multimedia in the classroom
Stuff
Digital Domesday Disappointment
Aug 10th
The Domesday Book is now available as a searchable online database. In case you’re not familiar with it, the Domesday Book was compiled in the aftermath of the Norman Conquest of Britain, culminating in 1086. It is the most comprehensive survey of its kind in the pre-industrial age, containing details of every settlement in the country.
To me, it’s been a sad discovery though. For years, I’d believed the legend of the “Wise Men of Gotham”. Stories about a village of people so stupid that – as the tale goes – William the Conqueror’s tax men avoided the place fearing that their insanity might be contagious. So, Gotham, according to the story, never appeared in the Domesday Book. They were therefore never taxed. Hence, their epithet: the Wise Men of Gotham.
Unfortunately, a quick perusal of the database shows two entries for Gotham. So, the entertaining story is not entirely true after all. If you want to see a short guide to how this database can be used to build up an interesting picture of 11th Century life in Britain, there’s a short illustrated guide on the King’s College, London website.
For big Domesday Book fans, you can search and download images of the original pages at the National Archive website.
This all adds to the irony that you can view the 900 year old book and read its text online, but the computerised version, compiled in 1986, is not readily available. There’s a working version at the Centre for Computing History, where they have been working on preserving the project’s data. There was a text version online at Domesday1986.com – but since the untimely death of Adrian Pearce, this is no lonnger available to the public.
A Random Kid?
Aug 7th
The BBC’s Maggie Shiels has an interesting article introducing Talia Leman to her readers.
Despite my initial misgivings, I took a look at her Random Kid project and was very impressed by what she has managed to achieve in such a short time. The basic premise seems to work – finding a way to simplify the process of turning good intentions into global action for young people.
I shall certainly be bringing this project to my students’ attention this year.
PowerPoint Quote
Aug 6th
I’ve been evaluating Edward Tufte‘s approach to presenting information recently – in a way, his attitude to PowerPoint remind me of Jakob Nielsen‘s forthright approach to usability and design. Certainly thought-provoking, but I prefer Andrew Abela‘s style.
However, I found an interesting quote by one of his readers that I thought was worth further consideration [PowerPoint] doesn’t make bad communicators better – it just gives them the tools to be truly ghastly.
ICT is boring!
Aug 6th
Not my opinion, obviously, but the premise of a survey by the Royal Society. The project will run until late 2011, but the way it is being reported in mid-2010 would make you think that the conclusion of the study has already been reached.
I’ve been teaching ICT in schools long enough to have seen things go full-circle and then some. There are important questions raised by the survey. But I’ve not seen any analysis yet that asks the fundamental question, what do we really want?
Information Technology as a formal discipline has matured over the years. Its scope has widened to the point where we really need specialists who can deliver distinct aspects of the curriculum – just like mathematics (pure, mechanics and statistics) or science (physics, chemistry and biology). But the popular perception is that as everyone is expected to ‘use’ ICT, then anyone can teach ICT. In a worst case scenario, this approach has a reputation of reducing the subject to PowerPoint and poster making; a Groundhog Day-esque re-rehearsal of a limited subset of office skills ad nauseum.
If the powers-that-be really want a set of obedient, unquestioning office automata, then this approach to clone production may be reasonably effective, but it is also doomed to drive away the creative thinkers and problem solvers who would relish the challenge of what the subject can truly offer. This would appear to be the Royal Society’s starting point when looking at the curriculum and how it is taught.
Personally, I’d welcome an emphasis on programming and web development – but that’s mainly because of where I perceive my curricular strengths to be.
A New School Year at Artsonia
Aug 4th
Artsonia describes itself as the world’s biggest kids’ art museum. With over eight and a half million images of student artwork uploaded, that sounds like a reasonable claim to make. Just think of it as an ever-expanding refrigerator door – with the bonus that parents can order copies of their children’s artwork printed on anything from aprons to Christmas tree ornaments.
I’ve just received my email from them saying they are now ready for the new school year. If you’ve never popped in to take a look, get some inspiration, trawl their lesson plan starters or just get some idea of what your children’s peers are producing in over 120 different countries around the world, take some time out. You might be pleasantly surprised.
Me and My Movie and the Tate Movie Project
Jul 17th
For students (aged 5-13) and their teachers in the UK, there’s an exciting opportunity to learn more about animation and film making http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/teachers/meandmymovie/ well worth a look at if you’re hunting for ideas and classroom resources…
Re-start > Re-wind > Re-do
Jul 10th
Well, here it is, the latest version of the interactivity weblog. You know it must be holiday time because I’m once again re-working a large chunk of my material.
This time I’ll be focusing on a range of tools I use in my classroom – cataloging what works and what I could do to improve. Feel free to discuss my ideas through the comments section.
In the meantime, I’ll be adding links to some of my sites, some of the sites I think are worth a look, some of the blogs I read and some of the tools I use – enjoy!