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There is some random stuff that is created on the web. Here’s a few cool ‘experiments’ that you could build an awesome lesson around.

Autodraw

One of my favourites (as a non-artist). Sketch on screen and the AI will bring up suggested drawings that look much nicer than your scribble.

Lesson ideas: students can make diagrams using images they created in Autodraw (I used this in the context on how Newton’s laws applied to Rockets)

Chrome Music Lab

A range of ways to make music with your browser.

Lesson ideas: introduce the topic of patterns in Maths using music patters. Have students play around with some of the tools then discuss how pleasing music is based on number patterns. Could also use to make an original soundtrack for a video or podcast.

Incredibox

Another great site to make your own music. This one is in the genre of beat boxing. Warning – this is mildly addictive

Lesson ideas: in describing patterns for Maths, original music for a project.

Emoji Scavenger Hunt

Works best with a phone. The site gives you an ‘item’ (based on an emoji like a mouse, keyboard, thumbs up) to find with your camera. The AI recognises the correct item and you move on to the next emoji.

Lesson ideas: perhaps best left for Friday last lesson… Or work in 2s or 3s to encourage collaboration.

Semi – Conductor

Wave your hands just like an orchestra conductor and have the virtual orchestra play along with you.

Lesson ideas: a warm up for a PE class!

Talk to Books

Type in a random phrase and this app (with 100,000 books under the hood) will find a book that contains it (sort of …)

Teachable Machine

Use some machine learning to display cute cats on the screen!

Story Speaker

Lesson ideas: have student write a story using the template then share with class via a Google speaker.

Credits:

experiments.withgoogle.com/ (where coders can share what they have developed.)

Stranger Google: Crazy Tools From the Upside Down! by Kasey Bell

QR Codes:

With the recent Christchurch terror attack I have been pondering on our responsibility as educators. After having some challenging conversations as a parent with my own son about watching the gunman’s video (it popped up in his Instagram feed as a ‘recommended link’….), I’m wondering if all our students here have had similar conversations at home. There are two main issues for me – the lack of tolerance and build up of hate that motivated the attacks, and the sharing of the livestreamed video on social media. Let’s look at the social media aspect first.

Some of the big Internet companies have come under scrutiny about the role their services play in the distribution of harmful material such as the shooters video. In fact NZ’s Privacy Commissioner stated in the aftermath that

“What we haven’t seen and what is of real disappointment to me, is any kind of acceptance of Facebook’s role, any sort of critical self reflection, any contrition, or response.”

While Facebook responded with a typical “We did the best we could” approach, the fact remains that their platform, along with others such as Instagram and Youtube help spread harmful material.

Facebook’s story of how quickly the video was spread is enlightening.  From an estimated 200 users watching the live stream, to 4000 views before it was removed by Facebook, to over 1.5 million attempted uploads to Facebook within the first 24 hours (of which 1.3 million were blocked).

The video and associate manifesto is now classified as ‘Objectionable’ an as such now has a number of legal implications for sharing. There have been published accounts of individuals being charged with breaking this law but this seems more like example discipline with the proverbial cat already being let out of the bag.

So what responsibilities to the big Internet companies have. Do we rely on them to point our moral compass in the right direction? From this recent incident we can see that even if the big companies try to censor or remove hateful posts, the immediacy of sharing which is the foundation of social media can’t put the genie back in the bottle. So education, and particularly values education, becomes so much more important in this media rich age. And schools can play and important part.

In terms of the hate that apparently motivated this attack, I was particularly proud of how our country responded. Our Prime Minister has been lauded internationally for how she demonstrated her leadership (and even talk of a Nobel Peace Prize?!) 

But it was not only our country’s politicians. On a very local level, the student leaders at my school organised a memorial with 50 empty chairs on our outdoor stage. Students had a chance to write a message on a post it and place it on one of the chairs.

I think schools still do have a responsibility to help point our young people’s moral compass in the right direction. While most schools, like my own, have a scheme of work somewhere that delivers digital citizenship lessons (in our school it is the PE department delivering an eight lesson unit to all the Y9s), I think we are all teachers of values. I found in my own practice that this event was is one of those teachable moments we should take advantage of. Even just have a chat with a few kids in your class, rather than some fully blown articulated lesson might make a difference. I found that students did want to talk about what happened, particularly the spread of the video.

Here are some links/resources that might be useful if you want to have some similar discussions with your students. 

Feel free to share any others you have come across as a comment to this post.

Here’s the work flow to make a stop motion movie as covered by Glen Storey in one of his Towards Transformation PD sessions.

Inspiration

• Robot Chicken

 

Step 1 – Story board

Use Storyboardthat online or paper or Google Drawings or whatever… I used Keynote on the iPad (exported as a movie below so you can see my awesome sketches…)

Step 2 – Capture footage

I used Stop Motion on the iPad and a range of Lego characters to tell the story.

Step 3 – Add audio/titles/transitions

Using the iMovie app on the iPad, I added some of the sound effects, filters, title and transitions to produce the final cut.

Watch out Peter Jackson, this is the next big hit…

I’ve been interested in 3D printing for a number of years now having used one of the machines in our Technology department. I now have access to one of their first printers that has been set up in the Inquiry classroom’s Makerspace. It’s been a couple of days of trouble shooting to get it to actually print but it’s finally working and I now have a number of sets of wheels for the students to make some Pinewood Derby cars. I thought I’d share a few of the solutions that have worked.

Model: Makerbot Replicator (circa 2012)

Problem #1: Getting the right software to edit 3d files

I have used Createbot (crashed), ReplicatorG, Makerbot print (only works with modern printers) and Makerbot Desktop. I found that Makerbot Desktop was the most reliable and is able to print directly to the printer using a USB cable.

Problem #2: Printer won’t read SD cards

My first step was to update the printer’s firmware. It was running 5.5 with the latest version at 7.5. I followed the instructions on this site and used Replicator G to push the new firmware to the printer via the USB cable. The timing of pressing ‘Upload’ on the Mac and the reset button on the printer was tricky and for me, I had to press ‘Upload’ first, wait half a second, then press reset.

However the printer still didn’t read some old SD cards (8MB and 32MB) that I had. I tried an 8GB card from a camera and even bought a new 16GB card. All didn’t’ work. It became apparent I needed to format the cards to FAT 16. After a number of failures, here is the process that worked for my Mac (yes, I know it’s a long one…):

Format an SD Card FAT 16 on OSX

Sources: Replicator Operator, Mike’s PBX cookbook
Note that formatting the card will rename it: NONAME.

1.) Insert the SD card into the reader.

2.) Open Disk Utility.

3.) Select the SD card by clicking on it.

4.) Right click the SD card and choose: Unmount
The card name will become greyed out.

5.) Open a Terminal window.

6.) Type: diskutil list

This command gives information on all connected devices. The relevant information in this instance is the path to the [SD card] device and it’s name. In the example below the path is: dev/disk2s1 and the name (identifier) is: disk2s1. Note that the actual card ‘name’ in this example is, “TMP_NAME_SD1”.

/dev/disk2 (internal, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: FDisk_partition_scheme *31.1 MB disk2
1: DOS_FAT_16_S 3D_ 31.1 MB disk2s1

7.) To format the SD card, type:

(I had to type sudo -s and put in my user password to complete this next step as I think it needed Admin permissions in Terminal)

sudo newfs_msdos -F 16 (path to the SD card device) / (SD card device name)

In this example:

sudo newfs_msdos -F 16 /dev/disk2s1

*Note the underscore in the command is necessary.

If the command is successful it will return something similar to this…

newfs_msdos: warning: /dev/disk2s1 is not a character device
512 bytes per physical sector
/dev/disk2s1: 13170 sectors in 6585 FAT16 clusters (1024 bytes/cluster)
bps=512 spc=2 res=1 nft=2 rde=512 sec=13255 mid=0xf8 spf=26 spt=32 hds=16 hid=25 drv=0x80

8.) In Disk Utility, right click the card and choose: Mount
The card will now be shown as: Format: MS-DOS(FAT16) The card is name is: NO NAME

Troubleshooting.

Command returns: Permission denied.
Is the card right protected? Check switch on side of card.
Do you have the required permissions? Type: sudo -s to get a full root shell.

Problem #3: Printed model comes off build plate

This has been a difficult problem to solve and I found a website that was really helpful. Here are some things I did:

1. Pre heat twice before printing
2. Have a heating going in the small room to raise the ambient temperature
3. Cover printer with an old blanket
4. Clean build plate with acetone

It also looks like part of the sticker covering the build plate was damaged and when I initially did a large print (8 wheels) that part of the model lifted. I then changed to a smaller model (4 wheels) to make sure it was being built away from the damaged part of the build plate. Problem solved.

 

 

How might we leverage this culture of digital documentation?

https://twitter.com/annerotorua/status/985997595553099776

“We are educators. We are custodians of the world’s most precious resource” – @LadyWesner

Which problem would you like to solve?

The Enemies of Change

• Time
• The Curriculum (“But I have to cover the curriculum” – Every teacher ever)
• Fear

“The curriculum is NOT THE ENEMY, it is a springboard for innovation” @LadyWesner

Our Weapons:

• Vision
• Community