Posts (page 2)
My Dad celebrated his retirement at the weekend. I was pleased that he asked me to work with him to produce a slide presentation of his six decades.
With lights, in the form of a electronic projector and a little magic he told his digital story.
Earlier in the week as we worked to produce the sixty or so slides we came together online using iChat. Dad sent me the photos he had scanned and I set them out in Keynote. I designed a master background that we could use for each collection of images and selected some choice animations and slide transitions. Keynote has some superb animations to choose from and I was careful not to attach too many and risk overwhelming the audience.
Next action: burn a keepsake of the final Keynote onto a DVD.
Learning facilitator SJ posted a message in FirstClass giving comprehensive links on referencing.
SJ reminded researchers the need to develop referencing skills, for example the need to cite or reference any book, website or resource that is drawn upon in producing assignments to avoid the risk of being accused of plagiarism.
The message prompted researchers to look in the following places for extensive resources on the subject:
The Anglia Ruskin Guidance on Referencing
Rhodes University - Referencing
SJ helpfully provided a couple of links to online quizzes.
Next action: read and digest the informaiton on referencing and take the quiz at Edge Hill
http://www.edgehill.ac.uk/tld/student/harvard/index.htm
I was very pleased with the result of my Introduction to Online Communication and Technology Module.
The coversheet provided by the learning facilitator was clear and concise. The following targets were listed:
- Develop an understanding of emerging perspectives and interweave them into your discussions. Do this through discussions with fellow researchers as the module develops.
- Understand a critical approach to expert opinion in theory by comparing and contrasting their ideas to each other and to your own experience in terms of what you can and cannot agree with and why.
- Continue to develop your understanding of analysis and in particular consider analytical processes, what they are and how you can clearly demonstrate them in your work.
- Participate online with fellow researchers engaging in in-depth topical discussions.
Next action: collect books from Mod 3 reading list.
Apple computers have announced its next Teacher Institute will take place at Cheltenham College in Gloucestershire from 10-13 April 2007.
The Apple Institute (ATI), now in its seventh year, is a terrific experience that I can firmly recommend. This four day residential course is designed to meet a wide variety of technology development needs.
I attended for the first time in 2006. Delegates attended from all over the world. The sessions were hands on and practical.
If you haven't attended before and can make the time and get the support of your employer to cover the cost as part of your professional development, I would give it a whirl. I came away having made new friends and with a DVD stuffed full of examples of projects, some of which I helped to produce.
Has anyone attend the ATI before? What experiences did you take away?
Next action: Review my DVD from Apple Teacher Institute 2006 and dust off resources for use in my research.
I was inspired by the online research I started at the The Writing Site website.
I used the links to find out more about the commonly shared attributes for each different genre.
The genre listed at the Writing Site include:
- Technical
- Poetic
- Persuasive
- Narrative
- Expository
- Descriptive
Before deciding what my next action would be from this research I made a search of Flickr looking for images to illustrate writing genres.
Next action: anaylse and reflect on my current writing style.
I can feel another trip to the bricks and mortar library coming on and then a big reading session.
Following a Wikipedia line of research for Donald Schon was cool and I found lots of other interesting links to follow.
Donald Schön was married to internationally renowned sculptor Nancy Schön. The photo below shows Make Way for Ducklings which lives in the public gardens in Boston.
Next action: Read texts in growing reading list and discuss with other UV researchers.
I have successfully started a new thread of online research looking at critical incidents.
Wikipedia has a comprehensive entry. With a interesting list of sources that includes a link for Critical incidents.net.
The Critical Incident Technique (or CIT) is a set of procedures used for collecting direct observations of human behaviour that have critical significance and meet methodically defined criteria.
These observations are then kept track of as incidents, which are then
used to solve practical problems and develop broad psychological principles.
Wikipedia. (2007). Critical Incident Technique. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Incident_Technique. Last accessed 21 January 2007.
Next action: read through literature and share reflections with UV online community.
I have been a follower of Dan Price since I first found his self published zine Moonlight Chronicles in the basement of Tower Records in Piccadilly, London more than ten years ago.
As I continue my learning journal adventure I am looking again at how Dan has chronicled his life. To inspire others Dan published the book How to Make a Journal of Your Life. I think it is a cool book. A little bigger than a postcard!
Dan's website has grown over the years into a small and interesting collection of links and details of the other titles he has published. Take a look at the video interview.
*Tower Records is now a Virgin Megastore!
Did you go?
What were the highlights of your expedition?
Note to self - put BETT 2008 in my diary.
Neighborhood
Explore friends, family, friends & family, or entire neighborhood.
