I would recommend anyone interested in young people, and their mental health, to check out this podcast recorded during Kim Hill’s show on National Radio on Saturday 1st September. Kim Hill interviews Michael Carr-Greg, a psychologist who specialises in the mental health issues of adolescents. The podcast is about 34 minutes long. If you are a teacher you might also like to look at his educational resources online.
Add comment September 5th, 2007
From The Herald’s technology section yesterday:
“A unique computer keyboard for the disabled has won its New Zealand designers a coveted gold award at the 2007 International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA).
The LOMAK keyboard is operated by a head-mounted or hand-operated laser and allows people with disabilities to navigate the internet, type at 20 words per minute, and achieve or maintain their independence.
…
“LOMAK users develop a whole new outlook on life - they can email friends, remain productive in the workplace, join MySpace, sell things on Trade Me - the things anyone with a computer and an internet connection takes for granted. At school or university, LOMAK means having the same opportunities as other students.”
LOMAK users range in age from 7 to 78 years old and have a range of disabilities including multiple sclerosis, motor neurone disease, spinal muscular atrophy, cerebral palsy, quadriplegia, arthritis and repetitive strain injury.”
This short article grabbed my attention. I’d have to say that until recently I hadn’t spent a lot of time considering how differently abled people could access ICT, except to say that I thought that it could potentially make things easier. Exactly how things would be made easier I didn’t really know. I have heard of an ICT cluster starting based around meeting the needs of students with a variety of disabilities. This could be a fascinating area to research and be involved in.
Just imagine not being able to watch content on YouTube, or hear podcasts, or contribute easily to your own blog, Facebook page, whatever. It’s fantastic that New Zealand designers are addressing the needs of our community.
Add comment July 23rd, 2007
“Software has been wiped from thousands of school computers because of a row over Government funding.
Microsoft Office programs have been ordered to be removed from about 25,000 Apple Macintosh computers in schools.
The Ministry of Education did not renew its deal for the programs, meaning that students using the Apple computers will not have access to common programs such as Excel and Word unless the school buys the software independently”
Ah, this has been brewing for a while but I am surprised that it has made front line news on the Herald. I understand the argument that students should be using Word, Excel and PowerPoint, however, I don’t really believe that it’s students who care about the name on the software they use. They just want it to work. Does it matter whether I use Graphic Convertor, PhotoShop or Fireworks to manipulate photos? Maybe at some high end professional level, but certainly not at the level at which I work. The difficulty will be in teachers and admininstrators accepting other options. They are most comfortable with Word. Plus, why should some schools be disadvantaged because they have Macs? This seems unfair.
I’ve been playing with Keynote lately because of previously mentioned arguments with PowerPoint and it’s pretty good. It still feels like an immature product and sometimes functions are hidden a little bit too far down menus, which can be frustrating. I’m still using it though… and it’s done a good job. I can export to PowerPoint format if necessary (so I have compability with machines that don’t have Keynote) which makes it all the more flexible. I might have a go with Pages and see how that performs too.
7 comments May 29th, 2007
Today’s lead article on the NZ Herald website is: “Radiation check on school net links”.
“Radiation levels from wireless internet in schools are being investigated after a British study found emissions in a classroom there three times higher than those from a mobile phone mast…
Mr Gledhill said radiation levels would be measured at access points and where students sat.
Radiation had been linked to heat stress and discomfort, similar to “an extremely mild form of what you get in a microwave oven”.”
Take away Wi-Fi in schools and we’ll definitely be able to observe “stress and discomfort”!
1 comment May 23rd, 2007
I’ve just finished reading the article from The New York Times titled “Seeing No Progress, Some Schools Drop Laptops”.
“Yet school officials here and in several other places said laptops had been abused by students, did not fit into lesson plans, and showed little, if any, measurable effect on grades and test scores at a time of increased pressure to meet state standards. Districts have dropped laptop programs after resistance from teachers, logistical and technical problems, and escalating maintenance costs.”
So, these school districts spent a huge amount of money (into the millions) supporting these programmes and yet didn’t get buy in from teachers. I am sure you’d get the same results for any other teaching resource if there was resistance from teachers. Substitute the word laptop for books, pens, pencils etc, and see how it reads!
In my experience, the TELA laptop scheme has had a huge impact in the confidence and ability levels of teachers. Teachers who previously wouldn’t try much (anything!) with ICT have started to explore the use of computers in the classroom. Most of them just want to try things out for themselves before tackling them with students. Goodness knows, I used to do the same thing with art and sport! It reduces anxiety and ensures a higher quality learning experience. I’ve been wondering if the TELA scheme has had more of an impact on ICT used in schools than the ICTPD clusters?
Add comment May 15th, 2007
Over the last week or so things have been pretty busy but in the back of my mind I’ve been wondering how to grow my blog. I did some searching and found the following tips for bloggers:
So, what do you do when you want people to read your blog but you don’t want to be controversial? I guess you need to think of the audience you really seek. I like to write down my ongoing thinking here. It’s more of a way to track my thinking, and changes in thinking, over time. This means that I can refer back to ideas that I’ve been mulling over or build on budding ideas. I do not write in order to be controversial, nor do I seek that sort of attention!!! I’ll give it a go though…
Teaching ICT in class is a waste of time. Teachers are too tired/busy/underresourced to do it well.
I think I need to work on this controversial thing a bit more but please comment away! I might even reply 
I’ve got a few things on the boil at the moment which I’m not quite ready to blog about but will do so shortly! But hints: they include podcasting and movie making. Collaborative work generated from relationships established online. It’s going to be hot, hot, hot!
Other “hot” things: registration and the call for presentations at uLearn07 are up on the website. Who is going? I’m keen to do some presenting but my fledging ideas are not ready yet to be unleashed on the uLearn webform.
3 comments May 14th, 2007
This morning’s Herald has an article entitled “Concern about Wi-Fi health danger spreads to NZ from British schools” . The opening paragraphs state:
“A British furore over wireless internet technology - Wi-Fi - use in schools is raising similar concerns here.
Britain’s top health-protection watchdog wants the network, which emits radiation, to be full investigated because of the concern for students’ health.
Wi-Fi - described by the British Department of Education and Skills as a “magical” system that means computers do not have to be connected to telephone lines.”
Magical?!
“Virtually no studies have been done on Wi-Fi’s effects on pupils, but it gives off radiation similar to emissions from mobile phones and phone masts.”
Yet…
“Professor Olle Johansson, of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, who is concerned about the spread of Wi-Fi, says “thousands” of articles in scientific literature demonstrate “adverse health effects” from Wi-Fi.”
I thought that there was still quite a lot of disagreement about whether mobile phones and phone masts can potentially harm people? I’m going to ask a scientific friend of mine to help me find some peer reviewed articles about this.
At the moment I think Wi-Fi is wonderfully freeing. Going back to using cables will feel like being shackled, especially in a classroom setting. It is so easy to send students off to work on a laptop somewhere quiet and still have them be able to access the network. I wonder what schools will do if they find that Wi-Fi is banned/limited in the classroom? Just think of the bill for “upgrading” current school networks from wireless back to ethernet.
1 comment April 23rd, 2007
If you are lucky enough to be attending the ICP convention in Auckland 2- 5th April, you will be able to listen to Sir Ken Robinson on Monday 2nd April. I wish I was going… but I shall be away. And I’m not a principal. And I didn’t pay the $$$ to go.
If you do go, I’d love to hear what you think about his presentation entitled: Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative. By the way, there are lots more articles, interviews and videos on his website than just the ones linked to previously.
Add comment March 14th, 2007
This video about creativity was shown by Marg McLeod at Learning At School. The video is about 20 minutes long and is very enjoyable.
It asks “Do schools today kill creativity?” There has been a move away from talking about the information/knowledge age towards creativity. Thus, people at these education conferences are talking less about how to deal with the abundance of information, how to be critical, analytical thinkers and move towards becoming more creative. Interestingly enough, the notion of creativity is not restricted to the traditional domains, such as The Arts, but across all curriculum areas i.e. how to be creative in science. This quote stood out from the article by Sir Ken Robinson:
“We argue that creativity is a function of intelligence and is as relevant to science, technology and the humanities as to the arts; that everyone has creative potential but that developing it requires a balance between skill and control and the freedom to experiment and take risks. Developing creative abilities calls for sophisticated forms of teaching and for relevant forms of assessment and accountability.”
“Mind the gap: The creative conundrum, 2001″
The full article can be downloaded from Amazon for a small fee, and some jiggery-pokery about your location. I find using the state code CA and zip code 90210 works beautifully. And who said popular culture never taught you anything? Speaking of which, if you haven’t checked out “Everything Bad is Good For You” by Steven Johnson, it’s well worth a read. Tonight I crack into my brand spanking new copy of “The World is Flat” by Thomas Friedman.
Over the last few days I’ve been preparing for the Principals’ Day for the ICTPD cluster and it’s been very easy to hunt out references, journal articles and wiki notes to supplement the video presentations. Thanks Web 2.0! Today I didn’t need to report back what I took personally from the conference, instead videos of the actual presentations could be used. The message is getting less diluted. Sure, it can be hard to find the good stuff out there because so many people are producing content, but once you have a quality starting point, there’s no holding back! The nature of referrals and recommendations are becoming increasingly important.
Add comment March 12th, 2007
I’ve had a chance to go search out some resources on David Warlick’s blog/wiki/website. I’ve flicked through the PowerPoint that he provides on using Gaming in Education. It was good to see James Paul Gee, author of the article about gaming in education from the TKI ICT Community site, was part of a video produced by Orange County Department of Education.
I particularly enjoyed these quotes picked out from the video by David Warlick:
“The worse thing a kid will say about a homework assignment is that it’s too hard and the worse thing they can say about a video game is that it’s too easy.”
“Kids will go to bed early when they are studying for a test, but they’ll stay up late to achieve the next level in a game.”
Henry Jenkins, Director of Comparative Media MIT
From my online activities this morning I have some book shopping to do (or library lending):
“Got Game” by John Beck and Mitchell Wade
“The Kids Are Alright” by John Beck and Mitchell Wade
“Growing Up Digital” by Don Tapscott
Add comment February 27th, 2007
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Dec | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | |||