Links for Learning July 2007

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

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:

1. Slideshows for Back to School Night or Open House
   
   
2. Slideshows of Performances, Celebrations, Assemblies, or Field Trips
   
   
3. Photo Yearbooks (For a school, a class, or a club!)
   
   
4. Photo Journalism, Documentaries, or Dramatizations
   
   
5. Time Lapsed Photography (Especially in science!)
   
   
6. Class Books (Think big books!)
   
   
7. Story Books (“Digital Story Telling”)
   
   
8. How-To Guides (Address non-fiction standards!)
   
   
9. Exercises in Classifying, Categorizing, or Compare and Contrast.
   
   
10. Photos as Anticipatory Sets, Writing Prompts, or Review
    
    
11. Document Learning (Great for parent conferences!)
    
    
12. 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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:

• http://www.googlelittrips.org/
  
• http://www.juicygeography.co.uk/googleearth.htm

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.

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

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

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?
  • Personalised learning
  • Managed learning environments
  • 2006 - 2016 Learning Map
  • Information Fluency

 

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

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?

or

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

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

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

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

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

......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

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

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

1. Flat Classrooms;
2. Redefining Literacy for the 21st century
3. Harnessing the New Shape of Information

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!