Online Resources: Do you take wholesale?

To be in touch with the technology use beyond my "well", I subscribe to several online Ed-Tech communities, magazines & newsletters, of course, there are plenty such resources that are free. Sometimes it can be quite overwhelming, but once in a while, I do come across pretty useful and interesting ones that can be brought back to classrooms. I guess, it's a matter of whether I have enough time to go through them regularly. Ok, the beauty of the entire process is, all these come via email, and without fail, will be delivered to my mailbox. Haha... some may regard these emails as spams! Well, I do, sometimes, when I could not cope with the many emails on hand... especially when there many 'frogs' to deal with.

On the other hand, we have to exercise our own discretion and judgement, to assess the reliability and validity of resources. It's just like, we often 'preach' to students that not all information available online are reliable because anyone can just post any information and share it with others. I think the basic rule is to remember, whatever presented up there are presented from the writer's perspective and could be a result of one's experiences:

• There could be those with ill-intent to weave up inaccurate information to mislead others
• There are also ignorant ones who unknowing put up incorrect (or partially incorrect) information. 
• There are also those who are trying their best and unknown to them, due to their lack the knowledge of a complete picture and therefore mislead readers.
• etc, etc....

One thing that a responsible digital citizenship does would be assess before 'spreading' the words and application. Important! This is important, because many a time, because of convenience, we click the share or send button before having process the information thoroughly. So, "well thought through" is something less common nowadays, especially when it comes to describing our online activities and behavior.

In fact, this morning came across the following:
Learning Never Stops: Graphing Stories - Using videos to apply math concepts
which leads to this website filled with videos put up by an educator in the school:
http://www.graphingstories.com/
It's a commendable effort.

It's a good collection of video clips that we can use for lessons, especially linking the usefulness of graphing to chart data (hence allowing observations). It even comes with the a 'graph' (embedded in the video clip) that guides students in the graphing. A useful resource.

On the other hand, as I mentioned, resources have to be examined closely... and sometimes there are 'blind spots' (when the intent of doing is not articulated, I supposed).

For instance, the first clip on "Time". What can we plot? See what's embedded in the clip.
Here's a snapshoot... My first reaction is... something is not right about the axes... Or any other thoughts to enlighten my ignorance?

Of course, we don't write-off resources straightaway when there are info that we don't agree on. Resources are 'dead' but it's really up to the user who can tweak it so that it can serve some useful purpose, too....

Look at the clip on "Weight of Stack", there is certainly something that we can bring back to classroom... It's not just about seeing a linear graph by plotting number of cups against the weight... which definitely (should by right) show a linear relationship. If we were to track the weight of the cup using 'continuous' line graph (instead of discrete data). In fact, it lands itself nicely with the topic of force - air resistance, too! Guess what's in my mind :)

Are we safe (from Meteorites)?

Meteorite? It sounds so distant to us! Many of us heard about meteorite. But what's 'closer' to us are terms like "shooting stars" across the skies where people start making wishes that hopefully would come true! But hardly, we come across "real" news on this hitting the earth, until the recent Meteor strike in Russia, a huge one that's so impactful and caused worldwide attention!


So, what's meteorite? In fact, one of the articles reported the 'difference' in the use of terms like meteorite, meteor, etc. A check at wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteorite) says...

"A meteorite is a meteoroid (a solid piece of debris from such sources as asteroids or comets) originating in outer space that survives impact with the Earth's surface. A meteorite's size can range from small to extremely large. Most meteorites derive from small astronomical objects called meteoroids, but they are also sometimes produced by impacts of asteroids. When a meteoroid enters the atmosphere, frictional, pressure, and chemical interactions with the atmospheric gasses cause the body to heat up and emit light, thus forming a fireball, also known as a meteor or shooting/falling star."

This is really interesting... the link shows a map that maps out the places on earth that have been hit by meteors. By zooming into the Asia region, actually, it seems like Singapore is pretty "safe" from such 'hits' (of course, that also means people in Singapore would hardly get the chance to make a wish before the shooting star! Haha).

On the other hand, does it also imply the chances of being 'hit' is relative to the size of land that each country has? What do you think?

Google+ Community for Classroom Learning (Preliminary Thoughts)

Google+ Community, the primary function I can think of is no other than creating a 'live' community where people of some common interest can come together to share and interact (which I think is the primary role/ function when Google rolled out this feature). Hence, we started creating several community to 'contain' interaction that are directed towards a common strand, e.g. Technology Bites @ SST (for teachers).

In the recent Conference in Chiang Mai, I decided to use it differently. The original intent was to create an environment that would excite the Thai Teachers who would be sitting in my Breakout session. However, as I explored, I notice it comes with some powerful features that be employed for other purposes, as I also discovered several 'features' or characteristics that come with Community.

Actually, like it or not, I think, to stretch the use of a platform and being able to implement it successfully, or at least smoothly, it requires one to think through quite thoroughly and hence put it into action systematically.

Here are some things that I think that makes the platform useful, and relevant for the learning or for running of some programmes:

1. Tagging of posts
I like this feature very much, which is absent from "Events" or the general posting in the main G+ page. Main reason is it allows us to tag the post so that we can subsequently filter the posts by topics. For sure, this is one feature that is absent from Facebook (be it main page, created pages or groups).

2. Comments under each post
Well, this feature is also available in Facebook. So, it's not 'unique'.
But this is very useful when discussion is encouraged, especially related to a specific post.
And of course, these comments are posted up as instant as in Facebook.

3.  Photos consolidated within a post
I like this feature. In other words, we can 'contain' a specific event (e.g. a presentation), and at the same time key in relevant comments (e.g. observations, or even questions) to go with the posts and get the readers to comment on this particular posting!

4. Editing feature of the post
Yup, to-date, Facebook allows us to edit the comments we entered in response to a post. However, we are unable to edit the post. So, to 'edit' the post is as good as re-posting the entire post and all the comments that go with the original post would be gone if we decide to replace it with the updated post.

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Click HERE to view the Community set up to document the Conference in Chiang Mai, Thailand (24-27 January 2013)

Google+ Photo Albums vs Facebook Albums

Riding on the recent Conference trip to Chiang Mai, I took the opportunity further test out and make comparisons across platforms that I know - Facebook albums and Google+ album, of which the latter is pretty new to me... although I had used PICASA (also under Google) in the past, however, what's in Google+ was something that I had not explored.

I guess, it's because of the settings I did to my mobile devices, where both my iPad and iPhone were installed with the G+ apps, all the photos I took with these 2 devices using the "Camera" apps were automatically uploaded to the "G+ Photos" automatically (at least at the end of the day without me having to 'email'/'upload' manually! Of course, the 'fortunate' thing is, by default, the instant uploads are only visible to myself!

Somethings I like over G+ Photos & Album over Facebook:

• A photo can appear in more than one album - this is something that I'm still trying to figure out in Facebook
• Under Instant Upload, the photos are organised by dates, which makes it easier to manage (esp to select)
• It's easy to move the photos around within the album; of course, this is similar to Facebook's improved features :)
• We can run slideshow for the photos in the album whereas I think we can't do so in Facebook

Something that we can't do in G+ Photos & Album now but can be done in Facebook

• tagging location to photos and adding introductory text which is possible in Facebook

Other things that both are comparable: Making comments and tagging of people in the photos

Somehow, I think I am now more incline to use the G+ Photo Album :)

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In Google+ Photos,

• click HERE to view album on the Conference Welcome Dinner
• click HERE to view album on the night market (below)

In Facebook, click HERE to view album

"Event Blog" vs "Event in G+"

Most of my friends know that I have this habit of creating travelogues to document my trips; and indeed, it's a place where I would occasionally carry out some reflections and learning points. Of course, the travelogue also doubles up as my photo album, which I had given up coming up with hardcopy photo albums since I came back from Bhutan! It's also a means to help me manage my resources - especially space.

I've not moved away from blogging about my travel... On the other hand, each time when I worked on my travelogue, I also see it as an opportunity for me to explore new things, which potentially can be introduced into the classroom.

The introduction of Google+ Events is pretty timely!

The very first attempt using it was a personal exploration trip with some friends:

In fact, for this exploration, I set up a blog to document the trip at the same time:
http://lohky-singapore01.blogspot.sg/

In other words, during this exploration, using the mobile devices (my iPhone and iPad), I uploaded photos and comments simultaneously to both platforms. There's certainly a difference, in terms of the posting experience and what we can view there and then :)
(Note: Downloading the apps for Blogger and G+ into the devices helps! and there's where we experience the 'power' of technology-on-the-move)

Both exploration and experience arose from this trip were good, in particular the use of the G+ Events (I won't say much about blogger because I'm so familiar with it).

Though it was my very first attempt, I discovered the "strength" of this G+ Event feature, compared to others. Of course, I also surfaced some limitations! It is very important for us to "unearth" both pros and cons of a platform so that we would be able to deploy this in the most appropriate situation/ scenario.

I did not really pay attention to what was the original intent (if it exists when Google rolled this out, or its name is already explicit enough?). Nothing beats trying it out personally compared to being invited to use it (in the 2012 July eduCamp@SST event).

AN event can be private or public. The personal trip was therefore pre-set such that it's private and therefore only invitees could access.
(Compare with blog: When we set the blog to private, then only co-authors or selected accounts can view/ edit)

Let me flag out one obvious limitation of both Blogger & G+ Events, especially for those who are pro-Facebook - the location tagging of both apps is very limited, which came as a surprise to many of us because we assumed that all these should be well-linked to the very respectable GoogleMap! No, no... it was a definitely assumption that was not true at all!

One of the primary strengths of G+ Events is being a photo album like what we had for Facebook. It allows us to upload photos almost immediately and line them up nicely, in real time, and at the end of the event, we can choose to view it as a photo album:

Alternatively, we can revert to the view that allows us to refer to some of the conversations entered before/ during/ after the event. The 'conversations' can include hyperlinks to information or resources to that any member of the event posted up.

The features discussed above definitely is absent from Blogger, which has a very different primary function - documentation with text.

Hence, G+ Event is more favorable for event documentation that does not require much text documentation, but relies a lot on pictorial documentation, and it's more for a one-time event. In addition, the advantage of this is allowing multiple contributors to the same album at any one time, as long as these contributors become the member of the event. This is especially when we want to do any photo collage quite insistently. We can run the photos as a slide presentation almost insistently, too :)

One other drawback of G+ Event is about adding captions to the photos. In my last attempt in December 2012, we were unable to add captions via the mobile devices at the point of photo uploading. Instead, we have to browse through the photos and update the captions from the computers.

Here are some Events that I thought we have used the platform well:

• (Personal Event) Cross the Sea by Foot @ Sentose
• Parents Engagement session (Y2013 January, S1)
• Parents Engagement session (Y2013 January, S2)
• Autodesk Training (Y2013 January)

When will I choose blog over Google+ Event?

• When the programme comprises of several events/ modules - because the photos will be lumped together as one album
• When heavy text documentation is required
• When there are links or additional information that needs to be made available to the reader at all times (the gadgets in the blog does a great job to serve the purpose)
• When there is a need to embed several other platforms (not one, two or three, but many) - e.g. GoogleMap, Wallwishers, GoogleForm
• When we need to embed videos - note "embed" against "link"- we can insert links of video clips and another other thing in events, but not embedding.

Exploration with Google+

One of the biggest achievement in December 2012 was venturing into the Google+ environment/ platform!

It's not that new, after all, if we were to "hear" the GCTs talking about it during the GTANY in October. However, to me, it was... although I first heard about it when the boys introduced it when we ran our eduCamp@SST for educators in July last year.

You see, it's always this "needs-driven" mentally. If there is "no need", one might not even see the need to look at it or be bothered about it. Of course, there are some urgent needs (at the back of my mind) when I made an effort to carry out some systematic exploration. There's a target in my mind :) It's not so much to address my personal curiosity, but it's a professional need. No regrets... after making the first move into to... lots of potential, however again, the degree of potential really depends on the individuals. The more open minded we are, the greater potential we see its uses in education, definitely :)

The backbone environment of Google+ is quite similar to "Facebook" - a social network where one can broadcast to friends. However, it makes a 'conscious' effort to remind one to choose to whom one wants to broadcast the info to.  The circles would automatically appear, unlike Facebook, which appears as a small icon which quite often we might just ignore it unless we make a conscious effort to remind ourselves when posting the comment.

In Facebook: it appears as a small icon before the "Post" button

In Google+: it was obvious, as it appears right above "Share" - the box is huge and we can't miss it!

For posting, of course, Facebook is 'clever' enough to detect the link, etc. and we can click at "Add Photos/ Videos" to add other media. G+ can do the same in detecting the link and providing a preview. The additional feature is, in G+, there are specific buttons for us to add these media too.  (So, to some, it is redundant; anyway, it's a neat way to insert comments that go with this media). One observation when using the G+ apps in iPad, the link that was copied earlier will show up automatically in the G+ posting dialog box that prompts us if we intend to post that link. Clever!

I guess, so far, one difference is capturing the location where the post is put up... when G+ not as "advance" as Facebook yet.

One other thing that I like about G+ is... it's free of advertisements... so, we are save from those embarrassments when inappropriate advertisements showed up when we need to do a demo of the work carried out in Facebook!

QR Codes - Have fun (visually)!

QR codes are quite commonly used nowadays - an application of technology to improve efficiency. Obvious advantage is, it saves one from keying in URLs which comes with a string of characters (although nowadays people start to use shorten URLs).

Shortened URLs are useful when we attempt the access with a computer, a device that comes with a keyboard (if we were to talk about efficiency). However, when it comes to mobile devices where the buttons of the 'virtual keyboard' fight for space to 'receive' the touch of our finger tips, here's where the QR code technology comes in very handy. No typing or remembering of URLs needed. Just scan the image using the QR Code reader! That it goes! To some extend, it is making the 'minds' to become lazier? (haha...)

There are lots of potential in the use of QR codes in education. Though up to now, we see its use as a productivity 'tool' being most common. Of course, QR codes have become increasing popular for trail activities... hm... to add that 'mysterious' flavour? Hm...

Today, come across this the website: http://www.visualead.com
which brings 'enhances' the visual presentation - or to give more character or identity to the code that's generated... Here's one that I created in less than a minute :)

Tested out with my iPhone... and yes, it works (and it's free)
:)

"Learned Optimism" or... "Hard Optimism"

In the recent year-end staff closure session, we went through a session about Resilience... well, the one that really struck me was about "optimism", which has been defined as one of the elements. In fact, I think it's critical because it's one that generates from self, and to some extent, it demands we, ourselves to "manipulate" how we think (ok, though we put it across as we can learn to be optimistic).

Of course, after going through the survey designed by Martin Seligman, many of us, to our misbelief that we were labelled being "pessimists"! Hahaha... we were taken aback! Of course, it's really based on the perspective on how the inputs were analysed. On the other hand, think about it, it's about being cautious (or sometimes overly cautious?)

According to the write-up in Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_optimism

"Other differences exist between pessimists and optimists in terms of explanatory style:

• Permanence: Optimistic people believe bad events to be more temporary than permanent and bounce back quickly from failure, whereas others may take longer periods to recover or may never recover. They also believe good things happen for reasons that are permanent, rather than seeing the transient nature of positive events. Optimists point to specific temporary causes for negative events; pessimists point to permanent causes.
• Pervasiveness: Optimistic people compartmentalize helplessness, whereas pessimistic people assume that failure in one area of life means failure in life as a whole. Optimistic people also allow good events to brighten every area of their lives rather than just the particular area in which the event occurred.
• Personalization: Optimists blame bad events on causes outside of themselves, whereas pessimists blame themselves for events that occur. Optimists are therefore generally more confident. Optimists also quickly internalize positive events while pessimists externalize them."

So, based on my test score:
http://www.stanford.edu/class/msande271/onlinetools/LearnedOpt.html

As Doreen shared (based on her reading), it's also dependent on culture! Yes, I agree. Asians tend to be more humble (like what Mrs Chew said) and we tend to work on to improve ourselves despite the fact that we are pretty ok... haha... Perfectionist in act! Of course, anything that's too extreme will have its downside. The same applies to the those who have been diagnosed very optimistic, too! So, we should not be overly concern over the score, but the score would be an indication on how we see things and put things in perspective, and sometimes they could turn out to be our strengths :)
Look from another perspective, it also to some extent an indication of how reflective we are, in terms of our actions and how we do things... the ability to look inwards, which is definitely important for us to continually strive to improve :)

Google New Search Feature - Search by Image!

This was something I thought of a couple of months ago, since I received the pot of plant because to-date, I still do not know "what" this plant is... haha... The first thing crossed my mind was, can we search by image! (without going to those portals/ forums where people talk about plants!)

Chanced upon this update by Google on search by images; and it's god-send! I would not have dreamt of search engine has become so powerful! Here's the steps described (see image below).
It's easy! I've tried!

Of course, the first thing I try is the plant! 
and this is what I got. I guess, it attempted to get the closest possible match? 
Hm... unfortunately, no luck this time... 

I suspect it's probably because the library is not huge enough or the image search engine is still in its infant stage? or it's the mechanism - the features the engine uses to match and map?

So, here's my 2nd attempt - to upload a photo I took inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Guess what! Bingo! It maps correctly! 

Here's the search result:

Hard Optimism by Price Pritchett (I) Counting my Blessings - a Reflection

"Hard optimism represents a disciplined, deliberate way of thinking about whatever life throws at us. It's about focusing on blessings rather than bad things... emphasizing opportunities instead of obstacles... explaining events to ourselves in a way that enhances performance and improves our quality of life." (p11)

True, indeed, by looking out and counting blessings, sometimes we are surprised to find there are so many good things (especially people around us) bestowed upon us! Without them, we might not even be able to get to the present stage (I won't say "state", as it's subjective).

In the recent years, when I do my work review with my reporting officers, I never forget to give credit to people around me...  the fact that what I have achieved to-date is made possible because of all the blessings that I can count on. My bosses are important, though I might not have conveyed my thanks and appreciation to them verbally. Some may see from another perspective that we are working 'for' the organisation and therefore it's an expectation that the bosses have to support what we do to fulfill what's defined in our job scope. For those who have been at work long enough (not necessary in education, but in any other business), we know that it's not always the case. Ironically, if we have stretch our 'antenna' far enough, we would have heard that there were instances where people having a hard time to get their work done because the lack of support. Ironical? Well, it happened, and it happens elsewhere too! So, we should not take for granted about the support; although sometimes we do experience frustration when we could not understand the rationale of some actions that go against what we do. On the other hand, do we trust our bosses? It's an important question to ourselves. I think it makes a difference when we attempt to rationalise some decisions or actions when we are not told the "why"s. Of course, "trust" cannot be taken for granted. It's not a given. It's earned. I believe bosses know this well.

In an organisation, there's no such thing as "a one-man show", no matter how capable one is. In fact, how capable one is does not depend solely on the expertise/ skills one has, but how he/ she works with others, or get others to work(?) (hm...). Again, one may argue that since people are assigned to the team, it means they are expected to 'work'. Now it's the effort that counts, of course, that goes back to one's attitude! That 'little difference' makes a huge difference! It's just like my encounter with two persons who were given the role of coordinators. One was full of initiative, anticipated and sought to find out what she did not know; and to ask what she did not even know. Another simply served as a messenger and thought that she had done a perfect job. Attitude counts! Be it the first or the second coordinator, I still thank them for the work they did (though it's "for" the organisation) and different degree of effectiveness; as I might end up having someone whom I need to 'coordinate' on-behalf. Well, such human being exists! So, count my blessings! Of course, I'm more thankful to the one who was exercise great initiative! So, no matter big or small kind of support, count our blessing that someone has done the work instead of having them falling back onto our laps!
So, to my fellow colleagues... thanks for all the work carried out! You may think you are just doing your job, but to me, it matters!

Success is not merely a "within organisation" matter. Undeniably, what's available within the organisation matters a lot; in my case, the external entities are very important and critical in order for the "in-house" projects to take place smoothly. Without the support from my fellow colleagues in ETD, ITB and IDA, life would have been many many more times challenging. Much appreciation to the timely advices and efforts they put into the project; and also their understanding and willingness to stand in sometimes. Well, similar to the scenario of the "Coordinator" described in the earlier paragraph. These 'external' parties were not obliged to put in extra effort beyond what's written (at the surface) of their job scope - to "support" the school! There are varying degree and level of support! And quality matters! Fortunately or unfortunately, I am able to tell and feel this difference strongly because I "worked with" officers from these agencies in my past context and had experiences that were totally different. Again, one may argue that these people have their own KPIs; however, they could just 'report' instead of coming forward at their own course and go an extra mile! These are definitely blessings, especially when they are beyond our circle of influence or control. These are  blessings that I would not have dreamt of when started the journey :) In the same note, appreciate the friendship that grows along the way, too!


Well, well... blessings are not only those we can find at work... friends around - be it their presence are always felt or only 'appear' once in a blue moon. I guess this is something that we all agree. And of course, count the blessings each day when we step into our house! How often, we forget about these people and take them for granted.

To look around... yes, abundance of blessings to count on :)