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

Archive for May, 2008

Blackboard meets Bollywood
May 24th, 2008

Not too sure how this crossed my path but in this sequence of short video clips the Blackboard LMS gets the Bollywood treatment.

http://metamedia.typepad.com/metamedia/2008/04/the-adventures.html

Enjoy.

Only Connect ~ presentation by Mark Pesce
May 24th, 2008

Mark Pesce’s latest presentation. Thoroughly enjoyed the opening video. Useful. Excellent presentation. Mark is quite in touch.

the human network » Blog Archive » Only Connect (Live Version)

Mark’s blog.

Blogged with the Flock Browser
Afternoon
May 24th, 2008

Afternoon

Just one of those afternoons…

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Tags:

Exciting classroom visitor
May 20th, 2008

Today my classroom received an interesting visitor. A huntsman spider wandered into the classroom from the garden outside. Huntsman spiders visit quite regularly. Some of them happily live in the eaves while others inhabit the spaces behind the loose bark on the eucalyptus trees.

I think this huntsman is a Delena cancerides of the family Sparassidae. I have also seen the family referred to as Heteropodidae. There seems to be a conflict among the taxonomists.

Links:

Huntsman spiders at the Australian Museum
Wikipedia entry: Huntsman spiders
Huntsman

Huntsman spiders at home: Outside | Inside |

Seesmic creates waves ~ will you take the plunge?
May 19th, 2008

Well, Kevin Lim certainly created waves after he dropped this pebble in the pond yesterday. Myself and others picked up Seesmic following Kevin’s dramatic post and the initial conversation generated 40 plus replies. Kevin has subsequently blogged about the implications of the tool and that Seesmic event here.

Social cyborg and multimediamuse, Kevin Lim, goes Seesmic

Kevin writes about the initial reluctance of some users to adopt the tool, including himself. He goes on to write that, “Haven’t we said the same thing before we took to blogging or even twitter?” He reviews the use of the tool under the following headings.

  • New medium, New resistance
  • It’s full-on transparency…
  • It’s about performancing…
  • It’s meme formation at lightspeed…
  • It’s a new aesthetic; a brash context…

Kevin also provides a set of links to some of the more interesting characters that appeared in the initial Seesmic thread yesterday. Well worth a look. The excerpts provide an insight into the immediacy, openness and fun of the tool.

I felt a little reluctant blogging about Kevin’s latest post because he blogs on about my Seesmic observations but he provides additional and valuable insights that are well worth your consideration.

I also received an informative comment from Dr Javed Alem where he pointed to a set of Seesmic threads where students recently provided course reflections via Seesmic. Javed writes that he was “…teaching a course titled “infotechtools for engineers” and I tried using different media. Student liked the video medium once they get a hang of it. It is more engaging and more natural when it comes to informal or semi informal conversations.” Javed has provided links to the threads as well as a Voicethread commentary…

http://seesmic.com/videos/XVKgMdijmq

and some student responses…

http://seesmic.com/v/jWStMJYGom

http://seesmic.com/videos/ffBo8Yz4j

http://voicethread.com/share/124542/

Dr Javed Alam, upper left, and a number of his students

It is interesting to see how the different students handled the use of Seesmic. In the main they seem quite confident and relaxed with an air of formality as well.

Their use of the tool in this context contrasts with the threads yesterday where a rather serious conversation on the teaching and learning applications of the tool was seamlessly blended with a parade of sunglasses, hats, wigs, soft-toys and puppets. What does that tell us?

Some of the respondents to Kevin’s Seesmic thread.
That’s me in the psychedelic wig.

I personally feel as though I have come out of the Twitter closet and gone Seesmic. How about you? Will you take the plunge also?

Addendum. Check out the Seesmic WordPress plug-in that facilitates video comments. You still need to enter your normal details, email address, etc in addition to the Seesmic log-in. You can see it in action on Kevin’s post where he is engaged in a conversation with Critter, a Seesmic developer.