dougbelshaw.com/blog

Welcome back!
#uppingyourgame: an educator's guide to productivity is now up to v0.4!
(I'm looking for people to translate it into other languages when finished - if you're interested get in touch!)

Lifehacker has a great guide to using a program called DVD Flick. This free, open-source, Windows-only program allows even novice users to burn videos in a range of formats (DivX, MPG, etc.) to playable DVD.

This is a great solution for a variety of situations. For example, some schools are limited to a projector per department, so a teacher would be able to use DVD Flick to write a DVD of some downloaded/shared video file and show it via an inexpensive DVD player hooked up to an existing TV.

I do think that digital video is the way forward, but we need tools such as this for interim stop-gap times when we’ve got no other choice because the hardware just isn’t there. This is certainly one to spread the word about!

Posted: January 31st, 2007
Categories: Education
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After my last attempt wasn’t specific or focused enough, I’ve completely re-written it. If you’re interested, have a look here:

http://docs.google.com/View?docid=ajdmqgcb7rbb_13g2bx4s&re

Posted: January 28th, 2007
Categories: Thesis
Tags: Ed.D., proposal, Research, Thesis
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You’ve got to love Google. They’ve quietly introduced the feature to open Word documents sent to your GMail account in Google Docs. I think all school students should have Google Accounts nowadays – it would save schools a whole lot of money and the way everything is integrated could lead to some great results! (via Lifehacker)

Posted: January 28th, 2007
Categories: Education
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I love mashups – music or otherwise. Google Book Search now has a great new feature where places mentioned in the books they serve up are located as pushpins on a Google Map in the overview page. Tim Lauer gives the example of The Journals of Lewis & Clark, but I prefer Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days…

Posted: January 27th, 2007
Categories: Education
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?

I’ve just come across this article which I think probably deserves a closer look:

P.T. Knight? (1997) The Half-Life of Knowledge and Structural Reform of the Education Sector for the Global Knowledge-Based Economy

Posted: January 26th, 2007
Categories: Everything Else
Tags: Ed.D., references, Research, Thesis
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I went a run this morning – my first since Ben was born. I usually listen to the MP3s stored on a ‘running’ playlist on my mobile phone in shuffle mode, but seeing as it’s the first one I’ve been on since I got my new phone, I was looking for another option. I ended up listening to a podcast from Podrunner, a free 1-hour mix of music at a set BPM (beats per minute).

(more…)

Posted: January 26th, 2007
Categories: Everything Else
Tags: iTunes, music, podcasts, Podrunner, running, That-thing-they-call-exercise
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I’ve come across a free service that significantly speeds up DNS requests as well as preventing phishing scams. OpenDNS uses a distributed network of DNS servers to increase reliability, security and speed. Well worth having, both on home, school and business networks!

Posted: January 25th, 2007
Categories: Education
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A new service called bubbl.us looks as though it could be useful for online collaboration. Sporting an AJAXy interface, it allows collaborative brainstorming. Check out the demo on the front page to give it a try!

Posted: January 25th, 2007
Categories: Education
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I’ve already blogged about this over at teaching.mrbelshaw.co.uk, but there’s a very straightforward guide here on how to make Excel spreadsheets a lot more visual. I use this as a visual homework checker via my classroom projector! (via Lifehacker)

Posted: January 25th, 2007
Categories: Education
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After a couple of nights in hospital, Hannah and Ben are now back safe and sound at home. Ben’s feeding well – in fact, a little too well! All he seems to do is feed, sleep and cry. Still, that’s what babies do best…

Hannah and I knew that we’d be in for some fairly sleepless nights, but knowing that and experiencing it are two completely different propositions!

(more…)

Posted: January 24th, 2007
Categories: Everything Else
Tags: Benjamin Belshaw, birth, Emmie, Hannah
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