Tech Talk Tuesday: Little Smarties – Blogging with the Early Years

Stefanie’s great blog header

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

About this session: Stefanie Galvin will be our guest presenter.  ”The Little Smarties“ in room 16 is the title of her class blog with grade prep/ones. Stefanie will  share how she started blogging with the Preps last year (as part of The Victorian DEECD’s Contemporary Literacy Practices in the Early Years research project), how she uses it in her classroom, the participation and support from school and the local community, and how it’s shaping their school environment.

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

eT@lking: ISTE in review

When: Wednesday July 25th, 8-9pm, gmt+10 Melbourne Victoria time

About the session: ISTE is a large USA conference for educationalists interested in using technology in their classrooms. It has 14000 participants. This year saw the largest contingent of Australians attend. Anne Mirtschin was fortunate enough to attend in 2012. This session will share some of the following:-

• the ‘hottest’ technology and tools
• trending topics for education
• the makeup of the conference
• the choices within the conference
• apps used whilst at the conference
• the use of social networking
• preparation before the event
• general reflections

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

eT@lking: Assessing Educational Apps

This month, Jess McCulloch is organising and hosting the T@lking webinars. Following are the details of tonight’s session:-
When:- Wednesday, June 13th, 8-9pm, Melbourne Australia time (gmt+10)
About this session: Don Donahoo of Projectsynthesis of will lead us in a presentation on assessing educational apps, looking at the Gange, Gardner and the PAC21 Method.
Daniel Donahoo works with app developers and has developed a system to help filter the large volume of apps to assess quality and to improve our skills and knowledge around what makes a positive digital learning environment. Daniel’s twitter handle is ddonahoo

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

Tech Talk Tuesdays and eT@lking: This week’s webinars!

Tech Talk Tuesdays: What’s the Interest in Pinterest?

Date: Tuesday, March 6th 4-5pm, Melbourne, Australia time (gmt+11)

About the session: Pinterest, social networking using online pinboard phenomena, burst onto the scene a couple of months ago. Pinterest lets youorganize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes. Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.

So what is Pinterest and how can you use it in the classroom?

About the presenter: Mark Richardson will share with us his use of pinterest and it’s possible applications for educationalists. 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 the recording. Have you used pinterest, if so how?

eT@lking: Designing your Digital Future by Developing a Digital Roadmap

When: Wednesday March 7th, 8-9pm Melbourne Australia time (gmt+11)

About the session: eT@lking is proud to host this  webinar with Allison Miller as guest presenter on a topic that is crucial for all.

The National Broadband Network (NBN) offers all Australians greater opportunities through working smarter in a digital economy.   This will, however, require all Australians to be ‘NBN ready’ through improved information and communication technology (ICT) skills and effective digital business systems.  Through this identified need, the “Is your Business NBN ready?” digital business capability program has been developed to help individuals and businesses capitalise on the opportunities and efficiencies being made possible through the NBN.

This session will cover the keys areas for designing your digital future by developing a digital roadmap.  Whether you are a business owner, employee or consumer, this interactive and participative session will have relevance to you as we will all be required to function effectively in a digital economy. Topics covered include:

• Your digital future
• The digital workforce
• Your digital presence
• The digital market place
• Your digital infrastructure
• The legal, financial and sustainability considerations

About our presenter:

Allison Miller has been involved in education and training for nearly 20 years as an educator, professional development, and e-learning leader. She is the director and principal consultant of Vanguard Visions Consulting, which is a learning, development and assessment consultancy which specialises in using cutting edge e-learning and e-assessment solutions and research services to improve organisational capacity and performance through developing a culture of ongoing development. Allison also manages national e-learning projects for the National VET E-learning Strategy and is the convenor of the national ePortfolios Australia Conference. To learn more about supporting the ongoing development of individuals follow the Vanguard Visions Consulting “Looking to the Future” blog written by Allison.

Please join us. Here is the link to the recording of this session

This Week’s Tech Talk Tuesdays and eT@lking

Tech Talk Tuesdays: What have you been up 2.0?

When: Tuesday 20th September, 2011 from 4-5pm Melbourne Australia time (gmt+10)

About this session: The popular theme from last week will be continued. This session is an unconference Tech Talk Tuesdays, where participants can share what they have been up to in learning and teaching. Bring along your favourite technology tools, ideas, resources, problems, issues and open them up for discussion.

Here is the link to the recording

eT@Lking: Sharing Digital Media

When: Wed 21st September, 8-9pm Australia (gmt+10)

About this session:- Shamblesguru (akia Chris Smith) from Thailand will be our guest presenter. Chris will talk about sharing digital media between devices.

This session is designed for those who want to …

• share and sync files across multiple computers (inc. mobile and iDevices)
• share files on social networks for others to benefit from and contribute to
• simply backup and sync to a hard-drive
• know more about cloud computing
• sleep more soundly at night knowing that their data is safer.

The session is designed for both techy and non-techy educators who are primarily looking for low time-demanding and free or low cost solutions.  The knowledge and skills covered are not only chosen to support teacher productivity but also to support work with students.

At the end of the session you’ll be given access to presentation resources to make it easier to share this topic with your colleagues in school (if appropriate).

 If there was a survival toolbox for the 21st century teacher, librarian, manager or support staff then this session would be one of the top five tools in that box …. I have no doubt about this. (says Chris)

About our presenter:- Chris’ is well known internationally on the presenter circuit, especially in Asia. His website alone attracts more than 10,000 hits per day. Chris describes himself as a Digital Nomad Evangelist and TEDxBKK presenter.

Please join us. Here is the link to the recording

5 Big Global Trends in Education

A special Australia series was scheduled this week by Carole McCulloch as Nigel Paine was in Australia, visiting from London and en route to the USA> Nigel Paine was an entertaining but fluent and knowledgeable  presenter who was thought provoking and inspiring.  His sense of humour and ‘chatty’ nature who kept us all engaged and encouraged all participants to interact. Link to the session’s recording

“The world is changing and we need to move with it”

The culture of organisation is represented by how employee’s  feel about work, number of customers etc.Innovation is breaking new boundaries and change the way that people perceive schools or organisations. Druckers definition of innovation: “Change which creates a new dimension of performance.” (improves, moves on, changes in a step way, help young ones change their lives) makes things more useabale. Something that makes ‘step difference’ from where we are. If making step change you have to be able to measure it. Measurement can be approximate.  Innovation can break new boundaries, change the way that people perceive the organisation and allows information to flow faster, knowledge to be shared etc

Technology gives learning a chance to reinvent itself, gives people excitement, gives them a challenge. Information technology as an enabler often does very little.

What are the blockers to innovation? Here are the participants’ responses.

Participants brainstorm on blockers to innovation

Some of Nigel’s responses to the above list  include:-

• Money is always an excuse. Often when money is tight, that is the time to innovate.
• No-one is challenging anyone to do very much.
• We could do it better but it can be depressing!
• What holds back the pace of innovation?
• IT goes from being servant to master – not secure, too expensive, not on priority list. IT is to be an enabler.

We can see whether there is step measurement:

• May see dollar measurement
• Change in culture: how do people feel about work, number of customers, of people who choose to stay rather than leave, number of new customers etc
• Measuring does not need a decimal formula
• innovation is more about the new dimension – do we perform differently because of the change

An innovative bookshop in Brazil, has this motto: If something works, then it is already obsolete. The incessant quest is to create the new and that concerns us all.

Here are 4 of the 5 big shifts in learning

1. Learning : embedded in work and embedded in the work place and aims to make a step change. – all about alignment, not possible now to simply go on your own merry way. Alignment with organisation’s objectives. Learning strategy must be in alignment with organisations’ objectives.
2. Social in nature – learning is based on team work, social networking and web2.0 encourage team sharing, team learning and team performance. You don’t have to fix it on your own, solve problems together, share knowledge together.
3. Portable in format – any time any place, and increasingly multiple platform.
4. Agile in deployment – we need it in 3 weeks, what can we get in 3 weeks. How fast is fast? Throw stuff at people and let them make use of it. Let people work in teams and work out what they can do with it.

Great people, great environment, great performance – ability to have some control, feel like you belong, so collective environment, difference amongst different teams.

From the vibrant and energetic chat came the following:-

• Discussion on the value of iPod touch applications.
• The potential role in education of iPads as portable  learning devices
• How to bring staff on board to embrace the new technologies
• Fun conversation around the lamps that Nigel showed us
• innovation = change which creates a new dimension of performance
• innovation is more about the new dimension – do we perform differently because of the changes
• The benefits (or step changes) could be $$, retention of employees, increased efficiency?, something novel that moves us markedly forward?
• The Danes also have a quote re great design…don’t make something unless it’s both necessary and useful; but if it’s both necessary and useful, don’t hesitate to make it beautiful
• How does one encourage staff to take on board new technology and start using it effectively?
• we need to replace the fear with incentives
• What if we support just enough of change for the person/group to get a taste — a taste of the better — this draws people in and is better than an “incentive”
• there’s that embedding word again – becomes mainstream – and thenof course its no longer innovative – its a constantly shifting sand
• i don’t think innovation can occur for extrinsic reasons
• Nigel, we’re getting a few ideas about ‘enablers’ as opposed to ‘blockers’ – always important to have both sides
• My observation is that money as the primary incentive usually results in “lip service” change
• like the appreciative inquiry approach-where you deliberately avoid the issue of ‘barriers’and focus on the question;’what do we want more of-where you identify what is working well
• Moodle has been modified from direct input from teachers
• portable devices – kindle, ipads – how do they change your practices?
• Mobile devices improve access and allow for better personalisation of learning. More cost effective too.
• the issues or barriers to innovation are not to do with hardware – more to do with headware
• Once students are given iPads, I am sure they would find all sorts of means of using them to empower their learning
• Thinking netbook is a better educational tool than an iPad in today’s classroom.
• I think mobile devices might circumvent some of the tech fear colleagues have because they can immediately interact without a special skill set.
• We had an excellent discussion the other day about moving away from education talk that focusses mainly on devices-and we need to talk  more about digital skills, digital capabilities etc
• learning outcomes first, tools second
• so maybe we’re discovering theimportance of ‘storage’ capacity for learning as well as ‘portability’
• digital skills, digital capabilities are approached differently depending on the device whether it be a computing lab workstation or a portable device in a classroom
• instructional design has changed over the last few years because of innovative methods, devices and abiilty to use them – the skill lies in the way in which the ID diffuses and shares
• Here’s a teacher who has used iPod touches in his English classroom (class set) and now has others using them also.
• Smartphones will be the leveler — see the work being done with mLearning
• true, the process rules – this is where the innovation will happen

Thanks for giving up your time from your busy schedule, Nigel.

eT@lking – Gimp Installation and First Steps

Marian Heddesheimer was the presenter on eT@lking tonight. A seasoned presenter, he has used application sharing with flair to demonstrate this open source program – gimp. This is an alternative to Photoshop.

In easy step by step style, the viewer is taken through the steps of downloading gimp and using some of its basic features.

From the chat

• Meet the GIMP
• Developer Blog Aggregator
• to search twitter for comments on #gimp try search.twitter.com
• Marian’s second presentation

See the recording.

Next week, internationally reknowned Kim Cofino will present on The 21st Century Learner. Dont miss it on Wed 21st April, 8pm, Melbourne Australia time (gmt+10)

Developing Learning Resources – eT@lking

As part of the Australia Series, eT@Lking last night featured special presenters from Holmesglen TAFE, Rowan Peter, Elias  Madie and other special guests spoke about developing learning resources. Rowan and Elias are part of the resource development team in the
Learning Innovation and Development Unit at Holmesglen. These innovative presenters have designed learning objects for the Learning Federation, other TAFE, tertiary institutions and businesses.
In this presentation they discussed:
· the production cycle of a ‘typical’ online learning resource
· development tools and techniques
· roles and responsibilities of project team members
· examples of work.

As a VCE (Year 12 teacher), I was amazed to see much of the  textbook theory evolve before my eyes and hope that they might be able to speak to my ITA students at some stage. How wonderful it is to be able to connect with those who design our learning objects. Thanks Rowan, Elias and other guests.

Listen to the recording

The Power of Blogging

The third session in eT@lking from the Australia Series was called the Power of Blogging. As time had been short in organization, I talked about blogging and how effective it was for me and my students.

To my surprise Purti, from India told me via gtalk 2hours before the session that her class was going to listen in as they wanted to start blogging. This was a completely different audience to that intended but what wonderful use of the technolgy. Perhaps some sessions should be just tailored for teachers and their classes.

Again the global participants nearly outnumbered the Australian ones. They came from India, Israel, Singapore, Malaysia, China and Australia. The chat was amazing and there was a lot o fsharing of resources, advice and many questions asked. Thanks to those who attended. The next session will be on Wednesday, March 3rd at 8pm, Melbourne Australia time. The guest presenter will be Amanda Marrinan, from NSW, Australia and the topic is “Too Young for Technology?” Amanda presented at the 2009 NECC conference in USA and will tell us how her little ones have connected with other global classrooms through blogging. Please join us.

Listen to the recording on The Power of Blogging.

Here are some of the links that were shared during this session. They came out of the chat room from some of the participants. If I have missed some, please add them as a comment below.

1. The session was based on the experiences with my class blog (I teach ICT to years 7 -12, and accounting, years 11 and 12, so it is actually many classes) and my teacher blog.

2. Great tips, hints, advice and tutorials on blogging with edublogs

3. Resources on cybersafety “The Talent Show” and “The Bulletin Board” (ssedro suggestions) and cybernetrix

4. Sample of an eportfolio

5. Examples of great student blogs

6. Guidelines on blog comments

7. Ssedro suggested the following avatar creation sites: reasonably clever, build your wild self, mr picasso head, doll makers, vokis

8. Some widgets (pieces of code) to add to blogs: clustrmaps, weather pixie, clocks, flag counter, revolver maps etc

Some other great comments:-

Rowan Peter likes blogging for the “accumulation of content/existence’ that occurs on the student’s blog as they graduate from year to year”

eT@lking – Two sessions in!

I am almost too stunned for words! In tonight’s session of eT@lking, the Australia Series, we had people from Germany, Spain, Singapore, India, Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, Greece, USA. That is 9 countries, representing four continents, a range of educators from primary through to tertiary levels, and on to adults, from government and private schools through to International schools and universities. A mix of religions, cultures and experiences but all dedicated to teaching.

The topic was the Wonderful World of Wikis and here we heard Chrissy Hellier (Teaching Sagittarian) speak about her goal of ‘tearing down the walls’. Evidence tonight that happened before our eyes. What is the impact for education?

Listen to the recording