Digitool

Five posts in a year?

Richard van Dijk — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 09:42:20 +0000

It is without a doubt that blogging has made way for twitter and Facebook. Short status updates and quick connections are much easier. Both from a mobile phone and in the time frame that you find yourself able to do these things. After the hey days of time on the ICTPD contracts when I blogged first at rbvandijk.edublogs.org until I found that too slow and then set up TEK with Kelvin and Mark there have been some times without a post for a while. Now that I’m using WordPress again and not to mention the ease of the iPhone app and its photo and video uploading capabilities I hope to share more of my teaching practice again. If only for me to look back on in the future.

The photo below was taken on my recent school camp to Lake Waikaremoana. The photo shows a small lake that when we visited in 2010 was full of water but due to the change in conditions from La Nina to El Niño the water level was down by about three to four meters, quite amazing.

New Digitool Site Launched

Richard van Dijk — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 08:12:49 +0000

So we have shifted Digitool away from rapidweaver and on to wordpress. Partially to show the flexibility of this service and also to allow us to play with it again for professional learning and reflection.

Sydney Trip Day Two

Richard van Dijk — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 09:07:39 +0000

Day two of our trip to Sydney began with a quick breakfast and then a trip to the Powerhouse MuseumI found a real highlight in the The Space exhibition where Australian astronaut Dr Andy Thomas and his wife and fellow astronaut Dr Shannon Walker guide you through a visit to the International Space Station (ISS). I could have spent a long time there and I was also impressed with the interactivity of many of the exhibits.

Alas we had to leave in order to walk down to Circular Quay to catch the Manly Ferry the view from which can be seen in the photo below. For only a few dollars this is well and truely a cheap tourist option and on the beautiful afternoon it was a great way to see part of Sydney Harbour.

Manly itself was an opportunity for the boys to explore and maybe swim. As luck would have it as soon as we arrived the sun disappeared and we waited out a few hours before taking the ferry back on dark to make the most of the city views with lights. A brisk walk back up George Street brought day two to a close.

Sydney Field Trip

Richard van Dijk — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 23:54:17 +0000

so it was that on the first day of the school holidays we took a history field trip to Sydney.. Flying out of Rotorua was a bonus as it meant only a short drive home. We arrived in Sydney at 6:30 Saturday evening and after an uneventful journey through customs we were in Australia. My first step was to get an Australian sim card for my phone. As you walk through the terminal all the major telcos are there and I was able to pick up the best deal from Optuswho gave me unlimited Data calls and Text for $2 a day. This meant I used Skype for all my calls and twitter direct messages for texting back to NZ.

After picking up and activating my SIM we walked to the train and although it was $15 the transfer to central station was very easy and over in ten minutes. We then walked the short 100m to the Sydney Central YHA where we checked in and had dinner at the cafe there. I can totally recommend this YHA to school groups for both location, close to chinatown so food is cheap and also the service and facilities provided. The boys went to the sauna and movie theatre most nights.

So that was day one powerhouse museum and the rock is post two

Using ActivExpression

Richard van Dijk — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 02:39:16 +0000

I’ve been using the ActivExpression for the past month and my classes have really enjoyed using them. The feedback from my students has been overwhelmingly positive as they liked both the competitive aspect and immediate feedback. Another positive has been the breath and depth of resources available on the Promethean Planet site. If you are able to have a trial it’s worth making up your own mind. As it stands we are unable to purchase any at the moment and of course I have tried other solutions such as Poll Anywhere but nothing matches the feedback and front end of the Activ Inspire software.

MRBS – Meeting Room Booking system

Richard van Dijk — Tue, 03 May 2011 09:36:08 +0000

This term we have started using MRBS for our bookings with some customisation this non standard moodle block has allowed us flexibility and extensibility in our booking for no additional cost. Simple to use and set up I can fully recommend this service.

Sparrow – Gmail on the Mac

Richard van Dijk — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 00:28:52 +0000

I’ve taken to using Sparrow lately and I really like the minimal interface that still has all the features I need. I have never really liked the web version of gmail and I guess I’m a bit old fashioned in preferring native desktop apps.

Google Search with Updates

Richard van Dijk — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 09:29:41 +0000

Often when something is going wrong or there is breaking news traditional sources can be a bit slow. Now Google Realtime search indexes Twitter, which might not always be a good thing but in the case of http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/ it’s a handy addon and I’ll be interested to trial it in class during a major event like the upcoming Commonwealth Games.

This new service can be accessed from the left-hand side of Google’s main search results page under “Updates,” or directly through a different URL: google.com/landing/realtime

Google is currently running limited tests of the function, which is said to be one of “50-200 experiments” operating simultaneously on the search engine.

New Geography Standard for 2011 may kick off the use of GIS, finally

Richard van Dijk — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 08:59:50 +0000

Geography 1.8 Apply spatial analysis, with direction, to solve a geographic problem
For next year we are looking at adopting the new Geography standard 1.8 which will allow us to do amongst other things use data in ways such as:
• measuring
• layering
• changing the symbols used
• sorting and editing a table
• querying the map
• using coordinate systems
• displaying a graph based on the map.

I order to do this I have been looking at a few resources. Initially Arc Gis explorer, which is an awesome resource (here is a Link to the iLearn blog with more information) I am currently using this with my Junior classes to test the use of Silverlight from behind the proxy at school and how it goes bandwidth wise as opposed to Google Earth. I have also started looking at Open Street Map. Mark initially reminded me of this with the following TED video:

Having now created an account I have used Motion X GPS To start doing some edits. Would be interesting to see a Geography field trip where the students can actually contribute to a real Map. My only problem is the ease of using the basic Garmin Etrex I have and using the serial converter to get the data off, as opposed to my phone which simply emails the data in .gpx and .kml format already. Still some issues to look at but I am very keen to continue.

Google Sites Back Up

Richard van Dijk — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 07:56:34 +0000

Backing up a google site is reasonably easy within a domain. When you would like to have it backed up you can then use the Google sites liberation tool which you can download from here. Then you run the Java app filll in the fields as I have below and then Export your site. Once this is done you have a backup and you can also then reverse the process to a new site.