The Tipping Point

Although I'm not a Watford fan, an interesting feature in February's Observer Sport Monthly caught my attention. Apparently Aidy Boothroyd is an avid student of management theory and is an advocate of both The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell and Moneyball by Michael Lewis. Although it hasn't done much for Watford's fortunes it serves to emphasise the importance of applying broader principles to the management of your chosen field.

Now, I wonder what Martin Ling's (Orient manager) been reading - probably his final warning from Barry Hearn!

The Ideas Hamsters

Searching for killer apps...

Peter Ford gave me Phanfare a online photo-sharing application. By registering as a school you can set up the site as it it were a section of your schools own webite or blog.

Then there is Netvibes. Like Yahoo's or Google's personalised home pages, but better.

After Doug's bubbl.us link there are also a couple of other online brainstorming/drawing tools: Gliffy & Freemind. Both different but worth looking at. Doug has also put a great deal of work into the world of Google and the tools that may be of use to teachers.

An interesting development from the Google universe is Google Co-Op. It is very much like Roll-Yo, which came out a while back (and I think I learned about through Doug). It allows you to create your own search engine. It is worth trying the Edublogoshpere. It could work very well for students, especially young ones like mine, who need fewer sources to wade through.

And then there are many more such as Twitter, Writely or PB Wiki

The list of tools (killer apps) is seemingly endless and is the cause of much wasted time! However the search for something that might make digital life a little easier makes the search all the more intriguing.

Bubbl.us

Here is my attempt at the use of Bubbl.us with my year 4's. They loved it! And were particularly patient while I fiddle at the computer!

Ideas Hamsters

That veritable ideas hamster Doug Belshaw continues to come up with more exciting & interesting toys for your blog.

One of them, bubbl.us, worked really well with my year 4's as a visualisation of our disscussion about the reasons for settlement & migration over the centuries.