So the aim of this PD session is to share some resources and things that you do in your classroom that relates to e-learning. It can be your favourite website to use with your class, teaching idea, lesson, IT tool or even a question about something that you would like to be able to do e-learning wise in your classroom.

In the comments section of this blog post leave a comment that explains your favourite thing, (or question) why and how it could be used in other subject areas or year levels.

You then will have three tasks to do:

1. Choose an idea or website and have a go at it
2. Talk to another teacher (try to talk to someone out of your sub-school or faculty) about what they have done in their classroom or how they may need help. You maybe the person that can be thye answer!!

3. Try something that you have learnt in this session in your classroom. Maybe even arrange to visit another classroom to observe or help! Come prepared at the next ICT meeting to share the results!

Last Thursday I ran a workshop for staff on the concept of “Death by PowerPoint” and encouraged them to help students to use PowerPoint and similar software tools in a way that would enhance the presentations made by the students. Quite often presentation software gets used in the classroom  in place of a poster or a project to tick the ‘I’ve used IT box’ which means that the presentations are filled with text and not used in the manner in which they were intended! As a case in-point a teacher in the presentation showed a PowerPoint presentation that a student had completed that was screen after screen of paragraphs text on lovely backgrounds! What the student had written was great but it would’ve been much more suited to a report!

So I have included here the links to all the sited that I covered in the workshop. Enjoy!

Death by PowerPoint

View more presentations from www.kapterev.com.

The Pecha-Kucha Style of presentation is one that could be used very effectively in schools. http://www.pecha-kucha.org/

Prezi is an alternative form of presentation software that can be used to create fabulous presentations. It is a non-liner presentation software. There are plenty of examples on the website to see what I mean. http://prezi.com/

This is a funny You Tube clip that highlights some things not to do with PowerPoint. Not the clearest clip to show on the big screen! Must watch for canned laughter!

This is a review of some of the sessions at ACEC2010 that stood out to me that I went to and a bit of a run down on what it was like to present my first ever presentation at a conference!

Participant Comfort, Social Networking and Communities of Practice: The presenter was Wendy Fasso and this session I ended up in by accident as I had to chair the room. It was not one that I had chosen but I am very glad that I went as it was incredibly interesting to see how the social isolation that some people can encounter both on line when groups of people already know each other through other projects was handled in an online learning situation. The strategies that they used to help participants to feel welcome and liked they belonged involved creating a buddy system based on personality types to create a working partnership. It was really good to see that someone has considered that for those of us who may not necessarily be socially great!

Using Learning Management Systems (Moodle) to enhance PD in schools: The presenter was Chris Woldhuis from Northern Beaches Christian School. This was a great session about how NBCS runs their staff PD program, which was pretty impressive, using a LMS to share the resources that teachers develop to run the PD. The PD section of the LMS became a one stop shop for all PD related resources for the school. An excellent idea as it is so easy with many PD’s so that no knowledge is lost!

Building a model of effective and personalised teacher Professional development in schools with an action research framework: Yep another Chris Woldhuis session. This time it was focussing on the Action Research projects that NBCS run as part of there PD program for staff. Which allows staff to run workshops, research areas of relevance to their current teaching and Learning environments. Again an really interesting program in a school that has a culture of learning and innovation.

Student Voice: The presenter was Lois Smethurst and she took us on a journey through the variety of ways that she and her staff allow students to have a voice using technology tools. It was great to see all the various projects and hear the student voice coming through loud and clear. I love what Lois is doing at her school!

Game Maker for Beginners: The presenter was Tony Forster. I had not used Game Maker before and was very much looking forward to having a go at it. I was not disappointed. It was lots of fun making a bear that shot fire shaped bullets at ghosts! If I had that much fun imagine what the kids would do! Definite one to take back to school and show our IT teacher.

Personalised Learning for Z gen Kids: The presenters were Jenni Leditschke and Natalya Milne. What these two teachers are doing is excellent. The students are peer assessing within their class and with others OS. They have completely transformed the classroom into a vibrant learning space filled with all sorts of interactive technology including iPhones. The students set their own timetable for the week within guidelines and have a student directed project as part of their learning. All the images and videos showed really vibrant engaged learners. Students used laptop as the presenters liked computer labs to looking like pokies venues! Hehehe I love that comment!

Stager keynote: This was a very interesting keynote which I am still trying to decide if I liked it or not. Some thing that I did like was his obvious passion and great presentation style. He was from that point of view very easy to listen to. His premise was to dispense some tough love. Which he certainly made some controversial statements and certainly provoked much discussion amongst attendees and the twitterverse. Which guess is his whole aim. To have your audience talking, thinking, debating discussing. What more could a presenter want??

Betcher Keynote: I really liked this keynote. Chris had a very similar message to Gary Stager said but in a slightly gentler manner He had some very interesting, up to date facts and examples. I really enjoyed his presenting style and ist was great to see in the flesh someone I had been following via his blog and Oz Teachernet

Adam Elliot: Oscar winner, Adam Elliot, was a very slick entertaining presenter which I enjoyed immenselyy. He was very funny and endearing. It made me think how many Adam’s have we got in schools, where the way we do school just doesn’t fit for them but whom have such incredible talent bundled inside them. his talked just highlighted the need for schools to be really thinking about what we do, why and how.

Teachers beliefs on tech integration: Michael Phillips gave a really insightful presentation on his research into how teachers core beliefs about teaching, their planning and tech integration are all related. As this is the area I work with directly in my job it was interesting to see some research into the thinking of teachers.

Geocaching in Education: (Of course!)I presented this one and it was the first time for me presenting at a conference. I think it went well although it is hard to tell. I got some good questions at the end and no one walked out! I had to do the presentation without my notes as I was going to use keynote presenter but it only works if the laptop and iPhone are on the same wifi network which of course at ACEC they weren’t. Fortunately I had rehearsed it enough times in the mirror that I knew what I was going to say so it didn’t affect me too much! If I get an opportunity to do another geocaching presentation again I would like to do something more hands on and get the participants using a GPS to find a cache! It was an incredibly valuable experience and really worthwhile doing!

Twitter: Twitter back channel was amazing! All sorts of great stats about #1 trending topics etc was great. But more importantly was the value adding to the presentations especially the keynotes where good questions were raised, information disseminated and conversations held. It added and incredible richness to the conference. See the tweet stream here. Thanks to @ackygirl for bring that to my attention.

Overall this was an incredibly valuable conference that I enjoyed immensely. thank-you to all who organised the conference. It is very much appreciated.

Ok so I am putting in my two cents worth on the ACEC2010 conference held in Melbourne. It is at this point that I wish I was a really good at writing so I could express clearly what I think….but anyway here goes nothing!

I have to say the key element for me at this conference was the sense of desperation in the presenters and many of the attendees that this (this being the current education system) has to change. I have been at previous conferences and there has been an underlying yep at sometime  in the future we need to make some changes but this time it was really significant and noticeable that the desperation for change and this system isn’t working well for these children was overwhelming. I am really hoping that it begins to translate into some action. I have to say it was exactly what I was needing as I feel like I had been banging my head against a mighty hard brick wall trying to help bring about real change at my school. We have some great teachers who are enthusiastically using ICT in the classroom and a great ICT Manager however getting real time and real conversation happening about why we do what we do and we perhaps should be doing has been incredibly difficult to achieve. At times I have felt like just one voice of many vying for attention in the ever crowded demands of education in the 21st Century. I was feeling despondent and disheartened, but going to ACEC and catching some of the fire again has been a great boost!

Now what to do with it!!!??? I have to say absolutely tempted to do my own impassioned plea to staff to think about what they are doing and to encourage them strongly to let the students find their voice. Probably not the best way to go about it! But I will certainly be trying to initiate some conversation with my senior leadership.

I will do another post later with my conference session and resource highlights!

About me Geocaching wise: I have been caching for about 18 months off and on. There are people who have found 1000’s of them, we have found over 70. We don’t have that much time to spend on it but do it on the odd weekend or holiday as a fun activity. I don’t claim to be a world expert.

So what is Geocaching????

It is an electronic treasure hunt in the great outdoors. Here’s a clip that will explain it to you

Geocaching Introduction

Geocaching.com This the site that caching mainly revolves around. You need to create and account to begin. There are two type of accounts. A free one – which is more than enough just to get started and a paid one that gives you access to more advanced features such as the ability to run queries on the Geocache database, which is very handy once you get into the sport in a more serious way.

There are different types of caches. Some people just give some basic information and the co-ordinates and then off you go and find the cache. Some people give you extraordinary amounts of details about the area  or a feature E.g local wildlife where the caches is hidden which is usually very interesting and informative. Some caches are puzzle caches and you will need to solve some sort of puzzle before receiving the final co-ordinates of the cache.

What does a cache look like and where are they hidden?

Caches vary in size from well nothing i.e virtual caches through to Army surplice boxes. We have found lunch boxes, small metallic capsules, film canisters, fake bolts and tubes in drain pipes to an actual drain pipe.

Many of them are sistema type containers as they have good weatherproof properties.

Where are they????

Parks and Playgrounds, out in the bush, on buildings, under trees, up trees, in tree hollows, under bridges, along Freeways. Eastlink has a series of just over 20 caches hidden along it. We have been to some fantastic parks and places that you would never stop at in your normal day to day travels! The kids love getting to try out all these different play experiences!

So what do you need???

GPS device of some description.  The sky is the limit it just depends on your budget. You can also cache with a GPS enabled phone – iPhone is the most obvious one.

Geomate Jnr for children, comes preloaded with caches, not to be used as a primary caching device would still need an adult with a device but would be a great cheap, sturdy option for Primary School kids

Geomate Jr

Kit – to help continue the game such as a spare pen and pencil, swaps, ziplock bags, notebooks, spare batteries, camera

Educational uses for Geocaching.

My disclaimer I would love to do this with my students but I teach year 12 Bus Man which is not quite suited for caching per say. How ever a caching type activity could be a great revision activity

So here is what I think it could be used in………

Just a straight lunchtime/after school activity to target those students who don’t traditionally participate n organized sport but still need to exercise.

In PE and Outdoor Education

Geography

Application in English, Maths, Science, IT, Art, History
Educaching is GPS based curriculum which looks like an excellent resource.

Other aspects of Geocaching

Geocoins and Travel Bugs – can be tracked around the world. Can also be given a task e.g. to see all the tall towers in the world, or to be near the beach, or to learn to say hello in a different language

Even if you can’t cache due to financial restriction a travel Bug on costs $5  and can be released in a cache (doesn’t have to be your own) and tracked!

Obviously another great thing to do is to release a cache or two in your areas and track who finds them. This however would need to be a long term project as someone would need to maintain the cache over a number of years. Caches can be disabled though in the event that you can no longer maintain them.

CITO is a initiative of the caching community stands for Cache In Trash Out. Which involves events similar in concepts to clean up Australia Day. Also encourages cachers to clean up as they go in areas where there is caches.

There is even a movie called Splinter Heads which has Geocaching as part of the plot.

Splinterheads Geocaching Trailer NEW

Here are some great websites that can be used with senior students

FUSE: Great resource from the Victorian Government Department of Education. Loads of resources and artifacts that can be used for teaching and Learning. Worthwhile spending some time here!

Australian National Archives: Great site for finding historical Australian Information on many different topics

Cool things to do with and Image: Aimed at primary student but can easily be adapted to senior secondary.

Physical Geography.net: Lots of good info and weblinks on the topic of Physical Geography. A Canadian site.

Frissiras Museum: An Athens Art Museum with an amazing online collection

Learning Science: Online resources for science P-12

Ways to use Google Earth in the Classroom: Lots of different ideas for using Google Earth in the classroom.,

15 Tools to help Students get Organized: This is from a GREAT  blog called Free technology Tools for Teachers which is full of some fantastic resources. Worthwhile following this one!

Global maths Games League: An English website for Maths games!

25 Best Free Educational Video Sites: Some outstanding video resources. Of particular note is the TED videos which are EXCELLENT for senior students. Videos on all topics.

Quality Teacher Resources: Another list site, but this time of teacher resources that are very high quality and free.

Connecting your class globally: A blog post from Kim Corfino who has some excellent ideas on how to have a global classroom and ways to get started.

The Art of Complex Problem Solving: An interesting site to show students how to problem solve and the rationale behind it.

Right Brain Writing Prompts: Maybe helpful for some students??

Audio Owl: Free Audio Books

Using Google Docs in the classroom: Some great ideas for how to use this powerful tool in the classroom.

Oxford Science Online: Some amazing science resources from Oxford Uni. A very good looking website.

Tel.a.vision: A website for Special ed and at risk teens to be able to create and share visions of hope and possibility through online vision videos.

English Companion Ning: Ning for English teachers

MugTug: Online drawing program.

Lisa’s DIIGO: Where I store all my links and you can see them and search them!

Some very cool websites for Middle School (years 6-9) teachers to use in their classrooms. Many thanks to the fabulous educators of the OZ Teacher mailing list who contributed many of these resources. Enjoy!

Edna

http://www.edna.edu.au/edna/go

Loads of great resources and groups for educators. A fabulous resource that is well worth the look.

Lure of the Labyrinth

http://labyrinth.thinkport.org/www/

Interesting looking Math game.

TED Talks

http://www.ted.com/

Short talks given by some of the the worlds greatest minds on all sorts of topics from education to sport to technology to Literature. Some very inspiring presentations.

Scratch

http://scratch.mit.edu/

Free, easy to use programming introduction. It needs to be downloaded. There is loads of teacher resources to support this. Can be used in many subject areas.

ePals

http://www.epals.com/

Online pen pals for your class. A great way to begin collaborating outside of the school.

Animoto

http://animoto.com/education

Excellent tool for online animation.

One Look Dictionary Search

http://www.onelook.com/

Tyoe in a word once and get results from many different types of dictionaries.

Near Map

http://www.nearmap.com/welcome.aspx

Incredibly clear and up to date maps, much better qualtiy than Google Earth.

Art Studio Chalkboard

http://studiochalkboard.evansville.edu/

Lots of info on drawing and painting for art students

Puzzlemaker

http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/

Make your own Crossword puzzles

Piclits

http://www.piclits.com/compose_dragdrop.aspx

A different way to get into writing, Could be great for the IWB.

Goal Setting

http://www.goalsguy.com/Knowledge/t_15_shouldknow.html

A whole stack of info on goal setting for teens

How many, how much

http://www.ehowspace.com/

Very funny website (see the how much wood would a wood chuck chuck post to see what I mean) might be a good site for reluctant boy readers. Factual and funny!

Vancouver Times Winter Olympics

http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/2010wintergames/index.html

A good thorough coverage of the Winter Olympics from a local Canadian Newspaper

World Government Data

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/jan/07/government-data-world

Lots of newly released Government data all on the one website.

Avatar – Build Your Wild Self

http://www.buildyourwildself.com/

Avatar – Simpsonize Me

http://simpsonizeme.com/

If you don’t want your students to have pictures of themselves on the web then get them to create an avatar to use instead.

FUSE

https://fuse.education.vic.gov.au/pages/teacher.aspx

Victorian Government website that brings together many educational resources on all sorts of different topics. Excellent!

Cybersafety

http://www.cybersmart.gov.au/en.aspx

The ACMA Cybersafety website with loads of great info and programs in a really balanced way on Cybersafety.

Tikatok

http://www.tikatok.com/

Storybird

http://storybird.com/

Create stories online and collaborative. Tikatok even allows you to print the stories as an actual book.

Oxford Science Online

http://www.scienceoxfordonline.com/

Amazing array of scientific info out of oxford uni. Lovely looking site too!

My Diigo

http://www.diigo.com/user/ldumicich

Keep up with all my links! Better yet join up to Diigo and keep track of your own links, form groups with your students or faculty members to share knowledge. It is a very useful and powerful website. All teachers should have a Diigo or Delicious account to keep track of their links and web resources.

If you have any great links for middle school that you would like to share feel free to add them to the comments.

ICT owned by schools very hard to maintain cost wise, and students can easily neglect something that they don’t own. School lease program easier to control costs, dependant on one supplier.
Parent co-payment advantage that they spreaad the cost between the school and the home and student ownership there fore much more care taken of the machine.
DER NSW using money for netbooks, very different to victoria. Have a laptiop user guide online. When parent is paying for part of the machine the parent expectation is different. They expect students to be able to use it at home as well for an entertainment machine. Need to have strong policies. Disadvantages of co-payment is equity, some parents may not be able to contribute. Because of the education tax rebate it can make it cost neutral – see Lilydale High School. (sub $500 netbooks) Went through book list and took off items that wouldn’t be needed if owning a netbook. They need to make sure tat they have an authentic task which is not software specific as they have netbooks, macbooks and no machines in each classroom.

Student owned devices, no cost to the school, student knows and likes the device which is a good start. In some districts in the states they are giving all students a ipod touch.  Ignore at your peril the handheld devices. Lack of staff undeerstanding of what hand held devices can be used for. Need have a network that can identify a rogue device. Telcos have the ability to block the ability ot make calls on your phone when at school, all other functions of the phone are available.

Browser Based Learning: LMS, Mobile interface, fast cheap internet, fast secure wireless network, strong clear policies, vision , PD. Fast Internet is a must and a robust wireless network.

What should schools be spending their money on Wireless, Bandwidth Management, Input/Output devies, Display devices, west work. will still need high end labs for speciali

What is Twitter? Twitter is a website site where you have 140 characters to give your message. You follow people and they follow you.  So you can see each others messages. Messages are called Tweets! What is the purpose of Twitter? it allows you to connect instantaneously with people all around the globe to share ideas, resources, news and much more. Many educators have accounts on Twitter and a font of useful information, there are also news services such as the ABC that ‘tweet’ the latest news, celebrities that tell you what they are doing, airline companies, bands, cruise lines, churches, emergency services even Kevin Rudd. I have even seen a twitter account which tweets each earthquake in the world as they happen!

Twitter has also been an amazing resource for broadcasting the news before the news services get onto it. See my post here where I speak about the speed at which social media such as Twitter and Fazcebook had accurate news on the Korumburra Earthquakes!

So how do you use Twitter? Sue Waters has written an excellent post on a wiki which pretty much sums it up so I am not going to reinvent the wheel. So click here to go to the wiki post

My Twitter account is: ldumicich

Some interesting people to follow to get you started…

Kevin Rudd

David Hughes

Lifechurch.tv

ABC News

Getting started, follow some people that you know and some famous people/organisations. Start slowly or else you will be overwhelmed with info!

Some useful links for how it can be used in an educational setting….

Interesting ways to use Twitter int he classroom

New Tools Workshop – Twitter

Twitter for Learning

Twitter handbook for Teachers

History Teachers on Twitter

50 Ideas for using Twitter in Education

Twitter Transforms Teaching

Twitter Twitter Tweet Tweet

Welcome to Newsletter 8. It has been a long time since i have sent out an ICT newsletter for school so my apologies and I hope you enjoy the resources and ideas included here!

Library Links

• 14 Ways K-12 Librarians Can Teach Social Media – NeverEndingSearch – Blog on School Library Journal

  “This is the best time in history to be a teacher-librarian. Major shifts in our information and communication landscapes present new opportunities for librarians to teach and lead in areas that were always considered part of their role, helping learners of all ages effectively use, manage, evaluate, organize and communicate information, and to love reading in its glorious new variety.”

• Teaching Info.LiteracyTeaching Information Literacy Resources

Art Links

• Sumo Paint :: Online Image Editor :: HomeOnline paint tool!

• Art Activities and Lesson PlansLots of ideas and lesson plans for art

• Pointilism Practice Page!“Here’s a place to point and paint. Georges Seurat invented the technique known as Pointilism, which uses tiny dots instead of broad strokes to put the paint on the canvas. The individual dots of red, yellow and blue are sucked in through your eyes and mixed up in your head to create a variety of shimmering shades. “

English Links

• Comics LabComic generator

• A Kinesthetic Reading Adventure « Mr Robbo – The P.E GeekUsing QR codes to create a choose your own adventure novel

• Teacher Professional Development Sourcebook: The World’s Largest English Department“Ning group for English teachers reveals the potential of online social networking to break the culture of professional isolation.”

• 25 Free Sites to Teach Writing – The Writing Teacher – Tips, Techniques, and Advice on Teaching Writing“The web is a great resource for writing teachers who need lesson plans, writing prompts, interactive activities, high-tech tools, and other free teaching materials. Here are 25 sites that would be particularly useful to educators who teach writing.”

Junior School Links

• Kids Games – Play Educational and Fun Kids Games Online! Play Kids Games.“Play Kids Games provides free online kids games that are both fun and educational. Aimed at ages pre-K through middle school, Play Kids Games offers kids a safe environment to discover their abilities and learn new skills with interactive and fun computer games. Our games build skills in math, logic, memory, vocabulary, alphabet, spelling, geography, computer skills, color identification, shape identification and other various problem solving. Our commitment to parents, teachers, and kids, is to connect learning and skill building with a sense of challenge, fun, and self esteem. From the fun of “Alphabet Whack-a-Mole” to the skill building “Math Fact Practice”, our hope is that PlayKidsGames.com will be a part of our future generation’s ongoing experience and development. “

Maths Links

• Welcome to Absurd Math“Absurd Math is an interactive mathematical problem solving game series. The player proceeds on missions in a strange world where the ultimate power consists of mathematical skill and knowledge. Many of the pages have hidden clues and areas. Anytime a player needs help, they may email our staff for assistance.”

General E-Learning Links for everyone!!

• AuthenticICT – Web Based Tools

  “here is an absolutely exhaustive list digital tools available online. In fact it can actually get quite overwhelming at times. The trick is to find the few that suit you and best meet the learning needs of your class. My other suggestion is that you start out by focusing on just one tool at a time when you’re just starting out. It can be really easy to get carried away and try out everything! The ideas for use suggested below are really only a taster. There are so many possibilities out there and I’m sure you can think of many of your own. By playing with the tools and exploring the links, I hope you will begin to build your own list of ideas. “

• teachingwithted / FrontPage

  “TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader and it has begun releasing its talks online under a Creative Commons license so that they can be downloaded for free for non-commercial use. Their applications for education are endless. The purpose of this wiki is to share ideas how these talks can turn into broader discussions, projects, and actions. The intent of this project wiki is to address: How can the TED talks be used as springboards for further discourse, exploration, reflection, and action?”

• Thousands of FREE Presentations in PowerPoint format

  Stacks of Powerpoints for all different subjects!

• Posterous – The place to post everything. Just email us. Dead simple blog by email.

  A another blogging site, very simple to use, email based

• Australian Newspapers OnLine – index.html

  A list of all Australian newspapaers that are online.

• The Best Tools for Visualization

  “Visualization is a technique to graphically represent sets of data. When data is large or abstract, visualization can help make the data easier to read or understand. There are visualization tools for search, music, networks, online communities, and almost anything else you can think of. Whether you want a desktop application or a web-based tool, there are many specific tools are available on the web that let you visualize all kinds of data. Here are some of the best: “

• iPhone/iPod touch Apps for K-12

  “These pages include free or almost free apps for K-12 teachers and students. The list is by no means definitive, but I will add new content as it becomes available. “

• Flips&DigitalCams | Teaching and Learning in the Digital Age

  Lots of tips about using Flips!

For those of you that have blogs and Nings!!

• Best Embeds for Educational Wikis and Blogs | Making Teachers Nerdy

  “Now that you and/or your students are using wikis and blogs, are you curious what could be added to them? From animated slideshows to collaborative documents to interactive review games, many great (and free) tools are available. As a follow up to my previous post “What Teachers Should and Should Not Be Posting on their Classroom Webpages”, I’ve pulled a master list of embedding options that will hopefully spark your imagination. “