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
Slow Fast Slow is a nice app for changing speed of videos on iOS. I discovered it via a nice tutorial by
Andrew Brooks Rework Time – Playing with time using the Slow Fast Slow App with slow-motion video. I think my class might enjoy this especially if the sandpit is still full of water.
John 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.
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.
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
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.
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 pic.twitter.com/v4xVL9tTXF
— Celeste (@CeMoCreates) August 1, 2020
Interactive Storybook Animations Using Video Sensing on Scratch
I made a quick test:
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.
#tds1850 Guesswork matters https://daily.stillweb.org/tds1850/
failure and hope are the very things that have propelled human progress to date
the loss of the random and serendipity are worrying too. #tds1850
Loved the linked photoset of kids playing, outdoors & sometimes, somewhat risky.
Over the summer I am working on #GlowBlogs help site, improving accessibility, clearing out out of date content etc. Any suggestions for improvement very welcome. #GlowScot @GlowScot
Saving this here for following up after the summer break.
The concept had passed me by somehow until Mr Dorman from the @PedagogyTeamNLC introduced them to my class, which very much enjoyed by the children. I had planned on thinking about this a bit more, but other things happened.
Today Arron’s bookmark reminded me and took me to Librarians turned Google Forms into the unlikely platform for virtual escape rooms which links to this example: Hogwarts Digital Escape Room.
I’ve seem a few examples using OneNote and google forms before but this is probably the smoothest experience.
I had wondered if using password protected WordPress posts or pages would work.
I even make a simple set up Make an Escape which produces a sort of digital multi lock (all the answers are 123) before lockdown.
Today I started doing a little reading following Arron’s links, Breakout EDU Additional Game Creator Lab Resources – bit.ly/boeduresources – Google Slides looks as if it is worth borrowing from.
