I just love the following clip - one for the simple idea and execution but secondly as a great way for students to create a movie with simple, accessible resources. I know schools have used Lego thousands of times to create stop motion video - this is just another idea and clip to inspire and challenge their story telling/creative imaginations. Enjoy
This morning I woke early to sit in on the online action and information coming out of the NECC09 Keynote (check out twitter with #necc09 or this blog post with coveritlive - http://bit.ly/gtcMD), the discussion and questions were interesting. Then on my way into a work engagement I was confronted with a news story on the radio about the Government pulling a television commercial by BMW because it might encourage hoons.
WAKE UP
This is an interesting commercial not because I aspire to own a BWM or because of the camera angles but because of the idea of using a car to create a form or art work (we will leave the whole green issues to one side for a moment) - the application and structure of the commercial may not appeal to everyone.
But seriously do authorities think people are going to watch this ad and start hooning? What the authorities don't understand is that our children, teenagers whoever really can access this clip online at a any time or access any of the hundreds of thousand other clips showing people really hooning. I would guess that this commercial would have been targeted to a certain audience and I do not recall seeing in a television show that the hoons would be watching (note to self locate def of Hoon).
Check out this next clip, it is available on the web - not sure I have seen any people try it in Melbourne yet. Maybe the authorities should put it on air so that we get better roads - the roads in the Saudi look great.
Here are a few links to the BMW ad:
BMW Z4 Roadster: Art of Driving
In the last week I have been involved in a number of meetings around the design and development of new learning spaces for an education provider. These meetings have been interesting and thought provoking and there are a number of sites and details I will put in future posts.
After doing a little research I found the following video that shows some of the technology coming our way, imagine having a wall like this at home or school and what you could do!
I have always been a fan of the "Gruen Transfer" now in its second season on the ABC. Basically the Gruen transfer takes a look at the tools, tricks and strategies advertisement agencies use to sell us products. What I like about the show apart from the light hearted and even comedic view is the fact there is a panel of advertising specialists; who discuss the adds and the applications, sometimes very passionately.
Recently on the show they discussed an ad called 'Million' (watch video) - basically the add looks at the idea of having a mobile phone available for students that when they are IN school the call and text functions are switched off but they can access educational resources and website - when OUT of school all these functions are back on. The idea has even been trialled and looking for further development.
Very simplistic I like the idea around this project and activity - I do think that mobile communication has a place in school be it with texting, bluetooth or some yet to be developed tool. We just need to have the right tools to use for communication and examples and strategies for schools, teachers and students on how it can be simply implemented. This clip makes you think differently about the use of mobiles - I like that.
The Long, Long Trail is all about the British Army in the First World War
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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
This year is a little more special for my family, since the discovery of my great grand father possibly being one of the missing soldiers buried at Fromelles we have become immersed in history and details about the first world war.
Whilst our focus has been on the western front - Gallipoil has a special place in Australia's history and as always the ABC has done an amazing job to bring this part of the war to life so that we can understand the battle ans sacrifice of so many.
Over this weekend please take the time to vsit the site: http://www.abc.net.au/innovation/gallipoli/
The other day I presented a professional learning session on 21st Century tools - the idea of the activity was to look at ICT tools that teachers could use to engage students and challenge their thinking and teaching. I was not focusing on curriculum directly as this was the skill participants brought to the session - I wanted to look at the tools and software that could help them develop their knowledge, skills and capabilities. I was very happy with the session as i think that the majority of participants were able to get something out of the day. What I was surprised at was the lack of exposure to TED - and the ideas and resources located on this site. After showing a number of videos and recommending a few as must watch - I also pointed participants to a site I have recently come across called "Teaching with TED". This site is a great place to start looking at the various options and ideas that can be introduced to students and teachers alike using the TED conference videos as a starting point.
The following is a video to take the time to watch. This is a video that was submitted in a contest by a 20 year old. The contest was titled "u @ 50" and this video won second place.
I liked the simplicity and design - the message and content. Last night on the ABC 7:30 report there was an interested segment titled "Screen culture may be changing our brains", in it there is discussion about the loss of literacy - yet here is an example of great imagination and literacy - just in a different form. It is worth watching the 7:30 report and the extended web footage.
Today I was playing around with a new service (well not really that new) called Boxee - basically it is a media server application that allows you to watch videos and resources and link to video sites online. It is an interesting service and one that is worth exploring, so far I have only loaded it onto my laptop but I am seriously considering blowing my AppleTV away to load it onto that so I can have a true media server for our home.
Whilst playing with Boxee I watched a TED video I had not yet see. This video was a short one that detailed what leads to success. Like a lot of the video's on TED it provides a number of ideas that can challenge and make you think harder about what you are doing or would like to do.
I liked this video because I could relate to a lot of the concepts that were raised - not that my business is successful (I am still in business so I guess that is some form of success) but that the challenges and issues I face on a day to day basis. In my current life I find that I have a roller coaster of emotions and feelings dealing with the ups and downs of running a business and when talking to friends in similar situations they say the same thing. I like this presentation because it was short, simple and reminded me of why am doing what I am doing.
The other day I was presenting an online safety session to a group of parents from a primary school. The session was good although the numbers in attendance was a little disappointing given the serious nature of the conversation, however the questions and discussion after the sessions was very worthwhile and interesting. One of the points that was discussed was the idea of content filters on home computers. Recently the past Liberal Federal Government had set aside around $60 million for the development and deployment of content filters to homes for parents to apply.
The problem with this solution is that:
The results of the program and uptake of the content filter system was extremely poor to say the least.
What would have been more appropriate would have been the development of a system that parents could put on their computers that would log all the websites and activities that their children undertake online - recording Chat, websites visited, software downloaded and used. If this record was protected by a password that only parents had then this would enable children the opportunity to act responsibly with trust with the knowledge that mum or dad could look at what has been going on. A system like this changes the dynamics for our children - we can talk and educate them about being responsible whilst still having the ability to check if that responsibility has been abused. And in the event of a cyberbullying problem there could be easy and simply was to identify where issue start and develop.
A model like this would have more chance of succeeding in our community and with widespread application would help build knowledge, skill and resilience in our children. Unfortunately most parents do not see this as a major issue yet and so either have no interest, knowledge or understanding of what is happening.
Just my thoughts following the discussion last week.
