I was completely blown away when I watched this short 8 minute TED Talk today on their latest evolution of Microsoft Bing Maps which included an Augmented reality demo.
In the words of Bing Maps' Blaise Aguera y Arcas:
"We see this space, three-dimensional environment as being a canvas on which all sorts of applications can play out. Maps, directions are really just one of them."
Very impressive stuff - can't wait to check it out in more detail. TED video embedded below:
NBC Learn has some fantastic resources up on their website to help teachers make links to science through the context of the Winter Olympic Games.
The 16 part on-line video resource includes interviews athletes, coaches, and scientists. The series deals with the physics, biology, chemistry and materials engineering behind the Olympic Winter Games and Winter Olympic Sports.
Titles include:
I watched a few of the videos and thought that they were fantastic.
Steve Beard and I have been pals for years.
However, at BETT we almost fell out. I was showing Steve my new ‘happy Snap’
disposable camera from Kodak (which I am very proud of) when he produced from
his bag a digital camera that looked to me like it should have been around at
BETT 2001.
It was a massive clunky thing that looked like a piece of deep sea diving equipment!
However, Steve was quick to point out that what he was showing me as a video conferencing camera and a very impressive bit of kit.
Using the camera Steve and his team from Shropshire have been able to
broadcast back to schools via VC from venues including building sites. The
camera has a built in wifi or you can easily connect a 3G dongle via USB. You
can’t see the people on the other end of the video conference but the camera
has a built in speaker so you can hear everything that is said. Thus allowing
for dialog and two way communication between the person with the camera and the
classroom.
What a wonderful tool with massive potential in the schools.
I’m flagging this up because it’s always worth teachers visiting the BrainPop site to have a look at the featured movie. Where possible the team link the movie into current events. These might be reactive (like the earthquake movie that was featured last week) or planned (like the Martin Luther King Movie that is being featured this week). They even let me pick the featured movie once – I picked mountains!
Anyway as I am such a Brainpop fan the team game me a VIB t-shirt (Very Important Brainpoppper) and I spent a bit of time at BETT 2010 looking to see how the product has developed over the last 12 months. I was impressed the a range of added movies and the way that students can now email quiz scores back to their teachers.
But the thing that I was most impressed with was how the BrainPop UK team and cross matched all of their movies to a Curriculum for Excellence. It must have taken them ages but it’s a fantastic resource and I’m sure will be very useful for Scottish teachers. Well done guys and keep up the great work.
Finally, between meetings, presentations and looking round the rest of the exhibition. I got to spend a bit of time with Moby and we chated about rust, his favorite type of oil and how he doesn’t like magnets!
Regular readers of this site will know how big a fan I am of the Commoncraft Videos. They help explain complicated things in a really simple to understand way. The latest video to hit the commoncraft store is ‘Protecting Reputations Online in Plain English’.
It really is excellent and should become part of any teachers toolbox for teaching about Internet Safety and Responsible use.
In their own words,
"Aimed at younger or inexperienced web users, this video helps explain the long-term risks of sharing inappropriate photos, videos and stories on the Web. We've seen the stories and heard personal accounts about people who shared an inappropriate photo that eventually caused them to lose their job or miss an opportunity. Preventing this kind of problem can come from increased awareness about how the Web works and what it means to share something with the public. This video is about taking responsibility and making choices to protect reputation".
You can view the video over on the Commoncraft website.
One of the things I would like to do in the next decade is see the Northern lights. I’ve been far enough north lots of times – but always at the wrong time of the year!Until then, I’ll have to make do with this great time-lapse video of the lights.
I’ve heard lots about Tim Rylands and have followed his blog for a long time. Tim is the king of education web links, a clearly a talented teacher, fantastic presenter, PowerPoint Jedi and knowledgeable education consultant. I was lucky enough to meet Tim at Handheld Learning 2009 – I just wish we had more time to chat?
You can view a trailer for the game below (You Tube):
The video is well worth 30mins of your time.
The original ‘Shift Happens‘
presentation by Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod and Jeff Brenman was turned
into a video and uploaded to YouTube in June 2007. The video was then
remixed, becoming a YouTube and Slideshare hit called ‘Did You Know?‘ its now attracted over 6.5m views on YouTube.
'Did You Know 4.0?' is the latest version that has been created by The
Economist and Xplane for their Media Convergence Forum (The Moment of Truth: Consumers, Technology and Commerce) which will be held on 20th - 21st October 2009 in New York. You tube video below.
Although I have seen the original lots of times - I still like looking at these videos.
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