September 27

Jamie Mackenzie Questioning Scaffold

I just found a great article from Jamie Mackenzie on questioning presented concepts called “The evidence gap” http://questioning.org/oct08/evidence.html He gives three different examples of how this now permeates our life, and gives a scaffold for students to evaluate ideas at http://questioning.org/oct08/Wait.pdf

He uses the example of how Captain Cook “looked after” the indigenous people in countries that he visited, the Obama vs McCain Oil debate, and an example from the Medical field.

He breaks down each argument from McCain and Obama and finally determines (from facts rather than speeches that):

It turns out that the biggest problem is our dependence on oil, not our dependence on oil from “countries that don’t like us very much.” Once we close the “evidence gap,” a very different picture emerges than the one McCain hoped to evoke.

The scaffold would be a great tool to give students to discuss web based resources and the authenticity of such, and also to increase critical analysis of ideas.

August 11

Nike Plus….gadget girl

So, I’d consider myself a bit of a gadget girl, I like all the newest gadgets. My husband bought home the new Nike+ sportsband from his school for me to try out.

Funnily enough, their motto is “all you have to do is run with it”….quite funny considering I’ve tried everything, and still can’t get it to register a run. (and yes, I did run with it)

I’d consider myself the kind of person that doesn’t particularly like to read manuals either, but some kind of support for the thing would be great, particularly since it DOESN’T SEEM TO WORK!

I’m just annoyed I guess, because I just ran a whole heap, and can’t log my run. Apparently, I missed holding down the start key once for three seconds, then once for a second to start, then once for a second to end.

Not only that, but I’ve been wearing if for the last two days, and already the LCD screen is broken.

The sensor that fits in your shoe is quite uncomfortable, but you can buy an adjustment for it to fit onto your shoes, rather than inside where you run on.

Can’t say that it’s the best product I’ve seen. The website is good, however, heavily flashed based, but it does give you the option to map runs and gives you a training plan also.

I don’t like that it’s a little negative in it’s motivation (I don’t really respond to that style). For example, telling me that I’m “1km behind” gives me (and I must think most people) more impulse to give up, than catch up

August 11

Puzzle Maker

One of the teachers at School showed me a Puzzle making website today. Looks good particularly for those students forgetting aprons, etc. in TAS. Has some great Maths stuff in it as well. Mel and I tried to do one of the maths ones (magic squares), and went from a 6 unit square down to a 2 unit square before finally being able to do it. You must have to be good at Maths for that one.

August 8

Emerging Technologies: Virtual Worlds and their application in the classroom

The IT guy and I attended a lecture this week on “Virtual Worlds and their application in the classroom” at ACU. Although there wasn’t much on the lecture on applications to the classroom, he showed us quite a bit around second life, and the application sto university. IT guy and I were really excited by the opportunity to create and model virtual systems, particularly for their application to IPT and Industrial Tech. I believe that in Ind Tech, that a large component of the technology would be applicable to this form of delivery.

So, I put in some hours of research navigating around the second life website (which is very badly set up for new users I might add) and eventually found out that the prices were way too prohibative for our budget.

Funnily enough, I was researching on the MIT Technology Review website, about my branding essay, and found out that Google (of course) have a free version, Lively that does pretty much the same thing for the classroom, but that is totally free.

So, I’m currently in the testing phase. I’m even considering possibly changing one of the topics in year 10 IST to modelling and simulation, which we got rid of years ago, because we only taught spreadsheets in it. Now, we have 3D studio max, and this….wonder if it’s still in the new syllabus?

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August 8

Teachers and the Gifted. Joke

I love this…how many teachers forget about this kid?

Our school requires all students to take a computer class. My class has to have some of the stupidest people I’ve ever met.

  • Teacher: “Does anyone know what HTML means?”
  • Student: “That means something?!”
  • Me: “Hypertext Markup Language.”
  • Teacher: “Correct, have any of you ever used HTML?”

I’m the only one who raises a hand.

  • Teacher: “Great! We’ll be doing some simple HTML by the end of the year.”
  • Me: (bangs head on desk)
  • Student: “How do you use HTML? Is it like typing?”

http://rinkworks.com/stupid/cs_web.shtml

September 7

Figured out the Blog thing

So, I’ve finally decided on a readable, usable, design friendly template. I wonder whether you can edit the CSS yourself. Something to remember to look into later. I’m also trying to figure out how to get my blogroll showing, becuase although I have some websites in it, it doesn’t seem to be working. Have been working on my ITM wiki for the day, and have put in most of the structure. I’m very happy with it, and also with the fact that I’ve finished all the programming and the description of the major project portfolio. Year 12 almost all planned for next year, with Brad’s addition of the workbooklets.