This article was in the Herald’s Technology section this morning:
“Apple said on Tuesday its hotly anticipated iPhone could cost as much as $3,000 ($NZ3914) with a required two-year service contract, and a handful of eager buyers started lining up to spend their money.”
$3914. Ouch.
EDIT (29/06/07): I calculated what was spent on the first two years of my phone contract and it’s purchase price. That includes $699 for the phone originally and then approximately $90/month on contract. The grand total of all that $2859.
What do I learn from this? Cell phones are expensive. Would I do without one? No.
June 27th, 2007
Leo Laporte, from TWiT, calls the launch of the new Apple iPhone “the largest consumer electronics launch ever”. It certainly looks amazing - an all-in-one device: cell phone, iPod, “internet in your pocket”, camera… And, it’s beautifully designed. Say what you want about Apple, but they certainly know how to design good looking hardware. Unfortunately there’s a couple of (potential) stings in the tail: some costly data plans, limited battery life, being locked into one provider and the US$500 cost. Mind you, with the exchange rate as it is that’s not too bad!
It got me thinking about my old cell phone, a Sony Ericsson K700i. It’s been a great little work horse. Three years on and it’s still trucking along beautifully and provides an excellent range of tools e.g. Bluetooth and the ability to sync with my laptop. Its camera is fairly average but okay for those quick snaps and the video is alright as long as you hold the phone as still as possible.
Something really exciting about cell phones is their ability to be used in the classroom. Stephen Heppell discussed this at the last Navcon I saw him present at. As he said, cell phones are found even in the most remote parts of the world. They are the most ubiquitous piece of hardware that teachers can access. It’d be hard to find a teacher who doesn’t have access to a cellphone! Yet, not many other teachers I know ever use them in the classroom, despite me often encouraging them to do so.
Here are some ideas that you can use your cellphone for:
- recording audio
- photographing spontaneous learning situations
- videoing learning experiences
I have used my phone for all these things and it’s been so easy. The students have recorded interviews with others in the school, I’ve recorded them speaking about their learning on trips (capture the moment!), and then we’ve used bluetooth to send files to the laptop. In the past we’ve published those audio files via podcast and on the class blog.
I’ve used the camera on the phone when there has been some exciting learning and my digital camera has been unavailable (flat batteries, the next door teacher has it) and then shared those photos or video via the data projector. One memorable time we did this, I took short videos of the students learning rugby skills with the Auckland Rugby guys. I uploaded the videos to my laptop, renamed them and then shared them (out of order) with the class on the projector. The students were asked to discuss the activities they were doing for oral language and then, to support writing, I asked them to sequence the activities. This really motivated and excited the children. They love to see themselves on screen! None of these activities relied on having awesome quality pictures, sound or video. The students could see clearly what they were doing and were completely satisfied with the quality.
Disadvantages for using a cellphone in school time:
- the potential for students to access private information.
- the “portability” of cellphones - they’re expensive and you don’t want them to get taken.
- the policies of the school in which you work - do they allow teachers to use cellphones during class time?
- the potential for mixed messages to be sent for kids - it’s okay for the teacher to use their phone in school time but it’s not okay for them to use them.
What happens at your school? Are you making the most of the piece of technology in your bag?
June 26th, 2007
Simon has recorded Edcast: Episode 3. Click here to download the latest episode.
June 24th, 2007
Simon has posted the second part of Ian Jukes presentation over at his blog. Click here to have a listen to the second episode of Edcast. Thanks Simon!
I’ve enjoyed reading all the comments about the previous post of the Ministry of Education’s Microsoft Agreement, or lack thereof, in the case of Mac schools. Keep ‘em coming! You may enjoy listening to this podcast from National Radio recommended by my brother-in-law about the agreement.
I have been wondering about the idea of using Parallels on a Mac and Vista as a way to get around the licensing agreement. Are Mac schools eligible to get Vista for free from the Ministry? If so, would they then be able to get the PC version of Microsoft Office to use at school? Is this just getting too convoluted? Parallels doesn’t cost that much and there are other reasons to run it on a Mac network, such as, using MUSAC. I have Parallels installed on my machine and have been waiting to get Windows up and running (I’m still trying to decide whether to do XP or go Vista). It’ll be good being able to access both platforms.
The podcast mentioned above also covers the use of other types of search engines, including Quintura. Quintura for Kids looks really cool. They describe it as a “visual find engine”. Along those lines there is also Grokker which is worth checking out. Both are good alternatives to using Google and work by presenting the search results in “clouds” or as a “map”. Both also have the option of the listing search results in the standard kind of way.
While Google has become all encompassing, I don’t believe that it serves our younger students well as a search engine because it’s particularly text heavy. In the past I have used Yahooligans quite successfully because it’s visually more interesting to students and the content is more tailored their needs/reading levels. You have to watch out though because it does have the latest “cool” stuff on there e.g. movies, games, and the search tool is somewhat secondary.
And in a last, unrelated thought, webcams are a mixed blessing. It may feel as though winter is upon us but the lovely folks at the Metservice aren’t able to share any beautiful snowy pictures of the ski-fields just yet. Poor Cardrona and Whakapapa look a bit… forlorn. Let’s pray for a cold snap before the school holidays!
June 10th, 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.
May 29th, 2007
Simon and I have been working on the idea of co-creating a podcast for a while now, since we (kind of) met at Learning@School earlier this year. We’ve been working collaboratively online to set up a regular local podcast - somewhere we could share ideas about ICT, professional development, and any other issues arising that interest us as teachers in New Zealand. Our aims are more eloquently stated in the introduction of the first podcast. And here it is!
Edcast Episode 1: Understanding Digital Kids Part 1
Simon had the great idea of approaching Ian Jukes to see if he could record his recent presentation in Napier. Ian kindly gave us permission to do so. This episode is about 1 hour 28 minutes long.
From Ian Jukes Website:
“Ian Jukes has been a teacher, an administrator, writer, consultant, university instructor and keynote speaker. As the Director of the InfoSavvy Group, an international consulting group that provides leadership and program development in the areas of assessment and evaluation, strategic alignment, curriculum design and publication, professional development, planning, change management, hardware and software acquisition, information services, customized research, media services, and on-line training as well as conference keynotes and workshop presentations.”
Thanks to Simon for recording, editing and publishing the first Edcast. Our website will be up and running with show notes and links very soon.
May 23rd, 2007
At the International Confederation of Principals Conference in April this year, Education Minister Hon Steve Maharey spoke with Sir Ken Robinson about the need for education to cultivate creativity and innovation. Hopefully you will have seen the other video from his presentation at the TED (Technology Entertainment Design) Conference in 2006. Click here to view the video with Steve Maharey.
A quote that I picked out:
“… it’s partly that we have this very narrow view of intelligence and I think it’s because we have such a narrow view of ability, and we have such a big view of disability. This system, in a way, prejudices the talents of a lot of people. But it also, I think, marginalises some of the other talents those academically gifted have.”
I really like his phrase “a big view of disability”. We pride ourselves on having an inclusive education system, where the achievements of all are promoted. I do wonder though how many “academically gifted” students we are doing a disservice by ignoring, or not even looking for, their other talents. Do they even get a chance to discover them? Are we so keen to celebrate success that we don’t look beyond the superficial successes?
Are we the same as teachers? In what way are we disabled? Do we marginalise our own talents by subscribing to the status quo?
May 23rd, 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”!
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?
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:
Write to get comments
Reply to comments
Track the most popular content
Make content accessible and readible
Participate in online communities
Use controversial in-your-face headlines
Keep posts short
Take a stand
End posts with questions
Don’t blog because you think you should, blog because you want to
Don’t be afraid to change your mind
Write the way you feel most comfortable.
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.
May 14th, 2007
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