K.I.S.S.

The motto for anyone trying something new. Keep it simple, stupid (KISS).

Well, audio is a perfect example of this. For example -  you want to get the children to record themselves talking about a topic they've been working on?
Well, take a voice recorder, record the conversation, hook up the voice recorder to the computer, attempt to copy the sound across to the computer, save it, forget what it was called, have to search for it, copy it into audacity, save it again and convert it into an mp3, post it onto the website, change the coding so that it will appear embedded instead of as a download (phew)

OR....

try Vocoroo - visit the website, hit record, speak into your microphone. Stop, copy the code, post and hey presto it's done.

So simple. Brilliant.

iPhone, Apps and non-apps

So, I'm getting used to the new phone now. I'm starting to wonder how I got on without it - it reads my email, sends mail, lets me check up on my twitterings, catch up on TV through iPlayer, view the school website, post to it on the go, check on posted comments and approve them and more!

I've also been looking through the iPhone app store - some great things in there such as the ocarina - simply blow into the microphone and touch the four circles on the touchscreen to make various notes and tunes.

What I can't find though is the new google mobile app with voice recognition. I read all about it last week, watched the video that google posted online showing how it works, and checked out the apps store but no sign. It's disappeared from view completely.

I guess this is evidence of why google should never advertise something before they know it has been published by another company!

iPhone email no-no

So, the iPhone is now set up and working. I can now...

• call,
• receive calls,
• get onto the web through my home wi-fi, 3G connection and the school wi-fi network (bit of proxy fiddling needed to get sorted!)
• Receive email

but I cannot send mail from my 1and1 accounts.

That was a bit of a downer. So lots of fiddling with server settings, smtp values and SSL details later and it was still not sending mail. Until, that is, I disabled all the smtp values, apart from my googlemail account, and routed all mail through google.

Now everything is working properly. Hurrah!!

Merging Mippin

I've been using Mippin for a while now - and I have to say that nothing takes my RSS feeds and puts them onto a mobile device quicker or easier.
The school website has one mippin feed at the moment - to display the main articles - but we have lots of  other content that I would really like to get onto mobile devices as more parents now have the facility to view the website this way.
I want to put the podcast, vodcast and pupil website feeds into mippin too, so I asked whether it was possible to merge feeds. It is! Mippins reply came as follows...

In terms of your question about mergeing feeds, it is possible for you to create a Porchester Persona (part of our new social functionality) and give this Persona favourites of all your Porchester sites.  So what you do is go to Mippin and logout of your current session.  Then Signin and Signup with a new name of Porchester, then go to each of your sites and click Pin to your homepage.  Then logout.  The new url you would tell the parent is then http://porchester.mippin.com .  Please encourage the parent to Follow Porchester so that they can all see each other - if porchester follows back you will be able to send messages on a 1:1 basis

I've tried it this evening and, minus a few bugs that I have mailed mippin about it does seem to work. We can now offer website audio, video and articles through mobile devices. Super!!

Woices - Sitepal - Audacity: Story!

I took some text from word, dropped it into Sitepal, and recorded the results in Audacity, then saved as an mp3 and uploaded to woices, tagged the audio to a location and so began a story. Wonder if I can be creative enough to complete this...

Tell me a story

Here's a beta site that I've just been twittered about.

Woices let you record an audio soundtrack for a location somewhere in the world. Once you've added it, you can link more locations to make a "walk" (think chapters of a story as the stops on the walk), plus others can leave you their 'echoes' about your work.
In its simplist form - great for telling a story instead of writing it. Looking to push it, why not create several stories in which characters cross in locations. What is the main audio in one, could be an echo in another. It reminds me of In Search of Oldton - set in a time before this was possible.

This "walk" was created by a colleague, based on previous audio files;

And, as an experiment, I found that you can use the woices audio in Google Earth. Download the  Thameslisteningwalk.kml file that lets you travel across the map as you listen to the audio.

BBC and Flickr

Here's a telling comment about Flickr. I see that the BBC Autumnwatch programme, has decided that it's associated website should use a Flickr group for people around the UK to send in their autumn photos. Previously all submitted photos to the BBC have been held on their own servers.
Flickr must have been shown to the top bosses who liked the look of it!
I do however notice that the video submissions feature is being stored on the BBC servers still.

Two [old] widgets

We've made a few changes during an autumn clean of the site, and we thought we'd highlight two features that have been on the site for a long time, but never publicised.

The first is now shown at the top left of the navigation bar above.  'Shop' takes you to a page on the site of recommended items from Amazon. We've selected educational titles for adults, books for children, as well as games, DVDs and music. Hopefully there will be something listed that grabs your attention.

The second is now shown at the top right of the navigation bar above. 'Get Mobile' takes you to Mippin. A web based application that converts the Digital-teacher website into mobile friendly pages. It's a great service that is free to use. The only cost is the data cost that your service provider will charge.

We live and learn

So, I was trying to be clever the other day and redesigning my own website using the Typepad blogging platform. The site design was straight forward enough. It only took around 20 minutes to get everything as I wanted it, create some graphics and load them all.
The next part was where the problems began...

The domain name I use is hosted by 1and1.co.uk but the website design and content is hosted by Typepad.com. This isn't a problem, I can simply domain map the typepad address into the 1and1 settings and voila - you type in one address and actually get sent to another without even knowing it.

What I hadn't expected though was as soon I set up the transfer, and it became active it would render all my email addresses at the said domain name useless!!

Frantic phone calls to my web hosts revealed that although I was only changing a CNAME record to point a web address elsewhere, it would mean that the MX records would be altered. The problem with those is that I cannot alter them. So, everything has gone back to as it was until I can find a way around this problem...

Kids Video

Here's a fun thing that I'm trying out with the kids at school. I've asked some of them to use a video camera to record some of the activities that they have been involved in (they've chosen so far to record themselves as they checked traffic speeds outside as well as their cycling safety lessons). We took the video and added them to Moviemaker, before then watching the (s0 far silent) video and using a voice recorder to add a commentary, which we then dropped into the video.
Along with a title and end graphic that I had prepared - must find an easy free online graphics programme that they can use - they produced a simple news report.

This video was dropped into the website videos folder on the school network, and then once at home uploaded to google video, and embedded onto the school website (can't be done in school because our local authority filtering service blocks video). On top of that it was added to our Vodcast feed, and iTunes now shows it along with our other video productions.

The kids loved the simplicity of it all, and I'm now considering a group that works on a longer film. Either stop motion animated, or with them acting something out.

Wall Poster maker

Came across a really great free website recently that lets you create wall sized posters from your photographs. I can see this being used in the classroom to print out a large scale map in geography, used as a backdrop for a concert, or maybe used in a hall as an eye catching "feature wall".

The actual process is incredibly simple - upload the photo, decide how many "sheets" wide you want it to appear, and then download the pdf file that is created. Just print out and stick together. You can then crop the images to create a neat no join visible poster, or keep the edging and create a mosaic effect.

To iTune or not to

I read today that apple are considering whether or not to close their iTunes service. I was slightly surprised to find that out, given that iTunes has around an 85% share of the online music market.
Why would apple make such a statement? It seems that the amount of royalties is about to change - and if the record companies don't pay the extra, then it comes down to apple or the consumer. Apple say they won't raise prices, or absorb the extra cost either.

So, come tomorrow I might have a complete archive of all my old music, but nothing new to add to it...

Related articles by Zemanta

• Apple Threatened To Close iTunes If Royalties Were Raised?
  
  
• Apple Threatens iTunes Closure

Going digital

This term at school we've been making good use of the Sherston "Channels" website. For our current history topic we are learning about the Tudors, and our lessons so far have been based on Henry VIII, Catholic Vs Protestant, Rich and Poor, and Country Vs Town living.
The children are getting better at completing a task within the lesson, and even better they are now starting to go home, log into the service in their house and either add more to their work and start a second task.

We'll have them all working remotely from home soon. And then they won't need a teacher. And then I'll be out of a job...

As Fagin once said in "Oliver"; I think I'd better think it out again!!

Chrome

So, a surprise announcement and launch of a brand new web browser from Google. It seemed to come from out of the blue, but unfortunately for everything that is does that is good, there is one glaring omission that makes it (as far I am concerned) unusable.

Where is the support for RSS? There is no feed icon that displays in the browser bar - sorry Omnibox!! And, if I do manage to type in the URL of a feed, I don't see a nicely arranged, clearly laid out series of posts and articles on the screen, I see one lump of unreadable, squashed up text.

Maybe they want me to use their Google Reader if I am reading a feed? Well, if they do they thought wrong. I'll stick to Firefox thank you.

No wires no more

How great is this idea; being able to power an electrical device without the need for wires or batteries. Well, it's a step closer to reality now. Intel and MIT are both working on devices that would allow just that.
At a wall socket, electricity is put into magnetic fields at a transmitting resonator - basically an antenna. A receiving resonator is tuned to efficiently absorb energy from the magnetic field, whereas nearby objects do not.
Intel calls its system WREL (wireless resonant energy link) and MIT calls it WiTricity. Hopefully we'll be using it around 5 - 10 years.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Intel Says They've Taken A Huge Leap in Wireless Power Tech [Wireless Charging]

iStori.es

iStori.es is a supremely easy-to-use story-telling device that requires no manual. All of the instructions necessary to create dynamic output are available from the on-screen wizard. Load up some pictures, add text, music and sound effects and BOOM! you have your own interactive story in minutes.

Cut, blend, fade in, push. These cinematic features and many more are available on iStori.es.

 

Pushing the limits

Two new ideas we tried at the end of term this year were;

(1) The Year Six leavers Animoto montage;

(2) The Video Yearbook;

Both are embedded into the website for parents to view without downloading - and now I'm experimenting with making this sort of thing available as a Vodcast, to take away from the computer and view elsewhere.

So, we've currently got the website with an RSS feed of articles, an RSS audio feed reading the articles, a regular pupil podcast of their news, and now we're looking at a Vodcast.

These kids don't know how lucky they are.

Check mail first!

I knew something funny was going on when I checked the stats for the school website tonight. The number of visitors today was as expected - but the pages (or page rather) that they were going to wasn't. There was a large proportion going to the Yr6 girls latest computer club project.
Even more strange was the fact that most of the referrers to that page were coming from webmail links.

Of course, once I checked my email and saw that the latest newsletter from ICTeachers mentioned the girls project it all made sense. Oh, if you don't get the ICTeachers newletter, all the fuss is about this project here.

Firefox 3

It's arrived! Today is Firefox 3 day. Help set a Guiness World record for the most downloads of a piece of software in 24 hours. Download FF3 here

Related articles

• Firefox 3 smashes download records [via Zemanta]
• Firefox 3 downloaded more than 8 million times, record waiting to be officialized [via Zemanta]

Hurrah for new technology!

Well, my computer has died; the motherboard has given up the ghost. This has, obviously, left me with a few headaches (but not has many as it would have several years ago). Thanks to the rise of Web2.0 I have been able to;

• Set up IMAP mail folders on another temporary machine quickly, so that I can still access email (and in the process it means that I can quickly set up again on a new machine when I get it without losing any messages received in the meantime)
• Continue accessing the school website, moderate comments and create pages as everything is held remotely by our hosts.
• Continue to access the subscriber lists, newsletter facility, and database for another website I run as this too is held remotely at the website host

Unfortunately I am unable to;

• Use dreamweaver (for building webpages / site), flash and other design software that ran on the old machine
• Access old emails / files and folders on the old machine

However, the good news is that the old hard drive is still working, so can be fitted into a caddy and the files transferred across to a new machine once I get it. Then I will be able to reinstall all the software, and (hopefully) carry on as normal.

Podcasting in school

The school website has had an experimental podcast on since July 2007. Two Y6 girls had been recording all the weeks news on my voice recorder, for me to then drop into an audacity template and save as an mp3. The file was hosted on the school website, but we had so much trouble getting iTunes to recognise the RSS feed for it.

Well, with the theft of my laptop, iPod and voice recorder everything ground to a halt just before Christmas, but we're off again now.

The school has now bought around two dozen voice recorders, and each class has nominated two "podporters" (class reporters) who will interview children and report the news from their class. The first episode is almost ready and goes out this Friday, so I 've been trying to find a suitable host on the web for the new podcasts. In the end I opted for Jellycast for two reasons;

• 1. they host the Ricky Gervais podcasts, so they are not likely to disappear suddenly with the audience he attracks
• 2. there are some other educational podcasts hosted by them, so they must be suitable for schools

You can see what podcasts we currently have available listed in their directory, and it should be growing soon. All our previous podcasts can be found on this page of the school website.

Hidden Gems

I found a link tucked away at the bottom of the BBC's main news page with the words;

"Most Popular Now  Traffic to this site is currently 7% above normal"

Clicking it opens a great piece of technology. Just watch the page for a few minutes and you'll see the most popular news stories start to swap places on the top10 board. Not only that but you can see which part of the world is accessing the site, and what the traffic load is.

Plus you can click the map and see the most popular stories and traffic load for continents around the world .

It's above you

With the recent news about Jules Verne arriving safely at the ISS, I thought I'd try and find out something about the Space Station zooming around above my head. Well, this site, although not telling me much about the ISS, does show live tracking images of whereabouts it is above the Earth using google maps. It's strangely addictive and I find myself visiting to ask "Is it over me yet?"
If you want information about the International Space Station, try the Nasa ISS site

Related articles

• 'Jules Verne' pictured over UK [via Zemanta]
• Dainty space truck completes task [via Zemanta]

Digital Woes (2)

What the hell have the BBC done to their news and sport pages? The front page was altered recently, and that worked because of mainly one thing - it has the ability to be personalised by the user.

Not so the sports or news pages. They just spill across the screen, with what seems like a random blocks of text and images that the user has no control over. It's abysmal. I know it's a work in progress, but it sucks. BBC, you've got it very wrong.

Related articles

• Our New Look [via Zemanta]
• BBC revamps news and sport sites with embedded video service [via Zemanta]

Digitized the lot at last

I've finally manged to get the music in the whole house digitized into iTunes, and synced onto my iPod.
That's just under 5,000 tracks all available at the click of a button now.

The whole thing didn't take long - just over 5 weeks from putting the first disc into the computer and hitting the "import" button. And it only took that long because I had to dig through the daughters room searching for lost and forgotten CD's within her 'Pit of No Return'.

So now I'm busy playing with the iPod - seeing what it can do, and I love the additional features that this new one has (so much better than the older version that was stolen before Christmas). Cover flow options for looking through the hundreds of albums on there for start. The music based iquiz game is awesome. Take the idea of a music trivia game, then personalize it with your own musical taste automatically (as stored on your iPod) and you actually get questions that you have a chance to get right.

And if that wasn't enough, I can even watch Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes on it too. Is there anything the iPod won't do?

Web 2.0

I often get asked where I find all the links, widgets and applications that I mention and use on this site and others. Well, I used to rely on dumb luck as I scoured the web, but that all changed with the launch of the Go2Web2.0 website.
This website is heaven for anyone looking for the latest ideas. Two of the most useful I've found on there have been animoto (photo slideshow maker with music) and Simplify Media (play your iTunes collection on any PC anywhere).

I'm using Animoto frequently on the school website - it's perfect for showing off the class trip / special day etc, and the children think it's amazing that we can get the photos taken, and within 10 - 15 minutes there is a new article on the school website with the slideshow available.

Simplifymedia blew my mind the first time I tried it when I was able to access my home iTunes collection at work, and listen to my music streaming over the web.

There are others of course - the latest idea that I like is mippin. It takes an ordinary website with an RSS feed (like Digital-teacher) and converts it into a mobile phone friendly website. What's even more impressive, is the ability it has to create a Nokia 'barcode' that Nokia phones can scan and drop the URL straight into a phone.  If you want the mobile version of this site - click here or else scan the following image;

Discovering new technologies

The school website has been generating a lot of interest recently. The kids love leaving comments on the articles, and more and more of them are asking to become "junior authors" so they can write their own content for the site.

The technology that we are now using for the site is becoming increasingly complex, and this page on the website lists all the little widgets, applications and features that we are currently using.

The newest - Mippin - has me really interested because it will take the website feed and generate a mobile version of the website that works superbly well on mobile phones, listing only the article titles with an option "read more". Images, video and audio will also be carried across into a mobile (I'll be testing this once we start the new term with the introduction of a class based podcasting reporters.

Delicious

Well, I've resisted for so long, but as the children in school have been asking for links to useful websites, and I don't want to keep editing a webpage for every new addition, I've finally succumbed to delicious and used it to embed the school account onto a page.
Now every time I click on "post to delicious" from a browser it will update the bookmark page.

Hoping it works really well and the children make use of it.

Time for a change

The BBC is currently testing a new format for its homepage. Taking elements from many "web 2.0" sites you can select your own content and order it around the page. It's in early stages, but shows potential, and the best addition is the return of the old BBC clock in the top right corner. Pointless, but reminds me of childhood TV watching.

You are being watched

A secondary school in Doncaster has been trying out a scheme where pupils' records are stored on a microchip embedded in their school uniform. The device enables teachers to call up information about pupils, such as their attainment, as they enter a classroom. The chips send out a radio signal which enables their movements to be monitored as they pass scanners.

Read more...

Against All Odds

No, not the song! This is the United Nations creating a free online activity for children to try and show them what it's like being a refugee. There's a lot of point and click decision making, often with startling results that really make you think. You can play the activity here.

Hold back on that upgrade

So I see that Becta have lodged an official complaint about how Microsoft sell their products to schools. I've always wondered just how they manage to get away with the prices they charge in schools, and why we don't all just move over to macs / firefox / open office and the other free options.
But then I thought about it, and those little buggers at Microshaft are clever; they somehow make you think that you NEED their software because it's what is used in the home and in businesses. If only everyone moved over to open source choices, then it would really upset Mr. Gates and his profit margins.

Hear this

Over on the school website I've been playing with an old toy given a new, 21st century use; the dictaphone. With the new framework mentioning the word PODCAST several times it was time to start to experiment with audio and see what could be done.
Well, it was much easier than I had dared to hope! A free audio software download (Audacity), a standard dictaphone (although a microphone in headphones, or built into the computer would work just as well) and some free to use sound files were all I needed to create a template for the children to produce a weekly news bulletin that began this term.
In addition, I've started using it for when my class read out their work, or when we are having a discussion. A simple press of the record button,  a transfer into the computer, conversion into an MP3 file using audacity and posting on the school website and we've got evidence of the childrens speaking and listening skills :-)

Talking articles

I've added a fantastic new feature to the school website. Odiogo is a feature that brings text to life through speech. Every article (aside from the static pages we have) now has a "listen now" button that actually reads the content of the article in *almost* perfect speech. In addition to each post being audio enabled, Odiogo also creates an RSS feed that can be used in iTunes or Juice to allow you to subscribe to the latest news from the school.

The best thing about this - it's free! Wow!!

One stop 2.0

Wanting to keep up to date with all the new ideas that are coming out for "Web 2.0"?
Try Go2Web20 for the most up to date, and constantly expanding list of the latest brainwaves.

Take Kerpoof for example - an online comic / cartoon movie making website. It's brilliant, and even better, it's free! :-)

No boys allowed

I'm in the process of setting up an afterschool ICT club at the moment. We've had details of Computer Clubs 4 Girls (CC4G) - free to all state schools. I gave out the details to the upper school classes today, and of the 24 Y6 girls who are eligible 24 of them jumped at the chance!

So - looks like I'm about to start a weekly girls only ICT club

Dual Standards

Further to my last post about Wikis, seems I had already successfully embeded the Wiki into the school website. The problem I was faced with was that I was using a school laptop to view it on. The school laptops use Internet Explorer, and as a result I couldn't get the Wiki login to work correctly.
Firefox has no such problems, and so using my home machine I am able to log into the Wiki from the embedded page.
When will Microsoft design their products using company wide accepted standards, instead of their own, unworkable standards?

Free stuff!

Back in May, when I was developing my new school website, I looked at wikis and came across wikispaces.com. They have feature called 100,000 wikis for schools in which they are going to allow 100,000 education related wikis get the full service for free (that means no ads on the wiki pages). They're currently about 1/3 of the way there.

I've signed up the school with a view to using the wiki as a pupil communication tool - the messageboard will be better than using email - and also as a point where any schools we link with can join in with conversations with our pupils.

If only I could now get a version of the wiki to work correctly oncw embedded into the school website, then it would be ready to launch.

Techno Fitness

For a while now the arcades have had the interactive dance games. Jump on the right squares at the right time to make the proper dance moves. And of course the playstation has had a dance mat add-on to make their games more fun.

Well now it's moved over to the classrooms. Dance Revolution is changing PE in some schools. Take a child who hates PE, put the mat in front of them ,along with the rest of the class, a big screen at the front, and suddenly there's competition to be number one on the display. See a video of it action.

Similarly, the Wii (the best new games console in years) has plans for Wii fitness next year - a mat and sensor that can help you with your fitness levels in another fun way, like their Wii sports has done.

We're getting closer that virtual age when there will never be the need to step out of the house for anything...ever...

Animoto Beta

I was sent details of this new website - upload your photographs, add some music (you can use their choice - no copyright issues then) and then the site magically mixes them together to produce a video.

Going widescreen

Well, as ICT coordinator it's my job to keep the school running when it comes to using the technology. So my maths group head to the suite for their lesson using the laptops. Only problem is... 28 laptops don't work with 30 children!
So I mention this to the HT, and ask if we can have two more laptops to make sure everyone gets a machine. That's not a problem (brilliant!). The problem is that the machines we have have been superceded by the manufacturer, and the new versions are now widescreen, and I don't want 28 kids on one type of machine, and 2 on another.

But there is a solution - my laptop will become a suite laptop and guess who gets the shiny new widescreen one? Yep - me!! Plus, one other teacher will also have to forgoe there older machine for the other shiny new one.

Who will it be?

Just for the kids

We've been contacted by a new website for children; Webbliworld, telling about what they offer.

WebbliWorld, has recently launched a website for children between the ages of 6-10 years old.

www.WebbliWorld.com is a vibrant, interactive and highly animated virtual world for children, designed and developed in association with Aardman animations. The website is currently running a competition and has games available where you and the children will have the opportunity to win prizes from Puffin Books and WWF.  We felt the competition was a great way to get children involved on both an educational and personal level.

You can also read what the owners, Justine & Camilla have to say about the safety of children online by viewing their blog. They would love your input and any suggestions you may have.

I've taken a look, and if what they say regarding the moderation and filtering is true, it offers a great opportunity for kids. One to keep an eye on!

One size won't fit all

It's the learning platform discussion day today, as mentioned in this post. The more I have been thinking about a county wide learning platform, the more I think it won't work if it's a "one fit for all" option.
I'm going to put forward my views on a tiered system - ie full features for KS3 and above pupils, but a simple graphical interface for lower KS2 (and even KS1 if they are going that far).

Only took a half term!

My first job after moving schools was to get the school website up and running. It's only taken me over half a term to do it!!! But, it's now live and the kids love it!

I've set it up so that parents and the children can comment on the information added. I've also managed to sign the staff (and the school council) up to add their own stuff, so that I'm not left to do it all like has happened with previous school websites I've been responsible for.

You can view it here, and of course you could always cast your vote in the poll running on the site.

Kick out the spam

A tool that could help in the battle against spam and phishing attacks has received industry approval. The DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) system is a method of validating the identity of the sender of an e-mail.

Spammers hide their identity by using a false, or spoofed, address in the millions of messages they send out. DKIM uses encrypted digital signatures to prove a message's origin and a draft standard has been accepted by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

Firms have pledged to work with ISPs, businesses and financial institutions to roll out the technology as soon as possible

Let's hope that not only do these firms take action against spam, but also that the worst offending countries - the US, China and Russia - also take a stand against this annoyance.

Is iTunes the new currency?

I was looking around on the web at articles to do with blogs and web2.0 in general when I came across this phrase on a website;

A  blog can connect you with the people that matter to you. 
Prices start at just five iTunes downloads a month.

Has iTunes become a new international currency then? Is it that popular that you can now use it in the Bureau de Change? And most importantly how many iTunes are there to the pound?!!

Advise me, please!

So, five weeks into my new school and the Head Teachers shows me a letter that he'd received saying that the school had been chosen to join a panel to evaluate and select a Learning Platform to be used throughout the county.
Well, tonight I looked carefully on the Becta website at the list of accredited suppliers. There was the company that is currently providing the county with a staff LP system. It works. It does what it says on the tin. There isn't much more to add to that one.
Then there was the company that currently provides schools with cached curriculum content. I can see potential there if they know what they are doing.
There were others too that talked the talk - but none of them showed any images of what their LP looks like (are they not yet built?)

And then, as a shiver ran down my spine, I noted the name of one more company accredited to provide a LP. It is a company famous for its locked down PCs - and for an inability to show any flexibility when it came to installing additional software. I really do dread to think of the restrictions, blocks and "security features" it would put into its LP if chosen. Oh - and for those still struggling to name it - it has two letters in its title. Any guesses?

Build a movie

A free programming tool called Scratch that allows anyone to create their own animated stories, video games and interactive artworks has been launched.
The digital toolkit, developed in the US at MIT's Media Lab, allows people to blend images, sound and video as it uses a simple graphical interface that allows programs to be assembled like building blocks.

Technology revolution

I've just been watching a fascinating report on the BBC news channel about how technology is changing things in South Africa.

I was amazed when I learnt about how Intel, ubuntu (open source Linux software), and Open Office are working together to provide a free way to join the techological revolution, whereas the almighty and overseeing Microshaft are only prepared to offer (albeit heavily) subsidised) versions of their products. I know which I would opt for if I had to spend the pennies carefully.

Oh, and the "cantenna" (a wireless antenna in a tin can) is just a brilliantly simple solution to stop a wifi link spreading everywhere.

BubbleShare

Looking to add that extra bit of "umphh" to the photos that you add to the school website from time to time? BubbleShare might be just what you are looking for.
Simply upload the images that you are wanting to use, and put them into a slideshow. You can then add clipart to the images, add captions, even add audio and print them out if you wish. It couldn't be simpler to do. Once done, copy the link and embed the slideshow into your webpage or blog post. Here's one I created earlier;

This album is powered by BubbleShare - Add to my blog

This album is powered by BubbleShare - Add to my blog

One note of caution though - this is a tool for the teacher to use, not the pupil as some of the "latest images" shown on the front page could be inappropriate for children.

Grab a Joost

Those lovely people over at Joost have given me unlimited invites to play with! If you fancy trying out the next generation of TV over the internet, click below and let me know!

Create interactive resources

Magic Studio  allows you to create interactive learning resources to use within the classroom. Once registered you can upload images to share with others / use already prepared interactive activities or create your own. It's straightforward to use - no technical knowledge is needed, and the results look impressive.

Shrek the third

With the premiere having taken place, it won't be long now until the third Shrek film hits the cinemas, and Dreamworks have gone all out on the internet. The official Shrek the third website contains so much for children - games, activities, downloads (colouring sheets for those rainy days!), Shrek sudoku and more. There  is also 'Virtual Shrekland' - a zoomable map of the entire Shrek landscape with animations and videos (will look great when more content is added).
Oh, and they've really thought about their audience, as they have tailored portals for kids / boys / girls / teens and adults - all with suitable content in each portal.

Customised toolbars

On the Bectan Sands website, I've added a new tool - the Bectan Sands toolbar.

It's a small download that, once installed, will allow you to be able to keep up to date with the latest additions to the website through an RSS feed, as well as always being just one click away from the village. There is also the option to use the Bectan Sands search to locate any article through keywords.

If this works well, there may be a digital teacher toolbar coming too in the near future.

It's good to see

I've been adding fresh articles from children who have submitted work to the Bectan Sands literacy project over the past few days, and some of it is really great stuff. Obviously I don't add the submissions that don't make sense, or have nothing to do with "the village", but one article has made me think that the site might be being used as a teaching resource. There has been a submission called "save our shop" - it's a piece of persuasive writing all about the demise of the local village shop to the ever expanding supermarkets. It's a remarkable piece of writing, and obviously follows on from some work on persuasive work in the classroom. Take a look at it, and leave a comment for the author to read. It might even take the form of an online petition!

Digital black book

Do you worry what would happen if you lost your mobile phone?
Would you remember all those phone numbers, names and addresses that are stored in there?

Worry no more because a new service - mobyko - is here to help. Simply sign up and the service will sync with your phone, and copy your address book onto a secure server. If you then lose your phone, you'll be able to download all your contacts into the new one without any problem.

A life saver!

Domesday updated

A while ago I posted an article about the BBC Domesday project - from 1986 - being available online. Now it seems that the British library is keen to follow, and has set up a new scheme to create a 21st century version, through the medium of email.
Parterning with Microsoft they are asking people to send a message from their inbox or sentbox to email@emailbritain.co.uk

"E-mail Britain will allow us to archive a vast snapshot of our present-day e-mail communications and will be of great value for future researchers"

the library was quoted as saying.

Being cynical, my concern is if Microsoft are involved, what are they going to do with your email address once they've got it? I'm going to set up a new mail address just for this, and see what starts to arrive in it once I submit.

iPlayer gets the greenlight

Nice to read that the BBC trust has given the go ahead for the public launch of the iPlayer - allowing users to view aired programs in their own time on an "on demand" basis.
The only gripe at the moment is that on launch it will be available only for people using PCs, it would seem that BBC do not consider Macs that much of a priority.
I find that bemusing for a public service broadcaster who is supposed to ensure that its service is available to all.

The full BBC report

Joost goes live

Just a quick note to say that Joost - the service we mentioned in this post is now available to anyone to sign up to and begin enjoying full screen, streaming TV services.

Well, red faces all round! I was a bit premature with this announcement, as they are still in beta testing mode!
(But, if you want to test it - send me an email and I can give you an invite).

Ahem, following a comment we received about this service, you can visit the Joost site here

Totally Dotty

Imagine taking a normal photograph and being able to turn it into a dot to dot. Well imagine no longer, because it's possible with picture dots.

This website does all the hard work for you. Simply upload the image you want to use, then click wherever you want a dot to be placed. They are automactically numbered for you, and once completed you can print off a pdf of your creation.

A wonderful resource.

Modern Ways

A recording of the play Much ado about nothing at the Globe Theatre in London is available as a free download from the Department for Education and Skills. The comedy, a set text on the curriculum for younger teenagers, can be downloaded as an MP3 file, to be played back on for music players. It also includes interviews with actors and the director. This podcast project aims to deliver the play in a format that will be familiar and easy to use for the iPod generation.

And so, the new lines being placed into Shakespeare texts are to be;

• To blog or not to blog that is the question...
• Is this an iPod I see before me...
• Alas, poor windows I knew it well...
• Technicians, Experts and Geeks, lend me your skills...
• The course of an upgrade never did run smooth...
• It is the Internet, and Java is from Sun...
• Out, damned virus! out, I say...
• Now is the Windows of our discontent...

Joost up

Yesterday, my machine was joost. I've been reading about this for months, and been desperate to get into the beta testing, and my invite came through at last. So, a quick download of their software and now I'm getting full screen internet TV.
It's great. There's a wide variety of stuff to watch already, and more to come as it gets closer to public launch. As the website itself says;

Joost is a new way of watching TV on the internet. With Joost, you get all the things you love about TV, including a high-quality full-screen picture, hundreds of full-length shows and easy channel-flipping.

Screenshot shows the program menu within the national geographic channel, just flick through, click and watch! (bad example for us UK users though, as we can't view this channel!!)

Move your mouse to the bottom of the screen to get the control menu up - along with additional information about what you are watching.