A Glimpse into “A Day in the Life of a Connected Educator”

It started as a normal, fairly mundane school day………

Well connected teachers will  find there are many ways to learn, share and teach, teachable moments arise constantly and interruptions to normal routines may become the norm. Yesterday was one such day, when normal classes were planned and a relaxing night at home anticipated, but….

World Museum Scratch Day Saturday, May 18th

Year 8 students are participating in  the Squares, Circles and Triangles project for the World Museum Project to celebrate World Scratch day. Students take photos of shapes in the real world and add them as a sprite to Scratch, highlighting the shape first and then sharing the whole picture. See an online animated sample.

Circles-Storage tanks for firewood

However, this project is quite challenging and as I am not confident with the programming elements, we had to impulsively skype my wonderful online colleague – Lorraine Leo from Boston, USA to help us in our dilemmas. My laptop webcam shared the screens of students with Lorraine so that she could see what the student was doing, speak to them and help them solve their problems. The lesson time was not long enough. So a sample student project was emailed to Lorraine for further investigation in consultation with Yoshiro Miyata, the creator from Japan.

Lorraine from USA (in laptop) virtually teaches Amy how to solve her problem with Scratch

Brendah from Sth Africa shared her lesson on learning cell references in MS Excel with grade her 2s with the HLW Skypers Group in the chat area of skype. Joe McNulty of Pennsylvania USA, joined our conversation. Within 6 hours he had shared a google document containing more mystery picture challenges that his year 7/8 students had created for Brendah’s young students. It was on impulse that I decided to use these tasks with my year 3/4 ICT class after lunch. Students were highly engaged colouring in reference cells to reveal the mystery pic. They discovered a house, faces, a flag, a rainbow etc if they followed instructions carefully.

A rainbow in progress

Images of Brendah’s and my students working on the tasks were emailed to Joe who then shared them with his students, resulting in them being even more motivated in creating further tasks. Joe has now put some of these up on his google site.

Home at last!

Enjoying the last remnants of my evening meal, I noticed a message in my HLW Skypers Group popup seeking people to ‘jump’ in and join a hangout with Reinhard  Marx and a class from Germany. The students were about to share their learning about “German Islands and the drinking water situation”.

The group skype request from Reinhard

I joined the hangout on my laptop as our desktop computer has been playing up and fully expected to be ejected from it due to my poor bandwidth. Surprisingly I was able to stay in but not able to use my video, nor see the screen sharing from Germany, but….. I could hear and speak to them. In the hangout were Endang from Western Java, Indonesia and Linlin from Taiwan. With me being from Australia, the foreign participants all came from islands – some small, some large and learnt about islands in Germany.

Students from Germany had prepared Powerpoint slides. Reinhard shared his screen with us via the Ghangout. Groups came forward and spoke to the slides and their pictures in clear English. Linlin and I then spoke about the importance of water, issues where we live and how we conserve it.

A small group shares with us

Next, a skype message came from Endang to see whether I could help her Indonesian students speak English to a native speaker. Two students introduced themselves to me, answered my many questions and then asked me questions. The chat in skype helped ensure that we understood each other reasonably well!

An ordinary day turned into a very exciting one in an amazing global classroom! How was your day?

As dawn broke, the kookaburras laughed…

School captains pay respect

As if to reflect the grateful thanks and the sense of national pride of those who attended the Dawn Anzac Day service at Hawkesdale,  two kookaburras could be heard laughing just as we were about to commence our solemn service.

Anzac Day is a day and time for reflection, to acknowledge those who have fought in wars to defend our country.  According to our Australian War Memorial site

ANZAC Day – 25 April – is probably Australia’s most important national occasion. It marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War.

ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The soldiers in those forces quickly became known as ANZACs, and the pride they took in that name endures to this day.

It is 98 years since the Anzacs landed in Gallipoli. Hawkesdale now has a reflection space as part of its main streetscaping. This is the second year that a Dawn service has been held.  More than 200 people attended. The scout and cub group had a sleepover at the local hall and were in force  as part of the gathering. An ANZAC requiem, Reflection Poem – Ode to the Anzacs by K. K. Linton, an ANZAC prayer, a student reflection and the Ode were read by Hawkesdale P12 College students and members of the Scout group. Wreaths were then laid by community groups and community members. The service finished with the Last Post, a one minute silence and finally the Reveille or Rouse as the flag was raised by the scouts. After our national anthem, the flag was lowered to half mast until lunchtime.

At the end of the service HADDAC (Hawkesdale and District Development Action Committee) offered a sausage in bread, hot drinks and anzac biscuits to those who attended.

Sharing War Stories of our Ancestors

The two classes in action

Our year 6 students linked up virtually with Lismore Primary School (approximately 1 1/4 hours drive away) to share war stories of their great or great great grandparents. As Australia celebrates Anzac Day tomorrow, April 25th, to remember those who fought for our country, this was great use of polycom equipment and  smart boards to be able to connect and share.

The army uniform

Staff from both schools worked with Concetta Gotlieb (@chetty)  of See Share Shape on this project. It involved using the Polycom Videoconferencing equipment and our smart board to share a presentation by Lismore PS.

Innovative use of smartboards and polycom for sharing

Students researched their family’s involvement in previous wars, wrote a report or story to share and then using the web camera shared that story. One of our students brought her great grandfather’s army jacket complete with medals and cloth badges and share that with all. Students from Lismore shared a powerpoint presentation which included video footage of interviews with and ex Russian prisoner of war and his memories. Another Lismore student revealed what it was like to be a civilian during World War 2 with rations etc.

Illustrator uses Polycom to teach drawing

The link up was a direct result of a previous project with See Share Shape when an illustrator, Mark Wilson,  virtually taught  a number of virtual classes how to create drawings to illustrate stories. Mark had illustrated Jackie French’s story on Anzac Day, A Day to Remember

As it looked on smartboard

Minecraft in Education – Tech Talk Tuesday in Review

Stephen’s maths classroom

Stephen Elford (@EduElfie)  gave us a fascinating insight into his passion for minecraftEDU. He has successfully used minecraft – an online reality game that has captured the attention and engagement of students globally – in the maths/science classroom. See his youtube channel for actual demonstrations Successful application sharing in Blackboard Collaborate enabled participants in real time, or whilst viewing the recording to see the exact nature of this amazing world and its potential for learning. Participants came from Pakistan, USA and Australia.

The teacher controls in minecraftEDU

You can watch this fabulous presentation by clicking on the link to the recording below or watching the video version at video version of this session on blipTV which Peggy George of Classroom2.0LIVE has created for us. Thanks Peggy!

Educationalists can join the google group on minecraft Do you have sites to share or networks to join?

An essential online profile

My incomplete edmodo profile!

This note came to me from Vivienne Tucker, the moderator of an edmodo group in education.

I am always happy to have new teachers join our group. However, I have become very wary of accepting requests to join if the teacher profile is completely empty. If you know of teachers wanting to join, I really need a little information in the profile, so as to be sure it is a bona fide teacher, and not a student posing as a teacher. There has been a little trouble with this in some groups. I have quite a few requests from teachers with profiles which are completely empty. Cheers

This is also true of me when accepting contacts in skype or twitter, unless the person has added a note to explain what their interest and role is in education, I do not accept them. The balance is between transparency  and sharing too much personal information.

Why do’t people maintain an adequate profile on online sites:-

• complete newbie and do not know how to complete their profile or
• feel cyber insecure and do not wish to divulge too much about themselves but then risk the problems of not being accepted into some wonderful communities and networks.
• do not understand the significance of having an online profile and/or the potential networking that can evolve.
• time poor – hurriedly register for recommended sites and forget to fully complete the profile

Where to edit a profile!

It is essential to have a good profile (or digital id/badge), an online site or public web presence, eg a blog, a wiki, a personal webpage, a twitter id and a consistent avatar in this world of emerging technology. Potential connectees have somewhere to learn more about you, understand what you are passionate about or interested in and make and maintain connections. Online business cards are an option - about.me, flavorsme (See Jess McCulloch flavorsme) etc

Why be connected?-

• share conversations/learn from and with each other
• stay up to date with trends, grab new ideas
• get help with issues/problems NOW!
• enjoy Professional Development 24/7
• supportive friendship group
• be part of  a “global, networked brain”

A profile should share or feature

• online sites eg blogs, websites etc
• current position or interest in education (if an educator)
• twitter handle, linked in profiles
• Passions and interests

Check out some sites to find where your profile may be found online – peekyou, tagwalk  Do you know of others? What can you share? Ensure that your blog or online space has an ‘About Me’ page or widget.

What would you add to the importance of an online profile? Hmm… that reminds me that I must complete my edmodo profile!

The final day of #flatclass2013 in Yokohama Japan – How Can We Help?

The final day saw a later start and altered timetable for the Flat Classroom Conference 2013 in Yokohama, Japan. Our most active virtual participants gathered in the backchannel chat and shared conversations. Live streaming was not as active as the day before and as the final presentation was being finalized there was little that the virtuals could contribute asynchronously.

A google hangout was setup in Japan later in the morning and this was very successful for those virtuals who were able to log in. I was able to enter twice, but was almost immediately ejected from the hangout due to poor bandwidth. A maximum of 10 video linkups are allowed. This meant that the hangout was full most of the time and others could only join in, once one of the successful 10 departed.

The closing ceremony featured:

• video clips of experiences at the conference (this was great for virtuals like me to watch as it gave some sense of space, emotions, experiences, what the conference physically looked like, how it felt to be there physically etc)
• the virtual participants’ collaborative video, compiled by Violet Lindsay using animoto, then uploaded to youtube. See the clip above in this post.
• the video clips created by student teams (these were amazing and show that the future is in great hands).

Interested parties could view this in either uStream or Live Stream (the Yokohama International School) channel.  For me, on poor bandwidth, the Live Stream was stable and it was with some emotion that I  viewed the video put together by the virtuals up on the big screen in Japan. Just so exciting to see it up there. The student outcomes were amazing.

It was always great to have Julie Lindsay pop into the backchannel to keep us up to date and we always looked for tweets to help us ‘see’ the conference. Thanks to everyone who put an amazing effort into what is an amazing conference. Particular thanks to Julie Lindsay, the co-ordinator of the Flat Classroom Conference and Kim Cofino, whose school it was held at. Thanks to Jason Graham, who co-ordinated the Virtual Participants,  for all his support, enthusiasm and great ideas.

Reflections as a Virtual Co-odinator will follow in a post to be written soon.  Did you follow the conference at all?

Day #2 Flat Classroom Conference 2013

As the state that I live in enjoys its hottest March on record, I worked as quickly as possible to  water some of my garden before the conference started.  In a split second of anxiety, I thought I would miss it altogether as I was about to step on a snake! Luckily it was not a snake but a blue tongue lizard.

A blue tongue lizard mistaken for a snake

As one of the two virtual co-ordinators, together with Jason Graham,  our role included co-ordinating and moderating the 40 virtual participants – a group made up of both educators and students. It became a busy day, multitasking on several screens,  trying to help those who were ‘lost’, those who were uncertain as to where they should be and those who wanted to engage in conversations and become more actively involved.

Participants in the Backchannel

A range of tools had been set up to try and engage those who were interested in participating.  They included:-

• A wiki – for capturing the conference and the learning that occurred there
• The ning for networking and sharing
• A backchannel using backchannelchat
• Online notepads (shamblespad) for editing, contributing, brainstorming, chatting etc by the individual groups
• Twitter using the hashtag #2013
• A BlackboardCollaborate room during conference hours

With my mobile devices multi tasking in the chats

A preservice teacher from Canada waits to speak to the conference

Running a little late due to my escapade with the lizard, I logged into the Blackboard Collaborate room and was delighted to see Eva Brown in there with a number of her students from Canada. They were about to present virtually as part of Eva’s presentation using the microphone and video in this room to project their viewpoints. The chat was vibrant and it was good to see that this part worked well.

Over the day, there were hitches with some of the technical aspects of the conference eg Ustream did not always work, face to face groups became very busy within their own group and several keen virtual participants tried to help their group. The most active tools were the backchannel and the chat on the ning. This is where most people found each other and were able to share in conversations. It was always good to have Julie find time to pop in and tell us what was happening at the conference.Toni Oliveri-Barton, in the USA, entered the chat and talked about the success she had virtually working with her group no.4

Mid afternoon, Julie suggested that the virtuals make up a video to be played at the closing ceremony to share their side of the story in being part of the conference. This gave many a purpose, caused much chatter and eventuated in a  google hangout for meeting in real time to discuss our experiences. Jason Graham created this google document for us to share images etc and talk about the nature of the video. It was quickly populated with notes and images and also gave everyone a sense of achievement and purpose. The backchannel was actively employed for further discussions on the creation of the video.

I enjoyed following the tweetfall through tweetchat and interacting in there. Although this was reasonably quiet, enough tweets were added to give a feel for the day from the face to face participants. By all accounts it was really successful. Tomorrow sees the last day of the conference. I wonder what it will bring? Were you a virtual participant or a face to face participant? What were your impressions?

Australia Day

On January 26^th, Australians celebrate Australia Day. This is a time to celebrate:-

• being an Australian
• reflecting on what a wonderful country Australia is
• acknowledging those who have contributed in a special way to Australian communities and

As technology breaks down my classroom walls and education becomes increasingly global, it has made my students aware of other countries, cultures, ideologies and religions. However it has also made us  far more aware of who we are, where we have come from, why it is special to be a citizen of our country and why it is important to celebrate and remember our individual cultures.

What does Australia Day look like in the  community that I live in? As part of the Moyne Shire, Hawkesdale was chosen to host the official Australia Day celebrations for this shire (as the Moyne Shire citizen of the year came from the Hawkesdale community.

This took place in the public reflection area and Memorial Hall. Here is what it looked like:-

8am- 9:00am   Breakfast of cereal, yoghurt, fruit, egg and bacon muffins and/or a sausage with sauce in bread.

9:30am    The official program commenced. This included official introductions, the singing of our national anthem, speeches, naturalization of new Australian citizens within our shire, awards for The Community Event of the Year, Young Citizen of the Year and Citizen of the Year and an address by an Australia Day ambassador.

Australian flags and stickers were handed out by our local cubs and scouts. More than 200 people were in attendance.

We are camping at the Port Fairy Gardens Caravan Park. Flags are proudly being flown from tents, annexes and cars. Many campers are enjoying barbecues throughout the day with  some starting  with bacon and eggs for breakfast. It is a day to celebrate being part of a lucky country, where the lifestyle is relaxed and peaceful, the folks are easy going, where community groups support each other  through thick and thin and where the greetings heard are:- “G’day mate, how are ya goin’?”

To my Australian friends and colleagues “Happy Australia Day”. To my friends from other countries and readers of this blog, do you have a special day to reflect on being a citizen of your country? How do you celebrate?

Pic Collage – a favourite app

One of my favourite and most used apps this year was pic collage. The image above was put together using this app. The photo is of our canteen manager and Wang-Yi our Chinese teacher assistant.

Pic Collage is user friendly, is free,   allows photos to be taken within the app, or inserted from the photo gallery or the web. Text and stickers can also be added to the collage. The free app comes with a basic gallery of stickers with an option to purchase more.

Our library has a class set of iPads that students may borrow for use in the classroom. It is always great to give students an app to work with, watch what they create and how they create an outcome to get an idea of what the app can produce.  Below are two collages created by year 10 students, of our school vegetable garden. The garden produces some wonderful herbs and vegetables for use in the school canteen or in cookery classes. As summer is now here, the beds have been cleaned up and replanted in readiness for the summer time break. Can you see what has been planted by the year 6 students?

Community Connect Evernote with Trent Bourne

Having attended several face to face conference sessions and a number of webinars on evernote, I like the look of this app. It is cross platform, uses the cloud, syncs nicely with many tools and I like their style and support. Tonight, I took notes from Trent’s presentation as this is an app or tool that I want to play with and explore more over the summer holidays. Trent used airplay on his iPad to demonstrate some of these apps, as well as webtours and application sharing in blackboard collaborate of actual web pages.

Here are my summarized notes:-

Some apps that complement or sync with evernote (all free unless otherwise stated):-

1. Penultimate (this one has a slight cost), works like a whiteboard – writing, drawing, scribbling, sketching
2. Peek - great for revision and study purposes
3. Skitch - annotate, use shapes and sketches etc using a smart cover to reveal the questions and answers. A mix of audio, text etc can be used. Great for languages.
4. Shoe boxed - free one month trial. Keep receipts and other documents as digital documents with this app. Can send to evernote.
5. Hello –  a great way to share the equivalent of business cards with options for photo, twitter handle, email, other social networking sites etc
6. Evernote food - preserve memorable food experiences

Trent also demonstrated how to create stacks and answered numerous questions from participants.

From the chat came the following suggestions

• Page Camera - turns smart phone into a scanner
• How to use evernote tutorials
• Makeuseof has a greatfree download of all the things that should be in a tutorial (I like the look of this site)

Thanks Trent for an informative session. Now I need time to play. Have you used evernote? What is your opinion? How do you use it? Have you used all or any of the above apps?