Some of you may have seen my guide for creating a quick slideshow on a Macintosh using a simple folder of images in OSX. If the Leopard OS is installed on your Macintosh you can quickly create an interactive slideshow using CoverFlow or QuickLook.

You begin by creating a folder and moving all of the desired images to that folder. Yesterday I downloaded a series of images from the State Records of NSW in preparation for a history lesson on the bubonic plague in Sydney. The lesson was for three separate Year Nine History classes with 30 students in each class. The folder of 20 images is illustrated below. The images are presented in List view.

Change the view from List to CoverFlow by either selecting CoverFlow from the View menu, clicking on the CoverFlow button at the top of the open window or by  typing Command-4. The CoverFlow window view is illustrated below.

If you resize and enlarge the window that is often sufficient for a projected slideshow. In addition, if you select all of the images and then select QuickLook from the File menu. This will set up a slideshow that you can resize to full screen.

You can also initiate QuickLook by clicking on the QuickLook button or by typing Command-Y. The controller allows you to progress backwards and forwards through the images. You can also set up a gallery view by clicking on the appropriate button.

The controller disappears from view when you move the cursor to a different part of the screen. The folder may not necessarily solely include images. Documents, movies and other file types can also be explored using QuickLook and CoverFlow.

Many of you have probably heard of the Black Death or the bubonic plague. I must note that the Black Death may have not been caused by bubonic plague but back to the point. Sydney, Australia, experienced the bubonic plague during the early years of the twentieth century and the State Records Authority of NSW has created a nice gallery of photographs taken during the time. I have included a photograph of some professional ratcatchers with their haul as well as a photograph of a butcher’s shop.

The gallery, Purging Pestilence – The Bubonic Plague, features 20 excellent photographs as well as an overview of the outbreak. There are also links to government records and files regarding the outbreak. Additional photographs taken during the time can be found with this search of the State records.

This material would be useful as primary and secondary sources for teachers working with Year Nine students in NSW who are covering the history of Australia during the period 1900 to 1914. I shared all of the photographs, via a quick slideshow and an overhead projector, with my students in Year Nine yesterday, across three separate classes.

The butcher’s shop below and this photograph resulted in expressions of dismay and disgust as well as delight. That’s the way a classroom should be. Weave the photographs into a story and let the history stir their emotions. 

The gallery is part of a series of digital galleries that feature stories regarding tragic shipwrecks, criminal history, the bushranger Ned Kelly and famous murder cases just to name a few.

I certainly have. The rain has been my key preoccupation for a couple of months now. This week our region had record rain once again. It seems to be a regular event.

Water entered the ground floor of our split level home via an upwelling around the piers as well as from around the concrete slab upon which the ground floor rests. It is not coming in via the doorways or garage door. The water is seeping up through the clay and soil. I assume the water table has now risen following the end of several years of drought. What to do?

I was up all night on Monday through to Tuesday morning monitoring the water levels downstairs. I spent the rest of the evenings this week catching up on rest. If I was on the Internet I was probably checking in on the Bureau of Meteorology web site and its excellent radar. It is raining as I type.

The image above was captured after the previous full stop. I have not been able to make the time to blog or to sift through the posts in Google Reader this week. This morning, I managed to get some time to go through the posts. There were more than 400. I marked all of the posts from the commercial blogs as read and focused on the K-12 and other education blogs. There are only seven unread posts now. The rain is still coming down. Sigh.

One year ago we were crying out for rain. Now we need a break from the rain.

During the Year Eleven Preliminary Course in Ancient History (NSW BOS Syllabus) the students are given an introduction to archaeological technique. Topics include aerial photography, crop marks, dendrochronology, underwater archaeology, managing a dig, carbon dating and so on. There are a number of useful web sites available for students to access. Two sites include Past Perfect and Background On Archaeological Methods. Each site is quite different but useful in its own way.

Past Perfect examines the archaeology of Durham and Northumberland with photographs of digs, artefacts and the region. It incorporates rendered and VRML reconstructions of the sites. It provides valuable insights into the lives of the original inhabitants, building methods and climate change. In addition Past Perfect has a section dedicated to the techniques of the archaeologist. There is a wealth of material to explore within the site. In terms of classroom activities students could explore the site as groups and publish their own findings on nominated sections of the site.

The site, Background On Archaeological Methods is a straightforward site that sets out in plain English the key components of archaeology. It can act as a quick introduction to archaeology for students and the general public alike. Topics covered include site grids, dating, stratigraphy, artefact recovery and record keeping. 

Additional web sites focused upon the techniques of the archaeologist can be found linked to from this dedicated web page.

I have been catching up on Google Reader this week. Just read Dan Meyer’s post Crisis of Faith which is his response to Jeff Wasserman’s blog post where Jeff describes his frustration with technology and his decision to let it go. Jeff’s blog post did not surprise me. It is best that you read Jeff’s original post. Dan Meyer responds by stating that Jeff Wasserman does not have the right to refuse to use technology. Dan’s statement surprised me somewhat. Best to read the comments to Dan’s post yourself.

I have given Google Reader a break recently. There were three reasons for this. First of all my wife and I were busy doing work around the home, I was preparing for the new school year and I had grown tired of reading blogs repeatedly peppered with angst, judgement calls and defenses of this or that position. Give me a blog with simple practical advice any day. Let’s just get on with the job.

There is a term that constantly pops up in blogs that single-mindedly push technology within the classroom setting. The term is 21st century. As far as I can tell this century is not all that different to the previous one. Many people associate the term 21st century with the future if you get my drift. As a ten year old I was looking forward to the 21st century. Well, the 21st century has arrived and nothing much has really changed. The year is 2008. People are not living on the moon. The Concorde has been mothballed. I am certainly not flying to work in an aero-car each day. I am in a car pool to save on petrol costs. The fact that it happens to be the 21st century has no bearing on how I teach or make decisions. I better keep this post to a minimum so I do not become a hypocrite. Cheers, John.