Group items tagged

"Like the idea of diving without getting wet? Now you can explore the underwater world from your yacht deck with this amazing contraption. TheAquabotix HydroView is a submarine camcorder, that sends 1080p video and HD photos right up to your iPad. The cool device can dive up to 100 feet and features LED lights to illuminate the ocean floor."

The article from the New Statesmen" explores the technology out there that allows parents to spy on their children's online activities and mobile phone. However, the question put is whether it is all good or whether some such actions can be detrimental.

"Google's panoramic cameras were given access to CERN's Large Hadron Collider, letting anyone poke around the gigantic machinery and the facility's endless network of tunnels."

Time for a virtual field trip? Note to Google: Wouldn't it be fantastic if we could (virtually) 'label' the scenes with pop-ups in a similar way to how we do that on Google maps?

"While technology has an increasing impact on our daily lives from social relationships to politics, female computer scientists actively influencing these developments are still in short supply. Barely 13 percent of bachelor degrees in computer sciences were earned by women in the US last year. Stanford students Ayna Agarwal and Ellora Israni founded She++, an annual conference and initiative to inspire more women to pursue and explore computer sciences."

Waterlife is an interactive story about the water cycle in the Great Lakes. Waterlife is a twenty part story through which students can learn about the role of water in our lives. Through the story students learn about things like fishing, pollution, invasive species, wetlands, and the politics of water conservation. When students select a part of the Waterlife story they will be able to hear narration, see visuals, and read the text of the story. Some parts of the story also contain links to external resources that student can explore.

"There are lots of different skills that go into game development. This course is about key technical concepts in game development, and has been developed for people of many different backgrounds and skills. Some programming experience would be nice but is not required. We start by looking at the central role of game design and common development processes used in the industry. You will see how game software can be broken into parts that work together, and in particular the idea of game engines. We'll explore the relationship between game design, balance and player experience. Lastly we'll look at enhancing player experience though the use of AI techniques."

"Data Dealer is an online game about collecting and selling personal data - full of irony and gleeful sarcasm. It´s a browser/serious/edu/impact game about digital culture and surveillance and aims to raise awareness about online privacy in a new and fun way. The English version was released in May 2013. Let's call it a bastard offspring of certain shiny 2010 Facebook Games and the 1990 TV simulation game Mad TV, reborn with the souls of South Park and Bruce Schneier. And it´s also available on Facebook! Oh, the irony. In today´s digital age virtually everything we do is recorded, monitored or tracked in some way: Data Dealer is a unique interactive exploration of this personal data ecosystem."

"Jisc TechDis is... a leading UK advisory service on technologies for inclusion. We explore and promote inclusive practices, resources and advice for learning and teaching in UK higher education, further education & skills, and independent and specialist colleges."

"Social media offers some great opportunities for learning in the classroom, bringing together the ability to collaborate, access worldwide resources, and find new and interesting ways to communicate in one easily accessible place. Teachers around the world have found innovative ways to use Twitter as a teaching tool, and we've shared many of these great ideas here with you. Read on, and we'll explore 60 inspiring ways that teachers and students can put Twitter to work in the classroom."

""Literacy from Scratch" is a response to the United Kingdom (UK) government's initiative to develop computer programming skills in both the Primary phase of education (pupils aged 5 to 11) and the Secondary phase (aged 11 to 18). Explore the website to find out how postgraduate students from London and Prague and schools in the UK and the Czech Republic have risen to this challenge. The site also contains a variety of pupil work using IT in cross-curricular sessions in the UK and other countries, including Stories for Children, and the STAR (Science Through Arts) project."

If you enjoy being involved in Twitter chats you may sometimes find it difficult to keep up with the discussions - you might find that running a search for the appropriate hashtag and then refreshing the search just doesn't really cut it for you. If that's the case, you might want to explore TWchat They say of themselves: "Our public service allows you to create realtime chat rooms based on twitter hashtag. Invite users and perform the presentations online without any additional software! Add your friends or colleagues to help you with moderation."

"Quick Makes is about giving the chance to tinker with a range of applications and programs, each with their own constraints, to discover that creating, making and engaging with technology is not only easy but can be fun, especially when we are focused. From mashing up a website with Mozilla Thimble to creating your own visual with Google Draw, spend a few minutes exploring the potential for technology to make giving a voice to learning more doable."

"The game Minecraft is an emerging way to teach and learn basic concepts of collaboration in the classroom. Minecraft rose to popularity due to elaborate pop culture recreations and the ability to explore other people's lands. With Minecraft, students can learn about survival, experience history digitally and create models of cells for biology class. If you are using Minecraft in your class, follow these magazines to get new ideas for your lesson plan."

"Educating our students is a collective responsibility. As educators and leaders in schools we often wonder if we are providing the best possible education for our students. This series of Professional Learning sessions will explore the complexities that we are faced with when working through these three main areas - * Learning Culture * Learning Paradigms * Learning Spaces"

Helen has organised an interesting series of online workshops this year.

Share travel links, photos, plans, stories, and notes on a map. Explore places together. Student assignments to research and share. Hosted online.

I presented twice at a great two day conference in Melbourne called 'Arresting Audiences'. The irony of the title not lost on this writer as the real intention of the event run by Film Victoria (a traditional film funding organisation) was commendable - finally focus on 'users', 'watchers', 'participants' aka as old school 'audiences'. Most of the talks explored new marketing, basic demography and obligatory future trends with a couple of inspirational 'write for your inner audience' highlight talks from the likes of Jane 'buffy/BSG' Espenson, but I was asked to look at the social and transmedia aspects that affect and impact on audiences/communities so below is:

DeweyDigger.com is a visual search portal where you can "Explore knowledge via the Dewey Decimal Classification; just clickety-click."  On the splash page you are presented with the main Dewey Numbers and an ever-changing interactive panorama showing images from these listings.  Next you need to click on an image to access a cloud tag of terms in that call number.  From there you can select a tag and then select a search or research tool to locate information.