Inquiry, Videos for Teaching and Google Earth/Sky

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Following on from Monday, I really believe that using ICT can help you implement meaningful inquiries in your classroom. It's worth reading the Min of Ed's action plan called Enabling the 21st Century Learner: e-Learning Action Plan

Consider the use of webquests or similar as a way of individualising the inquiry process using ICT. They also can help you with the scaffolding around the process.

This Wiki has links to various Inquiry resources : http://fitzil.wikispaces.com/Inquiry+Learning

Steve has mentioned Kath Murdoch and Tasmania. She has done a lot of work on ICT and Inquiry and is well worth listening to and reading about. There are a couple of her books in our library, notably:

Classroom connections: strategies for integrated learning and Planning curriculum connections: whole-school planning for integrated curriculum

Here are some useful links too:

• http://www.ltag.education.tas.gov.au/Planning/models/inquirymodel.htm
• http://www.ltag.education.tas.gov.au/Planning/models/default.htm

I don't really mean it!

Internet Video Tools for the 21C Classroom:

Animation and poetry. This could be a way of bringing poetry alive. A thoughtful animation of the well known poem:

The Highwayman - Alfred Noyes

Could this change the way you teach poetry? Children could create their own examples using Photostory 3 or Powerpoint.

UK English standards for year 5 for this poem (Note that the filename .nbk is for the Smartboard notebook)I thought this one was good too. The Piano Well worth a look and you can see the UK resources for this video here and here.

Another way of creating online slideshows is using Animoto. Here is an example created in just a couple of minutes......
Wellesley Football 2007

Animoto 30 second shorts are free to make - give it a go and consider how you could use it in your classroom.
Other online slideshows:

• http://www.slideroll.com/
• http://www.onetruemedia.com/otm_site/create_slideshow
• http://www.spresent.com/v2/

Not really video as such, but an interesting way of looking at the news through headlines. Click on the headline to read the story - You can play with the config to get just New Zealand stories..

http://www.marumushi.com/apps/newsmap/newsmap.cfm

This photo is amazing! Space station floating above Aotearoa! 12 Dec 2006 ( I can see Wellesley boys jumping off the wharf!) - http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/shuttle/sts-116/html/s116e05983.html

And continuing the space scheme, the latest version of Google Earth lets you look at space (our sky) in the same fashion with high resolution imagery. This has to be a great tool to use with a Smartboard. Download this version of Google Earth from the Wellesley Intranet. Let me kno if you have trouble installing it.

No relevance to videos or ICT but this link has a good diagram of the main coffee types - so that you know what you're asking for (or making). I heard some order a Vienna coffee the other night but I don't know how it's made. Can't see any mention of a Vienna here though. Any ideas??
http://www.lokeshdhakar.com/2007/08/20/an-illustrated-coffee-guide/

Google, Digital Natives and more on Smartboards

Google are a major force in ICT and their influence is growing. I'm currently playing with igoogle, which partly points to the future direction of the web - a more personalised home page - IGoogle .


I believe Google earth have improved the resolution of imagery over New Zealand. Might be worth a look. Found your house yet??


More in Google Earth

• 2007 Tour de France route
• New 7 wonders of the World see the winners in Google Earth
  

There are a number of tools for educators available from Google. Here's a list: http://teachdigital.pbwiki.com/googletools

What you don't want to see when you've just run out of petrol:

And, I love signs which provide clear information:

Try this New Zealand Census at School - register your class to take part: http://www.censusatschool.org.nz/

Digital Native

Marc Prensky's suggestiuons for useing Cell Phones in the classroom: http://www.marcprensky.com/blog/archives/000043.html

This page has links to more of Marc Prensky's work: http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/

Smartboards.....

Some more sites with interactive whiteboard resources:

• http://www.waukesha.k12.wi.us/WIT/SmartBoard/specificapps.htm


• http://eduscapes.com/sessions/smartboard/


• http://www.clarion.edu/admin/computing/classrooms/resources.htm


• http://www.prometheanplanet.com/uk/server/show/nav.914

This is an interesting world clock with a lot more data besides. Watch the earth gradually warming up and CO2 emissions increasing.

Put it up on a Smartboard and stimulate a discussion. How many bicycles is that now???

Finally, Do you drink green tea? Concentrated chemicals derived from green tea dramatically boosted production of a group of key detoxification enzymes in people with low levels of these beneficial proteins, according to researchers at Arizona Cancer Center. See Biosingularity