Monthly Archives: August 2009

Networked Schools – Classrooms Using New Technologies to Connect and Collaborate

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Hear how two teachers use a variety of online environments to connect students in rural and remote schools with experienced educators.

Where: Online in Elluminate. You don’t need to leave your desk – the program comes to you.
Sign up at: http://eventactions.com/ea.aspx?ea=Rsvp&guid=2a3a72ee67194e03b3c1138c9645e2a9

When: Thursday 20 August at 4pm

Who:
Gary Schultz is a teacher of 25 years. With a career path through Physical Education, Science, Information Technology and Work Education, to developing Dimboola Memorial Secondary College teachers integration of ICT into classroom practice. Gary was awarded the 2008 Most Outstanding Secondary Teacher of the year for his work in changing the ICT culture of the college. He is currently working at the Horsham Regional Office in the position of Wimmera Virtual School Project Officer.

The Wimmera Virtual School project is a pilot project that encompasses eleven secondary colleges around the Wimmera area in the North West of Victoria. The project is attempting to address disadvantage in rural and remote schools by developing a Blended Learning model of provision. Currently there are eight VCE subjects being provided that include the use of video conferencing, online content, digital recorded content and also face-to-face teaching.

and

Adrian Camm is the Head of Mathematics at McGuire College and has responsibility for senior Mathematics and Physics. He is now taking a leadership role in promoting effective use of emerging technologies across all faculty areas. Adrian is also a member of the Powerful Learning Practice International Cohort where he engages with international educators on 21st century learning.

Adrian has created a VCE Physics Unit 3&4 Virtual Learning Community that links students across the state of Victoria to experienced educators and textbook authors. Come and learn how the initiative created opportunities for students to interact with each other, educators and knowledgeable adults in authentic learning experiences.

For more information see: http://knowledgebank.global2.vic.edu.au/2009/08/03/networked-schools-two-great-stories-from-classrooms-using-new-technologies-to-connect-collaborate/

Thanks to Tamara Carpenter from KnowledgeBank for the above text.

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.

Web 2.0: Cool tools for schools

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Web 2.0 Cool tools for schools is a terrific wiki that groups Web 2.0 tools into categories such as:

  • videos
  • slideshows
  • presentations
  • widgets
  • research
  • image
  • audio
  • mapping
  • drawing
  • organising
  • music
  • writing and more.
Homepage
Homepage

Most of the tools have examples or tutorials as well as a short comment about the individual site.

So if you have a task in mind, check this wiki out and you are sure to find the right tool for the job! Thanks to Jennifer Frisardi for the link.

VELS ICT resources

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Victorian Northern Metropolitan Region  Ultranet Coach Anesti Anestis has agreed to share a VELS wiki he has been developing.

VELS ICT wiki homepage
VELS ICT wiki homepage

Anesti explains:

Paula Christophersen, ICT Curriculum Manager, VCAA and her team has released a range of new resources and support materials on the VELS website that is designed to support the application of ICT in learning and teaching programs. It is a very comprehensive list of ideas for Prep through to Year 10. There are many practical resources that schools, ICT teachers and classroom teachers can use. Another useful link that may support our understanding of the role of ICT in the curriculum and its interdisciplinary nature is here: http://vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/about/faq.html#21

VELS Primary and scope and sequence
VELS Primary and scope and sequence

He continues:

This wiki is a community effort to share some “teacher friendly” resources for the VELS ICT domain. In addition we hope to add links to lots of useful resources from the web to aid in its implementation.

Please use the discussion tab above if you have comments or suggestions. Or just jump right in and start adding to the pages.

We are collecting a large number of ICT documents from many schools and cluster educators and placing them in the resources section. We will use these documents as the basis for collaborating on the wiki.

Secondary scope and sequence
Secondary scope and sequence

You will also find that there are examples of Scope and Sequence for both Primary and Secondarylevels. Here schools have been invited to share what they have been doing and add links to documentation so that other interested teachers have easy access to support materials.

Another excellent wiki Anesti. Thank you for your work and for sharing with the readers of Bright Ideas.

Feature blog – Girton Grammar School

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Girton Grammar School Head of Library (and immediate past Children’s Book Council Victorian Judge) Miffy Farquharson has developed two book blogs for her school. Miffy explains how they came about:

The student blog has been in place for about a term now. It is supposed to be by and for secondary students, but I am having trouble getting students to contribute. I think that this is because the students don’t actually do much blogging themselves. So you will see that most of the entries are by me.

Student book blog

Student book blog

I have set in place some protocols to keep the identity of our students anonymous, which includes only using their initials, and I edit out any mention of their age. I have tried to create enough categories to that when the blog starts getting really long readers will be able to sort through the entries to find age appropriate books easily.

I have also learned how to add tags, and create a cluster map. I have an accompanying Blog roll for my favourite bookish websites, which is slowly being added to. Crash Solo is one of my favourites.

This blog has been a huge learning curve for me, as I had only used a blog to record Hockey news and results in the past, and hadn’t got into any of the fun stuff like feeds and blogrolls in the Hockey blog.

 I have also started a ‘grown-up’ book review blog which was prompted by the submission of a review of Tim Winton’s ‘Breath’ by a colleague. The review was very obviously for an ‘adult’ book, which was not appropriate for the student blog, so a new site was created.

Teacher book blog

Teacher book blog

 Thanks to Miffy for sharing her efforts in getting students and teachers to read and blog. Well done.

SparkleBox

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* January 7, 2010. The following statement regarding Sparklebox was released by the Kent (UK) County Council on the 5th of January:

Kent Statement re the blocking of Sparklebox 

It has been bought to Kent County Council’s attention that many Local Authorities are blocking a teaching resource website: www.sparklebox.co.uk.  Although this website is popular with schools, CEOP has issued a statement supporting both this action and the following statement from South West Grid for Learning: 

 “It is understood that a person who is on the record as an owner and director of Sparklebox Teacher Resources Limited (which appears to claim ownership of the SparkleBox web site and children’s learning materials) is a registered sex offender who has recently admitted a second offence, is on remand in prison and is awaiting sentence in January.”

For this reason we feel it right to block the site centrally until more information is available and review whether this site should be blocked permanently after consulting schools and other sources.

Failure to block this site may place Schools or Kent County Council in a difficult position regarding duty of care. Should staff wish to continue using the website there is nothing to stop its use from home. We invite discussion from staff who may be concerned about this decision to discuss this on the e-Safety Blog (please note that this blog is moderated so your comment may not appear immediately).

Also, a statement from the UK’s Child Expoitation and Online Protection Centre:

Following queries into the website sparklebox.co.uk over the past couple of months, CEOP have investigated the website and its management. It should be noted that Sparklebox’s primary aim is to provide resources for schools (in particular teachers) but that there are opportunities for pictures of young people to be sent in and be published online and that until recently there was a live blog. Sparklebox state that all staff have been through relevant checks however CEOP can support the recent SWGfL statement released this week, an extract of which is below:

 “It is understood that a person who is on the record as an owner and director of Sparklebox Teacher Resources Limited (which appears to claim ownership of the SparkleBox web site and children’s learning materials) is a registered sex offender who has recently admitted a second offence, is on remand in prison and is awaiting sentence in January.”

 CEOP are also aware that a number of RBC’s and Local Authorities have blocked sparklebox.co.uk until they are satisfied that suitable safeguarding arrangements are in place. CEOP supports this stance and would recommend that any schools who choose to overrule their central filtering lists give due consideration to a website specific school risk analysis and risk management plan.

Please use Sparklebox at your own discretion as I am not sure if it has been widely blocked here in Australia or not.

 

 

SparkleBox is a UK site that provides free teaching resources for Early Years Foundation (kinder – prep) and Key Stage 1 (years 1 and 2). All resources are applicable to Australian classrooms. 

Homepage
Homepage

With topics such as:

  • Literacy
  • Numeracy
  • Everyday life
  • Living things
  • Ourselves
  • Weather and seasons
  • Places
  • The past
  • Festivals and celebrations
  • Art and design
  • Physical education
  • LOTE

there are lots of resources to choose from.

Key Stage 2 resources (years 3-6) are also available. This site also provides signs, displays, certificates and awards that can simply be  printed out and used immediately. 

An excellent resource for all Primary school and Early Childhood teachers.