While searching and researching QR Codes, for an eBook I might write, I found this video. I thought / hoped it would be a good resource to link and share … but was sorely disappointed.
Called ’37 Examples of using QR Codes’ it could have been so good – showing innovate ways a QR Code can be used for different purposes: medical, arts, marketing, education, etc. What it turned out to be was just 37 places you can put a QR Code, and some of the actual codes are awful. While it could be a viewed as good introduction to ‘where’ to put a code, it does nothing to help or describe what code could be used for, hence my disappointment at the title that clearly states ‘using QR Codes’.
What App could you NOT live without? Whether it’s Dropbox for collaborative working, Angry Birds for brainless relaxation, WordPress for your blogging activities, Keynote for presentation creation and delivery, Blackboard Mobile Learn for course/material management, email or calendars for normal work use, or something else entirely … what App do you use the most or consider the most important in your working/daily life.
I’m not limiting this to iOS ‘apps’ but please consider any ‘tool’ you use on a mobile or tablet device.
Leave a comment below and share your App and reasons for it. If you’ve already written this up then link to your post and share your thoughts and preferences with us.
From the first TED Talks Edu programme Sir Ken Robinson outlines his view on what is needed to progress from the imminent ‘Death Valley’ direction to a flourishing, nurturing environment where children grow with and in their learning:
“Sir Ken Robinson outlines 3 principles crucial for the human mind to flourish — and how current education culture works against them. In a funny, stirring talk he tells us how to get out of the educational “death valley” we now face, and how to nurture our youngest generations with a climate of possibility.”
“There are three principles on which human life flourishes,and they are contradicted by the culture of education under which most teachers have to labor and most students have to endure.”
I have used Prezi a number of times in the past, most recently on the University of Edinburgh EDC MOOC for my submitted artefact (see below) but what I find most complicated or difficult to explain to others is the subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) techniques you need to consider and take in to account when designing and creating your Prezi.
Scale – As most projectors are still restrained to a 1024×768 pixel resolution it’s best to use background images and frames in this ratio too. If you create or use a screenshot in your presentation then it’s best to re-scale your screen or browser to this ration before taking the screenshot.
Frames – Use the ‘shift’ key when you create a frame as it locks it to the 4:3 ratio (see above).
Hidden frames – Not everyone wants to see the frame border around each bit of text, use the ‘hidden’ frame to structure your Prezi without the border viewable.
Search – If in any doubt then search through the extensive archive of Prezi’s on the site for inspiration.
There are always great lists and resources available if you take the time to hunt and search form them. I have a fair few saved and bookmarked. But, if you’re like me, I often lose or forget them. So here are a few of the ones I like, use, reuse, and recommend for learning or educational uses (including creative commons):
PhotoPin: http://photopin.com/ – “Search millions of Creative Commons photos from Flickr and add them to your blog posts easily.”
Flickr Creative Commons: http://flickr.com/search/advanced/? - I only ever use the ‘advanced search’ options as this enables to search only creative commons images. Sometimes I find it easier/quicker to use Photopin, but the direct Flickr search sometimes brings up more meaningful responses.
Stock.xchng: http://sxc.hu/- good quality images and illustrations available, just check with ownership and/or rights before using.
IconFinder: http://iconfinder.com/ - High quality icons for use by/for web designers with associated creative commons attribution.
FreeVector: http://freevector.com/ - Great website for backgrounds, characters, etc. in vector image formats for editing.
While the JISC Digital Media website is not a source for images like the above it is still and important resources for finding, editing, and managing digital resources, and one you should be aware of and visiting on a (semi) regular basis.
As with all lists it’s worth mentioning that while you found something really good using services like Google image search it is not necessarily OK to use in your materials. You could check with the image owner but it’s just easier to use the above services from the start to avoid a lengthy hunt for the legitimate owner.
Where do you go, how do you find ‘the’ image for your project, learning package, etc? Share your tips, tricks, and resources by leaving a comment below.
Note: Thanks to Fred Riley for helping me remember some of these I had forgotten!
What is at the core of an online course or a MOOC? You could argue it’s the academic integrity of the materials or learning. It could be the level of student engagement in required activities. I would argue that (even if not at the core, but very close to it) should be the expectations placed on the students both academically and technically!
There’s no point having a good (large, massive?) number of students enrolled on the course if you already know that a proportion of them are not technically or academically capable of engaging or completing the course. Is this one of the criticisms of MOOCs?
While the infographic might be aimed at avoiding misuse of Facebook, this section is handy on what employers ought to be doing to monitor employees and their (mis)use of social media websites, you can also read this as employee and what you ought to be doing to prevent backlash or trouble for your own social media activities:
Firstly … yes, I know the ‘error’ in the title! This one is called ‘Week 1 …’, and so was the last one: “Week 1: Induction #ocTEL”. I made a mistake, last week. While last week was technically the first week of the MOOC it was not assigned a numerical identity as it was the orientation / induction week. That’s why, if you’re reading this MOOC series back there are two ‘week 1′ posts!
I want to continue the style I started in my previous post by highlighting each activity as the ocTEL website/email introduces us to it …
… and I start with an confesison. I think I’m all read out. I’ve been reading so much recently, and with Inge Ignatia de Waard’s ‘MOOC Yourself’ (2013) book just added to the list, I’ve had enough. So this week I’ve taken some time ‘off’ and just done the bare minimum.
Activity 1.0: “If you only do one thing … “
Deciding on two of these resources to concentrate on was easy. Do I review Helen Keegan’s PELeCON keynote that I loved at last year’s pelc12 event because (a) I was in the audience during the recording and remember the gasps from the audience as we realised how risky and brave she’d been throughout the project, and (b) enjoyed the whole ARG-thing. Do I look into the ‘technology of touch‘ and the work of haptic technology that enables learning in a safe tactile environment? I want to stay away from something I’m familiar with (so that drops Sugata Mitra off the list, I’ve blogged about this work too), so that leave Eric Mazur and Stephen Downes / George Siemens references.
Eric Mazur, talking about peer instruction (three minutes from where the below video starts) is not familiar to me. Eric talks of the ‘ah ha’ moment that happens outside the classroom, and which is the hard part of ‘learning’ – is it the “information transfer” or the “assimilation of knowledge”? Continued…
One of the best examples I’ve come across, when looking at how you can utilise social media to form and develop a personal learning network is from my friends Sue Beckingham (@suebecks) and David Walker (@drdjwalker). Their presentation at the TEL-themed SEDA Conference in 2011 on “Using social media to develop your own personal learning network” is one I have referred to before, but surprisingly never blogged about.
We need to think about social media and networks in a way that removes the actual ‘tool’ from the mindset and introduces an ‘ecology’, a system for “enabling a system of people, practices, values and technologies in a particular local environment” (Suter et al, 2005). By thinking in this way we can introduce a ‘reason’ and a ‘purpose’ to it’s use that is not tied to any platform or time, that is able to be flexible and engaging (and easier to understand) so it is more readily available and adopted. Continued…
Much has been written about the huge success of the Khan Academy, and how it has ‘revolutionised’ education and created a “self-driven, individualized curriculum that motivates students with immediate feedback and positive rewards” (Donaldson, 2012) with it’s simplistic and informative approach and yada yada yada.
No, I don’t buy it either.
But it wasn’t’ until I read Tom Barratt’s post this morning that I realised why – “Khan Academy Is Not The Progressive Model You Are Looking For”. With everyone talking it up and extolling the amazing virtues of using YouTube in this way I thought “yeah, so what”. Is it just that the Khan Academy was doing what lots of individual teachers are doing, but now at scale? Was it something I was missing?
Tom (thankfully) has helped me realise that I don’t have to jump on this particular bandwagon, I can have my own opinion. The videos of Khan Academy (notice I break the link here between Sal Khan and the Khan Academy) may work or help some children, they may not do much for others. It’s all in the choice of learning styles that each of us has.
“The Khan Academy is a dressed up YouTube channel and purportedly the statistical tracking and indication of “progress” is what is driving any sense of engagement. So are students engaged in the maths or the pointification? Well if the instructional clips aren’t edge of the seat stuff it must be the notional suggestion of a game that drives clicks and engagement.” (Barratt, 2011) Continued…
What App could you NOT live without? Whether it’s 
I have used Prezi a number of times in the past, most recently on the University of Edinburgh 
Much has been written about the huge success of the Khan Academy, and how it has ‘revolutionised’ education and created a “self-driven, individualized curriculum that motivates students with immediate feedback and positive rewards” (Donaldson, 2012) with it’s simplistic and informative approach and yada yada yada.