Author Archives: slav

Melbourne Museum free iPad app

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Melbourne Museum has developed a free iPad app to enhance Museum visits.

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The website explains:

Celebrate Melbourne Museum’s tenth birthday and rediscover, explore and share some of Melbourne Museum’s most iconic stories and treasures from this celebratory iPad app.

Please touch the exhibit lets you explore some of Melbourne Museum’s iconic objects including Phar Lap, Australia’s most famous horse, and the Museum’s massive skeleton of a blue whale – as well as some of the less well known, such as fragile birds eggs and tiny, gemlike beetles.

Other popular Museum experiences featured in Please touch the exhibit include Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre, the Forest Gallery, the Melbourne Storyexhibition and some of the new exhibitions in the Science and Life Gallery.

You’ll find the free app here.  What an exciting way to add value to school excursions!

DeweyDigger

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Have you seen DeweyDigger yet?

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By clicking on one of the Dewey classifications, you are then presented with a range of topics that would be found under that classification.

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Clicking on one of those you are then presented with a range of options to dig further.

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Beware that some of these options include advertisements and one that I saw was for gambling. However, the initial stages of the site could be very useful for teaching the concept of Dewey. Worth a look.

TEDxMelbourne – 20 November 2010

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If you are a fan of the TED talks (and who isn’t?) you might be interested in the TEDxMelbourne event coming up this weekend. (TEDx are independently organised TED events.) Although the physical session has sold out, you can participate online in a number of different ways.

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Thanks to Hamish Curry from the State Library of Victoria for the following links:

General program

http://www.tedxmelbourne.com/

Speakers & performers
http://www.tedxmelbourne.com/speakers-performers/

Blog on other ways to enjoy the experience
http://www.tedxmelbourne.com/ways-to-join-us-on-the-day/

Registration for receiving the webcast
http://webcast.viostream.com/?viocast=3395&auth=42f520a0-1a26-45ab-80f9-a7de962e683a

Oh, and late breaking news…here is the link to experience the event in Virtual 3D (like Second Life) – limited to 100 participants.
http://www.surroundus.com/showcase/tedxmelbourne-in-3d/

Hopefully you can join the action virtually if you were unable to get a ticket. You can also follow TEDxMelbourne on Twitter for news of other events.

Weekly links (weekly)

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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Edublogs awards 2010

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Many of you will be pleased to know that the nominations are now open for the 2010 Edublogs awards.

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  • Nominations: Close Friday 3 December
  • Voting: Ends Tuesday 14 December
  • Award Ceremony: Wednesday 15 December

Categories are:

  • Best individual blog
  • Best individual tweeter
  • Best group blog
  • Best new blog
  • Best class blog
  • Best student blog
  • Best resource sharing blog
  • Most influential blog post
  • Most influential tweet / series of tweets / tweet based discussion
  • Best teacher blog
  • Best librarian / library blog
  • Best school administrator blog
  • Best educational tech support blog
  • Best elearning / corporate education blog
  • Best educational use of audio
  • Best educational use of video / visual
  • Best educational wiki
  • Best educational podcast
  • Best educational webinar series
  • Best educational use of a social network
  • Best educational use of a virtual world
  • Best use of a PLN
  • Lifetime achievement

The Edublogs staff explain on their blog how the process works.

This blog was fortunate enough to receive “First runner up” in the best librarian/library blog section and it was very exciting. So act now and nominate your colleagues, friends and sites that you find inspiring (however, you cannot nominate your own sites.)

Penny Bentley’s blog

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Penny Bentley began blogging earlier this year. Like a duck taking to water, Penny has found blogging an excellent way of sharing, learning and reflecting. She explains the process:

Earlier this year I signed up for a 12 week, online professional development program. As a teacher of secondary maths and science I have an interest in finding new ways to engage and motivate students. Well, the VicPLN program was eye opening, challenging and arguably the best PD I have ever done.

I used to consider social media, like Facebook, to be a waste of time. Something my kids use instead of doing more important things, like homework. Well, things have changed. I am a blogger, I use twitter, Facebook and many other applications on the web. My blog, CLOUD9 started out as an online record of my journey through the VicPLN program. I blogged about my reading, new discoveries, frustrations and thoughts about classroom applications. I was able to display media such as images, slide shows, video and audio. CLOUD 9 started to feel like my personal place on the web.

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One of the best features of blogging is the authentic audience. Every time I made a post there was feedback, support and encouragement. I started to develop confidence in my ability to use technology, to create amazing things and to put myself out there in cyberspace. By the end of the program I was hooked, I could see the enormous potential for student engagement.

So, my desire to blog didn’t end with the PD. For a while the web felt like a lonely place, I missed my daily feedback and interaction.  There was a need to rethink the purpose of CLOUD9. It was important for me to enjoy blogging, to provide information that is educational and useful to teachers, to make smaller but more frequent posts and to have feedback. I decided to continue blogging about useful web tools, games, virtual excursions and any other application that may be useful in the classroom. CLOUD9 will provide bite sized professional development for teachers, with a taste of maths and science.

An unexpected outcome of blogging is that now I have a record of my 2010 professional development. I am beginning to view my blog as a digital portfolio of skills and achievements; it’s like an alternative to the dusty filing cabinet.

If you’ve been thinking about starting your own blog, Penny is an excellent example to follow. Well done Penny!

Free Global Education Conference 15-19 November 2010

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Educator extraordinaire Steve Hargadon is organising a free global education conference to be held between the 15th and 19th of November.

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To be held via Elluminate and in multiple time zones, each session will be recorded so if you are unable to ‘attend’ live, there is the opportunity to view later on.

Tracks include:

  • Teacher
  • Student
  • Curriculum
  • Policy and leadership
  • Global issues
  • Learning 2.0 and
  • Spanish sessions

A list of session titles, times and details can be accessed now as well and if you are interested in helping moderate a session (or more), there are details for that as well.

A fantastic initiative and way to connect with other educators on a global scale.

1000poppies.org

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Today sees the timely (Remembrance Day) release of the new Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development project 1000 poppies.org.

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The website states:

This project aims to create a space where students from around the world can share stories and experiences, linking the local and the global in an on-line environment and create their own response to honouring the service and sacrifice of veterans and those affected by war to express their hopes for lasting peace.

The Innovation and Next Practice Division of the DEECD states

It is not only intended for students, adults can participate as well. Over the coming months it will be supported with a range of learning and teaching materials.

An excellent resource for schools!

Evernote

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I’ve been using Evernote for a while now and so I am convinced that it is a terrific tool for library staff and students (in particular.) Anyone who wants to sync documents, websites and notes between their devices will find Evernote just so useful and user friendly. It’s kind of like cataloguing your entire computer’s contents and the ability to access them from all of your devices.

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What does it do? The Evernote website explains more:

1. Capture everything.

Chances are, if you can see it or think of it, Evernote can help you remember it. Type a text note. Clip a web page. Snap a photo. Grab a screenshot. Evernote will keep it all safe.

2. Organise it (or let us do it).

Everything you capture is automatically processed, indexed, and made searchable. If you like, you can add tags or organize notes into different notebooks.

3. Find anything fast.

Search for notes by keywords, titles, and tags. Evernote magically makes printed and handwritten text inside your images searchable, too.

Infinitely useful.

Put your thoughts, ideas, inspiration, and things to remember all in one place. Use Evernote for work, for play, and for everything that’s noteworthy.

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Evernote is available for:

  • Mac
  • PC
  • iPod touch
  • iPhone
  • iPad
  • Android
  • Blackberry
  • Windows mobile
  • Palm Pre/ Palm Pixi

This video explains more.

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Oh yes, and it’s free! There is a premium account, but you’d have to do an awful lot of web clipping and note saving to need it.