On an e-journey with generation Y

Using digital media – online accounting

December 1, 2009 · 1 Comment

Using digital media students have grown up with …..online accounting

These are the links for my presentation at Comview, Tuesday 1st December.

Elluminate session link

Some suggested tools to use in accounting classes

Online games in accounting

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What AM I doing here again!

November 27, 2009 · 4 Comments

As the flat classroom projects enter the final weeks, levels of anxiety start to run rather high amongst the student body – anger, frustration, confusion, indecision, lack of understanding, complacency are many of the emotions and feelings that run high at this stage.
So, as a teacher I need to coax, cajole, coach, encourage, teach all over again, explain, facilitate, survive etc to keep the project’s momentum going.
Some students
•get angry when a wiki war means that they have lost their hard earned work that had been added to their group page on the wiki, or worse still, their outsourced video request has disappeared!
•get frustrated as they don’t think they know what they are doing (and I know that they don’t!)
•don’t know what to put in their video
•do not follow appropriate wiki netiquette
•show some indiscretions in relation to digital citizenship
•have not had an outsourced video completed for them
•real time pressures (almost too much to bear) are experienced
To make matters worse, this year, a severe gastroenteritis went through our school with fierce tenacity, crippling it to a near halt, with more than 40% of the student body away for several days over a two or three week time period. With so many interruptions, I wondered “What am I doing here again!”
But then…….the magic begins!
•the student summits are held when students can enter the virtual classroom with their global class mates, talk and chat to each other in real time, work in an immediate virtual team, collaborate on the elluminate whiteboard to work out what outsourced video clips each student required and who would do them.
•At home, amazed parents sit near their student who has come online after school hours to be in the student summit with fellow students from Germany, China, USA, the Middle East etc. The flatclassroom is now highly evident.
•the outsourced videos start to filter on to the ning and there is real excitement in the classroom again
•Students who had been quite frustrated and downcast, exceptionally quiet in the classroom are suddenly stopping me in the corridors telling me about the wonderful clip that has been made for them
•Last minute preparations of final videos, mean that the year 9/10 students come into the computer lab to complete their work at lunchtimes.
•Their interested friends are in there too, to see what is going on and the room just buzzes!!!
•By now, they have learnt the skills of wiki editing, ning socializing, uploading the videos to the ning for final judging
•A high sense of achievement and increased confidence is evident.
Thank you Julie and Vicki for making this all possible – an amazing project to be involved in, at the cutting edge of both technology and education…… and already I cant wait to be involved in the next project. Students are enrolling for their electives for next year and are already coming up and asking, “Will we be doing the flatclassroom project?”

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The twitterfall requests for my session

November 22, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Just before my session “Beyond Classroom Walls” at LT2009, Moolooba commenced, I asked my twitter firends who were online to respond to my audience with a hello, to show the potential power of my personal learning network. They came from many different countries, including USA, Thailand and Israel. Some came from conference participants, but the most special of all was that one of my students responded back at school. How precious is that! Below is the twitterfall:-

1.  colwar @murcha Hi Anne, from our session at #lt2009. I met you via Twitter & we finally met f2f at this conference!
2.  ErnieEaster @murcha #LT2009 Hi from New Sweden, Maine, USA. Settled 1870 by Swedish immigrants. Love Twitter & my PLN with all their resources.
3.  skytrystsjoy @murcha Hi Ann, I’m Simon Brown at #LT2009 at Mooloolaba – mostly I’m from Brisbane, Oz
4.  nzchrissy @murcha Hi Anne! from a kiwi teaching in Thailand
5.  zecool #LT2009 @murcha Bonsoir Anne, from New Brunswick Canada, where I just tucked in my daughter for the night. Twitter is my PLN par excellence.
6.  hshawjr @murcha #LT2009 Sidney, Maine, USA it’s going to rain tomorrow

7.  jamescroft @murcha #lt2009 current news? I’m desperate for more news on Google’s Chrome OS. I need a wave-style demo video
8.  digitalfprint @murcha #lt2009. winchester UK. rainy, wet, dark! Marking essays in the warm!
 zecool @murcha Bonsoir Anne, from New Brunswick Canada, where I just tucked in my daughter for the night. Twitter is my PLN par excellence.
 njtechteacher @murcha Hello from drizzly New Jersey. The temperature is actually not too bad for this time of year 57°F/ 14°C – enjoy your session!
9.  susant @murcha Hello participants @ #LT2009, I’m in Israel, time 02:55, temp 13%C looks like some progress made on release of Gilad Shalit
10.  NancyWhite @murcha Hello from downtown Mooloolaba (had online mtg, on my way over!!) #LT2009
11.  hurricanemaine @murcha from western PA. Cool rainy day but inside at a wizard of oz musical at college alma mater. Hello to everyone.
12.  congerjan @murcha Hello from Collegeville, PA. USA (57-raining) watching the Syracuse University/Cal State basketball game from Mad Sq Garden, NYC
13.  azapetersen @murcha G’day Anne and everone at #LT2009. I’m in Melbourne and I’m looking forward to today’s cool change!
14.  tonnet #LT2009 Saying hello to all @murcha’s listeners. Tweeting form the Garden State sometimes and some other for NYC. Glad to meet you all
15.  tomgrissom @murcha hello from Illinois farm country
16.  @murcha from you ITA class at hawkesdale college and the school’s been shut down because of gastro and water contamination
17. melanieh @murcha #LT2009 Hello from mega hot Sydney City. Top news items include the current heatwave and tips to keep cool.
18.  RobinThailand @murcha Hi everyone at #LT2009 from Bangkok, Thailand. Cool morning here – 23C. Latest tech news: http://bit.ly/fimG8
19.  ashleyproud @murcha Hello participatns at #LT2009 You are at the Sunshine Coast aren’t you?

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Schoolies Week in action!

November 21, 2009 · Leave a Comment

 

Parents watch their students

Whilst in Mooloolaba for the Learning Technologies conference, schoolies week started. Students were seen entering the sea in school uniform, with many interested parents watching nearby. By nightfall, various parts of the school uniforms were seen scattered over the sand. Despite bad press over the years, we only saw students being sensible:- swimming, barbecuing on the foreshore, shopping etc

The end of school footsteps

School shirts at nightfall

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Learning Technologies 2009 conference

November 20, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Alec beams in from Canada

Nancy White - opening speaker

Report on Day One

Where: Beautiful Moolooba, Sunshine Coast Queensland

Venue: Sunshine Coast TAFE

Conference Paricipants: drawn from all levels of education

Pluses

  • the location – absolutely beautiful Mooloolaba
  • Nancy White with a great keynote address to set the scene
  • the keynote speakersmeeting my wonderful twitter and online friends – there are so many here and it is wonderful to meet them face to face. Some I have known for more than two years. They include @clayburell from Singapore, via Korea,  (whose wedding I attended virtually nearly two years ago), my wonderful elluminate coach and colleague @cmcculloch, catsnpyjamasnz from NZ, @colwar from my own state and many more. Other online friends present (whom I had met before) included @theother66
  • using videoconferencing technology to bring in guest speakers – shows in real time the power of the technology and is purposeful demonstration of the technology.
  • range of practitioner led presentations – practical tips, sharing of approaches, learning outcomes etc

Minuses

  • the long drive to get to the airport
  • the start of schoolies week in Mooloolaba

Interesting:

  • conference was live blogged with tweet feeds etc
  • Pirate activity to force people to meet each other, use technology and online sites.
  • Liked the time given to the vendors at 15 minute spot sessions as they helped sponsor the session.
  • the uncoference session at the end of the day with Nancy White, Clay Burrell and Liddy. I attended Liddy’s impromptu session on using scratch in the classroom

Clay Burell and Colin Warren

Clay Burell and Colin Warren

catspyjamasnz - a twitter friend

 Demonstrating use of elluminate in classroom

demonstrating the use of elluminate in the classroom

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School’s in tonight at 9pm

November 16, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Year 9/10 students who are part of the flat classroom project were offered the opportunity to meet with the class mates from Germany and Beijing. Time zone differences mean that they had to be in their homes on their computers at 9pm. Three students were able to successfullylogin to the elluminate student summit moderated by  Julie Lindsay but one of my keenest students frantically used gtalk with me in an attempt to login. However, Flick kept failing but stayed on gtalk to relay her requests and what she would be able to do for the outsourced video component of the project.

The students were on task, talking to each other, discussing the content of their videos, requesting the video clips that they required and found partners to complete their clips. The chat was quiet initially and then took momentum. Unfortunately, the mics did not work for my students but they text chatted as required.

What an amazing experience! The benefits included the fact that parents could be in the room with my students watching the fantastic classroom exchange. Partnerships with parents are crucial to the success of 21st century education.

By 10:15pm our time, it was off to bed for our students, tea time for the students in Beijing and the start of the school day for the German students. Wow! Listen to the recording!

Teachers in the student summit

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Talking to Ally

November 9, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Last week, year 11 accounting students were privileged to speak with Ally using discoverE virtual classroom software. Ally is a first year business studies student from a university in Saskatchewan, Canada. For one of her subjects she is under the tutelage of Dean Shareski.

Students were more interested in listening about Ally herself, and time did not allow us to discuss  the accounting subject that she is studying. Although my students were able to use and were encouraged to use the chat feature, it took a long time for them do so. I soon realised they were intent about listening to what Ally was talking about and trying to make sense of the accent. Indeed, they were fascinated.

My students are still rather shy about speaking on the microphone to a virtual audience. Only one  of my students was confident enough to speak to Ally. It must have been a very difficult task for Ally to make conversations all the time, but she did so with ease and watched for the questions as they came up in the chat window. The 50 mins soon went and our lesson was over.

Outcomes

  • An interesting comment was made by Ally, when she asked my class who was going to uni, and none responded positively. She wanted to know “Why not?” as is was such a great experience and such fun! (This was highly motivating for my students.)
  • Students have commented back on my blog post  and on Ally’s to thank her for her involvement. It is always netiquette to do this and important if students wish to maintain a connection.
  • Students have written a post about this session (An important record in their digital footprint and eportfolio)
  • They have asked repeatedly whether they could talk to her again.
  • I need to keep giving my students these opportunities to work with others globally giving them a vital communication skill for the 21st century. (Students in our school tend to be shy of public speaking and using microphones.)

Again, I need to thank Lorraine Leo so very much for connecting us.

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A treat for Teachers on World Teachers Day

November 6, 2009 · 2 Comments

Geraldine Doogue Master of Ceremonies (ABC fame) and me

(With Geraldine Doogue, the Master of Ceremonies, of ABC fame)

 An inspiring couple of days were held in Canberra, as Australia celebrated World Teachers Day. Award winning educationalists – teachers, principals,  SSO staff and schools and communities representatives were brought together for the Australian Excellence in Teaching Awards. This successful event was organized by Teaching Australia.

Highlights

  • awards ceremony at the magnificent Parliament House on Capital Hill in Canberra

roof top

  • shaking hands with the deputy Prime Minister, Federal Minister for Education, Julia Gillard
  • meeting face to face my twitter friend @kimpericles - It is always special to meet online friends and Kim was no exception. Kim does some amazing work with her class, especially in relation to gaming.

kim and me1

 

  • discovering that @adrian_camm was there and had won both a highladriany commended teaching award, plus the Minister for Education’s new award – Excellence in ICT
  • meeting and connecting with so many amazing educationalists who are achieving astounding outcomes with students
  • the professional exchange with activities organized by Eric Frangenheim, pushing our use of Thinking Skills
Eric Frangenheim

Eric encouraging us to continue innovation

  • the dinner at the recently opened National Portrait Gallery with guest speaker
portrait gallery

At the National Portrait Gallery

  • the closing presentation by the highly innovative and successful teacher, Andrew Douch
andrew douch

Andrew Douch - MS World Innovative Teacher of the Year

Lowlights

  • plane being 60 mins late taking off in Melbourne due to malfunction

Thank you to Teaching Australia representatives who made our visit memborable and enjoyable. All was superbly organised, we were made to feel special, yet encouraged to further our connections and continue on the innovative work.

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Global handwashing day and some blog action!

October 12, 2009 · 1 Comment

Global handwashing day is on October 15th. My students will be writing a post on this global event and answering these questions as a post:-

  1. Why would there be a global handwashing day?
  2. What purpose would it have?
  3. Write about good handwashing practise – what is handwashing, why handwash, where…., when…
  4. Think of at least 12 words that come to mind when you think of handwashing. Put these words into tagul to make your word cloud. When finished grab the code and embed it in your post. Make sure that you refer to the site and link it to tagul.

Blog action day is also on October 15th. The theme this year is climate change.  Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day on their own blogs with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance.

It is hoped that  some of our global connections will email us a photo of them washing their hands so that we can put these up on our noticeboard for discussion purposes.

It is important that we involve our students and classes in global events such as these:-

  1. Encourages students to think on a global basis.
  2. Gives them an authentic task with a global audience.
  3. Raise awareness of the impact of the H1N1 flu strain, the effects of the current typhoons, tsunamis etc may have on the increase in disease etc
  4. Makes students realise that people throughout the world have similar passions and goals, and if we work together we can start to solve some of the worldwide problems.

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Disaster strikes our global class mates

October 6, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Natural disasters seems to be striking our Asian class mates. Several weeks ago, it was the earthquake in Western Java. Last week it was a typhoon and floods in Manila. Sometimes our virtual classroom linkups with Claret school, of Quezon City, are not possible, if Manila is enduring typhoons.  The school canbe closed during these forces of nature.

Typhoons are something that we do not experience where we live in Australia, so it is difficult for us to imagine what it would be like to witness them directly. It was with great joy that I got an email response quickly from Rox, my online teaching friend, to say that he was okay, as were his students and school as they lived on higher land when the recent typhoon and heavy flooding occurred. His school was going to be used as a relief operation centre and as such would be closed to students for two days.

See the horror of it all in this  video. If you can, please give generously.

One of the amazing stories to come out of this is of @mariak who I follow on twitter.  Here are a selection of her tweets during the typhoon.

Sept 13th   Just got an email that my daughter arrived safely in Manila.On her way to Cebu Island for marine research.

But next….

  • Sept 28th  Trying 2 get news on my daughter Abby who is in Manila w research team.Haven’t heard from her in 2 days.Need help from anyone.retweet plse.
  • @manilaflood Trying to get info about Univ of Phil. campus status. Have a daughter visiting there w OceanGenomeLegacy research team. Worried
  • is there anywhere i can call to get updates.Any elec. or phone service in Manila. thanx for your tweet.I’m a worried mom.
  • Thank you. My daughter is safe. A tech teacher in Manila found her at the University and sent me a message.
  • http://twitpic.com/jjv08 – This is one of the pics I received this morning from the wonderful teacher in Manila who located my daughter.

That tech teacher was my friend Rox. How proud I am to know him! This again shows the power of web2.0 where tweets, email, skype, mobile phones, video cameras can  achieve almost impossible results. The other wonderful person in this story is Lorraine Leo who introduced me to Rox and who has also shared classrooms with all of us. It was Lorraine fjrom Boston, USA, who connected with Rox on the basis of @mariak’s tweets.

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