Kathy Schrock has evaluated a number of tools that can be utilised with the iPod touch in an educational setting. Her blog post, iPod touch online applications for education lists and describes 18 online sites that could be uitlised with the iPod Touch. A number are straightforward sites such as “This Day In History” while others, such as Listingly, can allow for more practical uses of the iPod Touch. Can you suggest any others?

I have been interested in the human-computer interface since the early 90s when I was undertaking my postgraduate studies in educational technology at the University of Wollongong. I read books by Tognazzini, Donald Norman and Brenda Laurel. I was reading articles by John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid. I was working with HyperCard on the Mac designing interactive apps for use in the teaching of history. The design of useful and intuitive interfaces was interesting. The advent of html seemed such a backward step. Anyway, I digress.

Earlier this year I was browsing through the TED Talks web site and came across two presentations that demonstrate innovative human computer interfaces. I thought back to the interfaces of the eighties and nineties and it is true that not much has changed. Each demonstration speaks for itself. The first is by Jeff Han. The second is by Anand Agarawala. After viewing the demonstrations you cannot but help but desire to be working with each of those interfaces now.

Jeff Han

Anand Agarawala

Each presentation is enjoyable, informative and inspiring. Anand’s web site is here. Jeff Han’s new company is called Perceptive Pixel.

Today is Blog Action Day and the theme is the environment. Today, bloggers “around the web are uniting to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind – the environment”. I felt that I would like to share some photographs I took of the mangroves on Brisbane Waters on the NSW Central Coast. They were adjacent to St Edward’s Catholic College where I was attending a conference. The mangroves were in good condition although there were the remains of an old brick structure in one section on the shore. Mangroves are key to the survival of our fisheries as many fish species use the mangroves for breeding. Seeing the mangroves reminded me of the excellent work of the International Coastal Cleanup group in Singapore.

This video was posted online by Prof Michael Wesch and his 200 students that are enrolled in ANTH 200: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University. Prof Wesch indicates that the video was inspired by “Marshall McLuhan’s ideas as they apply to education, especially as they have been used by Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner in Teaching as a Subversive Activity.”

The message is sound and the collaborative effort involved in its creation is impressive. Yet, I grow tired of these videos. Perhaps it is the incidental background music, or the kitsch use of slogans and messages. They seem to state the same thing…. “The world is changing, students are changing, we need to change, we are rich, they are poor, and so on.” I am a little cynical, perhaps not.

I disagree with two of the comments raised by the students. One stated “I did not create the problems”. Students in developed western nations are part of the problem. They are significant consumers and are contributing to an economic model that generates inequity on a global scale. That’s one of the reasons why one billion people make less than $1.00 dollar a day, a figure held up by another student.

Secondly another student held a statement that iterated “When I graduate I will probably have a job that doesn’t exist today.” I disagree. Perhaps, not probably. Many of today’s university graduates face a world where it is becoming increasingly difficult to secure a meaningful career upon graduation. For some their first job will probably be flipping hamburgers in a fast food outlet or serving drinks in a bar so they can repay the debt that they incurred during their study. Many graduates immediately roll over into postgraduate studies. I feel that all education should be free.

Recently at the NavCon2K7 conference a number of presenters and workshop facilitators sprinkled their presentations with a range of YouTube styled videos, each with a message designed to change the world in one form or another. I was dismayed to view one keynote sprinkled with quite a few YouTube styled videos only to see two of the sampled videos resurface during an unrelated workshop later during the day.

At the commencement of my Comic Life workshop on the last day of the conference I promised the participants that there would be no PowerPoints and no YouTube videos. I received a round of applause.

Sure, show a video during a break but not during a keynote, unless of course you were the author of the production.

This post is expressing two messages. Enough of the “world changing” five minute videos and please do not pad out your presentations with one video after another during a keynote at a conference unless you were the author of the included video(s).

Production of these world changing videos is fine. I should not make judgement calls. I do feel happier, however, when I see students and teachers actively involved in projects such as cleaning up the local environment, raising money for worthwhile causes or directly assisting the underprivileged. That’s what I understand life changing to be.

Despite all of my criticisms of sharing videos during a presentation I intend to post a blog regarding two videos on TED Talks in the near future. Is that okay?

I updated the podcasting workshop web page to reflect the needs of the participants scheduled to attend the podcast workshop today as part of a workshop at school.

Two education licenses for the deluxe version of Comic Life will be given away as well during the day. The licenses are courtesy of Mark Pearson at plasq software sofware.