So have things changed that much?
Via xkcd
ToonCamera – iPhone App of the Week
ToonCamera – App of the Week
This is a regular feature of the blog looking at various Apps available. Some of the apps will be useful for those involved in learning technologies, others will be useful in improving the way in which you work, whilst a few will be just plain fun! Some will be free, others will cost a little and one or two will be what some will think is quite expensive.
This week’s app is ToonCamera.
ToonCamera is an amazing video and photography app that turns your world into a live cartoon. Apply real-time cartoon and art effects to your camera feed, record video, snap photos, and convert existing video and photos from your albums to create instant works of art. Save your creations and share them with friends through email, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, Instagram, and YouTube, all from within ToonCamera.
£1.49 (currently on sale at £0.69)
I have an infinity for various apps that convert images into cartoons, one of my favourites has to be Paper Camera. Another app has recently found favour with me is ToonCamera.
ToonCamera is a lovely way to create cartoon images and videos. You can either use images you already have, or use the camera to catch images and video live. It also an universal app so works equally well on the iPad as well as the iPhone.
You can apply effects on the fly or after you have captured the image.
There are various tools that represent crayons, pencils, ink, paint. You can also adjust the “thickness” of the strokes.
What for me is a weakness is that it is difficult to ascertain what each of the tools or effects do, so as a result it can be challenging to create a similar effect across a range of images, especially if you are using the app at different times.
After creating your image you can then save to the camera roll or share to various social networks and online services.
This is a really nice app for creating cartoon style images. These images could then be used in other applications such as Comic Life or Keynote.
How to escape education’s death valley
Sir Ken Robinson outlines 3 principles crucial for the human mind to flourish — and how current education culture works against them. In a funny, stirring talk he tells us how to get out of the educational “death valley” we now face, and how to nurture our youngest generations with a climate of possibility.
The thing about Ken is he always makes me think.
Frame Magic – iPhone App of the Week
Frame Magic – iPhone App of the Week
This is a regular feature of the blog looking at various Apps available. Some of the apps will be useful for those involved in learning technologies, others will be useful in improving the way in which you work, whilst a few will be just plain fun! Some will be free, others will cost a little and one or two will be what some will think is quite expensive.
This week’s app is Frame Magic Premium.
Your best collage maker with tons of layouts, endless options and unique decorations!
150 customizable layouts with up to 36 photos
£1.49
I have seen the results of this app many times on the Twitter and in Instagram, but I have never actually got around to using the app myself until recently.
Is there a right answer?
Complete the exercise the “right way”…
It’s three years old…
Three years ago my iPad arrived, it was (as you might have expected) a first generation model; I went with the model that came with 64GB of storage and no 3G. My thinking at the time was that I was going to use this in the main as a portable video device, so needed lots of storage.
I find it interesting how both my use of the iPad and how I view it has changed in the last three years. When I bought my iPad I considered it in the main as a device to watch videos, play casual games and browsing the web. Today I use the iPad very differently, it is a key part of my workflow at college, I use it for communication and social media, reading books and magazines. I have a third generation iPad for work and that has a camera and that added a whole new dimension in content creation. I have reviewed many of the apps available on the blog.
It’s interesting, despite all the attention given to the short life of these consumer devices and how they would need to be replaced more often than a “normal” PC, that I still have it, and I still use it on a daily basis for lots of different things.
This three year old device is still pretty powerful for doing lots of things. Yes there are apps that don’t work as it’s a first generation device, so no iMovie or iPhoto. However that isn’t really much of a problem, as for me the first generation iPad is much more of a content consumption device and I rarely use it for creating stuff.
For me it still works great for accessing e-mail, playing films and using Netflix. Where it is less useful is web browsing, well web browsing when you have more than one tab open. For some reason, memory reasons I believe, mobile Safari on the iPad can only hold a small number of pages (or very few pages) so if you work like I do with lots of tabs, when you return to a tab, after looking at other pages, Safari is “forced” to load the page again. If you are on a poor connection, eg a tethered phone or train wifi then this can be frustrating. There is (or was) a similar limitation on the iPhone.
Having said that I should note that this iPad rarely travels these days, it spends more time in the home than anywhere else. Though it does come on holiday with us, partly for in-car entertainment, “are we there yet” and for watching films in the evening.
The iPad is also used regularly by my children for playing games, and though this won’t play some of the newer graphic intensive games, it will suffice for games such as Monopoly, Battleships, Scrabble, Trival Pursuit, Cover the Orange, Angry Birds and so on…
I am still impressed with the battery life, one concern of any device that has a built-in non-removable battery is that once the battery has reached end of life, there is little you can do with the device, except spend a small fortune having the battery replaced. I would hazard a guess that replacing the battery would probably cost a lot in comparison to buying a new iPad.
So three years later, I don’t think I will retire the device, I would certainly consider selling it and I think it would sell for about £100 which would contribute to a newer model.
Assessing Assessment – ocTEL
This week on ocTEL we’re looking at assessment. As part of my thinking I reflected on the use of quizzes in Moodle.
Designing Moodle quizzes is much more than just been able to use the quiz tool from a technical perspective. There is a real art to crafting questions so that they not only allow the learner to test their understanding, but also require a higher level of thinking.
If we look at the following multiple choice questions, the format of which is one of many different types available on Moodle, it provides the structure and the practitioner provides the question and the answers:
Which is these is a mammal?
Shark
Dog
Spider
Crocodile
This question does not test understanding, most students would be able to guess the answer or would not find it challenging. Within Bloom’s Taxonomy this is testing knowledge only, the bottom layer of the triangle.
In terms of feedback, you can design Moodle quizzes to provide feedback on questions. So you can explain why their answer is wrong or right and where to look for further information or support.
Onto a similar question:
What is the capital of Australia?
Sydney
Melbourne
Canberra
Melbourne
If we look at this question if you didn’t know the answer then you would need to do some research. However as with the previous question within Bloom’s Taxonomy this is testing knowledge only, the bottom layer of the triangle. It’s more challenging than the first question, but if you didn’t know it already then a quick Google search and you have the right answer.
So what about this question:
Which of these is the odd one out?
The “problem” with this question is that there is no single right answer. The answer needs an explanation, and it’s the explanation that demonstrates understanding of the question, not the answer.
If we look at Bloom’s Taxonomy it is possible with this question to go all the way to the top.
However Moodle will struggle with assessing a question with no “right” answer and certainly would not be able to assess the explanation.
You could provide generic feedback on why there is no “right” answer, but that may not be useful for all learners. Feedback needs to be personalised to be really effective. Students generally don’t appreciate generic feedback.
This doesn’t mean that Moodle quizzes aren’t an useful tool for checking learning, but its limitations in assessing higher order thinking needs to be considered when designing assessment.
Social Media in Science and Maths
Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity
Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.
Still relevant to today, even though this was filmed seven years ago, in many ways it is more relevant.
A Closed Group
Back in 2009 at ALT-C we had the VLE is Dead debate. My view back then hasn’t changed much in the last four years. To save you watching the video, the heart of my viewpoint was that the VLE was the core of a student’s online presence and that other tools and services would plug into that.
I was recently discussing with a group of Psychology students how they used and felt about the VLE. Their response was quite positive, they found the VLE useful and it helped them with their learning. What they also said was that they were pleased it was available. When I asked them about discussions and chat functionality, they were quick to respond that no they didn’t do this on the VLE, but were much more likely to use their “homemade” group on Facebook for those kinds of discussions. When I reminded them that learners had asked for Facebook to be blocked in the library, they replied that this didn’t matter as they preferred to use Facebook on their smartphones.
You get a picture of how they were using different online environments and tools to support their learning. They were making choices about which tools they preferred and those that they didn’t. The students could have created a group on our Mahara site, but they preferred to use a familiar tool such as Facebook.
The question we might want to ask is how do we “assess” these discussions or even access them? Another question might be, do we need to?
If students are using a Facebook group for discussions, should we be trying to impose restrictions on their choices and make them discuss course related stuff on the VLE rather than in a closed group on a different service? Or should we focus on the importance of discussing over the importance of the platform?
In face to face discussions, these do take place in a classroom or seminar, however the vast majority happen elsewhere, whether that be in the refectory, the coffee shop, the library, at home, in the workplace or while travelling. Can we be surprised that online discussions also take place outside the “official” discussion forums?