Posting tinkercad to your blog

Below is a sample of a tinker cad model embedded in a blog and a how to do it

A great way to show that the learners have been able to work in three dimensions and a way to share what they have 3d printed or intend to print. Have a play with the model picture

Alongside this they could share picture of the finished result prototype from along the way.
Often with the prototype share they might be able to seek direct feedback from blog partners too.

I have made a quick video howto below
In the meantime - check out the wonderful 3d print school from Taranaki for examples of 3 d printing from young people.

WiFi for the pi

I have been interested in the Raspberry Pi for some time and have two of these great little single board computers. I have the latest version 2 board  operating as a media center/ HTPC. This replaced the older version of the Pi that I am now using to have a play with in recognition of the new world in which our learners live. One where they can develop and explore electronics and making like never before.  I want to be able to talk with and relate to this group of learners.

And So ...

To keep learning I have decided to try and build a photobooth similar to the one created by drumminhands .

One of the first things I felt need was to get the raspberry pi working with a Nano Wireless card so that I could connect to it remotely using ssh and/or VNC.

Working Wifi Cards

There are two cards that I would recommend and one I would not

Recommend using the EDIMAX EW-7811Un adapter or One of the cards Identified by Element14

This Edimax Card I got from PBtech worked for me out of the box.

The card I would not Recommend is the TP-link

TL-WN725N while earlier versions of this card worked with the Pi the later ones do not

Getting it going 
Note this assumes a working Rasperry Pi with Raspberian OS installed

What I did was start the Pi with a network cable attached. Identify the ip address of the Pi using the device list table from out router and then SSH into from the terminal on my mac. You can use the SSH client for Chrome referenced below.


Then I set up a VNC

Instructions

Log in to your Pi and install the Tight VNC Package

$ sudo apt-get install tightvncserver

Next Run TightVNC Server which will prompt you to enter a Password and an optional View Only Password

$ tightvncserver

Once that is done you can start a VNC server from the shell prompt. This example starts a session on VNC display zero (:1) with full HD resolution:

$ vncserver :1 -geometry 1920x1080 -depth 24

(If fonts appear the wrong size, add '-dpi 96' to the end.) Or you could create a script to save typing in the whole thing.

$ nano svnc.sh (call the file whatever you like)

When logging on to the pi VNC server we need to add the right port number to our request to get a working connection

I used VNC viewer for chrome as wanting to develop understanding as to how learners with chromebooks could work with this

To set this to autostart

Blogpost

Display zero ( :0 ) is port 5900, display one is port 5901

Because I initiated using vncserver :1 my connection address was 192.168.20.112:5901

Once logged in we have a graphical user desktop and can add the wifi connection.

With the details saved I was able to reboot the Rasberrry pi without the network cable and connect to it using SSH and VNC 

Stage 1 is Complete 

Here are the two chrome apps that might help those working with Chromebooks

SSH - Chrome app for SSH

VNC Chrome app for VNC

Credible Self Direction 1

One of the students at my school has just bought his own computer. He wanted a little bit of advice as to how to get it going. The computer was old and incompatible with even the most basic keyboard we had. What impressed me was the effort that Callum has put into finding out about what he need to do to get this going. I offered to give him a slightly newer computer in return for a couple of articles and received the following first installment by the end of the day.

My favorite quotes are

I acquired a desktop computer tower for $1 at a garage sale in Tauranga it looked in perfect condition. 

It was a pretty bad pc i discovered

I ask my friends in the ICT lab for help, they point out how useless it is (because before i didn’t realise), but I’m still going to use it.




There are couple of discoveries here.

• Students will persist when they are motivated by possible achievement.

• Students are learning independently of us in areas that we can either choose or choose not to support and encourage.

• Give students a chance to work and control real technologies let them show where they are at.

On Saturday 28th July I acquired a desktop computer tower for $1 at a garage sale in Tauranga it looked in perfect condition. Everyone asked me if I was going to take it home and open it up, I said I don't know. The next day I wired it up with the cables, power check, VGA check, sound check, usb for keyboard and mouse... there was none! So I opened it and saw a pretty empty case, but everything was perfect except no hidden usbs. I re-arranged all the ports so I could fit in an usb pci card and plug it into the motherboard.  However when I turned it on it gave a beep and loaded up the BIOS (basic input output system).  It was a pretty bad pc i discovered, no usbs because it is a Pentium 2, it has a quantum fireball hard drive, an Intel Celeron processor and 65536k of memory. I ask my friends in the ICT lab for help, they point out how useless it is (because before i didn’t realise), but I’m still going to use it.

System BIOS (Compaq screen is of another pc)

PCI card slot on motherboard

Pc turned on

Tweets–They’ve got to mean something

Twitter is different way of writing: Recently I received a mention from a man I have a great deal of respect for. It said …

As result of this I have been reviewing why Sam would say this.

I Click, Publish, Send, Upload, Tweet and Chat.  My thoughts, ideas, images, voices, opinions are public and read by my PLN and searchers. I try to stay involved in this stream of information because I value it. I put tweets and posts into this stream to express what I am thinking to those who I would like to hear me. When I am reading observing or learning from this stream; putting back makes me feel like a true participant. I have always thought myself an OK writer but never a good editor.

@Samjarman made me realise I shouldn't just say anything, in any form I like; when others are going to read it. The implications for me are important enough to make this post necessary.

What had Sam seen in my tweets?

 

“So there is someone reading my tweets and they want something to be there”

My thinking is that the following might be important:

• Consider literary discipline to communicate effectively within 140 chars ie tighter not looser.
• Punctuation and intonation are my friends.
• Consider what the audience will need to understand what the tweet means.
• What purpose does the tweet have beyond self expression.

I like the idea of action: “Don’t think Do” Ewan McIntosh, “Ready, Fire, Aim” Michael Fullan and “Planning is Guessing” Jason Fried @jasonfried. These ideas are about the importance of doing.

What I am seeing is that audience and peers create a standard though under which efforts and actions will quickly try to navigate, realign and improve. This is the aim part that Fullan talks about. I hope that  the firing off of Tweets has help me aim via feedback.

On the bright side
I am motivated to get better at this so feel free to follow me @davein2it

Links:
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9132410/Twitter_Tips_How_to_Write_Better_Tweets
http://smallbiztrends.com/2010/01/how-to-write-better-tweets.html

Reality Check Market Day

Market Day Marketing


I was thinking that the year 8s were up for a big challenge with their Market day.
The big challenges I see are

• Co-ordinating the group together so everyone works for each other in clear roles (I guess alot of people are using google docs for that one)
• Having a catchy product name and an inviting stand
• Having a quality product and selling it to the public

I found a whole lot of pictures from last years market day perhaps having a look at these might give you some ideas about colours, styles, signs etc that are effective.

Any comments on the Market day from last year?
What style of fonts work etc


Advertising with a jingle


One piece of software for recording jingles is  audacity here is one persons guide
If you look for a tutorial video on youtube you will probably find one I call this Watch and Do

Something Special about Google spreadsheets

I am not sure how many times I'm going key use Google spreadsheets in the way that this video from John Thomas shows but regardless of that I'm impressed. What the video really shows is that Google tools go deep: they search, they connect, they interact.
I've been trying to model the application shown but had forgotten how to make the column reference sticky with a $ thanks for that too John.

Might also say I don't think Google are done here I look forward to the day where I can use with in a spread sheet searches for relationships. The first few searches that come into my mind are:

1. Wars, countries involved, civilian casualties, primary issues
2. Inventions, year patent registers, major impact, formal training of inventor
3. Sports, number of players in world, calories burned per hour by athletes, size of playing field
4. Race, average life expectancy, infant mortality, most common religion

While these didn’t quite work out for me YET it was fun trying and not only that it made me think.
Sometimes I feel that thinking is better than having the right answer. Thinking brings us a relationship with our information.

Wanting Gmail to be the default mailto: program

Sometime there is a link a webpage fro an email reply or address that I want to send to. What has been hapeening is my linkclicking will start up Outlook a program I now no longer use.  I have come across Google's Gmail notifier, which has helped me make Gmail my default mail client, which means it will open a Compose window when I click on a web page email link. Here’s how you do it adapted from Lifehacker

Download and install the free Gmail notifier

. In Windows, right-click the Notifier icon in your system tray, and select 'Options.' Then check the box next to 'Use Gmail for internet mailto: links' and click 'OK.'

Mac users, in Gmail Notifier Preferences, go to 'Settings,' and select Gmail from the 'Default Email Program:' drop-down menu, like this:

When we make it real…

Being back from Sydney for a while now trying to decode try to work out exactly what happened at Google teacher Academy and what it meant. I really enjoyed being in a larger city and especially one so beautiful and vibrant. A visitors experience will be different to a locals.

Our look at google maps and google earth was inspiring. “Our Earth” is a learning bonanza. Thanks Wendy Gorton. Perhaps as a result of this being in this new environment I found the maps information captivating. On reflection maybe other reasons like my long held belief in the power of visual language play a part. Below in a narrated Google Earth Tour I talk about some ways we learn through map/earth exploration.

GTASYD from Media team on Vimeo.

Here is a video of howto make a Tour in Google Earth

Finding Unread messages in Gmail

With a large inbox it can be hard to find all you unread messages Tech-recipes have a method for doing this that I have adapted here and made a quick video to show how.

1. Go to Your Gmail account
2. In the Search box at the top of the page, input the following:
label:(unread inbox)
3. Click the Search button

A list of all unread emails located in the Inbox will appear.

If you need to do this frequently, you can save time by Making a quick link

1 Go to you email settings and search labs for the quick links feature and enable it.

2 While having the unread mail up as above add a quicklink by clicking add a link on the gmail side bar. You can then always bring up unread mail easily.

Here is a video showing the process.

Finding Unread Gmail from Media team on Vimeo.

A little more info here about how you can achieve the same thing for mobile

1. Open Gmail for Mobile.

2. Select Menu.

3. Select Search Mail.

4. Input label:(unread inbox) and select Search.

A list of all unread emails located in the Inbox will appear.

100 Hour Challenge

I am undertaking a hundred hour challenge.
I will be blogging about this to report progress.

• Ewan McIntosh’s Challenge
• What is my Challenge?
• Why this Challenge?
  

Ewan McIntosh Laid out a hundred hour challenge

Don't just read this post. Do something.

Here’s my challenge. Right now, put aside 100 hours starting at some point in the next twelve months. Do it right now, in your head. Put that time aside. 100 hours. 7 hours a week for 14 weeks. One hour a day, or one working day a week. It’s one term out of your entire life, it’s nothing. Okay, you’ve got that 100 hours?

Now for the next two days, go to talks (or listen to them online) and start conversations with people you don’t know, and choose what to spend your 100 hours on.

I guarantee that everyone reading this can produce something or has some special skill, and maybe they’re not even aware of it.

Ask your friends, colleagues and students what their’s is. Find out, because you’ll get ideas about what to learn yourself, and decide what to spend your 100 hours on.

Because when you contribute, when you participate in culture, when you’re no longer solving problems, but inventing culture itself, that is when life starts getting interesting.

Full blog post link

And mine is … D R U M   R O L L please

What is it?

The stakes are high because I have chosen to help my son Jack who wants to publish a book.
I am reading, talking with him and finding out about him a little more. We are working in online spaces
and face to face. Who’d have thought collaborating with each other in the same house and much of it online.

This is Jack.

Why this Challenge?
Jack has always written and I have not always read this writing. As a parent I have often been too busy and perhaps too self absorbed. This was an opportunity to give time to Jack around a mutual interest. I believe that young people are capable of more than we give them credit for. Jack’s story was over 60 pages when I suggested the challenge. A barrier to taking this further is an audience an editor and a mentor. I have decided to become involved, is this a good decision? When someone’s passions are at stake any mentor coach has the ability to make or break motivation.
We will see ….

Here are a couple of extracts form Jack’s Writing

Shaking my head, I tried to rid the noise from my ears like an animal tries to rid a fly from its back.

I was hardly aware of my body slipping down the slope, rolling over rubble and rocks as my eyes closed shut, and my ability to stay conscious abandoned me.

Printing in Gmail

For those of us new to gmail there are a few things to learn. While I try not to print emails and be paperless many of us often need to. Here is a video pointing out howto without getting all the stuff on the side.

A simple slideshow embed

I have put a few tables with photos into my blog. I was thinking a slideshow might be better take up less space, run itself and be more attractive. I found a page you could copy the address for a Picasa slideshow into as with many things a little further investigation and I learnt how to do this directly from within Picasa YAY. Here is a video showing how easy this is to do and a sample slide show below.

Here is a sample slide show. Some of the pics have been altered to make up the banner for my blog which feature my mum Dorothy or Dot as she was known. My brothers and sister also appear in some of the pictures. Need to add a few more in memory of Mum. Mum I miss you!