I am a film maker!

This week I launched a cool Film competition in my school that will hopefully lead to a Film Festival and celebration of the talents of the people in my school some time in May. To help the launch process - I actually put together 2 films myself to show the kids the type of thing they could do. I tried to mix up the presentation types a bit - using photos, video images, stuff I had got from the net and stuff that I had shot on a video camera myself.

I have put the first Launch film onto YouTube - you can see it on this page

The second film is one that I produced about 2 years ago as part of our part and contribution for the Make Pverty History Campaign. My colleague Mike Bennett came up with the idea of getting the school to make a visual representation of Africa in the playground - my job was to take the picture . . . . but I thought I mught also document the process with my video camera too . . . and I am glad that I did . . . . . . have a look at our Make Poverty History Campaign video here. I must admit that I am pretty proud that the video was featured on the Northern Ireland MPH web site and the picture that I took was used in some of the publicity for the campaign as well.

I am really only starting to discover the many uses and delights of YouTube recently - though I am well impressed and certainly I do intend to be putting a few more of my films on in the near future.

Ps - More details about the competition can be found on my web site

Those pesky French . . . .

Aaaargh. Super Saturday in the Six Nations. Ireland, France and England can all win the championship. Ireland do the business in Rome. They give the Italians a lesson in how to run tries in. 51 points on the board. They leave France with 24 points of a score difference needed. Its a big job. Scotland vs France in Paris. Scotland, so narrowly beaten by the Irish last week. Can they do the same to France as they did to Ireland. em . . no. Try in the last seconds. Was it over? Ref says yes. Game and 27 points to France. Ireland second. Six Nations to France. Disaster. The last game in the season is Wales vs England. Its just kicked off and for once in my life (well, maybe twice) I want England to win. By about 60 points. It used to be 'anyone but England' but after 2 years of jammy victories in the six nations and I have got to say 'anyone but France'. Swing Low, sweet chariot . . . . . . oh the words are sticking in my throat!

A Global Warning...

Found this really thoight provoking film all about global warming!

What makes a good educational website?

I have been writing an article recently about 24/7 learning and why I think more teachers need to develop their own websites so that students can keep continuing their learning out of school. One of the most interesting things that I have found as I researched the article is that it is really difficult to actually find good, useful advice about what actually makes a good educational website. People are very quick to tell you what is NOT good in a web site and what does not work but there is precious little information about what should be appearing on youre site. That is the sort of article that I feel that I should be writing but I am finding it very difficult as I am not sure that I am expert enough to be able to know. I am a geography teacher who dabbles. I dont know much about web design, i cant speak HTML or SQL or .net, I could't even tell you how to put a web counter onto your page.

My view is that the internet is here to help communication. Yet, sometimes the communication between teacher and student is not as it should be. The internet should allow more communication, advice and online learning nut is it? Students are more technically enabled. They use YouTube, MySpace, Bebo and other social networking sites as places to meet and share social information - how can we encourage these communities of learners to engage in learning rather than socially? Is it the content of our courses, our sites, our teaching that is letting us down or is it the way that we attempt to communicate?