Here is a video of the Nabaztag I made a while ago. Unfortunately the audio is a bit quiet as it was late at night when I filmed it. I tried to make an updated video, but the bunny's voice was on vacation (maybe they are updating the server? Who knows?)
I have an iphone app that allows me to 'control' the rabbit in a limited way: I can get it to move its ears and I can get it to speak messages that I type on my iphone. My little girl has had conversations (somewhat stilted on the bunny's part) with the rabbit this way!
Our little white rabbit is getting a new lease of life after Violet (the original company that made them) was bought by Mindscape: http://wapedia.mobi/en/Nabaztag
The new version is called Karotz and will be available to buy from Argos from 17 Dec. Will it make it in time for Santa Claus to buy you one?
xlearn - Lilian's blog, m-learning, e-learning, gadgets, Web 2.0 and beyond.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Kodak zi8
Thoughts on the Kodak zi8 camera on #molenet loan to me from Sheffield College. I was interested in trying it out after reading about it in this JISC report: goo.gl/hRTA
Plus points:
1. Lovely size, easy to work out and use.
2. Has a tripod mount
3. Has great audio recording quality
4. Crisp clear videos
5. ext mic socket, wow!
6. AV out leads (nowadays, this seems quite standard, but the zi8 has HDMI leads)
7. Build quality is excellent
8. You can take pictures with it as well.
Minus points (only small ones...)
1. You have to manually switch between macro and normal lens, which would mean a 'clicking' sound as you move the button at the top of the camera. Or you just film two shots and edit them together.
2. Not idea for filming yourself (for reflections for instance) since there is no way to tell if you have captured all of your face. Also can't start and stop the recording without going 'behind' the camera. For something like that, the Sony MHS-PM1 is better.
3. The usb connector has a rubber bit around it that is bigger than normal. Now, it's not the zi8's fault that every laptop and computer manufacturer seems to put usb connections right next to each other, leaving no room for manoeuvre.
4. File format is .mov which is not native for Windows. This works great with Macs. Not sure if Windows Movie Maker will accept .mov file extensions yet?
You need to have an SD card in it as the internal memory is minute.
For £100, you'd be hard pushed to find a camcorder that will accept an external mic so this gets the thumbs up from me :-)
QR codes update
Just followed the link on @tombarrett's tweet on QR codes http://bit.ly/bYDi10 and learned something new :-)
If you use a URL shortener like http://goo.gl and create a short URL, add .qr at the end of the short URL and you will get a QR code!
For bit.ly, you add .qrcode
Guess there's no need to use http://splashurl.net anymore!
If you use a URL shortener like http://goo.gl and create a short URL, add .qr at the end of the short URL and you will get a QR code!
For bit.ly, you add .qrcode
Guess there's no need to use http://splashurl.net anymore!
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
google mail
Have just discovered that you have a choice of how to view your Google mail - you can either group all related messages in a thread or choose to have a 'traditional' view of emails as they come in!
Just goes to show that it's worth playing with the settings on any accounts that you might have (email, web 2.0, social networks etc). You may find you have more control than you realised ;-)
One of the things I like most about Google mail (apart from the fact that I can access all my emails, including sent mail anywhere) is that fact that I can 'file' things under multiple 'folders' by tagging them. So if I want to file an email under 'project x' as well as 'theme y', I can! This way, the email will be seen whether I click on the tag 'project x' or the tag 'theme y'. Or you could just search your emails, I guess ;-)
Just goes to show that it's worth playing with the settings on any accounts that you might have (email, web 2.0, social networks etc). You may find you have more control than you realised ;-)
One of the things I like most about Google mail (apart from the fact that I can access all my emails, including sent mail anywhere) is that fact that I can 'file' things under multiple 'folders' by tagging them. So if I want to file an email under 'project x' as well as 'theme y', I can! This way, the email will be seen whether I click on the tag 'project x' or the tag 'theme y'. Or you could just search your emails, I guess ;-)
Monday, September 27, 2010
Ifl and RSS feeds for portfolio evidence
Just preparing for the Molenet conference on Wednesday. I was going to run a session on RSS feeds and using them, but am now running a joint session with Dave Sugden on m-assessment. RSS feeds still come into it and it's a good opportunity to show people how items from our tweets, flickr photos etc can become part and parcel of m-assessment.
What's brilliant about this is that reflection and inspired thoughts can be easily captured with twitter, ustream, ipadio etc. You can pull these into systems like Ifl's Reflect and MKM's Learning Slate (being packaged as My Showcase http://my-showcase.org) and map to competency statements, action plans etc. This is a nicely organic way of recording evidence. The evidence is much more naturally formed and more likely to show ability than a learner sitting down and filling in a form field about how they have fulfilled the requirements of a competency statement.
We'll see what people say about the ideas on Wednesday!
Oh, and just for the record, this is how you add an RSS feed into your assets in Ifl's Reflect:
In Reflect, click on Tools > Manage Assets and scroll to the bottom. Click on Import from RSS feed and you can check and uncheck certain options from there. You can even filter the items that you want to import.
Once imported, each post, tweet, video or audio becomes an asset that you can link to your portfolio. Watch the screencast to see how to do this:
http://screenr.com/uwG
What's brilliant about this is that reflection and inspired thoughts can be easily captured with twitter, ustream, ipadio etc. You can pull these into systems like Ifl's Reflect and MKM's Learning Slate (being packaged as My Showcase http://my-showcase.org) and map to competency statements, action plans etc. This is a nicely organic way of recording evidence. The evidence is much more naturally formed and more likely to show ability than a learner sitting down and filling in a form field about how they have fulfilled the requirements of a competency statement.
We'll see what people say about the ideas on Wednesday!
Oh, and just for the record, this is how you add an RSS feed into your assets in Ifl's Reflect:
In Reflect, click on Tools > Manage Assets and scroll to the bottom. Click on Import from RSS feed and you can check and uncheck certain options from there. You can even filter the items that you want to import.
Once imported, each post, tweet, video or audio becomes an asset that you can link to your portfolio. Watch the screencast to see how to do this:
http://screenr.com/uwG
Friday, June 18, 2010
camcorder comparisons
Good to know that there are some models of cheaper camcorders out there that have a line-in for external microphone:
http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/blog/entry/side-by-side-comparison-of-kodak-zi8-sony-z5-and-flip/
Good job JISC digital media!
http://tinyurl.com/lskodakzi8 for the Kodak Zi8 recommended by JISC. Not enough suppliers clearly state that their camcorders can record ext mic input. And very few of them tell you what format the video is recorded to. The Kodak's record to .mov and software is included with the camcorder to convert to wmv or avi to edit using Windows Movie Maker on a PC.
The Flips record to mp4 and these also need conversion for editing on a Windows PC.
For those who prefer to use it, there's Super which is a free converter and works with many formats:
(http://www.erightsoft.com/S6Kg1.html, scroll to the bottom and download)
The PSP with a camera attachment records surprisingly good video and has external mic socket. I would actually recommend this over all others simply because the swivel lens allows you to easily record reflections as well as being used as a normal camcorder or camera. And it captures AVI which can be edited using Windows Movie Maker. (need to actually test this - should be fine in theory!) And as James Clay said in a comment on another post, reviewing the video on the PSPs is much better with its bigger screen compared to the Flip.
http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/blog/entry/side-by-side-comparison-of-kodak-zi8-sony-z5-and-flip/
Good job JISC digital media!
http://tinyurl.com/lskodakzi8 for the Kodak Zi8 recommended by JISC. Not enough suppliers clearly state that their camcorders can record ext mic input. And very few of them tell you what format the video is recorded to. The Kodak's record to .mov and software is included with the camcorder to convert to wmv or avi to edit using Windows Movie Maker on a PC.
The Flips record to mp4 and these also need conversion for editing on a Windows PC.
For those who prefer to use it, there's Super which is a free converter and works with many formats:
(http://www.erightsoft.com/S6Kg1.html, scroll to the bottom and download)
The PSP with a camera attachment records surprisingly good video and has external mic socket. I would actually recommend this over all others simply because the swivel lens allows you to easily record reflections as well as being used as a normal camcorder or camera. And it captures AVI which can be edited using Windows Movie Maker. (need to actually test this - should be fine in theory!) And as James Clay said in a comment on another post, reviewing the video on the PSPs is much better with its bigger screen compared to the Flip.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Flash quiz on PSP continued...
Well, I guess I'm going to have to get an online software written to allow people to upload a list of multiple choice questions and output a swf file that will play on the PSP. It's a gap in the market! However, along the way, I've learned a lot of interesting stuff and come across some very useful links.
In terms of putting files on the PSP, if you add them to the /COMMON folder on the PSP, this site has a nice web page that allows you to list all the files in that folder and select it.
http://psponme.com/download.asp?show=1&gname=Calc&glink=calc.swf
The site also has some useful educational Flash games (and some less useful but fun games) that will work on the PSP.
Sums Online, needless to say, are the number one for providing lots of useful Maths and Language activities for mobile devices, including the PSP:
http://www.sums.co.uk/playground.htm
You can play some free games online and you can also purchase them for offline use on the PSPs.
Adventure Maker is brilliant! There is a lot of potential - asking the learners to create own 'games' for the PSP would extend learning tremendously.
http://www.digitalarena.co.uk/game_creation/adventure_maker.htm
and http://www.cunniman.net/?tag=adventure-maker
This last one will no doubt now take up a lot of my time inventing ways of using it in FE! I'm thinking a tour of the kitchens, car workshops, etc...
While researching stuff for the PSP, I've had to install Windows (7) on my Mac using Parallels, only to find I should have tried boot camp that comes free with Snow Leopard. Ah well. And now having to fork out nearly £100 for extra RAM for the Mac. Would it have been just as cheap to just get a netbook with Windows 7, lol?
In terms of putting files on the PSP, if you add them to the /COMMON folder on the PSP, this site has a nice web page that allows you to list all the files in that folder and select it.
http://psponme.com/download.asp?show=1&gname=Calc&glink=calc.swf
The site also has some useful educational Flash games (and some less useful but fun games) that will work on the PSP.
Sums Online, needless to say, are the number one for providing lots of useful Maths and Language activities for mobile devices, including the PSP:
http://www.sums.co.uk/playground.htm
You can play some free games online and you can also purchase them for offline use on the PSPs.
Adventure Maker is brilliant! There is a lot of potential - asking the learners to create own 'games' for the PSP would extend learning tremendously.
http://www.digitalarena.co.uk/game_creation/adventure_maker.htm
and http://www.cunniman.net/?tag=adventure-maker
This last one will no doubt now take up a lot of my time inventing ways of using it in FE! I'm thinking a tour of the kitchens, car workshops, etc...
While researching stuff for the PSP, I've had to install Windows (7) on my Mac using Parallels, only to find I should have tried boot camp that comes free with Snow Leopard. Ah well. And now having to fork out nearly £100 for extra RAM for the Mac. Would it have been just as cheap to just get a netbook with Windows 7, lol?
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