Ted Talk

I found this this Ted Talk by Ken Robinson about creativity and how schools kill it. I think most creative people could have probably told you this already. I guess it's good to reinforce the message though. I thought it ended quite positively but didn't really say a lot. I shall make an effort to watch more of these and in particular one from this same series as this was only a short one that i believe was part of 3 or 4 day event..

The following 6 post are all about new types of ICT that i have been introduced to whilst on the PCET course. In each post I set out to reflect on how I feel about the software in hand and how I may utilise it personally in my own practice.

Explain Everything

Explain everything, from what I can see looks brilliant as a way of creating different types of presentations. If you are comfortable being creative, drawing etc then you could really do some great things with this. I think it's application as a tool for teaching is probably best suited for a younger audience. I can image be ing able to make great history  and science presentation with this not mention the rest. For my self and my particular cohalt I don't see it really working. I do however, similarly to Presi, as an artist see great potential in this as very accessible way to create installation/video/performace art.

http://www.morriscooke.com/applications-ios/explain-everything-2

Pinterest

When I was introduced to Pinterest for the first time on the course it was easily the one bit of new ICT I had seen that I immediately thought could really bring something to my specific subject and the format in which is is mainly taught. I could see how personally i could use it to organise my different kinds of work from digital to analogue, design, research and through to presentation, fabrication and evaluation. What I really liked about it was it's format and physical layout. In particular the ability to organise everything with pictorial headings which for me gives me almost infant recall and recognition of what I'm looking in comparison to something like Moodle which for me, wether its to do with some aspect of my dyslexia some other element of my mind that doesn't compute it well, just looks like noise. Endless lists of things that look slightly different from each other. Navigating it at all literally makes me want to smash my computer up. So I felt there were legs in this Pinterest. The only drawback from me was that this isn't just an organisation and presentation tool. I don't like the fact it's as far as iI understand it all open to the public. I can see how that could be good for some people. But for myself it would stop me using it in the way I would like to as I don't want all of my best unused or incomplete art and design work to be in a public forum where it can be pinched. with regard to using it in the sense it's meant to be used this wouldn't really happen in my current placement. There are absolutely no interactive white boards and though I could connect my laptop to the large monitor we have on the wall and sit at a desk looking at the wall whilst controlling it through the laptop for some sort of presentation it couldn't be used in the way in which I'm mainly used to seeing educators using it. if i needed show slides and talk about them to the class I would rather use a slideshow on my laptop using the remote control which would allow me to move around and point at places on the screen and importantly i feel make a better connection with the students.

https://uk.pinterest.com

Prezi

Simple example I found online.

Preszi is another presentation tool, Its basic format consists of everything being on one potential very large image and the camera view zooms in and out, up and down and left and right etc... Some people love it some people hate it. Generally when ever I have seen it used it makes me feel duff, It's bait like being on one of those rides that make you feel like your moving around when your not and can make you feel quite sick or dizzy. For me I find it a distraction and it make it harder to concentrate on the information. That said I think it's a really interesting bit of software with huge amounts of potential. It's one of those things where the person directing it will make it work or not. If you just stick a standard presentation in it which give the impression of moving backwards and forwards 50 foot really quickly every three minutes you might end up feeling sick. I think you carefully however it could be really interesting. The first thing I thought when I saw it was that you could use it to brilliant effect for art installations. With regard to me using it in my current practice for presentations I would say it's pretty unlikely.

https://prezi.com

Spicy Nodes

Unfortunately Spicy nodes is not available at this time, It's normally available here 

http://www.spicynodes.org/tryit.html

As it isn't I'll just recall it from memory, I believe Adam showed it to us as a class when his group are doing there presentations about alternative to PowerPoint. As I recall it was a fairly nifty graphical way of displaying information connected by "nodes" I had thought it was one of the more aesthetically pleasing presentation tools. It seem seems to me to be a way of essentially using the mind map format but with the interactive angle of bringing able to navigate physically around it. If I had to give presentations with a large amount of different pieces if information and wanted to particularly display their interconnectivity I would definitely consider this software.

Todays Meet

Todays meet is a free to use application that allows you to create temporary news feed style meeting boards. It has a very simple look and is very usable. It seems to me a really easy way to have a specific discussion going on for a specified period of time. I can see this being very as a tool that can be used with a class or a group or colleges. Such as the above example for just arranging logistics between a group in an casual yet effective way. I can see myself using this or a similar thing in the future. I particularly like it as it is a straightforward alternative to arranging things on Facebook which personally I despise : )

https://todaysmeet.com