ETRU Hub

I found this blog post by Joe Dale on a method for creating mobile phone quizzes very interesting.  The maker of the videos, Lilian Soon, has since blogged about it herself here.  I finally got round to giving it a try for myself today.  

I had previously asked members of my Higher class to tell me the make and model of their mobile phone.  I checked these on the manufacturer web sites to get information on screen resolution and was surprised to discover that 240 pixels wide by 320 pixels high appears to be something of an industry standard.  

I used a simple graphics package to create a series of white rectangles 240 pixels wide by 320 high and pasted in images I had scanned from an old Higher Physics past paper.  I used the graphics threshold levels to remove any residual greyness from the scans before inserting the text of each question around them.  Simple questions required two images each (one for the question and a second for the answer) while longer questions with multiple statements or diagrams required three or even four image files to complete.

I created seven multiple choice questions over a double period, creating text only questions would be much quicker than tweaking graphics.  I uploaded the image files to my phone in jpg format.  The results were encouraging, with both the text and images displayed clearly.  My only concern was that the order of the files had reversed when transferred to the phone by bluetooth.  On trying again, it seems that the problem is that the Apple iSync application transfers multiple files starting with the highest file name, while the phone stores files in the order of receipt.  This is an issue requiring a workaround before distributing quizzes to a class.

Here is a question from the set I made. I’ve left them at full size (240 x 320 pixels)

With the decision to stop using Edublogs, I am left with the question of what to use instead.  This isn’t just a decision for hosting of my own blog, that’s done and dusted now.  The problem is that I am not sure where to point others who are looking for a blogging solution.  In particular, I’ve been charged with providing blogging training after Easter for staff at my own school and will need to have something for these practical sessions

I had heard of Wordpress multi-user before when I had exchanged tweets with David Gilmour, who administers the East Lothian Edubuzz.org blogging system.  Then we had a brilliant session last Sunday on EdTechRoundup, when we had several people join us to talk about WPMU.  In the main meeting and background chat room, we covered the rationale for using WPMU over the established vanilla-flavoured Wordpress solution, moving on to cover the set up and maintenance of WPMU.

Feeling enthused by the discussion, I’ve downloaded WPMU myself and had a go at installing it.  There are ongoing teething issues.  For example, my web hosting company will not allow me to use wildcard subdomains (you’ll know what that is if you read the installation documentation) and issues with too many redirections (stuck in a forwarding loop between the login screen and the admin dashboard screen) amongst others.

All of this makes me agree with comments made during the week on twitter, where Stuart Meldrum and others voiced the opinion that the biggest problem with maintaining WPMU was having the time to do it.  In the mean time, I’ve had a blog comment from Jim Henderson suggesting that there may be a server coming to Highland at some point, giving is all access to a centrally-maintained WPMU installation.  My fingers are tightly crossed now because I can’t wait for that to happen!

image “Justice League” by levork

I mentioned earlier that Doug Belshaw had been on the receiving end of some hassle due to an EdTechRoundUp podcast about VLEs.  The story was picked up by several other bloggers, including Alan Cann, Will Richardson, Jo Badge & Nigel Gibson and also generated a lot of traffic on twitter.  This week, we gave Talmos a right to reply by offering an invitation to put their side of the story during our weekly flashmeeting.  

While the meeting lacked sufficient focus to put it out as a podcast, we felt it was important to allow the views of Mike Jones from Talmos to be heard and so the link to the recording of the flashmeeting has been made available to anyone who would like to watch and listen to what he had to say.  In making the server recording of the meeting available, EdTechRoundUp has provided an unedited account of the meeting.  

Personally, I would encourage you to follow the text chat of the meeting as the video replay proceeds- do this by clicking on the chat tab in top right of the replay window. This will give you a fuller picture of the views of participants.  If you do follow through to the replay, please come back and leave a comment with your thoughts on the issues covered, thanks.

I mentioned previously that the group of UK teachers behind EdTechRoundUp had released a discussion-based podcast on the use of VLEs. One of the contributors to that show, Doug Belshaw, also blogged about it in a post where he asked the question “What is a VLE?“. He tweeted today to tell us he was called into his school office today to be told that the supplier of one VLE mentioned in the blog post and podcast were demanding that he remove the post and accompanying podcast from the web or face “legal action”.

Core Projects & Technologies (UK) Ltd are the people who sell the TALMOS system. Their approach to Doug is heavy handed. They might not like the fact that he said something negative about their product but that’s life. It speaks volumes about a company that makes a living selling interactive software to react in such a “web 0.5″ way to a single blog entry comparing VLE systems. Incidentally, the link I gave for Doug’s blog shows the version he edited today, possibly an act on his part to appease his employer who should never have been involved in the first place. Here is what Google’s cache told me he said in the original post

“There are other VLEs available – for example Doncaster, where I teach, has gone for FrogTeacher from 2008/9 onwards. Despite the bizarre name, I was quite impressed with it when I had a play with it at the BETT show earlier this year. Up to now we’ve been using TALMOS. Well, not using it, actually, as it’s so difficult to use, cumbersome and singularly un-useful…“

There are lots of questions raised here. Doug himself raises the professional versus personal aspects in a post he made today. I’m concerned by the way in which these people get heavy on his employer when something he does outwith his classroom annoys them. I’ve been googling today and the one thing that I learned from the TES is that Doug is not alone in having few good words to say about the TALMOS VLE. Can I redirect those with a curious mind to the following threads: “poor version of powerpoint“, “does anyone have anything good to say about TALMOS“, “please say something positive” I am sure that you will find more if you dig deeper but the point has been made.

Bottom line? Well, TALMOS may wish they had never called Doug’s school. How long before a standard Google search for TALMOS produces a marketing manager’s worst nightmare. Next time you take issue with a blogger, try getting in touch direct, possibly with a comment on the relevent blog entry, to find out what issues they are having. Maybe that blogger can help you to make your product better.

Hot on the heels of ETR#4 comes another show from EdTechRoundUp.  Show #5 has a different format from previous podcasts as it was recorded during one of our regular Sunday evening Flashmeetings.  The show contains a discussion about the merits of different Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs), including the Glow portal being rolled out across Scotland.

I just got a tweet from Doug Belshaw to say that the EdTechRoundUp show I recorded with him has been uploaded.  This is the fourth ETR show and it’s the first time that Doug and I have worked together on a show.  The theme of the podcast is internet safety and we talk to a brilliant guy called Ollie Bray who has been doing great work in Scotland, promoting safe and responsible use of the web among pupils and their parents.  Our thanks once again to Ollie for agreeing to the interview.

You can get the show here.

We’ve reached day 4 of the 15 days of Google answers over at edtechroundup.com.  I really like the question featured today.  It’s nice to be able to see who is doing what without searching through the revision history of a document.

The EdTechRoundUp team were handed a brilliant opportunity in January.  The UK Google Education Apps team offered to answer any questions we might have about their web services.  We collected questions on the EdTechRoundUp wiki and sent them off to Google.  The answers we received are serialised in a feature called 15 days of Google answers.  Please follow the responses from Google and feel free to add to the conversation by adding comments to any of the entries. 

John Johnston and Tom Barrett show no signs of difficult second album syndrome in the second EdTechRoundup show. The show begins with brief introductions from the hosts, followed by the ICT buffet, where Tom and John chat about tools they use in their classrooms, focusing on Voices of the World, Tumblr and the Many Voices project on Twitter.

John and Tom share the main slot. John tells us about his use of still digital cameras for video recording and blogging, while Tom discusses the learning opportunities available through the sharing of Google documents such as spreadsheets.

There is a beautifully informal feel about this show and I laughed at the cheek in Tom’s voice when he posed the question “Monkeys?” – you’ll understand when you listen

Since November, I’ve spent my Sunday evenings talking to other teachers about establishing a blog and podcast to help pass on ideas for bring more ICT into the classroom.  EdTechroundup is a geographically diverse group (Joe Dale is based in the Isle of Wight and I’m in the Highlands of Scotland) but we share a common goal to bring practical advice for those at the chalkface and membership of the group includes primary and secondary practitioners.

Our first show, hosted by David Noble and myself, features an interview with Joe Dale on 5 uses for a classroom blog, an introduction to the resources at classtools.net and a discussion on the problem of web blocking in schools.  The podcast is now available on iTunes and further information is available on our blog.

If you are interested in joining the ETR group, check out the latest information on our wikispaces page for details of our next meeting.