Monday, August 30, 2010

10.10.10 or One Day on Earth

Join the One Day on Earth movement and participate on 10/10/2010.

This is a global 'multi-platform participatory media project' event where everyday people, including students and teachers, are encouraged to document and record a story of shared human experience over a 24-hour period. The aim is to capture the diversity of life and culture on this planet on a particular day, 10th October, 2010 (10.10.10).
"One Day on Earth is a documentary and new media project about the amazing diversity, conflict, tragedy, and triumph that occurs in one 24-hour period on Earth."
One Day on Earth Open Source Global Documentary Project Badge

The organisers of One Day on Earth anticipate that capturing and sharing stories over 24 hours will utilise the power of the participatory culture, raise awareness and "foster a greater sense of global empathy and, ultimately, action towards a more sustainable and equitable planet."

Educational digital media toolkits will be available to educators who register onsite.

The toolkit will contain videos, slideshows and PDFs to support students in brainstorming and basic film/video concepts as well as
curricula and lesson plans to support participation as photographers, filmmakers, journalists and world citizens.

One Day on Earth Participant Trailer from One Day On Earth on Vimeo.



Through participation, planning and collaboration using contemporary communication formats, students should better undertsand the diversity of people and cultures.


An exciting and authentic learning experience!

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Catchy Apostrophe Song App!

'Put the apostrophe back in its place!'
That's the aim of this fun and catchy
new app, The Apostrophe Song App, created by a local Adelaide (South Australia) company, Cool Rules. I purchased this low cost App for the Apple iPhone/iPad/iPod touch from the iTunes Store.

Check out Cool Rules and preview the songs (four different versions eg pop/rock, hip hop, rap, acoustic)
. The site has a number of resources with 'useful punctuation tips and exercises (which) can be downloaded free of charge'. You can download the words and music and burn the songs to CD (once you have purchased the app).

Check the YouTube video.



Join the Cool Rules Schools’ Challenge.

Record your own version of The Apostrophe Song and contribute to the Cool Rules Song Library.

Real-time polling/mapping

SurveyMapper looks like a very useful tool.
This is a free real-time geographic survey and polling tool from the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London.
It is currently in beta release. The tool is an example of social simulation resources (part of an academic research project) and is free to use for non-commercial purposes.

There are many polls available (including analytics) but the bonus in using SurveyMapper is the addition of real-time mapping (and the number and choice of map options appear to be still under development). Select a date range to open and close your poll.


The site utilises GoogleMaps and provides some quick sharing options eg via Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, Digg and Reddit to promote your survey.

I experimented with a very quick poll,
'Is your school using mobile devices for mLearning?' (mobile/cell/smart/ phone, iPod, iPodTouch/iPad, or similar) with a simple Yes or No choice to start with but have not promoted it.

I hope to create a more complex poll on a social issue to test SurveyMapper's functionality. I love the combination of a free and easy to use polling tool and visualization of results (via mapping eg. global), charts and geo-codes, all updated in real-time.