A classroom without walls

I have experienced two more amazing events today. After spending most of last night researching cybersafety sites and collecting some wonderful reference points from my twitter colleagues re links, sites and online videos, I went to upload them onto the desktop in the lab which projects onto the datashow. However, our internet was down. A crazy 30 mins was spent trying to get it going again and trying to think of an alternative activity to fill in the double IT class of years 9/10. Fortunately, it came on eventually and students immediately went to their blogs. Comments had started to come in from US students, the Netherlands and our staff members. So, I ended up using none of my preplanned materials as students set about commenting back, researching those global student blogs and adding a clustrmap to their own blogs. Itwas a teachable moment that expanded for 90 mins with students activating their own learning. Even the most reluctant of readers were researching the blogs and then my students wanted to improve theirs.

The next was another powerful learning moment. Jeff Whipple who is active in helping set up the middle school 1001 flat tales project, kindly offered to demonstrate wikis to the grades 4-6 students. Jeff Whipple (read his blog about us) is from Canada, where the temp was -16 degC and the time was 10:00pm. In comparison, we were enjoying a 25 deg sunny day, 12:00pm timeslot and students were to go swimming at the local pool. Interesting conversations flowed, our link was excellent and the students thoroughly engaged, even seeing Jeff’s pet cat via the camera!!! Skype was our videoconferencing software.

Jeff used the SMART Technologies Bridgit IWB conferencing tool to allow our IWB access his laptop screen so we could see the wiki students will collaboratively work on. He gave them a bit of a discovery tour.  Various fascinated staff were also present, including our principal. Such amazing technology for a Canadian teacher to be teaching our Aussie students in real time, via his laptop.

Our principal told our local newspaper about the activity and they immediatley sent out a reporter and a photographer on a 30 min trip to our school (an almost unheard of event in the past.) Unfortunately Jeff had signed off skype so I urgently tried to contact him via twitter where I read his latest post. He soon skyped me back and waited up another 45 mins to allow himself to be photographed via our IWB with two young students talking to him.

An amazing day!!!!! Hope I can sleep tonight as it is all so exciting!!