Phat poetry

Posted on September 14, 2011 by slvadmin

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.

Reference tools for the 21st century

Posted on September 13, 2011 by slvadmin

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:

Bibme

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

Mashpedia

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.

Flickr Creative Commons

This site offers images with attribution details meaning we can easily see how to appropriately use and reference images.

Thesis builder

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.

The NBN & education

Posted on September 9, 2011 by slvadmin

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).

It’s crunchtime

Posted on September 9, 2011 by slvadmin

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!

New vodcast: referencing your work

Posted on August 31, 2011 by slvadmin

Is it yours?

This quick little Merspi vodcast will help students clarify when and where they need to reference their work and provides tips on how to do this.

Handy links to websites that help are also provided, but here’s an update: the SLASA link has since been password protected, so after students have watched the video, you can direct students to Neil’s toolbox or to another online citation tool.

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

This vodcast is ideal for an introduction to referencing for all students.

Teen book videos

Posted on August 29, 2011 by slvadmin

St. Patrick’s College of Ballarat hosted its annual Immersion Week for the students in year 9. This included students participating in two and three day elective units. One of those units, ‘Teen Book Video Awards’, was created by the dynamic teaching team of Michael Goss and Julia Petrov.

The unit involved students using online tools to create book trailers and publishing them to the Library webpage. The students used Windows Movie Maker to construct the trailer, Jam Studio to create the music and Flickr images as well as their own photography. The end result was impressive and the students are now keen to vote for their favourite trailer.

Here are two examples of student work:

Shutter Island by Lachy L and Joey S

Cirque du Freak by Lachlan K and Ash D

And here is the unit outline.

TEEN BOOK VIDEO AWARDS!

Digital Trailers

Description

Everyone loves a good story, so why not share some of the stories you have loved with others? In this unit you will create a 90 second book trailer that will be entered into a competition. You will:

Choose a book from a set list and/or bring along two of your favourite books;
Become familiar with the film platform for recording your trailer;
Learn about how to persuade an audience; and,
Enter your trailer into a competition.

Digital storytelling requires a different way of thinking about how you might develop and present the information about your book/s. You can choose from a variety of digital platforms to develop and present your trailer.

Rationale

At the conclusion of this unit you will be able to:

Create an engaging representation of a book in a well-structured multimodal text.
Participate in discussions and conversations about various strategies you will use to connect, organise and structure you text.
Use a digital platform to publish your trailer
Develop your skills as a writer.

Assessment

The trailer will be assessed using a rubric including the following elements:

audience;
text structure;
ideas;
character/s and setting;
vocabulary;
cohesion;
conventions (spelling, sentences, paragraphs)

Timeframe

Teen Book Video Awards is a two-day unit.

Thanks to Ria Coffey for this guest post and to the students for sharing their work.

Bright Ideas subscriptions

Posted on August 29, 2011 by slvadmin

I will very tentatively push the ‘Publish’ button on Bright Ideas today, as I know many of you have received far too many notification emails when a post goes live.

The clever people at Edublogs have been working away and trying to fix it, so hopefully all is well now.

Apologies for the radio silence over the last few days while we looked into this error.
Thank you for your patience.

School libraries achieving results

Posted on August 22, 2011 by slvadmin

So you’ve heard about the Australian Parliamentary Inquiry into School Libraries and Teacher-Librarians in 21st Century Australia?

Here’s a chance to showcase your library’s initiatives, share your ideas, and be involved in the conversation led by SLAV’s Reference Group responding to the Inquiry.

The School Library Association of Victoria (SLAV) has established a Ning community: School libraries achieving results.

And you’re invited. To join go to the Ning community here.

Find newspapers online

Posted on August 21, 2011 by slvadmin

Another fantastic video from the VCE Advantage vodcast series, in which Bethany Leong takes students through the State Library newspaper database online. She also looks at Press Display, Google News Archive searching and even Trove – for those with a need for articles ranging back to the 1800s.

Great for all students to know about – they can’t all make it into the State Library of Victoria but they can all access these resources. Show them and show 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

More conference reflections

Posted on August 19, 2011 by slvadmin

Today, Christine Wilson from Braemar College shares her thoughts on the recent SLAV conference and a few new ideas to follow up.

The SLAV Conference Communicate, collaborate, create: and think critically! was held at the MCG on Friday 29 July. What I took away from the day is firstly that the special guest presenter, Joyce Valenza, is incredible. Joyce is inspiring, motivating and a wonderful advocate for teacher librarianship and school libraries. Participating in the conference was for me a very affirming experience. Thank you Joyce.

My “to do” list from the conference is extensive. Where to start? Go back over my notes and Joyce’s wiki. Act on the referrals to teaching staff about great online resources that Joyce informed us about. The wiki that Joyce prepared for the conference is a goldmine.

My next action is to update my library blog. I have to get some new widgets. Then move on to investigate using QR codes. Of course I must brief my colleagues on the conference at our next faculty meeting.
One aspect I did enjoy was that attendees got to participate online via Twitter #slavconf11 and backchannel on TodaysMeet as well as contributing to the SLAV Ideas Book. The SLAV Ideas Book allowed us to hear interesting things that other people are doing in their school libraries.

Using my iPad I found it easy to follow what was happening in the room and online. The technology worked beautifully. This conference was a truly connected, collaborative and creative experience. Well done, SLAV.

Christine Wilson, Braemar College Learning Area Leader – MNIRC.

Any thoughts or great ideas from the day from any other participants – whether on site or watching the feed from miles away?

School Library Association of Victoria

Author Archives: slvadmin