Monday, 7 October 2013

Should Qatar be allowed to host the World Cup in 2022?

This weeks WOW comes from the world of sport

Should Qatar be allowed to host the World Cup in 2022?

Following an investigation from the Guardian there are claims that the World Cup facilities are being built by migrant workers in poor conditions and 44 people have already died. 


Moreover, there are also concerns over the heat in the summer and the health implications on the footballers


Questions to consider...

Should Qatar be allowed to continue to build stadiums in such poor facilities? Does Fifa need to step in or is it none of their business?

Are the concerns over the heat in the summertime genuine? If these are the greatest footballers in the world shouldn't they be able to play whatever the conditions? 
Does it give footballers from hooter countries an unfair advantage?


Have you considered using Talking Chips to structure this debate?
Information can be found here.. Kagan Structures

Monday, 30 September 2013

WOW of the Week - Stoptober from The Wildern Wellbeing Group


The first of October sees the start of the Stoptober Campaign, which is a 28 day challenge to quit smoking by the NHS. 


Can you stop a bad habit for stoptober, whether it is smoking or something else that you could stop during the month of October to complete the 28 day challenge? The Wellbeing Group challenges you to give up a bad habit or take up something good for October? 

Pledge your Stoptober on the postcards in your registers and display it on your tutor room display boards. Remember to say if you are starting or stopping.

E.g.
Stop smoking
Stop eating lots of unhealthy food
Stop being lazy
Stop not wearing a helmet when on my bike
Stop handing homework in late by handing in on time

Start a new sport
Start eating 5 fruit and veg a day
Start being more organised 

Thursday, 26 September 2013

How To Post Tall Pictures On Blogger


Posting large images (taller or wider than 1600px) is a bit of a challenge on Blogger. This is because Blogger decides to shrink them to 1600px. In practice, I do think there isn't much need in posting images wider than 1600px. However the same can't be said for images taller than 1600px. Infographics for example are almost always taller than 1600px.

As you may know you can choose the size for each image you post from five size options: Small (200px), Medium (320px), Large (400px), X-large (640px) and Original Size (full size with the cap of 1600px).
resize tall image

To post a tall/wide image your only option is to choose "Original Size". But "original size" here holds true only  for images no larger than 1600px. For larger images, they will be resized down to 1600px! No kidding.
Does that mean you might as well give up on posting your awesome 4000px tall infographic? No, that's not necessary because there is still hope. Checkout this post:
Notice how tall the infographic is? (It measures 466px x 2560px. Click on it to view an even larger image, which is the original size of 700px × 3,843px).
Here is how you can post your own tall image or infographic on Blogger:
  1. Upload the image and set it to "Original Size".
  2. Switch the post editor to HTML and locate the code for the image. The code should look something like this:
    <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4Y01_wo3dtXRsS4V62SZIl4z88qt0hjFGjtkMAEz7FqtKPCZhJnVAozHF8KJsUrq0V-9p7Zk0Q4x6U60SELml3BjeZTp_qdpRLQR-gke5wE0wr6NNTd4Ol69RN63n0RDi4lvcEV_-1YrY/s1600/How+Safe+is+Your+Website1.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4Y01_wo3dtXRsS4V62SZIl4z88qt0hjFGjtkMAEz7FqtKPCZhJnVAozHF8KJsUrq0V-9p7Zk0Q4x6U60SELml3BjeZTp_qdpRLQR-gke5wE0wr6NNTd4Ol69RN63n0RDi4lvcEV_-1YrY/s1600/How+Safe+is+Your+Website1.jpg"></a>
    The second URL is the source URL for the in-post image ie. the image that appears in your post. The first URL is the hyperlink to another version of the same image, which is viewable separately upon clicking on the in-post image. 
    Notice that both URLs are exactly the same, and they are resized to 1600px tall, indicated by the size variable "s1600" (highlighted in red) in the URLs.
  3. Modify the hyperlink (first URL) so that it links to the original (full) size image. This can be done by replacing "s1600" with "s0". Setting the size variable to "s0" will get you the full size, no matter how big it is. This will let your readers see the full size version when they click on the in-post image.
  4. Next, let's fix the in-post image. To increase the height (thus making the image larger), you simply replace the size variable with a larger value. I know many blogs say that you can only resize up to 1600px, but they are wrong.You can actually resize it up to 2560px (s2560)! Say you want to resize the in-post image to 2000px, then simply replace "s1600" in the second URL with "s2000".
    (You don't usually use "s0" for in-post image because most of the time a full size infographic is wider than your post area.  Besides a  full size infographic takes longer to load due to it's large file size).
    So in the end your image code will look like this:
    (this is the actual code used for the infographic in the demo post)
    <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4Y01_wo3dtXRsS4V62SZIl4z88qt0hjFGjtkMAEz7FqtKPCZhJnVAozHF8KJsUrq0V-9p7Zk0Q4x6U60SELml3BjeZTp_qdpRLQR-gke5wE0wr6NNTd4Ol69RN63n0RDi4lvcEV_-1YrY/s0/How+Safe+is+Your+Website1.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4Y01_wo3dtXRsS4V62SZIl4z88qt0hjFGjtkMAEz7FqtKPCZhJnVAozHF8KJsUrq0V-9p7Zk0Q4x6U60SELml3BjeZTp_qdpRLQR-gke5wE0wr6NNTd4Ol69RN63n0RDi4lvcEV_-1YrY/s2560/How+Safe+is+Your+Website1.jpg"></a>
  5. Preview your post before hitting the Publish button.
Enjoy!

Tuesday, 17 September 2013

"Reflektor"

Just something I stumbled across. Video for Arcade Fire's new single has been created with Google and other tech stuff to be user-controlled

"Reflektor" (which you can watch at justareflektor.com) takes user interactivity one step further, by having users effectively be the special effects editor for the video, using a mouse or a mobile device, and also using the computer's webcam. http://m.rollingstone.com/?redirurl=/music/news/inside-the-making-of-arcade-fires-interactive-reflektor-video-20130909

Info about the technology behind it is here, which can also be accessed when the video finishes (all 7 mins of it!)

Might be useful for something...

online poster creation

Good online poster creation website, year 7s liked it