When the Yates Garden Guide just doesn't cut it any more

I've always had, and still have, a Yates Garden Guide. I remember mum having one when I was a kid. It was, and probably still is for many people, her gardening bible. It's now in its 77th edition.

Three years ago I planted a couple of grape vines. These were to complement the very old vine that we inherited when we bought our property - very unpruned and wild and lots of growth but no fruit.

Now, I have read the Yates Guide about how to prune grapes, and for the past couple of years tried to follow it. Maybe I'm just thick (many might agree with this!) but I just don't follow - I need showing. I guess I'm a visual learner. So, this year I have used Youtube as my Yates garden Guide replacement. These 2 videos have given me what I need - the second is more of an interview, but you can see what the guy is doing. Time will tell if I have any more success ...

Why I love TED

I've just had the chance to watch Clay Shirky's TED talk from May of this year on how the likes of Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites are changing the fundamental notion of media and media construction and consumption. If you haven't heard it, spend 17 minutes now ... it is well worth the watch.



This video complements perfectly Ray Kurzweil's on the continued exponential growth in computing in general terms. (If you haven't seen Ray's original talk from 2005, then watch it first!) Thanks TED!

i, i, i ... it's all about i or do i mean me?

I've had my iPod Touch for about 3 weeks now - wish I had enough to get an iPhone but the local rates for what I'd use it for are prohibitive, so iPod Touch it is.

Since I've had it my 7 year old now wants to learn a foreign language on it (after he saw some stuff off iTunes) and I love the way it collects my email and calendar so that I know what I am supposed to be doing during the day. In fact, the thing I am using it least for at the moment is listeningto music. I watch TED talks regularly on it (Ray Kurzweil's update on technology and exponential growth is my current favourite.)

I have noticed a tendency for it to loose network settings (home and school) and so I guess I need to explore that a little more - could get frustrating if I don't resolve that soon. However, I do need to start using my new Pulse Smartpen too - showed it to my latest Horizon Project class on Friday and they were blown away to the point of calling it a hoax!

But NECC is nearly upon us - one of my favourite events of the year where I can start to catch up on some of my own PD - and just today came across this site which looks to be a repository of everything iPod/iPhone for education. So, more time to be devoted to i-something ... it's just that I sometimes feel that the i-something is just all about work and not about me ... think I need to change that somehow.

When the swine flu hits ...

All schools will be preparing for forced closure. Tonight Westlake Girls High is the first local high school to close to a large number of students as swine flu has been found in one of their senior girls. Others will follow over coming months. Senior students will be most affected, as they are on the way to high stakes testing later in the year.

So, what options are available for teachers to continue contact with students in these times? Most will have a secure intranet that students can connect to. This is good, but what happens if the school network is unable to be maintained for any reason? That's where the wider web comes in. And of course there are a range of options as long as your arm.

I prefer 4 tools - all are easy to use, though I prefer edmodo for most of our staff, followed by a wiki (wikispaces is my preference). Google Docs and Zoho are also good options, but perhaps lack the communications functions that a wiki or a microblog offer.

My preference for edmodo is that it is dead simple to set up - students only need the code generated when their teacher sets up the course and they are in - no email required, no lengthy sign up. It's easy for teachers too. It's organisation is similar to Twitter, making it ideal for engaging in discussions with indivduals or the whole class. Uploading files (both teacher and student) is simple - you can run assessments of a sort.

The following slideshare has some screen shots of all of the above tools. I'll use this with our staff on Tuesday as I outline options for them.

Easy Options when Swine Flu hits

View more OpenOffice presentations from Rob Mccrae.

Is the pen mightier than the (s)Word?

Thanks to Derek's Twitter this morning about his Pulse SmartPen I now have set up an appointment with LiveScribe NZ to have a closer look at this to see if there is a fit for our students. Now, being one of those who has a "wow, I gotta have one of those" for each really cool looking tool that I see, I must admit that when I saw the first Youtube video - well, that's exactly what I said - and hence the meeting next week.



Then of course, I asked my Year 13 IB students what they thought. Pretty surprised by the response - half thought it was cool, half thought it was not.

So, while I can't wait to get my hands on one of these and give it the test drive, maybe they can. I'll get one of them to come along to the meeting with the Livescribe people - a good experience for both.