Reflection: Moodle for Beginners

A group of Auckland’s finest teachers came to Howick today to talk Moodle and eLearning. Best thing: a mix of Primary and Secondary teachers made for excellent conversations. None of us could recall being on a training day with both disciplines – very important questions were asked, like: “what do children need to know when […]

Getting the best out of Google

I like Google.  It changes constantly, and while there may be many commercial reasons for Google to alter its algorithms for search optimisation, understanding how Google operates and how to get the best search results from it is pretty liberating. In my professional life I’m constantly asked to find information with the very quick caveat […]

Google services and why you should think twice

I saw this video a while ago, and it caused me to think about how I use the internet. I found out that there are some companies that are really interested in what I think. In fact, they record my internet usage all the time. How I use the internet and why Browsing –  I […]

Adults: please talk about Amanda Todd

Amanda Todd is all over Facebook. It’s a gut wrenchingly sad story about cyberbullying. Amanda took her life last week after 3 years of hell. The Vancouver Sun article has processed it well, with sound advice. But the teens I m seeing on Facebook don’t know what to do with the story – because they’re […]

How To Batch Print on a Mac

I had a help desk call the other day. My client needed to print over 100 pdfs. I searched around for a decent solution and I found an awesome solution – mac only: – open your printer queue. System prefs, print and scan and double-click on the printer. – drag all the documents into the […]

Social Media Experiment – twitter for the kids

Mr11 offered Mr15 $8 for his iPod. He accepted, and now Mr11 is pleased as punch. I suggested that he open a twitter account. He did that pretty fast, but the more interesting thing was that his little sister, Miss9, quickly caught on and asked if she could open one. Mr15 sorted out a closed […]

What you need to know when you put your work email account on your iPhone

They can remote wipe your phone. Completely. With no warning. We did a little experiment at work the other day. We remote-erased my iPhone. The process is very simple: the user (me) signed up to receive work emails on my (personal) phone. The standard protocol for this is called Microsoft Exchange. It’s secure, robust and […]

Lock your iPad so children can only use one app

This is fantastic. iOS6 enables teachers to lock their iPad or iPhone so that it can only be used for one app. This will be particularly useful for Early Childhood Education and Special Education. I tried it this afternoon. A very simple way to lock your iPad or iPhone so that only one app can […]

Teachers: please don’t use your students as a human shield

I’ve always felt a little uncomfortable with teachers preaching to their students. I first came across this when, as a young teacher, I saw how effective articulate senior student could be in making a case for their teachers. I think this is ok. These are students who are at an age when they are being […]

iOS6 – is it worth it?

iOS6 was released at 5AM this morning. I had installed it by about 7:15 on my iPhone 4S – and I am stoked. Maps is my favourite bit – but that might because I have a 4S. The 3D building are awesome, but the turn-by-turn navigation (it talks to you) is brilliant. 3D building are […]