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Somethings that cheer me on a rainy Saturday:

  1. Adam’s Geo – Photo tool kit ( Originally uploaded by aburt) Click the link to see the notes on flickr.

  2. eduBuzz – Home (cheer with a tinge of green) East Lothian buzzing.
  3. Henry Munday – Connor the third comment on this post is from an ex-pupil and ex – sandaig blogger.
  4. FreeMacWare.com : Free Software For Macs has a Rss feed
  5. has given me a ton of fun over the last few weeks.

    6. Entry

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Seb wee LogoI’ve started a new blog: scotedublogs aggregation this is a blog to discuss and support the ScotEduBlogs news: index site.The Development of ScotEduBlogs news: index continues and is being discussed on the Google Groups: scotedublogs_devel. That group is full of fairy geeky programmers stuff, as well as some more mundane discussion that I can join in.
But for a lot of busy ScotsEduBloggers there is a wee bit too much of the technical side. So we have started the scotedublogs aggregation.
hopefully the blog will discuss some of the ScotEduBlogs News sites features, plan some of the help and information that will eventually end up on the site and show folk how to use it.
Although I have started the site, the ScotEduBlogs news project is open source software so it would be really great if other people would be interested in helping to edit the blog. So if you are interesting in adding your two pence worth to the News Project please get in touch.

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This afternoon we had our first and second conference with the National Archives/. Our primary six classes took part in the KS 2: Literacy and History: Victorian Child Criminals Poetry Workshop one after the other.

In the past we have conferenced with schools in Glasgow, Edinburgh and our partner school in Holland. these provide the children with an audience to present to and let them be an audience for their peers.

todays was a bit different, it allowed the children to tap into expertise from outside the classroom, and virtually visit the archive. From my point of view it was like having an expert co-operatively teach my class.

The connection went through JANET Videoconferencing Service (JVCS) with the support of LTS’s Videoconferencing guy Stuart Oliphant, who gave me a lot of help in getting me signed up with JVCS, setting up and testing. Stuart also provides the bridge for our connections to Holland.

The video and audio were of a much better quality than we are used to and the children were very involved about the lesson, expect some posts from them soon blogging the afternoon and the resulting poems.

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SEB Logo

Over at the ScotEduBlogs news: index site

and

have be working flat out. You can keep read Pete: ScotEduBlogs and Robert’s post and comments to keep up or cut over to scotedublogs_devel | Google Groups to watch or join the development.

I am trying to work on the design as I can’t contribute code. Feel free to join in with anything, but especially:

The ScotEduBlogs Logo competition

We need a logo, preferably 790 pixels by 180 or so. It should reflect Scotland, blogging and sharing/ Open source software.

I am not sure about the judging process, probably a poll on the wiki.

First prize: fame, and the right to stick a open source license on you logo;-)

You can also join in with suggestions as to how this project should look, perform, features you would like to see, Robert and Pete are not only open to suggestions they seem to add them faster than I can think ’em up.

If you are a ScotsEduBlogger you should also go over to the site and check to see if you are listed. If not add yourself, if you are check your tags and edit them to your preference.

Please blog about the project so that as many SEBloggers can join in the process.

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The blog software I use here,

is GPLed and extendable. I’ve used a few extensions to show flash content and even hacked one to play mp3s.

I just installed another one that will be handy for me rather than the children, slink.

slink lets you define some links that can then be inserted quickly by typing, for example: [[slink:p]] and getting

.

you get to define as many slinks as you like in a simple file, mine looks like this at the moment:

p|Pivot|http://www.pivotlog.net

a|Apple|http://www.apple.com

s|Sandaig|http://www.sandaigprimary.co.uk

o|Sandaig Otters|http://www.sandaigprimary.co.uk/pivot

ewan|Ewan|http://edu.blogs.com

david|David|http://edcompblog.blogspot.com/

robert|Robert|http://www.jonesieboy.co.uk/blog/

pete|Pete|http://geekyteach.computingteacher.co.uk/

google|Google|google.co.uk

sb|ScotsEudBlogs News|http://www.scotedublogs.org.uk/

sw|ScotEduBlogs Wiki|http://www.scotedublogs.wikispaces.com/

boo|Booruch|http://booruch.libsyn.com/

stv|Sandaig TV|http://www.sandaigprimary.co.uk/pivot/sandaig_tv.php

f|Flickr|http://www.flickr.com

which reflects common links I’ve made recently, but it is simple to change by editing a text file.

This is the sort of thing that keeps me amused while doing the more important job of running the children’s blogs.

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I seem to be going to the Netherlands with our primary sevens later this year. Last time we produced the Netherlands 2005 blog, well received by the parents.

Unfortunately for us the Hotel De-Instuif has undergone improvement and an upgrade moving it out of our price range. The last time the owners was very good about allowing me access to his home pc where I fired up the children’s notes and photos. I am not sure yet where I’ll be able to get a connection.

This session I’d like to move up a league by utilising the bus time for blogging on the the move, so I need advice. I know folk can use phones and usb things that can give access to the net anywhere, but an not sure of the details. I’ve 2 scenarios:

1. The dream, what is possible?

2. The actuality, what can we do that is short term, not paying for 12-18 months when we need a week, does anyone rent phones usb-sim-modems for a week?

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If you read my blog much you might have noticed the odd moan about flickr, not being able to be used it here.

Recently I found Pics4Learning. This is

intended to provide copyright friendly images for use by students and teachers in an educational setting.

There does not seem to be a specific license attached to the photos, they only ask for attribution. Yesterday my class searched for photos to go with poems they wrote, downloaded them, resized them and posted them to their blogs. I also explained that they need to give some sort of attribution, unfortunately I had not found the instructions, so we just linked to Pics4Learning, next time the attributions will be to the photos.

I was quite please that quite a few of the children a managed this as there are quite a few steps involved. I was especially pleased to see Courtney who didn’t have time to finish her post went home searched for a picture, added it to her blog (remembering to resize it) and attributed it.

I realise that the site is nowhere near as wide and deep as flickr, but it will be a great asset to our blogs this session. I also think there is some advantage in the children downloading and editing photos rather than just linking to flickr. It should also insure that readers of the children’s blogs who also have images sites blocked will see the pictures.

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I just want to point to Robert‘s post about Scotedublogs – A New Hub for Scottish Educational Blogs which is pretty wonderful news.

Teachers doing it for themselves;-)

What is great about this project, like the Scotedublogs wiki is the fact that anyone can join in and influence the project. Robert and Peter are doing the heavy lifting (code/programming) at the moment, but anyone can help with that or just an opinion on what needs to be done or the best way to do it. I am no coder, but I can put in my 2 pence worth about features, design etc as can anyone else.

Check out Robert‘s post, the Scots Edu Blogs Aggregation Project page on the Scotedublogs wiki, the discussion group and the project itself: www.scotedublogs.org.uk.

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A cross between putting my money were my mouth is and enjoying the last couple days of freedom.

Click on the left right hand side of images to advance, the left to go back. The slides sort of explain the hows, whys and wherefores. You can try the editor I hope it will be usable by the children. If not I’ve enjoyed playing with flash.