Archive for March, 2009

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Game consoles in NZ

As part of a presentation I am preparing I needed some data on Gaming consoles in New Zealand.
A quick search revealed some interesting statistics – this is information about the Sony products but it gives perspective to the adoption of gaming concoles across NZ (stats for 2008). PlayStation:

accounted for 67 percent of all software sales [...]

Last week…

… was a little quiet on the blogging front as I prepared for 2 fairly significant events.
The first event was the opening of the new block at school by John Key. My part in this was running a video conference with my Year 13 class. We were lucky enough to have a colleague to conference [...]

Mangatapopo tragedy

Last year as I was trekking in Nepal I received the tragic news of the events that unfolded in the Mangatapopo Gorge. The event struck me from a variety of perspectives;

as a parent imagining the loss of a child
as a teacher thinking of the loss of a colleague and students
as an outdoor educator trying to [...]

Social Networks and Socialising

The other day, as I drove home I listen to the local Radio News station interviewing their regular tech expert – Tech Tuesday on News Talk ZB.
The topic of conversation came around to the usual suspects of youth today and socialising. The resident DJ and expert had a lively discourse on how the kids of [...]

Announcing – Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy version 3.0

I have recently updated Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy to version 3.0. This version includes starter sheets and refreshed rubrics. It is probably still a little ragged in places so I would appreciate any suggestions and corrections.
Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy V 3.0 in PDF
As usual the Bloom’s digital taxonomy is produced under a creative commons licience. I might [...]

Three great photo streams

The more you look the more you find, and flickr has been yielding some brilliant finds recently.
Finding good and often punchy visuals to use for presentations can be a little hit and miss some times but these three are very impressive.
1.Great quotes about Learning and Change
This pool has members like Dean Shareski and Scott McLeod, [...]

Last of this set of lego resources

This is the missing link and solution for the robotics resources. Here is Number 5 – Walls and edges and the programming solution and also the programming solution for activity three  – brace, brace, brace – using the Ultra-Sonic sensor.

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Further Lego Resources

I have completed another couple of Lego Starter resources.
The resources are:

Activity Four – edge finder. Using the light sensor to find the edge of the desk
Activity four solution – this is a sample program for activity four
Activity Six – speed racer. This is looking at designing the robot for a specific task, in this case [...]

Lego Robotics Resources

I am preparing some Learning resources for my students and staff to introduce them to the Lego NXT robots. One of the key focuses of this course is problem solving and the students and staff developing solutions to the problems.
The first three resources are:

Activity One – 50cm and No More – Developing precise control over [...]

Interesting websites

These are some interesting websites that have come across my desk today:
1. Workspace Planner – This is an interesting ergonomics tool for setting up your workspace. Enter your hieght and it automagically calculates your optimal computer workstation arrangement. Useful and fun.
URL: http://www.ergotron.com/tabid/305/default.aspx

2. Dear Speaker – Advice for speakers and presenters
This is straight forward and sound [...]