posted 12 Apr 2011 17:45 by Dave Winter
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updated 12 Apr 2011 17:46
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NICOLA BOYESLast updated 13:43 12/04/2011  FAIRFAX Plans to roll out ultra-fast broadband in Hamilton are about a week away. Plans to roll out ultra-fast broadband in Hamilton are about a week away, although industry and consumer groups are pressing the Government for changes to the law which will govern the new service. A Wel Networks-led consortium was awarded the contract to roll out the Government's $300 million UFB network in the Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Taranaki regions. Wel Networks chief executive Julian Elder said the consortium was about one week away from releasing its plans for the Waikato. The project is tipped to bring 300 jobs to the region and a major boost to business, with faster internet access. "Things can get in the way but we're in the final stages of tying down all of the details so that we can get the build under way." The Wel consortium includes Waipa Networks, the Hamilton Fibre Network, Environment Waikato, Wintec, Waikato University and Velocity Networks. Te Rapa, Frankton, Hamilton Central and Claudelands would be connected to the network first. Nationally, there are 13 telecommunications service providers indicating they want to sell the new UFB service to customers. In the Waikato, RuralLink and Velocity have lodged their interest. It is understood that negotiations are under way on how a retail arm would be split off Velocity, which owns some existing infrastructure in Hamilton and operates as a retailer. RuralLink chief technology officer Murray Pearson said there were negotiations going on but RuralLink had indicated that it wanted to sell the new service. Pricing would depend on what the wholesale rates were, and these hadn't been finalised yet. "I think it will all start to become clearer in the next few weeks." Wholesale rates for the service were tipped at between $40 for entry level and $60 for residential, increasing to $600 for a premium business connection. Nationally, there has been opposition to planned law changes which would govern the network. Industry and consumer groups, along with several telecommunications companies, wrote a joint letter to MPs yesterday to press their case for changes to the Telecommunications Amendment Bill. They oppose a planned nine-year "regulatory holiday" for the network, a planned single price for access to Telecom's copper phone lines in urban and rural areas, and what they perceive as a watering-down of regulations designed to protect and police competition. The letter was signed by Vodafone, 2degrees, TelstraClear, CallPlus, Kordia, Opto Network and Torotoro Waea, as well as Federated Farmers, Consumer New Zealand, the Telecommunications Users Association and InternetNZ. - Waikato Times |
posted 29 Mar 2011 12:15 by Dave Winter
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updated 29 Mar 2011 12:16
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EDUCATION PROGRAMMES 2011Our educators have fun preparing and delivering their programmes and we look forward to sharing some of them with you. For a brief description of what we offer follow one of the links below. For information on class times, length, prices and how to book, check out Information for Teachers. In Term One 2011 we are also offering a 90-minute session for teachers on practical chemistry. Click here for more detail. OUR PROGRAMMES
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posted 15 Mar 2011 15:34 by Dave Winter
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updated 15 Mar 2011 15:35
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Author talk as part of NZ Book Month 
| This event is kindly sponsored by Te Rapa New World. |
| Thursday, March 31 at 6.30pm
Garden Place LibraryBob Howitt was the editor of Rugby News for 26 years, edited the New Zealand Rugby Annual for 22 years, and was founder editor of New Zealand Rugby World. He collaborated with coaches Graham Henry and Laurie Mains and referee Paddy O'Brien on their bestselling biographies, and wrote three volumes of New Zealand Rugby Greats, which presented the life stories of 75 of the country's greatest players. Bob Howitt's 18th book on rugby, The perfect gentleman: the Sir Wilson Whineray story, was published at the end of last year. This is a free event but to help us gather numbers please register your interest to attend by phoning 838 6839 or email community.programmes@hcc.govt.nz Copies of Bob's books will be available for purchase on the night, courtesy of Whitcoulls. |
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posted 10 Mar 2011 00:49 by Dave Winter
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updated 10 Mar 2011 00:49
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Carol Moffatt is helping to try and get Christchurch schools and kids learning back on their feet following the devastation of the last big earthquake. She was asking for help in setting up an online area where kids at primary level could be directed to as a place where they could get involved back in some purposeful learning activity. Many have no schools to go back to yet and parents are desperately looking for solutions to get their kids back into the system. Some are just getting power and resources back on in their communities.
In response Jill Hammonds has set up the skeleton of a wiki to cater to this need, and we are calling on all you wonderful teachers and facilitators out there to help us populate it with worthwhile learning activities. What we urgently need is links to online language and maths activities that kids can hook into. I'm sure you all have lots of these that you could add. Once we get some basics underway it would then be great to put in some of our own activities and extend out into inquiry, the arts, PE etc.
The skeleton of the wiki has been set up at http://shakeupschool.wikispaces.com/ It is an open wiki so no need to join to be able to get in and add material. It will be monitored to ensure it stays OK for kids.
So please, if you can help in this venture, go to the wiki and get started. |
posted 7 Mar 2011 13:36 by Dave Winter
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updated 7 Mar 2011 13:37
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CORE's first Hamilton Breakfast Seminar for 2011 will be on 17 March. Ian Fox will be our first breakfast speaker in Hamilton, he will be discussing ePortfolios. Ian Fox was Principal at Bucklands Beach Intermediate School for many years. He ‘retired’ from this position two years ago and now works on a part time basis supporting schools through his consultancy company, FoxED Education Consultants Ltd.
For many years Bucklands Beach Intermediate students used paper portfolios in a manner designed to develop their metacognitive skills and assist them grow as independent learners. In recent years Ian, with support from key staff personnel, further developed these concepts using Web2 tools to move from a paper portfolio to web based ePortfolios.
This session will provide an overview of portfolios with the emphasis on purpose. It will look at a range of portfolio types and focus particularly on a portfolio designed to assist students take increasing responsibility for their own learning, therefore leading towards the development of 'confident, connected, actively involved, life long learners’.
Ian will provide specific examples showing how students have used their ePortfolios as learning journals, providing key evidence of process as well as the finished product. He will show how the simple concept of Digital Story Telling can be used by children of all ages to tell their learning stories.
This CORE breakfast session will :
- Share one school’s journey towards the development of student ePortfolios.
- Help participants better answer the question, ‘What is an ePortfolio?’
- Show how an ePortfolio can assist with the development of confident, connected, actively involved, life long learners.
- Show how Digital Story Telling can simply be used to tell students’ learning stories.
- Show how an ePortfoliocan be used to support NZC goals and objectives.
- Share student examples to better illustrate concepts presented.
This session will be particularly useful for school leaders and classroom practitioners, those with responsibility for developing and supporting the implementation of the ePortfolio within schools and advisers working with schools on authentic assessment practices.
Breakfast will be served at 7.45am, with Ian beginning the discussion at 8am. He will wrap things up around 9am but you are invited to stay and chat with Ian, CORE staff and one another after the seminar. Hamilton breakfast seminars are held in the foyer of the Centre for Performing Arts, Southwell School, 200 Peachgrove Road. To be added to the CORE Breakfast mailing list email breakfasts@core-ed.org |
posted 2 Mar 2011 14:43 by Dave Winter
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updated 2 Mar 2011 14:46
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posted 20 Feb 2011 00:39 by Dave Winter
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updated 20 Feb 2011 00:40
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Sign up now
Approximately 550 schools are eligible for a full year's worth of
subsidised (and maybe even free) use of Early Notification (EN is the
txting parents when their children do not turn up and no prior warning/
reason was given). To date only 250 schools have accepted this offer,
so I am appealing to the rest of you to make the commitment.
To be eligible, your school must be:
* state or state-integrated secondary, composite, or intermediate
and
* approved (and using) the eAR module of your school's SMS.
Read more about this initiative at
http://www.minedu.govt.nz/NZEducation/EducationPolicies/Schools/Initiatives/ManagedLearningEnvironments/StudentAttendanceandEngagement/EarlyNotification.aspx
MGM Approved for EN
The other news is that MGM is now approved as an EN message provider.
The Ministry has just completed the interoperability testing between
the MGM service and Student Management Systems (SMS). We have
demonstrated that the messaging data moves between the electronic
attendance (eAR) module of the SMS, out to the MGM message service,
and replies come back to the SMS. For more information on the MGM
offering please contact:
MGM Wireless (NZ) Ltd (service is called MGM Wireless Early
Notification)
Contact Robin Hamon
Phone 09 426 0242 or 021 682 866
Email rhamon@mgmwireless.com [no spam]
Website www.mgmwireless.co.nz
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posted 13 Sep 2010 15:56 by Dave Winter
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updated 13 Sep 2010 15:59 by Dave Winter
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Crown Fibre Holdings announced today that a consortium of four companies - WEL Networks, Velocity Networks, Hamilton Fibre Networks and Waipa Networks - is one of three parties selected by the Government to enter negotiations for the first stage of ultrafast broadband rollout. Dr Julian Elder, CEO of WEL Networks, says this is a significant step forward for the Government's ultrafast broadband (UFB) initiative. "What this means is our consortium is one step closer to making ultrafast broadband a reality for cities and towns throughout the Central North Island region. We see this as an important step forward in delivering value to the residential, education, health and business sectors. "Rolling out ultrafast broadband will assist in creating economic growth and a range of future opportunities throughout the wider region," explained Dr Elder. The four companies make up the Central North Island Fibre Consortium and propose to roll out UFB to Hamilton, Cambridge, Te Awamutu, Tauranga, New Plymouth, Wanganui, Hawera and Tokoroa. The other two companies chosen by Crown Fibre Holdings to enter into negotiations with the Government are Alpine Energy for Timaru and Northpower for Whangarei. WEL Networks and its partners have proposed the largest rollout plans by far. "Particularly for smaller towns like Wanganui, Hawera and Tokoroa, getting ultrafast broadband into these areas means they will no longer be disadvantaged with low internet speeds. This has huge implications for schools, hospitals and businesses especially. "I'm confident that our companies working together can get ultrafast broadband to more people and businesses throughout the Waikato in a speedier timeframe than could have been achieved by traditional telco companies. We are ready to invest in the infrastructure - in many cases, it's already in place and ready to use," says Dr Elder. Dr Elder explains that it makes sense for WEL Networks and Waipa Networks - as electricity distributions companies - to play a key role in broadband rollout. "WEL Networks and Waipa Networks both have strong relationships with urban and rural electricity consumers. Plus, as lines companies, we bring the scale and asset management capabilities required to achieve a mass market roll out with speed and efficiency. And most importantly, by using existing assets, we can deliver this new infrastructure very cost effectively. The Government has recognised we can offer this advantage and we're excited about entering the next phase of negotiations to make this a reality," he said. Hamilton Fibre Network, is a 50 kilometre broadband network operated in Hamilton by Velocity Networks. It is owned by a group of shareholders including Hamilton City Council, Wintec, University of Waikato and Environment Waikato. The Network has a local business model that is aligned with the Government's new approach and is already providing ultrafast broadband to central and local government sites, Hamilton businesses, schools, tertiary education providers and health sites. "Velocity Networks and Hamilton Fibre Network have already been successful in rolling out ultrafast broadband to central parts of Hamilton city. Our consortium will leverage off of this successful model and replicate it in other cities and towns throughout the proposed region," outlines Dr Elder. Dr Elder said if the Consortium was confirmed as the Government's rollout partner, it would work closely with city and regional councils to assess options that could reduce rollout costs and utilise existing infrastructure and resources to speed up rollout timelines. In Crown Fibre Holdings' announcement today, its Chairman, Simon Allen indicated final decisions on rollout plans could be made within the next few months: "Crown Fibre Holdings is well on track to make recommendations for binding offers for initial investment partners to shareholding Ministers in October 2010, and to commence the roll-out of UFB before the end of the year." |
posted 25 Aug 2010 15:33 by Dave Winter
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updated 25 Aug 2010 15:34 by Dave Winter
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« The Twitter Times
Aug
25
2010
suzievesper
Voicethread gets better and better
Anyone that has
been to workshops I run on Web 2.0 tools knows that I am a HUGE fan of
Voicethread. To my mind, the three big online tools are blogs, wikis and
Voicethread. Other tools that I speak about are great but they are not
as central to me as these three (though Google Docs would come close!) I
am always impressed at the ways Voicethread continues to innovate (and
they’ve just given the site a makeover too!). Here are a couple of
features of Voicethread that I think are really valuable. They might
have been around since last year but I’ve just tripped over them. I read
about them within the Voicethread blog
https://voicethread.com/blog/#20090911
Searching within Voicethread for Creative Commons images in Flickr
This is a new development for adding images to Voicethread straight
from Flickr that have a Creative Commons license. You do have to have a
Flickr account to link to your Voicethread account for you to be able to
make access this feature. Here are the steps involved.
Step one
  Click
on ‘Create’ to make a new Voicethread and then click on ‘Upload’ and
select the option’Media Sources’ and then choose the ‘Flickr’ option.
Step Two
Click on the link to import Flickr images from your Flickr account
into your Voicethread. If you have not done this before, you will be
prompted to link your Flickr account with your Voicethread account.
Once you have done this, the option to search Flickr for Creative
Commons licensed images is at the top of the screen.
Step Three
You can click on the ‘i’ next to the title of an image in the search
results to see more details such as the specific Creative Commons
license. Click on each image you want to add to your Voicethread and
then select ‘Import’.
The brilliant thing about this option is that Voicethread
automatically adds a link back to the image on Flickr on the Voicethread
slide so there is no need to worry about attribution.
Changing the order of comments on a Voicethread
I have wanted to do this before but didn’t realise I could. This is a direct quote from the blog:
If you are the creator or editor of a VoiceThread you can now reorder the comments
by moving your mouse over any comment segment on the timeline beneath
the VoiceThread. Just hold down the shift key while over the timeline
and then click-drag to move a comment segment to another position.
This will allow you much greater control over the quality of your
conversations.
So basically, I continue to be impressed at Voicethread and look forward to ongoing future improvements. |
posted 20 Jul 2010 21:34 by Dave Winter
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updated 20 Jul 2010 21:40 by Dave Winter
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The feedback from this workshop was good. some material is available here if you want a look. |
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