Rethink Reimagine 2013 Conference

Today, I am at the Rethink Reimagine Conference at Deakin University, Warrnambool. I shall be presenting at three workshops on the theme of “The World is My Classroom”

Below is a summary of my presentation. A google document has been set up for networking, resources mentioned, questions, sharing and evaluation. The backchannel can be found here. The twitter hashtag is #rethink2013

As our globe increasingly flattens, global education is taking on escalating importance. The use of online technology and free web 2.0 tools allows us to connect, communicate, collaborate and create across the world. It means that virtual, global, and culturally-blended classrooms are not just a dream, they can be a reality.

One of the underlying themes of our new National Australia curriculum is “Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia”, so an emphasis will be placed on Asian connections and collaboration.

This presentation will

• share stories from the classroom
• demonstrate global projects that have been undertaken from year prep through to year 11, taking learning beyond classroom walls.
• Share Web2.0 tools to use for synchronous and non-synchronous connections and ways to use them.
• Explore different ways to get connected to educators including global and
• Explain some spaces to join in on global projects.
• Discuss digital citizenship, netiquette, plagiarism etc

A similar presentation can be found here.

When is a Mouse not a Moose?

The question was posed”What is your favourite food?” to a combined class of students from La Lima Cortes, Honduras and Hawkesdale, Australia. These students were in a virtual classroom using Blackboard Collaborate. Most of my students added expected responses in the chat or on the whiteboard: “pizza, pasta, roast etc” and then I saw the word ‘mouse’. Spinning around to my class, I  wondered who the smart alec was! Almost in that same breath, Jose Popoff, the teacher from Honduras questioned Australian’s eating ‘mouse’ as a food. I spun around to my students, who could sense my wrath and mounting anger!

A quiet voice in my physical room replied saying “it is chocolate mousse”! To correct his spelling, the student then put ‘moose’ into the chat. That made us all laugh!

But…. how important is spelling and the presence of typos that might occur in the chat when students from two different countries get together in a virtual room or backchannel?

And so brought to an end a connection of 45 mins with Jose and his students. It was a mystery session where my students had to work out what country Jose was from. Jose shared some photos of where they lived and students asked questions of each other. They were all 15 or 16 years of age – all curious about each other and wanting to know more of each other. It was Thursday 2pm in Australia and 10pm Wednesday night in Honduras.

Here are some student reflections on the linkup:-

1. Indi Linkup with Honduras
2. Rachel’s Linkup with Honduras

Yesterday, we tried a linkup using spreecast – a new software tool to me. Several students from our school came in during morning recess to talk to Jose’s students but bad weather in Honduras meant that we dropped out after 15 minutes.

Developing a Learning Network with Classroom 2.0

A question is often asked of me as to how I make global connections. Developing a learning network or PLN (personal learning network) is essential in getting globally connected. A great place to start is to join one of the biggest classrooms in the world – Classroom 2.0!

Things were getting frantic – with just two hours until interested grade prep to 6  parents were to assemble in  our school library for our Technology Showcase,  videos would not display on our new iPod touches. One excited class had been busy making videos and they were to show them using the iPod touches.

Urgent messages for help were sent out to all and any email lists.  In sheer desperation, a discussion item was also placed on Classroom2.0. Within 10 minutes, we had the answer – not from anyone in Australia or our emailing lists, but from Matthew Needleman, in the USA. Following his instructions the videos displayed to a library overflowing with parents, grandparents and students.  The showcase was a great success!

This was my first taste of the power of networking and its ability to provide information NOW from anywhere across the globe! (It needs to be noted that I teach at Hawkesdale P12 College,  a small rural, geographically and culturally isolated prep to year 12 school, in South Eastern Australia.)

Four years ago, I joined classroom2.0 a ning set up by Steve Hargadon of USA. At that stage there were 3,000 members from all levels and tiers of education, all passionate about the use of technology in education.  Today there are more than 466,000 members and I am proud to be a welcoming host on this ning.

Wordle from current classroom2.0 page

The above word cloud was made by highlighting the screen of classroom2.0, copying and pasting into wordle.

Why join Classroom 2.0?:-

• It is free
• It is a space to make global connections and friends
• Empowers teaching and learning
• Allows discussions/forums. There are many active discussions over the years, many still applicable today.
• Keep up to date with the latest developments in education
•  Share learning and join in conversations
• Publish and read members’ blog posts
• Search for discussions, tags etc on tools, subjects, areas of personal interest
• Mailing list updates on upcoming free webinars and events
• Share and peruse photos and videos
• create or join in collaborative global projects
•  There is are easy search features on previous discussion topics, technology tools, subjects, areas etc

Where can such membership lead? Here follows some memorable stories  of classroom2.0 friends, connections and just some of the rather amazing  outcomes for my classes.

1. Chrissy Hellyer from New Zealand  taught us how to create a wiki, sharing the power that interactivity, connectedness and collaboration can bring. See anzacconnection
2. Lorraine Leo of USA,  introduced me to the power of  virtual classrooms using discoverE. Over the years, we have taught each others’ classes despite teaching at different age levels and living in different time zones. We have shared colleagues, photos, videos, experiences, festivals, celebrations and cultures. Lorraine has brought the following virtually to our school: a research scientist from her tent in Antarctica and Rich Wilson, a US sailor and his quest in sailing solo around the world. (Listen to Skipper Rich). Her  grade 6 student  spoke about Halloween to my fascinated students and Lorraine organised a  student of Dean Shareski from the University of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada,  to speak to  my accounting students and much, much more. We have been part of exciting pioneering three to five way linkups, connecting a classroom in the Phillipines with mine plus teachers from three other continents, all in the one classroom.  We have worked on voicethreads together – a  firm favourite being “My question of you” where Lorraine’s  grade two students asked a question and my year 7s replied to them. Teaching and Learning Across the Globe is a recorded joint presentation for the online Global Education Conference 2010.
3. Ekaterina from Russia:- We have videoconferenced together using skype  (our classes were televised on Russian television as a result), shared student surveys eg Climate Change Questionaire, developed an  Across the World wiki together etc.
4. Govinda Panthy- an amazing educator from Nepal who has become e-connected and painstakingly, patiently and with great determination brought global awareness to the plight of his school and students in Nepal. Govinda would awake at 4:30am in order to skype because his power is frequently cut off during daytime working hours. With the aid of friends made on classroom 2.0, Our Open World Project is now raising funds to bring several computers to SAV school and much needed physical library requisites. Make sure you visit the Open World Project site to see the real power, empathy and learning that can extend from membership.
5. Alison Saylor -  We worked on google docs together and co-surveyed our students on their ownership of personal gadgets. Students in a school from Jerusalem were also surveyed. Students from each school  mapped the results in a spreadsheet for comparison.  The project  raised extensive local classroom discussion and provided many teachable moments.

There are  many, many  more wonderful stories that could be shared.

The long tail!:

1. In 2010, I was proud to be  the Australasian mentor for the innovative online Global Education Conference which connected educators from across the globe in a free three day online conference – a direct result of my membership at classroom 2.0.
2. Through the resultant friendship with Steve Hargadon, he encouraged Carole McCulloch and myself to be a moderators and organisers of eT@lking, an online webinar using Blackboard Collaborate for the  Australia Series. This has led to even further connections and networks.

Tips for successful membership of Classroom2.0 or other similar networks

1. Ensure your profile has enough information to encourage others to consider and add you as a friend
2. Lurk, lurk and lurk! Watch the discussions, search the tools, subjects or areas that you may be into help,  network and share existing knowledge.
3. Introduce yourself on the  Introductions  discussion.
4. Watch the discussion thread on “Introductions” and befriend some of the others who may be like-minded across a number of countries.
5. Make friends where possible.
6. When confident actively join in the conversations and discussions.
7. Add your own discussion topic
8. Write some blog posts (these can be cross posted from your existing blog).
9. Set up an RSS feed for the discussions you are interested in.
10. Return regularly

The networked teacher has the power to transform learning and education in directions that are only ‘dreamed about’! Together we can make the ‘dreams’ a reality!

What spaces or tools have helped you build a learning network? Are you a member of classroom 2.0? If so what experiences can you share?

Any questions can be directed to innovatorofthemonth@gmail.com or add a comment back here.

Please note that this blog post was written for the Edublogs Challenge on Developing a PLN. There are many other great posts to be found here.

Skype on!

Last Friday, I turned skype on, on Thursday and Friday. Sometimes, I do not logon as there is so much work to be done and it can be a distraction. This semester, my classes are all at senior level, so I don’t quite have the leverage to experiment with spontaneous learning

Chatting to Govinda, Nepal

However, Endang wanted a class to skype in on Friday with a school from Western Java that had not used videoconferencing before. Friday morning is a double session of Information Technology. This can be too long for some of my students. Logging on, we were immediately connected with Govinda from Nepal. The video was stable and Govinda came through clearly. My students were fascinated with the fact they were speaking to someone from Nepal and soon Govinda was joined by his curious  neighbours’ children. School does not start until 10am and it was till early morning.

Govinda

During the second lesson, Endang and her school connected. They showed us their beautiful shadow puppets, flag and a heavily decorated sword. The students were able to come up to the laptop screen and chat with the Indonesian students. I deliberately left the room for 5 mins to see how they would survive without me there and was thrilled to see them still trying to converse when I returned. I one could not understand or be understood, another student stepped in to help interpret and communicate.  The linkup went through their lunch hour. As my students were eating their sandwiches, the Indonesian students were fascinated with our lunches.

As I packed up my gear at the end of the day, another skype message came through. This time from one of my virtual students who I had taught accounting to that morning, to say he was now in hospital and had been taken by ambulance there.!  The immediacy of learning and knowledge!

Why we do this?

• pushes my students way outside their comfort zones – it is really difficult to communicate with others from countries where English is the second, third or fourth language.
• Students need to work out how to communicate when there are massive language barriers – including accents etc They soon work out to type their names in the chat so that the other country can attempt to pronounce their names.
• an opportunity to learn about other cultures from a ‘living’ textbook!
• share experiences, cultural objects
• to break down racism which can exist in our small rural community where there are no other cultures but anglo saxon and some maori people from new Zealand.
• to extend their learning networks
• prepare them for the global world that is and increasingly will be theirs.
• expand their knowledge of geography
• extend their knowledge of the Islamic faith and other religions.
• engage them in activities that they love to participate in, once they get over their shyness.
• there is something exciting about real life linkups
• the mystery of the unknown outcomes can be captivating.

Have you connected with other countries in real time? What have your experiences been? Do they make your learning messy?

What?!? “That’s not healthy!”

A couple of weeks ago I joined a group in skype. This group is made up of a number of teachers from across the globe. Interesting conversations flow amongst the group. These include the sharing of online sites, culture, experiences etc.  The great advantages of having the group is that members will just ask “Is anyone about?” and if someone is they will skype into a global classroom and talk to students for 5 to 10 mins or more.

Tonight, just prior to our evening meal, which we call tea (rather than dinner), a skype message came up from Kathryn “Is anyone about?” I replied saying I have 10 mins before tea. Within seconds I was videoconferenced into an Austrian classroom and spoke to some capable English speaking students.

One of the first questions was: “What tea are you drinking?” When I responded that it was my evening meal, the reaction was one of astonishment. When questioned further I explained that we were having baked chicken, potatoes, pumpkin, sweet potato with broccoli/carrots/cauliflower, the reaction was:- “Oh that is not healthy!”

That comment astonished me. This is our way of life. We eat our main meal in the evening as most of us work in the daytime or attend school. I had never even thought of it being unhealthy. We often eat a sandwich for lunch. The Austrian students then told me that lunch is their main meal consisting of four or five courses! Below is one of the pics that I  sent through skpye once I had dished up our tea! (It nearly burnt due to my longer conversations with Austria!) However, it was tasty.

Why I am I posting this? I had assumed that European and American cultures were very similar, if not the same, as ours but now realise that there are differences. There is so much to learn from each other, no matter what country we live in, whether we speak the same language or not. From Kathryn came the following comment “thank you Anne, we heard a lot of new things again, thank you”.

Technology allows us to learn NOW from each other! Skype is an amazing tool that can instantly connect people together.

It has been decided to form a group for students  to connect and share conversations. Permission forms have been sent home to parents to allow senior students to take part in this trial project. One of my goals in teaching is for my students to develop a learning network. This will make an interesting start. I wonder what they will discover about each other!

What if?

What if? This question was posed frequently at the recent Innovations Showcase. What if……..?

• Innovations Showcase participants could be shown what a connected classroom  looks, feels and sounds like, using videoconferencing to raise cultural awareness.
• cultural understanding and awareness can be increased in real time with students who come from other cultures/countries/schools.
• students could text chat one on one and share conversations, in real time, with each other from other countries.
• students could share their learning with others across cultures/countries
• students are able to study the subjects of their choice independent of class sizes, teacher availability etc
• the use of videoconferencing and web conferencing could be spread across many more classrooms in Victoria and Australia?
• students who are home for some reason, can attend classes virtually.

What if? This question was posed at the recent, highly successful Innovations Showcase enabled more than 1200 participants to come together to share in innovation in education. One of the themes was of high interest to me – “Inter Cultural Understanding”. As our school is a small rural, remote prep to year 12 school – isolated both geographically and culturally, it has been important to use technology to expose, integrate and associate with other cultures.  As such, “Little Big Classrooms” was the theme of my presentation.

To demonstrate what a connected classroom looks, feels and sounds like, my dear online colleague from Malaysia, Veronica Woo at teacher at SMJK Poi Lam School in Ipoh, Malaysia, agreed to linkup her class with the presentation. Her years 9 and 10 students performed an entertaining and professional capella based on the Lion King and a choral reading. (58 students in total). Here is some feedback from Veronica after the event:-

Well, it is definitely the power of Skype connection, you and the audience that have immensely helped in motivating our students, who are learning English in a very challenging situation where they rarely speak English among themselves, but it’s only with us that they have got no choice but to speak English!  All this, plus the realisation on their part, that they have actually performed in front of a native English speaking audience of educators that have also helped in a way!  Thanks to the event organiser and of course, you, Anne, for making this possible! Hopefully, the other students will also be motivated to see their peers’ achievement and change their attitudes and perception towards learning English.

Read more in this post Malaysian Students in a Real time Performance for the Innovations Showcase Please take time to read the comments where the conversations re cultural understanding continue.

Teaching my Year 11 IT class!

Other What if’s that  became reality at Innovations Showcase

• In the morning, I taught my accounting class from Melbourne. This consisted of 10 of my own school students, two from a city school and another student from a small country school. They can study accounting despite their school not being able to offer the subject. Here is the link to the recording of this class.
• A second demonstration involved teaching my year 11 IT class from the huge foyer of the Melbourne Entertainment and Convention Centre back at school, to find a student logged in from home (as they were not able to get to school) and my replacement teacher also listening to the instructions. As the students faced a deadline for uploading their video in the Flat Classroom Projects, students mentored and helped each other in the chat. Elluminate, virtual conference software was used for the virtual classroom. Here is the link to the recording of this class.
• SRC students who were at the Showcase entered the virtual classroom and chatted to my students back at school.

It is not what if?

…….Technology allows all this but ………

What next?

An SRC student rep chats to my year 11 class

Teachable opportunities made easy with skype

On the last lesson of the term I often try and think of a treat for my year 9/10 IT elective group. Often it is a ‘your choice’ lesson with students opting to play their favourite games. The year 10 portion of this class were absent on work experience so I only had a small group of year 9 students. They  had not used the class set of iPads, so I  booked them.

However, on a spur of the moment decision,  I also decided to look at skype and see who was about. Anna a teacher from Indonesia was online. She had wanted to skype me several weeks earlier but it did not suit me at that time. After a quick conversation we decided to link our two classes as part of IT double lesson.

How we met

Anna, from Indonesia had been referred to me by Julie Lindsay. Anna had sought help from a mentor after having enjoyed her virtual attendance at the Global Education conference 2010. Anna is interested in being involved in the Flat Classroom projects, co-organised by Julie Lindsay. Anna and I exchanged emails, skype user names and blog addresses. Anna had tried to join in some of the webinars that I organise in elluminate, but slow bandwidth had prevented her from logging in.

Testing the equipment

First step is always to test the equipment via skype. Anna had problems with her microphone and I had problems with noisy backgrounds. After trying several microphones, I reverted to the headset with attached mic. Anna was able to activate her mic and we were set.

How it looked

Initially it is much easier to work with smaller classes – classroom management is less of a problem.

Students confidently came to the web cam and spoke to each other.Students asked each other questions. We brought objects to the screen eg a piece of fruit, vegemite, students from both sides showed books they are currently reading and discussed their favourite books. One of my students really enjoyed communicating with them, answering further questions and  talking about her pet cats. The Indonesian students appeared to be intrigued with the house training of the cat that spends quite a bit of time indoors. Anna’s students then proceeded to teach mine, good morning in Indonesian.

What it sounded like.

Laughter, excitement and a deliberate  slowing down of our speech.

Why it worked well

Despite there being no planning of this activity, the lesson worked extremely well. Students are curious about each other. Anna and her students spoke excellent conversational English and students listened hard to work through our different accents. We used a mix of objects and questions to fill in 45 minutes of videoconferencing. Students from both countries enjoyed reading similar books.

Feedback

At the parent teacher interview which occurred later that afternoon, one of my students excitedly declared to her mother and me that that was the best school lesson that she had ever experienced.

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Tech Talk Tuesdays – a Summary – Kids e-talking to kids!

Edna Sackson (whatedsaid) impressed participants with the innovative and amazing work that she is doing with her students. With the aid of some fabulous slides that showed Edna’s creative skills and web tours, Edna shared stories from her classroom, with some fantastic samples of student reflections and examples of rich learning that takes place when kids can talk to other kids online. Her linkups with students in India made for powerful sharing. She also shared some great resources and tips/hints. Here is the link to the recording.

From the chat came the following:-

• Peggy George): it shows that they could really listen to the others without worrying so much about what people might think of them
• hihelen18 1: Another thing that I found is that the students went from being self centred to not sure what the word is but they were not just hung up about their own lives but the lives of others and at the same time learnt that their own lives have value and interest as well
• Peggy George (on the image of Indian students sitting outside on the ground completing exams): it’s very interesting–they are sitting in rows even though they are sitting on the ground
• 10 ways to create global connections
• start with the learning and then think about the tools and how they can contribute to the learning
• Voicethread sample 1 and sample 2
• Voicethread have added some new features
• Edna’s class connecting
• very 2 way–they aren’t just the recipients of the connections but they are contributing in authentic meaningful ways
• Steff Hann 1: It is a great way for kids to see that the internet is not just a spot to visit to find something out but a 2 way connection.

Further stories from Edna’s classrooms

1. http://bit.ly/by_ed
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KL81Cto8xxQ
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmeqJRq9-kQ
4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOsIbw5msdg
5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLj6KpaJs7A

Introducing Malay Customs and Cultures – An e-Intercultural Learning Adventure!

Veronica Woo, a great teaching colleague to have, organized an extravaganza for us last Friday. The library was booked so that we could videoconference with skype using the Interactive White Board to project the web  conference. A number of classes from year 6 to 11 were present – a total of more than 45 students and 6 staff members.

Year 11 students from  SMJK Poi Lam School in Ipoh, Malaysia, demonstrated to and treated us with the following:-

1. Malay dance performance
2. Demonstration on how to play ‘congkak’
3. Demonstration on how to beat the Malay drum ‘kompang’
4. Brief introduction of a Malay wedding
5. Demonstration on paper money-folding ( folded items are given as Bridal gifts to families concerned )
6. Ended the web conference with a song!

Three of our year 6/7 students learnt how to dance the Malay Dance by following the Malay girl’s movements on screen. Most students had an Australian paper note to practise folding the paper money.

In turn, our students and staff demonstrated the following:-

1. a bearded dragon lizard
2. a pet colourful baby bird
3. how to play Australian Rules Football (footy)
4. vegemite and how to spread it on a dry biscuit

It always intrigues me that the sharing of objects over the web cam, makes students overcome their shyness, as their curiousity drives them to naturally ask questions about the object without  really thinking.

Malaysian Connections #5

Our 5th linkup with Taman Burkit Maluri School and their teacher Zainuddin Zakaria.

This was another fun and exciting lesson.  Listen to the recording.

The lesson plan

• started with an ice breaker. A image of  snowman in pieces was added to the whiteboard, and students were asked to put it together. However, the snowman took on many shapes as their was no logic to the manner in which students madly scrambled to put it together from both countries.
• Intervention was required. Students put their hands up, and as their number was called out, they moved one piece of the snowman at any one time, until it looked like a snowman. The pipe ended up in its nose, and the mouth on its stomach, but that simply added to the humour!
• Flick brought a photo and shared it with the class. Although George brought one, we did not get a chance to look at it.
• Zainuddin asked a question of the class: “Why do you love blogging?” Responses went on the whiteboard. (see below)
• One of my students wanted to ask a question, so Danielle proceeded with “What is your favourite song?” Responses came thick and fast on the whiteboard to this question, and to the delight of my class some of their responses were also some of their popular songs.
• Zainuddin asked the next question: “If you were to travel, which country would you go to and who would you take with you?” Students were required to choose a friend from the other country!! This led to much mirth and laughter
• Then the bell went!

Screen dumps of the collaborative whiteboard:-