Learning - Thinking - Playing

Lost Diggers - 26th May 2008

Today (26th May 2008) in a small field in France near the town of Fromelles, teams of Scottish and Australian archaeologists start a dig aimed at identifying missing Australian diggers missing since the Battle of Fromelles in World War I on the 19th July 1916.

I recently posted a story about ANZAC day and discovery of my family war time history. Since then I have immersed myself in this history and the sad story about the battle of Fromelles, which my great grandfather fought in. I will not linger on the battle but if you are interested in more details please read the book "Fromelles" by Patrick Lindsay - the thing to note is that this battle was the single largest loss of Australian life in a wartime conflict, even greater than Gallipoli.

From this research and discovery there is a chance that my great grandfather is one of the missing soldiers buried in Pheasant Wood and that today or in the subsequent days we might find out more information about these missing soldiers. Also as a side story to this whole event is the fact that the discovery of these soldiers and missing graves was only made possible by the research and dedication of a Melbourne school Teacher who undertook a personal mission to find these soldiers. To Lambis Englezos I am truly greatful.

The following picture is of the small plot of French land that will today hopeful shed light on the missing soldiers of Fromelles and possibly my great grandfather. Google Maps link...

For more details on the dig read this article...

A couple of clever video's

The following 2 video's are worth having a look. The time and effort that has gone into them is staggering - the first video was created on a Mac and the second on a Windows PC. Enjoy.

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Podcasts on the Wii

It only occurred to me today as I prepare for a presentation on podcasting to a group of teachers from the Western Metro Region in Melbourne that it should be possible to listen to podcasts on websites through the Opera internet browser on the Wii game consoles - and sure enough it is possible. This reinforces the fact that as long as you have internet access you can watch, listen and interact with a whole range of resources, and doing it through the Wii is just one of them. One small issue with this is the fact that the Wii does not yet fully support bluetooth connectivity with keyboards and other input devices - yet there are plenty of work arounds, hopefully soon we will see Nintendo making this possible.

The following is a video clip I recorded of me accessing a podcast I am involved in called the Ed Tech Crew.

Mistakes - "Fully justified venture which for reasons beyond your control did not succeed"

Following up on previous posts about mistakes I had to include the following clip from Edward De Bono on the lack of a term for things which we plan to do that just do not work out as intended.

Bloggers Feast

Last week I was lucky enough to attend a dinner where a number of educational bloggers came together to meet face-2-face. It was great to catch up with everyone and have a chat especially with the people I had never met before. What was interesting was the general discussion and positive buzz from the dinner - I really enjoyed the opportunity to meet with all these other bloggers. There are plans afoot to arrange more of these events both here (Melbourne) and around the rest of Australia - I think the organic nature of these events is one of the attractive features.

I recorded interviews with everyone at the dinner and have put these together into a podcast for the Ed Tech Crew which can be listen to here (Episode 45). Please leave some feedback as this was the first outside podcast recording and editing effort and I was relatively happy with the general audio quality and result - still plenty of room for improvement.

One thing I did on the night was get a physical memory of the event - something very last century...

Who's your Yoda

The other day I was lucky enough to get a back door invitation to listen to a session for teachers by Marco Torres. I have heard a lot of positive comments about Marco and and so was really keen to see him in action and listen to what he had to say.

One of the things he covered in the session I attended was about having mentors or people that you can look too for support, guidance, even feedback. The term that Marco used was "who is your Yoda", being a play on the StarWars character Yoda; a jedi master who tutors Luke  in the way of the force. Recently I had not payed a lot of attention to this part of my life and personal growth. During the session I got too thinking about who I actually had as my mentors and funnily enough I realised that the mentors I have are both human and abstract in a sense. Since my work and life has moved into the online world so much I  would actually class podcasts and blogs as a form of mentor where I draw inspiration, ideas and feedback. Whilst these tools help me with this role, I am missing having a mentor that I can chat and communicate with IRL around my ideas and actions and thoughts.

Marco also talked about having people in your "nowNetwork" where you can get support and guidance quickly and easily - your Yoda and nowNetwork are vital for various parts of your life. So who are yours:

* Professional
* Personally – Friends
* Personally – Family
* Technology

One of the other little gems I picked up from the session with Marco was a new item from funtwo - the young man that posted his guitar solo of 'pachelbel canon'. He has a new video, well new to me. I have embedded it here for your pleasure.

Thanks Don.

Juggling - I wonder if they still do this at Uni

When I studied for my primary teaching degree at a wonderful place in Adelaide called Magill, I majored in physical education and related disciplines. One of the activities we had to undertake in our first year course was to learn how to juggle , which led onto circus skills. The idea around this activity was for me as a student to explore and understand skill acquisition and development as well as putting myself in a zone of learning that was not initially comfortable. This situation is so relevant today with the acquisition of skills and knowledge with ICT, it may not be physical but for a lot of people the acquisition of skills and knowledge is seen as a major risk.

The following TED clip is from Michael Moschen (2002) on juggling i like this clip because of its links to applying this skills with learning - the complexity of the skill development and the capacity to break down the skills and applications. Watch for the demo and discussion around the 5 ball juggling pattern and his breakdown of the skill and links to learning - "why the hell should I learn this".

Just for the record I can still juggle today.

A big shout out to Mauritius

Just recently I started to add a few features to my blog site - have had trouble finding time to do so. Anyway one addition was a FeedJit Traffic Map - I just wanted to say a big HELLO to the person in Mauritius that visited my site. I hope it was of interest and helpful. If you come back again please drop me a comment.

Not a funny but a fun one...

When I was a full time primary classroom teacher I used to get my class to makes these mouse trap cars - it always provide great entertainment and provided a way for students to test hypotheses about the size of the drive lever, wheel base, wheel size and configuration etc.

The following video does a great job in detailing what you need to do - for those that work in metric the follow link may be of use - metric conversions.

Mousetrap Powered Vehicle! - A funny movie is a click away

Education Departments - IT section misfits

I write this blog with a lot of personal experience (and it is a follow up to a previous post on Slow moving systems), I was once in a senior position within an Education Department IT Services unit and saw first hand the issues that are faced. It is interesting as a teacher that I was able to get into such a position at a relatively young age without having to go through the bureaucratic condition that befall many in these departments. I do have to say that this was my undoing - although I was good at the job I had to do, I had to go outside the prescribed government structures to get things done in a timely and efficiency manner (for me). This did not mean I committed anything criminal, I was just very strategic and worked the system to its fullest, which is another story.

From my experiences and observations the following became evident - this comes from work in and with a number of Australian government educational systems:

• Within these departments there are lots of good people with great ideas and strategies to help schools, the problem is they are at a level where they cannot make a meaningful difference, they do not have the right connections higher up the organisation or they do not have the support of their managers to help foster ideas and developments.
• Many in these IT departments are managed by people that have little experience outside government systems and only know how to work within red tape and bureaucracy, stifling change and innovation. Nearly all have no idea of the real tools that students and teachers are using to enhance education.
• Many technical staff members in these departments have very large egos and do not like to admit being wrong or making a mistake (see my post on this). Many technical staff do not know how to relate to teachers nor are interested in bridging this divide, many do not know what real customer service is, some do not have a clue about what the core business of education departments are and that is to provide education to students and so by providing the best possible service to schools and teachers. There are some techs that do a Stirling job - but they are generally far and few between and if smart get out of these environments.
• The senior management within IT departments tend to be only concerned with a few things - making sure their bosses are not upset, covering their arses and trying to develop a budget for the big things and cutting the items that are generally making a difference.

The following link to an article by Martin Levins is really what got me going on this subject and just highlights the idiocy of those that manage and work in some of our Educational IT Service Departments. 

Come on guys - start getting with the program and stop being a barrier for innovative students and teachers to jump over.