Techy Toy’s
I thought that it may be interesting to describe some of the kit and techniques we are using to communicate with the UK. If you are reading this you have found ‘edublogs‘. This excellent site doesn’t need much explanation. It is highly user friendly and very powerful. It has the good combination of being able to make things easy for new users whilst allowing more experienced users to embed code and play with fun toys (for example like where I have embedded Flickr slideshows)
On top of this I have enabled Google Analytics. Every time I use this it blows me away. This free tool from Google tells me a frightening amount of info about who has looked at our site. Every thing from numbers of viewers, where they are in the world, what ISP they use, how they found our site, how long they spend on which page and many more things. For example I can tell that my brother who works for the Met office has looked at our blog! It is rather big brother like, but also invaluable in terms of telling how effective a schools website is. This data is priceless yet Google lets you use it for free.
Hardware wise, I’m using a Canon digital SLR (400D) with the standard lens and a new Sigma 10-22 which I bought for the trip. I’m also carrying a Canon Ixus digital compact. My video camera is a basic Canon MD101, very cheap but small and easy to use.
Back to the websites. For photos I’m uploading them to Flickr using Flickr Uploadr (there is a unfortunate growing habit of purposefully mis-spelling certain website, how long before we see pupils missing out ‘e’s from spelling.
For video I am uploading them directly into Edublogs. I probably would use YouTube but as it is banned in Sheffield schools it would limit who could access it. I am using an Apple MacBook Pro which makes creating a video in the appropriate file size and format a doddle.
As mentioned in the main blog, the newest bit of kit I am experimenting with is a Sony GPS Photo tracker. I have had it recording but have yet to have a chance to play with the software properly. I’ll keep you posted when I get it working.
