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Two Thought Provoking Discussion Starting Videos

October 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The two following videos have been doing the rounds over the last week in the ‘blogosphere’ (I do hate that word!).  But just because you’ve seen them a couple of times doesn’t mean everyone in your school has – share them with you network now.  We used them both as discussion starters in Leadership Meetings this week.  Stephen Fry had us discussing Language for quite some time!

Both of these take existing speeches from Stephen Fry and Ken Robinson and turn them into stimulating videos with typography / animation.

Stephen Fry Kinetic Typography:

RSA Animate & Ken Robinson – Changing Education Paradigms:

So go start another conversation with them yourselves.
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Surfing the wave – How I filter MY Web

April 6, 2010 By 1 Comment

The best bits of MY web (Image by Niffty on Flickr)

The Internet I love (Image by Niffty on Flickr)

Inspired by Simon Job, this is a post about how I surf the torrential tidal wave of information that is out there on the Internet, how I filter it down into a manageable stream to consume and how I save the best bits for later.

I have been using Google Reader for the last 3 years or so to read the latest updates from my favourite websites and blogs.  I have just spent about the last 4 hours tidying up my list of 400+ websites which I follow after reading an article on Lifehacker about how to declutter and streamline you google reader inbox.

I hope there are some useful tips about Google Reader, Delicious & Instapaper for newcomers to rss, and to old timers with a bulging reader like myself.

I’ve split this little guide into three sections:

  1. How I read just the best bits of the Web that I want, filtering out the noise.
  2. How I save the best bits to read later or for future reference.
  3. How I find retrieve my archived information.

I’d be fascinated to hear how you filter the Web to your liking, and whether any of this was of use to you :)

Simon Job has created a great little graphic to explain this process:

Using The Web

Using The Web

[Read more...]

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Promotions, Reflections & A Lack of Blogging

December 24, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Well as the blogging (and Twittering) hiatus shows I have been busy busy busy!  Having made a good start to my new role as Director of e-Learning circumstances have changed a little.  Our school is currently waiting on a decision as to whether we will merge with another local school and become an Academy.  As you can imagine this makes some of the larger eLearning decisions hard to make right now.  I originally wanted a new VLE to be up and running by now but decisions on that will have to wait until an Academy decision.

The second game-changer was that shortly before half term I was offered a promotion!  I had been helping run the Maths department in the absence of an official Head of Department.  After the school unsuccessfully tried to appoint a Head of Department they asked me to take the role AS WELL AS my eLearning role.  And to reflect the responsibility they offered me the chance to do so as an Assistant Head.  All of this is until August 2010.  Obviously the chance to join the Senior Leadership Team at this stage in my career was hard to turn down.

[Read more...]

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Lions & Tigers & Whales!

September 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment

BBC Wildlife

The BBC has started making available clips from their thousands of hours of wildlife documentaries.  You can choose which clip you want to watch by filtering your search by Animal, Habitat, Adaptation or Location – Geographical heaven, but obviously could be really useful in a number of subjects.  There are 5000 clips available on-line already.

This might be the final death of your school Internet connection – but here’s the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/wildlifefinder/

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Apologies

May 21, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I’m trying out new themes at the moment, so if the site looks like someone has broken it – it’s all my fault!

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7 Things You Didn’t Know About Me Meme

January 4, 2009 By 3 Comments

Ryan Bretag tagged me in the lastest meme doing the round, so here are 7 things you didn’t know about me:

  1. I’m a Cumbrian – I grew up in the Lake District, quite near to the infamous Sellafield nuclear power station – but I don’t glow in the dark!
  2. I’m an Evertonian – There weren’t many football teams in the Lakes so I ended up a Toffee and I have watched 25 years of poor football ever since!
  3. I have 3 cats – A little over the top.
  4. I’m nearly 30 – Which is a bit scary!
  5. I’m addicted to gadgets – See my MacBook post.
  6. I’m addicted to Football Manager, the football management sim has wasted many autumn/winter evenings since I was about 13 and every year since.
  7. I cycle to school – Shunning a car and braving the Mancunian weather saves me a fortune and gives me a bit of exercise each day too. (Once in a while the bike actually goes up a mountain too!)

So I’d better pass this on, looking at my Google Reader feed, the next 7 educators who were waiting in my feed and don’t seem to have done this are (scientific I know!):

Sol Lederman: http://wildaboutmath.com/

Angela Meiers: http://www.angelamaiers.com/

Neil Winton: http://nwinton.wordpress.com/

Don Ledingham: http://edubuzz.org/blogs/donsblog/

Richard Byrne: http://www.freetech4teachers.com/

Mr Higgins: http://www.mrhigginsblog.com/

John Pederson: http://www.ijohnpederson.com/

(EDIT: If you’ve already done this, or hate memes then apologies!!)

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