OllieBray.com

Microsoft home of the future

If you fancy living in home that tells you when t take your medication, what ingredient you have in your fridge (and what you could make with them), how much dough you need to make bread and gives your fashion advice! Then the prototype Microsoft home of the future might be for you.

It’s got some interesting features and particularly the features to do with supporting cooking in the kitchen might have a place in schools of the future.

It also has a huge interactive dining room table – presumably based on Microsoft Surface and Interactive walls in the child’s bedroom. Again Interactive walls could be a feature eventually in future schools – wouldn’t it be great if the walls showed different things depending on what you were learning?

One of the other features of the bedroom is a mirror (presumably rear projection?) that responds to hand gestures and that can tell you what’s in your cupboard and what goes with what!

This three minute BBC video is worth a quick look to see the sort of things that might be commercially possible very soon.

Horizonless maps of Manhatten

Mike Coulter sent me this nice little link to ‘Here and There: the horizonless project in Manhattan’. I really liked the maps of Manhattan that they have produced, so I thought I would give it a mention here.

‘Here & There is a project by S&W exploring speculative projections of dense cities. These maps of Manhattan look uptown from 3rd and 7th, and downtown from 3rd and 35th. They're intended to be seen at those same places, putting the viewer simultaneously above the city and in it where she stands, both looking down and looking forward.’

More information on the idea behind the maps here.

Drawing a graph, creativity and deforestation

I’ve got a long list of blog posting to catch up on...

I can’t remember where I first saw the picture above online? But I just thought at the time it was a lovely example of how satellite imagery and a bit of creative thought could be used to improve a simple pie chart and really illustrate an important message.

On another note, I also came across this aerial photography of the deforestation in Sweden. Isn’t it a funny, but very familiar shape, that the logging trucks have made!

Life in Antarctica – Kirk of the Antarctic!

I’ve had the pleasure of sharing a few beers, a few drams and a number of days out on the hill in the Scottish Highlands with Kirk Watson.

Kirk now spends a large part of his year working for British Antarctic Survey and this year they have let him stay on for the winter (our summer).  I’m still trying to make up my mind if he has been bad or good! Either way, I’m dead jealous as it looks like he is having a fantastic time in a really special part of the world.

Kirk has started a blog to record his winter in Antarctica ‘Kirk of the Antarctic’ and I have to admit to already being hooked!  

Not only is Kirk writing about his experiences but he has also started to produce a series of excellent YouTube Videos and about his adventures down under. In the very first video you see the research vessel leaving Antarctica and Kirk announcing that they won’t see a boat or plane again for the next seven months.

Future videos show Kirk introducing the 21 strong crew who will be manning the research base for the next seven months, training trips out (and under) the ice and even a snapshot of the Antarctic base band!

For any teacher out there this blog already is a fantastic resource to introduce place, particularly Antarctica, to your class or school.

Pop over to Kirk’s site watch some of his videos and why don’t you get your class to leave him a question – you never know he might be bale to answer it in a future video.

The other great news is that Kirk has agreed (if we can get it sorted) to do a Scottish Schools GLOW meet (live from Antarctica) – we still need to work out the details, date and technology. But hopefully this will take place in September / October this year. I’ll post details here and probably over on the GLOW Scotland blog if we get this sorted out.

Learning from films

My good old friend Mike Tidd, Curriculum Leader at Cove School, Hampshire had a nice little article in SecEd last month about using Film in Geography. In the article Mike talks about his experiences of using film with his geography classes and also lists some of his favorite geography films.

You can access the full article here.

Mike lists his top ten geography films as:

1. Slumdog Millionaire – Life within shanty towns of Mumbai
2. Brassed Off – Industrial decline in the UK
3. The Day after Tomorrow – Climate change has never been so traumatic

So, what would your top three Geography films be and why? Leave your answers below…

Scottish Learning Festival 2009: registration now open

Registration is now live for this years Scottish Learning Festival (SLF). The SLF is organised by Learning and Teaching Scotland and is a great CPD and professional learning opportunity for teachers from Scotland and further afield.

This years key themes are Curriculum for Excellence and GLOW.

Keynote presentations will be from:

• Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, Fiona Hyslop MSP, Scottish Government

• Prof. Ferre Laevers, Director of the Research Centre for Experiential Education, University of

  Leuven

• Prof. Carol Dweck, Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology, Stanford University

• Frank Dick OBE, former British Athletics Federation Director of Coaching.

I’m doing two presentations this year:

1. Computer Games Based Learning in Secondary Schools - 23 September 2009, Room B1C at 13.00h

2. Accelerated Leadership: How do we Develop Creative and Motivated Leaders? – 23^rd September, Room C2E at 16.30h

If your interested you can sign up to one of these seminars or any of the other 168 that are on offer over on the Scottish Learning Festival Website.

Teachmeet also returns to the SLF for the 4^th Year – more details on Teachmeet over on the teachmeet wiki

Teachmeet Scottish Learning Festival 2009

Teachmeet returns to the Scottish Learning Festival for the 4^th Year. We don’t have a venue yet but we do have a logo (thanks Mr W). We also know, as with previous years, it will be on the Wednesday night of the SLF. I’ve volunteered to try and sort out the venue within the SECC.

So, what is Teachmeet?

Well, a number of years ago some dodgy bloke said that it was the best form of Teacher CPD ever and to be honest my viewpoint hasn’t changed!

Teachmeet is a type of un-conference organised by teachers for teachers. It’s an opportunity to learn something new, be amazed, amused and enthused. Teachmeets are informal gatherings of those curious about teaching and technology. Anyone can share great ideas they've trialled in their classrooms, ask important questions or simply sign up to take part in learning conversations.

Just like previous Teachmeets, this Teachmeets will be organised by the Scottish teaching community and we are looking for people to speak (7 or 2 minutes), people to sponsor and people to help organise.

Head over to the Teachmeet SLF 09 Wiki to add your thoughts and support for the vent.

Remember to tag all posts TMSLF09.

BrainPOP UK tackles Swine Flu

My friends over at BrainPOP UK have been quick off the mark to create this great little education video about Swine Flu, what it is and how you can prevent infection. It also tackles terms such as ‘pandemic,’ and ‘vaccine’.

It’s a great little video to help children understand exactly what Swine Flu is. You can view the video over on the BrainPOP UK Site and also via their YOU Tube Channel.

Nice work  Tim and Moby!

SQH Course Five assignment handed in and back blogging!

I’ve finally handed in my SQH Course Five Assignment after stretching the generous extension from the University of Edinburgh to almost the limit. The assignment comprised of a Reflective Commentary about my school improvement project and a Portfolio of Evidence to try to justify that I have reached the Scottish Standard of Headship. I’ll find out in a few weeks if I passed it or not. 

Course five is the final course in this programme that has taken over 24 months to complete.

With this out of the way – as long as I don’t have to re-submit the only parts of the course left to be assessed is a field assessment (where I will have to go back into Musselburgh for half a day!) and oral presentation.

Hopefully the whole thing will be wrapped up until by the end of June and then I'll reflect here on the final details of the course.

Anyway, now that the main written part is out of the way I should be back a little more in the Blogosphere. I’ve purposely been avoiding writing here while I still new I had an assignment to hand in - its been my longest absence from the world of web 2.0 in the last three years.

I've got lots to catch up on and now I’ll start the long process of up-dating this site.