ICT and Learning

Elearning Stuff

2011-07-29T08:22:00.001+12:00

As we move into the second half of 2011 there are a couple of themes on the ICT Landscape: Elearning and 1 to 1 computing. You may have read about Orewa College’s plans for next year.

iPads in schools - are we missing the point?

Partly pushing all this is the proliferation of elearning apps and opps (opportunities) which have meant that so much learning can be undertaken with just a web browser whether that’s on an ipod, ipad, tablet, phone or computer. So here are a range of elearning apps that I have seen in the past couple of months:

First up a dictionary of e-learning Jargon

Brainstorming? Gathering ideas? Try Popplet

Writing Re-Launched: Teaching with Digital Tools:

Scribblar – Online collaboration – shared whiteboard.

Online painting:

Create animations online:

Students as curators of Information.

More educational Apps can be found here:

http://mindshift.kqed.org/2011/06/new-educational-apps-of-the-month-3/

http://theelearningcoach.com/elearning_design/elearning-freebies/

http://classroom.4teachers.org/

http://bigthink.com/ideas/30689

http://dakinane.com/blog/resources/

http://spedapps2.wikispaces.com/

http://playingwithmedia.com/tepsa11-ipad-workshop

Ipad apps: http://appsineducation.blogspot.com/2011/06/apps-for-getting-students-really.html

Take your smartphone when you’re out walking? Tree identification App

Khan Academy + http://www.khanacademy.org/#browse ……….. http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/07/ff_khan/all/1

Scott McLeod : http://bigthink.com/ideas/38698 Why use Twitter??

Older, but excellent example of in depth learning using digital tools:

http://www.thinkinginmind.com/cigar-box-project/

Matrix – Technology Integration:

http://fcit.usf.edu/matrix/matrix.php

http://interactioneducation.com/ipadsineducation.html#.ThNRJ4Iod5Y.twitter

Adding Content::

2011-05-04T16:04:00.001+12:00

Titled because once we have a learning management system up and running, we need to be able to add content which helps us enhance it as a learning tool.

What a great writing idea for older children. Uses a Facebook model (Fakewall) to get students to create a Facebook wall of a famous person. For example Cinderella

or John Lennon:

http://www.myfakewall.com

Video is very easy to embed as is any other interactive media. Embedding video means you can get rid of all the distractions of other videos and ugly comments on Youtube.

This is a great NZ resource on NZ films and videos. There are some classic music videos too

http://www.nzonscreen.com/

And teacher tube has a range of educational videos….

And from an inspiration point of view, try Edtalks – a NZ site with a range of addresses from NZ educators

Info-graphics make great class talking points too. Have a look at the ones below.

Info-graphic: Radiation chart:

Fun fact: eating one single banana gives you a higher dose of radiation than living 50 miles from a (functional) nuclear power plant for a year.

An InfoGraphic of Number Ones – Every country is number one at something – Guess what we are! Or better still what do you thing Australians are number on at??

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/because-every-country-is-the-best-at-something/#

This one provides a visual representation of how much longer out resources will last.

http://www.trec-uk.org.uk/articles/NS_2007-05-23/26051202.jpg

Inspiration has always been a popular brainstorming / mindmapping application. We have a limited number of licences so Inspiration is not on our computer image by default. There are some alternative web based applications which have the advantage of being free and also being available from home and school.

What’s you reaction to ebooks for children used on a touch pad such as an Ipad?

The future of print: 21 interesting e-books for kids

Why Laptops? The reasoning provided by the ICT Director at Diocesan School for Girls in Auckland for their laptop programme. Compelling information:

ICT Literacy for 2011

2011-03-23T16:14:00.001+13:00

Web 2.0

I haven’t sent anything around for a long time so here’s some more stuff to think about. Recently I sent a page around with things Andrew brainstormed for his class to use in ICT and learning. The links below take you to sites which list web2.0 tools you can use in your classroom:

Remember that if you find something you wish to use with your class, you can place a link or embed the site on your KnowledgeNet class site.

Infographics

A great way to look at information in a way which makes sense. This one looks at video game statistics.

or you can work out how much radiation you expose yourself to each day or night. Very topical.

A TED video with a novel way of presenting health information:

Music listening Infographic – The future of music

Quick Ideas

Ideas for using a digital camera in the classroom.

Using a Flip camera in the classroom.

Not much I can say about this one – it does resonate slightly with Monday’s staff meeting…..

August 2010

2010-08-18T09:06:00.001+12:00

This month, a mixture of videos and links to ICT related information. I’m very keen for us to keep pushing the boundaries with ICT in the classroom – if there is something you want to try,

skyping an overseas school
editing digital images and video and music
online presentations
blogging for children
using knowledgenet
e-reflections
e-portfolios

let me know and I will give you a hand. In the meantime, let me know what you think of some of the links below:

TKI

Have you tried the new TKI website?

John Hattie

Professor John Hattie asks if teachers in their critical role as change agents, are too focused on the short term horizon - national standards, literacy and numeracy - when they should be focused on using literacy and numeracy to engage more students in the pursuit of learning.

David Warlick

is always worth reading – This post called Technology for 21st Century talsk about the importance of providing children with ready access to computers as opposed to dumping technology on them. Worth considering as we think about 1 to 1 laptop programmes in schools.

http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/?p=2712

and part 2 ……. What ICT is going to help my children learn by helping them to become literate, resourceful, and habitual learners — engaged in a learning lifestyle?

http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/?p=2706

Game Playing

Ewan McIntosh describes how in a “flexible curriculum” games can be used as a basis for creative writing and speaking, across curriculum areas, and for cross-curricular studies.

Handheld Computers

If you think inputting text into handheld devices is slow, take a look at this. Found through Derek Wenmoth’s blog:

http://blog.core-ed.net/derek/2010/08/prepare-to-change-the-way-we-write.html

50 words a minute! This has some fairly major implications about the way we view and think about handheld devices – at school?

Core Ed’s Top Ten Trends for 2010:

Go to the web page and scroll to the bottom of the page…….

Interesting Fact: Amazon has been selling hardback books for 15 years; it began selling its Kindle reader and the e-books to go with it less than three years ago.

Yet this past spring and early summer, Amazon sold 143 e-books for every 100 hardcover books, a gap that is widening quickly.

Food for Thought:

Reading, Libraries and Mathematics

2010-05-17T08:24:00.001+12:00

Booktalks – Connect your class to a NZ author. Have a look at this new resource – Classes can use Skype to set up video interviews.

http://www.booktalks.org.nz/

This is a brief presentation on Libraries as the are and as they should be by an American Library expert. Provides food for thought>

And finally, an excellent TED talk on maths which, while it is aimed at Secondary level, discusses the importance of critical problemsolving – ie not providing answer choices. Again worth listening to.

The importance of Social Media

2010-05-13T16:28:00.001+12:00

Why we need to take social networking seriously. An update on the statistics:

April - May 2010

2010-05-05T12:31:00.000+12:00

Following on from Mark Treadwell’s talk on Monday, I like the post below from Doug Johnson which reaaly illustrates the point about memory…….

When a good memory works against you

Friday, April 30, 2010 at 06:51AM

I was visiting with a local Verizon telephone support person yesterday (we were both chaperones on a middle school field trip - great fun). She made an interesting comment about her job.

When someone calls with a question about his/her cell phone operations, the person providing support is expected to use a database to get the correct answer. If the support person does not go to the database but relies on memory instead, it will result in a negative performance evaluation. Things change so quickly in the field that not checking for the most recent "fix" is irresponsible.

A system that rewards good interpersonal skills and the ability to find and use information? A system in which a good memory is not only unecessary but possibly a liability?

The ability to memorize has always been a critical skill for success in traditional education. (Memorize the capitols of all the countries in Central America, the quadratic equation, today's Spanish vocabulary words, the three branches of government, the dates of World War II ... )

Are we rewarding an obsolete skill set when we give top grades to those with good memories? After all, wouldn't you want your physician, car mechanic, airline pilot, etc. checking for updates rather than relying on a good memory?

Standardised Testing – Sir Ken Robinson

Really worth a listen.

Karen:

Being part of the Schools Loop means we can access the KAREN network for resources such as these:

http://wiki.karen.net.nz/index.php/KAREN_Content

Online magazines:

Online magazines which have content relating to teaching and leaning. Perhaps this is why I need an IPad??

http://thejournal.com/home.aspx

http://www.bbcfocusmagazine.com/

Interface magazine. As you know, the print version of this magazine is well written – aimed at teachers. There is also the website which is worth visiting for links.

Water

A Short video on the reality of bottled water:

ICT March 2010

2010-03-09T16:42:00.001+13:00

Beyond Google

This pdf has some ideas which will help you and your children move beyond the first 2 pages of Google search results. Help children make sense of the answers they are getting for their questions.

I also try to encourage children to use the tools on our search page. If they are prepared to do some thinking about where the best place is to search for information before they actually go to Google the results will be much better:

Michelle C sent me this site which I have been using with younger classes for Internet Safety.

Called Think U Know it also includes links to the very good New Zealand based internet safety site called Hector’s World. There are links to this site on our main page.

Did You Know 4.0. This is an update (Sept 2009) on the earlier versions. Worth looking at and thinking about the ramifications for us and the children we teach.

Now some websites for you.

For the Smartboard:

TES has a whole heap of free resources:

http://www.tes.iboard.co.uk/

And a couple of videos that are relevant to what is happening in schools today. The first one is Mark Treadwell who Steve and I heard last year. Mark describes the renaissance of the 14th-16th centuries and makes comparisons with the changing learning landscape of the 21st century.

Other videos relating to education and learning with a New Zealand focus are at EdTalks:

Finally, Don’t forget ICT PD Day on Wednesday (24th). I’ll be working extensively on Knowledgenet today but if there are other things you want to deal with there should be time for that as well.

February 2010

2010-02-25T11:39:00.003+13:00

After a bit of a rest, the ICT Blog is back! First up a recap of the goals for the year, then some websites you might find useful. Don’t forget to use Interface. It seems to be written for teachers by teachers and has a wealth of ICT related information and links.

I am very interested in personal learning networks and how technology can facilitate learning in this way. Spend 3 minutes watching this video and ask yourself if this isn’t a good way to learn? It throws the old homework question out the door!

Some of the sites mentioned in the video:

http://edu.glogster.com/

http://www.symbaloo.com/us/

http://www.evernote.com/

Sites of the Month:

Edutopia article on using video in the classroom.

Video Collections:

Maths at the Movies…….

Video Collection Site – organised into subject areas.

Smartboard videos on the Smart youtube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/SMARTClassrooms

Online audio editor

Supermarket maths – which queue is the quickest

Powerpoint to Youtube conversion tool – display your class powerpoints on Youtube.

Train your brain. Set up an account and watch yourself improve!

Goals for the Year (and progress from last year!)

Provided upgraded wireless access point management ( Thanks to the parents assn.)
Placed more content on KnowledgeNet
Rolled out student KnowledgeNet logins and training to Year 4 to Year 6
Implemented Parents portal to KnowledgeNet. 166 caregivers now have logins.
Implemented online roll marking
PAT Data entered in PCschool system
Migrated PCSchool to stand alone server
PCschool database changed to faster .sql software
Provided full broadband solution for 2010
Upgraded server software for 2010 ..
Mobile netbook trolley for 2010
All computer switches 1GB
Web and mail filtering in house
All school computers to be standardised on Windows 7 for 2010

What’s happening this year …..

More assessment data provided to PCSchool
- Basic facts
- ICAS Achievements
- Curric Levels/ national standards inf
Use of KnowledgeNet for class planning/teaching/communication
- Development of Parent Portal
Continued use of KnowledgeNet or Blog for communication and publication
Wider use of internet as a learning tool – Faster internet connection
Extended use of PCSchool Spider as an admin tool
Integration of Smartboards as a classroom tool
Use of video in classroom programs

Searching…….

2009-06-12T14:36:00.001+12:00

Search engines are changing. In fact the whole concept of searching is changing. Microsoft has just launched their competition to Google search:

Then there is Wolfram Alpha. A search engine that answers questions.

This is more a knowledge search than an information search and its output is in the form of a summarised table. Wolfram only searches reputable databases. It’s in its early days but could well be the future in searching

Wolfram Alpha

There are Links to both these search engines on the Wellesley search site.

And if you are interested in searching Flickr Images, try Tag Galaxy. I can only describe this as a breathtaking way of searching, refining the search and re-refining the search for images. Works really well on the smartboard.

http://taggalaxy.de/

Videos are a powerful tool in the classroom, but it’s sometimes difficult to find the right video for what your class is doing. This site has catalogued a whole lot of videos for class use.

http://www.neok12.com/

Social networking for book readers. Want to set up a group? What about a class group??

http://www.goodreads.com/ http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/114.Educator_Book_Club

Technorati Tags: searching,videos,reading

ICT and Mathematics

2009-05-12T15:36:00.001+12:00

http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivitySearch.aspx

Fantastic Maths site with games and (as you’d expect) illuminating activities for mathematicians of all ages. Some of the activities would be great for the smartboard. Highly recommended.

Remember that KnowledgeNet provides access to digital learning objects, and there’s plenty of maths ones there. Just log on, go to search and use a key word to search through the dlos. These respources are too good to ignore so have a look:

The main menu of the Wellesley maths pages has links to various interactive games and maths drill activities that some of us have used over the years. Again lot’s of these are great for a short, sharp smartboard session.

Don’t forget the New Zealand website NZMaths:

Links to lots of useful classroom maths activities and resources. And I guess I should mention the Assessment Resource Banks:

And, for the Smartboard:

This is hard to describe Universcale - A site from Nikon that compares size from very very small to very very large. Would be good to use on the Smartboard.

A Virtual Keyboard: Play it on the smartboard. Simple but clever

Inspiring Young Artists

2009-04-07T12:02:00.001+12:00

Edutopia Magazine is a part of the George Lucas Education Foundation. In it’s web form it contains articles for US Public schools, but many are relevant to us.

Edutopia article on using Youtube videos to inspire creativity in young artists: http://www.edutopia.org/arts-youtube-video-art-music For example: Claude Monet:

Van Gogh:

Also read: Art in Schools Inspires Tomorrow's Creative Thinkers

Also from an Edutopia article on Virtual Libraries, The New York Public Library has:

A Facebook Page
A Flickr Photostream
A collection of videos on Youtube
Put content on itunes U (itunes U is where computers, ipods, mobile phones and learning all converge.)

As more and more information is in non tactile forms, are Libraries having to look at ways of providing access to their digital collection as well as providing access to digital information from other sources

And another plug for Wordle – a tool for creating word clouds from text. The words which appear most frequently are given more prominence. This is a fantastic tool – simple to use - I can imagine all sorts of classroom uses for this tool. As an example, the Wellesley vision from our website produces this:

http://www.wordle.net/

So, what happens if you use a poem???? – What poem is it?

and finally, Artscope lets you view 3500 pieces of artwork from the San Francisco Museum of Fine Art:

http://www.sfmoma.org/projects/artscope/ (Takes a wee while to load!)

Some More Useful Links!

2009-03-24T11:32:00.000+13:00

Just when you thought I wouldn’t bug you with any more blog emails, here’s another one! If you get a chance, have a look at some of these links – some are good to use with your Smartboard and some provide some thought provoking ICT/Learning stuff.

I’m also writing this blog using Microsoft Live Writer which is looking to me like a very easy way to post blog entries – ie write them off line, then post them directly when you have them finished. Regular blog writers may want to try this tool.

I think I’ve posted this before but I like videos and this is a great commercial!

The above site is worth a browse……..

1,000-year-old fishing trap found on Google Earth Britain's most ancient fishing trap has been discovered off the coastline of Wales after research carried out on Google Earth.

For The Smartboard:

Try this timezone map - Good smartboard tool??

Interactive science and engineering for 9 to 12 year olds. For interactive, read game!

Or try these byte sized activities from the BBC for Year 1 / 2. ps I think the narrator eats pork pies and drinks scrumpy!

Interesting:

Wow Science investigation! Teenagers armed with only a £56 camera and latex balloon have managed to take stunning pictures of space from 20-miles above Earth.

Are our kids Narcissistic??? The growing expectation placed on schools and parents to boost pupils' self-esteem is breeding a generation of narcissists, an expert has warned. A BBC article

Or try Don Trapscott’s view:

Video of the Week:

More next week!

PD January 29 2009

2009-01-29T10:55:00.001+13:00

PD Link.

Hard Fun: Logo and Scratch

2008-10-07T14:00:00.001+13:00

Term 3 2008

2008-09-24T14:05:00.014+12:00

Whew, it's a while since I've done one of these. Beginning of this term actually. During the term we have implemented KnowledgeNet as our intranet. I'll be doing some more PD on this early next term, but you should have logins for all your students now and should distribute these for next term.

Also on the PD agenda for next term is using PCSchool Spider to view class and student details, print of class lists, and mark the roll.

Meanwhile, here's some sites you may be interested in:

Book Wink - dedicated to inspiring children to read - uses video and podcasting

Whyville - social networking for primary age children in a safe environment.
Background for teachers

Terri Husted's Homepage - Maths for teachers

From Interface Magazine:

Good idea #1 - Musical computers - Just like musical chairs except that you have to write and continue a story at each computer. Lesson Plan here.
Good Idea #2 Colour coded grammar activity.

Virtual Body - good animated body part models. Smartboards?

Speaking of Smartboards, all smartboard computers will be upgraded to Notebook v10 in the next wee while. Notebook 10 has some new features which Aaron will be working with next term. New Features:

New Look
• improved user interface
• toolbar customization
• Welcome Center
Notebook Software File Creation and Delivery
• page grouping
• customizable themes
• Senteo™ software question insertion
• SMART Document Camera image insertion
• Magic Pen tool
• table integration
• active alignment
• object animation
• SMART recorder
• shape recognition tool
• color and gradient fill effects
• spell check
Other Tools and Features
• SMART Learning Marketplace access
• Online Essentials for Educators
• security features

http://www2.smarttech.com/kbdoc/118455

Or with the smartboard look at these space interactives.

http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072482621/student_view0/interactives.html#

Phases of the moon:

Got some time during the holidays? Add effects to some of your digital photos here:

http://www.dumpr.net/

Who has a Facebook Page? From a survey of 31,000 Employers:

More than 1 in 5 employers said they found information on social networking sites about prospective employees

Top areas of concern:

information about alcohol or drug use
inappropriate photos of information
poor communication skills
bad mouthing former employers

Careful what you put on your facebook site!

A New Term.

2008-07-24T21:22:00.005+12:00

Teacher Day 25 July

Mathletics

This is all go for this term. Please make sure you have your teacher login so that you can print off the usernames and passwords for your class.

You should also spend a bit of time familiarising yourself with the teacher interface so that you are able to keep an eye on what your students are doing. I'll run you through an introductory session this morning.

Logon to Mathletics here!

Remember that Mathletics provides you with some detailed reports of what your students have been doing. It's worth spending a bit of time here.

Intranet

The new Wellesley website is due to launch on 4 August. Sneak preview:

From that date the existing website will be gone and the school network computers will point at the new public intranet page. The link to this page is below. This page will be available anywhere (not just at school) and has a initial list of links which will be refined and updated. It's not much to look at yet but it will be refined in the next couple of weeks.

http://wellesley.knowledge.net.nz/index.php?page=home

You will also see a school calendar which is a public version of the school calendar we all know and love. The plan is that this calendar will become the planning calendar which we currently use. Calendar items will be entered or edited by any staff members, and when you enter the item, you will need to decide who should view the item. Some may be for teacher view only, some may be student and/or parent as well.

Logging on to Knowledgenet (the intranet / Learning Management Site will give you a staff version or student version of the calendar, depending on who you are.

You will also see a notices section. Again, this is a public notice view, logging on will show you a student or staff version of these notices. Notices can be placed by any staff member for any group – whole school or class.

This all means that the calendar and notices can be prepared with the audience in mind. Students will only see student notices.

Logging on to Knowledgenet will also provide:

E reflection area

Booking Calendars:
- Mobile Trolleys
- Technology Room
- Hall
- Van

Personal web page/ work area

Digital Learning object repository

Collaboration areas

Library Development

The architect has prepared some basic drawings. Jane, Warren and I like the hall/ library/ICT area combo the best, but this will also be the most expensive.

Student Management System

This will be accessible from within the intranet as long as you are at school through a web browser. I am installing the web access to PCschool during next week. Again you will get a username and password – I'll try to integrate the usernames and passwords as far as possible! I hope the first stage will be to complete the roll through this. I would expect this to be under way during this term. Then we'll be able to provide access to assessment data like PAT and STAR. After that.......

I'll run a training session as soon as it's up and running.

ICT Prof Dev Cluster

We have completed a proposal to form an ICT Cluster for 2009 – 2011. This would mean ICT continuing to be a major focus during these years.

General

From the Google Blog:
Our Googley advice to students: Major in learning
7/15/2008 05:48:00 PM

Management guru Peter Drucker noted that companies attracting the best knowledge workers will "secure the single biggest factor for competitive advantage." We and other forward-looking companies put a lot of effort into hiring such people. What are we looking for?

At the highest level, we are looking for non-routine problem-solving skills. We expect applicants to be able to solve routine problems as a matter of course. After all, that's what most education is concerned with. But the non-routine problems offer the opportunity to create competitive advantage, and solving those problems requires creative thought and tenacity.

Blog Competition Winner for Term 2:

Darren's efforts in the sport area:

http://wellesleyhockey.edublogs.org/

http://wellesleype.edublogs.org/

http://wellesleycoltssport.edublogs.org/

Judges comment was that this was not an easy task!

Mathletics, Knowledgenet and other stuff.

2008-06-23T20:27:00.004+12:00

Mathletics and Knowledgenet

I'll send around your teacher logins for mathletics this week. When you log in you'll be able to print out your maths class logins and passwords in case you want to get into it before the end of the term.

I'll go over the basics of teacher admin on teacher only day anyway. There is a login link on the Wellesley Maths page.

Knowledgenet is our new Learning Management system and Intranet. I've started populating this with our intranet stuff, and there will be usernames and passwords for this as well (but only for accessing certain parts of it. More on teacher only day!

And remember the blog competition. I've organised a judge to check them out next week, so make sure you blog is up to date before then.

Smartboards

Wordle

Have a play with Wordle – a tool which lets you create word clouds with examples of text. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.

For example, the cloud below is constructed from the Wellesley Philosophy as it appears on the school web site.

Which words are given prominence? What does it tell you?

How could you use this on the Smartboard?

Smartboard cartoons - Welcome to Hunkin's Experiments. Cool cartoons that will have you experimenting with food, light, sound, clothes, and a whole lot more!! Hundreds of cartoon experiments from cartoonist, broadcaster and engineer Tim Hunkin.

http://www.hunkinsexperiments.com/

ICT Sessions at Wellesley

These are some images relating to work done by your boys in ICT. First some edited digital photos using online editing web site Fotoflexer:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27595273@N05/sets/72157605585388227/

And some 2d images of 3d designed vehicles in Google Sketchup.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27595273@N05/sets/72157605578770018/

Young Minds, Fast Times: The Twenty-First-Century Digital Learner

How tech-obsessed iKids would improve our schools. Marc Prensky

http://www.edutopia.org/ikid-digital-learner-technology-2008

An interesting article. What do you think:

Turn teen texting toward better writing

Teachers who co-opt Web tools for class have the best of both worlds.

"Our student bloggers and digital writers of all backgrounds are part of a journaling culture which America has not seen since the great age of diarists during the Transcendental movement, when Thoreau and Emerson recorded their daily lives for eventual public consumption."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0513/p09s02-coop.html?page=1

Thinking and Learning

2008-05-14T15:12:00.010+12:00

21st Century Learning Skills:

From the Thinkfinity site mentioned below

In some respects, the potential of 21st century learning lies in the
exploration of how digital tools (cameras, presentation software, computing
equipment) and online resources can support and enhance traditional
subjects,skills and teaching practices. The Internet alone provides students
with enormous opportunities to access:

· A trove of primary source documents previously located on library
shelves, but now available online through digital archives.
· Authentic scientific data across a range of fields from current and historical
meteorological forecast data to economic statistics
· Geospatial tools that combine data with dynamic maps
· Global communications media that make distance collaboration, cross-cultural exchanges and rich media experiences possible

How many of these opportunities do we provide for our students?

Inquiry
Fantastic inventions site via the Smithsonian Institute:

Authors and Reading:

This is the link I sent around earlier in the week of Michael Rosen interviewing various authors:
http://www.teachers.tv/readingaloud

Video of the Week:

Principal from hell! Rowan Atkinson deals with the problem of boys not issuing books from the library.........
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBeguUvuDzs
Actually we have some books taken without being issued; perhaps we could try this technique?

Searching

Just discovered this Boolean Search graphical tool! We have some information on Boolean searching on our search site and it is a tool all searchers for information need to employ to some degree.:

But this is a very clever way of seeing how it works. The example in the image uses a search for information on Wellesley College but not including USA but including New Zealand results.I would think this would be good to do on the Smartboard!

And if you have a Vista machine, have you tried the snipping tool??

Under accessories, it enables you to take images of anything that is on your desktop and either copy it to the clipboard, or save it to an image file.

Blogs

What’s a blog? 6 and 7 year olds from Nelson Central School talk about what a blog is:

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=601b9f31bf04019c8593

Smartboard Activities:

For Juniors, try Animal Riddles:
http://www.meddybemps.com/riddles/

The Kids Network has a large number of categorised educational resources.

Thinkfinity is another one with links to a large number of interactive resources.

More stuff for your Class - May

2008-05-06T14:26:00.019+12:00

This could be useful for the senior school inquiry this term: Time Magazine's best inventions for 2006. Did they do one in 2007? I haven't found it yet.

From Interface mag ( In the staffroom, well worth a browse) These activities are interesting rather than being stupendously educational. They're worth a play, though.

Linerider – try it on the whiteboard – pure wet day fun!
http://linerider.com/play-line-rider-online

Grammar Ninja someone’s independent study!
http://www.kwarp.com/animations/grammarninja.html

Genius Boxing – Pick a fight with Archimedes, Einstein, etc
http://www.mrnussbaum.com/geniusboxing1.htm

Or if you really need a low intensity activity, try this on the Smartboard!! Virtual bubblewrap.....
http://smartboards.typepad.com/smartboard/files/bubblewrap.swf Manic mode seems to work best for me.(especially at the end of the day.)
where would you assess ithe thinking skills involved on the SOLO scale????

Or Have a look at Newsmap on your smartboard:
http://www.marumushi.com/apps/newsmap/index.cfm

Newsmap is an application that visually reflects the constantly changing landscape of the Google News news aggregator. A really interesting way of looking at the news.

And:

Scicity – Hosted by Otago Museum and IBM - SciCity is a rich learning environment that utilises innovative new technology to engage young New Zealanders in ongoing interactive experiences.
SciCity has direct links to the revised New Zealand curriculum. It achieves success by approaching many hard to reach curriculum areas in a fun and creative way.
Scicity is here I’ve used it in ICT sessions last year, so ask if you need help. Meet your class in Scicity!

Teacher resources are here!

Using your Smartboard with maths. Have a look at this video. Persevere, it’s worth watching as he is using the recorder feature of the notebook software. Maybe something to get an able child to try with........ say.....long division??
http://csdsmarties.blogspot.com/2008/03/adding-fractions-flash-student.html

Class tools of a varying nature : http://www.classtools.net/

Youtube Corner:
Classics:

Teenage Affluenza:

The Piano:

Kiwi:

And for a better ending for Kiwi:

Technology and Art

2008-03-14T12:18:00.001+13:00

Is this Art?? This was created using a web based graphics editor ( http://fotoflexer.com/) by Vinay in 78T. He used the digital photo below as a base. Is this artistic? creative? or sneaky!? There are lots of ways of creatively altering digital photos. The darkroom of the past is What do you think Eve?

More for Smartboards

Great to see some of the maths basic facts games being used on smartboards around the place. I used the jetski race one with my maths class ( http://arcademicskillbuilders.com/games/jetski/jetski.html) -an excellent way to improve basic facts speed - Set up a hosted game and as well as competing against the computer, you could end up competing against some whizz kid from USA? China?

Try your smartboard with some of the activities below:

Geosense – pinpoint cities of the world. This is a challenging activity - good for able students

And from the same maker – a vocabulary game – try it in year 7 and 8 with able spellers. http://www.wordslide.net/

Or a simpler vocab game from Roy the Zebra:

Do you think you know the countries of the Middle East?? Try the map game from Rethinking Schools – fantastic for the Smartboard! It's harder than you would think.

Articles worth reading:

When Mum or Dad Asks To Be a Facebook 'Friend' Social networking and parents! A Washington Post article.

And the video selection for this week!
Some Brazilian Football Skills:

And the famous Bush Blair Duet:

Smartboards

2008-02-17T15:16:00.007+13:00

Welcome to 2008!

Continuing on the theme of Smartboards, here are some links to resources you might find useful in your class.

The Wicked! website has some maths games and interectives which lend themselves well to smartboard use. Really good for students to work on their basic facts:

http://www.tki.org.nz/r/wick_ed/maths/interactives.php

Another basic facts site with some speed games to improve basic facts recall:

http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/

This looks like a good resource too - a blog dedicated to the use of smartboards. Spend a few minutes looking around here:

http://www.smartboards.typepad.com/

And courtesy of Interface, the NZ ICT in schools magazine, a growing list of NZ teachers who maintain blogs.

http://www.nz-interface.co.nz/teacherblogs/

And on the same site, a group of pdf files which contain ICT related lesson plans:

http://www.nz-interface.co.nz/lesson_plans.cfm

Perhaps your students could try some artwork on the smartboard at:

http://www.kerpoof.com/

That's enough for now! Remember to flick your projector off at lunchtimes, or if you're out of the classroom for a while.

Some more Useful Stuff!!

2007-11-23T13:16:00.001+13:00

In times of rapid change, the learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.
- Eric Hoffer

Try this cool tool. Great for the Smartboard. Visuwords - an online graphical dictionary and thesaurus. Talk about making links... It's a stunning resource.

Here is the link to the WickED site on TKI which Warren mentioned this morning. Interactives, games and I think the Information Station is a sound template for learners to base their information search on.

Another Web 2.0 site aimed at providing a publishing place for children to share their writing.

http://www.kidpub.com/

Hello, India? I Need Help With My Math - More evidence of a Flat World - get someone in India to take care of your domestic chores and homework support. From the New York Times

You've got an Ipod for your music; when will you get one of these for your books? You can buy books for it from Amazon.

We are moving from:
“do your own work” to “work with others”
“just in case” to “just in time” learning
“hand it in” to “publish it.”
- Will Richardson

Is the following a worry????

According to the National Science Foundation (NSF, www.nsf.gov/statistics), the average U.S.
citizen understands very little science. For example:

66% do not understand DNA, “margin of error,” the scientific process, and do not believe in evolution.
50% do not know how long it takes the earth to go around the sun, and a quarter does not even know that the earth goes around the sun.
50% think humans coexisted with dinosaurs and believe antibiotics kill viruses.

On the other hand, according to the NSF, the general public believes in a lot of pseudoscience.

88% believe in alternative medicine.
50% believe in extrasensory perception and faith healing.
40% believe in haunted houses and demonic possession.
33% believes in lucky numbers, ghosts, telepathy, clairvoyance, astrology, and that UFOs are aliens from space.
25% believes in witches and that we can communicate with the dead. *

And did you know that:

In Shanghai, a new building of 30 stories or more has been completed every 12 days for the last six years.

The computer is the primary instrument for intellectual and creative work in our society.
- Gary Stager

Skype, Voicethread and useful links

2007-10-11T15:36:00.000+13:00

Skype is a great tool for the classroom. Suddenly video conferencing, once a complicated, expensive process is within the reach of any computer user. It's as simple as using a telephone, except that with webcams involved you can see who you're talking to!

If you have friends or family overseas, commiunicate with them via Skype or consider using Skype with your class in Term 4 http://share.skype.com/sites/en/2006/12/using_skype_for_global_telecon.html

This story is worth revisiting - a school using Skype to communicate with a pupil who has leukemia

More Class skype advice: http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/10/using-skype-in-classroom-or-just.html

If anyone wants to use Skype to communicate with a class overseas this term, Let me know!!!

Web Tool for Learning:

VoiceThread is a pretty cool and easy way to produce audio visual photo albums. I think there are a number of ways you could use it in the classroom.

What is a Voicethread?

In the classroom?? Mrs Buchanan

Or a PD presentation Jack's monster cards

The ministry of Education is publishing some guidelines on dyslexia. You can find them here: http://www.tki.org.nz/r/literacy_numeracy/lit_dyslexia_e.php

Library Week is next week! This site has links to various activities designed to coincide with library week. http://www.libraryweek.org.nz/index.php

Interface is a New Zealand ICT magazine which you will be able to find in the staffroom. Lots of case studies, information and ideas for expanding the use of ICT in your class.
Interface free lesson plans! http://www.nz-interface.co.nz/lesson_plans.cfm

Make your own online assessment rubrics. These sites have web based rubric makers on them plus some useful templates.

http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php
http://myt4l.com/index.php?v=pl&page_ac=view&type=tools&tool=rubricmaker
And lots more stuff on rubrics:
http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/assess.html

Comprehensive list of ICT related links from Western Australia. This site covers a wide range of areas with links to further information. Anything you wanted to know could be found here!
http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/cmis/eval/curriculum/ict/index.htm

News Clips:

Second Life for 6 year olds:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4225702a28.html

Club Penguin : In August Disney paid $US350 million for Canada-based Club
Penguin, with a promise of $US350 million more if it meets its traffic targets.
Club Penguin says it has 10 million users, of whom 700,000 have managed to
persuade their parents to pay subscriptions of a few dollars a month so they can
use virtual money to buy clothes for their penguins and furniture to decorate
their igloos.
They can go waterskiing, hang out on the beach, play games or
work as waiters in the pizzeria.

Something for the classroom in 5 years? CONTEX Z450 3D printer

Inquiry, Videos for Teaching and Google Earth/Sky

2007-08-28T12:31:00.001+12:00

This post and all archived posts and links are available here.

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:

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:

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

2007-08-14T09:11:00.001+12:00

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

Links for Learning July 2007

2007-07-30T12:41:00.000+12:00

Try some of these learning links:

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1626519,00.html
What different families eat in a week - photo essay from Time magazine which is an interesting and graphic way of showing what different families from aroud the world eat in one week.

Maths Week 2007: http://www.nzamt.org.nz/sites/cms/

Reading Books - have a look at the forum, quizzes etc in the Reader's cafe
http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/readerscafe/
Or take a look at Book Backchat: http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/bookchat/home.php

More Maths? MC Escher? Try the Schmuzzle site - a mildly addictive, gentle sort of maths game...http://shmuzzles.com/shmuzzle/shmuzzle.htm
More stuff here: http://shmuzzles.com/more_shmuzzling.htm

New to Te Ara (NZ Encyclopedia)
Sea life web site. Fantastic looking resource http://www.teara.govt.nz/EarthSeaAndSky/SeaLife/en
Weather Resource: http://www.teara.govt.nz/EarthSeaAndSky/ClimateAndAtmosphere/Weather/en
Natural Environment: http://www.teara.govt.nz/NewZealandInBrief/NaturalEnvironment/en

Worldmapper is a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest.
There are 366 maps, also available as PDF posters. Use the menu above or click on a thumbnail image below to view a map.
http://www.worldmapper.org/

Why news organisations are edgy: More than 59 million people (37.3 percent of all active Internet users) visited newspaper Web sites on average during the second quarter of 2007, a record number that represents a 7.7 percent increase over the same period a year ago, according to custom analysis provided by Nielsen//NetRatings for the Newspaper Association of America. In addition, newspaper Web site visitors generated nearly 2.7 billion page views per month throughout the quarter, compared to slightly more than 2.5 billion during the same period last year. The second quarter figures are the highest for any quarter since NAA began tracking these numbers in 2004.

And finally, ever noticed the blindspot in your car when you are about to change lanes? Try adjusting your mirrors slightly:
http://www.cartalk.com/content/features/mirrors/index.html

ICT Learning Challenges #3 - Digital Photos

2007-06-08T12:16:00.001+12:00

Using your Smartboard.

This teacher has used the record feature of the smartboard so that her children can create small videos of maths strategies - then posted them to Youtube. Could be a powerful tool for creating learning animations...... (If you can't see the embedded video, click here.)

What is this? (answer below)

Digital Photos.

Extract from the Infinite Thinking Machine Blog:
http://www.infinitethinking.org/2007/05/youve-got-to-see-it-to-learn-it.html

Marzano's (2001) strategies for increasing student achievement are important in Visalia (and in many other districts), so we discussed ways digital cameras (and Picasa) could be used to support several of these research-based strategies, including the following:

Ask students to compare or classify images.
Ask students to delete, edit, or re-order images to facilitate analysis of the information at a deep level.
Create a slide show to recognize student effort, achievement, and mastery.
Create a slide show to illustrate time-sequence, or cause-effect patterns.
Use images to document individual and group accountability - or to facilitate group reflection.
Use images to support “corrective” feedback. (The instant nature of digital
images – and means of sharing digital images – can facilitate timely
feedback.)
Use images taken with your digital camera as cues and advance
organizers.

In preparation for the workshop I also combed the web for inspirational ideas using digital cameras and Picasa in the classroom. I offered the participants a list of a dozen ideas:

Slideshows for Back to School Night or Open House
Slideshows of Performances, Celebrations, Assemblies, or Field Trips
Photo Yearbooks (For a school, a class, or a club!)
Photo Journalism, Documentaries, or Dramatizations
Time Lapsed Photography (Especially in science!)
Class Books (Think big books!)
Story Books (“Digital Story Telling”)
How-To Guides (Address non-fiction standards!)
Exercises in Classifying, Categorizing, or Compare and Contrast.
Photos as Anticipatory Sets, Writing Prompts, or Review
Document Learning (Great for parent conferences!)
Photo Portfolios (Can be used for student presentations, too!)

Other ideas for using digital photos in the classroom:

http://its.leesummit.k12.mo.us/digitalmedia.htm

100 ways to use digital cameras in the classroom (Scholastic)

10 Tips for Taking great photos

The Register of Known Spam Operations (ROKSO) database collates information and evidence on known professional spam operations that have been terminated by a minimum of 3 Internet Service Providers for spam offenses.
200 Known Spam Operations responsible for 80% of your spam.

And, sadly, for the conservation club:

10 animals that won't exist in 10 years

Answer:

Shift Happens

2007-05-17T11:16:00.000+12:00

This is a really compelling slideshow - interesting for anyone but especially for teachers. You might want to share it with your class.

This slideshow comes via Slideshare a an online application where you can share slideshows - useful for a class??

ICT and Challenges #2

2007-05-15T08:55:00.000+12:00

We can all take digital photos but everyone can benefit from editing photos before using them. Computers come with simple tools for photo editing, but Web 2.0 has meant you can now edit your photos online for free.

In the sites below you can resize, remove redeye, change the colour and add a huge number of other creative effects. Sometimes it's appropriate to edit them for effect. The photo at the top of the page has been cropped, recoloured and darkened to produce the effects shown. However, even if you only use the rotate, cropping and brighten tool, you'll end up with much better quality photos.

If you take digital photos and don't use an editor, you're only doing half the job.

Digital Photo editing:
http://pixenate.com/
http://pixer.us/
http://www.picnik.com/

How could you make digital photo editing a challenge for your learners? Powerpoint, Photostory 3 and Moviemaker are all tools which can be used for creating a photo story.

Photo stories are really powerful means of persuasion and Moviemaker and Photostory will let you add text, commentary, background music to your digital photos and produce the end result as a video. Have a look at the examples embedded in the 7N Blog and Performing Arts Blog

More on Searching

One of the major issues I have is kids searching for information using a search engine like Google and very general keywords - needle in a haystack stuff - 50 million hits - might as well drop them off outside the National Library on a Saturday evening for all the quality information they will find....

A solution: As well as teaching them to be discriminating and clever searchers, try this: A Google tool which will enable you as the teacher to select which websites Google searches. Got that?
Tell it which websites you want it to search! Easy to set up and place in your Class blog. Remember your class blog doesn't just have to be used for communicating with parents. Use it as a classroom tool as well.

Why wouldn't you do it????

Here's an example: I have put the panel below onto our Climate Change page and also onto the Wellesley Search Page. It will only search the websites on that page. I can continue to add or remove websites from the search engine as I need to. Is this useful? I'd call it essential!

Try it:

Create your own custom search engine here: http://www.google.com/coop/

When a Question becomes a Challenge

2007-05-08T16:59:00.000+12:00

I like the idea of learning challenges. We used to do technology challenges - things like create a sequence of events which will result in a mouse trap being triggered and a balloon bursting or firing table tennis ball as below. I remember that small groups of children spent lots of time discussing, planning and executing their process.

I guess we don't tend to do this stuff any more because of "curriculum pressure" but I have been thinking about challenges and learning lately. Children often respond well to challenges. Often when I do some work with a class on Logo - a simple maths programming program - I find them in the ICT room at lunch time trying things out ....playing ...experimenting. This is in preference to more sophisticated bells and whistles type games which they could be using at lunch time. What is it about Logo which captures them?
I once set a challenge to design one click Logo bicycle using simple logo commands. Here is one boy's response:

How much time would this code have taken to think about, experiment with and check? Believe me, a lot of time!
Here's the result:

It's the same with something like Google SketchUp. Show children the basics and they will always take it further. Go into the ICT room at lunchtime at the moment end you will find half a dozen children experimenting with SketchUp.

Perhaps we need to include more challenges in everyday learning. Jamie McKenzie encourages questions which set up a challenge with the very nature of the question.

What did James Cook get wrong?
Was James Cook a good leader?
Which is the better city - Wellington or San Francisco?
What is the best thing about living in Wellington?
How will Helen Clarke be remembered?
What makes a good leader?
Why do people live at Castlepoint?
Should all endangered species be preserved?
What is the price of progress?
How is a hero different from a celebrity?
Why does the rain fall?

Or the challenge of "decoding" an image. Look for an image you can use on Flickr:

What is this all about?
How was it created?
Is there a story behind it?
What does it say?

Creative Commons Originally uploaded by ocean.flynn.

Or a riddle:
What is so fragile that when you say its name you break it?

It amounts to persuading children to leap off the scaffolding - both that provided by teacher support and the "scaffolding" of raw information. Any learner can copy and paste but can any learner use the information to answer a challenging question or resolve a challenge?

In the next few weeks I want to reinforce the ways in which ICT especially can help create think inducing challenges.

Questioning

2007-05-01T15:20:00.000+12:00

Well done all of you who are maintaining your class blogs. They look good especially when they are regularly updated. Wednesday afternoon we will look at blogs if you are having trouble or have any questions.

One of the key parts of the Inquiry Process relates to questioning. This is so critical and difficult to fine tune in the classroom. Andrew does a lot of work with Essential Questions with 78T and Jamie McKenzie deals with questions comprehensively. It's worth revisiting some of his articles:
An index of a large number of questioning articles.

Some useful J McK articles:
http://www.questioning.org/sep04/irrelevant.html
http://www.questioning.org/questionpress.html
http://www.questioning.org/may04/serialquestioners.html

And especially the gargoyle article - Christine and Andrew probably remember this:
http://fno.org/feb01/pl.html

Socratic Questioning - http://changingminds.org/techniques/questioning/socratic_questions.htm

And I have ordered a copy of these books:

Another take on essential queations:
http://mrscaldwell0.edublogs.org/2007/03/09/166

Interesting Stuff on the Web:

Well then, who's responsible for global warming on Mars??? If Mars is warming up as well, and there are no humans or motor vehicles on Mars.....
Mars is being hit by rapid climate change and it is happening so fast that the red planet could lose its southern ice cap, writes Jonathan Leake.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1720024.ece

Videos for educators: http://www.nextvista.org/ A growing site with downloadable educational videos.

Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/66

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrp-FT51zPE Table tennis but not as we (I) know it!

Using tags in art museums - a new way to find things you're interested in: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/28/arts/artsspecial/28social.html?ex=1177646400&en=7a58b2951a48dbad&ei=5070

Student Art - Sydney: http://www.insideartexpress.com.au/exhibition/walk_through

Global Warming

2007-04-02T12:10:00.001+12:00

With next term's inquiry coming up, don't forget to use the EPIC resources which can cover anything from Encyclopedia Britannica online to world periodicals like National Geographic and New Scientist. You can't afford to ignore this information source:

EPIC (Login details on Intranet Page)

Speaking of global warming.... there are a couple of interesting houses here. One belongs to George Bush, the other to Al Gore. I wonder which is more eco friendly??http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/house.asp

I wonder what they do with their pastic bags. Maybe they don't use any:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/27/environment.baggs.reut/index.html

More Wellesley Global Warming Sites

This New Zealand history site provides history by date. Would be a useful thing to use with your smartboard:

http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/calendar

Youtube for teachers! Worth a look to see what sort of videos are being posted by teachers for teachers.

http://www.teachertube.com/

A Blog aimed at teachers, focussing on the next generation of learners:

http://www.nextgenteachers.com/

A social network for teachers! Classroom 2.0 -

http://classroom20.ning.com/

The World in A4 Paper:

http://www.petercallesen.com/index/index2.html How can anyone be so creative with just a plain bit of A4 paper????

Searching Again, Smartboards and TV on Demand

2007-03-21T15:55:00.000+12:00

From: Those Dark Hiding Places: The Invisible Web Revealed - Robert J. Lackie, Associate Professor-Librarian, Rider University

"The Web," according to Chris Sherman, Internet search expert and Associate Editor of SearchEngineWatch.com, "is increasingly moving away from being a collection of documents and becoming a multidimensional repository for sounds, images, audio, and other formats." Because much of this information is not accessible to many general search engines' software spiders, we need to look for specific search tools that will lead us to this hidden content. Some of these tools include directories, searchable sites, free Web databases, and a few general and many specialized search engines. Begin searching with...

Directories and Portals when you:

have a broad topic
want selected, evaluated, and annotated collections
prefer quality over quantity

Invisible or Deep Web [searchable sites and databases] when you:

are looking for information that is likely in a database

are looking for information that dynamically changes in content

Search engines [general and specialized] when you:

have a narrow topic

want to take advantage of the newer retrieval technologies

http://www.robertlackie.com/invisible/index.html#engines

SmartBoard Resources:

http://education.smarttech.com/ste/en-US/Ed+Resource/Software+Resources/default.htm

http://education.smarttech.com/ste/en-US/Ed+Resource/Lesson+activities/International+Lesson+Activities/Aus_NZ-+Notebook+Activities/ (specific Australian and New Zealand stuff)

http://www.newdealedzone.com/whiteboardres.html

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

http://www.unit5.org/foxcreekimc/smartboardresources.htm

http://my-ecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=9346

http://www.smart-education.org/

These should keep you busy for a while....quite a while! Don't forget to try using Google Earth or Google maps with your smartboard.

This looks to be an excellent Global Warming site - From American Radio works. I'll add it to our list of sites. http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/earlysigns/index.html

Maths manipulatives: http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html

It's the time of the year for sore throats. If you feel one coming on, it might be worth trying this remedy: http://www.myfinancialjourney.com/archive/frugal-cure-for-a-sore-throat

Who says house prices can't drop? Try selling your house in Detroit! http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070319/ts_nm/usa_subprime_detroit_dc;_ylt=Aov5dA96IapEm53NtFaK6N0EtbAF

The way of the future? Have a look at TVNZs video on demand site. Look at the previews of TVNZ shows or watch the Lions play the All Blacks at Carisbrook in 1966. (Before my time, but Steve would remember it.) http://tvnzondemand.co.nz/content/ondemand_index/ondemand_skin

Shrinking the World Tools and Busy Teachers

2007-03-16T15:15:00.001+13:00

I've put a site which contains links to Climate change information. Have a look and see if you can use it, or suggest some more sites. I'll update it with more links as we go.

Wellesley links for Climate Change

I mentioned Google maps last week. Did anyone have a play? Just open it up and type in any address in the world.... yes that's right!... any address in the world for a zoomable map which shows the actual address on a map or if you like the satellite image. There are a growing number of web tools out there that pull together web features in a useful way.

Or have you tried Google Earth? Again there are huge possibilities for using Google earth in the classroom. If you want some ideas try these links:

There are other search engines than Google. In fact their are about 500,000 of them. Maybe in a school a talking search engine is good idea. Ask the question and hear the answer. Here are two of them - both "manned" by women interestingly enough.

Try ask Vox:

And if you really want the full on search experience, try Ms Dewey. But she's not for kids and don't keep her waiting for too long.

Spreadsheets

I often think we don't use spreadsheets enough. Excel is a powerful tool which can be used to achieve a range of tasks - not just graphing! If you haven't used a spreadsheet in the past, have a look at this useful list of relevant ways of using spreadsheets in the classroom.

http://www.west.asu.edu/achristie/CTC/spreadsheets.html

Busy Teachers

This is a repeat of a quoted blog from last year. It's from Dean Shareski in his Blog Ideas and Thoughts of an EdTech and I think it bears repeating:

Our culture is obsessed with being busy. When’s the last time you asked someone about their job or life and they didn’t use the word busy? It’s worn like a badge of honor. To even hint you might not be busy, conjures up visions of laziness and lack of ambition. As we plan various activities and events for schools, I’ll often hear, “that’s a busy time for schools”. Tell me when it’s not a busy time?

That fact that everyone is busy should be a given by now. It’s almost akin to breathing. Should I preface every statement about my current state of existence by stating that, “I’ve been really breathing lately….consuming a lot of oxygen.”

I’m trying to stop acting like I’m so busy and telling everyone how busy I am. No one really cares and it’s nothing worth talking about. Telling folks about how busy you are creates too many negative images. Talking about busyness does not usually leave the impression you love your job. I do love my job so maybe I don’t think of myself as busy. My job is to support teachers. When a teacher asks for my support, I figure out how to help. I don’t need to remind them how busy I am because they’re just as busy. I want to give people the impression that I have lots of time for them. They need to feel relaxed and I’d like to alleviate some of the stress they might be feeling in their daily grind. Life and work shouldn’t be taken so seriously. Relax. I’ve worked with some great people that I know were extremely busy but always had time to chat with me about work, life and I dare say it, even fun, non-work related stuff.

I think this is the type of classroom we ought to be creating. One where teachers have lots of time to work with students and there is less a sense of panic and mayhem and more one of calm and reflection. Is this possible?

How could we achieve this in our classrooms?

Maps, Pictures and Interesting Stuff.

2007-03-04T20:54:00.001+13:00

The diagrams below come from David Warlick - who recently keynoted at the Learning in Schools ICT conference in Rotorua. I think it's a useful illustration of the changing nature of schooling.

School 1.0 is traditional classroom structure - the teacher being the centre of the classroom - the font of all knowledge:

The second diagram represents the modern classroom - a blurred definition of who is learning an who is teaching - more sharing, facilitation and interaction

There are some very powerful web technologies available you you to use with your class. How about mapping?

Do you get your children to draw maps?

I think it is a useful skill but I don't know.... In an age where you can alternate maps and satellite images with a click of a mouse, you've got to wonder whether or not there is a more powerful mapping activity to be had than simply drawing a map:

Have a look at Castlepoint - Here's the google map found with Google maps and the key words Castlepoint, New Zealand. Zoom in and click the Satellite Image and then the hybrid image:

Castlepoint, Wellington, New Zealand

or Mataikona? Mataikona, Wellington, New Zealand

I have put a Wellesley College location map on the website.

These maps and images can be printed off then drawn on etc. - Use with a smartboard.....

Or you could use this web site which uses google maps, to plan, map and time your walk, run, cycle or swim. Punch in Wellington, Eastbourne or Lower Hutt and set it to work. Classroom applications????

For more teaching ideas there is the Google sponsored Infinite Thinking Machine, a Blog which aims to provide ideas to help teachers and students thrive in the 21st century.

This article by Stephen Downes titled Elearning 2.0 really sets the scene for a lot of the things I have been talking about in the past six months.

As we approach the halfway mark of the new millennium's first decade, the nature of the Internet, and just as importantly, the people using the Internet, has begun to change. These changes are sweeping across entire industries as a whole and are not unique to education; indeed, in many ways education has lagged behind some of these trends and is just beginning to feel their wake.

Full article found here!

And (in case you haven't read enough) this week's New York magazine has an article called:

Kids, the Internet and the End of Privacy: The Greatest generation gap since Rock and Roll

A mixture of interesting Websites:

Create your own wall sized posters with this online poster creator. Just upload your image!
100 words and pictures which define the Time. Ten by Ten
What's the most popular word? Look at the word count.
Amazing use of images. One family's photos over a 30 year period.
Ever wanted to know what's special about any number?
Let them sing for you! Very clever - just type in the lyrics and click the arrow. (I tried Taumarunui)
Ahh, digital bubblewrap!!!!
And for all those difficult questions, ask Calvin's (Calvin and Hobbes) Dad for the real answers.

ICT making a Difference

2007-02-20T12:59:00.001+13:00

Great to see the Blogs up and running. Remember we can link to a web page if you want to add a photo album. That would involve me uploading the photos to our school website. If you wanted to be totally self sufficient you could use Flickr - create a class account and upload photos to there. Here are some Flickr instructions. And for more ideas on using Flickr in the classroom.

Some of you may have used Skype - the internet telephone service which can enable you to talk or videophone your friends across the internet free.

Here is an example of a class using skype to include a class member who has cancer and has to stay at home. A great example of using the technology to make a difference. Only takes 5 minutes......
inclusion video (right click - save target as then double click downloaded file)

We all know that learners need to learn - be taught - better search techniques and strategies. This web site has a wealth of information that will help you and your leaners towards information fluency.

More on searching. Jamie Mckenzie february article titled Putting an end to Topical Research. Jamie is always worth reading and pondering over.

Please remember to try and have a look at EPIC. Link and logon details are on the Intranet.

Question of the Week: What is mathematical about this cabbage type?

Blog if the week: Blog of proximal development - this post talking about passion based learning

January 2007

2007-01-28T21:29:00.001+13:00

January 29 2007

Thinking about ICT

New year reflections and all that - I think it's time to outline where I am with learning, thinking and ICT. So.... I am committed to exploring ways of making learning more relevant, meaningful and powerful. I think our path to inquiry learning is the way to go when it allows for student empowerment, personalised learning paths and open ended investigations. This has to be the best way of occupying the 1200 or so hours each student will spend with us this year.

Supporting this we need to provide a responsive support structure - scaffolding which provides signposts, checkpoints and support throughout the process. Obviously I have a particular interest in the way ICT can fulfil this role. I've used learning modules for years - this is a really simple way of providing direction and support for enquiry based learning. We have applications such as Inspiration which help with planning and thinking as well as the Wellesley Toolbox which contains thinking and planning tools.

The Wellesley search page has advice on choosing keywords plus links to various topical information searches. It is worth being aware of what is here. I don't think it's a good process to blindly rush to Google, yet that is what students often default to. We need to work on the thinking they do before they start looking for information as well as when they find it.....

We now have a very healthy ratio of computers to children across the school. Close to 1 computer for 2 children - Enough for our students to feel that when they need to use a computer, there will be one there. But also enough for us to be able to plan learning explorations which fully use the digital world on tap. There is a growing array of tools and resources out there on the web just waiting for motivated teachers. Have a look at the links below and, via this Blog, I will continue to highlight these during the year.

Powerful learning occurs when the learner is curious and motivated and ICT is a powerful enabler. Watch the video at the end of this section. I used this with my maths class last year - interesting big numbers - but obviously there's a lot more in it!

Where we are with ICT 2007
- PC School Web Spider
- Class web
- Professional Development
- Digital demons
- Intranet
What's happening out there?
- Time magazine
- The World is Flat
- Blogs, podcasts and wikis
- Social Bookmarking

How does this affect learning?

The Video

Whats happening to newspapers....

Seven reasons for texting your teen/s

Have a library of books? Share it with a worldwide book group here. Interesting concept really.

Could this be the final chapter in the life of the book?? Interesting Times article featuring Google's Book search.

And an interesting viewpoint from an Independent School librarian.

Another article on the use of video games as a learning tool.

Online archive of millions of original articles, photos, maps etc. American at this stage but what about NZ archives

Good video games

2006-12-13T12:44:00.001+13:00

Last blog entry for the year. There are a number of links here which are worth a browse when you get a minute. I'll be reviewing some of this on staff day which is just around the corner (heh! heh!). This blog can be accessed via the school website under curriculum....

First, how about this for an early Christmas card?

Why clocks and watches in advertisements often read 10:10am????

Or check out MS Dewey - librarian of the future..... If you think Google is boring....

There's been an increasing amount of press recently on the positive use of computer games in learning. Read on!

NZ Listener article on computer games

This is a really well written article on video games and the positive learning principles contained in good games

Some more on using games

The internet is a great means of worldwide collaboration:

Flat World project Perhaps Year 10 - They have a shared assessment rubric Remember a collaboration between a class in Bangladesh and one in Georgia USA. Introductions from the pupils involved in the project

You'll find another collaboration here

Snippets:

Interesting NY Times article on Government agency use of Web 2.0 components - blogs and wikis etc.Open Source spying

Seat time assessment.

US students struggle with Information Literacy

How about passion based learning. This is really worth reading and thinking about.

Resize your digital photos online - cool tool: http://quickthumbnail.com/

How to understand your teenager. An introduction to Leet.

D0 j00Z U\D3r$74\D L337? 17'$ b3(0/\/\1\9 7-3 d14L3(7 0Ph 93\3r4710\ \37.

Translation: do you understand leet? it's becoming the dialect of generation net.

It's what your kids are using when texting and messaging......

Wikipedia Information on Leet

An example of a leet translator - impress your teenagers!

Here again is the link to the Time Magazine article on the future for schools

Learning in the Future

2006-11-23T14:18:00.001+13:00

The illiterate of the twenty-first century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."----Alvin Toffler

I've been thinking about last week's link to the texting (txtng) article. Actually I've been thinking about texting and cell phones for a while. A lot of our senior and not so senior boys have them and of course we ban them from use in class. "Keep them in the bottom of your bag!"

Is this what we should be doing?

Aren't they a widely used communication tool which in fact we should be helping children use effectively and appropriately? Isn't teaching about appropriate use a better way than banning and zealous confiscation?? As phones get smarter, it is likely they will be able to be used for more purposes than text or voice communication. My phone lets me browse the internet and check my email and it's a cheapie! Maybe we should encourage children to use the technology appropriately and in a way which benefits their education. Rather than assigningt them the same status as chewing gum.

If you disagree, let me know (!) but also read some of the articles below which discuss the emerging shape of the learning environment.

Marc Prensky has some ideas for using cell phones in a school.
Or here.
Edutopia article (see below)

As little as we know about the future for which we are preparing our students, it is clear that it will be a place that is governed by information. Accessing, processing, building with, and communicating that information will be a major part of our daily personal and professional tasks.

Being literate in this future will certainly involve the ability to read, write, and do basic arithmetic. However, the concept of literacy in the 21st century will be far richer and more comprehensive than the 3 Rs of the one room school house.
Building Digital Communication Skills for the 21st-Century Workforce

Classroom of the Future??? The virtual worlds of Second Life

Or how about this concept. Think about it for a few minutes. The thought that putting 9 year olds in a class of 9 year olds encourages them to think like a 9 year old whereas putting them in charge of a Zoo in a Zoo Tycoon makes them think like.... Very much like what Dorothy Heathcote was trying to achieve through role play. Could there be something in it??

The quote below prefaces an article in Edutopia called: Take a Chance . . . Let Them Dance Well worth a read!

"I heard a great story recently about a six-year-old girl in a drawing lesson. The teacher said this little girl hardly ever paid attention in class, but during this lesson she did. The teacher was fascinated. She asked the girl, "What are you drawing?" And the girl said, "I'm drawing a picture of God." The teacher said, "But nobody knows what God looks like." The girl said, "They will in a minute."
(Reference))

One reason for using Google Safesearch:

Our school internet browsers default to Google safesearch. If you don't use safesearch and look for information on Martin Luther King, the second site in the Google rankings is http://www.martinlutherking.org/ - looks ok from the url but is in fact a site maintained by White supremacists and is fundamentally evil. Now, most of our children will be using this version of Google at home. This is why we need to put enrgy and time into getting children to think about where they are sourcing information and critically analyse and verify what they find. BEWARE!

Moviemaking online here!
Online video editing

An interesting use for google earth! Try it. Anyone got a house shaped like a question mark?

And what do you think should be the 7 wonders of the modern world. Vote now before they decide on 7 July 2007

Blog of the Week:

Russell Brown's long running blog

Web 3.0 and other stuff

2006-11-15T12:35:00.001+13:00

Have a look at the picture above. What do you think it is?

This week's blog is titled Web 3.0 although most of us are still grappling with Web 2.0. I will be doing some intensive sessions on blogs in and out of the classroom in January; but meanwhile have a look at the article on Web 3.0 below.

CNN picked up on the news article that NZ students be allowed to use txt speak in NCEA exams. What do you think?

Another take on young'uns He's talking about young people and newspapers, but he could be talking about young people and education.

So Web2.0 is all about Blogs Pods and Wikis and reading and writing - what's Web 3.0? This article suggests it's where the web gets smart. No more sifting through 10 million hits... A Web guided by Common Sense..

Do not be afraid! Needs to be read by any baby boomer feeling technologically challenged.

Social bookmarking. Everyone keeps their favourites, but if you want to share hyour bookmarks - you know - sharing caring web! - one site you can use is del.icio.us . Have a look. I have a Wellesley bookmark site here. If you want to share a site let me know. Another web 2.0 application really, and I can imagine a class having its own del.icio.us site for sharing bookmarks related to wotk being done.

Papers from the Future Schools online conference

I like this - original advertising idea:

And if you are sick of email spam, here's a list of some of the people who are sending it to you.

#1 in a new series: Blog of the week:

Dishwashing 101 (sigh!)

Space Boggles

2006-11-02T13:26:00.000+13:00

I know I have used this Carl Sagan quote before, but it relates well to the two links below.

'We live on a hunk of rock and metal that circles a humdrum star that is one of 400 billion other stars that make up the Milky Way Galaxy which is one of billions of other galaxies which make up a universe which may be one of a very large number, perhaps an infinite number, of other universes. That is a perspective on human life and our culture that is well worth pondering.'

I used the first of the links below with my maths group this week and it generated a very good discussion - some maths, some science, some philosophical.

It is really worth waiting for it to load up and viewing it - gives you a real appreciation of your place in the general scheme of things.......

Images from Hubble or alternatively, a tiny glimpse.

Interesting Websites:

Rona Books Blog [Eastbourne Book Shop]

African Art from the Jean Pigozzi Collection.

After watching the video clip above, you might want to do use the NASA Kid's Club with you class.

Maths Problem Solving.

Try Thinking Blocks online

Learning examples here( addition/subtraction)
multiplication and division

Google has an educators area with lots of resources for teachers. Google for Educators

Oracle Education Foundation sponsor Thinkquest 2007 an international website competition for students from 9 to 19 years. Worth a look, but so are the archived Thinkquests from previous years. Great online learning modules. For example here's maths. More general catalogue here. This is such a fantastic resource!

Exploratorium site on Ancient writings featuring Archimedes. Another great Archimedes site here.

More Useful Sites

2006-10-27T12:50:00.000+13:00

Remember you don't have to use the email version of this blog. Use the web site below to find this and all the other archived posts:

http://wellesleynet.blogspot.com/

Websites of the week:

If you want to use a particular site with your class I am happy to post the url on the intranet so that your class can easily access it. Of course if you had a class blog, you could post the url there......If you want to learn or practise setting up a blog for your class, I am happy to do that during PD sessions on Wednesday afternoon. It is a very simple process (repeat after me!) - much easier than running a web page.

This is a really fantastic algebra site for children from Level 3 plus, I guess. Very easy to use, clear with careful (American) instructions. I'm putting on my maths page for my maths class to use. A must visit....

Algebasics

Or a fun, useful science site from the Australian Broadcasting Corp. Lots of interactive activities.

This is a US site, but very good world wide data on earthquakes. From the Exploratorium:

http://www.exploratorium.edu/faultline/index.html

The following is a mixture of interesting PD type links

Now a question to think about: Has handwriting reached the end of the road? Interesting Washington Post article which would be worthy of discussion. How much energy should we put into the teaching of handwriting? Why? Send me your comments on this one!

Hate video games? Perhaps they hold the key to the future shape of education. Video games can reshape education: U.S. scientists .

How do you podcast? If you are in the States you can do it with your phone....Take a look here..

In fact there is a conference in the US in which they give all attendees an Ipod nano with podcasts from the conference on it.

Earlier posts have mentioned the emergence of Web2.0. The next link will take you to a view of what that might mean in a classroom.:

What a Web 2.0 class might look like.

An illegal foreigner in Paris - slideshow of interesting photos - an illegal refugee's life in Paris.

Tags: podcast Web2.0 handwriting

Searching Again

2006-10-10T10:45:00.000+13:00

......as information has become increasingly digital and networked, its nature as a consumable has changed because its geography has practically disappeared as a limiting factor, and its availability has exploded because shelf space is no longer an issue. As a result, we are no longer limited to only the content that the media industry has decided to bring to us, and we are increasingly delving into the open, enormous, and rapidly growing content that knows almost no limits.....
D Warlick

One of the real challenges we face as educators is helping children make sense of the information they have at their fingertips. At the very least we should be teaching them that finding information is part of a process which will engage their thinking skills. It isn't rushing to Google with the first keyword they cn think of.
Consider this:

Type kiwiana into Google - 118,000 hits
Type kiwiana icons into Google - 10,700 hits
Type "kiwiana icons" into Google - 211 hits

This is pretty basic keyword procedure - working with the keywords before searching. Do we model this to children?
Try using Google Advanced Search for similar results. Or learn how to use Boolean Logic. More Google search hints here!

Jamie McKenzie covers a similar theme in his October newsletter. The article Managing the Poverty of Abundance is well worth a read.

FutureLab in the UK are running an enquiring minds project. As part of this they have listed digital tools which may be useful for learners in carrying out an enquiry. These tools are here, sorted into aims and objectives.

More pavement art!

Tags: information search

Class Blogs

2006-10-05T11:42:00.000+13:00

Wednesday Afternoon PD 11 October - Setting up a Class blog

What could a classroom blog look like? It could take the form of:

A class web page with weekly updates
A blog covering a class topic / inquiry
Student blogs used as a vehicle for reflective writing

Blogs don't have to be open to the public - you can limit exposure to as many of few as you like.
Below are a handful of examples.

Year 2/3 Mapua School (near Nelson) This class also has a sticky notes page - great idea...
Or Our Lady of Lourdes school in Palmerson North Another couple from the same school: here and here .
A blog dedicated to the art of classroom displays
Or as a book discussion project - Secret Life of Bees
A Canadian Principal's blog
Or a New Zealand teacher using Flickr to share class photos.

Setting up a blog is easy. I am happy to help on Wednesday afternoon. Here are some instructions:
Edublogs - blogs for Teachers
Bolgger.com general blog site

Interesting Stuff:
What happens when you put a computer with a fast Internet connection into a wall and let slum children have access to it with no explanation whatsoever?

What is it? Click and see. (Carl Sagan again)
Pale Blue Dot

Interesting websites:

Excellent looking renaissance art site:
http://www.renaissanceconnection.org/

Been here before but it's quite fun - roadsign maths. http://www.roadsignmath.com/

And a US site on nutrition for for kids. http://www.actionforhealthykids.org/resources.php

And finally, a good summary of Web 2.0 and how it will impact teaching and learning. http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0621.pdf

Tags: classroom blogging

Digital Learners

2006-09-26T10:06:00.000+12:00

Does the technology drive the way we teach? I have always felt that it was important to have a strong philosophy in place before suggesting change - and I still think that is generally sound.

However we need to be careful that by doing this we don't unnecessarily lock ourselves into 20th century ways of teaching with a layer of ICT on top. In other words if we teach in much the same way as we did 20 years ago, perhaps we have to have a quiet look at how ICT is transforming the learning environment and whether there are ways we can better make use of this environment to the benefit of our learners. viz

George Siemens is a keynote spealer at a conference in Sydney in October. He is a leading theorist on the changing nature and needs of learning. This short interview is worth reading:

ICT will contine to transform the way we teach - our ways of teaching are going to change and we need to explore the new ICT's. thinking about ways they can be used to modify / improve our students' learning. To some extent, then, the technology has to lead the pedagogy. If you have a smartboard in your classroom, don't just think of it as another whiteboard which can be used as a projector screen - Use the pd which will come with it to think about and explore ways in which it can transform the way your class teach and learn.

A fair bit of work has been done on the current generation of learners. For example this NZCER Report is the first of a series which looks at digital learners and the things which influence their lives:

NZCER Report - Zooming in on Digital Learners: (80 pages!)

http://www.nzcer.org.nz/pdfs/15016.pdf

An American Report looks at similar issues. It's a bit shorter and specifically explores the issues of digital kids in text based classrooms.

Points from Listening to student voices.

Computer and internet use is growing
Students are sophisticated users
Technology is important to students in education
Technology is not an ‘extra’
In-school access to technology is limited
Home use dominates
In-school use is not integrated
Computers and the Internet are communications tools, first
Metaphors describe how students use the Internet for school: The Internet as: (This is interesting)

virtual guidance counselor
virtual textbook and reference library
virtual tutor, study short-cut, study group
virtual locker, backpack, and notebook

Technology has caused students to approach life differently; but adults act as though nothing has changed
Students desire increased in-school access
Students want to use technology to learn, and in a variety of ways
Students want challenging, technologically-oriented instructional activities
Students want adults to move beyond using the ‘Internet for Internet’s sake’
Students want to learn the basics, too

Interesting to see things from American (high school) students' points of view.

Relaxing on the beach.....

A Few General Bits and Pieces:

Wikipedia - accurate or not?? In December 2005, the science journal, Nature, chose 50 entries on various scientific topics from Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica to be peer-reviewed by an expert in the field. The study found that, on average, Wikipedia articles contained 3.9 errors per article while Britannica articles contained 2.9......

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/53023.html

Digital Life extract from last Wednesday 19 Sept. Interesting content on:

the ANZ Bank email scam
Computer games for oldies
New mobile phones
Lonely Girl
Bigger Monitors
Use of Podcasts in learning - particularly at University level.

Right click and download or just click to play in media player

Special request - tactical advice for Sudoko:

Sudoku Help: http://www.sudokusolver.co.uk/

Handy Hint - Use Excel to create a timeline:

eg:

Instructions here.

If you're feeling poor, check this out!

Is Blogging like Jazz?

2006-09-13T13:41:00.000+12:00

Is blogging like jazz? Hmm, not sure but here's someone who thinks it is:
http://redcouch.typepad.com/weblog/2006/09/is_blogging_the.html

With production week upon us, here is a Kiwiana icon - Hammond Gamble -he's been around almost as long as Bob Dylan and his new album is definitely worth a listen to.
Excerpt from Midnight
His website:
http://www.hammondgamble.co.nz/

We talk a lot about Information Literacy. I'm not overly comfortable with the term (I think I prefer a term like information management?) Wikipedia has a page on it.

Looking for information requires a lot more then simply generating a quick couple of keywords. And it involves more than just heading to Google! The process involves a more thoughtful and discriminating use of information sources. (Try the Wellesley Search Pages or the Quick Search page.) There a any number of information management tools here which can help to focus a search.
They also need to have the ability to interrogate the information source, ensure the information answers the questions they are asking and be patient enough to verify the information.

An Information checklist for kids is below. It is a bit naive asking if the information is biased - isn't it always, and should they apply this list to all information sources? The idea is good though, and worth a look.
http://www.quick.org.uk/menu.htm

Websites for this week:
http://www.ct4me.net/ Use of ICT in Mathematics.

http://www.carnegiehall.org/article/explore_and_learn/art_online_resources_listening_adventures.html Music learning site - Learn about sound, music notation, text, and instruments in a fun, interactive exploration of musical repertoire. Although designed primarily for those aged 6-12, these engaging games allow both kids and adults to experience great music while learning music concepts in a stimulating environment.

And, finally Air new Zealand's daily specials page. New domestic destinations every day with some very cheap fares:
http://flightbookings.airnewzealand.co.nz/vgrabview/

Physicists

2006-09-10T20:29:00.000+12:00

One of my favourite scientists was a physicist named Carl Sagan who unfortunately died at an early age in the 1990's. He once said something which really puts us in our place:

'We live on a hunk of rock and metal that circles a humdrum star that is one of 400 billion other stars that make up the Milky Way Galaxy which is one of billions of other galaxies which make up a universe which may be one of a very large number, perhaps an infinite number, of other universes. That is a perspective on human life and our culture that is well worth pondering.'

This went down really well with the creationists!
He was also responsible for the cosmic calendar - a model of the life of the universe compressed into one earth year:

Graphic: http://school.discovery.com/schooladventures/universe/itsawesome/cosmiccalendar/page2.html
Find out more about Carl Sagan at Wikipedia
Similarly, this is an thoughtful presentation of the idea of reducing the population of the world to 100: http://www.miniature-earth.com/
Speaking of Wikipedia, there are now over 5 million articles of which 1.3 million are English (480 in Maori). There are 229 different language Wikipedias.
There is an ongoing discussion about the accuracy of Wikipedia. The link below points to a reasonable opinion piece on why we should treat Wikipedia as credible:
http://www.hyperorg.com/backissues/joho-jul23-06.htm
If you doubt the accuracy of an online, collaborative encyclopedia (and you should, it's worth a read.

Some interesting papercuts! Possible classroom activity? More on the website below.

http://www.giaitrivietnam.net/?showtopic=4024

And finally. Point England School in Auckland produce a weekly podcast. Their web page is worth a browse: http://www.ptengland.school.nz/index.php?family=1,871 If you have ITunes on your laptop, you can listen to their latest podcast:

http://homepage.mac.com/dburt1/podcasts/kpeep40.m4a

Link to Inquiry learning (Steve's Link)

http://www.youthlearn.org/learning/activities/howto.asp

Searching for the Right Stuff

2006-09-01T14:52:00.000+12:00

In the past week - was it Monday? - we were talking about searching the internet and I thought it was timely to think about the process we (and the boys) go through when we do this.

It is very easy to rush to a computer and throw the first words we think of into Google and then hit the first result for information. We need to teach children and model ourselves, a more thoughtful, considered approach.

We have an information process - it is worth looking at this and adapting it for our own uses.

Choosing keywords takes time and experience. We need to think about the right blend and combination. Booleian logic can help. These links provide some information on this:
http://kathyschrock.net/rbs3k/boolean/
http://library.albany.edu/internet/boolean.html

We also need to encourage our learners to be discriminating. Always verify your information, whatever source it comes from, books or internet. Use the analogy of someone running into the class and saying that lunch was going to be early. Do you believe them? No, but you try to verify the information by asking someone else. We need to have a healthy mistrust of information.

Learners should practise thinking about the most useful places to find the information they need. Up to date information about countries of the world could be tracked down on the CIA World Fact Book.

If you require New Zealand information, try the developing NZ Encyclopedia Te Ara. And there are a couple of NZ history sites worth using: New Zealand History online and a site maintained by a NZ woman living in France: NZ History. The National Library has a growing collection of digital material including Timeframes - historical photos of New Zealand.

For worldwide biographical information try the Biography Channel and for New Zealand Biographies, try the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography.

And of course, the online collaborative encyclopedia, Wikipedia needs to be used as well.

Google images isn't the only way to track down graphics for your work. Teachers at Work has a good site with links to image databases.

Finally, I'm a great fan of providing online scaffolding so that learners can work at their own pace. Examples of this can be found with Webquests, Thinkquests and Jamie McKenzies "Slam Dunk" lessons .

If you have any questions about any of this, please talk to me!

Blogs again

2006-08-28T08:38:00.000+12:00

"If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow."- John Dewey (1859 - 1952)

Could I talk about blogging - weblogging - once more?
Maybe a class weblog is the answer to running your class web site. It's very easy to set up and from there, very easy to update and maintain. You can add images and links easily and parents could easily add feedback! You could also use Flickr or MSN to store your class digital photos and link from your web page to there. Use the web!
Instructions for setting up an account to create an online photo album using MSN.
Let me know if you would like to try setting up a class website like this or have a look at these free blog sites:
http://www.blogger.com/start
http://edublogs.org/
http://www.xanga.com/
Examples of classroom blogs:
http://marykreul.teacherhosting.com/blog/
http://stephaniedean.edublogs.org/
http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/
http://bobsprankle.com/blog/
or
http://mamamusings.net/
In support of student blogs:
http://www.rediff.com/netguide/2003/jun/12media.htm
Western Australian Dept of Education site on Weblogs in the classroom:
http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/cmis/eval/curriculum/ict/weblogs/index.htm

Question of the week: How many Planets are there in our Solar System? Answer Here

This week's interesting websites:

How to Eat Fried Worms is a book by Thomas Rockwell about to become a movie:
Trailer:
http://www.apple.com/trailers/newline/howtoeatfriedworms/
Book Unit:
http://www.mce.k12tn.net/reading/fried_worms_unit.htm

The National Gallery in London has a current feature - Reflections on the Water - well worth a virtual tour: http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/collection/features/potm/aug/feature1.htm?GXHC_GX_jst=8258c07950ea6164

More next week

R

Images this week - Central Otago Rail Trail, New Zealand.

Reflective Weblogs

2006-08-20T15:27:00.000+12:00

Well done those who picked velcro as the mystery picture in Post 5 - absolutely spot on!

This week: Reflective Weblogs in the Classroom

Have you ever thought of using blogs in your class programme as a means of reflection? Reading log? These sites have information about classroom blogs:
http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/voice/voice123.shtml
http://www.eschoolnews.com/eti/2005/06/000882.php

The Western Australian Dept of Ed has this Weblogs in the Classroom site:
http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/cmis/eval/curriculum/ict/weblogs/

On Thursday Nigel Horrocks talked about blogs on Nine to Noon. Here is a podcast of what he had to say. Put it on your Ipod and listen on the way home!

If you are interested in getting your students to try weblogging as a writing genre, talk to me and I will help you get it set up.

Jamie McKenzie's latest article builds on his idea of the "Slam Dunk Lesson." In this he takes you through using digital resources to create a slam dunk lesson aka structured learning activity. http://fno.org/sum06/slamdunk.html These are a great way of using digital resources with plenty of scaffolding to support learners.

And the websites of the week?

Add (!) this site to your maths numeracy drill sites. Easy to follow maths games and activities. http://www.visualmathlearning.com/ex_games/ex_games.html

Speaking of maths, Sudoku is a good warm up activity. Try this site for daily children's sudoku at various levels. Download puzzle as adobe acrobat, then select copy and paste... http://www.dailysudoku.com/sudoku/kids/
The parent website has adult Sudoku:
http://www.dailysudoku.com/sudoku/index.shtml
And, if that's too easy, try Samurai Sudoku
http://www.samurai-sudoku.com/

Finally: Diary of Tech Supporter
Tuesday morning - seemed like a pretty normal day.
Phone call from John - can't get remote access to work - will work on that.
Notice that some computers are not logging on
Boys from Year 8 arrive complaining that computers in classroom are not logging on.
Check servers - all appear to be normal.
Check switches - all appear to be working, but decide one must be causing the problem.
Isolate the switch and reboot it.
Still not working.
Call switch supplier to organise a replacement unit.
Visit classroom to move access point to different switch.
Check mobile trolley - notice strange arrangemant of utp cables: Printer cable goes to access point. Other cable goes from wall socket to wall socket thus creating a loop to the switch. Hmmm.
Route cables correctly
Switch works correctly
Lunchtime!

Pictures this week from Flikr.com
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Websites Blogs and Podcasts

2006-08-07T15:02:00.000+12:00

First a puzzle. Look at the picture and tell me what you think it is. It is a magnification, and it may help to know that the image is calle vc. Answers here!

Websites, blogs and podcasts:

Mathcasts aka maths movie are whiteboard animations of maths processes. Worth a look:
http://www.mathcasts.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

This is a Wikipedia site which summarises the popularity of social networking websites like Bebo and MySpace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networking_sites

Interesting blog entry on the use of video games in the classroom. http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/2006/08/09/games-in-classrooms-or-classrooms-in-games/
And the podcast of the above including investigating the interface between the classroom and the information landscape. http://m2.slapcast.com/mp3/dwarlick/dwarlick-2006-08-12.mp3

Worth a look - allegedly the world's largest online library: http://www.questia.com/Index.jsp

This podcast features audio from the Annika Small’s talk entitled ” How can technology transform the way people learn?”. This talk was partof education.au limited’s “So what’schanged?” event, held at theWentworth Sofitel Hotel, Sydney Australiaon August 4th, 2006. http://media.educationau.edu.au/pod4.mp3

And put Library week in your diary (18 to 24 September) http://www.libraryweek.org.nz/

Not to mention the fact that this week is maths week. http://www.mathsweek.org.nz/mw06/

And finally, are we heading this way? The PE teacher who forbids running as it's too dangerous. http://raisingsuccessfulchildren.com/feedingdreams/?p=5

R

PC Schools

2006-08-04T17:31:00.000+12:00

Friday again! The 3 days spent at the PCSchools conference were an invaluable in-depth time which gave me a much better grasp of what the software is able to do and how we can best use it.

In the next few weeks I'll input 2006 standardised test results and install a web based browser for staff access. This browser has a simpler, more direct interface which will mean it's quicker to access student information, print class reports, input and access assessment data etc.

Some websites for this week. We've been talking about blogs..... there's a bit of a blog war going on in the Middle East - the good thing about blogs is that no-one gets hurt:

On the Face -- Lisa Goldman, a 39-year-old Canadian-born Israeli in Tel Aviv
LebaneseBloggers -- Raja, who recently got his master's degree at Johns Hopkins and returned to Baltimore after being in Beirut for the beginning of the bombing
PerpetualRefugee -- A Lebanese executive with a multinational corporation
On the Edge -- Ami Ben-Basset, an Israeli writer

Have a look at the updated Drama NZ website: http://www.drama.org.nz/

Perhaps the best Vincent van Gogh Website: http://www.vggallery.com/

I don't suppose Vincent had Lego in mind: http://www.brillig.com/lego/starry_night/

How about some Jackson Pollock: http://www.manetas.com/pollock/jacksonpollock_by_miltos_manetas.swf

Middle Ages study? Search the Domesday Book: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/domesday/

Need homework ideas? try some anagrams: http://wordsmith.org/anagram/hof.html

I mentioned Flickr before. Classroom idea from Flickr - Digital story telling - tell a story with 5 photos. Have a look at the Flickr version: http://www.flickr.com/groups/visualstory/ You could use Moviemaker of Powerpoint to present them.........

Podcasts and Websites

2006-07-28T12:26:00.000+12:00

First of all it would be great to have some comments on Post 2 - or rather some of the material in it. I will try to post to this blog once a week with a mixture of information which may be useful to you.

The link below will download a podcast from Nine to Noon where Katherine interviews an Australian Author (sorry, I've temporarily forgotten her name) who is critical of the way we dissect writing into various genre. She feels it has had a negative effect on creative writing. Worth a listen....

Click to Download Podcast

Go on - give it a go! You could do some marking while you listen.

Now - Web sites of the week.........

Children's Literature site specialising in classic literature.

Very good movie making site.

Or this site which give you ways to use the free software Photo movie .

Last week we talked about Flikr - the shared photo website.

And, if you want to download Google Earth click here.

Enough for this week.

R

Professional Development Day

2006-07-17T16:45:00.000+12:00

“I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.”– Albert Einstein

Friday:

We will have a look at where we are with ICT and take into account the information horizon as far as we can scan it today………….

What are the characteristics of our learners today?

Marc Prensky estimates that by the time an individual reaches 21 years of age they will have spent:
5,000 hours reading
10,000 hours playing video games
10,000 hours on the cell phone
20,000 hours watching TV
In addition, he estimates the individual will have sent 200,000 emails

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generations

Characteristics of The Net Generation:

• They are able to multitask / multiprocess: Net-geners can do several things at once.

• They "have little tolerance for delays." They expect webpages to load quickly, responses to e-mail immediately, etc. (Skiba)

• They tend to be more comfortable constructing their knowledge than being instructed.

• They prefer to be interactive: "They want to be users--not just viewers or listeners." (Tapscott, 1998, p.3)

http://davidwarlick.com/wiki-warlick/index.php?title=Retooling_for_the_Millennial_Child

or Educating the Net Generation

Some stats: MySpace Youtube

World's Largest Airlines: Number of aircraft in 2006
American Airlines 707
Federal Express 635
United Parcel Service 577
Delta Air Lines 535
United Airlines 495

Warren's stuff - The Upper Limit Hypothesis

Where does that leave us at Wellesley?

• Inquiry Learning – We have reinvigorated our approach to inquiry Learning

• Closely integrated ICT – Our 2004 strategy and 2005 Information Policy – ICT equipment – 5 computers per class + laptop trolleys

• Our planning – pins thinking skills and ICT to all class planning

• Moving towards a customised collaborative intranet (Mindspring) which provides resources and links for all learners and the wider school community

• Digital Learning Objects

• Smartboards

The ICT Learning Landscape 2006+:

Web 2.0
Wikis
Blogging David Farrar Russell Brown Rodney Hide Facts

Podcast
- U.S. Adults Warming Up To Podcasts
Videocast
RSS News feeds
Real time chatting
Distributed Learning / Intranet Moodle Explained

Digital Learning Objects
Smartboard technology
Personal Digital Devices

More stuff.

Flat Classrooms - David Warlick
Jamie McKenzie - The Art of Communication

Information Management at Wellesley

ref Student Learning in the Information Landscape

With the huge increases in the volume of information and students’ use of the internet, it has become crucial that students learn how to evaluate the authority, accuracy, objectivity, currency and coverage of the information they get from a wide range of sources

Research Cycle - does this make sense?

PC Schools Timeline

January 2006 - Student Management and Finance System Running

July 2006 - System being used by all Staff

August - December 2006 - Curriculum System introduced

- Behaviour System used

January 2007 - Curriculum System training

March 2007 - PAT and STAR + input from classroom

Attendance data input replaces attendance register?

July 2007 - System replaces progress card?

learning ict

Wellesley

2006-07-14T16:51:00.000+12:00

This site will be updated with web based teacher resources for Wellesley College. These ideas come from a variety of sources.

Use Inspiration? have a look at Inspiration Data:
"InspireData™ applies the proven strategies of visual learning to data literacy, inspiring students to discover meaning as they collect and explore data in a dynamic inquiry process. "

http://www.inspiration.com/productinfo/inspiredata/index.cfm

More soon.

ICT and Learning

Elearning Stuff

Adding Content::

ICT Literacy for 2011

Web 2.0

Infographics

Quick Ideas

August 2010

TKI

John Hattie

David Warlick

Game Playing

Handheld Computers

Core Ed’s Top Ten Trends for 2010:

Reading, Libraries and Mathematics

The importance of Social Media

April - May 2010

When a good memory works against you

Standardised Testing – Sir Ken Robinson

Karen:

Online magazines:

Water

ICT March 2010

February 2010

Searching…….

ICT and Mathematics

Inspiring Young Artists

Some More Useful Links!

For The Smartboard:

Interesting:

PD January 29 2009

Hard Fun: Logo and Scratch

Term 3 2008

A New Term.

Teacher Day 25 July

Intranet

Library Development

Student Management System

ICT Prof Dev Cluster

General

Mathletics, Knowledgenet and other stuff.

Thinking and Learning

More stuff for your Class - May

Technology and Art

Smartboards

Some more Useful Stuff!!

Skype, Voicethread and useful links

Inquiry, Videos for Teaching and Google Earth/Sky

Google, Digital Natives and more on Smartboards

Digital Native

Smartboards.....

Links for Learning July 2007

ICT Learning Challenges #3 - Digital Photos

Shift Happens

ICT and Challenges #2

When a Question becomes a Challenge

Questioning

Global Warming

Searching Again, Smartboards and TV on Demand

SmartBoard Resources:

Shrinking the World Tools and Busy Teachers

SpreadsheetsI often think we don't use spreadsheets enough. Excel is a powerful tool which can be used to achieve a range of tasks - not just graphing! If you haven't used a spreadsheet in the past, have a look at this useful list of relevant ways of using spreadsheets in the classroom.

Busy Teachers

This is a repeat of a quoted blog from last year. It's from Dean Shareski in his Blog Ideas and Thoughts of an EdTech and I think it bears repeating:

Maps, Pictures and Interesting Stuff.

A mixture of interesting Websites:

ICT making a Difference

January 2007

January 29 2007

Thinking about ICT

Good video games

Learning in the Future

Blog of the Week:

Web 3.0 and other stuff

Space Boggles

Interesting Websites:

More Useful Sites

Websites of the week:

Searching Again

Class Blogs

Spreadsheets

I often think we don't use spreadsheets enough. Excel is a powerful tool which can be used to achieve a range of tasks - not just graphing! If you haven't used a spreadsheet in the past, have a look at this useful list of relevant ways of using spreadsheets in the classroom.