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.

The Google Message

The video below was Recorded over four minutes and sped up. It is an attempt by student to show how
they can utilise and collaborate using Google docs and a record of their thoughts of the impact of technology
on their learning

A First look at message from Media team on Vimeo.

What Students want to Say to us

The Key Message: That we don’t just enjoy using the computers but they help us to do research.
               We can learn alot faster using the technology we have today.

I found Says it on Lenva’s Cool tools for teachers Wiki and
put some of student messages into images

The students came up with these in a Google Doc

Sayings we could use:

1. I can do 3 different types of homework at once on a laptop and still talk to my friends.
2. I can see France, England, Japan and go on top of Mt Everest all in one day just by clicking a few buttons.
3. I can search, listen to music, type and personalize at the same time.
4. I can be made more interactive.
5. I understand the topics by thinking real world problems.
6. I can see more clearly how things happen and work.
7. Instead of taking forever by drawing diagrams, I can make diagrams online.
8. I can think about how to make some technology better which expands my thinking.
9. I can use art programs to make my ideas more creative.
10. Most people don’t think how technology helps us in learning... we do.
11. We explore our technology instead of using it only for it’s designed purpose. We become curious.

Tomorrow we looking to develop this more into a movie watch this space

The Form of the Message

I have been lucky enough to work with some students creating a message for the leaders of Independent Schools of New Zealand.
The theme of the conference this year is Understanding Generational Diversity. What I like about this is that the people have asked for a message from the students of these schools in a video form. This topic would not work without student voice being present.

I am working with a group of Southwell Students to develop a presentation of their message.

We started last week with an Eliminator (see Below) as to what they thought should be the message

The winner was

Modern Day technology allows access

to advanced learning

 

Other ideas are found in the picture:

• Boys and Girls work differently
• Adapt teaching to meet individuality
• Social Networking helps with learning
• Listen to us about how we would like to learn
• We want work to be slightly challenging

The Next step is to choose a form for the message and they have discussed
having a Digital Story or Movie.

When we next meet we will view the following three movies that show student voice and possible ways of
creating a visual message to support it.  I wonder what thinking these videos will create?

Michael Wesch

A video I produced about motivation

A look at the power of Google Docs

So You're Married Now

Google Apps for Edu is being widely adopted by an education community recognising the capacity of collaboration to improve outcomes for organisations. This is a developing ecosystem with some of the administration tasks we have been used to with active directory taking place in different ways with different tools. This can be complicated when organisations decommission exchange servers in favour of this cloud-based solution. One of the teachers at my school got married and took her husband's name. We wanted to change her name while retaining all of her documents and e-mail. We have been using Google-sync but needed now to change the account name in Google before resynching  to it with an alias address so that she could receive mail from people using her maiden name.

Changing names

The product we used is the Google Apps Manager. There are a couple of steps to installation and then you need to follow the syntax examples to ensure that the naming you want takes place. We did this to rename the teacher with a new married name after which we could connect to her correctly from active directory where we also changed her name. I wasn't aware of the ability to create an e-mail alias using the same utility but it is there. This your only option that I know about should you have decommissioned your exchange server like we have. Good luck and I look forward to hearing your Google apps manager stories.

Start here at the wiki

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.