Fun on Friday #22: Thinkeractive Funducational!

You have to think but it helps to stand up and walk it through yourself. You're having fun but it is educational. It's thinkeractive funducational! It's Light Bot!

Robot Joe
Originally uploaded by FlySi

Program a robot. Solve the problems. (Learn about programming) Enjoy!

Music lessons

I almost put this post in my music blog but at the last minute decided it deserved to be on EdCompBlog.

Untitled
Originally uploaded by Alberto_F

I recently came across the Squeeze My Lemon music blog and I wanted to share one of his recent posts titled: I Feel Like Going To Church - Nodody's Fault But Mine. It is a brilliantly simple idea. The post presents three YouTube clips with versions of the same song. One by
Blind Willie Johnson (a Gospel influenced Blues version), one by Pops Staples (a Blues influenced Gospel-ish version) and one by Led Zeppelin (a Rock version with a clear Gospel/Blues lineage).

Fitzgerald, the blog's author, says his intention is to:

"...show the connection between the blues and other music forms with gospel music. I grew up listening to gospel, blues, soul, rock, country and other music forms and did not always separate them in my mind. And I noticed that as I get older, that newer bands are doing the old songs, but not really understanding where they come from."

I know Daughter Number 2's guitar tutor would echo that sentiment. He despaired sometimes at how little his pupils knew about where the music they liked had come from. Or who had influenced their guitar heroes.

However, the reason I include it here is I thought the idea of using YouTube to chase the same song through different genres (and different eras) was brilliant. I wondered if music departments were doing this sort of thing.

TraineeTeachMeet

I was reading some posts about TeachMeetBorders (specifically Stuart's and Andy's posts) and for some reason it connected in my head with my recent rant.

Week 08: Stuart looks puzzled
Originally uploaded by DavidDMuir

Essentially, I wondered if there was mileage in setting up a TeachMeet specifically for student teachers to help engender enthusiasm and practical ideas for the use of ICT in classrooms? I was sitting beside a student teacher and a recently qualified teacher at TeachEat and we talked about how beneficial something like TeachMeet would be to student teachers but somehow, at the time, it never occurred to me that a TeachMeet specifically for student teachers might be a good idea. An event like TeachMeet that got students excited about the possibilities before the staffroom cynics could exercise undue influence might be the very dab.

However, I wondered if there would be enough interest to make it work. If I set something up in Glasgow, it would be a bit of a stretch for Aberdeen and Dundee but should be reachable by students at Stirling and Ediniburgh. Certainly it should be close enough for Strathclyde, Glasgow and UWS students to attend. Also, at each institution there are a range of courses: BEd, Joint Honours, PGDE(S), PGDE(P)... so even if only one person from each year of each course signed up and committed to bringing a friend it should be possible to get viable numbers.

I also wondered if there would be enough students willing to present at a TeachMeet - perhaps they would be happier sitting back and watching. Then I thought of Stuart Meldrum who is barely out of his probationary nappies (no offence Stuart) but organised and ran a stunningly successful TeachMeet. To me, the strength of TeachMeet is the way it supports the sharing of enthusiasm and so the enthusiasm of student teachers could be the greatest asset of a TeachMeet for student teachers.

So, this is me flying a kite. It is definitely a idea that's good enough to criticise rather than a concrete proposal. What I really need is people who read this post to comment and help shape my thinking. I would be grateful therefore if you could help me answer the following questions:

1. Is this a daft idea? {Obviouly if the answer is "Yes", you can stop reading.}
2. Would there be enough interest from student teachers to make it viable? In particular, would there be student teachers willing to do presentations? {I would especially value comments from student teachers on this one.}
   
3. What could it be called. {I've suggested TraineeTeachMeet in the title of this post because I liked the aliteration but I think it may give the wrong message.}
4. Where would be the best location for a student TeachMeet? {The easiest thing for me would be to book somewhere at Jordanhill but that may make it too "official". Somewhere else on the Strathclyde campus might be better (the Computing Science Department or the library?) but somewhere completely neutral might be better still (albeit more expensive!).}
5. Who might be interested in funding such a venture?
6. Should it be open to student teachers only? Should probationers or newly qualified teachers be invited too?
7. What other questions should I have asked but have failed to think about?

Over to you. Help to me work out what I think.

Fun on Friday #21: Twenty Questions

I was impressed with the 20 Q toy when I first saw one. Sad Computing teacher that I am, I must admit I thought, "I wonder if you could use this as part of an introduction to Artificial intelligence?"

As well as the toy, you can play it online but what prompted this Fun on Friday is my discovery that there is a version on the Pink Panther website. I haven't seen the film, so don't know what it's like but it's got to be worth going to the Think Pink 20 Questions site to see Steve Martin messing about. :-)

iRiddles at TeachMeet

At TeachMeetBorders I did a presentation on iRiddles that didn't go exactly to plan! Here then are some links and some resources that will show what I was trying to do.



The first iRiddle I saw was on TeacherTube and was posted by Jennifer Gingerich. It is titled Landform Riddle and I thought it was a brilliant idea. They are simple to create but are a really powerful way of engaging learners. Ms. Gingerich even posted three videos showing you how to create your own iRiddles (part 1, part 2 and part 3). I created a handout and started using the idea with my classes but to be honest, the idea is so simple that after a demonstration, students are able to create their own - usually without having to refer to the handout or ask for help.

Despite evidence to the contrary at TeachMeet, I can show students how to create an iRiddle in less than ten minutes and after this brief demonstration, the students usually manage to create their own within half an hour. (See for example my Geography iRiddle and a BEd student's Animal iRiddle.)

I made a screencast of how I created the iRiddle using Jing. I am stunningly impressed with Jing but as a first time user, I have a few issues and would value advice/help from other Jing users. The first issue is that the video ends abruptly because I ran into the 5 minute limit on the free version. Not really Jing's fault. I just have to learn to talk faster or waffle less! The second issue you will have noticed if you watched the screencast - it's massive! Is there any way to make Jing reduce the size of the movie, either while recording or after it is saved? Thirdly, I saved it as an swf file but YouTube couldn't cope with that format. Any suggestions on a free video conversion program that will let me save it in a YouTube friendly format (and ideally change the size at the same time)?

Finally - credit where credit's due. I got the corrie picture from a Creative Commons search on Flickr. I mentioned Freeplay as a fantastic source of legally downloadable music. It is perfect for iRiddles because it offers music, in a variety of styles, that is exactly 30 seconds long. The only problem, as someone mentioned on the FlashMeeting is the Freeplay licence does not allow you to use the music on projects that you post on the Internet. For this reason, the example I've embedded above has fairly duff soundtrack that I created myself in Garageband. However, they have a form where you can detail what you intend to do and can ask how much it woud cost to buy a licence... one day I might get around to asking how much it would cost to post class projects to YouTube and/or put them on CD ROMs to send home with students.

So what do you think? An idea with potential? If you have a go yourself, or with a class, let me know how you get on.

MPs talking, not hearing online

Heard this on the news and thought it was interesting. The Hansard Society has just published a report on MPs' use of the Internet. The BBC news item offers the following snippet.

"MPs are transmitting and not receiving," said Andy Williamson, director of the Society's eDemocracy programme.

Read the full news item to see what Andy is talking about.

There are encouraging signs in that more MPs are making use of the Internet but they seem to be sticking to the old Web 1.0 transmission model rather than the read/write Web 2.0 model. I suspect MPs are targeted with more comments and more abuse than my blog will ever be so I can understand them wanting to turn off comments but if you don't allow two way communication, you are missing the point of a blog (in my humble opinion).

If MPs don't get it, I suspect local government doesn't get it either. This could partly explain why anything that even smells of social networking is just blocked in most schools. If you don't use it, it's harder to see the value. If you don't see the value, it's easier just to say, "No".

Fun on Friday #20: Music to my ears

This Fun on Friday is so late it is almost Sunday! So, brief and to the point.

I hope you find this fun. I've started a music blog.

Let me know what you think.