Initial Impressions of Google Wave

Google Wave is the new kid on the “social media/collaborative” block and it is already making ripples (yes, I did dodge using the obvious) in this ever-developing area of the web. Is this simply because it is yet another Google application or is there something more to this hype? About two weeks ago I put in my application for a key to try out Google Wave. A week later I was now apart of the Goggle Wave crew. However, like a lot of people, I was disappointed because I was friendless, so I sent out a few invites and a couple of days later I longer felt like a cast-a-way. Little did I know at the time that all I needed to type was with:public into the search bar (near the New Wave button to be flooded with a tsunami of public waves. Insert any word like education as well and you will see a large number of educational waves that are already exploring and discussing the possibilities and challenges of Google Wave in the classroom.

I won’t bore you with the details of what Google Wave is as many others have done a great job of this (links below). However, I do see a lot of potential for Google Wave both in education and personal through discussion and collaboration. One of my first goals will be to try and encourage teachers at my school to use Google Wave to work together on assignment sheets and unit planning as I feel that it is a better tool for discussion and collaboration than Google Docs. Another use maybe to put up meeting notes for staff to continue discussing school-based issues without extending the time of a meeting or cutting the discussion short; also it may allow time for reflection. I am hesitate though to use this tool in the classroom as students will need to sign up to Google to get the benefit from it . It would also be good to see Google Wave develop educator accounts like VoiceThread, Animoto and Glogster so that the process of introducing the Wave to the classroom is easier.

Readers (short summary): Google Wave: A Complete Guide from Mashable – http://mashable.com/2009/05/28/google-wave-guide/

Readers (overview e-book) The Complete Guide to Google Wave: Preview Edition by Gina Trapani with Adam Pash – http://completewaveguide.com/

Visual Learners (short summary) What is Google Wave? – from Ephiostudios

 

Visual Learners (short overview) Google Wave Overview by the Google Wave developers

Reward Searching

I certainly haven’t  been writing as much in my blog as I was intending to do at the start since school has started again. However, the desire to continue to push forward with this blog is still strong. This is even more true when I find a great resource.

Today I was searching for different search engines to try with my year 8 techology class. To be honest I was trying to find a search engine I found a while ago that allowed me to search a word and it would create a mindmap or concept map to help me specify what I was looking for (if anybody knows what I am looking for please leave a link in the comment as I still haven’t found the site).

What I did find  was a search engine called Ujiko. The first thing I noticed about this search engine was purely cosmetic. I always loved skinning my Winamp or Media Player with space age looks so Ujiko V2 had me straight away with its points system that allows you to modify the skin. Next was the ability to customise the results by either clicking on the heart to “favourite” or the bin to filter that page out of your searches. Another useful (though not unusual) is the terms that appear in the “eye” of the device to add terms to your search. What is unusual though is the use of colour-coding to help categorise the results. There is also a point system where you gain points for every page that you select allowing more features and options to appear.

There is a down-side though. The more I searched terms, the more I realised that the a significant number of the top 10 results were advertising or shopping sites. Of course they can easily be “trashed” so over time it might be better to use. The question is whether it is worth encouraging students to use it if it contains so many product sites. What do you think?

Lure of the Labyrinth – Best Educational Game!

Have you ever found yourself getting excited over something that you have found on the Internet? Has that resource ever been an educational game? I must admit that I have been a little skeptical about educational games. Mostly I have only seen educational games that either focus on the “fun” aspect and contains very little education content or learning, or the other extreme where the curriculum is the main focus and the game aspect is a side thought which becomes boring very quickly. However, today I will have to readjust that idea since coming across the “Lure of the Labyrinth”. This educational game aimed at middle school maths students has many of the aspects of a good game; a challenge, an interesting world and characters, a purpose, puzzles (educational), rewards and enjoyment.

Now, I put challenge first in my list for a reason. I have been playing this game now for an hour or so and I have had to think about the answers to the puzzles. Most of the kid’s games that I test I just answer the question and move on. In “Lure of the Labyrinth” I am required to work out the problem logically using rules that are not always clear (another good feature of a puzzle game – think the Myst series) and work out the patterns.

The story is displayed as a well-drawn comic strip of a boy whose pet has been stolen and needs to enter the world of mosters to get him/her back. The story is fast-paced and engaging throughout the game. As you would expect in a labyrinth you have to work your way through the maze in a free movement top-down view. You also have to work out the codes on the map that you are given to be able to go to the right room, no chance of surviving on guesswork. Each room has a puzzle with three various levels of difficulty that can be played within the game or seperately. There is a shop to buy particular (and disgusting – think good) items.

 

 

Lure of the Labyrinth - Puzzle Screenshot

Another good feature is that you can set up a teacher’s account and monitor a class and their progress. Students can work in groups and communicate ideas and strategies with each other, all of which can be viewed by the teacher.

All in all it is a very engaging and enjoyable game. Definately one to use in the coming school year.

The Simplest Answer

xkcd comic - I'm an idiot

I love the xkcd comic for today. It reminds me of a situation that happened to me yesterday.

To help out my wife I decided that it would be good to take the burden of cooking dinner every night. So now I have the responsibility of organising and cooking dinner every night. Of course the first thing that I did was get on the Internet to see if I could find a good recipe organiser to store locally on my computer (still haven’t found a good one so if you have any please leave a comment with the URL) and any good web 2.0 groups. What I found was a massive list of web 2.0 recipe groups which I will include in my next post after I go through them.

Back to the story, I had selected a number of recipes that we wanted to try this week and listed ingredients on my Eeepc. That night I was thinking of using my phone that reads Word documents to show the list but couldn’t find my phone. The next day as we were getting ready I realised that I didn’t have a shopping list, and I couldn’t find my phone. So I grabbed my wife’s phone, but then remembered that it doesn’t read Word files. Frustrated, and in a hurry I found where my phone was (I put it where it SHOULD be!) and so I went to the Eepc to transfer the file. I booted up the computer and inserted the bluetooth hub (I only have a Eeepc 900) and tried to locate the bluetooth program only to discover that I had uninstalled it when I cleaned up the computer a month ago. Totally frustrated, I came up wth a brainwave – Why don’t I just print the file!

Now I know you probably had already figured out what the simple answer was but I often don’t. With generally every day, simple tasks I often pick the most technological and complex way to complete it. My new mantra – The simplest answer is often the best.

Am I alone in this or do others have the same issue?

Professional and Personal Learning Networks (PLNs)

It was only recently that I realised that I had started to develop my own professional or personal learning network. It was less than a month ago that I found out what the term PLN was that many in my PLN were throwing around (of course I was too embarrassed to ask what it meant at the time). All I knew was that it sounded important. So today I was surprised to read the title of Patrick Woessner’s recent post entitled Do I Really Need a Personal Learning Network? For me the answer was a resounding YES! Over the last two months I have connect with some of themst amazing educators and learning professionals who inspire me to become better teacher, and through the use of technology and other tools prepare students for life in the 21st century.

This article struck a chord for me as this year I am hoping to increase the number of teachers in my school to connect with others through Web 2.0, nings, wikis, blogs, etc. The figures that he highlights though are a little discouraging. I wish I knew the answer to geting teachers inspired and connected into the same network that  have found. However, I am not sure how I will go when I go back to school in a week and a half and get stuck into the swing of school and the time that needs to go into that. I do know that at my school the main agument against PLNs and Web2.0 will be the time factor. That there is not enough time to get through what is “known” rather than the time and effort to tackle the “unknown”. Hopefully I will be able to clearly communicate how the “unknown” may in fact make what is known easier to handle through support and collaboration.

I do believe that time spent developing an effective PLN is worth the time and effort and will bring rewards one hundred fold.

Updated PLN Wordle by Sue Waters
Attribution-ShareAlike License

TiltShift your world

I love finding interesting ways to edit my pictures especially when it enhances a generally boring picture. Today I stumbled across TiltShift, a site that transforms your pictures into photos that look like they were first constructed as minitures. The site generally works fairly well and some of the results that I saw on their Flickr page and seems to work better on landscape pictures or photos that don’t have a specific subject.

I remembered that recently I took some photos (with varying success) of some townhouses on a hill near Castle Hill in Townsville.At t the time I thought that they looked like toy houses already so it would be a likely candidate for a fairly decent tiltshift picture. Below are the results.

Original picture of Townsville from near Castle Hill

Townsville, near Castle Hill, as a TiltShift

Apart from the overexposure in the picture (in the second it looks like a nuclear weapon has been detonated) the modified picture certainly has a miniture edge to it. I think I might get the photography club at school to have a look at making tiltshift pictures when I get back to school in a couple of weeks as I can’t think at the moment any curriculum realted ideas. I think I am still in holiday mode.

Any ideas on how this could be used in the classroom?

I’ve fallen and can’t get up… until music came to town!

The last couple of days have been really hard, and I’m not even back at school! I have felt overwhelmed by all the learning that I have done lately and the amount of information that I have had to wade through. However, I always forget the one thing that always picks me up. Good music!

I am a big fan of creative commons and the opportunity to use good quality music in my own and my kids video projects and even the opportunity to remix if I ever get the time. At times I have encourage students to have a look at creative commons music especially on Jamendo. I love downloading music from Jamendo and I love from around the world so that helps. At the moment I am lsitening to an interesting mix of ska/punk/circus music from an Italian band named Talco. Very tight and very cool.

I love broadening the minds of students to some of the wonderful and diverse the world is. Not that it works very well, though every so often a student will approach and say thanks for pointing them in a direction or highlighting something that I have found. It doesn’t happen often as I find that the town I live in has a small town mentality and sometimes I relate very well to Edward Bloom in Big Fish.  But then I remember what Danny DeVito’s character (never remember his name) says about being a big fish in a small pond but that out there is the ocean. To me that is the Internet and the amount of wonderfully talented and innovative people (many of whom I have recently connected to) are out there. I have reached the top of one mountain only to look out and seeing in the distance that there is more to the journey and more challenges that need to be met. Sometimes I worry about small things (like Edward Bloom’s shoes) that stop me from pressing on especially if where I am is comfortable. However, we need to press on. There are big changes coming for education and some would say that they are already here. The challenges need to be met and the future secured. this is the challenge for all teachers for the new millennium. I for one want to press on, the future is exciting if not all little scary.

Sorry if this post has been a little all over the place. A lot of things have been bouncing around in my head the last couple of days, I really needed to just put them down somewhere.

Let me ask you, what picks you up and gets you through the day?

Picture is “Feel Music” by Xtream_i – http://www.flickr.com/photos/xtream_i/140875083/

The Next Step

Greetings. My name is Simon Pankhurst and often get around the Net as sdpankhurst or seekingsophia (sophia – “wisdom” Greek). I am a husband with three children. I am also a secondary teacher in Queensland, Australia. This year (2009) I am also going to take on the role as a teacher-librarian for at least the next six months. I have been interested in using the Internet as one of may tools to enhance teaching since I was at university and spend a great deal of time on the Net looking for interesting information and sites that can be used in the classroom and also just for general interest. I have also started to promote myself as a photographer locally and would like to increase my skills in this area.

So what is the reason for this blog? One of the reasons for this blog is to help me bring together interesting websites, videos, facts, news, etc. without annoying my facebook friends too much. I spent a lot of time on the web and I discover so many interesting and useful things that I would like to share them with who ever might stumble by. So I hope that you will find some interesting resources that you can make use of either personally or professionally during the life of thisblog.

The main areas that this blog will touch on are education (being a teacher this is hard to escape), Web 2.0 and how it can be used to enhance teaching/learning  and life in general, photography as my other passion and random but interesting bits and pieces that I find as I wander the Net.

Feel free to comment on this blog and my posts. It is always good to hear from like and unlike-minded people. Hope to get to meet you in this form or one of the many other communicative forms on the Web.