Category Archives: News

ISLM posters

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Thanks to Rick Mulholland (ISLM coordinator) for the following text:

The International School Library Month committee is pleased to announce that the 2009 ISLM posters are available for downloading on the IASL website.

This year we have two versions of posters for your celebrations. We have one with a young student and the other with an older student.

Please visit http://www.iasl- online.org/ events/islm/ islm-resources. htm to download your posters.

Also, see the above website for details on how you can obtain a copy of the poster in both English and your language.

Connect/SLAV Web 2.0 competition

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Thanks to Connect’s Kerry Rowett for the following text:

Are you doing some wonderful work connecting students using web 2.0 applications in your classroom … or keen to start? You might be interested in entering the Connect and SLAV web 2.0 competition 2009. What do you need to do? Work in a team to create a unit of work incorporating the use of web 2.0 technologies and submit it, along with an application form to Connect by Monday October 5th.

Web_2.0_comp

There will be two prize packages awarded to winning schools with a value of approximately AU$800 each. Wii machines have generously been donated by the International Digital Entertainment Festival (iDEF) and games donated by Madman interactive. Each package includes:

  • Nintendo Wii Console 
  • Wii Sports
  • Nintendo 7 in 1 sports kit
  • One copy of each of the following gaming titles: Disney Think Fast, Ultimate Band, Bratz Kidz Party and Build A Bear Workshop

Prizes

Please share this information with other teachers you think may be interested in entering! Visit the link or click the images to find out more.

Active Video Games A Good Alternative To Moderate Exercise For Kids, Study Suggests

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ScienceDaily reports on a study that games such as Wii Sports are good for health:

ScienceDaily (July 17, 2009) — Scientists at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center have found that playing active video games can be as effective for children as moderate exercise. The findings appear this week in the journal Pediatrics from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

While OU pediatricians don’t recommend children stop playing outside or exercising, the research shows that active video games offer a great alternative to moderate exercise for many children of today’s generation who are sedentary and at high risk for obesity and diabetes.

“These exer-games are no substitute for ‘real’ sports activities, but if kids play them as designed and stay engaged, they can burn several calories per hour above their sedentary level. We view any increase in energy expenditure (calories burned) as a good thing, especially in our overly-sedentary society,” said Kevin Short, Ph.D., principal investigator on the project.

To test the idea, researchers measured the heart rate, energy expenditure and self-reported exertion in children between ages 10-13 while they watched television, played active video games and walked on the treadmill at three different speeds.

Compared to watching television, the calories burned while gaming or walking increased 2- to 3-fold. Similarly, high rates of energy expenditure, heart rate and perceived exertion were elicited from playing Wii boxing, Dance Dance Revolution Level 2 or walking at 3.5 mph.

Wii bowling and beginner level DDR elicited a 2-fold increase in energy expenditure compared to television watching.

Overall, the energy expenditure during active video game play was comparable to moderate-intensity walking. Thus, for children who spend considerable time playing electronic screen games for entertainment, OU researchers found that substituting that time with physically active games can be a safe, fun and valuable means of promoting energy expenditure.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Children’s Medical Research Institute.

Journal reference:

  1. Graf, Diana L., Pratt, Lauren V., Hester, Casey N., Short, Kevin R. Playing Active Video Games Increases Energy Expenditure in Children. Pediatrics, 2009 0: peds.2008-2851 DOI: 10.1542/10.1542/peds.2008-2851

Adapted from materials provided by University of Oklahoma.

Handheld Librarian Online Conference – Keynote

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The Keynote speaker at this recent conference, Gerry Mckiernan, focussed on the Pew Report.

Pew Report :The Future of the Internet III The World in 2020: The Mobile Device Will Be The Primary Connection Tool To The Internet.
 
 Overview
 A survey of internet leaders, activists and analysts shows they expect major tech advances as the phone becomes a primary device for online access, voice-recognition improves, artificial and virtual reality become more embedded in everyday life, and the architecture of the internet itself improves. 

Here are the key findings on the survey of experts by the Pew Internet & American Life Project that asked respondents to assess predictions about technology and its roles in the year 2020:-The mobile device will be the primary connection tool to the internet for most people in the world in 2020.

 

-The transparency of people and organizations will increase, but that will not necessarily yield more personal integrity, social tolerance, or forgiveness.

-Voice recognition and touch user-interfaces with the Internet will be more prevalent and accepted by 2020.

-Those working to enforce intellectual property law and copyright protection will remain in a continuing arms race, with the crackers who will find ways to copy and share content without payment.

-The divisions between personal time and work time and between physical and virtual reality will be further erased for everyone who is connected, and the results will be mixed in their impact on basic social relations.

-Next-generation engineering of the network to improve the current Internet architecture is more likely than an effort to rebuild the architecture from scratch.

Links to more predictions about the evolution of mobile communications and the full text Of the Pew Report is available here. 

Gerry’s Powerpoint slides for the session are available here and audio recording of the session here.

The section on the divisions of personal time and work time eroding is already happening in a big way for many people in our profession.

Thanks to Betty Braaksma for the information.

Cybersafety and Wellbeing Initiative

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The Alannah and Madeline Foundation have launched a major new Cybersafety and Wellbeing Initiative.

Cybersafety and Wellbeing Initiative
Cybersafety and Wellbeing Initiative
A pilot program is to be implemented into 150 schools from September. The website explains the program in more detail:

The Alannah and Madeline Foundation’s Cybersafety and Wellbeing Initiative aims to make cybersafety a normal part of every young person’s life by equipping them to use technologies in ways that protect them from the associated risks.

The development of the initiative is informed by a number of cybersafety experts from across Australia.  The first major focus of the initiative is to help schools to create a cultural norm of smart, safe and responsible use of communications technologies.  The initiative will: 

  • help schools develop policies and practices encouraging students to use technology responsibly
  • point schools to teaching resources on cybersafety, but also to resources to help them create a safe, respectful and caring environment
  • encourage schools to embrace the positives of technology for teaching practice and enhance young people’s learning
  • establish a system for schools to provide evidence that they are actively implementing these policies and practices
  • reduce the digital divide between adults and young people, so adults can become a credible source of advice on avoiding the risks of cyberspace.

Dr Judith Slocombe CEO of The Alannah and Madeline makes an interesting point:

It is important to remember that this is an issue of behaviour, more than it is of technology. We really need to get serious about behaviour and support schools to focus on building a culture of respect and caring in addition to teaching the traditional academic subjects.

As a profession that is passionate about embedding the use of technology in education, we should applaud the introduction of this initiative. It is wonderful to see that the negative issues of internet use are going to be addressed and acted upon.

Handheld Librarian Online Conference – Sending out an SMS

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Joe Murphy (@libraryfuture) is an innovative librarian at the prestigeous Yale University. He recently gave a presentation to the Handheld Librarian Online Conference on the use of SMS in libraries. The presentation is well worth viewing and is certainly one worth considering.

hhlib_sending out an sms
View more presentations from Joe Murphy.

Joe’s presentation was amongst the most highly rated at the conference. What does it mean for school practitioners though? If this is the way customer service is headed in libraries, how can we incorporate these technologies into schools when so many schools have bans on mobile phones? Would love any comments.

Best Australian library blogs, wikis, etc.

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We are on the hunt for Australia’s favourite school library blogs, wikis, netvibes, webquests and pageflakes (and so on). We’d also like to seek out blogs by library staff that are reflective of of our profession.

Please consider nominating your colleagues, people from your networks and virtual networks or even yourself. Once we have a shortlist representing different platforms, voting will be open to anyone interested.

Please send information such as:

  • Your name and school
  • Who you are nominating (if known)
  • The name of the website/s
  • The URL/s
  • Any other information

You can nominate as many different websites as you like. Nominations will close on 11 August. Voting will commence shortly afterwards. Please send nominations to brightideas@slav.schools.net.au