Monthly Archives: September 2010

Educators’ Guide to Innovation ning

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This ning is a “professional network for those interested in innovative practices happening in education.” The Educator’s Guide to Innovation ning is part of action research by the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development’s Innovation and Next Practice Division.

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The ning has rich content, which includes:

  • event listings
  • forums
  • blog posts
  • links to free Elluminate sessions
  • archives and links to Elluminate session recordings

Anyone who is an educator and/or is genuinely interested in innovative practice in education is welcome to join.

Listen2Learners

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Hamish Curry, the Education and Onsite Learning Manager of the State Library of Victoria has kindly sent the following information:

HI warmly invite you to join me at the groundbreaking Listen2Learners event.

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The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development and the State Library of Victoria, together with the UK’s Professor Stephen Heppell, are staging Listen2Learnersto enable you to meet students who are learning with technology and demonstrate how they are shaping their digital learning world.

Listen2Learners is a chance to understand the types of skills, expertise and enthusiasms which young people have, and to hear about it from the students themselves.  Creative primary and secondary students from across Australia will tell their own stories about how they are using technology to overcome barriers, meet personal challenges and access learning in the 21st century.

Professor Heppell, will be on hand to tell you what other systems are achieving by listening to their learners.

The event will be held on Monday 11 October 2010 in Experimedia at the State Library of Victoria.

Please visit any time between 10am and 2.30pm to speak with the students, meet Professor Heppell and network with like minded people from across the education sector and beyond.   Light refreshments will be provided.

Register your attendance here.

For a glimpse of what you can expect to discover at the Listen2Learners event, please visit the website and follow the event on Twitter # Listen2Learners.

I know you will value this opportunity to see the kinds of things students are doing with technology, driven by their own passions and interests.

I look forward to catching up with you at Listen2Learners.

Listen2Learners sounds like a brilliant initiative and Stephen Heppell is an inspiring speaker.

Weekly links (weekly)

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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Manifesto for 21st Century School Librarians

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School library guru Dr Joyce Valenza has written an inspiring post entitled A Manifesto for 21st Century School Librarians. Covering our responsibilities to students regarding:

  • reading
  • information landscape
  • communication and publishing and storytelling
  • collection development
  • facilities, your physical space
  • access, equity, advocacy
  • audience and collaboration
  • copyright, copyleft and information ethics
  • new technology tools
  • professional development and professionalism
  • teaching and learning and reference
  • into the future (acknowledging the best of the past)

this is a must read, must react, must reflect post. Thanks to Helen Boelens for directing me to this post.

Nine elements of digital citizenship

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The Digital citizenship: using technology appropriately website has recently published a post on the nine elements of digital citizenship. Each element is described in detail on the site. The elements include:

  1. Digital etiquette
  2. Digital communication
  3. Digital literacy
  4. Digital access
  5. Digital commerce
  6. Digital law
  7. Digital rights and responsibilities
  8. Digital health and well-being
  9. Digital security

Please access this excellent site for more information, ideas and support.

Weekly links (weekly)

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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Free Cyber Summit on 21st Century Readiness

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Some teachers in Australia have holidays beginning next week. So a brilliant time to access the Free Cyber Summit on 21st Century Readiness to be held between September 20 – October 5.

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For more information click on this link and for international time zone conversions, click here. A fantastic opportunity to add to your professional learning and to broaden your personal learning network.

School Principals and Social Networking in Education: Practices, Policies, and Realities in 2010

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Thanks to Pru Mitchell for forwarding the following information and report:

New research just released on “School Principals and Social Networking in Education: Practices, Policies, and Realities in 2010”

Princeton, NJ – September 9, 2010 – A new research report was issued today that summarizes the results of an extended look at school principals’ use of social networking. The underlying research for the report, “School Principals and Social Networking in Education: Practices, Policies, and Realities in 2010,” was conducted by edWeb.net, IESD, Inc., MMS Education, and MCH Strategic Data.

Since the creation of MySpace and LinkedIn in 2003 and Facebook in 2004, online social networking has quickly become a pervasive means for people to connect all over the world. Yet schools are one of the last holdouts, where many of the most popular social networking sites are often banned for students, and often for teachers, librarians, and administrators, out of a concern about safety, privacy, confidentiality, and lack of knowledge about how best to ensure appropriate use.

At the same time, education reform initiatives from all corners-Federal and state programs, education research, and policy initiatives-are advocating the use of innovative and collaborative technology to drive improvements in teaching quality and student achievement.

The goal of this research study was to take a close look at the attitudes of school principals about social networking for their own personal use, with their colleagues, and within their school communities.  Principals can play an important role in encouraging and training their teachers and staff to adopt new technologies, and in setting policies for the use of technology and the Internet in schools.

The research was conducted in two phases: an online survey sent to a cross section of educators across the country in the fall of 2009, followed by an in-depth EDRoom online discussion with 12 principals who are currently using social networking in their professional lives.

Key findings:

·     Most principals who responded to the survey believe that social networking sites can provide value in education because they provide a way for educators to share information and resources with an extended community of educators, create professional learning communities, and improve school-wide communications with students and staff. About half of the surveyed principals felt that social networking is very valuable for these purposes.

·     Most of the principals in the discussion group thought that social networking and online collaboration tools would make a substantive change in students’ educational experience. Specific types of changes they mentioned included: development of a more social/collaborative view of learning; improved motivation, engagement, and/or active involvement; and creation of a connection to real-life learning.

·     None of the responding principals in the discussion group had school/district policies in place on social networking that were deemed adequate, suggesting the need for conversations and collaboration on establishing policies that can facilitate appropriate use of social networking in schools for educational purposes.

For a free copy of the report:

You can download a copy of the report at any of the sponsors’ websites: www.edweb.net, www.mmseducation.com, or www.mchdata.com.

To request a copy or for more information, send an email to survey@edweb.net.
For more information, please visit the edweb site: | info@edweb.net | www.edweb.net

SLAV awards – applications closing 17 September

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A reminder that applications for the 2010 School Library Association of Victoria awards close on Friday 17 September.

The John Ward Award, The SLAV Research Fellowship, The SLAV Innovator’s Grant and the SLAV School Leaders Award are presented each year. This is a fantastic opportunity to recognise the contributions of a colleague.

The John Ward Award

John Ward was a founding member of SLAV in the early 1960s, a founding member of Australian School Library Association in 1968 and a founding member of the International Association of School Librarianship. He held the positions of Secretary and President of SLAV for many years and was the Secretary of ASLA during the 1970s, a period of rapid library expansion. In recognition of John’s contribution to our profession, the SLAV Council established the John Ward Award in 1998, with a professional development grant of $2000 to be awarded annually.

The recipient/s must demonstrate an outstanding contribution to learning and teaching at their school and raise the profile of the profession through their role as teacher-librarian.


The SLAV Research Fellowship


In recent years education authorities have based curriculum reform on the results of research projects that have been carried out here and overseas. Academics and practitioners alike have emphasised the need to carry out action research projects and document the impact that our school library programs have on student learning outcomes.

The SLAV Research Fellowship supports research projects that involve school libraries in learning and teaching. The fellowship will take the form of a $1000 grant to provide practical support to a teacher-librarian implementing a local research project.


The SLAV Innovator’s Grant

Sponsored by Pledger Consulting Pty Ltd – Links Plus


In conjunction with Pledger Consulting, SLAV is particularly pleased to sponsor an award that goes to an innovative library or school team. Teams may self nominate or be nominated by SLAV branches. The grant will consist of a package of SLAV professional development and/or publications to the value of $800 plus $200 worth of Pledger Consulting products. SLAV would like to take this opportunity to thank Pledger Consulting for their generous sponsorship of this award. Over a period of many years Pledger Consulting Pty Ltd has provided directories of internet sites to learners, teacher-librarians and teachers in schools. All of their products are designed to guide research and save time for students, teachers and librarians.

Research has indicated that principal or school leader support of the library program is critical in encouraging teacher / teacher-librarian collaboration and in making the library program an integral part of the learning and teaching of the school. (Colorado Study, 1999)

The SLAV School Leader Award is made to a school leader who demonstrates outstanding support of the school library and the work of the school library team.

The award recipient will be recognised by the presentation of a certificate at the International School Libraries Day Dinner. School leaders can be nominated by a teacher-librarian or the school library team (SLAV membership required to nominate). School personnel who are members of the school leadership team within the school are eligible to be nominated.

eSmart schools

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The news released yesterday that Victorian schools will be able to gain access to funding and support to become eSmart schools is a brilliant step towards cybersafety.

The program developed by the Allanah and Madeline Foundation and trialled by a number of schools is now set to be rolled out to Victorian schools.

Quick Tour 2.4 9 Nov

With funding, training, information and actions for students, teachers and students, eSmart schools will have a number of resources to hand to help avoid cyberbullying and policies to help deal with it if it does occur.

Detailed information is available on the eSmart schools website.