Superuser

Sunshine's waters broke at the local movie rental. I was called from work at 1230. We arrived at the hospital at 2. Eve Leyson Blackall (working title) was born at 4:39pm 8 Feb 2010! 3.2kg, 50cm long. Dark hair, eyes wide open, feeding and sleeping well.
Sunshine, "6th fastest baby deliverer in Australia", is well but under observation after some complications delivering the placenta, expected home on the 10th.

Video
Photos

On this day the world has come closer. enemies are now friends, friends are now family, family is now as one.

This is now the third week of the school year. The class is settling, I’m putting one foot after the other in my share of the team teaching duties and there seems to be a lengthy stream of things to GET DONE as the year slips out of first gear and starts to become more structured and more routined. You know, class newsletter, check. Class photos up, check. Homework Grid ready, check. Parent Acquaintance Interviews organised, check.

You get the picture.

I’m trying to put my finger on whether this year feels different yet. It feels normal enough but in my visits around the classrooms when previewing our new ICT Use Agreements, the biggest buzz was around the idea of having permission from home to bring mobile phones, portable gaming devices and digital cameras to school. Nearly 90% of my class have a mobile but the big market share device around the school is definitely the Nintendo DS or DSi. It doesn’t matter which classroom I walked into – kids from five to twelve owned these pieces of personal technology en masse.

Very interesting. In the primary school setting, maybe more of a potential gamechanger than an iPad?

The brilliant work by Julie Lindsay (Beijing, China) and Vicki Davis (Westwood Schools, Georgia, USA) continues in The Flat Classroom Project 2010-1 which is now is well under way for 2010.

The Flat Classroom™ Project is a global collaborative project that joins together middle and senior high school students. This project is part of the emerging tend in internationally-aware schools to embrace a holistic and constructivist educational approach to work collaboratively with others around the world.

One of the main goals of the project is to ‘flatten’ or lower the classroom walls so that instead of each class working isolated and alone, 2 or more classes are joined virtually to become one large classroom. This is done through the Internet using Web 2.0 tools such as Wikispaces and Ning.

The Project uses Web 2.0 tools to make communication and interaction between students and teachers from all participating classrooms easier. The topics studied and discussed are real-world scenarios based on ‘The World is Flat‘ by Thomas Friedman.

I was honoured to be invited to present the Keynote, ‘Pandora’s Box: Fresh Start in a New World’ for FCP10-1. This time there are  over 200 students from 10 classrooms across 6 different countries.

Here are some guiding questions to get them thinking about how to respond and start a discussion or foster an existing discussion:

1. Is global collaboration using emerging technologies a pandora’s box? Why?
2. How can we best prepare the ‘17 year old Internet/connected world’ to mature and grow into ‘adulthood’?
3. How has the flat world impacted on you as a teenager? as a teacher?
4. What place do immersive worlds and virtual realities have in education?

Filed under: Australia, Creativity, Digital Media, Students 2.0 Tagged: Flat Classroom Project, Thomas Friedman

I've been asked to stand in for someone at UC to give a talk of connecting, sharing and developing in the PhD process. Who am I to advise people engaged in the PhD process!? I am only starting that track myself, but I think some people will find my initial ideas about and open PhD process of interest, so I'll talk about that. Here's the slides, hastely put together in a very distracted morning (I'll add them to Slideshare later):

• Slides on Slideshare
• Audio 10 minutes 2.7 meg mp3
• Links and references

Responding to Martin Downes, who asks, "how do you define immorality at all? What is the standard?"

The presumption is in the belief that morality can be defined by something as simple as a standard, when it is in fact complex and difficult to describe succinctly.

For example, principles such as Kant's "treat people as ends in themselves" and his categorical imperative, or Mill's principle of utility, each play a role in morality and interact in complex and not always predictable ways.

None of them stands alone as a principle, and a system of morality based on only one such principle would, sooner or later, result in a perversion of morality in the name of the principle. Thus it is with all standard-base or principle-based moralities.

Morality is a complex weaving or tapestry formed from a variety of principles founded on various perspectives and understanding of people, their environment, and their beliefs.

The actual description of a morality may or may not involve a reference to God, but given an environment with numerous conflicting religions, not to mention the irreligious, a description of a morality founded on a particular theism is impractical and incomplete.

The nature of morality requires us to go beyond religion, requires us to see ourselves not as a privileged seat of moral understanding but as one player in a multifaceted chorus that, together, describes an interwoven, comprehensive, and in some senses infeffable morality.

The idea that religion provides some sort of dispensation from participation in this broader dialogue is what leads people to a narrower, self-justified sense of morality, one in which their personal understanding, to them, outweighs consideration of the broader ethos.

If we take seriously the precept that people matter in themselves, that their happiness is a matter of moral import, that spirituality and devotion are things that can happen in people other than ourselves, then it is necessary to think of morality as broader than religion, and therefore, not to be founded in religion.

What do you do when a graduated student  sends you a pdf (on the weekend), needing it for a reference file for uni accommodation application?

What do you do when you have no scanner or appropriate software on hand – and the silly form is meant for print use only?

You ask your contacts on Twitter for help of course!  I got lots of recommendations, but the one from @sandnsurf was the  one  that won the day.

FillAnyPDF free PDF Editor.

FillAnyPDF.com is a website where you upload your PDF form and link to it so other people can fill it out and sign it online. No software is needed. Any PDF form can be used, even if it’s not “interactive”, so you can get started right away. You can even invite a group to fill out your forms and track the results. Anyone that collects signatures or filled out forms will find FillAnyPDF.com to be a valuable time-saving resource.

I loaded then filled out the form – and then was given a link to either download the edited pdf or a url to send to the student. The link expires in 7 days. Pretty cool!

Filed under: Productivity, Technology and Software Tagged: pdf, pdf editor

Debate: "Should we consider Nuclear Power as a response to climate change?"

Affirmative:

Professor Barry Brook, Sir Hubert Wilkins Chair of Climate Change, University of Adelaide, and author of the blog Brave New Climate

Tom Blees, President, Science Council for Global Initiatives and author of the book "Prescription for the Planet."

For the Negative:

David Noonan, Australian Conservation Foundation

Dr Mark Diesendorf, Deputy Director, Institute of Environmental Studies, University of New South Wales".

I bought Tom Blee's book Prescription for the Planet. Tom was a very effective presenter due to his extensive research and personal contact with a wide range of people deeply involved in these issues allowed him to communicate telling and interesting anecdotes - and he has a wicked sense of humour, which was much needed on the night

The majority of the audience was anti nuclear (2/3rds or 3/4) but thanks to the work done by Barry Brook on his blog, Brave New Climate, there was a significant pro nuclear presence

Mark Diesendorf was energetically aggressive in his attack on nuclear power as an "idealistic fantasy". He argued that renewables could completely replace fossil fuels by 2030 and presented a slide showing the growth of various renewables illustrating how this could be done.

I felt this slide was dodgy but didn't know enough to refute it. Mark also made a big issue of his expertise and criticised Barry for pronouncing outside his field of primary expertise.

Aspects of this slide were challenged by Barry Brook. How could geothermal grow so quickly when on another slide Mark had shown geothermal at the R&D stage in Australia and that new technologies took 40 years or so to reach large scale commercial stage. Mark had used this to argue that IFR (Integral Fast Reactors) was pie in the sky, so Barry's counter was quite effective.

There was other to and fro along these lines, some of it amusing. Barry pointed out that renewables only made up 1% of the world's energy. Mark responded that it was unfair to take a world average because some European countries had a much higher percentage. But Mark had earlier criticised Tom Blee's example of ineffective solar panels in Germany as "cherry picking" because Germany had a cold climate. This sort of exchange confirmed my belief that you need to have a firm grasp of the arithmetic to engage intelligently in this debate. I've read this page (Renewable energy cannot sustain an energy intensive society) of Barry's site and downloaded Ted Trainer's pdf from that page to improve my own knowledge here

David and Mark were unreasonably dogmatic in their anti-IFR stance. The issue of urgency was used in an irrational way, given the reality of the failure in Copenhagen and the certainty of developing countries like China and India to continue using massive amounts of fossil fuels. Even if IFR does take 50 years to develop on a large scale (in itself debatable) then that is not a reason not to develop it. There is a can do and a can't do mentality and wrt IFR their attitude was totally can't do on technical grounds alone. They want a total roadblock on nuclear power. They spent quite a bit of time on this, irrespective of their other objections.

Barry took a realistic economic approach that coal would not be replaced by alternatives until a cheaper alternative emerged - and the best shot for that was nuclear.

Mark disputed that but admitted that his renewable futures would be more expensive. For me this was the real "idealistic fantasy", his repeated statement along the lines that people power would convince governments to change.

The other main objection from the anti-nuclear side was proliferation. What emerged here was that IFR reactors do not produce weapons grade plutonium and there are other more effective means of producing weapons grade plutonium, such as high-speed centrifuge technology. I felt the pro-nuclear side was on shakier ground here since more IFR reactors will lead to more transport around the world of weapons grade plutonium (as a start up fuel) and so the probability of it falling into the hands of terrorists will probably increase.

Mark said that nuclear power was 14% of the world's electricity production and declining. Barry offered a bet that the nuclear percentage would increase but Mark declined to accept it. Good move, Barry!

So, it boiled down to who was living in the "real world" and who was living in "fantasy world"

Slides on Slideshare
Audio 12 minutes 3 meg mp3

A presentation given to the Faculty of Health at the University of Canberra, Dec 2009. (I forgot to record the talk on the day, so this is a recording made later). Links and references at http://delicious.com/leighblackall/uchealth

I have heard a rumor that the University of Canberra may be reviewing its Intellectual Property policy. I'm keen to make a proposal to that review, that UC changes its copyright policy to a default of Creative Commons Attribution. Those familiar with my work will recognise I made this same proposal to Otago Polytechnic - to which they agreed and went ahead with.

The CCby license structure for UC will assist and encourage staff to retain rights over their work when entering into contracts with publishers, as well as the development of open access research culture at UC. If some publishers reject the UC staff member's proposed license, then staff decide for themselves whether or not to enter into an agreement with such publishers under their usual all rights reserved models.

To be clear here, this proposal is a compromise for me. My real and perhaps radical opinion is that individuals and organisations think of ways to resist copyright as an organising principle all together. I'm well aware that those who I aim to make this proposal to will dismiss such a position, so the Creative Commons Attribution license structure is my compromise, and perhaps the most pragmatic step at this moment.

At the very least, a CCBy default will encourage and help publishing staff to negotiate the retention of their own rights to republish, and will assist in the promotion of open access to important and largely publicly subsidised research information. Further though, such a policy move will generate substantial publicity for UC (as it did for Otago Polytechnic), being the first Australian University to adopt such a stance. To my interpretation, all this is very much in line with the strategic direction of the University.

My boss seems enthused by this proposal, so I've gathered up information relating to the same policy change I proposed at Otago Polytechnic. Below is a link role I will keep adding to over time. I hope I get a chance to propose this to UC leadership, I feel quite confident that it is a logical, moral and economically sound thing to propose, and that the culture at UC is ready to consider such an approach to copyrights.

This is some test to test the category function in my new web theme and hopefully it will work out ok.

This is some test to test the category function in my new web theme and hopefully it will work out ok.

This is some test to test the category function in my new web theme and hopefully it will work out ok.

This is some test to test the category function in my new web theme and hopefully it will work out ok.

Numbers 12-14 are new. Scratch is a free download

1) Use the Letter shapes to write your first name on the page. Then introduce some special effects such as making the letters wobble and change their appearance.

2) Point, click and move
Make an object both point and glide towards the mouse position when you click on the stage
Hint: Motion > point towards
Hint: Sensing > mouse down?

3) Make Dan or Anjuli or Cassy or ballerina dance to a beat, using all of their dance shapes. Include a suitable background that changes colours as the lights flash.

4a) Make two animals have a forwards and backwards conversation
Hint: Use broadcast, (ask for help if you don’t know how broadcast works)
4b) Make it an interesting conversation with each animal speaking at least 3 times and making gestures too

5) Make a sprite gradually grow in size and then shrink

6) Make 2 different balls move around on the stage
a) the first ball moves in straight lines but bounces randomly whenever it hits the edge
b) the second moves randomly, gliding from one position to a new random position continually

7a) One sprite chases another sprite around the stage. The first sprite moves in straight line but bounces off the edge randomly. The chasing sprite chases the first sprite but is moving slower.
b) Extension – if the chasing sprite catches the other sprite then it says something sensible and makes a suitable sound

8a) Play all the different drum sounds automatically
Hint: create a variable for the drum number
b) Extension – keep recycling through all the drum sounds automatically

9a) Count down on a timer. A rocket takes off when you reach zero
Hint: Use the number icons in the letters folder
9b) Your rocket has pulsating exhaust and disappears at the top of the screen

10) Add, multiply or subtract two variable numbers
Hint: Just to do addition only you will need 4 variables: firstNum, secondNum, answer (computer calculated) and myAnswer (human calculated)

11) Variable coloured squares
a) Write a script that can draw a square of any size
Hint: Make a variable for the side length
b) Use the variable square script to draw a series of square with variable sides, with a single click
c) Now add variable pen colour and pen shade to the variable square script and use it to draw a variety of different coloured squares, with a single click

12) Draw lines of random thickness in random directions with random colours. The pen must be lifted up and moved for each new line.
Hint: pen group contains set pen color, set pen size, pen up, pen down
Hint: colours range across the spectrum (ROY G BIV) starting with red = 0. There are about 190 colours in total and you need to display them all!

13A) Make a race
a) choose two suitable sprites, they must have at least 2 costumes to simulate motion
b) the sprites move at random speeds, you can’t predict the winner
c) make a finish line, using a new sprite is best
d) suitable background music
e) when the winner crosses the finish line it announces that it won
f) reset scripts to start again

13B) Extension: Make it a multi-lap race, the number of laps can vary
g) make a variable to set and count the laps (use this on just one of the sprites otherwise you will be counting the laps twice)
h) use “x position” with an if tile rather than “if on edge bounce” to manage the turning and lap increase value
i) hide the finish line so that it only appears for the final lap

14A) Play the scales on a piano
a) Check out the sound > play note tile
b) Teacher has supplies a graphic of a keyboard. Import it to your scratch project.
c) Program the computer keyboard so that it plays a series of notes on the piano keyboard
d) As the notes are played alter the keyboard graphic to make it appear they are being pressed and they revert back to blank when the key is released
e) Add some suitable background graphics

14B) Extension
f) As the notes are played a sprite dances to the tune created by the notes, ie. each note triggers a particular movement
g) The names of the notes are spoken by a new sprite as they are played
h) Find a way to play ALL the notes on the keyboard

I have been spending a bit of time thinking about The World is Flat by Friedman in preparation for the first Flat Classroom Project in 2010. Amongst other things, I thought about Open Source thinking and flat world communications which I planned to share in the  Keynote kick-off.

Well, you now how it is – I just couldn’t share everything  I wanted to (lots out in the rough cuts), but the ‘finds’ are still inspirational.

You have to be inspired by the powerhouses of  Open Source software and Open Content. There is no doubt in my mind that an ‘Open Source ethos‘ is the best way to collaborate, create, share, and be empowered to inspire future learning.

For example, during the crisis in Haiti, the Open Source community did amazing work in Haiti OpenStreetMap to assist aid and rescue workers to do their work and help the relief and reconstruction effort. It was a Flat Classroom Project in action – creating up-to-date  maps of  Port au Prince. Dozens of mappers and developers were able to lend a hand, coordinating on the OSM Haiti WikiProject.

Thanks to Paul Hamilton, I was inspired by yet another amazing example of the power of work taking place using Open Source Software to help people. The development of the  Eyewriter is inspirational. The Eyewriter uses low cost creative technology an free open source software to enable graffiti writers and artists with paralysis to draw using only their eyes.

Filed under: Communication Tools, Creativity, Innovation & Creativity, Technology and Software Tagged: flat classroom, open source, The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman

This blog seems to have developed in spurts of activity followed by long lulls. What does it take to encourage more sustained activity?*

I’m currently teaching a course called ‘Teaching and Learning with Emerging Technologies’. This course encompasses a broad range of such technologies - wikis, blogs, podcasts, etc. - but also technologically-mediated initiatives such as Open Educational Resources. My main focus for the past five years (yikes!) has been on wikis, the ‘wiki way’, and their implications for education and society. This course now offers me a chance to explore my perspectives through teaching - as well as to learn from other course participants. I will also be engaging with technologies that I know relatively little about - my only actual experience with Second Life so far is of the comedic walking into the wall variety!

So, this post is both to prompt me to renew my commitment to use this space, and to show the course participants that we’re truly in this together! (And, for the curious, there’s more info than you’ll ever want to know about me on this page.)

But I’m also excited to teach and learn in this emerging field. My thesis has made me kinda fatigued about wikis (!), but preparing for this course has given me fresh perspective. Part of the course is to get out of our comfort zones, to explore and to experiment - and I’ve been doing that already! I’d love to hear other people’s experiences on using emerging technologies for education - in the widest sense of the word.

C

* This brings to mind Stephen Downes’s article on Educational Blogging. In it, he quotes Will Richardson:

“By its very nature, assigned blogging in schools cannot be blogging. It’s contrived. No matter how much we want to spout off about the wonders of audience and readership, students who are asked to blog are blogging for an audience of one, the teacher. [When the semester ends] students drop blogging like wet cement.”

As part of the course, I am asking participants to set up their own blogs. What can I/they do to sustain momentum? Personally, I have to say it’s much more motivating when people leave comments - when I feel I am engaging with someone else, as opposed to ’shouting into the wind’. As part of a course, I’ll be leaving comments on other participants’ blogs, and I hope they will do likewise. But after the course - what happens?

Blogging.

It’s beginning and I’m not feeling at all reserved about how much hair I’m going to have to pull out to get to that beautiful, cogent and streamlined question that defines a Phd trajectory.

Things on the boiler.

[12:46:17 AM] Katina Michael: The big thing that you need to do apart from prove your current qualifications is to put a solid 5 page proposal forward with the application.

A five page proposal …..ok.

Best I begin laying out the keypoints, ascertaining a framework and engaging in some solid networking to rule things out rather than rule them in which of course will be the trickiest exercise.

Aggregate…rule number one.

Must press publish at this point as this Wordpress architecture might take over what I’m thinking.

[12:47:22 AM] Katina Michael: Sort of scoping it out with : 1) title 2) background statement 3) basic literature 4) method– what do we think we will do etc

The thing that strikes me most is the ‘we’.

That makes most sense. I’ve finally identified a Supervisor who considers this as a partnership.

What a blessing.

Found a nice example of what’s possible to accomplish the above……perhaps a page in this crossroads will suffice.

Need to pursue contact with many others who are actively taking a praxis approach to:

• creatively engaging in learning architectures that support body-worn learning experiences [ across education and related industry sectors ]
• augmented remote presence learning solutions [ that permiss uberveillant socio-politic as a disruptive identity definer ]
• geolocation “as the new”  learning experience validation [ was_here_ is_me mobile  learning ....ok....somethings flowing here.]

[12:50:48 AM] Katina Michael: Don’t feel pressure though at this early stage– it will take us a good 6 months after the proposal and paperwork submission to formulate the REAL question…

5 quick thoughts…before bed.

1. Where will body-worn or point-of-view first person perspective technologies fit in the broader futures context of educational organisations worldwide ?….bland….I’d like to know where though globally speaking.
   -
2. To what extent will [ point-of-view inc. ] uberveillance inform educative arrangements of the future ? - heutagogy ….hmmm…mix of tech / human spirit and embodiment…nice.
   -
3. In which ways are point-of-view technologies being employed to inform a self determined anthology of life long accreditation ? – the v-portfolio ( I_did therefore I am…)….again nice….the which ways exploration is appealing.
   -
4. Where do point-of-view technologies breach the civil rights of others in an educational context ? ….the “threat” question….could be a subset co-joiner or thinking point
   -
5. How do rich-media, lo-fi, user oriented, point-of-view mediated learning objects better inform the open aggregation model for organised  learning ?……ok….so I’m thinking of Leigh here….bear with me.

Best I get some sleep.

It’s 2.49AM and I have a billion things to do with Geoff at the office tommorow.

source of graphic

OK, I spent 6 years or so teaching at a School in one of the most disadvantaged socio-economic areas in metropolitan Australia. And so I can empathise strongly with how teachers at that school would feel about the new Australian government MySchool site when they see how their low NAPLAN results (Paralowie) are prominently in RED when compared with ALL schools , even though the similar so called like school results are displayed in far lighter shades.

Just let me say that Paralowie had the most enlightened administration and the most creative teachers I have ever had the privilege to work with. Teachers who understood that the main source of educational disadvantage was socio-economic and worked very hard to turn things around for as many students as they could.

And guess what. It will be the same long after Julia Gilliard has left politics and has retired on her parliamentary pension to some upper class suburb somewhere.

Further reading: League Tables Increase Social Segregation and Inequality by Trevor Cobbold, pdf

Previous blog: sbs-insight: should-schools-test-results-be-made-public

Previous article:
OPTIMISM AND REALITY IN DISADVANTAGED SCHOOLS

More temperate but well researched blogs, even though I have no idea where Darcy gets the thought that Gillard and Rudd are well intentioned:
MySchool: Part I
MySchool: Part II

I like this approach to the global warming climate debate:

1) Rapid human economic development is good (not argued here) and inevitable (you aren't going to stop China, India etc. from developing)

2) The only valid alternative to fossil fuels for our energy needs is nuclear power. This is really a matter of doing the arithmetic. According to The Integral Fast Reactor – Summary for Policy Makers (IFR Summary article) , which is written from the POV of keeping CO2 under 450ppm, then we will need to produce 1 GWe per day of new clean power every single day for the next 25 years.

3) The integral fast reactor (IFR) is the safest and most efficient form of nuclear power about. It was invented by Charles Till in 1965 (Plentiful Energy and the IFR Story) who led a team which produced a small (non commercial) fast reactor which ran for 30 years without incident. Unfortunately, this program was shut down by Bill Clinton’s administration in 1994 for political reasons. In Congress, the main argument against (by John Kerry) was civilian nuclear proliferation (which I suppose is a valid concern today as well – although the end product of IFR is not suitable for weapon production I’m less certain about the fuel inputs, still researching)

4) So if you are a climate alarmist then you should support IFR (as James Hansen does, see Science Council for Global Initiatives)

5) If you are not an alarmist but support future human development then you should also support IFR, not so urgently but essential for the future.

There is a debate happening in Adelaide, Australia, this Friday presented by The Australian Solar Energy Society, Sustainable Populations Australia and The Zero Carbon Network, will see a debate on “Should we consider Nuclear Power as a response to climate change?” with Mark Diesendorf and Helen Caldicott for the negative and Barry Brook and Tom Blees for the affirmitive (The Nuclear Debate). I've booked a seat.

For more information about IFR do some reading from this page of Barry Brooks blog, Brave New Climate.

Tom Blees video, part 2 of 3:

I'm reading Infotopia. Twitter notes (while they last).

Deliberation leads to polarisation and extremism. And group decisions based on deliberations often result in no better result than a simple vote without deliberation. This is because new information is almost always rejected by the group, preferring instead to stay with "common knowledge", and/or cascading decisions like groupthink. Deliberation strengthens this bias, often resulting in worse group decisions than by a straight non-deliberative vote!

He who controls common knowledge (or sub conscious) controls everything!

omg.. the horror.. reading on...

Today, amidst the  cacophany of travel, work and life  I made the decision to embark on the next part of the journey into valuable and meaningful ways to employ new and (pervasive) emergent  technologies in an education, training and broader socio-creative context.

After some very valuable discussions with friends and colleagues over the last few years it’s evident that further tertiary studies are becoming critical to informing my professional, employment practice as an educator, employment potential as an Operations Manager, strength as a Father of four beautiful children and trust in others as I honestly address and build things as I do best.

In this location, my clearing house of web wide engagement….. I’m declaring at this late hour tonight that I have commenced a Phd.

The whom, how, where,what and why will surface in these notes-to-self as it becomes clearer.

I’ve commenced.

Hans Poldoja have initiated really interesting and important project, called EduFeedr. Hans aim is to solve the problems of using standard RSS readers in Open Education, more precisely in open online courses. He’s problem statement is:

Standard RSS readers lack the features for following and supporting learning activities which cross the borders of different Web 2.0 applications.

I have been “teaching”/ “mentoring” / “coordinating” (also with Hans) several open online courses. The idea of an open online course is to provide online learning experiences to anyone interested in to join the course. In open courses people often use pretty standard Web 2.0 tools (wikis, blogs, micro-blogging) to “deliver” content, to present reflections on the content (e.g. learning diaries), to share their learning exercises and to discuss about the course related issues.

If the group of participants is more than 20 it easily becomes very difficult for the participants to follow the process.

Can we help that with a better tool? I think we can. Please have a look of Hans presentation “Current state of EduFeedr project” on Slideshare. If you like it, please contact Hans and contribute. EduFeedr is (will be, when ready) Open Source.

OzProjects provides two Bookclubs for 10-19 year olds.

Beware of Books is for students from 15-19 years. It is a place where you can discuss books, publish book reviews, and occasionally meet an author.

From 15 -31 March Kim Miller will be answering questions in a special Beware of Books forum. Kim is the author of They Told Me I Had To Write This and other books for young adults. Find out more about Kim and the writing of this book. Enter the forum to ask Kim a question.

Middle Years Book Club (MYBC) allows students 10-14 years to share their love of reading. Students are invited to share what they are reading, post book reviews and participate in discussions and celebrations.

From 22 February -5 March George Ivanoff will be answering questions in a MYBC forum. George is the author of over 35 books for children and teenagers. Find out more about George and the writing of his latest book Gamers’ Quest. Enter the forum to ask George a question.

Students younger than 10 can also participate in an OzProjects Book Club. The Early Years Book Club is a place for young readers to explore online books and share class thoughts and ideas. New resources will be added to the project throughout 2010. Resources will be related to upcoming events, celebrations and themes.

For more information or assistance to get started in OzProjects please email ozprojects@edna.edu.au

Overlooked in much of the hype about the iPad announcement earlier in the week was a comment by Steve Jobs in the Keynote presentation where he mentioned that the iBooks app for iPad would take advantage of the popular EPUB format for electronic books.

EPUB is the same format used by the popular Stanza [free, iTunes link] app for iPhone and iPod touch. It’s a free and open standard format created by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), and it’s designed for reflowable content that can be optimized to whatever device is being used to read a book file.

ebook readers that currently use the format include the Barnes & Noble Nook, the Sony Reader, iRex Digital Reader, and the iRiver Story.

Read more at  All about EPUB, the ebook standard for Apple’s iBookstore.

Does this mean that Apple might be pushing for a robust EPUB standard.

(I do like the Shelfari-look on that screen!)

Filed under: eBook Readers Tagged: ePUB

Two and a half years ago Social Technographics presented a visual analysis of social technology behaviour. Despite the rapid pace of technology adoption, the rungs on the ladder have shown steady growth, with some (like Joiners) growing faster than others (like Creators). In an update -  Social Technographics: Conversationalists get onto the ladder – which includes not just Twitter users, but also people who update social network status to converse (since this activity in Facebook is actually more prevalent than tweeting).

Where do you fit on the ladder?

Filed under: Communication Tools, Social Media, Social Networking

Futurist Richard Watson has updated his annual trends and technology timeline for 2010.  What an interesting conversation starter at a meeting looking at technology!

The map has 16 lines representing everything from society & culture to news & media. There are also 5 time zones representing 2010-2050, so everything that falls outside the central zone (zone 1) is obviously a prediction.

The map is published under a Creative Commons Share-A-Like Licence.

Be sure to look at the full A3 sized image to get the full impact! PDF version available here.

(via 2010 Trends – A Roadmap for the Future)

Filed under: Connectivism, Future Directions, Learning 2.0, Social Software, Society

The Web as “humanity connected by technology”. This is the Semantic Web -  the web of linked data, according to Sir Time Berners Lee vision. Tim Berners-Lee spoke  at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland about the future of the Web and the value of working at “Web Scale”.

The next generation of the Web promises greater opportunity for advancing human intelligence by making us part of the technology system. Social networking is people working together – but they are not using the intelligence of the system. What would it be like if we got the mass of humanity connecting with machines?

(via titticimmino.com )

Filed under: Semantic Web, Social Media, Web 3.0 Tagged: Tim Berners-Lee, web scale

The My School website is big news down under right now.

I would love to be writing something insightful about this big issue right now  but am finding it hard to really pull together my impressions and thoughts in order to convey to readers beyond the boundaries of Terra Australis. Its launch was right at the start of the school year and even though every principal made it their first order of business to get access as soon as the site went live, most rank and file teachers were too busy, well, teaching to get much of a look, let alone a solid impression. My own boss was very interested in the system used to create Statistically Similar Schools which gives each school a ranking number which is a very different comparison tool. In order to compare local schools, one would need to be prepared to do some laborious data scraping.

I had my first real look last night where after checking out my kids’ school, I thought that I’d take a tour through my teaching career and see what this site would tell me about the schools where I have taught. That was interesting. Apparently, the school I taught it in my five year stint in Port Augusta is more disadvantaged than many of the schools in the socially disadvantaged Northern suburbs of Adelaide, and the rural Area School where I taught through a variety of year levels in a variety of roles over nearly two years had a higher rating than my current suburban Adelaide setting. One school would not even come up in the search field so I assume that is one of the glitches still to be ironed out. Apart from that, glancing at NAPLAN shades of green or red seemed to confirm this particular world view.

For a decent comprehensive analysis of the My School website launch, I suggest you read Darcy Moore’s blog post. If you’re inclined to be more cynical about government accountability initiatives (as I am) then Dean Groom’s take is worth a look as well.

I also did what every other tech-loving educator does when pressed for time – check the #myschool hashtag on Twitter. Over the time I checked there were tweets from journalists bemused at any negativity from the education quarter, punters squaring off against each other to find the “worst” school in Australia, parents who couldn’t find their kids’ school, would be league table creators bemoaning the data access, website designers pointing out the design flaws on the site and others prepared to take on the knockers.

My favourite tweet comes from Burnt Sugar:

#myschool it really doesn’t tell the whole story – but we knew that

This is amazing – absolutely amazing!

Nothing more to say really – except it also has a nifty bookmarklet that you can add to your toolbar.  Has website and server tools too!

Filed under: Technology and Software

Filed under: Australia

I came  across two things this week that can help teachers with supporting good use of online spaces.  For some teachers  effective understanding of online spaces and places in terms of good information practice is still a bit of a fantasy tale – like finding Platform 9 3/4 for Hogwarts!

So the following guide is well worthwhile distributing to your school community.

Net Cetera: Chatting With Kids About Being Online,  gives adults practical tips to help kids navigate the online world.  Net Cetera covers what parents and teachers need to know, and issues to raise with kids about living their lives online.

What about the big student magnet  – Google?

Google published its five privacy principles for International Data Privacy Day on the 28th January.  OK, I admit that this is the other side of the coin.

However, it is important to understand exactly what our major online tools consider as important to their product – driven by business forces – as the fact that online tools are extensions of our kids brains means educators have a responsibility to keep in touch and activate the right options for online spaces and places.

Google’s Privacy Principles are:

1. Use information to provide our users with valuable products and services. Search history informs personalized search, but users can opt-out.
2. Develop products that reflect strong privacy standards and practices. For example, you can chat on Google Talk “off the record” so the conversation isn’t saved.
3. Make the collection of personal information transparent. Last year, the Google Dashboard was launched to show you what info Google is collecting on you.
4. Give users meaningful choices to protect their privacy. You can report privacy issues related to Street View. Google often blurs faces, for example.
5. Be a responsible steward of the information we hold. Google doesn’t sell data to other companies.

You can view the published web document on Google’s privacy principles here.

(via Google  Search Engine Watch)

Filed under: Digital Media, Google, Search Tagged: digital citizenship, digital identity, internet safety, privacy

A month ago I mentioned I was going to attempt a PhD by Publication at the University of Canberra. I still am, but I am withdrawing my expression of interest to do a PhD by publication, deciding instead to do a standard PhD by research.

About a week ago, one of my supervisors Keith Lyons recommended I reconsider the by publication route, explaining that the PhD by research offers much more flexibility on how and where I publish it, which for me and my principles around openness and popular relevance, will be pretty important.

Today I had lunch with another supervisor, James Neil. We discussed our thinking about my ideas of topic direction. We also talked about the need to balance my life with Sunshine and our first baby, my paid work, and this attempt to complete a PhD. I'm looking for the shortest route to the qualification, were I can efficiently learn things that will help my future prospects, and that will take me into topics I am interested in - helping me maintain motivation. This last point is important, but it could affect the earlier points.

Looking at the following content structure, and comparing it with my initial expression of interest, you may recognise significant scope creep. This is because in reality, the work with Sport Studies has broader implications in the Faculty, the University and the Australian Higher Education sector.

Proposed content structure
Deconstructing Higher Education

1. What (if any) agreement is there on its purpose in Australia.
2. Historical and present day influences on general development and direction.
3. The common structures and financial models.
4. Forecasting.

Critiquing the University of Canberra

1. Situating UC in the Australian higher education sector.
2. Critiquing its directional plans and policies.
3. Analysing its culture of practice.
4. Proposing open education and research in the UC context.

Describing a model for open education and research

1. Describing a theoretical and historical background to a model of open education and research.
2. Reviewing other models of open education and research.
3. Situating a model within the University of Canberra context (including its external influences).
4. Reviewing measurement methods for open education and research development.

Conducting a case study in developing open education and research practices

1. Implementing development activities within a focus group at the University of Canberra.
2. Monitoring effectiveness, and analysing impact.
3. Analysing participatory narratives.
4. Comparing the results with the larger culture of the University.

Conclusions and recommendations

1. Financial cost benefit analysis
2. Cultural analysis findings
3. Individual action guide
   
4. Directional plans and policy review recommendations

The research question that arises out of this then is: How does open education and research develop in an Australian university?

The purpose of a PhD (historically speaking) is to prove my ability to conduct research and form conclusions. I'm fully aware of my particular activist bias toward open education, and my weakness in accessing and considering all influences on that agenda. While I will personally aim to uncover as much shared truth as possible, I appreciate the opportunities that post, even anti positivist stances offer, in that my own position in this work remains present and relevant. This stance compliments my attempt to also define and model an open PhD project.

The open PhD

At the moment, the process I wish to follow is as follows:

1. Use my blog (and related channels) for formative notes and reflection.
2. Encourage supervisors to engage in discussion on my blog, and turn these considerations into content actions towards my PhD
3. Transfer content actions into my PhD Wiki
4. Invite supervisors and wider networks to assist in developing an annotated bibliography around this content. Items in the bibliography should openly accessible. Where they are not, and no alternative suites, I will pursue copyrights to republish.
5. Draft sections on the wiki and post them to my blog for feedback
6. Continue this spiral towards completed sections and chapters to the necessary style
7. Produce a printed and bound version in three readership levels, as in the broadbanding information idea (children, adults, experts)

Media release: JISC Conference 2010 blog competition launches

JISC is putting the spotlight on the education community in a blog competition, with the chance to win a flip camera and inclusion in a JISC publication.

As part of the JISC Conference 2010, JISC is asking teachers, learners and researchers to share their experiences of technology around the event theme: ‘technology – at the heart of education and research’.

The competition will be judged by Michelle Pauli, deputy editor of Guardian.co.uk books section and editor of the conference blog; conference keynote speaker Bill St Arnaud, chief research officer at Canada’s Advanced Internet Development Organization; and John Traxler, professor of mobile learning and director of the Learning Lab at the University of Wolverhampton.

Entrants should write a blog post or produce a short video explaining how important technology is to their work in education and research.

For example, have you been using web 2.0 tools to get in touch with or engage students or colleagues? Perhaps technology is helping to make your research quicker and easier, or maybe you’ve found a whole new angle of inquiry because of it? Whether it’s about getting in touch with far-flung colleagues, presenting your work in a new way, or working in an innovative area, JISC wants to hear from you.

Michelle Pauli explained what the judges are looking for: “We’re really looking forward to finding out what technology the education community couldn’t live without, whether it’s a cutting edge software application or a standard piece of kit used in an innovative way. Blog posts don’t need to be long to tell a good story and a short, sweet and to-the-point specific example can be just as compelling and effective.”

She added: “I’m particularly intrigued to see if anyone takes up the challenge of ’showing rather than telling’ by using video to share their story.”

All entrants will receive reciprocal links to their blogs from the JISC website, with the chance to be part of the selected entries in a publication on the topic.

The overall winner of the competition will receive a flip camera, presented to them at the JISC Conference 2010, taking place from 12-13 April 2010 at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, London.

Anyone employed by a further education college or university in the UK or abroad is eligible to enter the competition, although members of the JISC executive are not eligible to be shortlisted or win the prize.

Submit your entry via the online form before the entry deadline of 1700 GMT on Friday 19 February 2010 at
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/events/2010/04/jisc10/blogcomp>

I assume everybody have already read about the Apple’s iPad launch. What kind of devices it is, to be used in schools?

I have been Mac user for more than 15 years. I am not a “fan” but very satisfied customer – even relatively big customer. I do not like the close ecosystem approach of the Apple, but highly appreciate their design thinking behind the products.

In the demo yesterday Steve Job explained that iPad tablet should do a better job than a smart phone or laptop computer in some specific areas. This is definitely a right way to design a product like this: to think some important things and make a product that is really good at doing them. This sounds simple.

Job’s list of important things in which iPad is really good at was:

• web browsing,
• email,
• photos,
• watching video,
• listening to music,
• playing games and
• reading ebooks.

Now we may ask: what students need from their ICT device at school?

In 90% of cases this is it: web browsing with the ability to submit things online (including longer texts, such as blog posts), email, photos, watching videos, listening audio, playing games and reading books. In addition to this, students need a simple real-time communication channel with their peers, teachers and parents: a chat or phone. I assume, in the iPad there soon will be an application for audio/video call with add-on video camera. This is definitely something needed. On the other hand, I think students will anyway have their mobile phones, too for chating and calling.

I see in the iPad some similarities to the “ultimate network connectivity school device” I wrote about some time ago: a touch screen and “limited features”. That’s what we need in schools – well designed, simple and elegant tools that are non-distractive.

Why the simplicity is so important in school? Learning is a cognitive process. All extra cognitive load put on the use of tools is out from the learning. The technology used should never take the main role from the actual learning situation.

In a way this is the case with all human activity. That is also why Apple have took over smart phone market and have made internet mobile.

Often Apple is considered to be a “high-end” technology, but actually their competence is in their ability to design for the “masses”, the people. This is why they should have at least 50% of the school ICT-device market (actually I think this is already the case in some parts of the world, like in UK).

Some one just sent me a link to another example of simplicity and respect of human cognition. Do not make me think – I just want to “consume” my magazine!

Mag+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.

Mag+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.

A new interactive history timeline developed by British Library allows students and teachers to explore collection items chronologically for the first time. www.bl.uk/timeline

Comparing the Peasants’ Revolt with the Punk Revolution or medieval astrology with the Apollo moon landings might appear unconnected at first, but the British Library’s new interactive timeline will allow students to get a sense of change, continuity and chronology when studying historical events.

Bringing together material from the Library’s vast collections and using cutting-edge technology, users will now be able to discover historical connections and create links in an exciting multimedia experience.

(via British Library)

Posted in Digital Media, Learning and Teaching Tagged: British Library, history

Fattest hand is first in the till

Noel Pearson is a great, fearless writer who combines deep analysis with scathing, excoriating description. By now much of his analysis of how passive welfare makes things worse for aboriginal people has filtered through to mainstream consciousness. In the above article he elaborates on a misunderstood aspect of his analysis. The aboriginal industry is made up of people who benefit before any aboriginal person benefits. Although some elements of welfare are essential it can easily reach a point where the helpers are taking responsibility out of the hands of the recipients. Once this becomes a problem it is hard to undo because many of the helpers would then become unemployed. Pearson is much more in touch with this than I am and far more scathing.

After quoting African-American economist Thomas Sowell, "The poor are a goldmine", Noel Pearson goes onto illustrate how this aphorism applies to indigenous Australians:

The leviathan of government bureaucracies make the payday lenders, the drug dealers and sly grog sellers pale in comparison with their commandeering of the income streams that are nominally allocated to the indigenous poor on the ground ...

So the first problem is an age-old one of ever-pullulating bureaucracies: like maggots engorged on a roadside carcass, whenever there is a new budget line the frontline departments of government serve themselves first. This is the real Aboriginal industry ...

The second form of welfare - passive service delivery - was not understood at the time of our critique, and has little public policy understanding even today. When we say that a large part of our welfare problem is government service delivery, people do not understand what we mean. After all, service delivery is supposed to be what is needed. Aboriginal disadvantage supposedly needs to be fixed by more comprehensive and more co-ordinated service delivery.

This is how you end up with 400 service providers for just 1200 people.

Our point that indigenous passivity is very much a consequence of government service delivery has been completely lost to the debate on indigenous policy.

The problem is that essential and beneficial government service delivery is mixed up with a vast panoply of services that displaced Aboriginal individuals, families and communities taking up their own responsibilities.

What my opponents and sceptics from the Left have failed to understand is that when we talk about disempowerment being the singular and devastating feature of Aboriginal Australia, we mean that our people have had their responsibilities taken away from us. Responsibility is power. If we want our people to be empowered, then we need to take back the responsibilities that the welfare state has stripped away from us.

I respond to some requests for elaboration from the same person (who prefers to remain anonymous). His questions are in italics:

1. Is the issue that LMS's are driving instruction rather than professors? I have some interaction with an LMS at Queen's but in general it's been irrelevant to what I'm doing. As more of a constructivist handling an adult audience I'm concerned about things that matter to them.

Professors would probably say that it is. LMSs restrict what a professor can do, particularly if he or she is not tech-savvy. They then have to follow the default model, which is much more constraining than the open classroom.

But the LMS is only an early, and arguably out of date, technology (see the Google results form the 'VLE is dead' debate in Britain for a good example of this discourse). From the perspective of the student, it doesn't make a whole lot of difference if the professor tells them what to do or whether the LMS does.

In general, new technologies have had a liberating effect. But from the perspective of the managers, from whom people are being liberated, it has a constraining effect.

From a constructivist perspective, you can find LMSs (such as Moodle) designed from a strictly constructivist perspective. You may argue that it has been more or less successful, but it's clear the intent is there.

From my own perspective, I don't see constructivist methodology to be a whole lot more liberating than traditional instruction. Students still receive a great deal of direction from the instructor. They are not free to pursue an alternative learning methodology. This is especially the case when the students are younger, but still applies in adult learning.

2. When you refer to management, do you mean the content of learning or the mode, pace and timing of its delivery? I assumed the latter but thought it was wiser to check.

I mean all aspects of learning, from the definition and selection of subject, to the application in a practical or learning context, and to the mode, pace and time of delivery.

In this regard, it may be useful to create a taxonomy defining the extent of what constitutes 'management' in this context. Because historically a great deal of management has remained in force (for example, the selection of subject matter) simply by redefining it out of the scope of 'learning management'. But in general, if a decision is made, then in my view it constitutes an aspect of 'management'.

3. I am sympathetic to Freire and also to Gramsci (cultural hegemony) and agree that corporate interests will attempt to penetrate universities even further. Is there any way that ed tech can return control to professors and/or to learners in groups or at least those virtually connected?
I don't really see the benefit of returning control to professors, except insofar as this extends to their own research and learning. This though amounts to a negotiation of working conditions, and is consequently a wider issue.

With respect to control over student learning, my own inclination is to allow professors only a minimum of control, ideally none (though it is again part of the research question regarding how much, and under what conditions, learning can occur absent professorial control).

My own feeling is that it may be more useful to discuss the role of the professor in a learning environment, rather than to talking of returning control. If the discussion is framed as one in which professors and corporate interests vie for control over student learning, then we have by stipulation defined out of the frame the idea that the student might control his or her own learning.

What sort of role might be contemplated? I have in the past suggested that this role amounts to modeling and demonstrating the values, abilities and behaviours desired in the student; the idea is that the student (voluntarily) looks to the professor (or, indeed, any professional, or any other person of higher esteem) as an example worth emulating and following; the student learns by attempting to emulate, in an active and reflective manner, the exemplary model.

Another frame you have set: a choice between giving control to professors, or to learners in groups. This is perhaps a preference for social constructivism showing through. Many people argue that learning is inherently social. I think that if you are attempting to learn social behaviours, then you will want most to practice in a social environment, in order to support authentic learning. And many disciplines, even those we see as overtly scientific, such as chemistry, can be defined not simply as a body of content to be retained but rather as a set of values, skills, beliefs and ways of seeing in the world learned and demonstrated as learned effectively by participation in a community.

But there is nothing inherent in learning itself that says that this should be so, and so there are many types of learning, and aspects of learning, perhaps best undertaken by a person working alone. The models we learn from need not be human. There is, for example, a long and viable history of learning from, and studying, and emulating, nature. Much of my own learning takes place in this way. Other forms of learning even in social contexts may be supported not by interaction, but simply by observation.

Yesterday was both Invasion Day and Australia Day.

What does this mean? Some say its all about white guys that BBQ cows and drink beer all day in the sun with their mates while others call it the celebration of a day when representatives of the British Government and Monarchy claiming the entire continent of Australia as their own.

I didn’t have much on so I googled “Australia Day Brisbane” and saw that there was a raising of the flag ceremony at South Bank 11am so I grabbed my camera and off I went.

From Flag Raising Ceremony Australia Day 2010 | ourbrisbane.com :

This ceremony will have all of Brisbane looking skyward, with a spectacularly loud flyover of the F-111 jet, matched with a 21 gun salute.

From 11am see the Australian Defence Force Triservice Honour Guard and hear the Royal Australian Artillery Band – Brisbane playing. Be there for the raising of the Australian, Queensland, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags.

It was all very formal and you had to be there to hear all the speakers. I put together a gallery of Images that shows how my day progressed. You can View Australia/Invasion Day Gallery.

As the flags were going up the invasion day protesters came over the Victoria bridge in the distance. It was as if the confusion in my head was being played out visually in front of my eyes. I’ve learnt many things about indigenous Australian culture before and met some of the local Murri people. Some people have said to me oh yeah the people from the Murry river or think Im mis-pronouncing the word Maori but in any case make sure to read the Murri people Wikipedia article if you dont know what Murri people means.

Bored of being stuck behind a barrier while some media and privileged people prance around in front of me, I decided to join this march and see what it was all about.

In a way I felt like my innocence/ignorance of who a lot of these people are helped have a neutral point of view. In terms of education its a fail but usually people on the internet help me fill in the gaps, that hasnt happened with this story yet, Im not sure why. For example I described this photo as “Important Lady finishes her talk, canons in background at Raising of the flag ceremony. Australia Day” and this photo as “Powerful speaker man, Indigenous Australian protesters marching pt4″. I would say that you should have heard some of the strong things they were saying/chanting but I can show you. I made this video that you can watch on youtube. You can also watch it below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Its a shame I was so slow with my camera, at 4:13 you see them dancing, behind me were roughly 15 police, some on motorbikes and some standing there in a way blocking entry to South Bank, just before that he was making more strong statements then in my memory he says “Corroboree!!” and the guys break into music and dance, I thought that was amazing. The march finished at Musgrave park where a rage against racism concert was held.

Its a confusing issue to me, you have many non-indigenous people supporting invasion day protests and you have many indigenous and Torres Strait Islander people celebrating Australia day. I also think many individuals are just happy to have the day off work to relax and enjoy a day with friends and family. I hope all of us can come together and celebrate life, I don’t know the answer but I hope we can have a holiday for this purpose maybe something like independence day.

No related posts.

My reaction when I first read Robert Hawkin’s list on EduTech - a World Bank Blog on ICT use in Education was “haven’t we already looked at these?”

The list contains 10 items that have been on lists for a long time, so I guess what we need to ask ourselves is how strongly is this technology impacting on my teaching and learning?. In Hawkins’ words when he is referring to mobile devices - is this item an “information appliance of choice in the classroom“?

The other thing I have been thinking about of late is how global is “global”? What is happening outside Australia, or outside western countries? There are some interesting comments on Hawkins’ blog post that do help you get a wider picture. The final comment came from Steve Vosloo who gives a South African perspective and then reinforced it on his own blog.

One of the other interesting aspects to Hawkins’ post is his comments on the impact of the technology of the status quo.
e.g.

Increasingly robust connectivity infrastructure and cheaper computers - requires a rethinking of the traditional 40 minute lesson, and the availability of virtual mentors or teachers.

schools around the world are re-thinking the most appropriate learning environments to foster collaborative, cross- disciplinary, students centered learning.

Such activities often challenge traditional notions of intellectual property and copyright.

Have a look at his list and tell me which ones strike you as most likely to impact on your teaching and learning this year.

… well, I must confess that the usefulness of this Google gem escapes me for the moment.

Can anyone actually make sense of this or is it a case of me having poor visual literacy skills?