Thoughts on teaching, learning, technology and life in an era of change.

Archive for November, 2007

What is a LoudTwitter?
November 11th, 2007

LoudTwitter is a service that allows you to automatically post your Twitter comments to your blog.

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Bubblegeneration Strategy Lab
November 11th, 2007

Interesting views on Facebook strategy and the views of Gideon Yu, Facebook CFO over at the Bubblegeneration Strategy Lab blog.

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Two things that annoy me about my Mac
November 10th, 2007

1. About 2 in 5 attempts to burn a CD tend to fail.
2. The battery life is poor.

I am trying to burn a CD-R for a friend. I took some photographs at his daughter’s wedding this afternoon. I wished to to burn three CD-Rs of the photographs. So far 1 CD has succeeded. Two have failed. I shall see if the next one fails. Why does this happen in a relatively new MacBook Pro 15″ laptop?

Postscript. 3 CD-Rs succeeded. 3 CD-Rs failed. Is that a 50% success rate or a 50% failure rate? Is the glass half full or half empty? They were imation CDRs. The hardware is an ATA HL-DT-ST DVDRW GWA4080MA burner.

ExploreLearning - Interactive Math and Science Simulations.
November 10th, 2007

I remember discovering this web site a number of years ago, ExploreLearning - Interactive Math and Science Simulations. I stumbled across it again today. Although I am a history teacher I have always been fascinated by astronomy, fractals, and the like. Enjoy!

How Google Works
November 10th, 2007

This interactive page nicely illustrates how Google works. There are informative mouseover elements within the presentation.

Wordpress installed on server
November 10th, 2007

Last night I installed Wordpress on the server that hosts my web site. I had to initiate a SQL database and a specific mySQL user for the Wordpress app. I only had one setback. The password for the mySQL user was one character too short. The faqs and instructions provided by my host were excellent. My web site is hosted by ICDSoft. They always respond to my inquiries rapidly.

I have sought assistance to create a specific wordpress template to meet my needs. I played around with some existing templates and their php files however I find that my knowledge is not up to par. I could persist with the task however I think that will take up too much time. It is best to seek the assistance of an expert who could probably create a better template in one tenth of the time.

Once the new template is complete I will add the template as a theme and begin blogging on the new site. I will import the posts from four separate blogspot blogs…. TeachTech, Prisoner of War, Pyxellate and The Adventurers’ Club. I will use pages and categories to differentiate between major themes.

Shifted blog back to blogspot
November 6th, 2007

Due to a ftp publishing problem with Blogger that has been occurring since early August and has recently become a more significant issue I have decided to publish my blog directly via Blogger. I will not publish via ftp from Blogger to my server. As a result my blog has a new address:

http://teachtechnet.blogspot.com/

If you wish to subscribe to the blog please use this feed address

feed://teachtechnet.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Stephen Downes on The Personal Network Effect
November 5th, 2007

Stephen Downes has written an informative post regarding the value of networks, The Personal Network Effect. He points out that the an individual’s network will be of value if the information derived is maningful and is characteristic by semantic relevance.

The number of persons in an individual’s network will determine the effectiveness of the network. More friends does not necessarily equate to a more effective network. As a result he feels that networking applications should be designed with these characteristics in mind, thus giving the end user more control over their network and its derived usefulness. He points to valuable articles by John Black and Etienne Wenger concerning common ground and communities of practice in his post.

Web 2.0 Links and Resources for Teachers
November 4th, 2007

My Web 2.0 workshop page was becoming cluttered with links so a dedicated Web 2.0 links page was born. I have attempted to categorise the links according to the following questions:

What is Web 2.0?
Where can I find some Web 2.0 tools?
What are blogs and how do they work?
What is a wiki? How do they work?
What is podcasting? How can I use it with my students?
What will happen after Web 2.0?
I also tidied up the resources for teachers that are available for download from the Web 2.0 workshop web page.
If you have a favourite Web 2.0 link or tool that you would like to share please add a comment. It would be much appreciated.
Wesley Fryer on implications of a flat world for schools
November 3rd, 2007

Wesley Fryer writes on the future directions that schools may take with this post, Implications of a flat world for schools, and lists the types of considerations that educators need to take into account when implementing change. Some of the schools in our region are making the moves with 1to 1 computing, habits of mind and some blended learning. Still a way to go.

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