e-wot?

I tweeted this the other day, but of course wasn’t able to find it again. Hence the blog post.

Unchain the Office Computers! Great article bemoaning corporate IT’s tendency to block IT use, and hence stifle innovation.

Here’s my favorite quote:

The restrictions infantilize workers—they foster resentment, reduce morale, lock people into inefficient routines, and, worst of all, they kill our incentives to work productively. In the information age, most companies’ success depends entirely on the creativity and drive of their workers. IT restrictions are corrosive to that creativity—they keep everyone under the thumb of people who have no idea which tools we need to do our jobs but who are charged with deciding anyway.

And then today I was listening to Buzz Out Loud, BOL1051 and from 28 minutes in, they were talking about the same thing. All good.

I needed a tool that could capture screencasts (video of screen activity) with audio, so that I can create training videos, without installing any software on my computer. I found a few options that can record screencasts from a web browser (java required). Here are the two that I liked best:

Screecast-o-Matic. All sizes and formats (including HD). Drag a black frame to anywhere on your screen and record anything. You can upload to YouTube, or download to your desktop. Exports in .avi, .mp4, .flv. Simply great.

ScreenJelly. Captures the whole screen. Requires you to log in with your Twitter ID (OAuth). Can share on Twitter, Facebook, or send a link to the screencast in an email. Screencasts are hosted with Screenjelly.

They’re both free.

Here’s a list of online apps (games, chat, forums, social networks, blogs) with the age restrictions as seen in the sites’ terms of service/use. I made this list because I needed a list to show some teachers what they could/could not use with their students depending on age. This list is by no means complete, just a few online apps I’ve heard about.

This is purely informational. I haven’t tried them all, so I can’t say how well they safeguard minors. It’s best to be thorough and try them out properly yourself. YMMV

Ones I’ve tried and I think are good, though not with age restrictions in mind: Wordpress, Blogger, Facebook, Ning, Club Penguin, FreeRealms, Writeboard, 21Classes, PBwiki & Delicious.

RPG = Role Playing Game

Must be at least 16

• Friendster social network

Must be at least 13 and in high school

• Facebook social network

Must be over 13

• Bebo social network
• Blogger weblog publishing tool
• Chamber of Chat Harry Potter multiplayer RPG (no private chat, moderators)
• Gaia Online community with games, message boards etc…
• Hi 5 social networking site
• IMVU chat with friends in 3D
• Jaiku microblogging
• MySpace social network
• Ning social network created around an area of interest (can be open or private)
• Runescape multiplayer game
• Tokbox video chat (works with Twitter & others)
• Twitter microblogging Twitter is now for over-18s. See comments to this post.
• Vox weblog publishing tool
• Weebly website creation tool (includes blogs, forums)
• Wetoku video interview tool (requires parents’ approval)
• Wordpress.com weblog publishing tool
• Writeboard single wiki pages for writing activities
• Xanga weblog community
• 12Seconds video microblogging
• 43 Things microblogging site based around personal goals

Download & install application required

• There virtual world
• Teen Second Life virtual world (13-17 yo)
• vSide virtual world

No Age minimum specified, but require parental approval

• Awol chat, games, diary, friends, & cribs
• Boom Bang chat, make friends and explore a virtual world (moderated)
• Club Penguin virtual world for kids populated by penguins (moderated, ’safe’ chat)
• Endless Online multiplayer RPG
• Graal Online multiplayer RPG
• Marapets virtual pet site with games and chat community
• Neopets Virtual world for pets
• Millsberry Home building community (pre-scripted chat, monitored)
• Sanriotown Hello Kitty games, blogs and forums
• Shining Stars Chatting, naming stars, star worlds (’safe’ pre-constructed chat)
• Typepad weblog publishing tool
• Webkinz virtual pet community (’safe’ chat)

Download & install application required

• Dofus multiplayer RPG
• Eternal Lands multiplayer RPG
• Furcadia multiplayer RPG
• FreeRealms multiplayer RPG (restricted chat, moderated)

I couldn’t find anything definitive about age restrictions on Wikispaces, EduBlogs or 21Classes, but considering that they’re aimed at teachers and learners, I’m guessing that they must be OK for all ages?? I couldn’t find anything in PBworks’ (PBwiki), or Delicious‘ Terms of Service mentioning age either.

As a rule of thumb, when checking out an online tool that you might want to use with younger learners, check the Terms of Service (sometimes called Terms of Use) and their privacy policy. This should be somewhere on the homepage (usually at the bottom). Then do an inline search (hit Ctrl+F) for ‘years’ or ‘guardian’ or ‘13′ or something like that to jump to the bit about age restrictions, and then read the small print.

By the way, blogging tool tumblr. requires subscribers to be over 18.

And thanks to Denis for helping me with the list.

This is a great collection of quotes about the transformative power of conversation. All are excellent.

I’ve just finished listening to two audiobooks (via iTunes): Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell and The Element by Ken Robinson – one right after the other. They went really well together. Not only a good combination of compatible ideas, but each book also had something important to say that the other book didn’t quite capture.

Outliers shows us how good timing, opportunity to practice and hard work are often the most common characteristics of the most successful people. The Element shows how successful individuals are successful usually in spite of their education, a system that often focuses too much on curriculum planning and assessment and too little on nurturing human talent.

The example of the Beatles came up in both books. Gladwell cites how the Beatles had the opportunity to hone their live act, musicianship and song writing through hours of live playing on the Hamburg club scene (at least 10,000 hours is the magic number Gladwell cites). Robinson talks about Paul McCartney’s bad music teacher, and how he and John Lennon would instead mentor each other in their musical development. Robinson focuses on the diversity of talent, engagement, circles of influence and other social phenomena and inner reserves that support creativity and get people into their ‘element’. Gladwell focuses on the timing of opportunities and the advantage we get from being able to make the most of these opportunities.

All in all, a satisfying combination of books that I highly recommend.

This is a great one-stop-shop for all your adult learning needs. click for Adult Learning wiki

This report caught my attention. Mainly because of the point it makes that the fastest growing segment of new Facebook users in the US is women over 55. Mothers want to keep in touch with their kids.

I say this because after reading this report I had a brief conversation with a colleague (not 55 yet, I must say) who’s just got back from leave, sending her youngest daughter off to university. It’s been tough for her. She misses her daughters. And she told me she’s now spending most of her time on Facebook to keep in touch with them. I can only imagine how she must feel. I’ve got another 15 years or so before I have to deal with that heartbreak. It must be really painful.

Facebook is a poor substitute for being with someone you love. But it’s about the best thing out there I reckon.

I couldn’t talk to her for long, because I could feel how hard it was for her to come back to work. But I hope she gets the chance to move back home, to be near her daughters. Being selfish, I’d rather she didn’t, because she’s great to be with (one of my favourite people) and one of the best we have working for us.

A thought provoking post on Classroom 2.0 by Christine Southard who highlights one aspect of an upcoming World War II history special. The producers have asked the YouTube generation to record oral histories (frome their grandparents in other words) before we lose them forever.

Great potential. Great educational project.

I’m on a quest to find the simplest way of turning my old photos and slides digital.

There isn’t much that grabs my fancy. I Googled and was first drawn to the HP G4050 which looks pretty good, but apparently takes ages to scan stuff. This Braun looks like it could be quick, but it’s way out of my price range.

I then got thinking that it takes a split second to take a photo with digital camera, so why not take a photo of a slide or negative with a digital camera? Sure enough, someone’s tried this already with good results: Pete Ganzel

But that looks way too difficult for me to set up. Got to admire the guy though.

And then there’s Shot Copy, which I’m sure does the job, but somehow looks a bit funny.

So why isn’t there something that’s super fast, hi-res that I can effortlessly use to convert all my old photos with? If it exists, where is it? I’ll pay.

Interesting post and comments on Weblogg-ed. It’s about new literacies, cyber-bullying and the roles of teachers and parents, the curriculum, etc… The comments are full of good links and stuff. Worth a look.

I tried to post this as a comment to the post, but couldn’t. So I’ve posted here instead.

First up, it made me think of the Byron Review Report commissioned by the UK Prime Minister: Safer Children in a Digital World I can highly recommend it if you haven’t seen it before. I particularly like this quote:

“Children and young people need to be empowered to keep themselves safe – this isn’t just about a top-down approach. Children will be children – pushing boundaries and taking risks. At a public swimming pool we have gates, put up signs, have lifeguards and shallow ends, but we also teach children how to swim.”

Second, I thought of a course a colleague’s just written. We were recently given the opportunity to write a teacher training course in ‘Media Literacy’ for teachers in Singapore schools. One of the main focuses of the course is to develop knowledge and skills to enable the critical evaluation of different types of content across the different media available today. Helping teachers to empower children by helping them to understand, assess and manage risks – so they can make better choices.

Third, I thought of another colleague who’s helping secondary students to use blogs responsibly, by getting them to apply better strategies for writing online than they’d resorted to before. link to e-wot post

The last two aren’t a direct attempt to ‘teach’ ‘cyber-wellness’, instead they do something which I think is more powerful. They help develop the literacies which are the foundations of better risk management and self-regulation.