to drag and drop your digital photographs, scanned photographs, drawings and even still video captures into a comic book page template. You can drag word and thought balloons on to the template and create as many comic book pages as you wish. There are a diverse range of page templates and styles to draw from in the creation of your project. You can publish to the web, create images and even produce a movie. It exports to iWeb as well.

Personally and professionally, the thing that strikes me about Comic Life is the fact that students can bring inanimate objects, such as a brick, to life. They can give feelings and thoughts to objects as diverse as light bulbs and bullets. This can be a medium for very powerful messages within a framework that is seamless. Comic Life as a tool does not get in the way of the message. Students, and teachers, can begin to express the message rapidly. This software empowers students. Many other software tools are clunky whether they be web development, video or graphic applications. Comic Life is not clunky.

I like to get to know a tool, such as Comic Life, well and then I explore the specific knowledge, skills and attitudinal outcomes of various teaching disciplines to see how the tool can be appropriately matched to specific outcomes. Different tools match different outcomes. Comic Life lends itself to many applications across many teaching and learning disciplines.

Sir Ken Robinson is simply a remarkable person. He is a world-renowned speaker on how to inspire creativity and innovation. He is inspirational. He delivers his understandings and wisdom with “warmth, passion and wit”. “He was voted Business Speaker of the Year by over 200 global and European companies. In June 2003, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his outstanding achievements as a leader in creativity, education and the arts.” [http://www.sirkenrobinson.com/]

In this fifteen minute presentation he delivers a moving and also delightfully witty talk on schooling and creativity. He succinctly points out how education is geared towards ultimately producing university professors. The core subjects dominate the arts and music. There is little room for creativity. An education system that is a by-product of the industrial revolution of the 19th century.

All educators should take the time out to watch this inspiring and thought provoking presentation given at TED Talks in 2006…. “Do schools kill creativity?”

My wife Shao Ping is blogging in stereo. She has her blog, 好為人師, on both blogspot.com and also blog.pixnet.net. She has been sharing her skills with other teachers of Mandarin and this Tuesday she is conducting a workshop for teachers of Mandarin regarding the techniques of setting up a blog. She works really fast. She had some Chinese Twitter like apps on her blog but they were unreliable. I suggested that Shao Ping try “Jaiku” and in about 5 minutes her Jaiku badge was already up and running on her blogspot blog.

A photograph of my dear wife Shao Ping. She is always looking for alternative uses for objects. Very creative is my wife.

Recently a mumber of education blogs have been inundated with thoughts regarding the technological literacy of teachers. Some of the authors believe that teachers should proactively adopt technologies. Others disagree. Other commentators blame the system for not encouraging innovation or providing an environment conducive to adopting technology. One commentator proposes a set of guidelines for teachers in relation to technology adoption.

Read this post first followed by these three. 1 | 2 | 3 |

Google has launched its online presentation tool via the official Google blog. I shall give the new tool a go. Will not work with Safari on the Mac.

Ken Ronkowitz never ceases to amaze me with his excellent posts regarding teaching, learning and technology. During the last week or so he has posted some informative items regarding podcasting, Google Earth and the art of writing itself.

With respect to podcasting he brings up the point that simply repurposing lectures for delivery via podcast is not an ideal use of the medium. Ken illustrates, by way of a positive example, how David Miller at the University of Connecticut is employing the podcasting medium in a proactive manner. Each week David Miller and his students collaborate in an one hour discussion of the course material. The content is discussed and recorded for podcasting. Ken also points out how David precasts and postcasts key material before and after each lecture. Students are attracted to the subject due to this proactive and particpatory approach to the use of podcasting.

Ken also blogged an interesting post about the use of Google Earth to plot and trace the moevements of characters during the course of a novel. This would indeed be a novel approach for teachers of literature seeking to inpsire their students with additional visual cues as they explore each destination on the plotted Google Earth map.

The last gem from Ken that I wish to share is a new podcast set up by NJIT entitled ‘The End of the Essay’. This podcast is a project that Ken has been working on with Dr. Norbert Elliot, Professor of English at NJIT. Ken points out that Dr. Elliot had given a presentation called “The End of the Essay: Writing in a Mediated Environment.” Ken thought it was something that Dr. Elliot should develop into a book, however he was already involved in another book project, so the concept became a podcast. The blog post makes very interesting reading for educational technologists and teachers alike.

I have just read a telling post by Sue Waters in her informative Mobile Technology in TAFE blog regarding the skill set of Generation Y or the Digital Natives.

This very point has come up in staff meetings and during IT workshops, etc. Sure there are students who may know a few more keyboard shortcuts and can type much faster than I. Their use of mobile phones is impressive. Yet, there are a wide variety of IT skills lacking.

They can all make an iMovie or Windows Movie Maker project but they exhibit little creativity with their editing, timelines, etc. They do not explore the technology. They may apply special effects but they do not know why they are applying the special effect. They produce a video then what next? Teachers then have to share the technological possibilities that are available to allow online publication or dissemination of the product.

Even use of tools like Word or Powerpoint is quite basic on the whole. Rarely does a student show an eye for good design or layout. These skills need to be taught by a teacher with the necessary skill set.

I am trying to encourage the student population at our school to avoid wasting endless hours with MSN Chat, MySpace and the like and steer their energies towards the construction of blogs and web sites that are beneficial for themselves and the wider community. It is an uphill battle. Some of my students have produced worthy web sites. One is actually earning about $20.00USD per day via Google AdSense on their site. Great way to earn money while still a Year 10 student.

Perhaps they are not Digital Natives at all but simply Digital Dilettantes… they are, and I quote from a dictionary, an amateur or dabbler; especially, one who follows an art or a branch of knowledge sporadically, superficially, or for amusement only.