71. Skype

This week I'm working on an online presentation with my colleague Michelle. Michelle lives in Malta, and our presentation is to be virtual. How cool is that! So this week my tool of choice for working with Michelle is Skype. Skype is VoIP, voice over internet protocol, which allows you to communicate laptop to laptop for "free", although free is an ambiguous term. Someone has to pay for the broadband connection, speed and data costs. The software is free
Skype allows us to text chat (IM), audio chat which we do a lot of, file share and video conference. It's the video conferencing that uses up the band width. I have used the audio function and had a conference call with up to 10 of my colleagues, but the dynamics of having that many people online together and keeping everyone online, some dropped off, was hard work, and not an easily repeated exercise.
With Skype of course you can ring from your laptop a landline for a very low cost, and from a laptop to a cell phone for a relatively low cost, relatively low being an ambiguous term too.
Michelle has an iPhone with Skype downloaded, so she connects from that form time to time. As a way of keeping in touch, working collaboratively Sykpe is my tool. In an educational setting I'm sure the usage would be much the same. Interviews, collaboration, communication file sharing, video conferencing to see the world through someone else's eyes. (I once skyped a friend to show them what the ice and snow looked like.)
Skype has a blog too which has some good ideas, uesful infroamtion on it, including a couple of movies, Skype in plain English!
I'm sure there are other VoIP's out there that you use and other ways you use this technology. Share them with me.

72 a KidPix

I've written about KidPix before from a learning point of view. This time KidPix deserves a mention from a creative point of view. I'm facilitating a combined presentation with my colleague in Malta. We have been looking at population statistics comparing Malta with NZ in graphical form. By taking the set of graphs obtained from Cenus papers we dropped the graphics into KidPix. Using the eydropper we were able to colour coordinate the bars, add text, remove text and generally "fix" the graphs so they looked similar and represented the data well in a comparative form, without altering the data. While this could be done in Photoshop, KidPix was quick, easy and in a small file size to send back and forth. For me KidPix has been around the block a couple of times, is an oldie and a goody and in this case was a low cost tool doing a high end job. MacKeiv have produced the new version of KidPIx, and although it doesn't have some of the older features, there are some powerful new ones. So KidPix gets the thumbs up from me again for its versility, and for allowing me to do a job outside the square.

73. QuickTime

Today I presented at a conference and QuickTime was one tool that I used quite frequently, and flexibly. I upgraded to the Pro version for about $50 Aus 6 years ago and haven't looked back. Most people have QuickTime player so you can view downloaded movies but Pro takes creativity to another level.
QuickTime Pro allowed us to edit, trim, record and share clips and stitch them together easily, still keeping everything in that movie format. We created some animations and played these back at a rate much faster than 1 second per frame that some applications only allow. In fact we were up to 24 frames per second.
Today we exported our creations into QuickTime format so that we could use them, and integrate them into other applications to expand the learning and incorporate other items in the processI loved the versatility.

74. Cell phones

lately I have had cause to use my phone to snap a pics of students in action and record their stories through the voice recorder. Instant data gathering of learning in action. Another day I was doing some long haul driving and planning. I used the voice recorder on my cell phone to record my reflections and ideas as I drove......From my phone I could send that data in various formats to any number of places.... email, internet, open source software and of course another cell phone. Mobile learning at it's best. Sometimes in the rush to do more and better we over look the simple but effective. My cell phone is a basic model, a small and unsophisticated piece of technology, but a very powerful piece of technology and a useful tool to support learning.

75. Screen captures

In my work I've been preparing some how to's for my teachers. I frequently use screen captures to catch that moment which helps scaffold the learning. Often learners like something visual as a means of confirmation, or as part of their processing.
On a PC you press the Print Screen key which sits beside F 12. This takes a whole screen capture,copies it onto your computer clip board. You then paste the capture into a word processing document, presentation document etc. By clicking on View and toolbars and picture tool bar, you need to select the tool that looks like a noughts and crosses tool. This is the cropping tool which you place on the handles on the side of the screen capture and drag in. In doing so you are cropping off the unwanted material from the capture.
On an Apple I use the keys Shift, Apple / Command and Number 4, held down simultaneously. The cursor becomes a hatch cross and allows you to drag over the parts of the screen you which to capture. As you let go of the cursor, the computer copies the capture to your desktop. Drag the capture, viewed as a picture, into your document and resize. On the Apple you can do a whole screen capture as opposed to a small capture by using the Shift, Apple / Command and Number 3 key simultaneously. However I find being selective with Number 4 refines exactly what it is that I wish to capture.
Enjoy.

76. Wallwisher

Wallwisher is another collaborative tool to come into the Web 2.0 stable. One of the best things about this tool is that it is so so easy to use. My students were collaborating within about 2 minutes of getting to my wall. Editing is easy too, for both you as a teacher and them. I've been using it a little bit with students lately and I'm beginning to realise the potential this tool has to offer. Used as a brainstorming tool, the sticky notes or wishes can be moved and manipulated which appealed to the visual learners. I've long been a fan of Inspiration as a collaborative tool, however wallwisher allows multiple computers to be logged on the same site, all collaborating together. This collaborative aspect is a good option to strengthen those home / school partnerships.
How else did I use Wallwisher with my students.....
Character study
Values programme
Thinking. What does good learning look like, feel like, sound like
Numeracy, Another name for
Strategy, problemsolving
Liz a colleague of mine shared her class's first attempt
Contribute here and tell me other ideas

77. A real old and well used tool!

Greg a principal colleague of mind shared this jpg with me. What can I say, other than, so true!
So on a more serious note, why have I included this tool? We talk about using ICT as a tool. The NZ Curriculum states e-learning should be used as a tool to supplement traditional teaching. Therefore sometimes the tool used will be a computer and sometimes the tool used will be a pencil. Enjoy.