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

Pilgrimage to Thinking - Why do it?

Having travelled for 36 hours to attend the international conference on thinking in Belfast I have been both jet lagged and  tired. It has been a fantastic antidote to that time in the air. The first day included a group presentation led by Robert Swartz who is a leader at the National Center for Teaching Thinking.

Part of his session looked at what strategies can make thinking explicit.
One of the propositions with regard to thinking skills  was that they require a context and process in which to be placed.


Robert used a Thinking Map or organiser to look at Part Whole relationships

Determining Part-Whole
Relationships
1.  What smaller things make up the
whole?
2.  For each part, what would happen to
the whole if it were missing?
3.  What is the function of each part?


I decided to try to apply this to my own understanding as to what made up a conference such as this thinking one. My feeling was that these are powerful learning experiences and wanted to critically look at why. The tool did help me to come to the following personal viewpoint after this is a look at the process map I used. The graphic organisers and perspective tools add to the depth of thinking I think.

Relating Part to Whole

The reasons we attend conferences or professional learning is to add to existing understandings and create potentials. These experiences might provide preferred futures for ourselves our learners, schools and communities. One such opportunity is an international conference which has a particular place due to its unique features. The motion involved: travel, pilgrimage, exposure to new faces and new ideas creates an immersive environment that goes beyond the keynote and workshops. There is invigoration and determination to take as much away from this opportunity. Keynote speakers generally represent considered authority and bring together contempories to challenge each others thinking. These people set some of the big questions for the audience to consider and bring an authority and respectability to the event. The programme brings focus to the ideas and concepts concerned in a way that other learning situations are unlikely to achieve.

Part Whole Thinking

Roberts co-authored this book which maybe worth a look: ‘Infusing the teaching of Critical and Creative Thinking into Content Instruction” by Robert Swartz & Sandra Parks (The Critical Thinking Co.) It can be purchased online from The Learning Network NZ.

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.