Today we’re focused on supporting students who are facing the stress of exams next term.
The ergo website, from the State Library of Victoria, offers tips, resources and strategies for senior secondary students on exam preparation, revision, essay writing and the exam process.
Resources for secondary students
Jenny Luca, Teacher Librarian at Toorak College, presents three vodcasts in the Merspi VCE Advantage series, which look at some really useful online tools that can help students with organization, notetaking and presenting their work.
These videos cover the how, what and why of bookmarking using Diigo, notetaking using Evernote and presenting and sharing your work using Slideshare. Great advice and guidance for students and useful for teachers and librarians too!
The vodcasts are available via the VCE Advantage link on the merspi front page, directly from the merspi YouTube channel and through FUSE for all schools – search for them by title.
Here’s a great FUSE project, not just promoting poetry to students, but also highlighting the ways in which web tools can add creativity and fun to learning.
Phat Poetry is an interactive poetry website targeted at middle years students (VELS Level 5). The site allows students to research a range of poetic styles and techniques and explore poems in the Poetry Vault, chosen from a selection of classic and contemporary poets. Students are then encouraged to use original or published works from the site and combine it with photos, animation, video, sound effects and music to create a digital mashup.
Guest blogger Ria Coffey shares a few ideas taken from Dr. Joyce Valenza, guest speaker at the recent SLAV conference.
Staff members have been using these tools in Teaching and Learning at St. Patrick’s College in Ballarat:
This easy and fast bibliography maker has blown our students away. “Where has it been all this time?” has been heard on numerous occasions since student were introduced to this awesome online tool
The beauty of Mashpedia is in the way it organises search results and in the currency of the results. It provides for greater efficiency when searching for resources.
This site offers images with attribution details meaning we can easily see how to appropriately use and reference images.
This is an online essay builder that assists students in developing a contention and arguments for writing a essay.
You can watch footage of Joyce’s presentation on YouTube.
A couple of weeks ago, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Infrastructure and Communications tabled its report on the inquiry into the role and potential of the National Broadband Network (NBN) entitled Broadening the debate.
If you haven’t seen it yet, the paper includes a discussion about the role and potential of the NBN in a number of areas, including education.
You can download the education section of the report here (in PDF).
In the countdown to exams, here’s a new site offering support, tools and tips for students heading into the pointy end of the school year.
Countdown to Crunchtime includes forums, tips sheets on issues such as setting goals, videos on study tips and even Baroque music to help students relax!