Chris Betcher

I recently asked a group of Grade 10 kids recently to review some Web 2.0 apps as part of a Communications assessment task. Basically, I directed them to the Web 2.0 list at www.go2web20.net , and asked them to browse the list to find two apps that looked interesting to them and write a review about them. Of course, this exposed them to quite a few Web 2.0 applications/websites on their quest to find two they liked, and also familiarised them with Web 2.0 as a concept. (Yes, most of them were already familiar with the concept of Web 2.0 and its read/write nature, but many did not connect this stuff with the term Web 2.0). We had been using classroom blogging with Learnerblogs all semester with every student having set up their own blog, and we had also dabbled with wikis as well. Like most teenagers, many of the kids were already avid MySpace and YouTube users, so the jump to learning about more Web 2.0 stuff was a logical one. I was pleasantly surprised to find just how eloquent,...

A friend sent me an email with this note in it.  I had a chuckle at the intended humour, and quickly realised just how close to the mark it really was.  I made a few minor modifications to it, but here it is... Question: What is the truest definition of Globalization? Answer: Princess Diana's death. You ask why? An English princess with an Egyptian boyfriend crashes in a French tunnel, driving a German car with a Dutch engine, driven by a Belgian who was drunk on Scottish whisky followed closely by Italian Paparazzi on Japanese motorcycles; treated by an American doctor, using Brazilian medicines. This is posted to an Australian blog site, using American technology, and you're probably reading this on a computer that use Taiwanese chips and a Korean monitor, assembled by Bangladeshi workers in a Singapore plant. That, my friends -  is Globalization! I realise there are probably a couple of liberties taken with the truth there, but on the whole it is amazing when you start to th...

Not much time left to do this, but if you are an edublogger and you haven't yet taken this survey, be quick!  It will only be available until Monday morning.  Results will be posted on Wednesday. https://websurveyor.net/wsb.dll/39416/educationblogsurvey.htm I find blogging a very soul cleansing activity myself, but it will be interesting to hear what others say.

Following on from the "Five Things" meme that floated through the edublogosphere recently, Kim Cofino's blog had a nice little post about listing the places in the world she's been to. I was impressed by her map, and thought I'd give it a go too. This website will let you highlight the places in the world you've been, and I thought it very cool. I have to admit that mine probably looks a little more impressive than it really is... There are places I've been to that were short localised visits, but this tool highlights the whole country. So although I've only been to Hong Kong, the map shows all of China. Likewise, I certainly haven't seen all that much of North America yet. And yes, I have been to a lot of islands throughout the Pacific, but it was with my parents when I was much, much younger, so really, I haven't travelled nearly as much as I wish I had. Not travelling more extensively is one of my biggest regrets in life actually, alth...

I am sitting in class at the moment, minding a group of kids for another teacher that had a meeting to attend. The kids are good, working quietly and getting their task done... Then up popped a mate on Skype, a teacher from Saskatchewan, asking a couple of questions about a podcasting project I did last semester so we chatted online for a while talking about all sorts of podcasting stuff. He did however mention that where he was in Saskatchewan was having a huge snow blizzard at the moment, and that a friend of his had a some photos of the storm on his blog. I headed over to his friends blog and found an interesting post about what happens in school during a snow day. What I found interesting was this comment... “We took the morning to divide our 13 student class (a result of a depleted school population) into four groups to create a project about the effects of the blizzard. We had a podcast group, a newsletter group, a video group and a digital story group.” This is what school s...

It seems to me that when the tools of Web 2.0 start to reach a point where they can offer a viable option for the many tasks we do every day, that we can start to think in terms of reaching critical mass. I find it compelling to see the huge number of Web 2.0 apps listed over at http://www.go2web20.net/ Perhaps critical mass is not far off?

Yep, apparently I'm going straight to Hell... My friend Simon, who teaches religion, put me onto this little survey to see where your religious affiliations lie. It appears that I'm not a very good catholic. You scored as Emergent/Postmodern . You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don't think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this. Emergent/Postmodern   89% Classical Liberal   79% Modern Liberal   79% Charismatic/Pentecostal   50% Roman Catholic   43% Neo orthodox   36% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan   36% Reformed Evangelical   7% Fundamentalist   0% What's your t...

Yes, the school I teach at has a talent night each semester, and somehow or other a group of teachers at school put a little group together to play a couple of songs.  While I can't truly claim to have any great musical talent, I can wield a bass guitar well enough to hold the rhythm section together, especially with a great drummer like Charlie.  The rest of the band was Rob, Darrell, Alanna and Kevin, all wonderfully dedicated and talented teachers who don't mind getting up and showing their wild side in front of the kids.  The kids seem to really enjoy seeing their teachers get up and "give it a go", and it's that spirit that make schools such wonderfully human  places... So for anyone brave enough to take a peek, here is a YouTube video of two songs we performed on the night... the sound quality isn't great and the camera work is a bit shaky, but it just goes to show what can be done when a kid in the crowd just happens to capture something like this on hi...

Spam is an absolute scourge. I don't understand why people do it, but then I've never really understood why people spray graffiti on walls, or write viruses either. I guess some people just get a kick out of being a bloody nuisance. Of course, spam is a little different in that there is money involved. Big money apparently. If you send enough emails out about methods to enlarge your p3nis or buy p0rn and viag4r4 or whatever else spam tends to focus on, there are apparently enough stupid and gullible people in the world that someone, somewhere can make a comfortable living off their stupidity. It still amazes me that people respond to these messages in any way whatsoever, but apparently they do. The best way to deal with spam is to completely ignore it - don't read it, don't respond to it, don't acknowledge it... just totally ignore it. For the first time ever I feel like I'm winning the battle against spam, so I thought I'd share how I've managed to...

This link is pretty cool. I remember seeing it a while back, but a friend on a mailing list reminded me about it and suggested it could have some interesting uses in the classroom, getting kids to think about storytelling. Take a look at DFilm and see what you think. Love to hear your ideas...

I just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2007. I feel like 2006 has been an absolute rollercoaster of an adventure for me, and I've enjoyed all the challenges and opportunities it's offered, and I'm very much looking forward to the new year.