Mr DK’s Blog

‘Leveraging the Power of Blogs and Wikis in Student Learning’  This presentation looks at how students in a senior Physics class are using a combination of wikis and blogs to enrich their learning. It presents a really useful model for integrating ICT strategies that are readily available to us through Moodle and Google apps such as Google Sites and Blogger – a must watch for anyone looking for ideas for 2011! from
http://www.teachingandelearning.com/

ACTIVboardNZ’s new ActivBoard Mobile System may well be the IWB solution for spaces like the LIC at Kristin, where there are multiple, open plan teaching spaces. Not cheap at $8995 +GST, but includes installation and training.

Ever wondered how you’d purchase and distribute apps in a classroom where the students are using iPhones/iPads/iTouches?  There is a solution: Apple’s Volume Purchase Program makes it easy for educational institutions to purchase iOS apps in volume and distribute those apps to users.

Google Realtime Explained  … could be a great resource for anyone that has a current events component in their curriculum. When a story breaks, have your students look at how quickly a story develops on the web by monitoring the updates to Google Realtime Search results.

An interactive whiteboard and projector in one.  Manzana are marketing these in NZ. 

What’s to like?:

• its a short throw projector (less than 30cm from the wall)
• interactive – no need for an IWB, full mouse control over your computer
• built in speakers, can amplify teacher’s voice

Classroom mobile phone use will be encouraged at Howick College as part of a 12-week education pilot study. Read the full article here.  Dubbed mLearning the pilot involves using mobiles in Geography and ESOL classes.  Students will be able to record, share and review lessons.

Gartner forecasts phones overtaking PCs as most common web browsing device by 2013

By Donald Melanson posted Jan 15th 2010 8:12PM

Predictions about phones overtaking PCs at one task or another are hardly anything new, but research firm Gartner has gotten a bit more specific than most with its latest forecast — which, among other things, foretells of a day when cellphones will be the most common device used for browsing the web. That momentous event will supposedly happen by 2013, when Gartner expects the number of browser-equipped phones to exceed 1.83 billion, compared to 1.78 billion old fashioned computers in use. According to Gartner, however, while browser-equipped phones will outnumber PCs by then, they won’t actually be most folks’ primary browsing device until sometime in 2015. In other prognostication news, the firm also says that fully three billion of the world’s population will be able to make electronic transactions via mobile or internet technology by 2014, and that by as soon as 2012, 20% of businesses will “own no IT assets” — meaning that employees would be using their own personal computer, and that the businesses themselves would be relying on cloud-based services.

Unity is a multiplatform game development tool, designed from the start to ease creation. A fully integrated professional application… This may be a better tool than Gamemaker for our units on Gaming.  30 day trial available.

Educate.  This is a brilliant app for teachers using an iPhone.  I have just entered my timetable (7 day cycle) and have synched to Google Docs so I can use ‘Tracker’ for my class roll (or grades).  Brilliant for outdoor ed teachers or PE staff who usually have to lug their laptops around.  I’ll trial it while on camp this week.  “Educate 2.0 is the ultimate teacher’s companion providing mobile access to your timetable, student data, teaching strategies and eLearning tools.”

The iPod Touches “are intended for students in the county’s primary schools, who will use them for math and reading…

In terms of reading the Touches are expected to be implemented in stations for comprehension, vocabulary, phonics, phonemic awareness and fluency…”

Read the full New Bern Sun Journal article here.  Thanks Don for the ‘heads up’.