Tag: YouTube

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School’s out Friday

Friday again. Today was a wonderful day at our school. It was House Drama and Variety day, a day that is steeped in tradition and gives our students an opportunity to display their creative talents through drama and dance. It’s a highlight in the school calendar as far as I am concerned. Houses compete against one another and the students create a production that melds dance, comedy,  some lip syncing,  some hammy acting and most importantly, loads of fun. It does interrupt our curriculum, but it provides the connective experience that I think is vital for schools – it is a day they will all remember, long after they leave the place.

Wouldn’t it have been great if we had uploaded some of this wonderful creaative work to YouTube so the world could see how great they are and they could help to foster a positive digital footprint of themselves. Maybe next year….

So, because we can’t see Tripp house’s brilliant retelling of Peter Pan, we’re watching Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld. This was broadcast on US television last night and is the first of a series of commercials to try and get the public to see Vista in a new light. It’s a bit obscure at the moment – as the series unfolds I’m sure the story will gel. I can see they are taking principles that Garr Reynolds would no doubt find interesting. They are relying on story and the connectedness that forms through this to imprint their message. Will be interesting to see how the story unfolds. (Just as an aside, apparantly Jerry was paid 10 million dollars to appear in the ads . Nice little earner!)

Enjoy your weekend. Spring is here in Melbourne and the air feels warmer. Ain’t life grand!

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School’s out Friday

Friday again! Rolls around fast doesn’t it?

Had to revisit Hamish and Andy who took on the Olympic city of Beijing to take the sport of Ghosting to a new level – Forbidden Ghosting in the Forbidden City! Funny guys, and game ones at that, without a doubt.

For those of you wondering how Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach’s visit to my school went yesterday, it was great. I’ll write about it tomorrow when it’s not one o’clock in the morning and I’m not sitting at my laptop with a glazed expression that reeks of too much to do, too little time and too little sleep!

Nearly spring! (Or Autumn/Fall for all you Northern Hemisphere folk) Enjoy the weekend.  

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School’s out Friday

Friday again already! Hope your week has been a good one. Time to revist the improveverywhere team and see what Charlie Todd has been up to. This is their latest effort. Using the subway system (a favourite location of theirs) they managed to get 15 sets of identical twins to form a human mirror on a train. Watch the quizzical expressions from the unsuspecting passengers as they look from one side of the train of the other and try and fathom what is going on.  

Charlie Todd, in my book, you are a superstar. I so look forward to seeing what you will come up with next. You and your team of voluntary improvisors lift my spirits. A real tonic for the weekend. Enjoy.

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Periodic table of videos -now Science teachers have got to love this one!

Alec Couras found this site. He writes a wonderful blog that you should be checking out. His was one of the first blogs I subscribed to and I always find something worthwhile when I visit.  This is no exception. It’s from the University of Nottingham. They’ve developed a Periodic Table of Videos about the periodic table of elements. Elementary, some would say!!

This is great. There’s nothing more dry than trying to memorise those elements. At least using these your students will have a visual element to peg their learning to (excuse the pun!).  They’re not trying to be radical with these videos, but they will be useful I’m sure for Science teachers everywhere. A great initiative from the University of Nottingham.

And don’t forget, if you have problems loading the vids from their YouTube channel  , under Australian copyright guidelines you can convert the file to another format that you can download to your computer so that the video will play straight away in class. I use Keepvid and download to Mpeg 4 quality for playback.  Easy done and saves loading problems.

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School’s out Friday

How quickly does the weekend come around huh? (And how quickly does it go!!!) This is a recommendation from a student of mine for this week’s School’s out Friday. It’s the Discovery Channel’s ad called Boom de  ah dah. It’s a lot of fun. I love the fact that my students want to share their good finds with me. Saves me a lot of time looking and I really appreciate it. On YouTube the Discovery Channel are looking for people to create their own video response to this ad. Here’s one of the efforts that have been made by the public. It’s a couple of inventive kids with a trebuchet – they could cause a lot of damage if let loose with this!  

Have a great weekend.

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School’s out Friday

Is it Friday again! Of course it is, and what’s more it’s that special date 08/08/08. Olympic opening ceremony day. I’m sitting here watching and marvelling at the wonder that is China. I’m returning with my school to do an 18 day trip in late October/November. I did the same trip last year and my perception of China and the Chinese people was transformed by the experience. Such wonderful people and such an interesting country full of many contrasts. Before I make this trip I will be visiting a part of China I haven’t experienced before – Shanghai. I’m going to the Learning 2.008 conference in September. What a great learning experience this will be. A chance to meet many of the people I have formed connections with throughout the course of this year and an opportunity to attend sessions run by people of note in the Web 2.0 world. I feel very fortunate.

Couldn’t resist searching YouTube to find what people had uploaded from the opening ceremony already. With the accents I’m gathering it’s from Greek TV – it may not last long on YouTube. I noticed a couple had been taken down from YouTube already for copyright reasons.

Hope you enjoy the weekend and immerse yourself in some of the connective spirit that feeds out from the Olympic games. I love watching and feeling that sense of world unity. Let’s hope it’s a peaceful time.

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Google Street View – now in Australia

Was watching World News on SBS when I saw a report about Google Street View. I’d never heard of it, but the reporter was saying that your house’s street view could be visible in a Google Maps search if you selected street view. Just had to check that out! Typed in my address, clicked on street view and next thing you know I’m looking at my front fence and driveway -the image you see above! Freaked me out a bit I have to admit. It seems a little intrusive somehow.

Andrew Ramadge, from News.com.au wrote an article about Street View explaining what it is and how the images are collected;

Google Street View is an online tool that lets users take a virtual tour of landscapes from their computer by perusing an interactive database of millions of 360-degree snapshots.

The snapshots are taken by a fleet of cars fitted with special cameras that drive across the country, capturing images on every street corner and along every highway.

   He goes on to address security concerns that have been expressed and how Google hopes to overcome them;

In response to security concerns raised in the US, Google said last year its Street View service would not identify faces or license plates in Australia.

The company has recently introduced an automatic face-blurring technology designed to obscure the identities of people caught in the lens of Street View. Mr Shilkin said that the low resolution of images would prevent vehicle number plates from being identifiable.

Users can also report any Street View images they believe to be inappropriate through a link on the website. Mr Foster said it would take anywhere between a few minutes to “a day or so” to remove to offending images once they were reported.

Google have created a video explaining Street View for Australian audiences. I have to admit that after viewing this I warmed to the Street View concept. Good marketing Google! I like the fact that I and my students are now going to be able to visit places of interest and ‘walk’ our way around them. Imagine a class where you’re explaining the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge or Opera House- you can take your students there to navigate your way around its surrounds.  If you have to find your way from one place to another you type in your start address and your finish address and the program will step out for you the course you need to take.  Geography classes just got a whole lot more interesting I think! Watch the video and make your own mind up about Street View.

(If you want to see how the camera works that took the street view pictures take a look at this popular mechanics article. Thanks to Simon Brown for tweeting about this)

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School’s out Friday

So hard to choose this week because I’ve had two suggestions from my students for this week’s dose of School’s out Friday. I love it that the kids I teach want to be involved in the process. They love the School’s out Friday post and often ask if they can watch them in class. I have them during last lesson on a Friday so as a treat they sometimes get to watch the previous week’s post just before leaving school for the weekend.

Can’t disappoint them so there are two funny vids this week. The first is a quickie – a mother panda who gets a shock from her newborn’s sneeze – guaranteed to put a smile on you face. The second is two Australian comics, Lano and Woodley, who did a farewell tour when they decided to part company. This is Frank Woodley and his song explaining the origins of everything including their meeting, career togehter and decision to part. And all in one and a half minutes!

Hope you have a great weekend.    

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School’s out Friday

Yes, it’s time for School’s out Friday. Thought I’d check out what ImprovEverywhere have been up to. This is them making the day of a little league baseball team, by turning their game into a major league event. The players, coaches and parents were in the dark about what had been planned for the day. I love it when the Goodyear blimp comes into view.  What a great day for those kids! Like one of the coaches says, the rest of the season was going to be a letdown after this. Love it.    

Enjoy your weekend.

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School’s out Friday

A couple of weeks ago I featured Hamish and Andy and their Team Ghosting effort in the streets of Melbourne. Quite a lot of people commented on it both on and off the blog. I love Hamish and Andy. They have a radio program from 4.00pm -6.00pm on 101.9 Fox FM here in Melbourne, Australia. They’re great listening. I cringe when they play their blast from the past segment. What they do is select a random phone number and ring that person. The task is to convince the person on the end of the phone that they’re a friend from the past and then they have to get them to agree to something, be it looking after their children, lending them money or giving them a psychic reading amongst others. Cringable stuff but very funny nonetheless.

This is them seeing what they can get when they use crying as a method. Funny stuff.

Enjoy your weekend.