I really like the iOS micro:bit app as do my class. I was intrigued by the data feature when it came out but had not used it. Delighted to see this:
Fetch MY_DATA
Selecting this option lets you retrieve data that has been logged during a data-logging session with the micro:bit. This is only available with Version 2 micro:bits.
iOS App – Summary of changes in August 2023 update : Help & Support
I’ve been lucky, imo, to have been using an old 27 inch iMac as my computer in school since I started 8 years ago. Despite its age it has been a wonderful machine for me. Returning to my classroom last week I found it will no longer start up at all. No response to the power button. This was my Mac when I worked at the Education Computer Centre before being redeployed to the classroom.
Apart from my familiarity with Macs (going back to system 7) a Mac fits really well with a class all using iPads. The ease of sharing via Airdrop is probably the biggest advantage. It’s simplicity and the way it doesn’t depend on the cloud make it useable even if our internet connection is slow or down. I can quickly collect the pupils work via AirDrop and manipulate (print, combine, resize, assess, organise etc) it on my Mac.
I also prefer using the Apple productivity apps on an iPad but like creating & editing them even more on a Mac.
Large screen computers are rare in primary schools but I have been spoiled. We mostly use quite small laptops. I find these quite difficult to work on. If I use a trackpad for more than a few minutes I get pain in my shoulder and a couple of fingers go numb.
As we now only buy Windows machines in my L.A., I have access to a Windows laptop. However, my old fingers are Apple-trained. I am currently using a rather old MacBook Pro. I have the keyboard from the iMac plugged in, along with the mouse. I think I might just buy a cheap screen and add that as well. I can bring it home and make my Mac mini a dual-screen setup when the laptop follows the iMac.
Having used the MacBook for 4 days I realise how many think I’d added to the iMac (and have at home) that make my life easier. I am going to have to spend some time adjusting the MacBook to my habits. The ones l’ve particularly missed so far are:
All small things that I use without thinking and make my life simpler.
This week has certainly made me appreciate the technology I’ve been taking for granted. I also need to remind myself that in my time of teaching, I’ve gone from a couple of computers in a whole school without a network, to 1-2-1 iPads in my class today. Can’t complain!
The hour approaches…
This is Which One Doesn’t Belong?, a website dedicated to providing thought-provoking puzzles for math teachers and students alike. There are no answers provided as there are many different, correct ways of choosing which one doesn’t belong. Enjoy!
Tape diagrams are especially useful for modeling addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, and ratios/proportions.might work in wel lwith Number Talks, or be a break from them.
You probably figured out pretty quickly that there’s usually more than one solution to which one doesn’t fit and why. These aren’t multiple choice questions with one objectively “correct” answer. It’s the process of examining each item in comparison with the others that forces us to review what we already know, reinforces the information we use to argue whatever point we choose to make as a result, stretches our understanding of each item a bit, and lays the groundwork for actual analysis and argument should we eventually go there.
“…a web-based data filtering tool for OpenStreetMap”
HT Joe. I really like Open Street Map, this makes me like it more.
Experience a WordPress that runs entirely in your browser.
…WordPress Playground makes WordPress instantly accessible for users, learners, extenders, and contributors.
And
Even more insane and amazing, Ella van Durpe used WordPress Playground as the basis for a new note-taking app for iOS and macOS. Blocknotes is a stripped down version of WordPress that lets you create notes like you would create posts in WordPress.
Town Square is a generative sculpture, animated with slow-paced movement. The work is code-based and runs live in the browser. A random seed was chosen by the artist, cementing the generative shape of the sculpture. A looping video file for exhibition purposes can be provided upon request. Made with html, css, javascript, and three.js. Creator Anna Lucia
I am often impressed with various html/css/javascript art ideas, this is a lovely one. I’ve occasionally taken baby steps, usually in response to the Daily Create.
Bookmarked Degenerative AI in education by .
But what if, instead of being generative of educational transformations, AI in education proves to be degenerative—deteriorating rather than improving classroom practices, educational relations and wider systems of schooling?
I’ve read this a couple of time, and probably need a couple more.
I guess, like other technologies that have entered the classroom, we are very much in the hands of the powerful. We get the technology we are given. Usually at a low cost, but perhaps at a high price?
As a side note, Jetpack now offers to change the tone of what I write with AI. Here is the humorous rewrite of the previous paragraph:
Continue reading
I’ve not posted links for a while, these are some of the things I’ve found interesting in the last couple of weeks.
Featured image found with Openverse, attribution copied from the caption. Winding Chain – Triple Square Link with Wooden Spacers, 5½-inch Pitch, Wrought Iron, 1850s-1870s by Photographer: David Thompson is licensed under CC-BY 4.0
A small example of the H5P Find Multiple Hotspots content type in Glow Blogs.
I was intrigued how these wee chicks survived given the number of dogs walked along this shore in addition to plenty of gulls & crows who I would expect to enjoy a plover chick dinner. Even the adults are quite hard to spot.
I am building a collection of H5P examples on Glow Blogs. I’ve also been using it to make some spelling crosswords, word-searches and cloze procedures for my class using the North Lanarkshire spelling word list.
Likes World Curlew Day.
I did not know this, followed a link from the Caught by the river newsletter to Curlew Country. Both sites have activities and resources for schools. I wish I’d seen it earlier as it would have fitted nicely with Earth Day/John Muir day which we celebrated today in school.
<sup>3</sup>/<sub>8</sub>
3/8
Bookmarking this to remind myself to go through this presentation regularly.
Here’s a dropbox link to a folder with Keynote, PowerPoint and PDF versions of my @researchEDScot1 talk ‘Clean Up Your Mess’ #rEdAberdeen https://t.co/2bFRLXM4OL
Please share!
— Robert Macmillan (@robfmac) November 20, 2022
Dropbox link in case twitter implodes!
I’ve read a bit about ChatGPT use in education, there is a lot about 1
I’ve been kicking the tyres of ChatGPT a little. Even on the surface it is quite interesting.
I have tried a couple of things that might be useful. One is to get some JavaScript functions for a little fun. It did what I wanted. The other was perhaps more pertinent to teaching.
I wanted to knock out a couple of simple cloze procedures, making up sentences is one of the more tedious tasks so I though I’d give ChatGPT a shot. I asked:
Me: can you give me sentences for 10 year old using each of these words feat feet mail male leak leek meat meet ChatGPT: Sure! Here are some sentences using each of these words: "I am so proud of my little sister's feat of climbing to the top of the jungle gym all by herself!" "I can't believe how big my feet have gotten since I was a baby." "I need to go to the post office to mail this letter to my pen pal in France." "My uncle is a male doctor." "There's a small leak in the roof that needs to be fixed before it starts raining." "I love adding sliced leek to my salads for a little extra flavor." "I can't wait to have a barbecue and cook some juicy meat on the grill." "I have to go meet my friend at the library in an hour."
So I needed to fix the spelling of flavor and asked, with typo, as in the screenshot, for another sentence for male. I got a list. I needed to adjust the one I chose to make the lion lazy too.
It was easy enough to paste that into an H5P Fill in the Blanks Content and get a cloze in Glow Blogs.
The Fill in the missing blanks content in H5P takes text with the words you want to be blank surrounded by asterisks. Since I’d copied the sentences into a text editor to replace the quotations, I set the document format to markdown, selected the words and pressed ⌘-i.
I then wondered if I could get ChatGPT to add the asterisks for me, so I asked: with an asterisk before and after each word. This it did, but as it typed then it seems that ChatGPT uses markdown, so as it typed the closing astrisk the enclosed word became italic. So back TextMate for me.
