The almost #purposed #3x5 image

On the 12th April I posted an image to the #purposed #3x5 campaign using words from Graham Attwell's post back in March. His words 'The internet provides us with rich and free spaces for expansive learning' had rang true to me as he clarified his argument that education is the practice of freedom. I had wanted to capture that with an image of children in a free and open space using technology to collaborate and create together, so I chose the image shown here.

But then I met the ostrich. And it spoke to me of someone whose head is no longer in the sand, but is standing tall, looking for opportunities to be free. For spaces to do expansive learning. So I chose that picture instead.

But I thought it would be shame not to put my original picture somewhere. It illustrates a different line of thinking, but still one with some merit.

Spot the difference?

I'll buy you a chocolate for the first person who can spot the difference between this image and the image on the previous post... (not counting the title).

Head no longer in the sand

Stuck in a loop

So, I'm trying to upload my 3x5 images for the Purpos/ed April campaign and I 've found myself getting a bit stuck in a loop.

Two loops to be precise.

The first loop is a creativity loop. I had chosen a quote that I found particularly entertaining: “The internet provides us with rich and free spaces for expansive learning.” from The Practice of Freedom by Graham Attwell. It instantly made me think of some images that I would like to take myself. That is, with my own camera, instead of searching the Creative Commons like Purpos/ed suggest. Now of course, I'm no photographer, so actually taking the images I could see in my head has proved somewhat tricky - and I don't have quite what I was searching for. This has meant that I've gone back to the images a few times and tried to take more. Then I've returned to the first images I took and tried to edit those. Then I've become dissatisfied with all of them and tried to take even more. I've got stuck. In a loop.

So I'm breaking out of it today and these are my two best images (yes, I know). I'll have to choose one of them for tomorrow, which is the day my image 'goes live'.

The second loop is a technical one to do with Creative Commons. The instructions on Purpos/ed say that I should give the image a CC by license. But they're my own images, and I've never licensed them before. If only I'd just searched the Creative Commons instead of trying to be so damn creative. So I've gone back to my images and looked at them. Then I've gone to the Creative Commons site and tried to work out what's going on. Then I've gone to my Flickr site and had a look at that. But I've done nothing. I've been stuck. In a loop.

So here's me breaking out of the loop. This e-mail will send my images to Posterous. Posterous will send my images to Flickr. Then I should be able to work out how to assign a creative commons thing to them. Shouldn't I?

I hope so.

At least I'm not stuck any more.

See the full gallery on Posterous

How to Embed a Flash file in a Google Site

flash embed.mp4 Watch on Posterous

March 22: Spring is On Time

Don't know about you, but have you noticed how Spring has often been early recently. Or sometimes late. But never on-time. Well, I turned a corner on the way to work this morning and saw this:

I hadn't noticed previously, but it's there in pink splendour today. And today is the day after Spring is supposed to start.

So there may be terrible things going on in the world, but at least Spring us punctual this year.

What's ACE about your LA?

In my recent post, Why I am bothering with Safer Internet Day I mentioned obliquely that I had come to realise how lucky I am to work in Brimingham. I want to say it more directly now.

I've spent a good part of today travelling to two schools, one in Worcestershire, one in Herefordshire. The purpose was so that their students and my students could blog together during a project we're about to start. The project itself has nothing to do with blogging, but we thought it would be a great way for the children who are engaged in the project to keep up with what each other is doing. You can find out more at scalextric.posterous.com

In Worcestershire, the learning platform (Uniservity) has been mastered heroically by the staff and students of this particularly school, but its complexities made today's activities tricky. With the children already having two layers of logins to remember, I didn't want them to have to remember a third login for a separate blog platform, so I chose to use Posterous as the blog platform - that way the children could e-mail directly from their learning platform into the blog. However something funny with how their e-mail works means that they receive e-mail at one address, but send from a completely different address. And the address is really quite complicated, including an alpha-numeric code at the start and a site with 6 parts joined with 2 hyphens and 3 dots. Not only that, but when they send, Worcestershire attaches a 6 line disclaimer, including a phone number and e-mail address - each blog entry ends up with that added on to the content.

In Herefordshire, they have no county-wide learning platform, but instead the particular school uses Windows Live supplied and managed by their local secondary school. For free. What a great arrangement! When I was there the teacher rang up the tech guy at the secondary who fixed a problem within 5 minutes. Brilliant. However Herfordshire County Council so lock everything down, that even thought he children could e-mail to the blog, they couldn't actually see it - it was blocked by the firewall. And not only that, but Youtube and Google Image Search were also blocked. The teacher explained how when he wanted to use video he either had to rely on the BBC or find what he wanted and spend considerable time downloaded it so that he could bring in the specific video he wanted as a learning resource.

But I'm not going to pass judgement on all that, because I'm sure there are some great reasons for all of the above. The support and service for schools is probably fantastic. Or something.

Instead I want to thank the authorities in Birmingham for freeing up Youtube and Google Image Search so that we have great teaching resources at our fingertips. Thanks for allowing us access to all the main blogging platforms so that our children can collaborate and learn together. Thanks for freeing up Twitter so that I can keep in touch with my PLN while at school. Thanks for giving us freedom to choose our own learning platforms and not imposing a single e-mail solution on all schools. And maybe with the new ASA online advertising rules we may even get Facebook in the future... who knows? Anyway, thanks Brum.

Are you pleased with your local setup? Come on there must be something good about it... Let me know what's ACE about your LA.