Wii interactivity templates

I've been teaching the People In Action team in Leeds how to use the Wii for curriculum purposes for the JISC RSC YH Pathfinder project.

Apart from the games that you buy and creating Miis on the Wii, the team the Puzzle feature of the Photo Channel on the Wii to be useful. One idea is to ask learners to take pictures that are suitable to turn into puzzles for the Wii - eg signage, equipment, clockfaces. This can be used to stimulate recognition of key information.


We created some pictures using PowerPoint to use in lessons and I thought it might be useful to create some templates to ensure we were creating images that were making best use of the screen space. You can download the PowerPoint by clicking on this link: Wii_template.ppt or click on each slide below and then save the picture. These slides that can be used with the Doodle function on the Wii:

All my previous Wii posts can be found with this link: http://lilian-mlearning.blogspot.com/search?q=wii. We had the Wii connected to the Internet using the USB wifi connector and software on one of their laptops. The Internet Channel was easy downloaded and we started storing some websites as favourites on the Wii.

Here are some of the good games from the sites that work well on the Wii:
Paint. As the name suggests, a good simple paint program for creations using the Wii remote
Stringem Up. A simple word search game
Hangman. Allows one or two player game play
Zoo keeper and games like this can be used to stimulate communication skills. Form two teams and take it in turns to tell the teacher which animal to switch by using words only (not pointing!)
Paint Blocs can be used in a similar way to Zoo Keeper, but is also good for pattern and colour recognition.
Pointer is a great game for hand - eye coordination using the Wii remote.
Scribbl e - another great game for hand - eye coordination
Japanese Food - a memory game that can encourage teamwork
Guess 5 - a word game where you have to guess the 5-letter word
Fridge magnets - One team can drag some letters on to the board for the other team to turn into words

It's worth looking through the various categories on http://wiiplayable.com and http://psponme.com/list_psp.asp to find the games that can be used for curriculum purposes or that stimulate communication and teamwork. Once you have found one, add it to the Favourites on your Wii for easy access.

Have a look through the BBC Skillswise games and quizzes too. I looked at two that could be useful: http://tinyurl.com/ynlhfb and http://tinyurl.com/6gf9jmy

You can do your research on a PC before adding the sites to the Wii. You may find it useful to use a URL shortening service like http://tinyurl.com or http://goo.gl so that you don't have to enter long URLs on the Wii.

Twitter and the teaching of History #gtp2010

I've been absolutely inspired by Winchester House School's use of Twitter to make the Gunpowder plot come alive over a number of days. See http://wp.me/pLYcW-8o and http://bit.ly/9c2ujJ

This is a prime example of teachers embracing the technology to make it work for them and their learners and I'm so grateful that examples like that exist because it makes my work so much easier! Hats off to @chrisleach78 who is the brainchild of this inventive use of Twitter for History. It's worth looking at his blog for other interesting ideas. I only came across it because I follow @deputymitchell, another inspirational teacher. We have much to learn in FE when it comes to this level of creativity!

Can't wait for my next opportunity to share the use of Twitter with FE teachers and to see the light bulbs come on above their heads ;-)

Google Docs has a new fan

In the last two weeks, I have created more Google docs, forms, presentations and spreadsheets than ever before. To use an analogy I read in one of Doug Belshaw's blog posts (and I think he attributes the idea to someone else...), it's sunrise time for Google Docs in my world.
So what is the sun setting on at the same time? Etherpad. Having touted it for a while now, the various incarnations available out there (piratepad, ietherpad, typewithme) have been less and less reliable. (With the exception of PrimaryPad, probably, as it's being lovingly maintained by @johnmclear). When using Etherpad, we have also 'itched' for more functionality and that's exactly what we're getting now with Google Docs.
A year or two ago, I wouldn't have relied on Google Docs for my training events. Formatting was a nightmare on the 'Word' equivalent. The spreadsheets did funny things when you scrolled across or down it - data cells crossed over so you weren't sure what you were looking at.
Coming back to it a year later, using the Word equivalent is like using Etherpad, with the chat pane on the right hand side, only this time, we can embed pictures as well, yes!
Multiple people can edit the document directly yet you can keep this as a private document between a group of people (unlike Etherpad) or you can create a public document, turning the doc effectively into a wiki-like page.
A group of trainees and I tried this with Google Presentation too. For feedback and reflection, I asked each person to edit a slide. This helped to structure the input a little bit, compared with using a Doc or Etherpad. @tombarrett inspired the idea as he uses Google presentations to collate ideas together.
And I've gone mad on Forms. What a lovely invention. And all the lovely templates you can apply to them. :-) They are so easy to set up, with the results going into a Spreadsheet (Google of course) with instant graphing feedback. Wow. All my event evaluation forms have now gone online. Unlike the drama involved in getting people to fill in an evaluation on Moodle...but that's another story ;-)
And as I've mentioned in a previous post, goo.gl is my favourite URL shortener at the moment as having a Google account means that you have a record of all the stuff you've ever shortened. You get the Google analytics to tell you how many users access the site using one OS versus another. (Not sure why I might want that info at the moment, but might be handy in future.) My only gripe is that I need another column so I can fill in a personal reminder of what the link is!
And when you're making a Doc, Spreadsheet or Presentation shareable, why not give you a goo.gl URL in the first place? Maybe someone from Google will read this and get it implemented pronto...
I know there's loads of other Google bits that are immensely useful but they will surface in my world when it is their time.
One tutor did bring up the fact that we ought to be careful using something like that in teaching and learning - what about Google and privacy concerns? Hmmm, valid point but IMHO, it's a case of how paranoid you want to be. With the stuff that I'm doing at training events, I'm not too bothered who sees it - share and it all comes back to you manifold!

Nabaztag update

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?

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!

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 ;-)