Have you ever been in a situation where you are trying to explain to someone over the phone what you are seeing on your computer? Or trying to explain to them what they should be seeing on theirs? I’ve come across a neat little application which enables you to share your screen with anyone you like – and without installing anything, downloading anything or even paying a penny!
Report of Learning without frontiers 2012
I had forgotten just how unforgiving pure BASIC was on the old BBC computer. Make a mistake, and you had to delete all of the characters until you arrived at the offending one. I had the opportunity to reacquaint myself with such pleasures at the Learning Without Frontiers conference.
A Teen's View of "Their Space" and Internet Safety
In 2007, the British think tank, Demos, published its report entitled “Their Space”. According to the authors,
This report is the result of nine months of work that focused specifically on understanding how children and young people use new technologies.
The review below was written soon after its publication, by Sarah Hillier, who was at that time a teenager. I’ve just re-read her article, and I think its observations and incisiveness – not to mention the beauty of her writing – have stood the test of time. The article which follows has only been modified slightly from the original. I hope you enjoy it.
iPad Apps and Bloom’s Taxonomy
Here’s a lovely idea from Kelly Tenkely: a whole load of iPad apps classified according to Bloom’s taxonomy. I’ve had a quick look, and my conclusions are as follows:
Developments in Eduucation Technology: Reflections on the first day of BETT
For me, the day can best be characterised as one of mixed feelings and divided loyalties. To be sure, there was all the excitement and adrelain-inducing "buzz" for which BETT is noted, and why it ought to be prescribed on the National Health Service as a cure for "the blues", but the experience was not one of unadulterated pleasure.
Read MoreFound on the web: 12/16/2011 (a.m.)
Hmm, this is interesting. I hadn't even realised that somehow I had "favorited" Desktop Organizer. — Micro Formatica in Diigo. Admittedly I was tired when I tried it out, but still: I don't usually completely miss such requests or options.
But seeing as this link has appeared, I don't want to delete it because that would cause a bit of inconvenience for people, so I'll summarise what I think of the program and others like it:
Review of 30 Day Blogging Challenge
If you're looking for a handy, no frills book of suggestions for blogging, this book should meet your requirements. Having been designed as an email course, 30 Day Blogging Challenge, written by Nikki Pilkington, consists mainly of 30 very short articles on different aspects of blogging. Being able to buy the whole lot in the form of a book is excellent for those of us for whom deferred gratification is an alien concept.
Review of Problogger’s Guide To Blogging For Your Business
Before looking at the book, written by Mark Hayward, in detail, it’s worth pointing out what the book is, and is not. It is, as the title implies, concerned with blogging in order to promote your business. It is not about blogging as a business in itself. It’s an important distinction, not least because once we take money out of the equation then “business” can be used as shorthand for any type of enterprise, including a charity, a cause – and a school.
If this, then that
Here’s a web application that’s potentially very useful. IFTTT lets you create your own automated actions using a range of social networking tools. I’ve been messing around with it only for about an hour, so I haven’t thoroughly explored all it has to offer, but already I can see it will prove to have been an excellent investment in time.
The logic of the way it works is as follows:
The expert ICT teacher and Something Borrowed
What can we learn from a band about the characteristics of the expert ICT teacher?
Review of the Kodak Zx1 Pocket Camcorder
The Kodak ZX1 may not be pretty, but boy, is it robust!
Read MoreMy bookshelf
Here are thumbnail sketches of a few books which I've come by recently. Taken as a whole they cover:
- The future of cities: should we build cities around airports instead of away from them?
- Schooling in the digital age: is it as much to do with politics as technology?
- Useful educational resources for the iPad.
- Learning and innovation in ICT: a European perspective.
Hope you find these useful.
Review of Aerotropolis
Subtitled “The way we’ll live next”, this book by John Kasarda and Greg Lindsay looks at the possible airport city of the future. At the moment, airports are usually located outside the main part of the city. Yet, given the fact that we still need actual physical goods to be delivered, some might argue that it makes sense for cities to be built around airports.
Writers I like: Tony Baldasaro
I popped over to see what was going down on Will Richardson’s blog (where, by the way, there is a great article about online learning, which I’ve been investigating lately), and discovered, via the comments, the Transleadership blog of Tony Baldasaro. This is a real feast.
Read MoreEvaluation of Learning Without Frontiers Pre-Conference
I was looking forward to hearing some great presentations and startling revelations at the Learning Without Frontiers Conference. But I spent almost my whole time there talking to people. The way I figure it, if something is really good I'll get to hear about it anyway, so given the choice between listening to a talk, and discussing –and-catching up-and-networking type of activity, I choose the latter. At least, I did yesterday.
So, how was it for me?
Read MoreMy blogging toolkit
People often regard me as something of a prolific writer (which I think is another way of saying I need to get a life!). Anyway, in case you’re wondering what I use to write my blogs, here is the lowdown.
Is this the newspaper I’ve been looking for?
A short while ago I expressed the view that paper.li, the Twitter-based newspaper, was no longer for me. I don’t like the lack of control over what is published, and it started to look a lot like spam. I experimented with a couple of other similar services, and they did nothing much for me.
But Microsoft's Montage looks promising. Although you still don’t have control over what appears in particular streams, you do have a say in what types of stream are featured, and (to an extent), the layout.
Search engines with a difference: Collecta
Is The ICT Curriculum Too Masculine?
One of the apparently insoluble problems of the age is how do you encourage more girls to take up ICT or Computing? I think a lot can be done, and have done so myself, but I wonder how far a lot of the effort fails to get to the heart of the issue, which could be the curriculum itself, the way it is taught, or a combination of the two?
Review of the Dell Latitude 2110
“Oooh!” “Ah!” “Oh my!”. Such were the collective gasps emanating from the Freedman household when I unpacked the Dell Latitude 2110 Netbook I’d been sent to review. Slim, striking and silent (but enough about me), the Latitude certainly makes the grade as far as aesthetics are concerned. But how does it actually perform?