Lloyd Forster » Transformation teachers Course

Social Virtual worlds

lforster — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 02:47:55 +0000

This is a paper on the principles behind social virtual worlds.

DivShare File – Social_virtual_worlds.pdf

I am still interested in second life. I have to buy the book so I can learn more and create avatars etc. perhaps something to do over the summer.

Blue tooth

lforster — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 07:56:54 +0000

Thanks to blue tooth I have been able to rescue the 300+ contact details on my mobile phone.The macbook has blue tooth and with some perseverance I was able to find out the method of syncronising my phone’s contact book with the macbook.This is believe me a major load of my mind as I sometime worry about losing all the contact details through loss of phone or SIM card corruption.

Reflecting on the Transformation Teachers Course.

lforster — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 10:33:23 +0000

We are now approaching the end of the summer 2007 term and I think its a good time to reflect on the course and my own transformation thereof.
The course enabled me to get back into the latest trends in the online world.The most significant ways in which I have been transformed are:
1 being able to use the mac platform and associated software especially the podcasting and image software. in particular photoshop elements 3.
2 The digimemo board was very useful and am very glad I got to use this tool.having reached 180 pages on the bord it is safe to say I am an avid user of the tool.
3 I have certainly increased my online / web presence through the blogs (edublogs) & facebook.
I am very keen on edublogs and feel that it has many useful features such as adding widgets – sonofic is good, flickr sidebar and the of course Divshare.
The only thing that might have been better is networking among other members of the course through the blogs.perhaps this might be so in the next round of TTP.
All in all great and innovative course!

My experience of facebook so far.

lforster — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 05:49:46 +0000

It has been quite straight foreward.I think the idea is quite simple. You invite some one or you get invited and through their profiles you might develop links with their friends or get back in touch with people who you might have lost contact with. It is a great networking tool.

Going from ‘friend’ to ’friends’ profiles, you can go nthrough a lot of contact. I think facebaook uses the concept of social proofing.This means all the people are linked through being friends with someone on the facebook. A sort of friend of a friend or through a friend of a friend.

I think facebook should be treated with caution in respect of privacy because it is open to be read by a lot of starngers. This is no problem if you are sensible with it but in a recent article I read the author was describing the bluring that has taken place between public and private life on these social networks. Anyway its all good I say

Myspace seems to be the dominant social networking utility.

Reflection of a Transformation

lforster — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 21:13:02 +0000

The question is what does it mean to transform a teacher or anyone as far as new technologies goes? I think it is quite a difficult thing to do. This is because somehow there needs to be a vision of where all this technology is leading. I am not myself fully sure where it is all going but when I look at virtual worlds such second life then I think that is a possible destination. When I look back at the internet say around 1998, 7 years are the creation of the world wide web most people had no idea of how the internet wasgoing to transform life. Today life without the internet is almost inconcieveable to anyone younger than 15. What is truly scary is that the skills need to equip the next generation for a truly connected world is barely within the grasp of us who should be teaching these skills. In some ways it is a shame that social software such as blogging, facebook, myspace has not truly caught on yet. this is because these tools and others yet to be developed are the way the world is moving.

Optical illusions for your IWB

lforster — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 08:34:08 +0000

http://www.echalk.co.uk/amusements/OpticalIllusions/illusions.htm

IWB= Interactive white board

Another light sculpture from Assefa (ethiopian sculture)

IWB training

lforster — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 05:58:13 +0000

Few years back 2003 I organised a training for science consultants across London. it was quite exciting. The picture shows some of the portable boards we used.

Blogging all over the world

lforster — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 22:34:20 +0000

In this form of social networking, it has been quite interesting to see from Google analytics the variety of locations from which visitors arrive: pleasanton, Los Angeles, Baton Rouge, Atlanta, Linda-a velha, london, Poplar,New York, Petah Tiqwa, Geleen,Winnipeg, Curitiba. Susan Kambalu’s site seems to send quite a number through. The number of visitors coming through search engines is slowing growing. To a blogger knowing who visits is quite important. The majority of visitors tend not to leave comments.

Second Life: Mzazi Bonetto

lforster — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 07:28:46 +0000

Wanting to peer and glimpse the future of human interaction, I have signed onto second life

My Avatar is Mzazi Bonetto. THis virtual world reminds me of the Krucible environment.

I think a lot of pupils are already familiar with the concept of virtual worlds through their use of gaming.

Could this be where gaming meets education? Anyhow i am going to sign up for a basic account perhaps

$6 a month. There is is an iniatal learning curve (tutorials to follow). When I saw the programme on virtual

worlds they spoke to real life participants; there was a married couple who met in second life, there was the

real estate seller who trades and makes a living in second life. There was also the furniture maker who

. They interviewed Rebok and the way in which second lifers could sample trainers and have them made in real life.

For my part as an educator I am naturally interested in the possibilities for education: A virtual schools, lessons in science?

I will post updates on my progress as Mzazi Bonetto.

Pedagogy and Practice in secondary schools

lforster — Tue, 29 May 2007 20:29:03 +0000

Pedagogy and Practice in secondary schools. Teachers who attended the lead teachers programme will have used these as part of the course.

Download from

http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/secondary/keystage3/all/respub/sec_pptl0

These study units are intended to provide not only the means by which teachers can develop their skills, but also a common language in which to discuss teaching and learning. They complement the Key Stage 3 National Strategy’s training. The whole pack has DfES reference number 0423-2004 and contains all printed units and DVDs. PDFs of the printed material are available to download here.

The units are grouped as follows:

Units 1-5 Designing lessons
Units 6-11 Teaching repertoire
Units 12-17 Creating effective learners
Units 18-20 Creating conditions for learning (N.B. Unit 19: Learning Styles is currently being revised)
Leadership guide

Two DVDs containing video sequence to support the units are included in the pack:

DVD1 DfES ref 0445-2004 supports Units 1-8 and the Leadership guide
DVD2 DfES ref 0446-2004 supports Units 9-20 and includes an audio extract – the EXIT model.