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#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!)
If you’d like to use online office tools withs students for their ease-of-use, accessibility and collaboration features but don’t know where to start, you might like to look at the rather comprehensive list over at the Office 2.0 Database.
If you use blogs with your students, you’d probably appreciate a plugin which lets you comment on a paragraph-by-paragraph basis. That’s what CommentPress from if:book promises to let you do. The trouble is that is hasn’t been released yet – but according to their blog it shouldn’t be long!
Somewhat understandably, YouTube is blocked in many schools – including mine. Whilst other solutions such as Google Video are still available in some institutions, one has to wonder for how long this will remain the case. What is needed, then, is a site like the two mentioned above but dedicated to educational videos.
Enter TeacherTube! With an interface almost baiting YouTube to sue them, TeacherTube is made by teachers for teachers:
TeacherTube was the idea of Jason Smith, a 14-year veteran educator. Jason has been a teacher, coach, campus administrator and district administrator in public schools. He asked the question, “Why can’t teachers, students, and schools utilize the power of the read/write web for learning?” To overcome barriers, he decided to just create a site and get started trying to help. He turned to his brother, Adam, who is a younger, digital native, with technical skills. Adam used his skills to develop the site and found a web host. Soon, Jason’s wife, Jodie, joined the team to start populating the site with videos and help improve the communication. She too has 14 years of experience in education as a classroom teacher, campus technology integrator, and district curriculum coordinator.
Some of the videos on there are serious, whilst others are hilarious. Check out Mrs Burk, the rapping maths teacher! The only problem I can forsee is that it’s not exactly… cool. YouTube is red hot at the moment; TeacherTube could be seen by web-savvy teenagers as a bit sad. In any case, it’s a noble proposition well-executed and I wish the advertising-funded site the best of luck!
(via A History Teacher)
I came across tumblr this week from a number of sources, including Tony Vincent’s excellent learninginhand blog. It’s a basic, easy-to-use blogging platform with a number of pre-set templates for blog posts: regular, photo, quote, link, conversation, and video.
(click to enlarge)
The great thing is that tumblr automatically formats the post according to the content, making it even easier for first-time bloggers:
There’s some advanced options – (custom) themes, hosting it on your own domain, and other blog settings. For those wanting to take things further, tumblr can automatically post things from an RSS feed. Meaning that if you hook it up to a Twitter account, for example, you’ve got a really powerful – yet simple – (mobile) blogging soluion!
I’ve just come across Schoolr, a rather useful website which allows you to use various search engines in one place. Amongst other things, you can search Wikipedia, Google, for acronyms, and translate text. I think it could be great to use with students (at whom I think it’s aimed), but I still prefer Sidekiq…
I’d like to take this opportunity to publicly wish my wonderful wife Mrs Hannah Belshaw a very Happy Mothering Sunday. You’re doing an absolutely fantastic job with Ben and if he could speak I’m sure he’d agree that no-one could ask for a more dedicated, loving and all-round brilliant mummy than you.
We love you! 
(more…)
The repository of plugins available for Wordpress, the software which runs this and – let’s face it, most – other blogs on the Internet, has been upgraded. It’s now a lot easier to find what you’re looking for and less a hit-and-miss affair.
Although edtechroundup.com does not use a lot of plugins (the idea is to keep it minimal and fast-loading), there is a page of plugins used over at teaching.mrbelshaw.co.uk that lists ones that educators may find useful!
So I didn’t get the Head of History position at the school on Jersey. But hey, I learned some lessons:
Oh, and I’m selling that cheap laptop (even though it was pretty good) and am back on the Macbook (core 2 duo). I’ve also bought myself a proper iPod… (more…)
I’ve just noticed that in the top left-hand corner of my Gmail account there’s a link to ‘photos’:
Whilst this is just an easier way to access something that was already available – namely Picasa Web Albums – it does mean that take-up is likely to explode. Much, in fact, in the same way that Google Reader has amongst RSS readers.
I don’t think this is a Flickr-killer. For one, you have to use an installed program (Picasa) to upload pictures. For another, it’s really aimed at people who want to share pictures with family and friends, not everyone.
Still, the 1GB of online storage and ease of accessibility and sharing are certainly welcome. I’ll be encouraging my family to use it in future!
There’s a great interview with the comedienne Sue Perkins in The Word magazine this month in which she puts in a nutshell what I think a lot of people feel:
It’s the curse of our society, the relentless pursuit of unimportant things, a terrible capitalist trap. Our society as become, ‘Have you met targets? Have you failed or succeeded?’ I permanently feel like I’m chasing my tail. I feel like a victim of that. Teachers, they’re constantly told they’re disappointing and equally, children. Children are told the exams they’re sitting [snootily], ‘Oh they aren’t as clever as when we were doing O-levels.’ Can you imagine? To be told what you’re trying to achieve is meaningless? Coupled, again, with expectation, with the spectre of failure everywhere. Kids are just bombarded by depressing notions all the time. About how dreadful they are. It’s all labelling, so early. I think the kids are f***ed.
So true. I must pay tribute to the genius that is The Word. I subscribed after buying the first issue and this one is number 50. It doesn’t just look at stuff that’s being marketed and it refuses to bow down to the god of 5-star ratings. Pure genius, it really is…
