I attended the TAFE NSW Nokia meet organised by Cathy Bahari from ATP TAFE NSW yesterday in Sydney and was subject to their showcase which brought me back in time as i was looking at old phones dating back ten years.
How large they seemed. Damn sure thats why my pockets were always falling to bits in my jackets at the time.
I was alerted to the new audio codecs for mobile devices and the range range of options now open for mobcasting of audio to mobile devices. I wonder how long it will take the education sector to start podcasting never mind mobcasting.
A big learning for me was the importance Nokia places on accessibility I was heartened to view this area of the site today and see that it all works with respect to JAWS mobile screen readers. On the other hand I was appalled to get the price on the Nokia browser for the S60 environment.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Monday, February 27, 2006
Monday, February 20, 2006
Instructables
Well I turned another year older and i had a great time out with friends, work colleagues and so on - yet i missed doing so with my most loved.
I arrived at work this morning to a beautiful array of links including one for instructables where people can showcase wonderful things they are building and doing. I think so much of what we do is lost to time so i suppose in some small way this type of idea spreads this initiative further afield and hopefully assist some one along the line.
I arrived at work this morning to a beautiful array of links including one for instructables where people can showcase wonderful things they are building and doing. I think so much of what we do is lost to time so i suppose in some small way this type of idea spreads this initiative further afield and hopefully assist some one along the line.
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Resonance - Life
Some amazing things happen in such short periods of time.
The collective conciousness has a deeper resonance that I care to imagine, yet i connect often with others who have amazing depth to their lives in their own ways - i learn so much from contact with them.
Todays contact spoke of virtues, ethics and morals - this brings me to reflect on my time at Bunbury Community school as the innaugural pre-school teacher and the Bahai community which brought great things into the curriculum via the parents.
it was a very interesting year and I learnt much about myself during that time. My interest in computers and networked learning ecologies began about then although i'd been using computers at University since 1992. Strange how time flies and how much the internet has had an effect on all of our lives.
The collective conciousness has a deeper resonance that I care to imagine, yet i connect often with others who have amazing depth to their lives in their own ways - i learn so much from contact with them.
Todays contact spoke of virtues, ethics and morals - this brings me to reflect on my time at Bunbury Community school as the innaugural pre-school teacher and the Bahai community which brought great things into the curriculum via the parents.
it was a very interesting year and I learnt much about myself during that time. My interest in computers and networked learning ecologies began about then although i'd been using computers at University since 1992. Strange how time flies and how much the internet has had an effect on all of our lives.
Claiming Back the Weekends
I made a big decision yesterday.
It contains a number of life-fulfilling elements ;
It contains a number of life-fulfilling elements ;
- Claiming back the weekends - I will switch the computer off on a Friday night and switch it back on Monday morning. I will not engage in computer games, emails, blogs, wikis, chat rooms etc. during MY weekends. This time is for ME and my FAMILY.
- Mobile phone - the mobile phone will be switched off upon retiring to bed and switched back on when I arise in the morning. The 'always-on' principle has disrupted every facette of my being and it will cease.
- Art - my intent is to retire from the public service at the age of 55, assuming my full time occupation as an artist/ educator by 45 years of age ( that means I have 8 years left of this type of work) . Please bury me immediately when I am infirm and incapable of lifting a paintbrush. This decision does not effect my immediate nor short term occupation rather it will generate more energy for it. time to start painting and drawing again
I have calculated that this decision making process will give me back the precious part of my life which for so long has been consumed by the machine. It's tendrils will be no more further implanted in the ME time of the week.
Thursday, February 16, 2006
CyberWars
I've been skimming through Marilyn A. Campbells article which I managed to find in full from a direct URL ( which is a rare thing these days) which is titled "Cyber bullying: An old problem in a new guise? "
Marilyn speaks of cyberbullying in all it's forms and I can see that this area of the curriculum particulary whith the vocational training area as sorely neglected. Issues such as SMS bullying, email flaming, web site ridicule and so on being a real problem particularly with the onset of so many web 2.0 tools available at a students disposal. Say for instance - a student is not well liked so a number of other students register a space , put up some content, tell others about it, have a laugh and then delete the site.
It's really just too easy to do and the ramifications are huge.
Marilyn's article points out that the ability for deeper self-disclosure dosent necessarily mean people are not still lonely and out of frustration many kids are taking to using the internet as the next big piece of technology for bullying. Speaking from experience i have seen many differing types of SMS bullying and on many occasions become subject to bullying by way of lack of disclosure - that is managers or other staff at work sending cryptic messages which interpreted in a social sense would constitute the author "barking" at me.
I think that the whole concept of cyber-bullying and potentially the topic of digital piracy all make for key topic areas that need addressing now.What gets me about this heavily referenced article is the mention on many occasions of mobile phones as being part of the cyber-bullying toolkit.
More food for thought.
Seems strange talking about such topics with no class to immediately reflect upon it with.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Bravery
.............or simple things divulged for the purposes of communicating more clearly. I sit here tonight at home listening to two people shouting, swearing and carrying on next door and wonder why true communication is such a neglected element or acquired and sought after skill within our communities. It is easily answered.
I coined many rhetorical questions in my meetings today with education management today so I'll ask a few more just to settle my mind before I retire to bed.
Why (oh why) do I feel that I'm stuck in a loop when it comes to effecting change in a top-down go-it-alone education sector ? What has happened to innovation and where have all the crazys gone? I cant find any critically aware pedagogists around me ( well.....a few but they are online)and those that are claim that they 'have their hands tied'.
It makes me sick to think of the millions of dollars that goes into supporting systems that in their own right were innovative and different yet now possess little resonance with the learners they seek to motivate. The more I think of it the more I like the idea of viral agent mesh networks - Sean Fitzgeralds alert.
Where individuals support the access to information for others by virtue of their "connections" and the power of their connectedness with others. I'm yet to get my head around the connectivism meets constructivism argument but I suppose this is a start and takes me somewhere to begin with.
Blog on.
I coined many rhetorical questions in my meetings today with education management today so I'll ask a few more just to settle my mind before I retire to bed.
Why (oh why) do I feel that I'm stuck in a loop when it comes to effecting change in a top-down go-it-alone education sector ? What has happened to innovation and where have all the crazys gone? I cant find any critically aware pedagogists around me ( well.....a few but they are online)and those that are claim that they 'have their hands tied'.
It makes me sick to think of the millions of dollars that goes into supporting systems that in their own right were innovative and different yet now possess little resonance with the learners they seek to motivate. The more I think of it the more I like the idea of viral agent mesh networks - Sean Fitzgeralds alert.
Where individuals support the access to information for others by virtue of their "connections" and the power of their connectedness with others. I'm yet to get my head around the connectivism meets constructivism argument but I suppose this is a start and takes me somewhere to begin with.
Blog on.
Sunday, February 12, 2006
Cyberbullying
This week it's the political sensitivities of mobile communication technologies pervading the K-12 sector and the cyberbullying that's rampant in all other sectors. Best not turn a blind eye to it all.
http://eprints.qut.edu.au/archive/00001925/01/1925.pdf
http://eprints.qut.edu.au/archive/00001925/01/1925.pdf
Tuesday, February 7, 2006
Caryl Oliver
With reference to Caryl Oliver's podcast on e-business and mobile technology located here , as part of Edition 8 , the Knowledge Tree 2006 there is some great points raised regarding how learning can be integrated in a mobile context.
I was happy to hear that Caryl considers that the PC is not the only engaging mechanism for learners and that studies are underway in a real way ie. induction by a range of means as well as including mobile technologies. The whole trades based application for mlearning seems so much more achievable when you hear from people like Caryl telling the story the way it is for small and large businesses without all the fancy words thrown in for good measure - often a mistake I make.
Caryl has some great points regarding uptake and the integration of mobile communication - mobile phones, PDA's etc. however I think that substantial ground has been made with Telco's from an education sector perspective and that networking this knowledge gives the education sector leverage [ from a teaching and learning perspective and from a business perspective].
One way to bring conversation and research spikes is to talk openly across all forums.
I'll try and bring this to other peoples attention to listen to and respond.
I was happy to hear that Caryl considers that the PC is not the only engaging mechanism for learners and that studies are underway in a real way ie. induction by a range of means as well as including mobile technologies. The whole trades based application for mlearning seems so much more achievable when you hear from people like Caryl telling the story the way it is for small and large businesses without all the fancy words thrown in for good measure - often a mistake I make.
Caryl has some great points regarding uptake and the integration of mobile communication - mobile phones, PDA's etc. however I think that substantial ground has been made with Telco's from an education sector perspective and that networking this knowledge gives the education sector leverage [ from a teaching and learning perspective and from a business perspective].
One way to bring conversation and research spikes is to talk openly across all forums.
I'll try and bring this to other peoples attention to listen to and respond.
Monday, February 6, 2006
Mark Pesce
This morning I met with Mark Pesce who has recently completed an appointment at AFTRS
Mark and I spoke of the myriad of opportunities and challenges that educators face when considering the concept of continuous constructed creative communities - CCCC.
The idea that everyone has a place (both teachers and learners) amongst a constructivist pedagogical framework which integrates mobile communication and other emergent connectedness seemed to me an immediate common thread to our discussion.
We spoke initially of the idea that interconnectedness and the development of knowledge is inherently a social domain and includes the integration of the concept of mobility - mlearning - the ability to construct, contribute and consume irrespective of where the log in point exists. A number of times, the concepts of interactive and contributive learning which have arisen from the use by learners of wikipedia came up in our discussions and also the development of web 2.0 tools which integrate mobile applications.
One of the main points of our discussion centred on the issues that face the education sector as a whole - digital rights management, policy shift for mobile inclusion, copyright and privacy amongst many others. In light of the initiatives underway at CLI involving the use of mobile blogging and other interactive learning repositories, Mark's ideas and history with the web is both pertinent and timely.
I will pursue Mark's inclusion in discussions at CLI which examine all of the above particularly in light of initiatives which are already present in a world wide web research context.
I know that what transpires will be a wider aggregation of knowledge and awareness - research into student use of mobile applications and contributory knowledge sharing using such applications maybe ? Some hard and fast facts for the education sector ? Possibile ways to integrate mlearning in discrete trial settings maybe ?
Mark and I spoke of the myriad of opportunities and challenges that educators face when considering the concept of continuous constructed creative communities - CCCC.
The idea that everyone has a place (both teachers and learners) amongst a constructivist pedagogical framework which integrates mobile communication and other emergent connectedness seemed to me an immediate common thread to our discussion.
We spoke initially of the idea that interconnectedness and the development of knowledge is inherently a social domain and includes the integration of the concept of mobility - mlearning - the ability to construct, contribute and consume irrespective of where the log in point exists. A number of times, the concepts of interactive and contributive learning which have arisen from the use by learners of wikipedia came up in our discussions and also the development of web 2.0 tools which integrate mobile applications.
One of the main points of our discussion centred on the issues that face the education sector as a whole - digital rights management, policy shift for mobile inclusion, copyright and privacy amongst many others. In light of the initiatives underway at CLI involving the use of mobile blogging and other interactive learning repositories, Mark's ideas and history with the web is both pertinent and timely.
I will pursue Mark's inclusion in discussions at CLI which examine all of the above particularly in light of initiatives which are already present in a world wide web research context.
I know that what transpires will be a wider aggregation of knowledge and awareness - research into student use of mobile applications and contributory knowledge sharing using such applications maybe ? Some hard and fast facts for the education sector ? Possibile ways to integrate mlearning in discrete trial settings maybe ?
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