Video life in a day project: looks like a nice idea

Very interesting page, brought to my attention by Catherine Andy. The subject matter is interesting in itself, and if you like it you might wish to vote for it: it has been shortlisted in the Japan Webpage Contest run by the Japan Foundation. This is the link: www.japanwebpagecontest.org.uk/vote What interests me in particular, though, is the use of the different applications to present the information, such as Tagxedo (which I reviewed in Computers in Classrooms) and stickies provided by Crazy Profile (which I hadn'd heard of before). Well worth exploring, and don't forget to vote for it!

Interesting article about the benefits that can accrue from DESIGNING games as opposed to only playing them.

Another one of those awful videos, in which people hold up handwritten cards to a background of some horrible dirge. Nevertheless, the ideas on the cards are pretty good, and perfectly complement the ideas in the forthcoming Amazing Web 2.0 Projects Book! This video is definitely one to watch, bookmark and share.

Interesting overview of new applications and technologies and their adoption times.

Summary of timetable towards implementation, what this is all about, 'guarantees' and videos. I haven't read any of this, but am posting this in order to let people know it's available.

Key paragraph and website: "We will make government data accessible through a single access point at www.data.gov.uk, which will go live from January 2010 with over 1,100 central government datasets free for reuse, ranging from lists of schools to traffic volumes on the trunk road network."

The reference to the collaboration with Berners-Lee was mentioned at the recent Online Information Conference. If it comes off as planned and on schedule (a cause for celebration in itself?), this could be a very good illustration of the power of the so-called 'semantic web'.

Interesting selection of stuff discovered thru Twitter, eg video games link. It includes one of my posts too, but that's not the reason I'm posting this!

Excellent post which basically asks the question: is it wise to chuck out all the rules we know to be sensible when it comes to elearning and consultants?

The latest edition of IFIP, the ICT newsletter based in India, includes a range of interesting-looking articles, including social entrepreneurship and ICT in Nigeria. Also, the work Miles Berry and I did to find out how youngsters use technology when not at school. Available free of charge.

A lot of good stuff comes out of Denmark as far as education is concerned, and I think this raises the stakes a bit. In a nutshell, this exam allows students to use the internet to help them answer the questions. The questions are not about finding facts, but validation of search engine results and such like. As Stephen Heppell says, students use computers in their education, and then as soon as they walk through the examination room door they have to leave all that behind and write their answers. I'd go further: research has shown that setting tests which involve a different mode of answering from the mode of learning leads to poorer performance. In other words, if students have covered a course mainly through using technology, they should be required to use the technology for the examination. Similarly with paper-based learning.

I wonder if (a) this is also true of the UK and (b) if so, what would Baroness Greenfield make of it? The summary suggests that the increase in the use of the internet and mobile phones does NOT lead to social isolation, but instead: "is associated with larger and more diverse discussion networks. And, when we examine people's full personal network - their strong and weak ties - internet use in general and use of social networking services such as Facebook in particular are associated with more diverse social networks."

Looks like a great competition for youngsters to get involved in. "Write a news story or a script between 250 and 400 words or make a video or audio recording (between 90 seconds and 120 seconds) that tells us how you think "technology is changing the way we learn"."

A good article by Sheyne Lucock on the drawbacks of using IWBs from a pedagogical point of view. I have known Sheyne for many years, and his views are not unknown to me. It's good to see them in print, however, and it will be interesting to see other people's reactions to them.

Not the most hilarious comic strip I've read, but I really like Kevin's comment about it!

Balanced article: mother and daughter each giving their views on whether or not Facebook is safe. As my wife said, that's like asking if cars are safe to drive.

You don't necessarily have to be a "techie" in order to be able to manage a technical support team effectively. These guidelines explain how.