Worst things about the Internet

Again from the PC Authority Magazine:
http://www.pcauthority.com.au/News/139980,top-10-worst-things-about-the-web.aspx - need to edit/review Porn entry.

Free Software

PC Authority - an Australian magazine recommends 50 free software programs:
http://www.pcauthority.com.au/Feature/110139,webs-best-50-free-downloads.aspx

and in response to Google and the online revolution:
http://matrixed.org/wordpress/simply-handy/top-50-downloads-guaranteed-performers/

HTML stuff students could find useful

Students should have some knowledge of html because it can be used in everyday life:
e.g. Today I posted a comment on a blog and wanted to link to a website (tags were allowed in comments). So, I:

Searched google for "html code for hyperlink" with the 1st reulting page telling me to:



Ref: http://shell.cas.usf.edu/~mccook/uwy/hyperlinks.html

TinyURL

I have seen this a lot - note to self to look up what it is...

Art - colours and ICT

Two links to examples of online tools for students needing to know about colours and computers:

http://www.web-source.net/216_color_chart.htm

http://www.yellowpipe.com/yis/tools/hex-to-rgb/color-converter.php

New browser technology

I have been using Google's Chrome for a few weeks now. (Useful to use multiple browsers for different gmail accounts so they can all be open at the same time.) Last week I was surfing about Chrome and came across the experiments (http://www.chromeexperiments.com). One thing I thought could be useful for Art or English? was the animation; http://www.chromeexperiments.com/detail/browsermation This is a "new, modern" way of doing the animation I remember doing at school with drawings on paper and flicking through them.

Twitter?

With all the talk and publicity about Twitter lately, I have been thinking about investigating it in the past few days. A facebook link took me to a website that had a good video on it (perhaps to be used to intro Twitter to students?!



Will research more into Twitter.

Grumpy blog ref

Just found my old blog referenced in good ICT blog: http://ict-grump.blogspot.com

I will be reading through this blog and picking out the things I like and think will be useful in the classroom.

Google Maps

One of my favourite and most used Google tools. I thought about this a couple of weeks and how I could share this with students and which subjects it would be most useful in.

I started looking at static API maps. This allows someone to create a google map and draw a line on it and then save the resulting map. Perhaps showing someone directions from point A to B. Students could "plot" the route from school to the nearest cinema, for example. Investigation of methods of sharing this could then be discussed and investigated; email of URL, embedding in a webpage, etc.

Reason for this blog

I am on a 1 year break from teaching (more in my profile). Recently I accepted a job in Taipei, Taiwan to start Sept 2009. In my spare time now (and while i have Internet access), I am starting to prepare for this challenging position. This blog will be a collection of the things I come across while surfing around and the ideas and thoughts I have.

Part of my new job will be the integration of ICT into all subjects in the secondary school environment. The rest of my job will be normal teaching of ICT (UK curriculum up to IGCSE and IB ITGS).