Top Scholar - DVC

Jane Sun Waterhouse

- Epsom Girls' Grammar School

"Jane’s light product was inspired by the adaptability of chameleons.  

She explored the way they changed to blend into their environment as well as the way they used their tail to wrap around trees.  Her Photoflex light product is aimed at having many uses in daily life.  It is designed to cling to the arm of the user enabling comfortable use in many circumstances.  

It utilises the latest technology in materials and light production to create a product that will be fit for a variety of purposes. Jane aimed to create an innovative lighting product that would provide a great user experience. 

 Her work demonstrates outstanding ability in using sketches, models and digital media to explore, evolve and communicate her design ideas." Megan Dunsmore (HOD Technology, Epsom Girls Grammar)

What an inspirational piece of work!

NZQA - Facebook Alert

Scrolling through the endless stream of notifications to my Facebook feed. That I might add, I rarely check. I came across an alert from NZQA to inform me that they have published the chief moderators newsletter for 2015. I vaguely remember signing up for this last year, thinking that would be interesting to see how many times it gets used. However. I did receive it and it was full of the relevant information. 

(This wouldn't be a real blog without the gratuitous Cat Meme, please forgive me!) 

Having a look through it I noticed three things of interest that I thought I would share with the Technology community.

1. There are new and updated exemplars as well as clarifications for Technology Level 1 NCEA standards. Level 2 and 3 will be following later this year.
2. NZQA are offering three themed best practice workshops. Assessor Judgements, Connecting with contexts & collecting evidence.
3. There are explicit instructions for online moderation submissions.

If you would like further information or wish to link straight to the supporting documents, please follow the link here: 

http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/qualifications-standards/qualifications/ncea/subjects/technology/moderator-newsletters/february-2015/

Aspirational Excellence - Top Technology Scholar 2015

Top Scholar in Technology 2014 Briar Patel (17) from Aquinas college, Bay of Plenty

Who designed and implemented a educational tool to help children learn to cross a pedestrian crossing, in a fun interactive way. 

Worth a read as it an interesting project..........

2015 - Year of the Goat Teachers!!!

http://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/chinese-zodiac/goat.asp

Wow, I have to giggle.... for once teachers being recognised for their outstandingly positive qualities.

Try to remember these qualities that underpin us,  as the term starts to drag on and students are not so forthcoming with their work.....

I have set this picture as my positive affirmation/goal for 2015! Do you have one?

It's that time of Day (Thing 14 & 15)

Time just seems to disappear when you having fun, especially when you have your head stuck in thought provoking stimuli that leaves you feeling deflated by the end of the day. 

while I would like to attribute ownership of this image to someone, it came without an owner. But given the photo I would imagine Virgin might have something to do with whats going on.

To complete this task I felt it appropriate to share music from sound cloud, of a relaxing tone. To refresh and revitalise for whatever tomorrow might bring. The beach is my favourite place to relax and unwind and leave the stress behind so I felt this clip was appropriate, produced by danish artist called Luftrum, enjoy https://soundcloud.com/luftrum-1/ocean-waves-crashing .

 So sit back, put your feet up and enjoy that cup of tea.

Memories & profound statements combined 'MEME'.....

I have officially created my first MEME, but not what the teenagers describe as a MEME. Their version is often a website or MEME aimed at humiliation or discrediting someone, to the point where they feel a target for online cyber bullying. As adults I believe we like to share affirmations or feel good statements to empower rather than have power over others. So how will my foray into MEME's endure the conflicting emotions I have towards it's uses. We will see!

Flash as Baz, Presentations & Professional wiki's (Thing 12 & 13)

Where does that saying even come from " Flash as Baz" It certainly brings to mind the creepy image of the trench coated man ready to expose his awesomeness. I was intrigued to find out more and ponder the the term as a colloquialism  native to New Zealand/Australia, in short wikipedia has no listings and google just refereed me to quotes in text around how Baz was quick as a flash..... 

My musings translate it to be someone who is flashy. Traditionally I am not one to be flashy in academic presentations. I believe that content is more important than fancy whizbang attention grabbing graphics. That said I have seen a need to maintain peoples attention during the rough spots of full on academia rather than put them to sleep. A recent article I have read aligns nicely with this as it explores what are the fundamental keys for keeping kids engaged in learning. 

Title: Attention! Learning must be meaningful.

Personal Author: Stone, A.;   Barry, G.;   Heazlewood, C.
Source: Teacher Learning Network; v.15 n.2 p.23-25; Winter 2008

In saying that I am not flashy, I have in fact used Prezi

a few years ago for an online paper I was studying at the time. There was a percentage of our grade awarded to our presentation, so at the time I wanted it to be flash and wow the assessor. Hmmmmm, here is a link:

Prezi presentation from a post grad paper on educational change back in 2012.

http://prezi.com/vw9prazva-em/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Moving onto thing 13, the wiki. While exploring this I came across this delightfully simple explanatory youtube clip. I found it most interesting that in presenting the fundamental features of a wiki as a digital tool they had resorted to using paper and pen....... Amusing!

I had heard of wikis before this year but never really got my head around them until I was given the responsibility to co share the technology curriculum wiki hosted by team solutions: https://technologynz.wikispaces.com/ . I have found it fairly easy to navigate, but limited in terms of layout capability. It is difficult to make it look 'Flashy' and therefore does not grab peoples attention, but given that it holds a lot of information relevant to technology curriculum in New Zealand, perhaps it doesn't have to.