Tech Talk Tuesdays: Infographics for Learning

When: Tuesday 29th May, 8-9pm, Melbourne, Australia time (gmt+10)

About this session: Infographics are the ‘flavour of the month’ with two sessions in one week for the Australia Series. In this session, Mark Richardson will lead us through a discussion on infographics. Some of the following may be  included:

1. the role of infographics in and its place in learning,
2. the ability to visualize concepts and
3. some tools for creating infographics.

About Mark:  Mark Richardson has taught in primary schools for many years. He also has extensive experience planning and delivering professional learning to teachers in ICT / eLearning.

His current interests are

• Learning Spaces and Places
• Digital Pedagogies,
• Online Teaching and Learning
•  Collaboration
• Digital Citizenship

Here is the link to listen to the recording.

ICTEV 2012

Today I am delighted to be at the ICTEV2012 conference. My session presentations etc will be placed back here. The following three google docs have been setup as a backchannel

1. Connecting Learning
2. The networked teacher
3. Learning in the Little Big Classrooms

Presentations

The Networked Teacher

Learning in Little Big Classrooms

Connecting Learning

The complete presentations can be seen on the ICTEV Channel on Youtube: Learning in Little Bit Classrooms, The Networked Teacher,   Connecting with Learning

I was proud and honoured to be named ICTEV Teacher of the Year. Here is the movie created summarizing my teaching in 90 seconds!

Tech Talk Tuesdays: Using iPad apps for effective learning

 

When: Tuesday May 22nd, 4-5pm, Melbourne, Australia time (gmt+10)

About the session: Jenny Ashby will be leading a discussion about the  use of iPad apps for effective learning. She will share some of her favourite apps and discuss ways in which we can learn more about their use in the classroom. Come along with your questions and share your resources and ideas.

About our presenter: Jenny is a pioneering and leading expert in all things mac, ipad and ipod. She has presented overseas on numerous occasions and her advice is in high demand! Jenny is an ICT specialist, teacher coach, forever learning, forever teaching, early years literacy teacher and currently teaches in Bendigo, Australia.

Here is the link to the recording

Happy Birthday Scratch!

Happy birthday Scratch, complete with popping balloons!

Today is Scratch’s 5th birthday. Scratch is a programming language for both young and older learners! Have a look at how students are saying ‘Happy Birthday‘ to Scratch at the World Museum’s Let’s Celebrate Scratch’s birthday. (This may take a few minutes to load.)  This is a project put together by Professor Yoshiro Miyata of Japan. Many balloons are floating, and if you click a balloon, it will pop and say a birthday message for Scratch.

Students from across the globe have downloaded the scratch sprite  from the World Scratch Birthday Project and uploaded their sprite back to the public gallery. My grade 4/5 students used this sample project to wish  Scratch a ‘Happy Birthday”. Here is how it was done:-

1. I downloaded the birthday project sample balloon which came with coding and saved it on our school public student drive.
2. Students opened the file, saved it back into their folders and simply customized the balloon to their personal design. They replaced the phrases in the coding with their first name, where they are from and why they like using Scratch. It was then uploaded to the public gallery to be grabbed and placed on the World Museum site.

Why I loved this great project:-

1. We did not have to be experts to create a birthday message. The coding was done for us but students could tweak it if they wished.
2. Students could customize the balloon and use their own creativity.
3. The balloon pops when clicked and opens up with their message
4. It is going online so there is an authentic global audience
5. A parent popped into the room while we were creating our balloons and was suitably impressed with the popping of balloons, the engagement and the sharing that was going on.

To quote Yoshiro Miyata

 I would like to put their works in the project.  I think the students will enjoy watching their creations in the big display with their messages.  That’s when their vision expands from their works to other people around the world working together with them.

From a newbie point of view, this was a great project to work with. We did not need to know much about scratch and its more complex coding options.  The students could get an effective, creative, customizable product quite quickly. They finished it within a 50 minute lesson.

Although I have tried Scratch several times over the last four years,  I kept hitting a wall and then gave up. This has inspired me again and the students are up and running! (or should that be scratching!) Thanks to Lorraine Leo for connecting us to this great project. Have you tried Scratch? What could you share? Are you part of the World Museum projects?

Popping the balloons

What I learnt from the students this week!

I would like to try and document what I learn from the students each week, so that

1. I will not forget how to do what they share with me
2. Share how precious my student learning network can be.
3. Help prove that you do not need to everything or even much at all about technology, as the students will work with you through it all.
4. Remind me that the students can be so much more techno savvy. than me.

This week….

• Students are learning data normalisation using MS Access. They were to work their way through online tutorials. Sections of these tutorials featured videos. One of my best students had problems with the sound. She checked the headset volume gauge, the video volume icon and the computer sound control icon. All were at maximum levels.
• A few minutes later all was quiet. Chloe told me that she decided to use the closed caption display icon instead of the audio.
• Great option in  videos which enable all those options for students so that they can choose the one that works best for either their learning abilities or the technological capabilities. This style possibly suited Chloe better.

It’s the Teachable Moments that I love!

Wednesday is one of my busiest teaching days. So, when I saw a request come through from Endang in Indonesia to skype with a class of hers, I wondered whether I could fit it in. I was about to teach my year 12 VCE Accounting class where mid-year exams are looming. However, it was nearly recess time and the request came through in my spare lesson for the day, so I agreed.

Needing a quiet room to skype in, I walked with my laptop to the computer room. Curious secondary students started to walk in during the recess break and soon they were talking to the grade 3/4 students from Pekalangon, Indonesia. Confident  primary students from Indonesia came up to the webcamera in pairs and introduced themselves and then asked questions of our students. They compared what they did at playtime, the weather, school uniforms etc. To complete the video conference, the Indonesian students sang “Twinkle, twinkle little star” in perfect tune and in perfect English to the delight of my students.

That filled in a morning recess when the weather was cold and wet! The students had fun, but learnt so much!

Why does it work well!

• There is no planning required, just a willingness to make the most of every teachable moment.
• Little equipment required:  just access to a laptop that is logged on skype
• The curiousity of students is always there, especially when smaller groups of students are involved. They want to learn about each other and they will drive the learning.
• It develops confidence on both sides
• Forces students to learn to communicate well

Challenges

• Remembering to introduce myself formally and correctly (I always forget!)
• The internet speed between a two bandwidth poor areas: -a rural school in Australia and a school in Western Java, Indonesia

Changing the way we view cybersafety – Tech Talk Tuesday in review

Tony Richards, (@itmadesimple and co-podcaster of the edtechcrew)  led a discussion on the way we should view cybersafety for Tech Talk Tuesdays. This was a challenging and thought provoking session.

It made us think about:-

• where are our students online, when are they online, how are they online etc Do we know?
• holding regular conversations with students
• creating student surveys to see where they are at, and where the teaching needs to begin!
• students should be being taught to screencast eg screenr , jing are online tools
• 20 things I learned – a great free online resource. Could students read one chapter each fortnight and discuss in class? Should this be linked to their blog sidebars?
• and so much more. Listen to the recording to catch it all.

Shared from the participants

1. creating online avatars
2. Let’s stalk women app
3. the Kony video on youtube
4. Tony’s bookmarked sites on being smart online 
5. Report on Targeting Scams from the Australian government

Tech Talk Tuesdays: Creating apps for mobiles

When: Tuesday May 14th 4-5pm (Melbourne Australia gmt+10)

About the Session: The Teacher Learning Network currently have 4 apps available for download in the iOS app store and one in the Android Marketplace. As program co-ordinator Max Grarock was involved in the design of all these applications and actually built 3. Max will talk the through the process the TLN went through in designing, coding, placing in stores and marketing their suite of mobile applications.
About our presenter: Max Grarock is the Program Co-ordinator at the Teacher Learning Network. This sees him involved in the production and development of the organisations websites, mobile applications, face to face and online PD, funded projects and editing of the TLN journal. Before commencing at the TLN he was a kindergarten teacher and director for 6 years. Max recently completed his Masters in Education (education leadership and administration) though Deakin University.

Here is the link to the recording.  Please join us and share in the conversations.

Could you please make sure you put up tasks on your blog?

On Friday, one of my students asked me:-

Could you please make sure you put what I have to do for Monday and Tuesday’s classes on your blog?

When queried further, I learnt that this student was to have a medical procedure that required hospitalisation and absence from school on Monday and Tuesday of this coming week. She wants to keep up to date with her school work.

Each day, I try to put the class instructions on my class blog, students logon, check my blog post and often proceed their tasks before I enter the room. However, due to other time commitments, I have been a bit slack of late with my year 12 class and have been either writing the instructions on the board, or teaching them the lesson procedures.

Click on this link to see the blog post on depreciation for Renee. It had multiple media and links to sites that she and my class could look at in their own time.

Here is a solid example of the importance of digital teaching and learning and …. it comes from a student! It highlights the important role that blogging takes. How many other teachers in the school could she have asked that same question?

Tech Talk Tuesdays: Social networking made easy with Edmodo

When: Tuesday, May 8th 4-5pm (Melbourne time, Australia gmt+10)

About the session: We’ve all heard the statistics, and rightly or wrongly Facebook and other sites are playing a major part in the day to day lives of our
students. For most schools concerns about safety mean that Facebook and the like is just too great a risk. Enter Edmodo, a social networking developed by teachers with education in mind. Simple to use, because access is controlled by group codes generated by the teacher, it is very safe. In this “Hands-on” session with John Pearce, participants will engage in a virtual exploration of Edmodo getting a feel for the ever expanding features provided within Edmodo.

About our presenter: John Pearce is an educational consultant based in Portarlington, Victoria, Australia. He previously taught in a number of primary schools and has won several awards for his work in the classroom. He has also presented at a number of conferences, statewide and nationally and internationally.

Here is the link to the recording