Facing the currently unknown

Moblogging from #ililc

Here we go, folks, my humble contribution to this weekend's festivities at University of Southampton. I'll endeavour to slidecast the presentation when I get hold of the audio, although I'm afraid I doubt that will be until next week now.

And so the point of my presentation really was to encourage people not to just assume that because we might be out on a trip, immersed in the target language culture and language, that we are maximising learning opportunities- for those on the trip or those back in the classroom. But see what you think and I'd love your opinions- and suggestions!

Moblogging - ILILC 2011

View more presentations from Chris Fuller.

Edutalk

David Noble is a fascinating man. And that fascinating man is working on what I see as a fascinating project- edutalk. Edutalk aims to bring together the voices of educators, telling one story at a time, every day of the year. Some of these may be in the form of presentations that David has recorded, but he's also encouraging people to get in touch and use one of the ways which edutalk have set up to add material to the site. This could be through a Gabcast account set up for the purpose, an audioboo from an iphone, ipadio or alternatively using Skype and the recording tool Pamela.

Given that the project is based around the use of mobile devices for recording I decided to give David a quick call to talk about my interest in integrating mobile phones into the classroom and beyond. So, as @joedale put it, I gabbed. I hope you find it interesting.

So now I've done my bit- so over to you, get involved!

EDUtalk #17

The Flip-ping travel videos

As many people now, I’m a fan of gadgets. Fun things that make life just a little bit better,

more fun. And preferably that don’t cost too much.

 

As a result, the Flip has been one of my closest companions since September 2008.

As many people also know, Ali (my wife) and I have just spent 3 months using our Spanish and travelling around South America. If you didn’t know, well, now you do, and feel free to find out more about it in English or in Spanish (designed for KS4 pupils). And as you can imagine, I was determined to document as much of it as I could. And this is where the Flip HD came into play.

There are so many good things about the original Flip. Its ease of use, the USB extension, its 5 hour battery life (supposedly). But what’s not very frequently commented upon is the effectiveness of its built in editing software. As a keen exponent of moblogging, getting stuck in wherever you are in the world, this was invaluable.

And so imagine my... disappointment when I discovered that the Flip HD’s editing facility has gone backwards. The only option that’s now available is trimming and resaving, individual clip by individual clip. Now given that the Flip HD saves into an .MP4 format, thus rendering traditional editing tools like MovieMaker virtually useless (even when you convert the file it still comes up as gobbledygoop), this creates quite some issue for actually using all those clips I took with its fantastic 2 hours worth of recording time.

Let the search for a good, FREE editing tool begin. Any ideas, oh wonderful people?!

And I promise that when I do find one I’ll let you all know- and then bore you with the traditional holiday snaps (or clips) session.

 

The Flip rules again

As many of you know, I love my Flip ultra video camera. It's easy to use and of a good quality, especially for online work. But my love of it was accentuated even more yesterday when for the first time in ages I used my own "posh" HD video camera. I spent 3 hours converting the files, for no obvious gain compared to using the Flip. It really is THAT good.

Watch out soon for the video of the fairytrale my year 10s wrote and performed yesterday- I'm a proud man!!

SSAT conference with Louise Crossley

Firstly, apologies for how many times I say the word "ok". Oops.

Secondly I don't seem to be able to count. All of the numberings on the slides seem to start at . Mmm.

Thirdly, Juliet, I am NOT a geek.

ICT- thinking outside the classroom box

Audacity, but portable

It's always exciting to find fun new tools. So a big thank you to Creative ICT for putting me onto the existence of a portable version of Audacity. THink of the potential of having Audacity with you wherever you are- to work from any computer at all via a memory stick, external Hard Drive, even an iPod. School trips where, for example, the computer in a hostel doesn't have the magic piece of software to let pupils get podcasting on the go?

I'm excited. Sad, but true. So if you want to play around too, download it from here and then check out their other portable apps for even more fun and games.

Ten Tors

I'm writing this as a very proud man. I don't usually like putting things on the blog which are too personal, but for the last few days everything's been so inextricably linked that I felt I had to.

Many of you will have seen on the news today about the Ten Tors event having been cancelled due to the horrific weather. Apart from teaching Spainsh, I also train a Ten Tors team, which is hugely hard work, but hugely beneficial for young people in a world which is so frequently devoid of risk. Many of you may also have heard mention of a girl who died in a tragic accident 2 months ago whilst training for the event. She was in my team, and I miss her so so much. But today a group of 5 pupils walked over the crest of a hill carrying a large pink banner, crying their eyes out at their achievements against all the odds, and causing a similar response in me.

Their parents had been well and truly put through the mill. Knowing that thier children were on Dartmoor, and that the weather was adverse, was hideous for them, and I thank them for their support and faith, both in myself and the event. But this weekend has also made me proud to be a blogger. For thanks to my mobile phone I've managed to keep them reasonably well updated on what was actually happening on the ground at Okehampton Army Camp, uploading photos, videos and posts. The blog has made a huge difference to their lives over the last few days, and has given everyone a means of expressing their awe at the 11 pupils who set out originally onto the moor's achievements.

If anyone's actually reading this, please please go to www.edgehillcollege.typepad.com/ten_tors and by all means check out the pics etc sent by www.shozu.com but principally show these fantastic individuals just how impressed we all are. A blog is a portal to global support, please let's use it as it ought to be used. 

Moblogging

Ready for next weekend's Ten Tors event (to find out what this is, click here), I'm looking for ways to be able to moblog- update the site from the wilds of Dartmoor!

From my point of view, this is the future of blogging- rather than waiting to get back to a computer, being able to register your thoughts there and then.

Typepad allows you to post via e-mail, be it from a computer or mobile, but that doesn't allow for photos, videos etc, which is what I desperately want to be able to update regularly next weekend!

So I went to flickr, and started exploring all their tools, and came across ShoZu. It's remarkably simple to set up, and the instructions are fantastically clear and precise- a real rarity, and we all know there's nothing more irritating than instructions missing out steps and leaving you hanging!! It allows you to choose from a widerange of destinations, including all main blog hosts, as well as flickr and blip.tv. So with one click on my phone, I can post any photos directly to a post. Hurrah!! The picture setting works well, but at the moment I'm still waiting for blip.tv to receive the test video file I sent, so we'll see how long that takes. Alas typepad can't cope with the video file directly, so I think this is the best way... Any advice warmly welcomed!!

So here's to some fun and games next weekend!!!