Student:- “I knew what my workplace looked like before I even got to Melbourne, therefore I knew where to get off the bus”
Staff member – “How did you know that?”
Students “I had checked it out on googlestreet!” and so the use of web2.0 is infiltrating our school programs.
Each year, I am fortunate enough to go to Melbourne with our year 11 students for a few days of their 2 weeks of work experience. I love the excitement, the nervousness, the constant questioning or the first few days and then watching them develop into confident young people that they turn into, once they can find their way around the challenges of Melbourne.
We stay at the Oasis YHA in Chapman Street, Nth Melbourne, where there were two internet access terminals. As I had taken down my brand new laptop, Graeme and I decided to try out some of the technology to record this wonderful program. It also gave the careers advisor time to ‘play’ with some of the technology.
The flip video camera was used to record the students attitudes priort to and after their first day of work.
The students helped me install bluetooth on my laptop and phone, to enable photos taken on my phone be downloaded. (no mean feat!!) Worked well once we got it going.
Decided to use my phone as a recorder for podcasting to capture the excitement, reflections and duties of their first day of work.
Each day, students would use my laptop to type in 30 words to describe their day at work as soon as they got home.
Jess and I have teacher professional leave this year, to lay the “eplanks for a virtual classroom” and are now required to write a short progress report. When we first started this project at the end of last year, only the two of us were seriously blogging in our school. A student blog had successfully been in progress for 4 months in 2007.
Achievements since Feb, 2008 at Hawkesdale p12 College
approximately 60% of staff now blog
three of our SSO staff (teacher aides) have commenced a blog
end of 2007/ we ran short inservices on the use of delicious, MS PHotostory and digital image manipulation with irfanview and introduction of skype and ms communicator. We started with tools that staff would use in their personal lives, so that they could gain confidence and then think about applying it to their classes.
“10 minute spot demonstrations” at staff meetings on new tools, technology, resources etc.
WIWOW – Walk in walk out Wednesday afternoons, where staff come into the computer lab with any needs and Jess and I help them. It is purely voluntary and runs for 1 – 1 1/2 hours. Queries have related to a whole range of topics, including basic email use, photo resizing through to blogging, digital movie creating, music files and live blogging. This has been very successful.
The sheer enthausiasm of our students with blogging and associated web2.0 tools has driven many staff to look at their work and become involved.
As time goes by, and others join in, lots of ways and uses for blogging are shared resulting in even richer and more powerful learning outcomes. New directions are being discovered all the time.
Involving Parents
a parent information evening for grades 4-6 students included a 30 min presentation of our goals in regard to the laying of the eplanks
a weekly corner in our school and community newsletter updates them on progress, activities and notable events.
at parent/teacher interviews, parents were shown student blogs
students often show parents their blogs once home from school
Personal PD
attendance at a SLAV conference with Will Richardson, a renowned blogging expert from the USA.
4 week inservice on Quest Atlantis – a virtual world for students
online sessions with USA technology educationalist counterparts
The baby needs to smile before taking “baby steps” into web2.0
Yesterday, whilst I was running several sessions for the “Grass ICT Day” at Casterton, I was shocked and dismayed, by the following events:-
one teacher told me that she could not apply for a class or personal blog as she did not have an email address!! (She was in my blogging session and about to open a blog)
At an earlier session, the room was full of teachers wanting to learn MS Photostory. That was also to my utter astonishment as I had expected all teachers to have used it in some form or another and that I would have few particpants in this session.
When working with smaller groups, staff did not know how to open a new window or tab in Internet Explorer. (Another trait I had assumed)
Many staff lacked confidence in basic computer skills
By sheer coincidence,on twitter that same night @dswaters made similar comments about observations in her sessions that day.
So, that has made me reflect again on how we get staff on board web2.0. Many staff, still have little knowledge or skill with computers. So, they need to smile before they take those baby steps. Confidence and knowledge is the key to success.
They need to first:-
know how to use the internet with confidence and purpose
have ready and regular access at their place of work to the internet
each staff member must have a personal email address
all school communications should take the form of email where possible
computerised student reports should be mandated
PD sessions, preferably in-house, should take place regularly, with refreshments and food on offer, to make a relaxed atmosphere. These sessions should cater for absolute beginners through to more experienced levels. These should be on offer over varying times and days, if possible.
More experienced users of technology could be directed to online pd sessions.
first applications of web2.0 need to be useful and purposeful in personal lives, as this will prompt possible classroom and teaching applications. (del.icio.us, google apps, image manipulation (with eg irfanview, MSPhotostory for digitalstorytelling etc)
educational institutions need to provide backup support
I have learned never to assume that staff know anything at all about internet and online usage. Even surveys may bring skewed results as staff are reluctant to admit they lack knowledge and before I make presentations, or conduct workshops, I must remember to gear them for all ability levels.
Below is a slideshare set up from a powerpoint presentation, for a local teachers conference held at Deakin University, in Warrnambool. Our experience has shown that staff need to start with something that could be useful in their own personal lives, experiment with it and use it, and from their they can start to see the potential uses and applications for their classroom use. The presenation below summarizes my suggestions for that all important question, where do we start. (nb that I talked and walked through the slides so they are not all embracing of the content of the actual presentation.)
Jess McCulloch and I have 20 days teacher professional leave in 2008, to look at ‘laying the eplanks for a virtual classroom. Today, we used one of those days for reflection, planning and builiding up our resources. Now that blogging has become established amongst our students, we looked at getting staff on board web2.0
Lengthy discussion followed. Should we aim for 100%, 75%, 50% staff usage of web2.0?
Constraints
At a recent teaching and learning meeting, it was recognised that some staff may see no need, nor have time to learn and introduce it into their classroom curriculum. This applies especially at senior levels, where there is a set curriculum to adhere to, SATs to complete and exams to be sat.
Some staff including the physical education staff saw no real need. (We, of course, could argue against this, but there is no point at this stage.)
It is too hard and time consuming to take on board
They feel they have ‘missed their opportunity’ to come on board, and will never catch up now.
Don’t know where to start and then, what to do with the tools.
Current uses of ICT and Web2.0
All our teaching staff have registered for a http://del.icio.us social bookmarking account as they can see a ‘need’ to have such an account. So, we do have 100% use of web2.0 for this use, (if it is used at all).
most communications are by email and all our reports are completed on a computer, using the software markbooks.
An intranet has just been set up by our technician using MS Sharepoint
All teaching staff, but one retired part-timer, have a personal laptop, leased through the department.
80% or our primary school staff, are blogging and have got involved in global projects.
50% of our total 34-12 staff have created blogs with most posting now.
A grade 6 classroom blog has been set up
One aide has commenced blogging
Other office staff, science lab assistants, library assistants and other SSO staff are showing interest and have asked for after school pd sessions etc
It has taken ‘baby’ steps to gradually get staff on board. The air of excitement and notable keenness of students using blogging has created an interest in other staff, and allowed them to see a need, niche and use for blogging. What we need to do:
Continue with 10 minute spot pd’s at staff meetings
‘Walk in walk out’ Wednesdays (offer our time for 1 hour after school, for staff to come in with any questions, concerns, needs or just to have time to work on computers and leave at any time)
Approach staff on an individual basis to seek out their needs, inhibitions and potential uses.
Direct staff to possible social networks who may be able to help them use these tools
Encourage participation in global projects.
Set up resources, links and tutorials including podcasts on our school intranet
In our goal, with the support of our school leadership and teaching and learning team, to ‘lay the eplanks for a virtual classroom’, we are looking at the following elements of the conceptual age:-
connectivity
creativity
communicate
After speaking withTrish Butters, our current prep teacher, Trish was of the opinion (and I tend to agree with her), that there is little use for web2.0 in her classroom. It is felt that preps (5 year olds) need to connect with each other and their teacher in this important formative year. Connections outside this realm would have no meaning or impact.
Despite, many of them going to Warrnambool to shop (a 30 minute trip), they still have no concept of it being Warrnambool. If a map of the world was shown to them, it would have no meaning either. Even basic ICT and computer skill use is lacking. Some students still have had no exposure to a mouse or computers, and need to learn computer basics. So communication skills will be built upon within the classroom only.
This leaves creativity and my suggestion to Trish, that she might set up a class blog, where a collection of their activities, writings, art work could be stored online etc. Some interest was shown in this, but time is an important element. It would basically cover communication as well.
Any comments on this issue would be welcomed!!
pd sessions on resizing and maniputlating images, using www.irfanview.com
using photostory for digitalstorytelling
What we are doing:-
10 minute spot pd at each full staff meeting eg using skype, ms communicator, ipod demos, using clickview videos, getting the best out of search engines etc
‘walk in, walk out Wednesdays’ A suggestions by Jess McCulloch, based on an idea of @kimcofino whereby we make ourselves available in the computer lab for any staff to come in, work on their needs and ask us for help where required. Starts tonight, so I shall update this after the session.
Reflections on first session:
Constraints: Notice of session was only given in the morning, so due to other commitments and Jess’ absence in Aararat, we had two staff.
However, this worked well. Advice was required on
email downloads, signatures on forwarded emails,
grabbing music from a usb and placind into suitable format on the network for Powerpoint use and
location of files for student retrieval
The three of us worked together on using our newly established intranet with MS Sharepoint and on further required developments on the site. Despite the low attendance, it was a very wothwhile endeavour and if you checkout Sue Waters comments below, we shall see about providing some food for participants in future. Hmmm…..now whose budget should that come out of………………?
”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
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.
Using skype for videoconferencing and bridgit screen share to enable Jeff Whipple, from Nashwaaksis Middle School / Devon Middle School, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada teach my students about wikis and the flat tales project using his laptop screen, from his home. (Read Jeff’s post and my post.)
From the student perspective
started receiving comments on their blogs which aroused their curiousity and initiated a lot of self-activated learning. (My lesson plans were placed on hold!)
many have added to their blogs, in their own time, with photos, personal posts, favourite writing pieces from school etc (My hope is that they can take them home and add to them, in an educationally acceptable manner.)
students are borrowing digital cameras and when queried why “It is for my blog!”
Year 7 students commenced a post on their pet.
Grade 6 students completing their digital stories on “From Me To You” project, using MS Photostory.
Grades 4-6 participated in a lesson brought to them by Jeff Whipple from his home in Canada on using wikis and the flat tales project.
Global Projects
grade 6 students worked with an English teacher to create words they thought should be in the dictionary. We recorded their audio and will complete the podcast on Monday.
cards continued to come in from other countries for our Valentine’s project ‘From Me to You”
Favourite website (lots of quick and easy web 2.0 tools that may be useful in classroom)
Well, that day in January has finally arrived. Summer holidays are now officially over, a new school year commences in Austrlia, staff have returned to school and students return tomorrow!
It is now time to weave web2.0 into my Info Tech classes. So at this stage, these are my proposals for years 6-10. They are a bare outline only but at least I have a focus to work on.
Students commence using web2.0
Introduce cyber safety using discussions, online searches and videos. (Enlist the help of the school nurse with this one.)
Ensure each student has a user name that is not too transparent, yet easily remembered and hopefully unique. Student school code will be highly recommended. (first 3 letters of surname and a four digit numerical code)
Discuss the use of passwords
Register for a delicious account and commence bookmarking
Register for a bubbl.us account – they are then ready to brainstorm online
Register each student for a blog at www.globalstudent.org.au (We tried edublogs but students did not receive emails to activate their accounts. Probably our security settings.)
Link student blog sites to my global teacher blog.
by jodhiay
Twitter/murcha
Del.icio.us/murcho
GMail/Anne M
Blog/Anne M
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