Top Ten Films

Andy Wallis, of Islay High and Scottish Screen fame, has been encouraging me to list my top ten films of the decade.

I must admit I am not a huge fan of one thing over another. I tend to think these fav lists are really difficult. They tend to be transient and depend on mood.

I see it as something that guys to do which I don’t. The example from ‘High Fidelity’ by Nick Hornby. Of the constant making of the top 5’s

So I have struggled.

Struggled to get it down to 10 that is. An example is the remarkable project that was the Lord of The Rings Trilogy.

They were a great drama and stories, they were a remarkable body of work and were all released in the beginning of the decade. I would quite happily sit down and watch these and feel that they deserve a place in my favs but not 3 valuable places.

So here is a collection of some of my fav films of the decade Which ones I like more than others moves according to my mood and company……. in chronological order:

- Ghost World

- City of God

- The Pianist

- Whale Rider

- Kill Bill

- The Machinist

- The Constant Gardner

- Goodnight and good luck

- The Bourne Ultimatum

- Let the right one in

- The Dark Knight

I have a whole list of films which could be above, Touching the void for example but its ok because the list will change tomorrow

Technorati Tags: Film,2000's,andy wallis

Design in S1

I am starting to look at Design with the S1’s.

This is always a difficult time as they are so enthusiastic to get into the workshop and ‘make stuff’. I think its vitally important that they spend time to reflect on the world around them and understand how those human made things came into being.

I have designed a couple of introductions to design that I will be reflecting on here.

This one is an exercise in not only working to a brief but also using the technology.

I have recorded a screen cast of the process they have gone through.

To see this in a lager size please have a look here S1_Keyfob

Technorati Tags: Islay,design,education,scotland,education scotland,sketchup,OneNote,Ink Art

Response for John Connell

In John Connell’s Post for a workshop at the BBC, he has asked ……..

How did you get into blogging?

• I was encouraged (Bullied?) by Andrew Brown (Then the Education Support Officer for ICT in Argyll & Bute)  I was, and still am, of the opinion that blog is far too often a personal Soapbox. Saw much more educational use for Wiki’s. I set up an initial blog in June 2006 but moved to this one in the November.

What were (are?) the motivations?

• Decided that I needed to record/broadcast what we were doing with our Schools of Ambition project.

How does your “private” blogging relate to your work?

• Private blogging is now done exclusively via twitter. I have had the occasional personal post in the blog but generally I am reflecting on what I and the school are doing.

How do you achieve a balance of personal voice and authority

• I am not sure I manage this or even if I want to. I am placing my voice and any authority I have is given from others. I think this community implied authority I consider far more real and important.

What can be achieved through blogging that can’t through ordinary news/reporting routes?

• How could a tiny school 2 hours from the mainland have had voice through ‘ordinary news/reporting routes’. It didn’t. Even today we are ‘too far’ for even the educational press to realise where we are. 

How do you follow other blogs and other forms of “public conversation”?

• I have 5 pages of feeds from a wide range of inputs, i.e. blogs, bbc, and technorati tag words but a load come via recommends in twitter.

How does your blog connect to others in a “conversation”?

• It has been the starting point for lots of conversations. Twitter is very conversational, Blog can have some feedback. The best example was the crowd sourced input to the discussion around the Education 2020 wiki This was much more than a conversation.

Are there other bloggers you follow especially, others you think are exemplars of the practice?

• Less now than did at the beginning. At first I had ‘experts’ that I looked too. Now, I find the tag feeds much more important. Though a couple of people provide regular, thought provoking inputs to my thought processes. Taking John as a given. Don Ledingham, though he has gone quite.

How do you feel about “lighter” practices such as Tweeting, facebook status updates etc…?

• These are vital sparks to deeper reflects on blog posts and crowd sourced wiki actions. They are like the ‘pub chats about big topics. They get your brain going but you have to remember this is out in the public domain

Call for collaborators

A couple of years ago I got a very positive feedback on an animation that the the S1’s (12 year olds) at the time had produced using Google Sketchup. On a blog post by Ewan McIntosh, I made contact with Keith Hamon.

Keith is a wonderfully positive and enthusiastic leader. We talked via email about how we could work with some of the teachers in his part of the world. He identified Bob Meacham from the Banks Stephens Middle School in Forsyth, Georgia, USA.

Between us we developed a wiki based around pupils sharing information about local buildings.

The pupils would collect as much information about one local landmark and place it on the wiki for the other pupils to recreate in Sketchup. We would then have some video conferences. I even ‘taught’ the Banks Stephens class how to use Sketchup via VC.

I think its time to revisit this project.

I am looking for some classes/teachers from around the world who would be interested in developing a new project.

Leave a comment or add your name too the wiki http://international-sketchup.wikispaces.com/

Technorati Tags: islay, education scotland, sketchup

LeadMeet

In July myself and Caroline (Commonly known as C in twitter) went through to Edinburgh. One reason to the visit was to attend the LeadMeet organised by Con Morris. leadMeet is a very interesting variation on the TeachMeet scenario.

The event was very well attended. With a good range of people who are passionate about education and professional development.

I managed to maintain an incredible record. Attended 6, put myself forward to speak at 5 and been selected by the random selector Zero. I have spoken twice at a TeachMeet. Once was virtually from my back bedroom and once was setup in Perth because I had travelled, with Andy Wallis, so far to attend.

Con suggested (awhile ago now) that I record my talk………… So its Con’s fault

More images from the event can be found here

Technorati Tags: Islay, teachmeet, leadmeet09, education, leadership

A broken habit

 

Its been a long time since I got out of the habit of blogging. Twitter, the micro blogging service, as dominated my online activities recently.

Its not that things haven’t been going on. In fact its been extremely busy. I hope to do a catch up with some of the things over the next few weeks.

This past week has been the first full week in school. (after an extra day due to water supply problems) and therefore the issue of the UMPC’s to the incoming pupils. These are UMPC’s that are new to them.

On a Friday afternoon we are running How to session’s for all the incoming pupils. In our case that's 43.

The First session was issuing the UMPC’s, giving out login’s, and logging on……. and of course dealing with associated problems.

Last Friday was connecting to the internet and accessing email using Outlook 2007.

I have been using Community Clips to record instructional video’s. Basic ‘How to’s’ for the pupils to refer back too.

So why have I used Community Clips instead of Jing?

The main reason was that I wanted to add the video’s directly into OneNote.

OneNote embeds and plays WMV files directly within the application and Community Clips produces WMV files which I can edit in Movie Maker and place in the OneNote to create a NoteBook.

Jing produces FLV (and MPEG’s if you pay the subscription and I paid the subscription 2 days before discovering Community Clips) files which are much smaller. These can be hyperlinked and will play when clicked in a notebook and they open in the devices default player. I wanted to keep everything within OneNote and keep the work flow as simple as possible.

Technorati Tags: Islay, education Scotland, OneNote, Community Clips, Jing

The Future is Almost Here

Maybe that’s a slight paradox, but the education2020 unconference is almost upon us. After months of discussions we are nearing the big day. Both Ian and myself have been overwhelmed by the response to the event (at least 40 people will be in attendance); we never thought it would attract so many dedicated people from around the UK and also the rest of the world – we thank you all very much for making such an effort to attend the event.

There is now detailed information about the structure of the unconference on the wiki and it will take the shape of a Knowledge Cafe format. It is worth highlighting that there will also be a Flash Meeting running alongside the event so if you are unable to make the actual event, your input would be invaluable via this avenue.

Pupils from the High School will be filming some of the event, mainly capturing short sound bites from those at the unconference relating to their vision of education in 2020 – so be prepared to give your response; there will be no opportunity to be a silent observer at this event!! These videos will be uploaded after the event.

I am sure that everyone will have a great time at the unconference and that it will not only spark some creative thinking regarding what education might look like in the future, but will also be an informal event where folk will experience a taste of Islay. Slàinte!

 

Recent sunset taken looking out from Bowmore