Only geeks that are interested in CSS and hex codes read below
Yesterday, I spent some time working on the design of the Learning@School conference site – I changed the header to stretch right across the page and I changed the navigation menu colours and design. I couldn’t figure out which elements of design the different hex codes in the code were referring to. I first of all used a handy Firefox extension called Firebug to help me ‘inspect’ different sections of the page to tell me the code that was behind them. Then I needed to be able to do a search by the hex code so that I could find out what colour it was referring to. Once again, I turned to the wonderful Colour Lover site for a solution. You can do a palette search by hex code and you can even add a Colour Lover hex code search to your Firefox browser search options. Color Schemer Online Version 2 is also another good option when searching by hex code.  Then I sampled the colour codes from the header image by running it through the Image Palette Generator and changed the template to hex codes that matched with this image. The whole process would have been a LOT quicker if I knew all about CSS!!

I made the front page graphic in Wix. This is an excellent tool and I see myself using this more and more.

I also have become completely attached to ColourLovers when setting up colour schemes for my wikis. It is so much easier than having to come up with this by trial and error. When you have found a palette of colours that you like in Colour Lovers, you copy the hex code for each colour and then go into ‘Manage space’ and then ‘Look and Feel’ and paste the code into the box for each option in the template. The screenshot on the left shows what each option from Look and Feel (screen shot on the right) changes.Note that I have also created a logo using one of the avatars I have created online. I am now branding this on all my wikis.

I have also been playing with my Twitter background picture which you can see all of on http://twitter.com/suzievesper I’m not completely happy with the colour combinations against some of the Twitter colours so will probably rework this again and I need to make the side panel shorter so all of it shows. To make this, I went back to Colour Lovers and selected a pattern I liked and downloaded it. From there I opened up GIMP (would also work in Photoshop etc) and copied the pattern which meant I was able to use it with the fill bucket to fill the entire space. All patterns from Colour Lovers will appear as one seemless pattern when tiled. Then I created a layer with the rectangle where I added my details and avatar. I saved the whole thing as a PNG and then uploaded it as my design to Twitter.

In other words, I spent ages mucking around in the evening doing something pretty inconsequential but diverting.

What went well

• The problems were aimed at the right level and I think it was definitely worth the effort of popping them into Comic Life to ‘jazz them up’ before exporting them as images and uploading to VoiceThread.
• I had previously set up 10 identities called ‘Group One’ etc on my account and this meant I could have the children working in groups of three using one of the identities.
• I was able to be logged on to 10 different laptops on my one account and we could even all add to the same VoiceThread slide at the same time using the different identities (I was trying to stretch VoiceThread to the max and it coped well).
• I had embedded the same VoiceThread on 10 different pages of a wiki so that everyone could work off their own copy in their groups. This worked extremely well.
• The children were extremely motivated to use VoiceThread and many even asked if they would be able to set up their own accounts at home.
• Some children persevered with working out problems for almost a full half hour and showed higher level thinking skills.

What could be improved

• The children were told they needed to work out the answers to problems before being able to record but many were so keen to get onto VoiceThread they rushed the problem solving just so they could record. This meant that many of the answers were not well thought out. Next time, I think I would have a paper version of the problems and the children would have to show me they had worked to figure out an answer before being able to get a laptop to record their strategies.
• Some children recorded silly comments just to listen to them back and have a laugh. Even though they deleted them, this wasted time. By having the paper version as I said above, I think this would go some way to resolving this issue. I would also lay down some ground rules at the start and point out that anyone not following these rules would be working all the problems out on paper and not using the laptops at all.
• There was too much background noise in the recordings. I might try to control the noise levels more or have the recording area somewhere a little quieter.
• I didn’t know how to make the doodle tool stay solid so it kept fading out making it hard for the kids to show all their working in time. I know now that you click on the big white circle in the middle of the Doodle tool circles so this would make things much easier next time!
• I couldn’t seem to upload any images for identities or otherwise when I was at the school. I think this is something to do with the school firewall so it is a good thing I got it all set up the night before. I did try bringing a picture across from my Flickr account and this worked fine so I would advise teachers to have all their images banked there for the kids to use as a workaround.

I did really enjoy working with the kids and still think it was a very worthwhile activity. Anyone can use this VoiceThread and add their own working out strategies so feel free to do so! Many of the problems still have not been solved correctly. Stu has also blogged about the session in his class blog which you can also go and read.

I have had an evening of playing around on the computer and I have picked up a few more interesting sites.

Searching
Mahalo is a search engine that is written by human beings rather than machine compiled. Each returned entry is guaranteed to be of a high quality and spam free. There is stuff on education but most of it is written at a higher level than primary. What I did see looked really good and I have signed up to ge a writer on Mahalo where I get money for each entry I add. I will let you know if I get accepted! You can install a Firefox add-on that will display Mahalo search results next to your goodle results.

Search Radar is a search engine that helps you refine your searches. When you enter a search term, it gives you a tag cloud of related search terms to help you narrow your search. Under the tag cloud there is a list of sites for the search terms you used. Again you can install a Firefox extension that will show you a list of related search terms next to any Google search results (replacing the Google Ads!)

Powerpoint Type Applications – Slide Rocket
While SlideRocket is not yet launched (I have sent a request in to have an account), this looks very exciting. Many of the online office applications do not seem to prioritise good looking presentation applications and most seem pretty basic. SlideRocket promises to make great use of the potential that being a web based application affords it. It is planning to have links with services such as Flickr so that you can bring in images to you slides. The interface looks great – can’t wait to try this one out.

News From the Cluster
I haven’t really used this blog to share what is happening in our cluster the way that I envisioned I would when I set it up! That is something that I need to change. There is a webquest that a teacher called Hayley has set up at Wilford School that is well worth sharing. She has used a wiki to set up the webquest that is about Hauora (the Maori word for well-being) and looks at Food and Nutrition, Emotional Health, Environmental Issues and Physical Heath (exercise). This is a great resouce that anyone can tap into. The address of the webquest is http://hauora.pbwiki.com