Reading Cafe @ Mill Park Secondary College

Posted on February 16, 2009 by slav

Mill Park Secondary College teacher librarian and ICT Coach Heather Bailie has developed an interesting book blog.

Heather says, ‘The Reading Café is a site that has been set up directly as a result of the library staff at MPSC completing the SLAV Web 2.0 course. The Reading Cafe is a place for staff to discuss books and reading. I set this up with a dual purpose:

1. ‘As a place to consolidate reviews and recommendations for reading by and for staff. We have many avid readers on staff and we try to cater for their reading, almost as much as the students, particularly through the senior campus fiction collection. In our busy lives it is not always possible to share our good reading experiences in person- this site aims to provide that experience asynchronously (now there’s a word I’ve only dared use since blogging!)

2. ‘As a gentle means to encourage other staff to delve into the world of blogs, and, for some, to introduce the concept to them. For many teachers the idea of writing for a blog is totally foreign; they fear the unknown and don’t believe (wrongly) they have the necessary skills.

‘At first there wasn’t a competitive element to this but speaking to an old friend (Melbourne State College 1982!) at a SLAV conference I decided to adopt her idea of a teacher’s reading challenge modelled on the Premier’s Reading Challenge. I challenged staff to read 6 books by the end of the year, 2 of which must be designated “young adult”. To record books read they must post a review on the blog or, if that book has been previously reviewed, make a comment on the original post.’

She continues, ‘Initially, to get some content on the site, I encouraged everyone at school who was doing the SLAV Web 2.0 course to post some reviews. I also selectively invited some other people who I knew would be interested (either from the blogging perspective or as readers) to visit and contribute. Once we had a body of reviews, about 15, I launched the site at each campus at morning teas hosted by the two campus libraries. It has certainly generated a lot of interest although perhaps not as much activity as I would like. I’m starting to hand out some random prizes so there may be more activity soon. I think that goal 2 has been at least partly achieved – plenty of people look. I’m very grateful to my wonderful library staff who have enthusiastically posted reviews to the site. To record people’s progress on the challenge I adopted the SLAV Web 2.0 course idea of using a google spreadsheet – it is linked from the site.’

Heather says that she will be doing a new year re-launch of the blog shortly. Well done Heather and Mill Park Secondary College staff that have contributed to the blog.

PLP @ Mooroopna Secondary College

Posted on February 9, 2009 by slav

Mooroopna Secondary College teacher librarian, Leading Teacher and eLearning Coordinator Leonie Dyason is part of Will Richardson’s PLP project. PLP is Powerful Learning Practice, an international program developed by Will Richardson and Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach in the US. Mooroopna Secondary College was fortunate to be nominated to receive sponsorship from the State Library of Victoria and the School Library Association of Victoria (following the Victorian School Libraries Learning with Web 2.0 program) to have a team involved in the PLP program.

Leonie explains how she organised her team once Mooroopna had been accepted into the project. ‘Our Assistant Principals were both very supportive. I then selected my team of 5. I wanted some young teachers with me, some risk takers, and not necessarily all Web 2.0 savvy.’

Leonie says, ‘Our team members consisted of Adrian who is a Physics & Maths Teacher (he did the SLAV Web 2.0 program last year with our library team), Deanne, who is an Indonesian and English Teacher and who is Daily Organiser this year. Kirsten is a Science & Maths Teacher as well as being the Maths/Science Leading Teacher. She is also an INTEL master trainer. Katie is a SOSE & English teacher and me, a teacher librarian.’

Leonie explains, ‘All four regularly attend my eLearning Cafe where I have been teaching Web 2.0 and Internet skills for 3 years now as part of my Leading Teacher role of eLearning Coordinator. Adrian often presents here too – he started with podcasting.’

Leonie's eLearning Cafe

She continues, ‘We have all achieved different things so far, but mostly it is great teacher training – a good boost knowing you are on the right track, and good to be alerted to new stuff via the PLP before it becomes mainstream. We have learnt lots of skills, looked at the new digital blooms, better ways to connect students not only to the school, but also to the world. We have learnt lots and lots. Some of the examples of what we have achieved are:

I have set up the PD blog that can be anywhere anytime learning for teachers – to keep them ahead hopefully, but at least abreast of what their students are doing out of school hours. It will alert them to the eCafe topics, and have other incidental learning on the sidebars. I have also set up the usual literature blog with the English staff, however I intend to grow that to be reviews on everything – a writing I have done spasmodically or verbally all my career, but now it is there with others adding their reviews and everything tagged for the staff and students to use as sorting for genre, etc. I have a link on the Library Website on our intranet to both these blogs.
Adrian has set up his wiki/NING for the Year 12 Physics students in the state – much more ambitious than me – and has on board textbook writers and professors from all over.
Deanne has set up the skeleton for a cultural assignment in a wiki. She has set it up to be a collaborative piece. Her demo to the staff started at least 3 wikis that night.
Katie and Kirsten are still experimenting with what they will use as their platform, however Katie is going to do the VCE novels and have RSS on the site to alert students to, and Kirsten is going to do something with podcasts and biology.’

Physics teacher Adrian Camm explains about his Web 2.0 developments. ‘I have created a virtual learning community (VLC) for Unit 3 & 4 Physics that will link all students across Victoria to experienced educators, members of the Australian Institute of Physics and textbook authors from both Nelson and Heinemann publishers. It will provide students with tremendous learning opportunities anytime, anywhere. Students (and educators if they wish to be a part) will have access to a password-protected learning environment, where they can ask for help with questions, chat about careers in physics and have concepts explained to them in great detail. The best part is it’s free!’

Adrian's Virtual Learning Community

Adrian continues, ‘If you and your students are interested in joining, click this link and fill out the invitation located on the left-hand side of the page. Follow all of the instructions and within 24 hours, you will have access to the Physics Ning.’

Adrian continues, ‘Why should you and your students be a part of the VLC?

By using a 21st century context students will see relevance
By removing geographic boundaries. Brings the world into the classroom
Takes students out into the world
Creates opportunities for students to interact with each other, with teachers and with knowledgeable adults in an authentic learning environment with authentic learning experiences.

Leonie Dyason says, ‘At the start of this school year we had three professional learning days, and our PLP had a 1.5 hour slot to talk about PLP. Adrian, Deanne and myself presented our projects to the staff as outlined above. We also presented on a blog of Web 2.0 skills for MSC staff’s professional learning which we will probably all contribute to directly or indirectly. We launched this to the staff on the second day and asked them to go off and use the blog and go to one of the links there “CogDogRoo” from Alan Levine and learn 2 things. We have 17 Australian hits so far, so someone besides me is visiting it!’

Congratulations to Leonie, Adrian, Deanne, Katie and Kirsten on an absolutely brilliant job; you are an inspiration! Thanks also for taking the time to share your knowledge.

Feature wiki – Preston Girls’ Secondary College

Posted on November 29, 2008 by slav

On their arrival at Preston Girls’ Secondary College earlier this year, teacher librarians Judith Way and Reina Phung grappled to get a handle on the curriculum requirements of the college. Job-sharing the 1.0 position, with no support staff, Judith and Reina found it difficult to find the time to meet with subject coordinators to ask for their input. Aware of the few audio visual resources and a collection that needed updating, they decided to set up a ‘Curriculum Audit’ wiki.

Not a link, just a screenshot of one of the pages from the wiki

It was decided that the wiki was to be kept private, for the use and eyes of the school staff only. Staff were emailed an introduction and request to contribute to the wiki. The email contained a word document attachment that included detailed instructions and screenshots on how to contribute to the wiki. Staff were then asked to contribute their thoughts on a number of questions:

Do you need library resources for this topic/subject?
What type of resources do you need? Please be explicit.
Are you happy with the resources the library already has?
What resources would you liked to be purchased or discovered?
Do you have research skills embedded into the topic?
Would you like to work with us to embed research skills into the topic?
If you’d like help, when can we meet? Please nominate a time/date.
How else can we help you in the teaching and learning process?

Some staff not only responded quickly and in some detail, but were enthused about the possibilities of wikis. One teacher, Les Kyle, proceeded to quickly create her own extremely detailed wiki for her VCAL class; the whole curriculum, topics and links to resources (with some contributions from Judith and Reina). This wiki was kept private within Preston Girls’ (using an email to the students’ email address inviting them to join the wiki) as full student names appeared on the wiki and discussions between teacher and students took place. Judith and Reina were proud to think that their Curriculum Audit wiki was the catalyst for Les’s fabulous wiki.

However, many staff did not know what a wiki was, and some had trouble even logging on. The ideal situation would have been an introductory session during a Curriculum Day for those interested/needing guidance. However as all Curriculum Days had been allocated to specific topics (Literacy), Judith and Reina continued to work one-to-one with interested teachers. Judith and Reina believe that something like the SLAV Web 2.0 course for teachers would be terrific, as they often felt that the majority of the teaching staff would benefit from the introduction to the Web 2.0 tools out there that can enhance teaching and learning.

The idea that wikis were the ideal tool for student/student and student/teacher (and teacher/teacher) collaboration was introduced to teachers. That students projects could be completed in teams, and the teacher automatically alerted by email to when contributions had been added. Students taking full responsibility for their own learning becomes apparent when those with access to the wiki can see (and also have email alerts) who has contributed what to the wiki. The way discussions and comments are structured means that students have to think about their responses, rather than perhaps plagiarise by cutting and pasting.

The bonus was that discussions about wikis and blogs now regularly take place and teachers who have not yet made a contribution to the wiki promise to do so when the VCE classes finish. The new ICT Coordinator has begun his own blog. And the teachers who contributed to the wiki will have the best resourced subjects in the school!

The only problem that Judith and Reina found was that the initial wiki grew so large that it had to be split into two; years 7-10 and years 11-12.

Feature wiki – Samaritan Catholic College, Preston

Posted on November 8, 2008 by slav

Lynda Santolin, ILC Co-ordinator at Preston’s Samaritan Catholic College has spent time since completing the SLAV Web 2.0 course earlier this year developing numerous tools for teaching and learning. She has also led a staff PD introducing them to the world of blogs and wikis.

A Book Club blog, Staff Book blog, del.icio.us site, Rollyo account and online image generators have all been tools that Lynda has introduced. But she feels her greatest success was with wikis. ‘I created a wiki for staff to use. I think it has great potential for staff in faculties, or across campuses or even across schools, to share resources and planning. I also set up the Shared Stories Anthology wiki – which is run across 8 schools – the school coordinators compile student writing/visual arts pieces on a theme and publish and ‘book launch’ it each year. The wiki has enabled us to share:

Planning
Practicalities and pitfalls
Logistics
Launch details
Post-launch’

Shared stories anthology wiki

Lynda has developed a further two wikis for teaching and learning; Year 7 Ancient history and Year 8 Middle Ages. ‘In each of those, I had an information focus, but then something interactive – ‘test yourself’ type of thing. Our team put those websites together, I made the wikis, and the kids were engrossed with them and said they had ‘fun’. One example is this one interactive game to dress a knight for battle by answering a few
questions.’

Middle Ages

She continues, ‘I also had a discussion forum, where I tried to ask ‘thinking’ questions, for example, Would you have liked to have lived in Ancient Times? Why/why not? (Their responses were really interesting and often funny ‘No, because I wouldn’t be able to play computer games’). The discussion posts where each student needed to be members of the wikispace to respond. And from memory, they had to reply to an invitational email to do that. That was a lot of work and effort!’

Ancient history wiki

Lynda explains she is ‘finding wikis – wikispaces.com (it is free and the educational membership is advertisement-free) – easier to handle than blogs. Blogs are hard to do if you are trying to give many people a voice (page). I wouldn’t do it again as a blog, but I’d try wikis.’

Lynda has been very happy with wikispaces.com as she feels that it has great guides and support for teachers. She recommends using wikis over blogs as they are easy to use. She suggests:

‘Before using wikis with students:

Have a ‘play’ by creating your own personal/professional wiki. Learn.
Wikispaces = great help/tutorials (see above)
Know about Netsafety, Copyright and other cyber issues
Show students: examples/models
Use old technology – pen & paper! – to plan
Plan your ‘discussion’ to encourage higher order thinking and metacognition’

Lynda also suggests that: ‘Students need to know practicalities, pitfalls. For example:

Uploading content/feedback comments is NOT ‘chat’ – stay focused
Never reveal your or another person’s entire name, contact details, school
The wiki/blog does not replace homework (can’t be an excuse not to do homework!)’

Lynda also addressed other issues such as Netsafety, Copyright and other cyber issues. She says to ‘familiarise yourself with Working with the Web and to have dialogue with the Assistant Principal and other relevant co-coordinators/staff.’

Overall, Lynda has had great success with the wiki, but explains that the ‘practicalities and pitfalls of wikis and blogs include:

Being time-consuming, so has to be suited to the educational project – worthwhile/rewarding
It gets less tricky as you get more proficient – there is light at the end of the tunnel!
You still have to constantly monitor it and moderate comments (all sent to your email inbox)
Suggest: set a start and end date for the wiki
It’s easier to create the wiki with another person – solo is hard but still possible…
Take small steps and start small!’

Lynda says that the SLAV Web 2.0 course gave her ‘the skills, knowledge and experience to participate in the Web 2.0 world, and I love the multi-literacies, communities, collaboration and peering.’

Thanks to Lynda for sharing her thoughts and hard work and congratulations on the success of all your Web 2.0 tools, particularly the wiki.

Feature blog – Mill Park Secondary College

Posted on November 1, 2008 by slav

Heather Bailie, College Library Coordinator at Mill Park Secondary College has set up a most interesting blog. Did I speak to you about… is a site just for library staff.

Did I speak to you about...

Heather explains, ‘We have nine people making up 7.4 EFT on two campuses. I spend half my time at each campus, others have one or two days a week at their non-home campus. Due to part-timers it is impossible to have a meeting that all library staff can attend. I set up this site during the Web 2.0 course when the penny dropped that blogs are a sensational communication tool. Now instead of conversations between 2 or 3 people, phone calls and emails going back and forth and people being left out of the loop we can keep the conversation in a central location and it is up to each of us to contribute. Better than that, with our Google readers set up as a widget in our iGoogle pages we are instantly alerted of new news. I have even used a post to call for agenda items for an actual meeting and then made comments to record the minutes.’

She continues, ‘This site has been set up directly as a result of the library staff at Mill Park Secondary College completing the SLAV Web 2.0 course. I have just been appointed to the Leading Teacher Position of College ICT Coach – I don’t know if I would have even considered applying before doing the SLAV Web 2.0 online course. What I do know is that having completed it and what I have gained from it has contributed enormously to my successful application!’

It really does go to show that the possibilities of Web 2.0 are only within the realms of our imagination. Congratulations to Heather on her innovative use of a blog and on her appointment as a Leading Teacher, College ICT Coach.

Feature wiki – Ballarat High School

Posted on October 11, 2008 by slav

Deborah Marshall is a teacher-librarian at Ballarat High School. She has developed an excellent wiki in conjunction with classroom teacher Samantha Gooding. Deborah and Samantha both attended the SLAV conference early this year which featured Will Richardson. Deborah says, ‘We were inspired enough by him that we wanted to put his ideas into action. In Term 2 our Library team completed the SLAV Web 2.0 training (which was great!) and this gave me the added confidence to dive in and have a go.’

Homepage

She continues, ‘I initiated the wiki and invited the classroom teacher in as a co-administrator – and as a collaborative tool it has been wonderful. We can both add to the wiki without having to physically be together – but the history page allows us to keep track of developments. Given that the wiki was to be based on a brand new unit of work, Graphic novels, we felt the wiki would be a useful way of tracking our progress.’

Lesson plans

Deborah explains how she and Samantha have ‘spread the word’. ‘Recently we presented the wiki at an English Learning Area meeting to demonstrate the possibilities for our colleagues – this was our first “marketing” effort.’

Graphic novel summary

Deborah describes the process, ‘As this was a first effort with a wiki neither the teacher nor I were overly adventurous: we decided to start with a wiki that we could control and that was meant more for staff than students – a curriculum record, in a sense. Our aim was then to invite other teaching staff along so they could add to the wiki if they wished (eg. the Year 9 teachers and the English Learning Area teachers – as both these groups could make use of this wiki in the future). We hope that this presentation will encourage wiki use by other English teachers in the school. It is certainly something that my Library colleagues and I hope to pursue.’

Mind map assessment

Deborah explains, ‘Our Library team will be presenting to the whole staff next Term on our Web 2.0 training, as we were a Professional Learning Team for this activity and all PLTs at school are presenting their learnings to our colleagues. We have decided to create a wiki for this presentation and this wiki will have links to our Graphic novel wiki and Library blogs etc. We are hoping that this presentation and wiki will encourage other teaching staff to come on board with the Library next year and create more wikis for curriculum development and resourcing. Some of our other Library team members are beginning to create wikis for this purpose.

Mind map rubric

Thank you to Deborah and Samantha for their terrific work, for sharing their learning with us and with their staff. Well done.

School Library Association of Victoria

Tag Archives: SLAV Web 2.0