Archive tweets with Tweetdoc

Twitter has been adopted by many teachers as a professional learning tool, allowing access to an incredible network of educators through hashtags such as the Victorian PLN (#vicpln). One of the benefits of tagging tweets with hashtags is that it allows for conversations around particular areas of interest or at conferences. An example of this is at the School Library Association of Victoria conferences, where the #slavconf hashtag allows attendees (and those participating online) to join the conversation. But while this is an incredibly powerful feature of Twitter, it can be difficult to archive all of these tweets for future reference. This is where Tweetdoc comes in.

Tweetdoc allows you to create a document listing all of the tweets based around a particular search. The document also displays a grid of all of the users who tweeted using the hashtag. We’ve used it archive tweets from several events and while we’ve discovered a couple of drawbacks- such as occasional bugs and no ability to filter spam tweets- overall we have found Tweetdoc to be a very useful tool.

Here’s how to create a Twitter archive using Tweetdoc. You can see the sample document produced in this tutorial here.

2012 Victorian Personal Learning Network

The 2012 Victorian Personal Learning Network course has now come to a close. Participants explored a range of web tools throughout the twelve unit course, reflecting on their work in blog entries and working with each other in online conferences. Many of them are now using social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook to connect with other members of the VicPLN community.

You can explore the course materials at the Victorian PLN blog. You can also read the blogs of the 2012 participants and find many of them on the #vicpln hashtag or in the VicPLN Facebook group which can be joined by anyone interested in education.

Congratulations to all of the participants who have worked through the course this year. For a great summary of the course check out this Storify of the 2012 Victorian PLN.

 

 

Make Lego creations in Build with Chrome

Many of our readers might be relaxing on school holidays and some of you could be looking for a great tool to keep the kids (or yourself) entertained. The Build with Chrome app allows you to stake out land on a map and then build your own virtual Lego creations. There have already been some fantastic creations built.

The app is only available in Google Chrome though you can view the map in other browsers. This may create some problems for work computers that are still limited to using Internet Explorer. It’s another great reason to lobby for the freedom to install other browsers on your computers.

Building does require logging in and at this stage the creation must be built and published in one session as you can’t save a work in progress. Buildings also require approval before they are published which hopefully means that innappropriate structures can’t be made.

But the best part of Build with Chrome? You can play with Lego to your heart’s content without having to experience the pain of stepping on a block with bare feet!

Build with Chrome

PBS explores the artistry of video games

With the launch of ACMI’s new Games Masters exhibition we thought you might like to get in a gaming mood with a video from the fabulous PBS Off Book series. It explores the changing landscape of gaming and in particular the artistry that is coming from the rise of independent games (Jason Rohrer’s amazing indie game Passage is a particular favourite of ours. Play it before you watch the video to avoid spoilers). The documentary is a great reminder of how games can be used to tell stories, create experiences and explore decision making. It is food for thought for educators looking to harness the power of games in the classroom.

The video also touches on a couple of the more popular games that are currently being used in learning, Minecraft and Portal.  To find out more about using games like these in education make sure you have a look at the work of two outstanding Victorian educators Adrian Camm and Lynette Barr. You can also find out about using Portal in the classroom at the recently launched Teach with Portals site.

The PBS Off Book series features other great videos exploring cutting edge art (often with a digital focus). The Youtube channel is well worth a look.

Will we regret playing games?

At the recent Games for Change conference Jane McGonigal spoke about the importance of gaming. Her speech touches on the one of the standard criticisms levelled at games, that they are a waste of time.  In an interesting twist McGonigal explores the topic based on the top five regrets of the dying. You can watch Jane’s speech (5.20) at the Kotaku website.

Jane is certainly a passionate advocate for the value of gaming. You can find out more about Jane’s work or watch her TED talk ‘Gaming can make a better world’ below.

What do you think? Are games a valuable form of expression, exploration and communication or will gamers look back and regret the amount of time they have spent in virtual worlds?

Display Recorder: Screencast your iDevice

(Update July 2, 2012: The Display Recorder app has now been removed from the Itunes App store. At this stage it is unclear whether the app will reappear or has been permanently removed.)

There was some surprising news this morning with the announcement that Apple had approved a screencasting app for the iPad and iPhone called Display Recorder. As far as we know this is the first app that allows for full screencasting of other apps on your Apple device. Previously if you wanted to record a screencast you would need to link wirelessly to your computer using the Reflection app, which we looked at recently.

Display Recorder costs $1.99.  The app seems to work reasonably well though at this stage there is a bug that means you have to change your region settings on your device to United States. You can do this in Settings>General>International>Regional Format.

Recording of the screencast was simple. Just open the app, hit record and then you can skip between apps by clicking your home button and selecting the app you want to use (you can also double press your home button to quickly access open apps, or use the four fingered swipe to switch quickly between apps). Once you’ve recorded, head back to Display Recorder and click stop.

We did run into some problems uploading to Youtube as the upload froze on each attempt. Instead we saved the video into the iPad’s Camera Roll and then uploaded from there. You might use an app like iMovie to trim the video and clean up any errors (particularly the first and last few seconds when you need to start recording within Display Recorder).

Display Recorder looks like a promising screencasting solution. We had a very quick play with the app and recorded our first impressions which you can watch below. (1.17)

Teach Meet Melbourne

On Saturday Quantum Victoria hosted another round of Teach Meet Melbourne. The Teach Meet movement is an informal gathering of educators who come together to share ideas and benefit from the experience of others.

Teach Meet is notable for the fact that this is not a paid event and that these educators are meeting outside of regular school hours. It is testament to the dedication of these educators that they are willing to come together on a Saturday to share their work and devote their own time to professional learning.  Those who couldn’t make it to the meet were also able to view the live stream which was provided from the event.

Details of the day are shared through the Teach Meet Melbourne wiki where you can find presentations and links to further resources.  The conversation is continued on Twitter via the #tmmelb hashtag. For those in other capital cities there are Teach Meet hashtags for #tmsydney, #tmadelaide and #tmbrisbane, along with the general #teachmeet hashtag. More information is available at the TeachMeet[Aus} site.

Congratulations to all of the participants and presenters.  You can view highlights of the presentations below (via Tony Richards @itmadesimple).

Victorian PLN webinar recordings

The current Victorian PLN course is now winding down as participants begin reflecting on their course through digital stories and catching up on any units that they may have missed during the term.

Over the 12 units of the course participants have discovered great web tools, written blogs, explored curly issues like digital citizenship and discovered the wonderful community of educators that exists online. You can connect with the participants and the wider VicPLN community at the Facebook group, which now has close to 200 members.

A major feature of the course were the regular web conferences which covered a range of topics. You can access the recordings below. The sessions were:

Getting started with your PLN and blogging

Organising information online (Twitter, Blogging, IGoogle)

Integrating technology into schools (featuring Tony Richards)

Online databases and search skills (featuring Andrew McConville from the State Library of Victoria)

Gaming in Education (featuring Paul Callaghan)

PLN wrap up and final reflection

All of the recordings will open in Blackboard Collaborate (or Elluminate). For help getting started with this web conferencing tool, have a look at the web conferencing guide on the Victorian PLN blog.

Global e-literacy: leading the reinvention of learning

 

The next SLAV conference will be held at the MCG on Friday, July 27. The theme will be Global e-literacy: leading the reinvention of learning. In preparation for the conference you might like to follow some of the speakers involved on the day, either through their blogs or on Twitter.

The conference keynote will be delivered by Judy O’Connell from the School of Information Studies at Charles Sturt University. We’re looking forward to seeing Judy speak as she is a passionate advocate for libraries and an internationally respected expert in her field. Make sure you follow Judy’s blog or find her on Twitter.

Jenny Luca, Head of Information Services at Toorak College and writer of the Lucacept blog, will present on Multimodal Literacies. Panel presentations will be given by John Pearce, David Fehigan (Bialik College) and Di Ruffles (Melbourne High School). You can watch Di’s screencast about search tips here. The day will be closed with a presentation by Cecilie Murray (Delphian eLearning).

To find out more visit SLAV’s Professional Development page or view the conference program.

 

Reflection: screencasting for your iPad

The Reflection app has been available for the Mac for a while and is now also available on Windows. The app allows you to display the screen of your IOS device (iPad, iPod or iPhone) on your computer, meaning you can easily switch to your device during presentations or record screencasts.

To establish a connection and share your screen your computer must be on the same network as your IOS device, but our initial impressions are that it is reasonably easy to establish a good connection. We had a play with the trial version of the app, which is fully functional but limited to 10 minute sessions. Have a look at our first impressions and quick guide to getting started below (2.26).