Failed again ...

Its been that sort of week really on and off. Some real highs - meeting people with passion and enthusiasm for what they are doing and how it affects young people. And some real lows - not running enough and listening to people who want to move forward but are constrained by the institutionalisation of their current positions.

And ... this blog failed to make the shortlist in the Computer Weekly Public Sector IT Blog awards. Ewan made it and so did Ian (Usher) ... oh well perhaps next time ... :-)

I wonder who will come out on top ?

Commoncraft

I often get asked ... 'What is a wiki?' or 'What is a blog?' and I go into my explanation of what they are and how they work and how they are useful to do the things that people want to do efficiently and effectively. And then I came across 'Commoncraft' and was so impressed by their simple and straightforward way of explaining these things that now I just direct people to their web site.

Simple ideas are often/always the best !

Speaking Freely

"This is me trying for the 1st time to use SpinVox to make a blog posting on dougmuses just to check that the voice to text works accurately so that I can use it in the future from anywhere that I am."

And now this is a typing me editing the text and adding to it. There were just two mistakes, a capital M for 'me' and it did not understand 'dougmuses' so used two words and then put a question mark in brackets after.

An excellent first experience which I would recommend for a try. There is currently a free trail up until the end of March of the SpinVox software.

Farewell, Fish Friends

If you have not kept up with the Marin Country Day School's Trout Blog then you have missed an unfolding treat of really powerful education. I have only just remembered it and having checked out my feeds discover that the 'troutlings' were released into the lake on April 16th !!

The story told in blog, video, poetry and song is a testament to the work of a dedicated teacher and a group of children who excitedly 'wanted to know'. An example of good practice education at its very best.

Subscribe to the podcast here and listen, watch and be enchanted... or simply go the blog ... enjoy !!

Blogging in school

My daily trawl of my 'feeds' brings up a useful blog, from John at the now famed Sandaig Primary School, related to blogging in the classroom.

Well worth the read if you feel that blogging has an important place to play in an educational/school context.

Cumbria ICT Conference 14th March 2007

A really good day at the Rheged Discovery Centre near Penrith with the sun shining and over 100 ICT coordinators coming together to 'up' their knowledge base on current issues.
The Keynote by Kevin Thompson was an excellent opener on the world of Web2.0 and set the mind going about what can we use in school that our children/students are already using at home. The went from del.icio.us to flickr and onwards.... podcasting, wikiing and blogging. The real challenge now is to make use of this technology in a learning/teaching context.
Check the podcast if you want to here some of the bits ... it was made using the Podium software which I introduced to about 60+ people during the course of the day.