Australia Series professional learning

The Australia Series is a professional learning opportunity that has been developed by Steve Hargadon and a group of Australian educators.

Providing free access to online professional learning and conferencing via Elluminate, all sessions will be held in Australian-friendly times and offer topics that are relevant to Australian teachers.

Accessed via the LearnCentral Australia Series group, the aim is to have (at least) weekly Elluminate sessions. If you join the LearnCentral Australia Series group, you can join discussions, add your own events and see what other events are planned and use links provided to enter the Elluminate sessions.  Of course you do not have to ‘attend’ all scheduled sessions. You can select sessions that are relevant or appeal to you and those that fit into your schedule. (Remember to keep a note of all sessions ‘attended’ for teacher registration purposes.)

Australia series

This professional learning resource is highly recommended and is freely available to all Australian educators. (Please note you will need to have Java installed on the computer you are using as well as a headset for communication in Elluminate).

Read more about LearnCentral and Elluminate.

Help for Haiti’s libraries

Helen Boelens kindly forwarded this information to Bright Ideas:

Here is information provided by IFLA (The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions ) via Karen Usher, who is the secretary of the IFLA – School Libraries and Resource Centers Section about how (school) librarians can help colleagues in Haiti.

On behalf of ANCBS, Karl von Habsburg, President, sends this message:

The Association of National Committees of the Blue Shield (ANCBS) wants to help the people of Haiti.

The earthquake in Haiti of 12th January has caused an enormous devastation. The amount of people that lost their lives is beyond imagination. At the moment basic humanitarian aid and the rebuilding of a functioning infrastructure is crucial.

However, as soon as the situation in Haiti has become more stable, Blue Shield wants to help to enable experts from all over the world to support their Haitian colleagues in assessing the damage to the cultural heritage and therefore to the identity of their country. Subsequently, Blue Shield wants to support recovery, restoration and repair measures necessary to rebuild libraries, archives, museums, monuments and sites.

An important task of ANCBS is to coordinate information. ANCBS needs to know who and where the experts are. ANCBS therefore calls upon archivists, restorers, curators, librarians, architects and other experts to register online as a volunteer.

ANCBS wants to be able to bring experts in contact with those organizations that will send missions to Haiti, and make sure that volunteers will be informed about the situation in Haiti.

Please join Blue Shield to help your Haitian colleagues.

You may find the application form via: http://haiti2010.blueshield-international.org/.

For the statement of Blue Shield on the Haitian earthquake see: http://www.ancbs.org/.

The actions of Blue Shield can also be followed on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=info&gid=247281734340 and Twitter: http://twitter.com/blueshieldcoop.

Please feel free to spread this message!

The iPad has landed, well almost…

The Apple iPad has landed. At 5am this morning (Melbourne time) Apple launched their latest creation, the iPad. It looks like a large iPhone or iPod touch.

It has a 25 CM display screen. One really cool demo covered the New York Times where users can read a copy that is laid out exactly like a real newspaper. It also has embedded video to add to the stories and menus to access other pages quickly.

A full size keyboard pops up when you use it in landscape. It has high definition video and lots of application for gaming. Photos can be added directly to Flickr and Facebook.

But the big thing for us guys is iBooks. The iBook store is on the iPad and Apple have already partnered with Penguin, Macmillan, HarperCollins, Hachette and Simon and Schuster. Interestingly some prices for books were pictured during the launch. Although in US dollars, Twilight and The Lovely Bones were listed at $4.99. That’s very appealing. Obviously a full colour screen so covers display as per the real thing. Fonts can be changed and enlarged to suit individual readers.

Bad news though; iBooks is apparently only available in the US upon the release in March. This is a serious problem for any Apple market outside the US, but understandable really due to publishing territories. Wonder when other territories will come onboard? No doubt this will happen though, as iTunes wasn’t available to other territories at one stage.

But the most important and fairly basic question that we as library professionals and educators have to ask is will the iPad bring more people to reading? I think the answer is yes and surely that is what we are all about, what we strive for in our work every day.

A view of the bookshelf and eReader

A view of the bookshelf and eReader

iWork, a suite of applications has been added to the iPad. iWork includes speadsheets, documents and presentations and is compatible with Microsoft Office. The spreadsheets look amazing and a numeric keypad pops up for data entry. These apps will cost (US) $9.99 each, whereas the iWork complete suite for Macs cost a$129.

As there will be a full sized keyboard dock for the iPad, it makes using the iPad as a regular computer so much easier.

The device weighs approximately 680 grams and according to my calculations is just over 1 centimetre thick. The iPad will come in 16, 32 and 64GB. There are WiFi and 3G models. The 3G are unlocked and should be able to use any carrier.

Pricing starts at US$499 for 16GB, $599 for 32 and $699 64GB WiFi models. 3G models add an extra US$130. The WiFi model will be on sale in 60 days, this availability is worldwide. We won’t have to wait here in Australia. The 3G model will be on sale in 90 days, but international pricing for plans or prepaid accounts will take until June or July to be locked in. As the 3G model has a Sim card tray, here’s hoping that we’ll be able to use the Sim card for mobile broadband access.

The pricing here is important in terms of the Kindle DX. Currently at A$489, the Kindle will face stiff competition from the full colour multi-faceted iPad. Will be interesting to see how the availability of book titles pans out on the iPad. Perhaps it is no surprise that a free Kindle app for iPhone and iPod touch was released today.

Apple’s specifications can be accessed here. A VoiceOver screen reader should mean that vision impaired people can use the iPad. It seems there is no camera for video conferencing or Skyping and the rumour of solar power was just that. The Engadget people covered the iPad launch event live, so for lots of news, photos and specifications, head over there. And here is a short video of the launch:

Questions about how the iPad may impact on school libraries are pondered here.

Here is the official Apple video of the iPad.

iLearn Technology

The award winning iLearn Technology blog by Kelly Tenkely is one blog to add to your Google Reader account. This extensive blog exposes many useful tools, but the best part is the explanations of how the tool can be used in the classroom and integrated into existing units of work.

iLearn Technology

Kelly Tenkely explains her background on her about page:

1 year as a 2nd grade classroom teacher, 6 years as a k-5 technology specialist/teacher. Currently I am teaching 3-5 grade technology and acting as technology integration specialist and instructional coach for elementary teachers

Kelly has also developed the fantastic idea of forming a blogging alliance. Here members commit to reading and commenting on a number of each others blogs on a regular basis. The alliance has introduced me to a number of excellent blogs that I may never have found otherwise as well as providing ongoing mentoring for me and the Bright Ideas blog.

You can find Kelly on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ktenkely.

Prezi

Prezi is a very interesting presentation tool. This Prezi by Adam Somlai Fischer explains more:

Finished Prezis can be embedded into websites, accessed online via a URL or can even be saved to use offline. This can be a godsend if you are delivering a presentation and don’t want to have to rely on internet access.

The great news this week is that Prezi has released educational accounts. Previously all prezis had to be public. Now schools have the chance for students to use Prezi, but only share their presentation with selected people.  Prezi EDUEnjoy is free.

Although a little tricky to begin with, watching the Prezi tutorial videos and spending an hour or so just playing with Prezi will really pay off. There are free accounts as well as ones that do cost due to extra features.

Thanks to Dianne McKenzie (@dimac4) and Glenys Lowden (@glenyslowden) for the heads up on Prezi.

Year 7 Maths Wiki

An extremely useful site for maths teachers and students, the Year 7 Maths Wiki has a wealth of information on problem solving, homework help and interactive activities. The wiki was developed by the fabulous Maryna Badenhor (@marynabadenhors).

Maths wiki

Pages include:

  1. Alphabet Maths
  2. Anamorph
  3. Assessment and Thinking
  4. Astronomy
  5. Big Number Facts
  6. Calculators and converters
  7. Dice and Spinners
  8. Dictionaries
  9. Drills
  10. Early Years Maths
  11. Fibonacci Numbers
  12. Foldables
  13. Fractals
  14. Fractions
  15. Freeware
  16. Games
  17. Golden Ratio
  18. Graph paper etc.
  19. Hall of Fame
  20. Hands On
  21. Interactives
  22. Lesson Plans
  23. Lines and Curves
  24. Links
  25. Magic Squares
  26. Maps
  27. Math mats and squares
  28. Maths about Me
  29. Maths Fun
  30. Maya
  31. Measurement
  32. Money
  33. Multiplication
  34. Number systems
  35. Optical Illusions
  36. Origami
  37. Pascal’s Triangle
  38. Pi
  39. Pizza Math
  40. Posters
  41. Problem Solving
  42. Pythagorean Theorem
  43. Roman Numerals
  44. Royalty Free
  45. Shapes
  46. Symmetry
  47. Tangrams
  48. Teacher Resources
  49. Tessellations
  50. Video Tutorials
  51. Vocab and Cheat Sheets
  52. Weekly Problem
  53. Work Sheets

This is a very well put together resource that would be of great assistance to teachers, students and even parents.

It’s not about the tools, it’s about the skills

Author of the wonderful award winning Langwitches blog Silvia Tolisano (Twitter name is @langwitches), has written a must-read post. Looking at the advent of Web 2.0 and the way it is perceived by parents, Tolisano addresses the skills developed and used by students in using tools such as blogs, creating podcasts and adding to wikis rather than the tools themselves. To read this post, go to Silvia’s blog now!

Horizon Report 2010

The 2010 Horizon Report has been released. If you are new to the Horizon Report, it looks at the future impacts of technologies on teaching and learning.

The six technologies to watch that have been chosen for this year’s report are:

Near term (within 12 months)

  • Mobile computing
  • Open content

Second adoption (2-3 years)

  • Electronic books
  • Simple augmented reality

Far term (4-5 years)

  • Gesture-based computing
  • Visual data analysis

Of particular note to school libraries is possibly mobile computing and electronic books. The Horizon Report adds that:

  • Network-capable devices that students are already carrying, are already established on many campuses, although before we see widespread use, concerns about privacy, classroom management, and access will need to be addressed. At the same time, the opportunity is great; virtually all higher education students carry some form of mobile device, and the cellular network that supports their connectivity continues to grow. An increasing number of faculty and instructional technology staff are experimenting with the possibilities for collaboration and communication offered by mobile computing. Devices from smart phones to netbooks are portable tools for productivity, learning, and communication, offering an increasing range of activities fully supported by applications designed especially for mobiles.
  • Electronic books have been available in some form for nearly four decades, but the past twelve months have seen a dramatic upswing in their acceptance and use. Convenient and capable electronic reading devices combine the activities of acquiring, storing, reading, and annotating digital books, making it very easy to collect and carry hundreds of volumes in a space smaller than a single paperback book. Already in the mainstream of consumer use, electronic books are appearing on campuses with increasing frequency. Thanks to a number of pilot programs, much is already known about student preferences with regards to the various platforms available. Electronic books promise to reduce costs, save students from carrying pounds of textbooks, and contribute to the environmental efforts of paper conscious campuses.

Some other important points made by the report are

  • Digital media literacy continues its rise in importance as a key skill in every discipline and profession.
  • Institutions increasingly focus more narrowly on key goals, as a result of shrinking budgets in the present economic climate. Across the board, institutions are looking for ways to control costs while still providing a high quality of service. Schools are challenged by the need to support a steady — or growing — number of students with fewer resources and staff than before. In this atmosphere, it is critical for information and media professionals to emphasize the importance of continuing research into emerging technologies as a means to achieve key institutional goals. As one example, knowing the facts about shifting server- and network intensive infrastructure, such as email or media streaming, off campus in the current climate might present the opportunity to generate considerable annual savings.
  • New scholarly forms of authoring, publishing, and researching continue to emerge but appropriate
    metrics for evaluating them increasingly and far too often lag behind.

It must be noted that currently Higher Education authorities in the US are not promoting the Kindle due to its limitations for blind and vision impaired students. Thanks to Helen Boelens for this article.

eReaders are like Twenty20 cricket

With the imminent arrival of the yet-to-be-named Apple eReader+ and some of the debate surrounding the introduction and use of eReaders, it might be useful to do a comparison. That eReaders are like Twenty20 cricket. For our lovely international readers, please look at this Wikipedia site describing cricket and the one describing Twenty20 cricket. It would take me weeks to try to explain and then it still probably would be nonsensical! But a quick comparison would be to imagine that a game of football (or basketball or ice hockey or baseball) went for five days and sometimes ended in a draw. Then someone invented a shortened version of the game  (Twenty20) that runs for a maximum of three hours, has no time outs and only a brief half time and has a guaranteed outcome. The scoring was high and quick and there was a lot of action. That’s the best way to think about this concept if you are a stranger to cricket.

Here we go:

  1. The younger generation love the format, but the content is still pretty much the same. That is you get twenty overs of cricket, it is still six balls per over, the same number of batsmen and fielders. The format of the new style cricket is appealing as the whole match takes less than three hours as opposed to five entire days. eReaders appeal to the younger generation who love gadgets and have grown up with them; they can’t remember life without mobile phones. The content will still be pretty much the same; Pride and Prejudice, Harry Potter and Twilight will still contain the same number of words, the same story and the same themes and concepts. They may have some added extras, kind of like the extra number of boundaries hit during a Twenty20 game.
  2. Many traditionalists that support both cricket and reading are probably not keen on the new formats.
  3. Changemakers can see the appeal in the new formats. More younger people go to the Twenty20 cricket (just look at the attendance for the Victoria vs New South Wales match on Friday 15th January. Over 43,000 people for a non-finals game. Many of those attending may choose to play the game and to attend more traditional formats of the game. If many younger people use eReaders, then we should be joyful that they are reading; they are accessing books. They may then seek out the same or other books in other formats.
  4. Twenty20 cricket and eReaders may well be the saviours of two traditional pass times that could have become increasingly irrelevant for today’s fast paced, net savvy, want-it-now generation.
  5. You have to have either Pay TV (for the Twenty20 cricket) or an expensive eReader to access eBooks.
  6. The youth market find both new formats to be an exciting alternative to the traditional formats.
  7. I like all formats of cricket and books. All formats can appeal to some people and we need to be aware of what our students are thinking about this topic.

Any thoughts or other comparisons would be appreciated.