We have recently purchased 6 Flip Ultras for use in the college. The website for finding out more info is here. They are very easy to use simple video cameras that can enhance learning in your classroom in a myriad of ways.

How to use:

Here is a link to the one page user guide that you can download and keep

flipultraquickstartguide

1. Turn the power on by sliding the switch on the side of the camera

2. To Record press the red button once and start filming. To stop filming press the red button once.

To View

The videos on the Flips can be viewed on the Flip itself (although the screen is way to same for showing a whole class) on a television (by using the supplied cables) ans by downloading the videos from the Flip to your computer (this is done through the ‘flip out’ USB connection on the camera)

To view on the computer just insert the USB connection on the camera into a USB port on your computer. The software should load automatically and you should then easily be able to transfer the videos accross. Once they are on your computer you can do all manner of things with them!

Teaching ideas….

So what can you do with one or more of these in your classroom? Here are some ideas

• Film any debates or plays so students can see themselves and give a critique for improvement
• Film students having a conversation to help improve their speaking and listening
• Film any exciting activities in your classroom E.g. Miss Mac filmed her Grade 1’s finding insects they were then able to watch as a class and gain even more insight into the insects in the school grounds other than what they found individually
• Film a science experiment then student can rewatch it to gain further insight into what is happening
• Students can make their own movies, commercials, speeches, presentations
• Interview students (could be good for goal setting?)
• Make a video to send to another school

I have included a link to a great slideshow by Tom Barrett which gives 35 great ideas for using the Flips for students and for staff learning.

Slide Show

If you have any other ideas please leave a comment on my blog so we can all share!

Over the past few months my husband and Mr7 have been playing the demo of a game called World of Goo. They have been having a ball with it! So I decided to have a look at the game and watch them have a play and the game looks greats!! The game consists of 5 chapters and the demo consists of the first chapter of the game. (which is a good sized demo I reckon!) The full game costs $20US which is pretty good value depending on the state of the world economy!

The game is very heavily based on physics and from what I could see the object was to solve puzzles using balls of goo and the Laws of Physics. The level the my husband and son were playing involved making a goo bridge to cross between two cliffs. How they built the bridge, if it had the right foundations, how they anchored it to the cliff and the amount of goo used all contributed to their success in completing the puzzle. Mr7 was totally engaged in this game and I could see his bridge building skill improving as he went along, he was making much more informed choices in where to place the goo for the bridge to stay up the more he played the game.

This would be excellent for school use! Obviously in Physics classes, Design Technology or Science, but also if you were entering your students into a bridge building competition which tend to roll around once or twice a year get them on this game first to get some conceptual idea first! The demo download should be enough for a class situation but the full game would be great for a lunchtime competition or exploring some more concepts fully. I think it would be appropriate for primary up to year 10 age levels.

So I thought this blog would come in handy! Thought i would share my preliminary thoughts on the Professional Learning Goals Program that I am planning for next year. The assumption that I am making is that we expect our students to create learning goals and measure whether they have met them or not to help them become life long learners so why not teachers?? My scope is the development of teachers in ICT integration and use but I am hoping that is could be used for all areas of a teachers growth. So the plan thus far is by using a Ning staff will join a learning community within the school and post answers to a series of questions via a blog either on the ning or RSS’d (what is the past tense of RSS?)  to their ning page on the goals that they would like to set for themselves.I will then meet with each staff member to help develop a plan of action to help them achieve their goals, which will include after school training sessions, external PD’s, readings, peer reviews, mentoring and joining a professional learning network. Staff will then need to blog their progress and reflections at least 4 times over the year (obviously they can do more but that will be the minimum) and to utilise the features of the ning to collect evidence of their achievements e.g uploading photos, videos, documents, commenting on other’s pages etc. (It is also a sneaky way to get staff to use some web 2.0 technology and hopefully begin some collaboration and conversations!) I will also meet with staff over the year to chat with them about their progress. Staff will be encouraged to set goals that are meaningful and relevant to their teaching and needs.

So I am hoping this will work and these are just my initial thoughts. I need to work out what will happen if staff don’t work on their goals at all. I need to work out what the questions will be. Anybody see any other glitches, flaws, suggestions needed???

So over the holidays I have been thinking of how on earth I can encourage collaboration between teachers at our school and between teachers at our school and other teachers at other schools.  Our school is small and traditionally has had many one person departments, for example I was the only Business Management teacher for many years. So there isn’t a strong culture of teachers working together and collaborating on projects or curriculum although in some areas of the school it is starting to change. So my challenge is to encourage teachers to collaborate more, encourage conversation and dialogue about powerful learning all with the purpose of helping staff to integrate ICT into the curriculum and to develop 21st century teaching and learning. I know, I know easy peasy what am I worried about, right????? NOT!!!

So to help with this I am going to get teachers to set their own professional learning goals next year that I will meet with them to help develop and meet at various times during the year to check their progress. I will also tailor the PD that I run/resources I show them etc, etc to their Professional Learning needs.

So to “encourage” staff I thought that I would use a web2.0 platform to run this Professional Learning Program out of and at the same time to encourage some dialogue and perhaps some collaboration. But which one??? A central blog and get all staff to comment on the blog entries at various times? A wiki and use the discussion page for teachers to post their goals and discuss their progress whilst using the wiki pages for resources etc?? A ning where every staff member has a page where they put their goals and can comment on their goals and others as well as add photos and do blog posts etc? Or each staff memeber having their own blog to reflect on their own learning. Too many choices! Or we could do something inhouse via Moodle or eduKate. Or perhaps another format all together. Anyone with any ideas??

On another note all together I thought I had made a decison about the LMS that we are looking at for next year being eduKate however I had somehow all this time overlooked to little but very important words “per annum”! Yes that right I tought the price was a once off price but no it is a per annum price and when I realised that i nearly fell over!! $6500 per year is fairly steep I think. So what do I get for that? I suppose it pays for the help desk support that you wouldn’t get with Moodle and it pays for upgrades but it doesn’t pay for any training which is additional. Now I am totlaly unsure of which way to go as for that amount per annum we could have an absolutley cracking, gorgeous installation of Moodle with lots of bells and whistles. However we wouldn’t get with Moodle the integration with TASS which we use quite heavily and eduKate links directly into our reporting system which is good.  If anyone has used either sytem and can offer me some advice that would be great!

Anyway now that I have those questions of my chest back to lovely holidays and PJ days having a lovely relax and unwind from a very hectic year!

So call me crazy, call me a plebe but I don’t get all the fuss that is being made about Second Life! Don’t get me wrong I can see how it can be used as a good way to meet online and run professional development, I can see how could be used in education for some powerful learning activities (MaggieMarat’s presentation at NECC about students and body image was a great example) but I am not sure that I get why you would want to do more than that? Why do you want to spend your real life living in an online, virtual world? It is hard enough as a Christian to be not of this world, but in it John 17:14-16 but then to be not of this world but be in it in a virtual world, it does my head in! Also wonder about why it is exciting to ‘do’ things in world when really you are just sitting at a computer operating a keyboard and mouse. I think it is more exciting to do real things, see people and talk to them in the real world. I know, I know that makes me not a real ICT purist and with that I am very happy. I do like to meet (or at least see) people that I have an online relationship with. I think it enriches the online relationship greatly. I also wonder about the loss on inhibitions that can happen in a virtual environment. I have seen students gain incredible amounts of confidence when online and for some it gives them a voice that was previously unheard which is great, however when people feel like they can throw away normal moral boundaries, be a bit flirty, be a bit of a bully or generally behave in manner that they would never do in real life what happens then? Is that OK? Are you still answerable for your actions in Second Life or is it amoral because you don’t know the real person? I think as tools such as Second Life are embraced in education serious discussion needs to take place about educating students about appropriate online behaviors and moral consequences.

Enough confused ramblings now onto the task of Learning Management Systems and a ICT resource wiki!