Tech Talk Tuesdays: Tools for Student Engagement

When: Tuesday, April 23rd 4-5pm Melbourne Australia time (gmt+10). Please note that we are now out of daylight saving time. Check the time and date here for your time zone. About this session:- Anne Mirtschin will lead a discussion on engaging students with technology. Discussion may centre around the following:-

• is engagement in learning important?
• what impact does it have on learning
• how do we know when students are engaged – how does it look, feel and sound?
• Sharing tools that participants have found to work
• Looking at google apps, starting with google document and how it can be used for collaborative learning, sharing, engagement etc. This has been one of my favourite tools.

If you cannot make this session, it would be much appreciated if you could add your answers to the above questions. Hope to see you with us. Here is the link to the recording of this session.

eT@lking: Augmented Reality

When: Wednesday 27th February, 8-9pm, Melbourne, Australia time (gmt+11) or see timeanddate for the times in your time zone.

About this session: Augmented Reality will be the topic of conversation during this free webinar.  Experience its wonder through the eyes of Christopher Winter, Senior Program Officer (Professional Development), Dept of Training and Workforce Devlpt, Perth. This webinar is part of the Australia eSeries.

Here is the link to join this session.

You can read more about this session from Chris and his description below:-

What if your students could stand in any room and by looking through their phones camera, be presented with an entirely new virtual world? What if instead of 30 students crowding around one physical object, they could each have an almost tangible replica on their desks to study, even when at home?

Augmented Reality is not a new technology and was in fact in danger of fading out before it really had chance to make an impact. The fact was that holding a piece of paper up to a webcam in order to see a 3D object on a desktop computer is neither engaging nor fun. It was less than intuitive and quite cumbersome.

Fast forward to the present day and thanks to the mobile revolution Augmented Reality is not just an option, but an integral part of effective mobile delivery. Engaging students in the real world rather than a dingy computer lab really brings back the possibility for blended delivery in a digital age.

Join us as we explore effective use of mobile technology in delivery and get ready for the very near future.

You are encouraged to have a mobile device with internet connection to hand during the session and have the following apps pre-loaded if possible:

•  A QR code reader (such as Qrafter for iOS or Google Goggles for Android)
• Augment (iOS and Android) and also print the required Marker. All available from http://augmentedev.com/
• Layer (AR browser for iOS and Android)Wikitude (AR browser for iOS and Android)
• While downloading the above will help you engage with the session on the day, it  will also be demonstrated via webcam.

 Have you used Augmented Reality? What do you know about it?

A big thankyou to Chris Smith for creating this video of the session.

eT@lking: What the #####? The all important hashtag and Twitter!

When: Wednesday, 12th September, 2012, 8-9pm

About this session: This will be a presentation and exploration of how to set up, manage and promote and get involved in an online community using twitter #hashtags. This presentation, by Jason Graham, will share experiences of how to create or join an online community using Twitter.

About our presenter: Jason Graham, a Canadian, who calls Melbourne home, currently working in Indonesia. Jason is the Learning Technologies Coordinator and Grade 1 teacher at Bandung International School, PYP Workshop Leader. He classifies himself as a “Disruptivist since 1971”. You can read posts on Jason’s blog.

Please join us and share in the conversations or should that be #tags! Here is a link to the recording. Thanks to Jess McCulloch for organising this session.

What questions would you have? What are your favourite hashtags? Why do you use them? When do you use them?

Tech Talk Tuesdays: Tech Talk Tuesdays: Implementing the 1:1 Environment – the challenges, successes & moments of madness!

When: Tuesday 11th September, 2012, 4-5pm, Melbourne Australia time (gmt+10)

About this session: David Simpson will share his experiences in implementing a 1:1 environment in his school. He will outline the process that my school has followed for the whole-scale introduction of 1:1 computing in a large Government secondary school in the northern suburbs of Melbourne.

This implementation has not been without challenges but has been in place for 6 months and the benefits are becoming clearer with each passing week.

This session would be ideal for anyone that has been down this road or is thinking of heading this way. The areas discussed will move beyond 1:1 in the classroom and also into broader areas of management, security, resourcing (booklists, etc.) and teacher pedagogy.

About our Presenter: David is eLearning Leading Teacher at St Helena Secondary College, Victoria, Australia

Here is the recording of this session.

Tech Talk Tuesday: A Guided Tour of Twitter

Please note that this session is now rescheduled for Tuesday, Sept 4th. (It was originally publicized for Tue Aug 28th)

When: Tuesday 4th September, 2012 4-5pm (Melbourne, Australia gmt+10)

About the session: Twitter has been advocated as a favourite tools for professional development and networking, by many users.  As a follow up to a previous session and as a means of finishing and highlighting Connected Educator month, twitter will be revisited.

The nature and direction of this session will be determined by participants and their needs. What is a tweet, how do you keep it to 140 characters, what makes a tweet, how do you find people, organisations etc to follow, how do you keep track of tweets and hashtags etc. Come along with your questions, your experiences, things to share and let’s continue to be connected.

Here is the link to to join this session

What questions would you have about twitter? What knowledge could you share? Has twitter had an impact on you or your classroom?

eT@lking: e-Ignite

Note: A big thank you to our fabulous presenters for their willingness and expert approach to presenting. There was a great range of topics and experiences were freely shared. Technical issues and time prevented Penny from presenting. But, she will share her presentation in eT@lking soon.

This week witnesses the launch “Connected Educator”  month, an initiative of the USA. The Australia Series is proud to continue to connect educators across the nation and beyond to the globe as part of their weekly webinars. This week also sees a pilot trial of e-Ignite take place with many connected educators sharing.

Ignite is a fast-paced geek event started by Brady Forrest (Technology Evangelist for O’Reilly Media) and Bre Pettis (of Makerbot.com, formerly of MAKE Magazine). The first Ignite took place in Seattle in 2006, and since then the event has become an international phenomenon, with gatherings in Helsinki, Paris, New York and many other locations. We’re proud to be bringing the format to the Australia Series on a virtual basis – e-Ignite.

Speakers will use 20 slides, rotated automatically with each slide shown for 20 seconds, giving each speaker 5-6 minutes of fame to share their passions and interests and ignite an interest in those who listen to their presentations. ISTE Ignite was brought to the ISTE conference in 2012. The sessions were extremely popular.

Please join us in this exciting venture and support those who are willing to be amongst the first to do so.

When: Wednesday 1st August, 8-9pm gmt+10 Melbourne, Australia time

Our e-Ignite presenters for this first session are:-

• Carole McCulloch  – Connecting echampions/eleaders
  
• Ness Crouch – Voicethread
• Tania Sheko – What’s good on Facebook for Educators and Regular Teachers?
• Penny Bentley – Connecting Learning
• Shin Gog-s: Connecting with students through social networking tools – facebook and skype

Please join us and support this pilot trial! Here is the link to the recording.

Tech Talk Tuesdays: Using iPad apps for effective learning

 

When: Tuesday May 22nd, 4-5pm, Melbourne, Australia time (gmt+10)

About the session: Jenny Ashby will be leading a discussion about the  use of iPad apps for effective learning. She will share some of her favourite apps and discuss ways in which we can learn more about their use in the classroom. Come along with your questions and share your resources and ideas.

About our presenter: Jenny is a pioneering and leading expert in all things mac, ipad and ipod. She has presented overseas on numerous occasions and her advice is in high demand! Jenny is an ICT specialist, teacher coach, forever learning, forever teaching, early years literacy teacher and currently teaches in Bendigo, Australia.

Here is the link to the recording

Tech Talk Tuesdays and eT@lking – this week’s webinars

Tech Talk Tuesdays:- Google Sketchup
When: Tuesday, October 25th, 4-5pm, Melbourne Australia time (gmt+10)

About this sesion: Join us for another great session with Marc Grossman from the UK. This time Marc will walk us through some of the wonderful features and applications of google sketchup that allow for creativity and design in the classroom.

His last session on Scratch was a great ‘hit’! So don’t miss this session. Marc added files for Scractch here from our last session.

About Marc: Marc is a teaching assistant at two primary schools in London. After working in the IT industry for almost 20 years he moved into supporting children with their learning, He loves helping children with their numeracy, literacy and ICT. He also spends part of of his time supporting teachers too showing them new aspects of ICT such as Scratch and SketchUp.

Here is the link to the recording

eT@lking: Sharing Digital Media (part 2)
When:– Wed, Oct 26th from 8 to 9 pm Melbourne, Australia (gmt+11 during daylight saving.

About this session:  Following on from the success of Chris Smith’s first session for eT@lking several weeks ago, we continue on with part 2 of Sharing Digital Media using Social Networks and if time permits torrenting.

About the presenter:  Chris (@shamblesgu) 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. See his presentation

Please join us! Here is the link to the recording

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

Tech Talk Tuesdays:  Open House

When: Tuesday, October 11th 4o5pm Melbourne, Australia time (gmt+11 as we have now entered daylight saving, this session will be one hour earlier than our last session time)

About this session: This session will be an open, unconference style session where you can come with ideas and experiences to share, or questions to have solved or discussed or any matter relating to teaching, learning and education in general. Hope to see you there!

Here is the link to listen to the recording

eT@Lking: Keeing the Conversations/Experiences continuing with Mightybell

When: Wednesday, October 12th 8 – 9pm, Melbourne Australia time (we have started daylight saving so please check with a world clock, if you are in a different time zone)

About the session:– Mightybell is a new web based service, created by one of the co-founders of  Ning based on the idea that “success comes from thinking big, but acting incrementally,” and so this platform allows you to create and share an “experience.” An experience is an organized series of step-by-step “actions” users can follow. This makes it a powerful social media tool.

In this session, Carole McCulloch will share how Mighybell is being used after the successful ePortfolio MOOC and will demonstrate how to create your own mightybell experience.

Other online webinars available in Australian time zone friendly slots will also be shared. Please join us in the conversations.

Here is the link to join the 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