Straight off the press. Lazy Sunday. Breakfast. Reading yesterday’s newspaper. Few blog posts read. Couple of my own posted. Tidied the sheets. A few  quick tweets.  Just had a shower. While I was in the shower Gary Stager popped into my head. I composed a song about Gary, while I was standing there in the shower, to the tune of the Beverly Hillbillies theme. Now, that’s a worry.

Anyway, I thought I would give Gary a bit of a plug here while my hair, what’s left of it, is still drying. I first discovered Gary on the net when researching podcasts back in late December 2004 or early 2005. He was compiling resources on podcasting almost from the beginning.

I like Gary’s blog ~ Stager-to-Go. He shows no fear. He writes how he feels. He is like a devil’s advocate in the edublogging world. Not all of his posts are applicable to the scene here downunder but I like to read them all anyway. I do not agree with all his stuff but why should I? Still enjoyable to read regardless. I enjoy reading Gary when he has a go at some sacred cows. He may not be everyone’s cup of tea but I think we need more bloggers like Gary Stager.

Sungei Buloh Wetlands, Singapore. Malaysia in the distance.

The other day my good friend Siva tweeted that since I felt liberated after renaming my blog I should post a few items about my life in Singapore. Well, this is my first post in that series. I have lifted much of the text for this post from a page created about this event. Just noticed that I typed in the wrong date! It was January 3rd and not January 1st, 2003.

As many of you have figured out my wife Shao Ping and I spent a number of years in Singapore. During that time one of the things I was partially involved in was the creation of a CD-ROM about mangroves and the Sungei Buloh Wetlands Reserve in Singapore. That was how I met Siva. He was one of our subject matter experts. Incidentally, Siva was blogging before most of us were born. All his and his students’ blogs can be found here.  Siva and I have been the best of friends ever since we met.

I went to Sungei Buloh Wetlands Reserve on the 3rd January, 2003. It was late in the afternoon and the weather was closing in somewhat. It was a good thing to go however. I was taking time off work from the eLearning job. I had worked over Christmas and the New Year and life was closing in. I needed a break otherwise I felt I would surely break.

Sungei Buloh is a great place to go in order to unwind. Especially on week days if you can make it. You can recharge your batteries, so to speak. It would be neat to work there, I think. I have formed good friendships at Buloh.

Have you ever seen the rain?

Anyway, during that afternoon the heavens opened up and I watched the downpour from the boardwalk. It was actually quite cool, at least for Singapore. I took a lot of photographs. The rain fell down and the mud lazily danced as each drop met its maker. The greys painted the world in Sungei Buloh that afternoon.

Thank God I was there to witness it. Infinitely better than slaving away in an office where working 60 or more hours a week was considered admirable and critically essential for a pay rise or promotion. I was there for another three more months after that. I then relaxed for about three months. Did a few odd consultations and was lecturing part time at the NIE. Spent a few weeks in Australia. That was a long time ~ 3 months. Recharged my life. I then moved on to the CED at NTU. That was a good move. I will be back at NTU later this week. I cannot keep away.

During the last week read a few reports about Swurl. I have some good news and a point that I think is not so good. Some background, the good news and then some potential bad news follows. [Please not my addendum too]

The initial reference to the tool that caught my eye was made by Jane on her excellent eLearning Pick of the Day blog. I was then impressed with the screen shot on the Read/Write Web review of the tool. Since then Silvia Tolisano and Alan Levine have blogged about the tool.

I have been looking for something to replace my Jaiku badge as its servers are down quite often and I cannot perceive that any changes have been made to Jaiku since Google purchased the company last October. I thought that perhaps Swurl was the answer. As I mentioned I was impressed with the screen shot published as part of the report. I thought, “Could this replace my Jaiku badge?”

After reading the review I skipped over to Swurl and signed up. I was able to plug into my blog, twitter, del.icio.us and Last.FM feeds. That was all. For some reason I could not plug into my Flickr feed. I made several attempts. No luck.

So, I left a question on their suggestion page. More on that in a moment. Anyway, this morning I received an email from Jonathan Neddenriep at Swurl. He is pictured here with the other chap behind Swurl, Ryan. These gentlemen are real. Their feedback is excellent. This is impressive.

Jonathan mentioned in the email that they had added an additional feature that allowed you to enter the full url of your Flickr account. It worked for me. I could switch on Flickr. I think this level of support is brilliant. Simply outstanding. That is the good news.

Now, Swurl is good but it is not the solution for me. I was after a sidebar badge that could replace Jaiku but it was not to be. Perhaps one day Swurl will have a badge that I can embed on my home page. The Jaiku badge there takes in all my feeds (except Twitter ~ my choice) and it acts like a “What’s New” for my site and feeds. 

Now, for the not so good point. There is one thing that concerns me about Swurl. When you mouse over any post or entry on your Swurl page a hidden comment field appears. Anyone can comment. What if spammers get a hold of this? It could become a nightmare. Even each individual Twitter post allows for comments. See below.

The comment feature needs to have controls not unlike that of a blog in my opinion. This has been raised on the Swurl suggestion page.

Addendum. Now for some more good news. This blog post has received a comment from Jonathan Neddenriep at Swurl. These guys are brilliant! Please read Jonathan’s comment below. Excellent.

Just completed an iChat with Westley Field. He is a much traveled chap. He is in London doing this and that. Anyway, here he is, having breakfast with Richard Millward, an educator delving into learning, technology and its development through his research and development work with Core Education UK and the IDIBL project in the Institute for Educational Cybernetics at the University of Bolton.

Good morning gentlemen

Richard and I laughed about our foreheads. I then sent Westley, via iChat, the link to my previous post about QR Codes and asked Westley and Richard to check out my forehead replete with my blog’s QR Code.

I explianed QR Codes to Westley and to my surprise Richard grabbed his phone which had software capable of reading QR Codes. He pointed his mobile phone at the QR code on my blog and, on cue, my blog appeared on Richard’s mobile phone. Now, I think that is quite neat.

Proof of concept ~ the QR Code pointed to my blog

We chatted a bit and I provided Westley with some pointers for a presentation he must be doing later. I have a knack at being in the right place at the right time when it comes to Westley. And vice versa.

How did I create this post? I took the screen shots of the iChat session using SharpShooter. I imported the images into Comic Life and added the word balloons, etc. I exported the Comic as a jpeg image and then resized each image it in Adobe Photoshop Elements and exported it using the Save For Web… option which allows you to fine tune file size and quality. I used CyberDuck to upload the two images.

First learnt about these a few weeks back. Read about them in a newspaper somewhere and then made a mental note to follow it up. Well, an article in the Sydney Morning Herald reminded me about the QR Code so this afternoon did a Google search using these terms “QR Code your own”. Came up with a  few sites and selected this one: Kaywa QR Code Generator. There was also a generator at Winksite.

One can generate a code badge of varying sizes together with embed code and a permalink. The QR Code for this blog is displayed above.

QR Codes are not unlike bar-codes and were originally developed in Japan for use in manufacturing. Now, how can you use this code? Well, imagine this… you print a large version of your QR Code on a t-shirt. Someone points a mobile phone equipped with a camera and the QR Code reader software and scans your QR Code on your t-shirt. Then your web site, text message, mobile business card, image or whatever you create the QR Code for will appear on their phone. No searching or typing required. You could print QR Codes on your name cards.

QR Codes will appear in adverts, on billboards, CD jackets, books, restaurants, catalogues and elsewhere. I have visions of the codes being used on motor vehicle registration plates, license papers, ID cards, etc. They have been used in Japan for sometime where they have become popular among Japan’s highly mobile youth. They are now being used in Australia.

Exclusive QR Codes may be published at concerts, performances, conferences and even un-conferences. Point your suitably equipped phone at the QR Code and the relevant data will appear on your phone. QR Codes could be used in museums and other exhibitions to send data regarding displays and exhibits to the patrons’ mobile phones. It may give the term ‘point-of-sale’ a whole new meaning as you point your phone at QR coded merchandise and purchase it on the spot.

Perhaps you could your QR Code tattooed on your arm or on any other part of your exterior. The mind boggles.

Now, I wonder if I go to a different QR Code generator and attempt to create another QR Code for this blog will it be identical?

From time to time as I scan the Twitter feeds I see the adjective ‘cool‘ pop up in reference to this application or that tool. Now, because I am actually a Grumpy Old Man, I must admit that I feel annoyed when I see the term cool to describe every new tool or app that appears on the horizon. They cannot all be cool.

Yet, I do believe that some applications are deserving of the adjective cool. I will list three.

1. HyperCard. Apple’s authoring tool that spawned an entire generation of educators willing to give technology a go in the classroom. HyperCard changed my life. HyperCard and similar tools led to the origin and growth of research and development laboratories such as EmLab at the University of Wollongong. Sadly, HyperCard is with us no longer. Link: Apple’s New Hypercard 2.4.

2. KidPix. Excellent software for kids that integrates multimedia elements and a variety of publishing possibilities. It is fun for everyone. Available here.

3. Comic Life. The team at plasq created Comic Life not long back. An incredibly easy application to use  with a diverse range of uses and a plethora of publishing possibilities. This is a fun application as well. I am yet to try out Comic Magiq Life. Mac | Win

Now, I think blogging, wikis and podcasts are also excellent developments.

It is now over to you. Would you like to suggest an application that is worthy of mention?

This evening I was multi-tasking a little, watching TV and keeping an eye on Twitter. Mark Pesce popped up on Twitter and coincidentally I was watching the New Inventors on the ABC here in Australia. Mark acts as a panellist on this television programme from time to time. Not tonight.

Exchanged a tweet or two with Mark [something that still amazes me as I think about it] and asked if he had recently presented in the USA as his name had been mentioned in a couple of tweets over the weekend. He mentioned he had and moments later he linked to this video of his presentation at the Personal Democracy Forum, Lincoln Center, New York City, 24 June 2008.

I highly recommend that you watch Mark’s presentation. His introduction will intrigue you. I guarantee you will learn something new every few minutes. He examines the impact that mediums such as the printing press, mobile phones and networks have had on civilisation in disseminating ideas and giving individuals empowerment. He speaks of hyperconnevtivity and the power of individuals to harness networks to seek and seize change. These forces have the capability to bypass those in power, those in government. A powerful presentation, an excellent argument, a cogent message.

The text of his presentation is available on his blog, the human network. Enjoy. Learn. Adapt. Be ready.

How did I create this post? I took the two screenshots using SharpShooter.  I resized each to 400 pixels in width to a dpi of 72 in Adobe Photoshop Elements and exported them using the Save For Web… option which allows you to fine tune file size and quality. I used CyberDuck to upload each image to my host. I used Worpdress to create this blog post.

Liberation

One of the best decisions I have made recently was to follow my gut feeelings and rename my blog. Formally it was called TeachTech but as you can see I renamed the blog Watershed, last Sunday.

It is a liberating feeling as I now no longer feel constrained by the TeachTech title and technology tips tag line. Sure, there will be technology and teaching notes in the future yet there will also be additional posts that reflect on day to day life, often with an education bent. I shall endeavour to include the addendum at the conclusion of each post where I briefly outline how I created the post and its contents. I feel that readers may find that useful.

Some sage advice from a couple of curious Corellas

So, if you have ever thought about renaming your blog, particularly if you feel it will more accurately reflect how you feel and write, then do so now.

How did I create this post? I took each photograph using a Nikon D-70 several years back. I uploaded the images to my Mac using a USB 2.0 card reader. This is much faster than using the USB cable that came with the camera. I imported the second image into Comic Life and added the word balloons, etc. I exported the Comic as a jpeg image and then resized it in Adobe Photoshop Elements. I resized each image down to a width of 400 pixels and 72dpi for inclusion in this blog and exported each using the Save For Web… option which allows you to fine tune file size and quality. I used CyberDuck to upload each image to my host site. I have also linked to the galleries that contain other photographs taken at the same time as those displayed in this post.

Several weeks back, after driving home from my sister’s home in Cowra, my wife and I decided to stop at Mount Keira and take some photographs of the storm clouds out to sea. As we stood there taking in the view a storm blew in from the north. It was just before sunset and a specatcular rainbow formed. It was one of those rainbows that was clearly defined and quite bright. Managed to capture a couple of photographs before the rain reached the lookout. That is the Pacific Ocean in the distance. The city of Wollongong is also visible.

More photographs of Mount Keira over at the “Adventurers’ Club”:

Mount Keira Gallery
Mount Keira Adventure

How did I create this post? I took the photograph with a Nikon D70 and uploaded the image to the MacBook using a USB2.0 card reader. I backed up the original image and opened the duplicate in Adobe Photoshop Elements.  I used the Clone Stamp Tool to remove some imperfections in the image. My camera needs a clean. I adjusted the levels [Enhance > Adjust Lighting > Levels…] to bring out more colour, particularly in the sea. I resized the image to a width of 400 pixels and a dpi of 72dpi for display in this blog. I saved it as a jpeg using the Save for web… option in Elements. I then uploaded that saved image to my host using CyberDuck. Of course the blog post was created using Wordpress.

This morning I received an email from Intute in the UK with the advice that they had listed the web site that I had created about my father’s experiences as a prisoner of war during the Second World War within their catalogue.

The listing is detailed with a synopsis and an excellent set of key words and key terms. I may use these terms in the meta tags of the site.

I am quite humbled by and proud of the addition of the site to Intute. Check out their blog.