World Maths DayTomorrow is World Maths day. The school is going to go nuts for world maths day with both ICT labs open all day for drop in sessions. Today we had nearly all the Korean Year 6 children all competing with one another for bragging rights. It was seriously competitive with the numberpads getting a hammering.
www.ictopus.org.uk is a great website for all ICT teachers and teachers who want to use ICT creatively with their classes. SGP (sharing Good Practice) is released every week from the site once you sign up. You can also put your name forward to share ideas also. Click on the link below.
The downloads here are the spoken ideas and what I would probably changeif I was to set up the Gmail accounts again. If you're a teacher and wish to set up Gmail accounts for your class then the advice I talk about here could come in handy.
From the beginning of this month we have running a month's worth of internet safety lessons from Year 1 to Year 6. At first I was a little apprehensive about going as young as Year 1 due to the general abstractness of the Internet as a whole. Sometimes I think that the children don't really understand how this all works. I know that they see things in a different light to us adults and that sometimes these kind of boundaries are simply eschewed but, the idea of chatting, gaming, SMS-ing, chatting in games, Facebook, Skype and that thiscomputer is the portal to an ethereal life also, sometimes, escapes them.
When we discuss the handing out of personal information online many children still think this is acceptable. Why? Because they see it as making friends in a truly honest type of way. The conversations with children as young as 5 (because they Facebook their friends usually with an older sibling) they think that adding a friend is simply just that. What we have to do now is kind of unravel this honesty and make them stop and think.
The videos posted below and the image right (from a series of animations for 5-7 yr olds ) are from the CEOP Think You Know? Campaign from the UK Police force. The noce way this taps into young minds is the general feel of the animation. It's not like the help videos of old where some minor sporting celebrity would tell the kids to stay safe, instead it's a lot more in tune with both age group and context. The website, you think you know is well stocked with catchy ideas for age groups 5-7, 8-10 and 11-16 and games to keep the younger ones thinking about how to behave in a responsible way.
There is an element to a child's online life that is often over looked because sometimes adults either feel that they don't know enough or that using a computer is embarrassing in front of their children. The issue is the sharing of information with the child and vice versa. The fact that many parents don't know what their children are doing online is a serious cause for condern. As an ICT teacher I have access to the lives of many children and their computing habits. It interesting to find out just how many children of 9 and under have a computer in their bedrooms. Many, though don't but the content they're viewing is also borderlining a worry.
I mentioned above the 5 year old users of Facebook and what they do on there. They told me that they play games on there. Fine. But, I would hazzard a gues that the people they invite are people that they don't know. This was the key element of the beginning of the internet safety month: Sharing information online. BrainPop gladly shares their online safety for free. Thank you Brainpop.
The knock on from this is chat based element of Facebook is chatting during an online bout of Call of Duty MW2 (Mature 17+ and kids as young at 9 playing it) or similar Xbox 360/ PS3 type game. What was difficult again for the kids to understand is that they could be playing some 30Yr old man from Colorado while we're here in Asia. The discussion went further with children telling me that they don't chat with them during gaming time as it's too difficult. Again, they miss the point of befriending someone that they wouldn't in real life.Would male friends with a bunch of men playing football on the field because they like football? "No!" they cried. So..
There is some kind of synaptic element to it all where the understanding of the internet is perceived as an extension to everyday life. Was TV the same as this? I don't think so. Could it be the video site revolutionthat allows every body into your living/bed/study room (as the video below suggests) that makes it more like real life.
As the kids get nearer Year 6 (10 ro 11Yrs) they're already versed in commenting on YouTube (one of the more immediate ways to gain an angle on cyberbullying) so the CEOP have made a set of rather poignant videos similar in impact to the recent drink-drive campaigns.The video at the bottom is for parents.
For those parents who've got teenage children or your're reading this and Year 6 and over.
A final video. The key part of this is that you should find out the options of privacy first. Can you only allow friends, friends of friends or the whole world to view your profile? Children should be allowed online as long as they know how to change the settings and only befriend those they know in real life.
This video is from the same agency in the UK. It is very hard hitting.
I know this may seem like cheating and quite possibly plagerism, but as I've dropped the original source links in here I suppose I could be O.K. Below, I saw this little article via @teachpaperless and my Google Reader feed. It outlines the new Book from Gina Trapani that was first mentioned on TWiG (leading to her embarrassment of a server out of memory crash) - the embarrassment is purely a compliment to her popularity as a leader in Tech Media.
I received a Wave invite and looked at it and poked around with it but to honest, until the invites I have sent, I can't see what to do with it. It's bit like Twitter in the early days - What am i doing? Well, not a lot. It wasn't until all the links and people of my ilk joined the fray and the links came abouding and the question carried higher merit. So, I am reading the book below at the moment together with this helping hand.
Google Wave has generated a lot of interest in the past few months, despite most people I’ve talked to being unclear about what the service is, and how to use it. I confess that after I finally got an invitation, I was somewhat perplexed when faced with Google Wave’s minimal interface.
Tech writers Gina Trapani and Adam Pash have created an online e-book, “The Complete Guide to Google Wave,” which does an excellent job of explaining what Google Wave is and how it can be used. The book provides step-by-step instructions on how to get invited to the service, what to do when you get there, and how to make the most of it.
For those of us who are used to skimming the highlights and jumping around in technical manuals, I strongly suggest that you read the book — at least the first couple of chapters — in full. It’s not that long, and will give you a working knowledge of the service. I suspect that web workers will find Wave to be a very useful collaboration tool once we get used to using it.
The book is written in a clear, straightforward style, and is sprinkled with helpful and sometimes humorous quotes like this one from Wave user Andy Baio: “I keep pushing the New Wave button, but it never plays Depeche Mode or The Cure.”
An electronic version of the book will be offered for sale beginning in November; it’s unclear whether the online version will continue to be available once the book comes out. So if you’re interested in Google Wave, this is an excellent time to learn more about it. But you may need some patience; the book’s web site has been very slow, as I suspect it’s getting more traffic than the authors expected.
PBwiki was a great tool when it first appeared several years ago. The site though was overtaken (in my opinion) by the simple features of Gmail and the Google sites accompanying it. Why? Well, from a school's perspective we needed some kind of security and the way the Gmail can be governed and modified to suit the children's and Teacher's needs far out weighed that of PBworks. It was super easy to use and that is what appeals to teachers.
Now PBworks has had an upgrade and I like the functionality of it. From top level primary school I can immediately see the potential for homework discussions where projects need the input of several collaborators. The problem with chat in Google docs is that if one person doesn't have Gtalk or can't use it for some reason then then typing has to do or use an alternative - Skype? But for the same issues the person may not be able to install, say, on a school laptop. So, if school pays into this then the below snippet from Tech Crunch might supply a ready answer. I like the sound of it all - but how much does this cost?
The startup has steadily added innovative, real-time features to its platform, most recently integrating Twitter-like microblogging.
Today, PBworks is entering the stream by adding real-time functionality and voice collaboration within the application. PBWorks is adding four new features to its suite:
Instant Messaging
The startup is adding IM functionality to the application, which looks and operates just like Gchat. The platform allows PBWorks users in their organization to send them instant messages from within the product. Users can also request for co-workers to look at the workspace page they’re working on using the “send a link” function built into the IM system.
Live Notifications
Similar to notifications in a Facebook stream, PBWorks is adding Live Notifications alerts, which lets users know the different activity within their organization in real-time. Users can select which notifications they want to receive, based on their preferences (known as “starring” or “following” particular pages), and the system will stream relevant notifications to whatever page a user is viewing. The notifications provide a link to whatever the employee is working on.
Live Editing
PBWorks is now upgrading its collaboration features by adding a the ability for users to share a PBworks editing session. So whenever a user is editing a workspace page, other users viewing that page see the edits appear in real-time as well as participate in edits.
Voice Collaboration
Conference calls are a daily part of any business’s day-to-day operations and PBWorks is now allowing this to take place within its application. Users can initiate an instant conference call by dialing several participants at the same time. Each conference call is recorded and stored for later review, which is an extremely useful feature. Voice Collaboration can even be triggered via PBWorks using an iPhone.
PBworks, which had an overhaul of its user interface and features last year, offers businesses with a project management application and a customized wiki workspace, with mobile support, document management, access controls and more. The incorporation of real-time functionality as a natural extension of PBWorks makes the platform a whole lot more attractive, as more and more enterprise-focused startups are adding real-time features to applications. So if a user is editing a page and realizes that he or she needs the input of other team members, the user can request fellow employees to join the appropriate page using IM Collaboration, start a Live Editing session, and use Voice Collaboration to initiate an instant conference call.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010 at 9:53PM 
World Maths DayTomorrow is World Maths day. The school is going to go nuts for world maths day with both ICT labs open all day for drop in sessions. Today we had nearly all the Korean Year 6 children all competing with one another for bragging rights. It was seriously competitive with the numberpads getting a hammering.
