i see tea

This notice holds great resonance for me as a teacher. I know I am guilty of this; pushing pupils through exams by teaching them exams and not the strength of enquiry. These days I pursue opportunities to divert away from exam questions and towards the world, finding it interesting.

The sign is on a noticeboard in The Beanstalk, a nursery school my three children went to where I now teach ten year olds to prepare for selective entrance exams. Funny how the world turns around.

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Today's photo (two photos) are of a Google Form I have made and embedded into a Moodle web page. The form is to gather the opinions of 550 pupils about the school library currently under development. Both the form and the web page are really easy to do.

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This work of genius is hanging in the school library. My daughter asked me to photograph it for her ePortfolio she is making in Google Sites.

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These three images are from 7pm Sky news, a special show highlighting web news. They rate the order of stories by the percentage of clicks on each item on the skynews.com website. An interesting and informative extra layer to the days news. The first image also shows an interviewee talking to the news room live via Skype (happy advertising pun for Sky & Skype?) about aid progress in Haiti.Sky are clearly trying to embrace social media and seem to be doing a good job. I wonder what the future holds for this approach in the mainstream news.

As I’m typing this the next feature is all about the Internet. Gates on Twitter, text-speak spoiling writing skills, gaming educating about genocide, councils banning Twitter and Facebook. Next up: most watched web video and why Manchester United are banning their players from using Twitter and Facebook because sports stars have been leaking information. Fans are being directed to the official website so the ‘office’ can manage the content.

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One of my students received his Google Nexus One last night. Had a quick play and I am amazed at the speed of browsing – pages opening in three seconds on 3G. Camera with flash (double flash – red-eye) is excellent with ability to record directly to YouTube although this requires WiFi unlike the Qik app. Really nice size and weight, not dissimilar to iPhone. I'm very impressed and will be saving up to buy one if I cannot overcome my child-like gadget impulsion by the time my contract runs out later this year.

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