Digital Dialogues

Lights out today - 29 March 8pm - worldwide!

It's Earth Hour today - please remember to turn your lights, and in fact all your electrical appliances - that's your computers too - OFF - at 8pm - wherever in the world you are..!
Join 28 global cities and switch off!

Aalborg -  Aarhus - Adelaide - Atlanta - Bangkok - Bogota - Brisbane - Canberra - Chicago - Christchurch - Copenhagen - Darwin - Dublin - Hobart - Manila - Melbourne - Montreal - Odense - Ottawa - Perth - Phoenix - San Francisco - Santa Cruz - Suva and Lautoka - Sydney - Tel Aviv - Toronto - Vancouver

Last year, 2007, over 2.2 million Sydney residents and over 2,100 businesses switched off, leading to a 10.2% energy reduction across the city...
Now - I just want to know why there is a humngous concert (35,000 people expected) happening in Centennial Park (Sydney) tonight...how much power will that suck up while the rest of us enjoy an evening in candlelight? hmmm?

Anyway - a quiet evening of marking assignments by candelight and on battery power on the laptop!
Let's see if we can make a difference tonight - wherever you are!

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PS. A cosmic coincidence

According to the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation site a cosmic coincidence was reported on March 19, 2008.
Swift, one of the NASA satellites, recorded 4 separate Gamma Ray Bursts - each one of these massive explosions indicates a star at the end of its life.
4 such explosions have never been recorded before...

"..overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out. "          
from “The Nine Billion Names of God”.

Arthur C. Clarke remembered

Arthur C. Clarke died this week - 19 March, 2008.
I recall as a very young pup, being taken to the movies by my big brothers -  the movie?
2001, A Space Odyessy.

At that young age, I was already into sci-fi and horror stuff - influenced by my big brothers who enjoyed terrifiying me by forcing me to site through old movies in the dark, The Blob, War of the Worlds, Day of the Triffids, and all the Alfred Hitchcock ones... but no single movie has had more impact on my life than 2001.
To me - the others were just plain spooky (remember, I was very little and easily influenced !) But 2001? This was the future! This was how it was going to be! And - of course - man landed on the moon about 1 year after 2001 was released!
This is when I decided I wanted to be an astronaut... I got over it... the closest I got was working in the airline industry for 15 years -  but I never got over the impact 2001 had on me...
I've been an avid follower of Arthur C. Clarke's works ever since - what an extraordinary visionary the world has lost this week!

2 dominant quotes from Clarke that remain as current influencers on my work:

"If we have learned one thing from the history of invention and discovery, it is that, in the long run - and often in the short one - the most daring prophecies seem laughably conservative."
- Arthur C. Clarke, The Exploration of Space, 1951

"In the next Century, the education revolution will ensure that learning will be completely liberated from the tyrannies of schedules and locations.
Anybody, anywhere will be able to study any subject and access any form of information, at his or her most comfortable speed.
This will make education the lifelong process it must be."

- Arthur C. Clarke, 1997

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I Support Al Upton and his MiniLegends

For those of you who have heard what's been happening to Al Upton and Mini Legends -  go to his site - and pay particular attention to the comments and reactions from the Minis themselves... Just what are we doing with education in our schools??

Can you read this?

Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too!

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

One of my colleagues sent me this in response to my sms essay post... and you know what? This is easier to read than the sms lolspeak! (And I don't have to worry about correcting the spelling or grammar!)

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Learning Landscape webinar series

LTUG is presenting a series of webinars for the first half of the year that focuses on the changing learning landscape and the use of social software for learning.

The first webinar will set the scene for the series:
The Changing Learning Landscape
Date: 27 March 2008, 4pm-5pm (Sydney time – daylight savings time)
Where: your computer - via webinar

The world of online collaboration for learning is evolving rapidly with social software (or Web2.0) providing new and exciting ways of developing ideas and educational opportunities.
I will discuss how to extend our scope in using the web in order to facilitate learning and address these important questions:

* What are people doing with these new tools, and how is this affecting learning practices?
* What do learning & development practitioners need to do to start bringing these tools into their own practices?
* How does this all affect learning design?

Free Online Tools for Learning
When: 17 April 2008, 10am – 11am (Sydney time - AEST)
Where: your computer - via webinar
Many online collaboration tools are free. Carol Daunt Skyring (LearnTel) will follow my session with an overview of the free online tools that are available for use for education & training. This will be a ‘helicopter’ view of the following tools:

* Blogs
* Wikis
* Online Communities/Forums
* Aggregators
* Social Sharing Sites eg Slideshare, flickr, de.licio.us, YouTube/TeacherTube
* Social Networking
* Micro-blogging

At the end of this session you will know how to access each of these tools. If you’d like support in setting them up, then please join one of our detail sessions following.

Set up your own.....
The following sessions will be 30 mins during which Anne or Carol will step you through setting up your own..... At the end of the session you will have an operational site/online tool.

Set up your own blog
When: 30 April 2008, 4pm (Sydney time - AEST)

Set up your own wiki
When: 6 May 2008, 10am (Sydney time - AEST)

Set up your own online community/forum
When: 15 May 2008, 4pm (Sydney time - AEST)

Set up your own aggregator
When: 21 May 2008, 10am (Sydney time - AEST)

Set up your own social sharing site
When: 27 May 2008, 4pm (Sydney time - AEST)

Set up your own social networking site
When: 4 June 2008, 10am (Sydney time - AEST)

Set up your own micro-blogging
When: 10 June 2008, 4pm (Sydney time - AEST)

Register here

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LOLspeak - do you?

A year or so ago, I received a 1,000 word essay in "sms" language  - or lolspeak. When I asked the student what it was, she proudly declared it was her essay.... right then... but when I pointed out that it wasn't in ... well, English - she gave me with this exasperated look like I didn't know anything (actually - that's probably more how I felt!!)...
So - I asked her to re-submit her essay - in language that was appropriate for the reader (me)... and with a level of academic rigeur... She was NOT happy... but the option of not passing was probably the tipping point.
In discussions about this with a retired Professor of English - he laughed and told me to get out more - that English is an evolving language and I should celebrate her ability to write more than 10 words in sms language!
hmmmm - maybe so... but what if the reader is unable to decipher the message - in this case the essay - where does that leave the evolving language when the language is presented in a format incomprehensible by the reader?
OK - I know, you can argue that many academics have been practising this for centuries....
Well - the outcome - a re-written essay, in plain English (and a Pass).
But now I also have a de-coder from this brilliant site I just discovered on Wetpaint:
Speak LOLspeak.
Not sure I'll be bothered to sit down translate a 1,000 word essay... but then again... maybe I will!

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