ELECTRICCHALK

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Education Blog:

Chalknote #1

July 23, 2010 - Chalknote - By: Chris

Pic: Millenium Bridge, Newcastle-GateseheadIn order to regain a bit of impetus behind my blogging I’m shamelessly nicking the idea of a few other bloggers and producing a weekly digest of some of the things I’ve been working on, discovered or reflected on over the course of the week.

This is the first one.

Open Conference 2010: Video Interviews

June 16, 2010 - Site of the Week, learning - By: Chris

Pic: Open UniversityMartin Weller’s blog, The Ed Techie, was the first technology blog that I followed and he’s a constant stream of intrestingness. His latest post is really valuable for anyone interested in ed-tech generally, but also open educational models specifically. He has done interviews with a number of OU luminaries (Martin Bean, Grainne Conole, Andrew Law and Simon Buckinham-Shum) on the questions of the benefits of technology for learning and interesting issues around openness.

Is HTML5 important for education?

June 9, 2010 - Mobile, Web Tools - By: Chris

Pic: Matrix codeA friend recently asked for my thoughts on what impact I thought HTML5 would have on Adobe and the quick answer is I haven’t the foggiest. I have, though been favouriting some blog posts and web stuff about it as I try to catch up with the rest of the world and I though I’d share some. It’s not comprehensive, but it’s a start.

Why I’m switching off Twitter

June 7, 2010 - learning - By: Chris

Pic: Switch at off positionAt the beginning of June I decided to ignore Twitter for a month to see how I got on and try to disentangle it from my life, hoping to get a clearer picture of why I actually use it in the process. It has become such a regular part of my routine that it’s hard to think constructively about it.

AudioBoo – It must be love!

May 28, 2010 - Equipment, Mobile, Site of the Week, Web Tools - By: Chris

Pic: Wall of soundI’m going all gooey about AudioBoo at the moment. It’s sat around in the perpiphery of my vision for a while now but in the last month or so I’ve started to see it as a really useful addition to my network of tools, especially now I’m a JesusPhone user.

Here’s why I’m gushing…

BECTA Closure – Blog round-up

May 26, 2010 - Comment, Whole School Issues - By: Chris

Pic: Closed for BusinessThere have been many posts on the closure of BECTA from some bloggers that I really respect, so I wanted to devote some space in my own blog to collating a few of them. If you think there are others I should include please let me know.

Eduserv’s 2010 Symposium: The Mobile University

May 20, 2010 - Mobile, Netskills, cpd - By: Chris

Pic: Mobile GirlLast week Will , Steve and myself from Netskills went down to this year’s Eduserv Symposium in London. It was on the theme of The Mobile…

Guest Post: Pinnochio’s Children

May 19, 2010 - Comment, Guest Post - By: Chris

Pic: Shy childThis guest post is a very personal and articulate piece about personal identity and introversion by Nick Shackleton-Jones. He’s kindly allowed me to publish it here which I’ve done because I’ve been considering issues about identity and social interaction but never successfully put those thoughts in writing. I do recognise much of what Nick is saying but it’s not presented as a surrogate portrait of me. It’s a interesting insight into the mind of a type of person whose natural preference is to keep much hidden.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this…

Communities of Practice conference

May 17, 2010 - Comment, JISC, Netskills - By: Chris

Pic: Etienne Wenger at the Mediating Boundaries conferenceMediating Boundaries: Traversing the landscape of online communities of practice.

This conference was held on the 12th May at the University for the Arts, London. Here are two separate personal reflections from the event, one from myslef and the other by Lindsay Jordan.

Developing a language for reflection

May 7, 2010 - learning - By: Chris

Pic: Sunset and trees reflected in waterHow can students who have not been able to develop their skills in reflective learning be expected to know how to express themselves in a meaningful way. The UK school system seems to work against students getting into the habit of thinking introspectively about their learning. Some universities are using learning inventories as a way of scaffolding this development.

This is the second post based on thoughts after the Centre for Recording Achievement’s conference on Personal Development Planning and ePortfolios.