Thunder

The enhanced podcast from the Telford ICT conference are now online at http://edu.blogs.com (part1 & part2).  This was an excellent keynote and well worth the time spent downloading and then watching on your preferred device (ipod video, pc or mac).

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Last night I had one of those ‘wow! that’s cool’ moments.

A couple of weeks ago Shropshire CC allowed access to Flickr from our schools so I decided it was time to upgrade my free account to a Pro account. It was time to see what else I can do with my photos, and I had been discussing with Ewan about setting up a project to geotag and share some photos of Roman relics etc in Shropshire for Scottish schools to have access to.

I searched around Flickr and via a geotagging group I came across FlickrFly (FlickrFly is a script that can be linked from the description or comment of a geotagged Flickr Photo to fly you that location in Google Earth). I tried out one of the examples and decided to give it a go.

My next challenge was to find the gps location for my photos, I tried using Get-a-map from Ordnance Survey. I was able to pinpoint the place the photograph was taken and was given a Grid reference but I didn’t know how to convert this into a gps location, if anyone could tell me that would be great. I then tried to use GoogleMaps to get the gps data, as with get-a-map I could find the place but this time I couldn’t find any location data. My next stop was GoogleEarth, the mapping data wasn’t as good as the previous two so I guessed at exactly where the photo was taken but it did give me a longitude and latitude figure.

Now I had the data I revisted my Flickr photos and when into my C2C set to see if I can geotag some of the photos I took while cycling across England. A selected my photo of the Gateshead Millenium Bridge as I thought this would be a an easy place to find. Google Earth returned me 54 58′11.24″ N 1 35′57.11″ W, so I tagged the photo:

• geo:lon=1.355711
• geo:lat=54.581124
• geotagged

I then copied the simple html code from FlickrFly into the description for the photo, it appeared like this:

Fly to this location
(Requires Google Earth)

I was so excited and clicked on Fly to this location, I told my browser to open the file with GoogleEarth. GoogleEarth booted up and started flying around, unfortunately I ended up not on the Gateshead bridge! I had a look around the preferences on Google Earth and noticed I could change the Lat/Lon from Degrees, Minutes, Seconds to Degrees. I went back to where the bridge actually is and I got the following, lat 54.969780 lon -1.599194, so I deleted my original tags and changed them to these:

• geo:lon=-1.599194
• geo:lat=54.969780

I clicked on the fly to this location link again and it worked - how cool was that! I then did another photo to check I had it cracked and it worked yet again, I was so excited I had to show my wife - I think she was impressed.

Just think of all the different applications for this in learning, school trips - geotag the photos and people could watch the journey you made, the romans study that hopefully Ewan and I will sort out soon etc.

Today in Education Guardian.co.uk Stephen Heppell talks about 5 simple but effective things that have impressed him this year.  The full article can be read here, in brief he mentions:

• installing mirrors behind rows of pc’s so that you can see students faces, this is someting I have mentioned to schools for a while now.  It would allow you to see if they are enjoying their learning and have the effect of making the room look bigger and lighter (you didn’t expect interior decoracting tips did you).
• put postive statements on the walls not just rules, which tend to be negative don’ts.
• remove assemblies and produce a weekly broadcast instead to get information out, this could be in the form of a podcast that parents/pupils could subscribe to or a streamed movie.
• with “pupil voice” a topic in most staffrooms, texting offers a way to move on from frumpy schools’ councils.  Purchase a PAYG phone and give the students the number, they could take photos of issues they have around the school i.e. broken toilets etc and text them or just send a comment.
• give one pupil a digital camera for a week and ask them to photograph the “10 coolest things” then display these images on the school’s biggest street-facing window at night time.  This display could also be put onto the school website/blog for wider exposure.

What are your thoughts on these?  Do you do anything like this already, if so please share it here.

Today I started to show my age, some might say I have being doing that for a while now :(, or maybe not my age but maybe my ‘digital immigrant(ness)’. I received an email from Logitech about claiming 10 free SkypeOut minutes - I filled in the online form and a couple of minutes later a voucher appeared in my inbox.

I thought this was painless enough and it was nice to get something for free, so I sent an email out to people I knew that were using Skype, this was my email:

I just got an email from Logitech with a link here: http://www.vclogitech.com/SkypeOffer.aspx?src=InvUKEN2 if you follow the link you can get 10 free SkypeOut minutes.

Several minutes later I had a reply from Ewan McIntosh thanking me and saying that he would pass it on to folk he knew.  While reading through my bloglines feeds I saw one from Ewan - Free SkypeOut minutes, rather than sending an email he had just posted it to his blog.  Now why didn’t I think of that? - answers on a postcode, or via the comments below.

Logitech have released FREE avatars and video effects that will work with compatible logitech web cams, according to the website:

• Avatars will move based on your actions.
• Accessories will appear naturally while you move.

These video effects and avatars can work with many IM programs (i.e. MSN messenger) or to alter still images.

The avatars could be used to show moods or emotions if the students were doing a PSHE or citizenship project, they could be used by students who are not confident or shy infront of a camera.  If you have any other ideas how they could be used leave me a comment.

Earlier today I was fortunate enough to hear Ewan McIntosh talk about ‘10 ways to stay connected without losing your mind and why blogging isn’t one of them’. It was an excellent presentation, the only slight problem I had was that he didn’t have a long enough slot which lead to the final part of the presentation being rushed and there was no opportunity for audience questions. (If booking Ewan - you need to give him a couple of hours, an hour and a half at least.) Not only was the subject matter inspiring but the delivery was second to none that I have seen, I am sure he will publish his podcast from the day on his blog asap.

Many of the 100+ audience were inspired and challenged by what Ewan had to say, so much so that we should see an increase in the amount of blogs and podcasts originating from Telford.

Following his session Ewan and I made the trip to Church Aston Infant School to watch the students produce their first podcast. The podcast should appear on their website or newly created blog early next week. It was great to see this young students creating their own music to go in the podcast.

After lunch Ewan gave an impromptu session on podcasting using Audacity again a very well received session which just highlighted how well he knows his subject.  This podcast can be heard on his blog.

To conclude an excellent session, I am just waiting to listen to and see his enhanced podcast - if you are looking for a young inspiring keynote then Ewan is definately worth considering.  Keep up the good work Ewan McGregor, or was it Mr McEwan