Questioning, thinking and inquiry online

Have a look at this fabulous Question Generator.

Wesolveit
What a wonderful resource to inspire thinking and inquiry in your classroom or library.
It is part of the new SLAV FUSE digital resource, WE SOLVE it! Inquiry online.

Students can choose an avatar, manipulate the 3D models, use the question generator and explore selected web 2.0 applications to:

  • formulate questions
  • build background knowledge
  • collaborate with peers and teachers
  • digitally create and publish their own work.

 

You can learn more about using this engaging, interactive, web 2.0-based site by coming along to a hands-on workshop conducted by Kaye Hunter, primary teacher-librarian, author of Open the door to inquiry and content manager for WE SOLVE it! Inquiry online.
These workshops are on 12 or 19 September at the Statewide Resource Centre, Carlton.

See the SLAV website for registration details.

Collaborate and create!

The School Library Association of Victoria acknowledges that students of today should be creators of ideas, not just consumers of information!
So SLAV presents 2 hands-on workshops on 22 August or 1 September to challenge teachers and teacher-librarians with the questions:
“Are your students equipped to publish in an online environment?” and more specifically, “Are you confident to support them with the knowledge and skills to make informed decisions when publishing their materials online?”
These workshops offer:

  • hands-on experience with a range of web 2.0, screencasting, collaboration and presentation tools
  • information to support cybersafety, digital copyright and intellectual property concepts
  • strategies for collaborative planning for authentic, research-based tasks which have a real world application

See the SLAV website for registration details.

PLN: giving us the power

Today, guest blogger Leanne Hampson, aka ‘the resource hound’, from Brauer Secondary College in Warrnambool, reflects on her recent experiences in the 2011 PLN.

The fact that I have been asked to do a guest post for the Bright Ideas Blog is testament to the power of the PLN. I have always been interested in ICT but had never been able to find just the right push, just the right support network or just the right guidance. The PLN has been all that and more. I thought I might share with you some of the successes I have had because of the PLN.

Firstly there is my WordPress  blog ‘theresourcehound’. Here I have focused on blogging about great resources and great tools. A lot of these have been discovered via the Units we have studied or as I have dug my way around the net, followed other people’s suggestions or chased links posted in Twitter and other places. Whilst it doesn’t have a huge following (as yet!) it has been great to use as a way of ‘storing’ these resources, even if just for myself!

Post from the resource hound blog

Then there has been my increase in confidence.  I have tried new things in my classes, usually with great success, even if I haven’t been exactly the expert. Students are quite accepting of ‘I don’t know, let’s work it out together’ and the shift from me having to be the all knowing guru to ‘we’re in this together’ has been liberating.

I have also found the confidence to start passing the knowledge on – this week I begin running my own professional development sessions for interested staff, of whom there are several already. Tonight’s session will begin with ‘Twitter for professional development.’ As a result of the PLN Facebook page (a fantastic support) I have started my own page for the people who come to the PD. It is called Brauer ICT Explorers.

One of the other good things about the PLN has been that I have made connections to things that will continue my journey even after the PLN itself runs its course. I have subscribed to blogs and groups that keep feeding me new things to explore or try.

The PLN has been a big commitment in time and energy. I doubt anyone would dispute that fact! The rewards, though, have been little short of spectacular.

Congratulations to Leanne and all the 2011 PLN participants.

Leanne’s blog, the resource hound, is just what the name implies – a great place to visit for new and interesting resources and practical tips.

Teacher 2.0 workshop: book now

Dramatic changes are going to continue to take place in education because of the web. It is providing incredible new opportunities for educators to explore their own interests and passions, build personal learning networks, and have a significant impact on their students, schools and own careers.

This exclusive hands-on, free workshop led by Steve Hargadon will explore these trends and help you, as the ‘lead learner’, build educational resources for you, your colleagues and your students.

Steve is the author of Educational networking: the important role web 2.0 will play in education and a leading facilitator of education conferences and social media.

Picture

Get in early for this workshop presented by the State Library of Victoria.

Tuesday 30 August 2011, 8:30am – 4:00pm

More details and booking contacts on the SLV website.

Supported by the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.

Online databases

Another hot hit from the VCE Advantage vodcast series – Online databases at the State Library of Victoria.

A wealth of information is available to students via the State Library of Victoria’s online databases, cataloguing a range of journal, magazines and even videos and e-books!
This video tells students what’s available to them and how to remotely connect to these via the SLV web site.This vodcast also has handy information about joining the State Library of Victoria.

A must for any VCE student! Make sure you show your students (and not just VCE students) and tell the teachers.

If you’re not in Victoria, your own state or national library will offer similar databases, as do many public libraries.

The vodcast is 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 it by title.

Thanks to Jenny Sergeant and SLAV for these updates on the new Merspi videos.

Reliable research

The State Library of Victoria has put together an amazing presentation for students about effective research:

  • Sources on the internet you can trust
  • Finding reliable resources online
  • Tips on questioning research, identifying bias and evaluating bias.

A must for any VCE student! Make sure you show your students (and not just VCE students) and tell the teachers.

The vodcast is 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 it by title.

Studyvibe

Studyvibe is a new free resource for students between the ages of 13 – 17.

It has been designed by a small group of teacher librarians and teachers from Perth, including Leonie McIvenny.

The site focuses on research and study skills, from motivation to referencing to suggested iPad apps.  It also offers many downloadable documents and subject specific resources (for maths, sciences and English amongst others).

A Teachers’ Lounge is currently in the works and should be available in the next month.

Studyvibe

Take a look: www.studyvibe.com.au

Structuring essays and answering the question

More helpful resources from the VCE Advantage vodcast series.

In these two vodcasts Joy Whiteside, Teacher Librarian at Overnewton College, guides students through the important steps to writing an essay that is clear and well structured and explores aspects of the language of questions: do you know the difference between questions that ask you to compare and those that ask you to contrast? Can you discuss and also evaluate a point of view? (with reference to the State Library of Victoria’s Ergo site).

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.

Use them to support students who are struggling with essays and alert your teachers to them. Great for students at lower secondary levels too.

Be a game changer

Ria Coffey, from St Patrick’s Secondary College in Ballarat, offers her take on last week’s SLAV conference.

‘The Game Changer’ a professional development opportunity hosted by SLAV and featuring the dynamic teacher librarian Dr. Joyce Valenza was held at the MCG on Friday. Valenza over whelmed the audience with her plethora of ideas, innovations, inspirations and motivations for the teacher librarian and all those connected to school libraries. Valenza encouraged her audience to create ‘transliteracy’ opportunities in their school libraries, this being, literature across multiple media. The mind boggled as Valenza then proceeded to offer slide after slide of links and resources that assist in developing connected, collaborating, and communicating school libraries.

tlsteach2

Throughout the day twitter ran wild as an online feed was open for discussion of ideas (#slavconf11).

Participants could also contribute to a slideshow of ideas which were then showcased.

All this and much more can be accessed at Joyce’s wikispace.

Power searching

Two new videos from the VCE Advantage series.

These two fantastic vodcasts contributed by Di Ruffles, from Melbourne High School, are perfect for VCE students but also for students at any secondary level. They will instantly improve online searching strategies!

Use them in your information literacy program, with your classes and alert students and teachers (and parents) to them. Power Searching 1 explores the power of effective searching using Google – a handy resource for those who complete research online! Take at look at the impact of quotation marks in searching, title searching and the list goes on.

Power Searching 2 explores Google searching in more detail and builds on Power Searching 1 with URL, file type and timeframe searching becoming the focus.

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.

We’ll bring you more of these new merspi vodcasts over the coming days and weeks.