Category Archives: wwwd

Mostly stuff to do with the classroom & Teaching and learning. Posts that fit with the site’s description: “Teaching, ict, and suchlike”

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Microsoft Thinks You’ve Been Missing Your Commute in Lockdown – WSJ

Teams’ morning commute experience hasn’t been finalized, but will involve asking users to write a short list of things they want to accomplish that day, Ms. Janardhan said. It also will ask how users are feeling before they start work. If they say they are feeling overwhelmed, the virtual commute assistant will ask if they want to block time off in their calendars to focus on work or de-stress.

John Naughton though this was a spoof.

I’d love to block out some time in my calendar to de-stress but I don’t think this one is aimed at a school day.

The last thing I want to do in a commute (real or virtual) is “write a short list of things I want to accomplish that day”.

I’ve spent the best part of 40 years commuting in one way or another, mostly on trains and latterly by car, so I have experience.

Driving to work I listen to the radio, or podcasts or music. I keep an eye out for the seasons, nature & roadkill. I think, let my mind drift. I might write, in my head, a haiku.

Occasionally I might think about school if I realise the days plan is flawed, or I worry about need to get something done. Wondering how I’ll manage that between 20 to eight and the bell at nine.

I might have a great idea or notion about something I could teach, and work out how to fit it in.

I do not want to systematically want to go through the day taking more time up with routine or timetables, I want this slack time for myself & serendipity. If I am locked down again, or get into a position where I work from home, I’d rather manage my transition from breakfast to work without a piece of software asking me questions.

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You cannot connect with students or understand their learning if you can’t see them. And nobody can be expected to share ideas that are important to them to group of hidden faceless peers. If you want students to talk, you’ll need cameras on.

@Doug_Lemov on Twitter here.

A lot of good pushback on this in the replies. I certainly didn’t find the lack of camera a problem during our spring/summer lockdown. At that point Teams in Glow did not let pupils use cameras. I liked that as it meant I didn’t have to think about it.

Cameras off could help with privacy, bandwidth and possible feeling a bit more comfortable the teacher is not watching your every move and counting the toilet breaks.

 

Yeah, I think people somehow keep forgetting that there is literally a whole pandemic.

I don’t hear from a kid for a week and they pop back in and I tell them I missed them and am thrilled to see them.

“There was some stuff.”

Yup. Love you; glad you’re here.

Trina Parrish (@ArtTeacherMsP) here

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Bookmarked Schools in England told not to use anti-capitalist material in teaching (theguardian.com)
The government has ordered schools in England not to use resources from organisations which have expressed a desire to end capitalism. Department for Education (DfE) guidance issued on Thursday for school leaders and teachers involved in setting the relationship, sex and health curriculum categorised anti-capitalism as an “extreme political stance” and equated it with opposition to freedom of speech, antisemitism and endorsement of illegal activity.

Words fail

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Bookmarked Monday 24 August, 2020 by John NaughtonJohn Naughton (Memex 1.1)
Quote of the Day The mystery which surrounds a thinking machine already surrounds a thinking man.” B. F. Skinner Musical alternative to the morning’s radio news Claudio Abaddo conducting the Berlin Phil. And I mean conducting. Link “Years of photos” permanently wiped from iPhones, iPads by bad Lightroom app update

I am pretty much addicted to @jjn1’s daily, this one is particularly interesting.

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Given I want a nice gentle start for my class this session I thought we would play with Vedic Squares. I was reminded of these and their possibilities from a tweet I’d bookmarked from Blair Minchin.

We started on Last Thursday making multiplication grids then vedic squares, making patterns by joining the same numbers with lines.

 

The next day we recreated the grids in Numbers. I then explained conditional highlighting so that the class could colour the grid. They were fascinated by both the process and the results. The Gallery below steps through the process.

The next step was to screenshot the grids and place them in keynote to duplicate and create symmetrical patterns. At this point some of the class started animating their patterns to rotate madly in keynote. At that point gifs became obvious;-)

Here is the process in Keynote.

For a gif purist like myself Keynote gifs are a bit off. Very big files indeed. This got a little better after I explained that they didn’t need 999 rotations for a gif, one would do. Getting rid of any easing in the rotation and any delay in the export gives a straightforward rotation.

A quick screencast of rotation settings and gif export:

I particularly enjoyed the excitement as the class saw the conditional highlighting in action and then that the animation step was suggested by the pupils. There is still a lot to explore around both the patterns and processes. I hope that the class will further explore both, opening up links to maths, R.E. and art.

Although we used iPad, Apple Numbers and Keynote I am sure you could do the same with Excel & PowerPoint.

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Liked https://twitter.com/wordpressdotcom/status/1291360306459889666?s=20 by wordpressdotcom (twitter.com)
Today we’re announcing an all-new P2 beta as a standalone product, powered by http://WordPress.com. We’re excited to have you try it out: https://wordpress.com/blog/2020/08/06/improve-your-remote-collaboration-with-p2/

We had the p2 theme in Glow Blogs and I though it had a lot of potential. I wonder if running your own p2 will be on the cards? I’d love to see it back in Glow.

We removed the p2 theme from Glow a while back and it hasn’t been updated for a few years now.

Update, this thread: Tom J Nowell on Twitter: “Interestingly enough this is in their public theme svn folder as P2020, which reveals why they aren’t letting you install it locally” / Twitter and this tomjn/p2020: A self hosted fork of P2 2020

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Liked A tweet by Celeste (twitter.com)
Here's my #AnimateYourWorld exploration using the #VideoSensing blocks in @scratch. I wanted to bring my books to life! The blue square recognizes what book I'm reading (based on color of the cover) and populates my screen with some interactive characters. #ComputationalTinkering

This is amazing.

Interactive Storybook Animations Using Video Sensing on Scratch

I made a quick test:

Continue reading →

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In fact, designing a high-filtration but transparent mask or face shield might be an important solution in classrooms as well, to help keep teachers safe.

Why Aren’t We Talking More About Ventilation?

and

When windows cannot be opened, classrooms could run portable HEPA filters, which are capable of trapping viruses this small, and which sell for as little as a few hundred dollars. Marr advises schools to measure airflow rates in each classroom, upgrade filters in the HVAC system to MERV 13 or higher (these are air filter grades), and aspire to meet or exceed ASHRAE (the professional society that provides HVAC guidance and standards) standards.

This is a really interesting article. I am not sure how long I could keep windows open in my classroom as we move through autumn into winter.