Another Girl leading the way and this time she's only 10 !

Girl finds flaws in mobile games

A novel class of security problems have been found lurking in many mobile games by a ten-year old 'hacker.' (Hacker might be a bit strong - Wells)

Going by the handle CyFi, the hacker presented her findings at the DefCon hacker conference held in Las Vegas.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14443001

Girl beats 200000 boys at Excel Comp

Rebecca, who is 15, was one of 228,000 competitors from 57 countries.




http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14401766

Firefox 5 and Extensions

I have been a Safari man for at least a couple of years now and went for it because it was a cleaner design. But Firefox 5's speed has drawn me back to it and with the "foxdie" Appearance plug-in it now looks like Safari but has then allowed me to add these useful extensions: Auto Hide Tabbar

1. Auto Hide Bookmark Bar
2. BugMeNot
3. DownloadThemAll
4. Flash Blocker
5. Twitter from address bar

New iOS Support WIKI

New iOS Wiki launched but in need of suggestions.
Please email me or comment on the blog with any APP suggestions that you think would be USEFUL at school. Give me examples of how you are using your iPod / iPhone / iPad in class or for prep.
http://collab.kings.net.nz/groups/iossupport/


r.wells@kingscollege.school.nz

iPod Magic!

I have mentioned that as a teenager, I was a party magician (It paid $200/hour!). Here, my 2 worlds collide:

Web design RAP?

I am contemplating dressing like this for work so I can teach as well as he can!

PROGRAMMING 4 DUMMIES

SCRATCH is a good place to start from. It has nearly all the programming options you will ever play with. Children have used it to make fully functioning games. http://scratch.mit.edu/

STENCYL is like scratch but outputs into a FLASH GAME / PROGRAM: http://www.stencyl.com/

CATROID: A programming app for use on an Android phone - Program on the move! http://www.catroid.org

Android App Inventor

An online drag and drop app developer for beginner programmers. 

http://appinventor.googlelabs.com

Compressing photos for documents

Before using pictures in a document, you must shrink the file size because the modern digital cameras take such high quality photos that a document using them in their original state can explode in size and become unemailable or unprintable.
Youtube How-to video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl3u-9NY67A

Database Task - Query Criteria

In this image you are shown every option available when setting up a Query (Saved Search). I have only bothered to explain the less obvious options.


Turning a BIG grid of info into a SMALL grid:
A way to think about the query is only showing some rows from a large table of Data so that the smaller set of info that remains can fit on a piece of paper. It is a smaller grid of info because you tell the Database to only look for certain info.

Good Blog Posting Skills

When posting on a BLOGGER:
1. Be sensible.
2. Spelling! 
3. Capital letters! (If you don't know where to put them, ask your English teacher)
3. As little white space on the post as possible. Align Images left or right.
4. Use red to highlight key words or points
5. The Hyperlinks don't seem to auto colour (They ignore the CSS within a post) so could you use the same blue I am using to colour links.
6. Always include an image (Humans like them)
7. Make your post informative.
8. Try to include at least 50 words. Too many tiny posts becomes difficult to read and tag.
9. Keep the number of Labels (TAGS) on the blog to a minimum. Stick to overall categories and not individual items within a topic.

Mac Password Problems

Password problems on the MAC?

1. Deleting your MAC Keychain
2. Click on FINDER (The Blue Smiley Face)
3. Click on Your Name (This is your Home Profile)
4. Click on Library
5. Click on KeyChans
6. Delete all files in the Keychain folder
7. Log Off
8. Log On

Posting on a Blogger Blog

I have produced a video on Posting content (Pics and Videos) and how the Labels on every post appear in the menu on the front page.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZnpl-sj78U

Are you an ICT Head of Year?

I have realised that one opportunity that running this blog offers me is the ability to nominate other "Authors".

If you feel you are an ICT leader within your year group, you can apply directly to me to become an Author of this blog. You will be allowed to add posts that help your fellow students with ICT skills, news and support. There will be one Author nominated from each year group 9 to 13. You will be expected to post responsibly and operate under my rules and guidance. e.g. appropriately tagging every post to assist the organisation of the blog and only changing gadgets and design after consultation with me. This offers you an opportunity to keep your year group up-to-date with what relevant for students at King's and especially those in your year group. Contact me: Email or Twitter: @RichardWells_NZ

Downloading from Youtube

I have produced a video on how to Download Youtube videos.
This method works on all platforms in all browsers. 
Remember to set the quality to high on the player (720) so you can clearly see what I am doing.
Have fun!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCpVzIwjC6g

New Blogger tools and features coming soon!

Google rarely preannounces new features, so I was really surprised to see a video that highlights some upcoming Blogger features. Google's video does a great job at enumerating the latest Blogger improvements, while asking people: "Have you looked at Blogger lately?"
Google plans to unveil a completely new Blogger interface, mobile templates for blogs (which are already available at Blogger in Draft) and a feature that lets you find related posts and videos.

Why Blog?

Blogs have been around for some time now, in Internet terms, but are rapidly being accepted by schools as an ideal tool for learning and communication. 
Perhaps one of the most fascinating tools that has emerged from the Internet cloud in recent years is the Blog. A shortening of the term Web log, the Blog is an online publishing tool that enables people to easily publish their loves, passions, dislikes, peeves, discoveries, and insights. (Reference)
Blogs are set-up like conventional Web sites, with navigation links, and other standard Web site features. Blogs have one standard characteristic, however: the posting. Blog postings are text entries, similar to a diary or journal, which include a posting date and may include comments by people other than the author, photos, links, or other digital media. Blogs work well for students because they can be worked on at virtually any time, in any place with an Internet-enabled computer. Hence, they can be used by computer savvy teachers to create a classroom that extends beyond the boundaries of the school yard. (Reference)
Thousands of teachers have discovered the value of classroom blogging, both as an avenue for their communications, but also as a tool for giving voice to what their students are learning and how they are learning. (Reference)

Educational Benefits of Blogs
In addition to providing teachers with an excellent tool for communicating with students, there are numerous educational benefits of blogs. Blogs are:

• Highly motivating to students, especially those who otherwise might not become participants in classrooms.
• Excellent opportunities for students to read and write.
• Effective forums for collaboration and discussion.
• Powerful tools to enable scaffolded learning or mentoring to occur.

Here's a great page on 7 things that Blogging brings...

If you agree, please answer the Poll on my blog about King's making more use of them.
This page contains a list of NZ classroom blogs.
Start here: www.blogger.com (You need to create a Gmail account) It's all free!

Blogpress app - update your blog on the fly

I'm adding this post to test the Blogpress app for iPad. The app was 4.99
but will allow me to post more often and add more detail to the posts. This should be a link and here is a picture added with app. I also just downloaded a free ebook on getting the most from blogging, including a mention of over 100 people in the world who blog professionally and make over $10,000 a month!

"HootSuite" Site and Mobile

Students have asked me about Hootsuite so here you go. Post Messages to Twitter or Facebook or Both from one place. Hootsuite is an account you can setup and nominate all your social media accounts so they appear in one place. It's shows in your web browser just as it does on the iPad. White one message and tick which accounts will post it. It also does stats on social media as well.
You can also line-up your favourite Social feeds on the screen. E.g. a Twitter Saved search next to your Favourites next to your FB account. Try it for free here: HOOTSUITE

I was going to produce a doc on iPad use but...

Just get going with this:
It has Skills, Apps, File handling, Typing & general recommendations.

Using ICT at King's

KING'S ICT USE?
Can you add your comments to this post regarding advice you would give to new students about using the King's ICT. Please only be constructive and helpful. I need to put the advice online because we have a lot of confused students.
Examples: Logging on; Saving work; Printing; iPhones / iPads info; General advice; WiFi...