October 6, 2009
Looks like Youtube, twitter, and facebook have decided to explore the synergies of overlapping their social media
This is an exciting initiative that will allow RSS feeds from either site, to appear on each others site.
commentators rushed to explain why this is so significant:
'now we'll be able to broadcast your favourite tweets into an animated YouTube video for others to read and comment on .. and tweet back in the mix'
'like WOW ...that really changes the game'
'the convergence of social media is just so exciting ... can't wait to explore the synergies here'
'the future is here - its just not evenly distributed : but this is like a meme from the future'
'forget Web 2; this is Web X; where X iterates so quickly its like a singularity'
its expected that the new site might be called YouTwitFace which also created excitement:
'it just captures so perfectly how these early adopters are changing the world'
'cyber pioneers is so last century - but youTwitFace just expresses the niche i want to carve out for myself!'
several academics also expressed interest -
'i have several phd students exploring identity formation in this new hypermediated cultural space, using recursive discourse analysis' said one
(several listeners nodded - 'oh yeah, recursive DA - thats kinda cool' tweeted imaTwFa)
and although some foresaw a future where nobody, like, reads more than 140 characters at a time, there is just no reasoning with such a profoundly deep movement
March 2, 2009
little chat in the supermarket
...easy to use movie making app (xtranormal)- simple to position characters and cameras etc
... world maths day -500 million practice questions answered online in the last month ...
November 3, 2008
Here's some info from a virtual house for learning sustainabiliy, which i've described before ...a project with Swinburne uni, orginally inspired by River City
its a full 3D environment, which kids seem to relate very well to, in our testing ...here's a few screenshots
we can give a copy of the game to educators who want to trial this hopefully they'll want to help develop curriculum, and provide feedback...but just having a look is ok
here's a collaborative doc, which i can give interested people access to
send me an email (rob at thinkingcurriculum.com) or comment below...
still looking at whether uploading or sending a CD is best option - its about CD worth of info...we could post it out if needed [update 8th Nov; have it on a server for download now]
So... something cool...open for any interested educators to get involved...
September 13, 2008
what difference has ICT made in school maths?
In spite of the smoke, just about none.
We just use the technology for more efficient representation of the same content. Hundreds of years of pen and paper has deeply shaped the way we think of maths, and we're not sure of how to unleash the new thinking that ICT provides ... such as the power of modelling in an era of spreadsheets and recursion. Although the practice of science and engineering is highly transformed in places, we've barely modified the content or approaches to 'problem solving' in maths education....barely scratched the surface of how these tools overlap with the school subject we call 'maths' . We have some interactive whiteboard demos, but not much has changed in secondary maths...we have lots of little disconnected 'learning objects' that illustrate a concept or two(the Learning Federation spent $100 M on a set of very ordinary, disconnected 'learning objects'... which tend to be feel scripted, artificial - not much of the rich constructivist thinking that ICT can offer)
Compare this with the rich interactvity of game engines.... the huge and sustained development that makes a world fluid and believable and compelling ... where are the versions tweaked to make maths explicit?
school barely even attempts to go there ...-
(here's a minor example of what i mean)
Alan Kay thinks the real computer revolution hasn't happened yet... and we're still in the early days, like the first 50 years after the printing press, when it just looked like a better way to make manuscripts....
.. when there is a realm of ideas and approaches that can be tapped - click the pic to see what 6 simple building blocks can do, when we move beyond the computer as reproducing text, to having tools that allow new ways of thinking, new ways of seeing the material
this is literally, a few building blocks ... click to see ... year 7 and 8 kids got this at first go...
there are 200,000 other projects shared in this space, and some rich maths ones...
in spite of the limitations of the tool, Scratch is rich enough to allow
- expression of creative ideas
- tinkering
- experimentation
...attributes often rather lacking in school versions of maths
I’ve often noticed a few kids in school – often totally under the radar of their teachers- have quite strong skills at programming, largely self taught - even though they might be mediocre at maths or english, as judged by results.
just about no-one in school tries to the leverage the overlap...since education still tends think of 'mathematics' as manipulating symbols according to the same rules ... and computing has become a black box, where we are 'users' and others to the work of developing the simulation and model
Contrast with this
"(If you like programming, but you hate mathematics, don't panic. In
that case it's not really mathematics you hate, it's school. The
programming you enjoy is much more like real mathematics than the stuff
you get in most high school math classes.) In these books I try to
encourage this sort of formal thinking by discussing programming in
terms of general rules rather than as a bag of tricks."
http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~bh/v1ch0/preface.html
Papert of course had strong views on this - that school maths was too
dry, and that playing with the turtle gave even young students access to
ideas like vector calculus, in a more intuitive way, without the
formalism normally associated with these ideas....
for example,
Repeat 360 [fd 1 rt 1]
Is an alternate and possibly more intuitive way for kids to explore a circle, than the classic analytical description
(x-a)2 + (y-b)2=r2
(and when differentiated according to the rules for doing this...
dy/dx = --- [an expression too full of indices, brackets and square roots, to be formatted into an email (where some of this was drafted) ]
and so what intuitive meaning does a student see in the rate of change of y with respect to x
and which version will a child most likely see in school?
The former approach gives more "feeling" for the differential changes; and so maybe in later years 'curl' and 'div' and all that would be likely to make more sense, if one had played with the 'feeling' of curves like this ... or at least, maybe one is more primed for some sense of the mathematical objects ... maybe ... (like paperts 'gears' becoming the mental tool he spun to appreciate what 20=4x+5y meant)
why is the mapping between these domains, across them, so weak in school maths - with all the effort expended in both ICT and maths ... why not better allied ...
I know I move into a more creative place when i model or program maths ideas - and have ever since my own schooling - and thus find the maths makes more music ... and I want the kids to experience all this via modelling and programming ...
will take some more permeation of ICT into maths... not as a presentation tool, but as modifying the discipline itself...
Papert and David Perkins describe this as "2nd order" change - not just using the new tool to more efficiently represent traditional paper based content, but allowing it to interact, modify the content and discipline itself ... will sound like sacrilege to many maths educators; less so, i suspect, to pragmatic scientists and engineers, whom we like to think we are preparing..
June 13, 2008
someone asked about flash projects for year 9s and i remembered this one - an animated acrostic poem (click the 'start' text).
Its pretty simple, but good for practicing layers and frames and tweens, and the kids seem to like it - so here's the instructions for doing it.
(This was originally done in Flash 5, and it works the same in Flash 8, so i expect it would be same in the later versions).
So, to start with - it needs staggered start and end points for each letter - (see the pic in step 4) .. so here's the process:
(1) set up as many layers as there are letters in your name -add label each layer
(in this case - 4 layers for FRED)
(2) on the bottom layer, add a key frame in frame 1, and use the Text tool to type in the first letter ("F') (choose a font of say size 24) .
(3) take the number of letters in your name, and multiply x 10. Fred has 4 letters, so the "magic number" is 40. Go out to the magic number (40 in this case), and add a key frame on the bottom layer.(So the 'F' starts on the stage at Frame 1; and ends at Frame 40 (or whatever your magic number is)
(4) on the second layer, add a keyframe into frame 10, type the second letter ("R" for Fred) , and offset the end point 10 frames on as well (see the pic) , so it is staggered in relation to the layer below.
(5) add the remaining letters into the other layers, and continue staggering the start and the end points 1o frames beyond the previous layer. (it doesn't look like the two top layers in the pic have staggered end points, but they do .. have just truncated the screen shot a little ) if you play it now, it will look like this (click the little "start" text at bottom)
so now to add in the rest of the word, and morph them (so 'F' morphs into 'Fruity' for example) :
(6) on the bottom layer, add another key frame 10 frames past the previous end point (now frame 50 for Fred). Edit the text so on this key frame so it has the full word (Fruity, not just F).
(7) Need to break the word into a shape, so its not ordinairy text. Select the text box (click the arrow tool first), then choose "Break-Apart" under the Modify menu, twice. (short cut : control-B twice).
(8) still on the bottom layer, break apart the single letter ('F') on the previous key frame.
(9) Now you can add a shape tween 
between these two keyframes, to morph the F into Fruity. Here's one method for this - with the "F' keyframe still selected (frame 40 in this case), and the properties window showing (select Window Properties if you need to), select "Shape" out of the "Tween" drop down
(10) all being well there should be a green arrow like this : 
between the key frames .... if you see the dreaded dashed line then one or other of the keyframes probably wasn't broken apart fully (needs to be done twice to break a word right down to a shape).
(11) so .. .repeat all that (step 6 to 11) on the other layers ..
(12) now add an extra keyframe to each layer so they all end in the same spot - so the end of the movie should look something like this
(13) from here, you could add images etc on other layers, to come in at appropriate times - an apple appears with the fruity layer etc, and motion tweens around, and maybe sounds, etc - or change the timing, if you want a delay between each letter etc
enjoy
May 31, 2008
Wikipedia is the best known wiki. The wiki thing is about simple editing of pages, simple addition of pages, collaborative editing - and a mindset that allows work in progress to still be useful, sketched out and in use, and flexible, incremental changes
Ward Cunningham invented the thing and is also one of the developers of extreme programming - which loosely, seems to mean something similar; allow things to evolve, with a minimal master plan to start with - since its likely to change - allow incremental changes and constant updating
Nice to see the behind the scenes thinking of a key web 2 tool. There is - a fascinating podcast on all this here- cool design ideas on keeping it simple, intuitive, feeling empathy in the software process, teaching software ...
(twit has other very interesting insights from other creative types who were at the heart of whole software story)
May 30, 2008
[wrote this as postscript for some studies - following the intuition that the common experience of ICT as web 2.0 may eclipse some crucial understandings of classic IT, water down the content of computer science in schools] :
Sitting on a train, after a day wrestling with a research proposal, an interesting synchronicity unfolds. Passengers cram in; opposite one starts a crossword puzzle. Adjacent, one opens a laptop and starts programming. A few minutes layer another passenger gets on, sits opposite, and starts a sudoku. A moment later the sudoku solver and the programmer recognise each other; obviously know each other a little; but don’t talk for long, and settle back to their tasks. I’ve been glancing at the programming beside me; its in a terminal window and is full of test cases and assertions. I guess it might be a test harness for an electronic board.
After a while I notice the approach the sudoku player is taking, systematically listing, in small script at the top of each cell, the candidate possibilities for each square, identifying the most constrained cells first – then reducing elements out other cells once one is determined. I find myself thinking of procedures I could use to program that - looping through each column, and row, with an array attached to each cell; - maybe with colour if one just wanted to hint at productive cells…. I glance back at the programmers screen –and it suddenly seems like that is exactly what he is programming - he flicks a window and I see its called sudoku.py.
My sudden conjecture is that there might be coworkers, since they did recognise each other … even though the common link of sudoku algorithms seems like improbable work .. so I break the convention of commuting silence and start a conversation. It turns out their common focus is not these little numerical puzzles - they actually did a computer science course some years ago; the manual sudoku solver now works in a bank; as a systems designer; the programmer works for a stockbroker, programming automated trading systems – both are tackling the sudokus for distraction.
We chat, and I talk about this research, and Sherry Turkle’s reservations on today’s notion of IT– around the that fact that 20 years ago many kids programmed computers for fun – we all agree on that - but today kids are more likely to be on MySpace or World of Warcraft. I mention my suspicion that the lack of a 'BASIC' – the simple, pre-installed language we learnt with, might contribute to this. I’m interested in their opinions.
The stockbroker programmer indicates, wryly, he is happy with the lack of competition coming through from junior programmers. The sudoko banker rebukes him, and warns that below a critical mass that whole sector of the IT industry will be outsourced to India. Working in a large bank, he sees it already; there are no local programmers below the system designers. He also seems bit conflicted about ICT in schools; since he has fond memories of the control he felt in teaching himself programming language, and spending hours trying to make games, on a Commodore 64; but isn’t sure there is a future in it now. The stockbroker programmer disagrees – loves the technical work and sees it as a good career option for students.
I feel like I should interview these two, incarnations of the concerns I’ve been reading over for two days; early dialogue in an ‘outcome space’.. after they leave at the little satellite town, I travel on, feeling I might be on to something - that the historical tensions around how IT is conceived corresponds to real and current issues, and the strength of this little debate tells me the issue goes beyond schools - and the idea of visual schematics to examine the tensions might work.
many in education seem set on cheerleading the '21st century ict' ='web 2.0' =transformation' theme - lots of syrupy youtube videos on that theme - but not everyone agrees, or at least not without reservations about what is missing in that equation. Some have even stepped away from the spin and grappled with an historical context that is surprisingly absent from all the discussion of ICT in schools. Its quite stabilising to have some sense of the real historical trajectory of educational computing - the popular idea that its all progressed ignores some of the real history.
Scratch is cool. It makes learning programming fun … and collaborative.
The last 18 months has seen 140,000 projects uploaded, of the millions that have must have been made.
They range from the simple to complex, with kids and teachers and experienced programmers all contributing.It uses the tile metaphor (like etoys, Alice, Logo TNG, GameMaker).
I’ve previously questioned whether the "web 2" thing is a bit overdone as rationale for IT use, and whether we’re losing some possibilities in schools – such as the ability to construct software, and build simulations - whether we're so busy repackaging content that we lose the vision for creating at this level. So its great to see Scratch uses Web 2 to get people sharing programmable media. You can upload your projects, share them, download other peoples, and comment etc. I’ve just tried a little demo, where you can draw a steering wheel, draw a car, and control the car with the steering wheel.
Here’s the demo and a pdf file you could use for instructions
(This is the simplest of 2 minute scripts, and that 's the point - in what other environments could you draw a car, draw a steering wheel, and then link them together , so one controls the other, in a way that's accessible for kids? It gives a creative feel to the process.)
The idea is from a classic etoys demo – and indeed Scratch and etoys are both based on the same educational vision, and the same underlying platform. One of the kids made that link - "its like Squeak" which was cool. Those who remember Logo sometimes comment that its a bit like that too ).
There's a whole world of ideas lying just behind those comments - a little known history and rich array of educational ICT ideas and approaches, but won't go there now.
I'm hoping to get kids exploring maths with Scratch ... removes some of the programming language hurdles - still leaves you with the thinking challenges which are complex enough. They're enjoying it ok at present- liked some of the maths galleries and made some interesting effects with a few starters on pen drawings and iteration.
March 4, 2008
i wondered recently, and ages ago, about the unrealised potential of tinkering with software to learn maths etc, from the "inside"; more of a modelling approach using iteration etc. So here's an example of that ... taking the popular internet game LineRider -which is full of neat, but hidden, school level maths - and adding a cartesian grapher in the left corner to make some of the maths a little more visible to the kids who can't see where y=mx+c kicks in
(click the pic to launch it, then click the little icon on the left hand edge)
[if you want to download the swf, you'll need this file as well]
so ... my point is really, not that we can make demo's like this, though its fun... but that we could, in principle, teach whole courses like this ... a hybrid of maths with computers ... or even this sort of interactive art, -ie not just apps that demo "key concepts" ... but maths thinking and "IT thinking" -(programming etc) supporting each other ... thats the boundary i think we still haven't crossed in school yet; reconceptualising how maths and ict could relate.
Nothing much novel here - Papert and Kay were suggesting it 30 years ago; just don't think we've gone there in any significant way -programming feels a bit out of favour, for various reaons - and so i think we are missing a key aspect of what software really is; limiting kids to being software "users" - not experimenting with the most flexible and expressive symbolism devised ... (i'm certainly no expert at this - just feel that in order to take control in creative ways kids need to be exposed to the art and discipline of programming; its what this ICT stuff is made of after all; they need to be literate here, or least get a chance to be - empowered so "behind the scenes" isn't out of reach - and this world of functions and variables could also be very useful for exploring maths in particular; could also mix into art, word games, media stories etc)
(here's a compelling story on how we got to where we are .. where the software experience is reduced to "using applications" - i'm just finding out there was a huge educational vision around the initial explosion of IT ... not just logo ... which had the idea of kids making and exploring their own tools - which has largely gone by the wayside)
November 30, 2007
there is a vigorous discussion occuring on the Vic 7-10 IT email list about the pros and cons of the last IT conference - was the "revolution" theme, and a lot of the web 2.0 focus (the miracle of wikis and blog etc) , limited to buzz words without educational substance, void of historical perspective, without deep rationale - or was it a discussion of the state of play, with some inspirational case studies?
i didn't even go to the conference, but i had been having a parallel discussion with the keynote speaker, Prof Stephen Heppell - after i heard him a couple of days later. i was going to email something to the list but i thought the issue deserved to go beyond transitory email - so here (with Stephen’s permission) it is:
My what big teeth you all have 
I didn't get to the conference - so please ignore everything I am about to say.
Although I did hear Stephen Heppell at another forum - and lots of web2 examples etc - so maybe you can listen in again.
I liked his content, and sense of education and change - lots of interesting ideas, and felt like a good sense of kids and schools. I also had some questions, which I followed up in email with him - re classic tech IT,
"You mention that you put the “C” into ICT (not just old IT). I was interested in that as I have looked into the terms somewhat – and used them to structure a proposed enquiry(3) into my masters (around dimensions of engagement in classic IT and emergent ICT).
You strike me as a bit of both : Eg while the conference speaking etc would seem to sit more at the ICT end, there is a small font link to "Jolly Faithful XServe" -- “if you care about these things – (I do)” from http://rubble.heppell.net/ which is a pretty classic IT reference, underpinning all this digital creativity.
Small font acknowledging that caring about the underlying IT is an acquired taste, or ... geeky enough that can overpower learning or popular palette?
I wonder if we should aim at both IT and ICT in some way?
and if you think those more technical skills are at risk, if we aim at web 2 blogging and wikis and movie making, good as that is (very wide range – but depth?)
eg visions like that of Papert (Logo) and Kay (Smalltalk, Squeak, Etoys) - for computing to be child’s play – exploring big ideas in maths and science – do you think that might get less attention than deserving in this web2.0 context?
(you mentioned you use your ipod as a server - what does it serve?)
Stephen's response :
I get blamed for the C in ICT more than i claim it! But have always cared about geeky too - I was very prominent in the Hypercard movement when we had hosts of students and teachers making and swapping code and resources. We certainly have a crisis of capable developers and the crisis is even worse in terms of gender balance - very few girls now, although wasn't originally the case. In truth we really lack "low start high finish" tools that can get developers up and running quickly - Dylan, VIP, Script X and a number of others promised this, but came to naught - we still need them.
many children now see the computer as a tool for creative and other fab work, but not enough as something that they can develop themselves - ie they consume applications rather than evolve them. I do worry about this heaps.
I just have a bunch of token pages - including video streaming - on my iPod's Apache - obviously as you flit from network to network the IP wander about so it isn't much use serving a domain name for example. But is is fun! S "
So in reading that - a few themes I might not have expected - which possibly aren't prioritised in his presentations I guess :
- Need for "low start high finish" tools
- Crisis in lack of developers
- Tendency to see computer as only 'fab tool'
- *Tendency to consume not evolve apps* (compare http://www.edutopia.org/no-gamer-left-behind)
- **Worrying heaps about all this**
Rob : One more question,
I heard Jamie McKenzie a while ago, and his presentation was also largely expounding the learning that is facilitated by web 2, but his writings & website, show some other concerns - eg recently a scathing critique of the whole 'digital native' meme
Stephen Heppell:
Well, I don't buy the digital native either - look at how MySpace is now full of pensioners doing their family trees, etc etc. Kids got there early, but maybe the difference is between those of a mechanical era (who worry things might break) and those of a digital era (who enjoy finding what does break!). But I think Marc Prensky did the world, and esp the US some big favours with his Digital Native thing because it gave people a chance to think afresh. With the pace of change if (as many did) you fail to notice the pace, then it takes a big push to get back up to speed with whree we are in all this - and the DigiNative stuff was that (useful) big push.
So a more nuanced view of the pluses and minuses of web 2 & digital native etc than it might seem - not that we should be surprised, if we let people be 3D, and not projections of our limited view.
Actually maybe, since we all love Higher Order Thinking and all that, we need to take up the challenge Bill Kerr has issued - eg Do a PMI or 6 hats where it matters - on trends in IT education - do a 6 hats on that?
those tools are all a bit dinky when the topic is too safe; if we rule our own assumptions as out of court
cheers all -
PS sure the conference was great, flawed, fascinating - as we all are
PPS (I also left early to go meet Bill, who has put some very interesting stuff in my path (Squeak, Etoys, an amazing thesis on Alan Kay's vision of the dynabook (- revolution there, maybe))
PPPS Someone on the list (Carolyn?) made the point that the conference title "you say you want a revolution?" was more challenging that it might appear at first glance .... we might read it as a naïve proclamation : "ICT / Web 2 = revolution"
the intention was apparently a bit more challenging - you say you want a revolution ..... well how are we going? etc
(much as I appreciate Bills input and generosity re all things Squeak - his "take no prisoners" approach in discussing the conference - is, well, very 'passionate'/provocative - and we like that, no?)
[errata - Bill has pointed below that i've mis-attributed a comment on the discussion list; wasn't actually him who made comment on the conference in the "take no prisoners" style of language. It seemed out of character to his usual depth of argument - but was my mistake- i've apologised below. His points are still strongly argued, of course, but not insulting.]