Mercury Retrograde: Right Brain Activates

Astrologers love to analyze and discuss Mercury retrograde cycles. It is a very popular topic in both astrological blogs and columns. And it has crossed-over to the mainstream where it is sprinkled in with other water-cooler gossip. Anyone working with computers or planning travel will groan when they hear of its approach. I've even known skeptical IT guys to secretly ask me when to expect its delays and system glitches.

Perhaps the rising interest in Mercury retrograde in popular culture is because Mercury rules over the most important aspects of modern life: communication, writing, education, technology, markets, commerce, movement, and travel. Many astrologers use a Gemini ascendant for the US chart which would make the US more susceptible to Mercury's movements in the sky than countries with a different planetary ruler. So I thought it would be interesting to look at the facts about what a retrograde is astronomically speaking, in order to understand how that change in movement in the sky manifests in shifts in our daily lives.

The planet Mercury is described as 'retrograde' when it appears to be moving backwards through the zodiac. Although every planet in our solar system appears to station and turn retrograde in cyclic periods, they are never actually retrograde or stationary. The planets appear to shift direction due to an optical illusion. This illusion occurs as a result of a planet's motion in relation to earth.



During a retrograde cycle the inferior, or inner planets, Mercury and Venus, seem to disappear behind the Sun and return as transformed figures. Ancient Greeks had two names for Mercury. When it appeared in the morning sky it was Apollo, and Hermes in the evening sky.


Retrograde cycles were viewed by ancient sky watchers as a shamanic process. As a planet reverses course, it heads to Sun and disappears from the night sky, only to return, or be reborn, to the morning sky after a purification or alchemical process by the Sun. The planet Mercury is connected to alchemy as its ruler and as the namesake for the element of Mercury, or quicksilver, which was a key ingredient in producing the philosopher's stone -- the secret of turning lead into gold. Astrologically Mercury rules the rational mind and intellect, and when it is strong in a chart it can raise consciousness and thus turn the lead of ignorance into the gold of enlightenment.


In both Western and Eastern astrological traditions Mercury rules the mutable signs of Gemini and Virgo. Gemini is an air sign which traditionally rules over mental activity and gives a quickness and adaptability of body and mind. In latin Gemini means 'twin' and corresponds to the twin stars Castor and Pollux. In Myths and Symbols of Vedic Astrology Bepin Behari writes: Gemini is also depicted as a man and woman in a sexual embrace that represents dualistic energies in action. Mind or intelligence is an active expression of Divine energy. But the mind is activated by the mutual interaction of its polarized components. Thus Gemini needs another, its mate or twin, in order to successfully exchange ideas and activate the divine within.

Virgo is a mutable earth sign which rules over practical and detailed thinking. The earth element brings stability to the mind, and skill to the hands. The constellation of Virgo, latin for virgin or maiden, is symbolized by a harvest goddess holding a sheath of wheat. This wheat sheaf represents the fixed star Spica which she dropped to form the Milky Way, and symbolizes Virgo connection to natural cycles of growth. Wheat is subject to an unending cycle: the seed, fruit, and then the harvested kernels. Thereafter, it returns to the earth to grow again. Behari writes: The impulse flowing through this sign represents the feminine aspects of nature undisturbed by other influences. The impulse at this stage produces an electrified field which is neither active nor passive. This undisturbed and pure energy is the divine hidden deeply in matter, like the potential energy packed in a seed waiting its trigger to express its divinity at harvest time.


Both signs are represented by human symbols that reveal how they differ from other signs that are represented by animals or objects. What separates us from animals? Some might say the human mind and intellect. Homo Sapiens literally means 'thinking' or 'knowing' man. Mercury rules both the intellect and nervous system. And through the signs of Gemini and Virgo, we may see how the brain works on an energetic level. Could the dualistic air sign of Gemini, depicted as twins or polarized lovers be a metaphor for the two hemispheres of the brain? And could the mutable earth sign of Virgo, depicted as a discriminating maiden, be a metaphor for the spinal cord?

As Mercury stationed this week, a friend introduced me to the work of Jill Bolte Taylor who is a neuroanatomist specializing in the postmortem investigation of the human brain. Her own personal experience with a massive stroke, which occurred on December 10, 1996 -- exactly 14 years ago today, illustrates the dual nature of the brain as well as mirrors Behari's description of Gemini and Virgo.



The stroke occurred in the left hemisphere of her brain, and completely deteriorated her ability to process information. It also stopped all the internal chatter of the discriminating mind as she was flooded with a collage of sensory input. She experienced a euphoric understanding of her energetic connection with everything that she has dubbed her "stroke of insight." When I saw her standing there holding the human brain, complete with spinal cord, I had my 'aha' moment.



Her description of the differences between right and left brain are phenomenal, and reflect the dual nature of Mercury itself. The right hemisphere is always in the present moment. It thinks in pictures and learns kinestetically through movement of the body. It receives information and energy through sensory systems and explodes into a collage of what the present moment looks like, feels like, smells like, and sounds like. The left hemisphere is always considering the past and future. It thinks linearly and methodically, taking details from the enormous collage of the present sensory input and prioritizing details, categorizing, organizing and associating with past learning to project all possibilities into the future.

Although many of Mercury's attributes are relegated to left-brain type of functions like the internal chatter that connects the internal to the external world, the calculating intelligence, and the voice that says "I am," one could argue that there are right brain functions like gathering and observing sensory information and transitioning to higher vibrational levels that are also Mercurial in nature. One could assign the right brain to Gemini, and the left brain to Virgo. But I think the dual nature of Gemini allows for this polarization of brain function. As Behari said: the mind is activated by the mutual interaction of its polarized components.

So I would assign Virgo to rule over the spinal cord which is the pathway of manifesting thought into movement, action and communication. The spinal cord activates a movement or communication that manifests a feeling or thought from the internal world to the external world. Again to quote Behari: The impulse at this stage produces and electrified field which is neither active nor passive. There is always in balance between sympathetic and parasympathetic states. The nervous system does produce an electric field that both surrounds the body and is contained deep within it in the spinal cord. The spinal cord has ascending and descending tracts which are mutable roadways for information. Ascending tracts carry information such as touch, skin temperature, pain and joint position from the body to the brain. Descending tracts carry information from the brain downwards to initiate movement and control body functions.



In Sanskrit Mercury is called Budha, meaning intelligence or cognition. Buddhi the faculty of determination whereby we discern the real from the unreal. According to David Frawley, "When this faculty judges reality not by appearances, but by discerning the transient from the eternal, then it functions rightly (right brain) and the higher power of Mercury is revealed. When it discriminates names and forms (left brain), we become caught in the apparent reality of the external world. In the highest sense, Mercury is this faculty of truth determination which discriminates the real from the unreal, the pure from the impure, truth from illusion. This is the most precise and perfect functioning of the mind." And I would say entire nervous system.


During a Mercury retrograde period our experience of the external world temporarily shifts as we encounter obstacles in communication, travel, and expression. Many astrologers suggest this is a great time to complete old tasks, to pay attention to dreams and messages bubbling up from our sub or supra consciousness, to turn our focus inward, and one might say to turn on the right brain. What caught my eye in the image below, is that when Mercury appears to go into retrograde motion, it appears to move in a clockwise pattern, ie to the right. Might this external phenomenon also be reflected in the body. Could the right hemisphere of our right brains be activated with this planetary movement?



There are many online tests to check brain hemisphere dominance. Here's a nifty illusion to test dominance in your brain hemispheres. According to the cyber lore, if you see the dancer turning clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain; if you see the dancer turning counter-clockwise, then you use more of the left brain.



Some people are able to make the dancer spin in both directions. I am generally more right-brained, but I can also make her spin in either direction depending on my state of mind. When I'm really relaxed, I enjoy making her shift back and forth without completing a full spin. Mercury is retrograde in Sagittarius in my natal chart. So I have been wondering if people who are born under Mercury retrograde are indeed more likely to be right-brained. My partner also has a retrograde natal Mercury in Virgo, and he too tends to be more right-brained than the average person/male. I would love to hear from readers to see if they see this connection in their own charts and brain dominance pattern.



During this Mercury retrograde period, see how much time you can spend in a right-brained state. Right-hemisphere brain exercises stimulate the part of the brain that is responsible for holistic thinking. Rather than linear exercises, such as reading a book, right-brain exercises may involve creative activities such as art and music. Something like the Solfeggio frequencies are inspiring and calming and allow the mind to expand. Its time for a break from the mental chatter. Turn on the right brain and become more present. This Mercury retrograde occurs in the nakshatra of Mula, the home of the Galactic Center, and ruled by Ketu, the significator of abstract thought and spiritual liberation. There is an opportunity to download new information and higher frequencies of energy from the core of our galaxy. Mercury is the God of thresholds and rites of passage, so allow him to open the door, activate your right brain, and guide you to be present, and at one with the universe.

Namaste!

Israel considering an attack on Syria

I was reading an alarming article that Israel was considering an attack on Syria, when I noticed the accompanying ad illustrated above. The watch is set for Day 25 (Christmas), at 10:10:30. Of course the ad is probably one made for the holiday season inferring that you will open this lovely gift on that day.

But I was reminded of a post I made on July 9, 2009 that also looked at 10:10. I was observing the symbols around the death of Michael Jackson and noticed that in the clock at Neverland was stopped at 12:16, which seemed significant. The 10:10 hour was also associated with a another stock photo of Neverland (at the end of the article) on a story about the current owner, a big time investor who saved Neverland. Apparently 10:10 is the number that most watch ads are set because it's aesthetically pleasing.

Of course this ad shows us a SWISS watch (but is made in China -- notice the ironic socialist/communist logo of man & hammer) by a company called Stauer. It watch has a lovely luciferian blue face . . . Venus (Lucifer) is in her morning star position which is the goddess of war placement. The watchmaker calls it midnight blue -- a midnight or early morning attack?

The masonic clock indicates another story . . 10 = Treasurer . . . no doubt! Followed by the 10th Major Arcana, The Wheel of Fortune, ruled by Jupiter. When looking up Wheel of Fortune meanings I came across this part of the Fools journey in the Tarot regarding the wheel:

And finally, when he comes upon a rich merchant sitting in a wagon, right over one of the wheels, the man hands him a bag of money. "I like giving away money," explains the Merchant, "and I decided, just randomly, that the tenth person who walked past me today would get this money. You're the tenth." The Fool hardly thought he could still be surprised, but he is. It is as if everything good that he ever did in his life is being paid back to him, three-fold. All luck this day is his.

Lest we forget the date 10/10/08 -- the stock market crash and beginning of our current recession/depression. Could 10/10 on 25th indicate another event that will crash the economy even further? Let's just hope this was a weird coincidence.

So Ask Me a Question

I recently spotted this very interesting site called Vyou.com which exploits video to create asynchronous conversations. I find it interesting because of the simple way it creates presence. As you can see below, it looks like the person (me in this case) is waiting ready for your question.

All visitors need to do is type a question into the text line below the video and the creator will get a message with the question and post a reply. You can try it if you wish by posting a question to me. I'm not sure yet how long it will take for me to answer though.



This is very quick and easy to set up. You just go to the site and register for free, then once your registration is validated you record two short video clips. One is the one you can see above and another for unanswered questions. As questions are answered they appear below the 'waiting' video.

It's also a bit like Twitter in that you can 'follow' people and build up a group of followers. These people all receive notification of any video responses posted.

I'm trying this out because I think it's a great way of getting students to speak to each other and ask you or each other questions. All you need is a webcam and a microphone.

How to use this with students

• You could set up your own grammar or vocabulary answers site and students could send you questions.
• You could get students to ask each other questions about a story.
• You could play animal, mineral or vegetable and each students has to ask question to see what you are thinking about.
• You could just get students asking and answering questions about their likes and dislikes etc.
• I think this would work particularly well for class exchanges with students from other classes or countries.

What I like about it

• It's free and very quick and simple to set up.
• There's a real feeling of presence and that someone is there waiting for your question.
• I can generate some real spoken interaction.
• It's a very simple idea made very effective.
• You can embed the video chat into your blog or site.
  

What I'm not so sure about

• Of course something like this is very much open to abuse, especially as it allows anonymous questions to be posted.
• The widget which I've embedded into my post is a bit big and it would be nice to have smaller sizes.
• A lot of the example conversations that have been created on the site are a bit adult in nature and certainly inappropriate for younger learners, so if you use it, be sure to use it with adults and embed it into a blog or site so that your students don't wander round the site.
• WebCams aren't generally very flattering, especially in a bad light, but you can always wear a big hat or dark glasses.

If you do give this a try, please do follow me and I'll reciprocate, as I'd like to find out a bit more about how this will work in practice. You can visit my profile on the site at: http://vyou.com/nikpeachey . There you will be able to see a better view of the full size widget.

I hope you find this interesting.

Related links:

• Quick Twitter Video Activity
  
• 20 WebCam Activities for EFL ESL Students
• Sending Bubble Joy to your EFL / ESL Students
• Microblogging for EFL with Plurk
• Great Video Commenting Tool
• Video conferencing for EFL
• Send Free Video Messages
• Animated Music Videos for EFL
• Creating multimedia stories
• Tutorial: Using Videos from YouTube
• Great Video Commenting Tool

Best

Nik Peachey

Messenger from Virgo - Comet C/2010 V1

A learned woman is thought to be a comet, that bodes mischief whenever it appears. ~ Unknown author

Old men and comets have been reverenced for the same reason: their long beards, and pretenses to foretell events. ~ Jonathan Swift

Another new comet is causing a sensation among astronomers and skywatchers. A week after its discovery by Japanese amateur astronomers Kaoru Ikeya and Shigeki Murakami, comet C/2010 V1 Ikeya Murakami appears to be in the midst of an eye-catching outburst while transiting the stellar fields of Virgo.



Historically astrologers have described comets as evil omens, heralding cataclysmic events, sudden political upheaval, and even the death of kings. An astronomer would define the intermittent appearance of this phenomenon as a relatively small extraterrestrial body consisting of a frozen mass that travels around the sun in a highly elliptical orbit. The word comet stems from the Latin cometes meaning long-haired, describing the characteristic tail of a comet that develops the closer it gets to the Sun. So why would the ancients attribute the sudden appearance of a hairy ball of light with doom and gloom. Well history is filled with accounts of the observation of comets that occurred simultaneously with all sorts of upheavals, as well as births of kings and leaders. Any unusual light body would have been interpreted as a message from the heavens.

As an astrologer I like to look at the path of comets against the back drop of the constellations as a way of interpreting their message. In this case Comet Ikeya Murakami was discovered in Virgo, two degrees from Saturn.



The constellation of Virgo, latin for virgin or maiden, is symbolized by a harvest goddess holding a sheath of wheat. According to Bernadette Brady, the ancient goddess in the sky was probably part of the original six zodiac constellation and is considered by some astronomers to be part of human awareness for over 15,000 years when Virgo was the sign of the spring equinox. The ancient Egyptian sphinx may be a representation of the shift from Virgo to Leo as it has the head of a woman and body of a lion.



The Egyptians depicted the constellation Virgo on the Denderah zodiac as the goddess Isis. She holds a wheat sheaf represented by the fixed star Spica which she dropped to form the Milky Way.



The Golden Age was said to have ended when this goddess no longer governed the solstices believing that the goddess left the earth to return to heaven in distress at the behavior of humans of the Silver Age. Some historians mark this date as 5,000 BC when Virgo marked the summer solstice which does seem to correspond with the sudden decline of feminine agricultural society and the beginning of masculine city-based societies.

In my last Starworlds post I discussed the upcoming transits to the galactic center of our Milky Way galaxy as a potent time to receive downloads of evolutionary stellar waves. As the ancient seers of the Vedic culture saw the astronomical alignments with the galactic center, or Vishnunabhi, as marking the ascending and descending yuga cycles, much attention has been focused on the Galactic Center located in the sign of Sagittarius. But what there is an even bigger cosmic cycle than the galactic one, one that lines up on a grand universal level -- in the constellation of Virgo?

In the same post I briefly mentioned this concept of a grand universal axis which Carl Johan Calleman believes is the source for the evolutionary wave tracked by the Mayan Calendar. And there is plenty of scientific evidence that supports his cosmological theory. In their search to understand the origin of the universe, astrophysicists have been studying the afterglow of the big bang called Cosmic Background Radiation, or CBR.



Instead of an undiscernable, random pattern, Kate Land and Joao Magueijo at Imperial College London noticed an unexpected alignment of hot and cold spots in the CBR in 2005 that resembles the taiji, mystical union of yin and yang from which according to ancient taoists the universe was born.



And by 2007 Michael Longo at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor who studied 1660 spiral galaxies, found the majority appear to line up with the axis, and a higher-than-expected number rotate in a certain direction. This Central Axis is what seems to be the center of the universe, in the direction of the constellation of Virgo. Currently this axis lines in the plane of the ecliptic and has a direction parallel to the equinoxes of the earth.

Carl Johan Calleman asserts that the ancient Mayan Hunab Ku is the creative center of the Universe in Mayan cosmology. It is symbolized by a World Tree or Tree of Life in many ancient traditions. He writes: the Mayan calendar provides a description of the rhythms of creative energies emanating from this hypothetical Tree of Life and is testable to what extent the actual rhythms of evolution conform to the time plan that this calendar specifies.

In The Purposeful Universe he eloquently shows how the Mayan Calendar tracks these evolutionary waves from this Center Axis,or World Tree, and reveals how it corresponds beautifully with evolutionary models. Instead of evolution being stimulated by random events, it posits an intelligent design to the Universe. This controversial theory is exciting to me as I have come to realize that perhaps we are indeed bathed in transformative bursts of star waves from both our galactic and universal trees.

According to Calleman's interpretation of the Mayan calendar, on November 3-7, 2010 the final cycle of the 8th step in evolution began. Called the Seventh Day
of the Galactic Underworld, it marks a time in which our right brain will be activated in preparation for the final mind-blowing 9th level that begins on March 8, 2011. Ever since November 3, 2010 I have found my right brain working over time. Blog posts have been flowing out of me after a long hiatus due to health issues. My intuition and spidey senses seem to be working overtime. Thus this comet is triggering an intuitive message for me as it lights ups Virgo and its archetypes. Here are some intriguing syncs.

When I looked back at the first week of November, it is amazing that on the day before we entered the 7th Day, or the last day of the 6th Night, the space station ISIS took a picture of the Nile, the Milky Way manifested on the earth, glowing in the night.



On Thursday November 4, 2010 I was transfixed by the return of my favorite TV show Fringe. In this episode called Amber 31422 our heroine Olivia jumps into a sensory deprivation tank on psychedelics to shimmer back over to her home universe. At first I couldn't understand why she was dressed in such a diaphanous gown, but when she shifted to the Liberty shop it became apparent. As she shifts to her home world, a snow globe of Lady Liberty breaks symbolizing her imminent release from the confines of her altered programming.



Although the name Olivia is associated with the Greek Goddess Athena, the goddess of wisdom is an appropriation of the older Egyptian Isis. With her modern crown of neurolinks, Olivia is a contemporary expression of this archetype and wave energy trying to return to our world. Be prepared to shimmer and shake.



Another news story concerning the origin of the universe was the latest from CERN: On November 7, 2011 the Large Hadron Collider successfully created a "mini-Big Bang" by smashing together lead ions instead of protons.



CERN's quest for the so-called "god particle" has raised a lot of controversy, especially in conspiracy circles perhaps spurred on by popular movies like Angels and Demons. Some describe the accelerator as a doomsday machine capable of creating black holes that would destroy the planet, while others see it as a secret military project designed to open up star gates or portals to other worlds as in Contact.

I am more conCERNed about what these experiments do on an energetic level. Channeled information in both psychic circles and in the ET community suggest that nuclear explosions create small rips in the fabric of the universe and have allowed energy/beings from other dimensions to flow into the earth. Some believe that ETs are carrying out interventions that prevent these from occurring. So the next news item is especially intriguing.



On Monday, November 8, 2010 a mysterious missile launch off the southern California coast was caught by CBS affiliate KCBS's cameras and the US military claimed it has no idea where it came from. Two days later the Pentagon said it was the contrail from a plane. Many aren't buying it. But perhaps the most fascinating and wild explanation comes from Colleen Thomas. She claims that she hears aliens, the Pleidians, and they told her they destroyed the missile which was launched by the US and directed at Iran, and then another missile which was directed at the aliens.



Wow! The moon was in Mula on Tuesday and I can't help but connect this seemingly delusion (Ketu) blonde to Nritti and the 10 degree Sabian symbol that I described in my last post on Starworlds. Or is she another version of Isis? One symbol for Isis is the circle with horns, the same as the glyph for Taurus, the home of the Pleiades and the galactic anti-center.





So all roads and musing lead back to Isis, and by association Virgo. Comet C/2010 V1 Ikeya Murakami is heading toward the fixed star Spica, the sheath of wheat in the Virgo constellation. What is the message? The connection between Virgo and the creation of the Milky Way seems to be the key. Isis seems to rule over the entire Milky Way from Pleiades and Sirius to the great rift in Sagittarius. Could the upcoming shift be a synchronization of not only our solar system with the galactic center, but our galaxy with the universal center? Could the fruit of the harvest be homo-luminous as described by the Maya, the final stage of the evolution of consciousness described by the Mayan calendar? Stay tuned.

UPDATE:
Another wayward missile? See Bizarre Contrail observed in NYC for more.



More Isis imagery? Check out what the Huffington Post link to Hatsune Miku. Another blonde goddess appears -- this time a hologram in concert.




Huge Gamma Ray Bubble Found at the Heart of the Milky Way

From Earthfiles: No one knew until now that huge bubbles emit gamma rays from the galactic center. NASA reports: “As the data from the Earth-orbiting Fermi satellite began accumulating over the past two years, a large and unusual feature toward our Galaxy's center became increasingly evident. The two bubbles are visible together as the red and white spotted oval surrounding the center of the above all sky image released November 9, 2010. The plane of our Galaxy runs horizontally across the image center. The cause of the bubbles is presently unknown, but will likely be researched for years to come.

Sunspot Activity
Sunspot complex 1121-1123 crackling with C-class solar flares, producing more than five such eruptions in the past 24 hours.

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Grow Your Own Personal Learning Network

Well this is my first blog posting for quite a while, but I'm hoping to have a lot more coming up very soon. This is just a quick posting to share a session on building your own Personal Learning Network, that I did for teachers in British Council Bilbao recently (25th September 2010).

The session was part of a larger conference that was happening all over Spain to celebrate 70 years of the BC in Spain.

You can watch a recording my conference presentation here.


Or follow this link to it: http://tinyurl.com/382rmy2

The links from the presentation are also below and you can download a PDF copy of the presentation slides here: PLN Presentation slides (PDF 4.7 Mb)

Tools for growing your PLN

Twitter

• Twitter is a great tool for starting to reach out to a huge network of teachers. http://twitter.com/
• You can follow me and see who I’m following here.
  http://twitter.com/NikPeachey
• This is a great starter list for Twitter of people involved in ELT who you can follow. It includes some of the real greats of ELT. Thank you to Barbara Sakamoto for putting together this list.
  http://twitter.com/barbsaka/starter-pln/members

LinkedIn

• LinkedIn is a great place to put your online CV, connect with other ELT professionals and start joining special interest groups. The groups are a great place for sharing and finding information.
  http://www.linkedin.com
• I'm on LinkedIn at: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/nikpeachey
  

Facebook

• Although controversial as a teaching tool, Facebook can also be a useful professional networking tool, just start looking for the ‘Like’ button on various websites and click it to keep in touch with what’s happening. http://www.facebook.com
• I'm on Facebook too and am in the process of creating a page for people interested in learning technology in ELT. http://www.facebook.com/NikPeachey
  

Ning and other independent social networks

• Many of the IATEFL Special interest groups use Ning for discussion of very specific areas of teaching. Here's an example from the Global Issues SIG
  http://global-issues.ning.com/
  

Yahoo Groups

• They’ve been around for a long time, but there are still some great connections to be made by looking for ELT related Yahoo groups.
  http://groups.yahoo.com/
• Particularly useful is the Webheads list.
  http://webheadsinaction.org/
  

Blogs of course
Some great bloggers to follow are:

• Larry Ferlazzo
  http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/larry-ferlazzos-english-website/
• Ozge Karaoglu
  http://ozgekaraoglu.edublogs.org/
• Be sure to check out their blogroll and look for connections to other great blogs.
• Find out about more female bloggers here: http://quickshout.blogspot.com/2010/04/let-us-now-praise-famous-women.html

Feed Readers

• Here is an example of a feed reader page I created. This can make capturing information much easier.
  http://www.netvibes.com/Nikpeachey/en%23Teaching_English
• Create your own using
  http://www.netvibes.com/

Storing links and social bookmarking
These are great tools for storing links to information so that you can find them when you want them and share them with others.

• Instapaper
  http://www.instapaper.com/
• Delicious
  http://www.delicious.com
• You can see my Delicious bookmarks at:
  http://www.delicious.com/NikPeachey
• Diigo
  http://diigo.com/
• Also check out all the really useful Diigo groups. You can see the ones I'm following here:
  http://groups.diigo.com/user/nikpeachey

Simplybox

• This is a great bookmarking tool for the more visually stimulated
  http://simplybox.com
• You can see an example 'box' of bookmarks here. I've made it public to share tools for creating digital content.
  http://simplybox.com/public/?id=145809

Here are some tools for reflection

• Keep a personal online diary with Penzu
  https://penzu.com/pad
• Create your own blog just by sending an email to post@posterous.com and wait for the link to come back in your email.
  https://posterous.com/

Slinkset

• If you want to share links and get comments on them but don't want to write a blog, then create a portal site. Here’s an example of a portal I created using Slinkset
  http://technogogy.slinkset.com/recent
• You can create your own for free.
  http://slinkset.com/

More information

• Barabara Sakamoto created this fantastic ‘sticky wall’ for teachers to express what it means to have a PLN. http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/ChubuTeachers
• Read or download this free booklet I wrote to get the technical knowledge and get started creating your own PLN.
  http://www.scribd.com/doc/22124764/From-Information-to-Knowledge

I'd really like to add a special than you to Barbara Sakamoto from Teaching Village for allowing me to share here work on PLNs and for helping to save me and I hope you a lot of work too.

Please also check out the other recorded presentations as they include:

• Patrick Howarth
  http://www.livestream.com/bcvalencia
• Steve Evans
  http://www.livestream.com/britishcouncilspain
• Graham Stanley
  http://www.livestream.com/bcbarcelona

I hope you find these useful and thank you to everyone at the British Council Bilbao for their hospitality and professionalism under pressure.

Related links:

• Pros and Cons as Web Based Research Tasks
• Creating Social Polls and Questionnaires Using Urtak
• Social Networks and the Web 2.0 Revolution: Part 2
• The Web 2.0 School of the Present
• Survey Results: Mobile learning for ELT

Best

Nik Peachey

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3D Computer Games with Young Learners: Spore

In a recent digital skills survey I carried out using Urtak I discovered that more than 50% of digitally skilled teachers don't feel able to utilise 2D and 3D computer games to achieve pedagogical goals (See survey), so I've been looking around and exploring some possibilities. The first of these is the Spore Creature Creator. Spore is a game which allows you to create creatures and evolve them along with their environment, all the way through to a space traveling society.

The free trial creature creator that we will be looking at allows you to create creatures, take snap shots of them and make videos of them to see how they move. Here's an example of a video I created to get students interested. I added the captions and text using i-Movie though you could just as easily use a free online video editor such as Video Toolbox or Windows Moviemaker if you are using a PC.



The creatures are very easy to create, you just drag and drop different features onto a body and the add colour and test them out to see how they move. These are some of the other creatures I created.




Once you have created your creatures you can either make videos of them, take snapshots, which you can either save or email to someone, or create an animated gif of your creature (I wasn't too impressed with the quality of the animated gifs)

Here' a tutorial showing you how it's done.



You can download a .mov version of the tutorial here or this pdf document has the main screen shots and instructions if you'd prefer to follow on paper.

You can download the Creature Creator from the Cnet website here. It's a big download (205MB), but once you have it, you don't need to have web access to do any of the tasks or create the movies and snapshots.

How do we use this with students?

• Create images of different creatures and get the students to create a story about them.
• Get the students to create descriptions of different creatures - This could include appearance, but also likes and dislikes, habits etc.
• Get students to match pictures to descriptions.
• Get students to create a creature based around your description.
• Create a creature and use a picture of it as a picture dictation with one student describing the picture while the other one recreates the creature using the software.
• Get students to create a short video of their creature and add a description and narrative below it as a video project.
  
• Ask students to create a creature suitable for a particular environment, or types of tasks, then get students to discuss which they think would be best adapted for the environment.
• Get the students to write instructions for how to create a creature.
• Use the creatures to demonstrate present continuous tenses ( sitting, running etc.)
  

What I like about it.

• It looks great on a data projector and if you work in a single computer classroom, you can get students up and dragging things around and creating in front of the class.
• The creatures are very colourful and in the environment mode they really start to take on character.
• You can use the tool to create versatile and stimulating materials.
• It's free and pretty easy to use once you get it installed.
• I like the integration with YouTube as it makes it very easy to get your videos online quite quickly.
• I like that they can produce a range of gestures and expressions.
  

What I'm not so sure about.

• It's a big download and will need to be installed on any computer it is used on, so if you want to use it in your school computer room, you'll need the help of a supportive IT manager to get it downloaded and installed on all the computers.
• The Gifs it creates aren't that good, but you don't really need to use them.
• You need a fairly good computer with a good graphics card for it to work well.

I hope you enjoy trying some of these ideas with your students.

Related links:

• Adventure Narratives for EFL ESL
• Educational Games That Really Are Fun
• Exploiting two computer-based RPGs
• Games With a Purpose and a Social Network
• 3B Village 3D browser
• Create your own game
• Online Water Conservation Game
• Wonderland Virtual World and MMORPG
• Google's Lively Competitor with Second Life?
• 3B Village 3D browser
• Machinima with
  

Best

Nik Peachey

Creating Social Polls and Questionnaires Using Urtak

I discovered Urtak a couple of weeks ago and took an instant liking to it. Urtak is a web based social polling application that enables you to very quickly and easily create online polls and questionnaires.
The only thing you require to get started is an email address to register as it is completely free. Here’s a short tutorial showing how it’s done.

• Watch or download a higher quality video: Urtak tutorial

The polls it creates are pretty simple. You just type in 'Yes , No' questions or statements and then click enter, give your poll a title and instructions and click on done. It seems like you can have as many questions as you like. The longest one I created had 45. Here are a couple that I created. Feel free to try them out and answer the questions to see how they work. You'll also be able to see the results.

• Teachers' digital skills tick list
• Teaching Kids with Computers
• Politics in the classroom

Once your poll is complete you can either link to it via the URL or embed it into a web page.

Once the poll is live anyone who sees the poll can answer it without having to log in or register. Viewers can even add additional questions or statements to the poll if they do register though.

What I like about it.

• Once users vote they can compare their answers to other people who have used the poll.
• The poll gives a feed out of information on the right and you can even cross tabulate answers to different questions.
• It’s great that other people can add questions to the poll.
• I like that it doesn’t give the ‘correct’ answer but shows most popular answers. This is good to keep students thinking and questioning themselves.
• If you don’t like the questions that people add to your poll you can easily get rid of them.
• You can embed the poll into other web based materials.
  
• It’s free and really quick and easy to use.

How can we use this with students?

• We can use it for class / online surveys and get students to analyse and write up the results.
• We can use it for action research to find out what things we do in class students enjoy or understand or just to get general feedback.
• We can use it to test comprehension by creating question or statements about an online text.
• We can set web research tasks for students by asking questions and getting them to search the web to find answers or find out if statements are true.
• We can use it to create progress tests to evaluate the effectiveness of our teaching.
  
• We can use it to create debate and explore attitudes by giving students the poll before they come in to class to get them thinking around topics to discuss in class. We could also follow this up with a post class poll to see if opinions have changed at all.
• We could use it for needs analysis to see what students feel they need to study in class.
• We can use it to get students to self assess their progress.
• We can get students to create their own reading tasks by getting them to produce questions in a poll based around an online text, then they can answer each other’s questions.(Great to use with Mashpedia)
  
• We can get students to practice Yes No questions forms and create questionnaires to find out more about their class mates.
  

What I’m not so sure about.

• At present any poll you create is added to the Urtak directory, so it would be nice to have private URLs to ensure only your students answered the questions.
• It might also be handy to be able to disable the option to have other people add questions to your polls as you can’t be sure that what they add will be relevant etc.
• If students go to the directory of all polls they might find some unsuitable and potentially offensive ones.

On the whole though I think Urtak is a great free tool and one that I will continue to use. It’ helped me to make designing web based materials a bit more interactive and also enabled me to quickly and easily do research that I can share and use to inform training and workshop presentations.

I hope you find it useful too.

Related links:

• Create Authentic Web Based Research Tasks With Mashpedia
• Survey Creation Tool for Students
• Create Quick Online Polls
• Create an ESL EFL Video Quiz
• Education for the Global Economy

Best

Nik Peachey