I Should Be Marking

As part of my new officially snactioned blogging spree I’ve created yet another blog - similar in ways to my Thunks blog but with a slightly different emphasis.

Where Thunks are about considering the world we live in and the ways in which we can ask questions, Deep Thought is more introspective and is aimed at investigating how we feel about the world we live in.

My first entry is a video about the Pale Blue Dot, a photograph of Earth taken from a distance of approximately 4 billion miles. Does it make us feel insignificant? Hopeful? Useless? Guilty?

Why?

To add your thoughts or to read the thoughts of others, follow this link. And please take part - as always.

I found this on Alex Savage’s blog (CommunICTy) and thought it was wonderful:
[slideshare id=85551&doc=death-by-powerpoint4344&w=425]

I can see me using that with my Y8 class tomorrow…

So, having played with a iPod Touch (far too media based, sadly - but very cool!) and an iPhone (I actually thought it was another iPod Touch at first) I’m definitely steering away from Apple.

So it came down to either a Nokia N800 (not a phone, Linux (Debian based) OS and around £175 ex. VAT) or an HTC P3450 Touch (’tis a phone, runs Windows Mobile 6 and is around £208 ex. Vat). It was a tough decision and I’m still not sure I shouldn’t have gone for a traditional Axim-like PDA but in the long term I can see SMT using VoIP as a cheap method of internal communication - maybe even IM’ing each other during tedious meetings!

Ultimately the HTC uses a tried and tested OS for which I know I can get the applications I need, plus I can use it as a phone when the need arises. I know it’ll work with Excel and Word and I know my existing PocketPC apps should install easily. The lack of knowledge about what software I can definitely get for the Nokia worries me enough to over-rule my idealism of running an open-source operating system.

So, assuming the order goes through, I’ll let you know how things work out.

A colleague of mine has been using this since last year, although I hadn’t had more than a 2 minute look to see what all the fuss was about.

Today, with the collapse of my Lego CAD lesson plan (more on that later), I improvised a quick intro to Sketchup after a quick brief from said colleague.

An hour later and I had a group of particularly unmotivated Y9 students designing lawns, hedge mazes, swimming pools - one student even recreated the mansion from GTA:Vice City (complete with helipad, helicopter and a garage with a motorbike inside)!

You could also run competitions to draw real buildings and they can be published to GoogleEarth.

It’s incredibly easy to create models quickly and simply - and of course it’s both free to download and cross-platform!

I’ve been thinking a bit more about PDAs and thought I would share/reflect for a bit. Apologies if this rambles - I’m in that sort of a mood today.

Registers - At the moment I need to either ferry my laptop across the school twice a day for registration, or try and commit it to memory AND remember to submit the details electornically later. Suffice to say I’m not the most popular member of staff with the front office right now. A wifi enabled PDA would definitely help.

AfL - A colleague of mine makes quick notes in his planner during lessons (it could be a simple traffic light for effort or attainment in a specific area). I’ve tried taking a more batch-like approach at the end of each day but this takes up a minimum of 20-30 minutes and means I can’t grab those members of staff who slope off fairly quickly and it means I have to try and remember the events of the day for hours at a time. With a PDA would it be easier to make a quick note as I walk round? Easier than picking up my paper-based planner? Maybe…

Contact - I read one blog (which I now, of course, cannot find) which described the process of setting up a number of smartphones to be given to SMT/SLT which could be used to help them keep in contact throughout the day. This is far beyond the scope of what I can do with one handset but it’s an interesting idea

Style - If I was to go for this idea, then what style of PDA would I want? One that looks like a phone (e.g. Nokia N95), on that looks like a ‘traditional’ PDA (e.g. iPhone, XDA, MDA, iPaq, etc.) or more of a blackberry style? I have to say I’d prefer the ‘traditional’ look with a large slab of touchscreen and very little else.

Blogging - How could I use this device to aid my new blogging/creative teacher post? Well, I could blog from anywhere - but I’m very rarely away from a desktop or laptop anyway. I could prowl the corridors, looking for unsuspecting pupils to be coerced into writng something - but almost all rooms have a computer in them anyway and expecting a child to quickly formulate reflective, insightful thoughts AND get to grips with either an onscreen keyboard or handwriting recognition simultaneously would be pushing it I think. And getting somehting with a built in keyboard would mean either a blackberry styled device or somehting with a slideout/clip-on qwerty keyboard.

Would I want it to be a phone or is that unimportant? Well, originally it was the phone/PDA combination that kicked the whole idea off, and it would save on having to find another phone and carry another device. I don’t think I can justify making it a requirement though, especially if it’s not coming from my own budget. And SIM-free phones are much harder/more expensive to come by.

Lots of thoughts, but no decision as yet. On major sticking point is the price of these things. I’m too polite to ask for a budget but the £4-500 devices are surely well out of the question, especially as I’m due a new MacBook next year as well.

The contemplation continues…

I forget exactly how but I ended up with a sim-free XDA II PDA/phone about 4 years ago, and it’s spent about 3 years of that sat in a drawer. I dragged it back out about a month ago and have been using it to manage my increasingly complex diary, read the odd e-book and store a couple of amusing YouTube clips I’d collected. I’ve even just ordered a SIM card for it to replace my contract phone (which rarely sees more than a single text and phone call a day) and now I’ve gone and lost the bloody thing!

Asking around at work to see if it turns up (I suspect it fell out of my pocket as I was riding my bike home last night - in which case I’ve got no chance) my HoD offered some of the development budget to buy a new one.

Initially I said no as I didn’t think it right that the school should buy me a phone but then he got to talking about experimenting with something ‘more fancy’ to see if I can do something new with it.

Add to that my new post as Lead Creative Teacher in charge of blogging (and other Web2.0 stuff) and it got me thinking about actually using it as more than a gadget or simple calendar and being able to add something to the school.

So - what PDA/phones do you use? What for? How can I use a PDA effectively, innovatively and creatively? Any suggestions for specific models?

I have to say the N95 looks extremely tempting, but only if I can justify it (to myself even moreso than to the school).

Thoughts and opinions welcome…;

Nothing to do with education but it’s still worth a mention.

Now I don’t play many computer games these days - I just don’t have the time that most gsames require. For Portal, though, I made an exception.

Essentially a puzzle game the style is similar to a 3D shooter (it uses the Half Life engine and is made by the same people) but the only tool at your disposal is a ‘gun’ which can create two portals allowing you to reach otherwise inaccessable areas.  The most spectacular portions of the game occur when you have to dive from a great height through a portal in the floor, only to emerge from another portal sideways at great speed (conservation of momentum and all that). It’s hard to describe but fantastic (if headache inducing) fun.

The official 3D game also has a Flash based 2D version - so plenty of puzzles to enjoy. Warning - they’re both very addictive!

I applied for a promoted post recently and am now officially a ‘Lead Creative Teacher’. Today was the induction meeting and I am now employed to bring blogging to the masses - within the department, to at least one colleague outside the department and eventually to the whole school.

Other colleagues are looking at creative peer review using our VLE, creativity with G&T pupils in English, creativity with the lower sets in maths and P4C/Community of Enquiry.

I guess that means I’d better keep flexing my blogging muscles so expect regular updates and plugs over the coming months.

As you might have noticed that blogging isn’t at the very top of my list of priorities at the moment but I figured it was about time and I’ve just updated my iMedia students’ blog, my Thunks blog and the latest school podcast episode so have a gander at:

egglescliffeblogs.org.uk and egglescliffepodcast.org.uk