Now THAT was really good fun!!

I was honoured to be asked to present an extended keynote for the afternoon of the Kent ICT Conference 2008.

About 200 folk at the Ashford International Hotel.

It is a huge risk for an authority to ask someone to witter away for a whole afternoon! But, it was a very enjoyable experience because everyone was up for some fun, and challenges too.

I provided more than a few “heart in the mouth” moments too, as I nearly disappeared through the backdrop a couple of times. I blame gravity rather than my wobbly leggies!

A superb event, with speakers and suppliers from all around the country.

I was amazed to find out that 2Simple are in the last few days of an incredible 10th birthday offer: an 80% off everything deal.  Incredible isn’t it!!!

Schools get 28 programs on site licences forever! PLUS – they are giving all the children at those schools access to Simple City and 2Type online so they can use them at home too!

A remarkable and VERY generous offer - get in quick!

Well done to Carolann, who won an Asus minibook and survived The Doors of Doom Challenge.

Discovered Issuu recently. A way to publish online.

Some super FREE music at the Sounds Font site

I mentioned the use of Quick Time VRs again today. www.panoramas.dk is one of the best sites for finding these great little ways of stimulating discussion and creativity.

 Mentioned these recently but, a really useful tool when recording podcasts or filming films with a large amount of script (e.g. reading out some Myst writings) is Cue Prompter, a free autocue.

Cut and Paste text into the window and it automatically scrools up the screen at the speed and size you find most useful.

Try this nifty little tool: an on screen/ whiteboard friendly way to make your own word magnets. This clever idea transforms your text into ‘magnets’ which can be dragged around the screen, colour coded and re-sized. You can also add new magnets at any time and remove any magnets that you no longer wish to use. Great for writing a shared text or looking at word order in sentences.

Also, come up with your own Thriller Story titles.

Don’t forget to take the time to stand still in each QTVR (Quick time virtual reality) Panorama and write or discuss - before you even think about moving. It is the first movement that creates a bit of magic when using these with children.

Have fun!

Thank you to Cathie Edwards, Doug Smart and colleagues for a super day. Thank you too, to Graham King for pickies through the day.

We had a huge amount of definitions of Ellie’s new word “Fligminkle” We’ll post ‘em on the blog when we get a chance…

A few goodies included: when ICT equipment, which was working a few moments ago, fails. “My interactive whiteboard fligminkled in front of an Ofsted inspector!” (Heather Bird)

Fligminkle: The muck I scrape off the boittom of my boat (Robert Dudridge)

Fligminkle: “What lingers at the bottom of a child’s tray at the end of term!” (Rachel Nash)

Fligminkle: “That feeling, when you have just started the dishwasher and you find a mug on the living room floor” (Lucy Henderson)

See what you’ve started Elles.

More to follow… In the meantime, don’t be shy folks. File a comment, my widdlers.

(Due to admin-itis, if I haven’t contacted you and you were one of the bods interested in more (!!!) drop me a line )

UPDATE: Instead of replying to the truly lovely E-MAILS and comments after today’s event, can I thank all those so far for your generous and thoughtful comments. Some enchanting new definitions of “Fligminkle” too.

Perhaps the most delightful definition I have heard so far is from Carolyn Lewis: Fligminkle- the fluttering touch of a moth’s wing against a lit window at night.

If you're a new arrival, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed and so be notified when the blog is updated. Thanks for visiting! Cheers Ta!

Last year, Glastonbury turned into an endurance test of enjoyment.

Not so this year. Great weather. Great music. A great collection of humanity. A people watching sushi bar!

A fun day at the Northamptonshire ICT Conference 2008

Thank you to Rachel Ager and colleagues for a great event.

“I do enjoy looking at old predictions of the future. Eventually, the future arrives and we can compare it with the predictions. Sometimes, the predictions are better than the reality. Sometimes, reality outpaces not only the predictions but even the dreams of the past. And sometimes, the predictions end up being pretty-much spot on.

That’s the case with a piece about the “answer machine” of the future, which appeared in the book Childcraft Volume 6: How Things Change, published by Field Enterprises Educational Corporation in 1964. (Thanks to Paleo-Future for bringing this to our attention.)

Here’s how it starts:

the Google version:

Here’s some more of what “The Answer Machine” do for us:

Read the rest of this entry »

The blog and I are going to go a little “see through” for a few days…
See you on the other side for an explanation.
In the meanwhile:

The start of Wimbledon, the throne of tennis.

 Try a few online games of tennis here, here and here

 Or get some good coaching videos for young players HERE

For tea love?

“You’ve got to get to the stage in life when going for it is more important than winning or losing”

Arthur Ashe

I often encourage children not to worry about their spellings. I explain that that doesn’t mean “Argh! Don’t worry about your spellings e.g. DOG with a spelling of G. Q. W. H. U.G. 32 Zs and a K.

Instead it means “Don’t WORRY about your spellings”, in other words don’t allow a fear of making mistakes stop you from getting a classic idea, or piece of literature, down on to paper.

On that note, I found this remarkable poem recently, by “Author Unknown” It really does illustrate how ridiculous English spellings are.

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I!  Oh hear my prayer.
 
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it’s written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.
 
Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.
 
Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation’s OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.
 
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does.  Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.
 

Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.
 
Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.
 
Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
 
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.
 
Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.
          
Pronunciation
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won’t it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It’s a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.
 
Finally, which rhymes with enough
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!

Try Dr. Grammar or Spellodrome (the spelling version of Mathletics)

Here is a set of memory aids to help you with 100 of the most often mispelled misspelled words in English.

There are, of course, many differences between English and American spellings!

Try Compact Oxford English Dictionary for Students including their top 10 spelling tips.

There are also the great How to Spell Ridiculous, How to Spell Separate, and d-e-f-i-n-i-t-e-l-y.com

Have phunn!

Questionaut is a new game made for BBC Bitesize from the makers of Samorost and Samarost 2. (Here is a walkthrough to help you find your way through the Samarost 2 game. Don’t download it if you want to work it out for yourself! (Thanks to Chris Beedham for this )

Journey through strange worlds of Questionaut and test your knowledge of English, Maths and Science on this magical mission to recover your friend’s hat.

A group of us also discussed our worst and favourite words. My “least favourite” word is “PAMPHLET”

Here is an interestng list of 223 of “the best” words in English.

Thank you to John Morey, Kim Bishop, Wendy Delf, Sue Pike (and Claire Lamden) from the Cornwall Education Development Service, for a very enjoyable wander through the world of words.

Thank you to all colleagues today, who matched the glorious scenery around us, with their sunny dispositions and humour. Well done to Sam Coleborne, for conducting a glorious soundscape too. (Watch this space for the film!!)

A super day at East Barnet School north of London, working with staff and pupils from the ICT and English departments on developing visual literacy.

I taught a lesson with some Year 7 students who really rose to the challenges of creativity.

We looked at ways of recording and publishing the results of creativity.

Take a peek at these tutorials, on using Audacity, on the Radio Anywhere site. These are helpful hints to help get closer to a “pro” sound.

Even the pros find some difficulties, as this article from the Guardian shows, though, sometimes a few glitches can add to the charm of a recording.

Or, in the words of Albert (yes, Albert) Hitchcock:

I understand the inventor of the bagpipes was inspired when he saw a man carrying an indignant, asthmatic pig under his arm. Unfortunately, the manmade sound never equalled the purity of the sound achieved by the pig.

One of my favourite music quotes, alongside:

There are two golden rules for an orchestra: start together and finish together. The public doesn’t give a damn what goes on in between.
-Sir Thomas Beecham

I don’t know anything about music. In my line you don’t have to.
-Elvis Presley

I love Beethoven, especially the poems.
-Ringo Starr

The trouble with real life is that there’s no danger music.
-Jim Carrey

…and the understated,

There’s nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself.
-Johann Sebastian Bach

On the subject of quotes, being in a secondary school today, we touched on links with literature, including the works of Shakespeare. How about this gorgeous anagram:

To be or not to be: that is the question,
whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous
fortune. =

In one of the Bard’s best-thought-of tragedies, our insistent
hero, Hamlet, queries on two fronts about how life turns rotten.

Thanks to Suzanne for the nudge towards the art of James C Christiansen.

Thanks to Hugh Seckleman, Janet Christou, their colleagues and pupils at East Barnet School, for a great day.