What AM I doing here again!

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?”

Using elluminate in the classroom

Ping class online

Having used elluminate  over the last 12 months for regular global staff meetings, online conferences and online professional development, it has only been this year, that I have used it with students and realised its potential application to being the way to go for 21st century education middle to senior school students.

A trombonist teaches year 7

Various benefactor organizations, and our own Victorian Education and Early Childhood Department, Australia, have sponsored a 12 week program for bringing music to three or four remote, rural schools.
Ajax McKerrall, a former digital productions manager, for the London Symphony Orchestra, organized an individual member of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) to come into our classroom, via elluminate, to teach us about their instruments. They play short pieces, demonstrate the key elements or physics of the instruments, and answer questions from the students.  The MSO instrumentalists are with Ajax in a radio studio (3MBS) in Melbourne which is a 3 1/2 drive from Melbourne and then proceed to record short music clips which are uploaded onto the shared Ping class music blog. My 28 year 7 students (all in the one class) then grab and download the clips that they would like to use, add them to audacity and make up their own musical stories, which in turn are uploaded back onto the Ping blog. Year 7 students took a few weeks to adapt cf with my year 9/10 students who immediately ‘took’ to it. Now, the chat is worked to the hilt, so rather than asking me verbal questions, when issues arise, the put it into the chat. See a movie on our experiences mid-way through the project.

I have found this to be an extremely effective means of teaching.

• students are in their own ’space’, feel important and have a chance to be ‘heard’ as cannot be achieved in the normal classroom. (Initially we were asked to have the students watch the virtual lesson on one screen, then return to their individual desktops or netbooks to complete the practical application. However, I perservered with the individual stations and that is definitely the way to go.)
• students are able to interact in real time with the lesson and they are no longer passive listeners. They use chat, emoticons, etc and offer feedback to the musicians as they are playing. (This must be wonderful for the musicians as usually people simply clap at the end of the performance with no real indiction as to what they enjoyed or did not enjoy). We have had to set up a code of conduct for the chat , after a number of issues.
• students can ask questions at any stage and these questions will be answered.
• they immediately tell you if they do not understand (something I do not get so readily from each classmember in a normal classroom) I feel this is one of an online classroom’s biggest advantages. Students have the chance and feel comfortable with expressing their opinions and needs.
• can invite global participants in, or other interested parties, so that they too can witness the class in action eg sponsors, benefactors, software developers, policy makers etc.

As such, I am using elluminate more and more with all types of classes. For revision with my year 12 students as their exams loom. This is mainly in the evenings. To be able to teach two subjects at once (year 11 and 12 accounting) and still try and give each group special and meaningful tuition) We have recently demonstrated the use of elluminate and Ping to our Minister for Education who was also in Melbourne. It has been successfully used for me to teach my students from home when I was sick, close to their exam time.

Learning about the trombone

Hints for successful use of elluminate in intitial phases (with students)

• remove all private messaging priveleges and possibly whiteboard tools
• go through the code of conduct with chat
• disable chat if they misbehave
• for serious issues, place offenders in timeout room, this soon brings them all into behaving
• ALWAYS, always just have a couple of initial lessons to let them play with all the tools  ie whiteboard etc before you start in earnest. Students love to fiddle and that whiteboard will be crazy.
• be extremely organised with lots of imagery, use ppt slides etc as there needs to be a lot happening to keep students
   engaged.
• get students to put together some ppt slides and talk to them
• ensure the school’s firewall does not prevent the use of elluminate, and that java can be enabled.
• Use polls, take snapshots etc.
• Allow student use of microphone when confident
• Learn how to test the audio and mic options as these sometimes need to be tweaked.
• Use video camera option if necessary.

Where I will go from here

• increase my usage of elluminate
• seek out guest expert speakers who might come into my classroom remotely. eg authors, accountants, museum officials etc.
• spend time putting together lessons in MS Powerpoint etc
• get the students to run some classes
• work globally in such a classroom
• keep trying to get aspects of elluminate working at school eg the webtour will not work due to filter restrictions.

Note that the DEEC (Education Dept) has purchased a license with elluminate that I can use at the moment so there is no cost. I also use DiscoverE virtual classroom software.

How proud to be a teacher!

Students back at school logon to elluminate

As a teacher there often few proud moments ,but last Friday was a very proud day for me. Removed from my year 7 class by a 3 ½ drive, I watched them logon to the computers in the lab at school and noted one of my challenging year 11 boys, patiently fixing the audio problems. That class of mine was in  video capture from elluminate on a big screen at the Crown Casino Palladium in Melbourne. Back home, Marg Murnane and our principal bravely supervised the class whilst, I, for a change was with their normal instructor Ajax, from the Ping project.  Jason, a Melbourne Symphony Orchestra member, was waiting to play the saxophone and clarinet, teaching the students about this instrument.

My class was to be presented to the Minister for Education, the hon Bronwyn Pike, as a forerunner to Education Week and the Innovations Showcase, held at the Crown Casino, Melbourne. Nerves were running rather strong as there were technical issues but they were soon overcome. So, as if by remote control I watched 13 of my year 7 students set up, logon and test elluminate. The class began, as the Minister entered and I was so proud to see my students interacting, working the chat and asking questions of the musician. The Minister, in turn, was watching the chat and ensured that questions were answered. After 15 minutes or so, a photo shoot was set up with the Minister against the screen projecting my class at work with pictures taken of Ajax, Jason and me.

The Minister with my online class of students on the Melbourne screen

Teaching my students from Melbourne

Later in the morning it was my turn to present to an interested audience on my “Flat classroom walls”. either of two scheduled “Tell Me”sessions or to one of the 10 “Show Me” sessions.  This presentation involved working with an online and a face to face audience simultaneously – an innovative addition to the Innovations Showcase. Carole McCulloch, from Mildura, was my moderator and again I had some of my year 11 and 7 students in the chat, plus a parent and fellow staff members, adding rich content and answering questions from the online audience.

Here is how it worked:-

• Organised  9 students and a parent to be in the school computer lab, logged on to answer the questions in the chat for the virtual audience.
• Prepare 55 MS Powerpoint slides to engage the two audiences, so that they both could catch a glimpse of what a 21^st century classroom looks like.
• My voice had to reflect as much emotion as possible for the online audience who could not see my body language.
• It was important to keep informing by microphone, my moderator, Carole McCulloch, who was in Mildura co-ordinating it all.
• Stopped for questions half way through and at the end. These came from both the f2f and the online audience. Had to repeat questions for the online audience.
• An onscreen timer reminded me of how much time I had left.

 

Reflections:- There were several choices for the presentation. I wanted a movie playing in the background but that could not be worked, despite the presence of three screens. I had too many slides and went over time. The slides will be uploaded up onto the innovations ning. Carol downloaded a copy of my MS Powerpoint slides and sent them to my online participants. Presenter needs to multi task with elluminate and I had to remember to switch on my microphone in the elluminate room before talking.

Ping Session

Ajax conducted the session after mine. I had offered to have the year 7 students on with him so that they could add rich content and give an idea of how elluminate works in the classroom. Ajax had asked me to speak as well with him, so I logged onto a computer set up in the pod area and joined the chat alongside my students (who were 300kms away!) Again, how proud I was to see them following the appropriate code of conduct in a chat room, yet adding to comments, asking questions and responsibly working in an online classroom. (I am convinced that this is the classroom of the future.)

Further observations…

The venue was magnificent with views across the Yara river from the River room. Food kept being constantly replenished when it came to lunchtime. All presenters had participants supporting them. Technical help was quickly at hand. Well organised – like the postcard handouts reflecting some othe emerging technology grants Well attended with approximately 500 in attendance. Computer hub was good idea and the RILO staff did a great job, helping participants to sign up for the ning. It would be great to have wireless internet access available for future conferences.

My pride continued as I attended the magnificent dinner for the Excellence Awards, Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.

Holding my curriculum innovation finalist award

Although I did not win the Innovative Curriculum award, I was proud to be one of three finalists up on the stage.

And to my dear friends on twitter, thank you for your shoutouts and joining me in the online session.

My dear twitter friends shoutouts

Global collaboration in a Web2.0 world

This post is in response to a request by Sue Waters “Can you help me demonstrate global collaboration in a web2.0 world.?” The questions are stated and my responses shown below each question.

What are some of the global collaboration projects you have been involved with? Can you include the approximate grade/year level of your students? 

 My classes have been involved in many, many global projects so I will name a few:-

• The es1001tales project (grades 4 and 5) and ms1001tales project (years 6 and 7)
• The flathorizon project as the sounding board with year 12 VCE students, who were studying virtual team work at the time.
• The flatclassroom project with years 9/10 students
• The netgened project with year 11 and selected year 10 students
• The cross culture blogging project with years 9/10 students
• The Vendee Globe project http://murch.globalteacher.org.au/vendee-globe-project/ with grades 4 and 5
• Video Introductions to Communities

 Why did you become involved in these projects and what were some of the benefits to your students?

Being a firm believer in project based learning, I love using global projects with my students and they also love to work on them. The learning outcomes can be amazing. My school is a small rural school from prep to year 12. They are white Caucasian and have limited social networks. Class sizes are small and often limited to one group at each year level. Now, they have class mates around the world. They work beyond their classroom walls. Risk taking, pushing beyond boundaries, an authentic audience encourages best practise, students want their work to look good, be spelt correctly etc. They learn digital citizenship, cyber safety and many important 21^st century skills. It leads to many valuable teachable moments and allows student directed learning. Tolerance, respect for and information about different cultures.

Then Vendee Globe project took our whole school to Antarctica, via discoverE software, to speak with Jean Pennycook and learn of her work with Adele penguins. The flatclassroom project enabled three students and myself to attend the flatclassroomconference in Doha, Qatar in Jan 2009. Read the report.

The benefits to me as a teacher are as for the students, plus it gives me a chance to work with and learn from some of the most amazing educators, who lead in the web2.0 field, in the world.

What were the main web tools used to manage the projects?

The web tools have varied with the projects but include some or all of the following:-

• Email
• Google groups for communications and sharing of files
• Google docs including forms and sheet
• Wikis
• Nings for social networking
• Skype and skype groups
•  Elluminate for virtual classrooms, staff meetings and staff and student summits
• DiscoverE for virtual classroom
• Timebridge for ease in organizing global meetings across the time zones
• Liveblogging with coveritlive for moderated, safe chat, sharing of photos, music etc 

 What tips/advice would you give others to ensure that these projects run smoothly? 

• Start with small, short projects
• Communication is of prime importance
• Commitment and dedication are essential
• Get to know the other staff prior to and throughout the project, to gain confidence in each other
• Do not be frightened to ask for help or ask questions of any nature.
• Be prepared to work hard (as hard as you may have ever worked in your life) and take risks
• Work your blogs to the fullest giving step by step instructions to classes where possible for each lesson to clarify the tasks that need to be done in your own mind and also for student reference.
• Give out check list sheets to ensure that students remain on track
• Enjoy the journey into the best that 21st century learning can give.

  Also can you recommend projects that you haven’t been involved with but are good examples of collaboration done well?  I would really love some examples from higher education.

 No, I have no knowledge of any tertiary or higher education, even with my involvement in groups on LinkedIn.

Where to in 2009?

As we enter the third month of 2009 and the sixth week back at school, it is time that I publish my goals and possible directions for 2009. Although I have thought long about them, I need to add them on to my blog, so that I can reflect back and evaluate my progress.

My goals for 2009

• Constantly develop and encourage the integration and successful use of  emerging technologies for use in classrooms and across our school.
• To continue to actively seek local and global connections and work on global projects wherever possible. (Project based learning)
• Maintain the valuable links and connections that were made in 2008.
• To foster the notion that students  use their blogs in all subjects.  Blogs will become journals of  progess, for reflective purposes, a personal filing cabinet for all resources, evidence for digital or e-portfolios and that students voluntarily use their blogs.
• Integrate web2.0 tools as much as possible in my subject areas other than information and communications technology eg accounting and VCE IT subjects.
• Increasingly use teachable moments, by leaving skype open on my laptop, whenever possible, to make the most of experts who might appear and share experiences with my students.
• Experiment with the use a backchannel for class discussions etc eg chatzy, tiny chat
• Look at using virtual classroom software for my own classes eg elluminate for my VCE students where  I teach two year levels as  one class in 2009.  
• Use DiscoverE  software on an increasing basis this year.
• Actively seek out expert speakers who might talk to the students through virtual classroom software.
• Look at and experiment with students on a one to one basis, with other global students – particularly in relation to mandarin Chinese which is our LOTE.
• Work with my subject associations, encouraging the use of appropriate web2.0 tools.
• Experiment with synchronous and asynchronous linkups with other countries.

Other educationalist’s goals of interest

See glassbleed’s direction for customized learning.

Specific Ideas as they come to hand

• Teaching with Ted

Talk It Tuesday

The opening slide on elluminate for this Tuesday’s Talk it Tuesday, displayed a circle of differing types of chairs. Participants chose a chair as they came online, then typed their name and location on the chair. (Great idea and worked well). This way they get to know people, had a conversation topic (what do they think about their chair or other object etc), plus they get used to using some of the whiteboard tools.
Next, participants wrote on a blank whiteboard potential discussion topics for the meeting.
Discussions centred around:-
1. Using elluminate for student interaction and collaboration.
DELTA have used it for student workgroups – collaborative student sessions in preparation for student presentations.
Use of voice chat and whiteboard preloads for students in language classes – students in pairs and record practice dialogues e.g. Spanish grammar
Concerns were raised about the cost of using elluminate with students. Licenses are as follows:- only 3 in a V room, 10 in a Lite room, 20 + in an Academic or Enterprise room. Training can be completed through knowledgebank.
2. Using Second Life in education. Concerns about losing the ‘walled garden’ safety aspect. SL is being used in TAFE with success. They create their own walled garden  and take students on a guided  tour.  (GIPPS TAFE)

3. Quest Atlantis, a virtual world for younger children and SuperclubsPLUS, an online social networking site  were then discussed. Both are free at present. email superclubs.plus@edumail.vic.gov.au or see their website.

4. Suz Arnott talked about getting teaching staff to use web2.0 tools  http://ictatemc.edublogs.org  5. the new Social E-learning site and 43 steps.

Online survey

 

 ”Pardon, did you say that it is a 3 1/2 hour drive away?….”

“Yes, that is the travelling time to be allowed from Melbourne to Hawkesdale by car.”

 

Hence, plans were made to change the face to face interviews we were to particpate in, to an online interview – a far more appropriate application, considering the topic at hand.

Our school  was invited to be a part of a  research project, which is being conducted by Dr Ric Canale and Dr Pam Macintyre of the Faculty of Education at The University of Melbourne for the Victorian Education Channel.

The aim of this study is to look at how online communities in schools are used by teachers and students and how effective they are in terms of learning and developing supportive relationships. The information that we gather will be used to propose models for use in safe, collaborative environments and will assist the design of the Collaborative Online Communities space in the Victorian Education Channel.

Selected students from grades 6 through to 10 were chosen to be part of this survey. Their online experiences included

• virtual classrooms
• videoconferencing with skype to Korea and Warrnambool schools
• blogging
• digital storytelling
• particpating in the rich picture case studies grant/podcasting
• some maintain a myspace or other online social spaces

Elluminate was used for this session and the survey was recorded. (SKype is blocked at the University of Melbourne.) We had several problems in setting up the software initially on the desktop connected to the whiteboard in the library but otherwise it was a useful tool, in that it allowed the following

• videoconferencing (when needed)
• chat
• audio
• user friendly tool box
• emoticons
• 2 way share features-shared text and url links between the 2 locations
• Good save features – for both chat and whiteboard work

It does take some time to load though.

Problems

Sound was a problem at times as some students are still shy with the mcirophone and a prep class came in and shared the library space which created undue background noise at time.

 

Overall, it was a very useful activity and made us reflect on our achievements, the resultant impact on personal classroom teaching and connectedness with the communities that we have established. It was interesting to hear the student comments, reflections and opinions. (They all still preferred a face to face teacher.) The results and the content of this survey will be covered in later posts.