Teachr 2.0

Facebook: Friend or Foe?

2009-12-01T15:17:00.002+08:00

A presentation given to parents about Facebook. Privacy issues, dealing with inappropriate use and protective behaviours.

Podcasting

2009-09-20T09:05:00.010+08:00

The presenter: Wes Fryer
The gist: find the information http://handouts.wesfryer.com/podcasting
his website http://www.speedofcreativity.org/

he uses radio wilow web- digital show and tell...can add and show notes eg hyperlinks writing is the most powerful form of writing...it connects my ideas and my writing...to media and the web...use music not just speaking
http://learninginhand.com/
use a planning guide to help students and teachers go about creating a podcast and show much more than a podcast. http://mps.mpsomaha.org/willow/radio/podcastbooklet.pdf
he uses a online timer - for discussion Timeme.com/timer-stopwatch.htm
attention grabber is clapping and clicking
podcasts improved literacy ...real audience eg parents, realtives etc and their peers
difference between podcast and audio on the web...link on website says xml and itune
ip tv...there is a convergence of computer, tv and phone..
podcast are part of this convergence
subscribe to podcasts use a podcatcher itune store you can subscribe
search for wes fryer get his channels video podcasts
use audacity...free online editing..also need a lame file to make it work
celebrate oklahoma voices.us project
digital backpack....what you need eg camera, recorder, headset, falshdrive, memory stick for camera
http://wiki.celebrateoklahoma.us/Home/resources/handouts/audacity-quickstart.pdf?attredirects=0
audacity uses different layers..import music and move around....envelope tool to reduce volume of section..none of us like hearing us ourselves...sit and watch your self or listen and this helps you improve....practise using the microphone at end expeort as WAV (larger) or mp3..quality bitrate eg 32 if music
open podcast in itunes add art work get info add a id3 tags and artwork
http://millsmurfee.blogspot.com/ feed eg use gcast widget in a wiki
http://www.gcast.com/u/wfryer/mothersday2009 eg
3 sites let you eg drop.io record to web record to the web need to ring the site
http://wiki.celebrateoklahoma.us/Home/resources/music-and-audio-resources free music

My summary: Podcasts are worth trying with students they make products creatively for "real" audiences.

Helping Students Manage Technology (or It WILL Manage Them)

2009-09-20T08:44:00.008+08:00

The Presenters: Barry Lawrensen, Rachel Dewey - Teacher ITGS and Design Technology - Gyeonggi Suwon International School, Suwon, South Korea

The Gist:
Technology in multiple forms is ubiquitous to our modern lives. Is it possible to develop critical thinking skills when concentration is on the technology?

Some teachers prefer to check the laptops and smartphones at the door, while others are embracing the technology with 1:1 laptop programs and required participation in blogs and social networking.
The presenters met online a year ago just met face to face yesterday!!
187% mobile phone connectivity in HK these students cant remember a time without technology....if schools spending $ on technology we need equal amount on training teachers as to how to use it.
Behaviour rules are same as for other classrooms and the school eg respect don’t have a list of rules eg you cant do this and that
It is important to talk about ..ethical use of technologyeg how to get around firewalls etc. use and show them a behaviour code for business and talk about consequences- eg if you are at work you can get sacked for unethical behaviour
Use students to teach the class....use twitter to chat in class no talking...use a wireless keyboards so can use them in the classroom
use msn...students can use mobile under the desk and send teachers the answers to questions quickly
they share ideas on google documents using their laptops
tell students they have 20 mins to present the information to teacher - how you do it is your choice- be creative

My thoughts: These teachers are using laptops in their classrooms in creative ways. It is important to teach appropriate behaviour when using collaborative teaching and online learning.

Forum: School 2.0

2009-09-19T13:45:00.005+08:00

The Panel: Bill Hutchinson (Principal Hong Kong Sea School) , Karen Moffat (Bahrain), Michael Webber (CiSOS) Philippa Curtis (SIS)

The Question: Many schools would like to think they have transformed but on the surface they have students sitting in classrooms being told this by adults which they will be examined on later. What are the signs that a school is shifted to a school 2.0 model?

From the panel:

When the discussion is about learning, not technology
Audience: What does it look like, is it just the class, is it the teacher, is it both? Outside audiences?
Collaboration, tech people need to be involved, teachers need to be involved in discussion with administrators
Teachers immersed in the technology that kids use, but aware of the risks
Students educated in web literacy and safety, otherwise it is like sending them into a seedy part of town on a dark night
Collaboration: we are still behind closed doors in out little kingdoms, we need to be working on problem based learning and we don't singly have the skills, need to work together
High stakes environments already do this: military, medical, pilots
Rich environments: How does World of Warcraft compare with worksheets in engagement?!

Open to the floor

Good learning and collaboration can occur without technology
Not all students are digital natives, there is a range of skills, only 15% are digital innovators. Most do trivial stuff
Tools don't have innate educational value, we need to have it scaffolded for us and we need to scaffold for our colleagues and students.
Students are changing in the way they process information and learn.
Are they really? The research perhaps hasn't shown this.
Students have a much lower tolerance of boredom.
Younger teachers have grown up with tech, experience will be different for students in their classrooms
Google- workers work 4 days for the company and have 1 day for exploration of ideas. Why not trying this with teachers? Give flexible time for curriculum and change.
Chinese system schools, teachers have much more time to plan collaboratively, less face time
We don't give our kids the chance to do this because we don't do this ourselves
Schools can have a vision, but currently, teachers can choose to ignore this and do what they like
What about the fact that curriculum is geared towards getting kids through exams to enter Uni?
Teaching kids to learn should be just as effective preparation for those kids to do exams
But for administrators, they do not want to risk a drop in exam marks
Canadian school has 5 people training teachers. That is a sign that they are school 2.0
Rapid personalised feedback will enhance learning, maybe technology an facilitate this.

Paradigm shift

Multi-platform Integration - A Case Study of RCHK

2009-09-19T11:45:00.006+08:00

The Presenter: Andrew Ip - Digital Service Manager - Renaissance College Hong Kong

The Gist:

PYP ---> IB founded in 2006
whole school is 1:1, at any on time 1000 notebooks in operation at the school
Primary notebooks are school owned
Secondary students own their own
Multi platform integration is not which computer/platform/OS, they are Mac and PC

Compatibility
Infrastructure
Security
Policy and practice, has to be supported by leadership, parents and teachers

Compatability

Cross platform networking
Digital literacy skill rather than 'which software', knowing about what is out there
Choosing the right tools for the school
Centralisation of software procurement

site license approach

Extensive research and testing of alternatives

word of mouth, Google, OpenSource

Migrate to web solutions

Infrastructure

Choosing the right directory service

authentication
customisation
single sign on, log on with single identity

http://www.opengroup.org

LDAP as OpenDirectory
Mac Authentication
Windows authentication through scripting
SSO through LDAP with other systems like Moodle, Wordpress etc

Policy and Practice

Just in time technology
Closed membership system - host services inside school servers for security
Acceptable Use Policy

Security

Non-Admin accounts for students, they do not install software
Parent-Admin accounts, parent backlash, their computers, so they were given back-door on understanding that inappropriate/ illegal software not installed.
Cloning (as much as possible), installs all software on computers on 15 minutes
Secret police? IT admin have backdoor to see exactly what students have been up to.
Have enterprise grade Firewall and spam filter
Talk to ISP - Global Firewall
Site-licensed Anti-virus Sophos

What next?

Sustainable online learning platform (iTunes U,Oracle Education, Adobe)
Google Apps, working on integration with LDEP so that new students receive Gmail address of school's choosing.
Other Learning Objects
Moodle or other LMS

Embrace Multiple Platform Learning Devices!
Training

Atomic learning
Special team in teachers/students training
Research Education Development - Digital Opportunity On Request REDDOOR

Train teachers and students

Working with the likes of Apple, Adobe, Microsoft etc. to try to get some certifications for teachers.

My Thoughts:
New school has the "luxury" of starting from scratch with their systems. Most schools have time and money invested in existing hardware, software and services.
Very secure system but is it at the cost of flexibility?
Haven't created a separate LLT like Canadian International School

Central to Modern Crime is the Concept of Identity. Central to the Concept of Identity is technology.

2009-09-19T10:54:00.004+08:00

The Presenter:
Paul Jackson (Chief Inspector of Police Computer Forensics & Training - Hong Kong Police)

The Gist:

Youth and Cybercrime
Identity used to be simple. ou were who you were.
Youth have different identities based on context
The meaning of identity is blurring and police are having to adapt
Example: Run on Bank of East Asia late last year, triggered by text messsages and online, went viral and people turned up to withdraw their cash. How to find original sender?
Some people say, so what about Cybercrime? Doesn't hurt anyone... But what about online suicide pacts? What about online bullying prompting suicide?
Does the education system put enough into teaching ethics?
Finland shooting, guy posted video on Youtube before it saying that he was going to kill people.
Virtual worlds, great technology, but as with the real world, crimes can happen in the virtual worlds; vice, prostitution, drug dealing, pornography
Hidden communities. People living at home and never set foot outside the house. Order food online and are difficult to police
Most use is benign but we ave to be aware of the risks
HK Law

Access to a computer with criminal or dishonest content
Prohibition on publishing obscene material

Use 'Loitering' law to prosecute 'Upskirt' photos!
isafe Good educational material
Students don't seem to care about giving up their personal information
Example of a predator: Hong Kong paedophile would chat with kids on MS, engaged their trust by conversing, agreeing with their points of view. Gradually introduced talk of a sexual nature, drawing on the natural curiosity of the kids. Eventually suggested a physical meet and then abused them.
Parents too confident that they know what their children are up to. Children have alternate lives.
Loners without good friendships are those most likely to succumb
Kids have multiple identities on Facebook. One for the parents to see and one for their friends.

When police in HK deal with an offence by a teenager

First step should be to examine the nature of the offence - an it be dealt with at a parent/school/social worker level?
Reporting as a crime is a serious atep as all reports treated seriously
Minors get one chance, first offence they get a very stern warning
Second offence has to go through the courts

"The doer is merely a fiction added to the deed - the deed is everything"

My Thoughts:
Again it seems that we need to educate our students to be safe. How much emphasis are we giving this and where is it in our curriculum?
We should get this guy for careers talk to students. Cyber crime forensics is a growth area!

Keynote: Andrew Thompson: Education 3.0: A framework for Change in Teaching and Assessing 21st Century Skill

2009-09-19T09:22:00.003+08:00

The Presenter: Andrew Thompson, Former minister of Learning, Saskatchewan, Canada, now educational advisor to CISCO

Wikipedia link to him

The Gist:

Newspaper heading "Majority of pupils failing to master 3 Rs"
20Th century education shaped by Ralph Tyler's Rationale

What educational purposes should the school seek to attain? (Defining appropriate learning objectives.)
How can learning experiences be selected which are likely to be useful in attaining these objectives? (Introducing useful learning experiences.)
How can learning experiences be organized for effective instruction? (Organizing experiences to maximize their effect.)
How can the effectiveness of learning experiences be evaluated? (Evaluating the process and revising the areas that were not effective.)

Rooted in the 20th century
How are we adapting it now?

Trying to spread education to all
Accountability - how to compare students and schools

There has a lot of progress. Primary school attendance about 80% globally
21st century change
Fewer children being born in Asia, in 40 years this will impact economy, less cheap labour
Growth will need to come from higher skilled labour and technology
Teachers are going to be even more important in producing higher quality education
We will be 18 million teachers short by 2015!
The new three Rs

Responsive Communities
Relevant to Students
Results Oriented

Responsiveness: Economic and social, what skills do they need as citizens?
Relevance: Formal --> Blended Formal?Informal. Anywhere anytime education
Results: Acquisition model --> Application model
The most important quality that employers are looking for are creativity and problem solving
"Online access to content is allowing us to be answer rich but question poor"
Web 1.0 - Information, Web 2.0 - Participation, Web 3.0 - Collaboration
Virtualised communities is where we will be
Have to change classrooms to make them collaborative, interactive and engaging; need Intelligent systems for Energy management, Asset tracking, Building controls. Safety: messaging, signage surveillance.
Change: Assessment. TIMMS and PISA
Assessment

It Matters,
You cant improve what you cant measure
Poorly done. Negatively impacts resource allocation, diverts attention and distracts teachers

Need to meet principles of coherence comprehensiveness and continuity
US exploring competency based assessment using e-portfolios and a comparative pairing approach. But who is the judge? Just teachers? Anyone with an edu email address?
Computer assisted assessment is getting cleverer, moving beyond multiple choice
Learner response systems (eg ActiVote) ideal for formative assessment

Next century learning will have to:

Change systems
Change Practices
Change outcomes

It will all be in a collaborative outcome
How will we do it?

My Thoughts:
Daunting! So much change to come. We will need much more education for teachers. Heck, we will need more teachers.
We need to get tertiary education systems onboard. So much assessment is driven by the need for an entry score.

What is an unconference?

2009-09-19T08:34:00.003+08:00

Yesterday at lunch time we had the opportunity to take part in an unconference (wiki link). A web page was set up where anyone could post a topic. Other viewers could then click it to vote. Just before lunch the sessions with the most votes were allocated to rooms, we then grabbed our lunch and turned up for the discussion.

Some of the unconference sessions:

the nuts and bolts of 1:1
Facebook in the classroom. Is anyone doing it? Is it blocked at your school? Open discussion.
chat about google docs
"Birds of a Feather" for technology directors

I suggested the Facebook gathering so naturally I went along. Only one of the attendees was currently using Facebook with her class but she said that it was a great way to keep the information stream running to her students.
The consensus was that we should be using it because that is where the students are but that it would be necessary to make up another account to keep students out of our private lives. Nobody wants students to see them drinking alcohol or having candid conversations with real friends.

Forum: Clouds of Uncertainty

2009-09-18T22:11:00.005+08:00

The Panel: Ray Schneider (Canadian School), Wes Fryer (Google certified Teacher), Paul Chillingworth (Island school) , Andrew Turner (former communications minister in Saskatchewan, currently working at Cisco)

The Question: Why are schools continuing to spend money on servers and disk space when Google will give a lot of it to you free?

Cloud based computing stores files 'in the cloud' on servers offsite. Can access it anywhere, eases collaboration, concerns about ownership and privacy.
Reliability? What if company goes bust? What if it is down for maintenance when you need the file?
How safe is it?
We need systems in place to get permission from students and parents if we are going to host students' work and likeness in the cloud
Perhaps teachers should be restricted in what cloud services they use for ease of training. Say for example everyone uses Wetpaint rather that some using PBwiki and some wikispaces. But then doesn't varying our tools increase teacher's and student's abilities to transfer skills?

My Thoughts:
The people with concerns tended to have an administrative role and to me seemed overly cautious. Most tecahers just want access to whatever tools are going to do the job best.
The vast majority of data created in school is totally innocuous, who cares about possible (but highly unlikely) security breaches in this case. Naturally we should keep sensitive financial and social data in the securest available place.

And introducing...

2009-09-18T22:04:00.002+08:00

My good friend and colleague Feona Crawford will be adding her 2 cents to the blog as a guest poster at the conference. She will probably be more coherent than me because she can type faster. Feona is a fantastic Biology, Science, Psychology, and Mathematics teacher who has the good taste to hail from Adelaide. She is great fun to work with and in her words "...gets bored if things stay the same too long...". Feona has had an amazing career in education so far and is an inspiration to me. Good luck Feona.

Models for teaching teachers technology in Canadian International School Hong Kong

2009-09-18T17:15:00.004+08:00

The Presenter: John D'Arcy (Canadian International School)

The Gist:

Learning and teaching technology department - 5 full-time member team teaching 130 teachers how to use technology in the classrooms (1750 students). They do NOT fix computers (there is a 5 person team of technicians), they do NOT teach kids
Trying to create a learning community in the school
They offer free basic parent training in day time and at night
Parents pay for extended training
Technology vision came out of SARS and a need to be able to support students better in the future. Had no space for labs or room for desktops around the room. Had to go 1:1.
Year 5 up is 1:1
Carts in years up to 4
Laptops owned by students / parents
Year 5 and 6 laptops stay at school. Students too small / young for responsibility
100% Apple, same model to ease management and equity issues
7 up take them home all the time, 7s and up have administrator rights.
Technology at CDNIS - implementation

"there is no rush"
pragmatic and compassionate (have expectations of teachers, they have to be on the journey)
curriculum and pedagogy
teachers and students first

www.xtranormal.com example of engaging tool
LTT Guiding Principles

Collaboration is a key, if one person wants to get something going, they have to work with their peers in faculty or year level
Diversity in tools, whatever works

Try to promote higher order thinking, using Blooms Revised Taxonomy and working towards curriculum outcomes
Teachers must believe
Skills - Integration - Infusion. Stages of teacher tech use in schools. When teachers are achieving their curriculum goals using higher order thinking and when tech is no longer even a consideration we are at the infusion stage
Don't let the people who are negative about it have the biggest voice
ltt.cdnis.edu.hk repository of student work that teachers want to share
Students tag their comments with what thinking skills that they are using
Infobits: 15 min demos, Infobytes: After school or a half day, Infotubes: recorded information, vodcasts
Google docs for teacher feedback
Teacher accountability, teachers have a yearly 1:1 meeting with team to talk about what they are doing in class
If it is infused into the culture it will go beyond sustainability

My Thoughts:
A Mac is a beautiful thing.
The Canadian School have an absolutely amazing system! Very privileged.

Keynote: Robyn Treyvaud: Developing responsible ethical and resilient digizens

2009-09-18T14:22:00.004+08:00

The Presenter: Robin Treyvaud
Her bookmarks on Delicious http://delicious.com/rtreyvaud
http://www.cybersafeworld.com/

The Gist:

Online is a place, not a thing, to our students
Average young person has 94 contacts in phone, 78 people on messenger and 86 in his or her social network online
Technology has enabled kids to have more and closer relationships that ever before. Almost all students use tech to enhance face to face relationships.
Tech is normalised. It s part of their ives and they neither 'like' it or 'dislike' it
This generation is capable of self regulation when educated about risk.
Parents don't have the skills to keep up with what there kids are doing. Kids maintain their privacy.
Kids will always explore risky behaviour and some will do this online. We need to educate appropriately.
We cannot make the internet completely safe
Have to develop responsible and ethical digtal citizenship. e need to embed it into our current curricula
Parent and child views of what is bad about the internet diverge
The internet is not the cause of problems, it is just a medium that amplifies what is already there. People with issues have a voice where they did not before.
Online victimisers are most often known to the victim, they are their 'friends'
Online bullying starts about year 2, pirating starts about year 4, middle school students experience
Solution does not rely on technology but on sociology and anthropology
Kids don't tell parents when they see pornography because don't want to get into trouble. Most have seen it by the age of 12.
Sexting: Children biggest producers of child pornography. Minors face criminal charges for passing on or receiving these messages. End up on a sex offenders register
Thats not cool http://www.thatsnotcool.com/
Students need to realise that everything that they post will be there forever. Students think that this is not so. These digital footprints are a character reference for the future.
Triple J Hack half hour : My Face. Good link to use with students
www.digizen.org cyberbullying resources with more video. Good stuff. Resonates with kids.
Need age appropriate codes of conduct. Need to find space in curriculum.
digicitizen-wiki.com
www.cybersmart.gov.au

My Thoughts:
She had lots of great research to back her up, check out her Delicious links above.
Let students loose on the internet, but educate them.

Learning in and Beyond the Classroom: Mobile content and iPod Touches

2009-09-18T12:04:00.004+08:00

The Presenter: Kathleen Ferenz

The Gist:

.
We all a big Macbook and an iPod Touch to play with! Yay!
How do we leverage technology to address individual student needs?
Touch does not replace laptops
but it allows further mobility
Watched a video: kids using touches; looked natural, were collaborating, using it for text input, music making, in a variety of postures, all working on different things
5th grade students don't need directions to use it
Video: Skip Johnson, principal at school in America. Audiobooks uploaded to their touches that they take home, they listen while they track the words in the book as an aid to literacy. Can look up words that they don't understand.
http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/ free audiobooks
Need a "Gabillion" wireless access points
Hands on with the Touch, basic skills
Lots of traditional activities are replicated but helps with organisation, can't lose paper.
Video on the Touch: Show a video with a projector on the whiteboard and the kids can miss things. Put it on the Touch and they can watch in their own time.
Students can make vocabulary flash cards using inbuilt applications
Quote "This is the kid's thing"

My Thoughts:

Lots of implications for working with ESL
Engaging
Great as an adjunct to laptops

Student-Produced research skills video

2009-09-18T10:53:00.004+08:00

The Presenter: Sharon Vipend and Richard Friedrichs
HS Librarian & Dept Head, Information Commons - HKIS

The Gist:

Library changed name to "Information commons"
Focus on digital tools on-line books and references
Students need to take a class called "Information technology ad Media"
Found that students not very skilled at research, especially with more traditional media
http://ourdigitalfuture.pbworks.com wiki used for course
Students reviewed communication technologies from the past as background. Students created pages researching the different communication technologies
Students were tasked to make a teaching video on research skills, content open.
7 teams of students had mixed success
Students realised there own research skills shortfalls were not up to scratch when researching th eresearch skills video. Wasted time on process.
Coming out of that, all freshmen now have to attend seminars on research skills. Now front end loaded with explicit instruction of research and technical skills, followed by video production.
Before, the take up of these skills was hit-and-miss depending on what teachers the students had had.
http://www.amazon.com/Still-Cheating-Dont-Get-Caught/dp/159643306X book regarding ethics, good for teaching about plagiarism.

My Thoughts:
Not revolutionary, evolutionary, but if it gets the students creating then it is a good thing in my book

Keynote: Bruce Dixon: Are you ready for this? Re-imagining the possibilities

2009-09-18T09:26:00.001+08:00

The Presenter: Bruce Dixon

http://www.aalf.org/ Anytime Anywhere Learning Foundation: 1:1 information

http://ideaslab.vic.edu.au/

The Gist:

Lots of people think that when you get a laptop "we can get on with what we were doing" or "it will transform things" without knowing how that is going to come about
When and where and what and how we teach must change
Look up Levy and Murnane "How the demand for skills has changed"

Talked about the idea generation required to come up with new solutions.
What does transformation look like? What is your role in making it happen? Fundamental change or incremental improvement; the question isn't which is right, but rather why has there been so little discussion about the question?
Despite our technological advances he doesn't see that we have progressed much at all.
Students have ubiquitous computer use at home. School catching up.
In to many schools the technology emperor has had no clothes. Technology driven ideals, ill-defined expectations; trivialising teacher competence
59% of kids spend less than 59 minutes in front of a computer at school (Australian stats from a couple of years ago) the model wasn't working.
Computers as a 'shared' resource gets in the way of learning
OLPC transforming education in developing world. Movement towards equity.
Need personalised learning, computers should be able to provide if we can expand our pedagogical opportunities.
Text book publishers will be trying to dominate the space. Just a book on a screen with a few links thrown in. Need to rethink text books. What should they be?
Portugal giving laptops to every child and free broadband wireless access to every child!!!.
The only way to give students access to personalised learning is through 1:1. It doesn't matter if they have a computer at home if they don't have constant access at school
Laptops: 'an instrument whose music is ideas' 'an imagination machine'
Embrace accountability make it transparent; people will listen to teachers; not journalists and politicians
Technology is pedagogically inert. Whether it sustains, supplements or subverts is up to us.

My Thoughts:

Lots of work to do pedagogically. Really excited about the possibilities.

What is it we can do to allow students to create more cognitively complex work?

Welcome and Keynote

2009-09-17T19:30:00.002+08:00

Well here I am at HKIS for the C21 Hong Kong Learning Conference HK. I'm at the cocktail party and opening speech. There is a buzz! 500 participants from 17 countries and over 60 schools throughout Asia. The food is great and I am looking forward to seeing some great presentations.

Had a nice welcome from the principal.

Flat classroom project Sue Cofino and Julia Lindsay came out to tel us about it.

Talking about using Nings and wikis etc to "flatten" the classroom and get the learning the hands of the students.

"Erasism" new project to get rid of racism for students in grade 7/8. If you want to take part contact them online.

The Keynote Presenter: Wesley Fryer

www.speedofcreativity.org

The Gist:

Create - Communicate Collaborate

-The 'Now' generation, steeped in technology. Used a Black Eyed Peas song to illustrate the idea.

-We aren't here to entertain..

-He mentioned the Obama speech to students the other day. Year 5 students made video blogs in response. Wes showed us one student's work. She paraphrased Obama saying "They made Twitter and Facebook 20 years ago" Just goes to show the perception of students. She ended up getting over 200k hits on her video uploaded to Youtube.

- Creating, Communicating and Collaborating much easier today

-We need to be bridges for our students, the digital divide. They can be bridges for us. People at the conference should be bridges for those who could't make it. Relationships are as important as ever.

- Not everyone needs to create a 'viral video' but we should all be creating.

- 1:1 learning is the future, a revolution

- How can we transform learning? Can't just replicate what we are already doing. Need to move on.

- Showed a video about a child with cancer who attends her school from home via Skype. Students interacting with the girl. She feels part of the class.

- Teachers are across the spectrum of technology use and ability. Wes saying that all teachers should become certified at creating with video. We need to learn the 'grammar'.

- Can now do things not dreamed possible in the near past.

- Media literacy is critical. Every single image we see is carefully crafted as a message. If we step into the creative space it opens up our mind to these things.

- Have to get past the 'accommodating' stage to the 'tranformative' stage with technology. Need to do more, bringing the technology doesn't bring the transformation. Need the pedagogy to change.

- Wes challenges us all to collaborate with one other classroom next semester.

-http://k12onlineconference.org "The K-12 Online Conference invites participation from educators around the world interested in innovative ways Web 2.0 tools and technologies can be used to improve learning. This FREE conference is run by volunteers and open to everyone." theme this year is "Bridging the Divide". Gives us all access to amazing presenters in video form. We can all engage with them.

- "Create" is at the top of Bloom's taxonomy

-http://storychasers.org/ Check it out! "Story Chasers Inc. is a nonprofit organization empowering learners to become digital witnesses, safely and constructively sharing their voices on the global stage of the Internet."

Find his slides

http://handouts.wesfryer.com/ccc

My Thoughts:

Great! Emphasised the fact that pedagogy is the key. Doesn't matter what technology you have. Have to advance beyond chalk and talk.

2 Games for fun and education

2009-02-22T17:29:00.009+08:00

In my opinion the best educational games aren't those that actually set out to educate. So many 'educational' games are simply rote learning tools dressed up and although rote learning has its place, it is only fun for a while. Added to that is the fact that if you know a game is supposed to be educational, then that sucks the fun from it before you begin.

A couple of years ago I came across Bridgebuilder

by Chronic Logic. It was created in 2000 and gives you the opportunity to create 2D bridges to span a given gap, and then run a train across it to see if it is structurally sound. It starts off easy and then the levels increase in difficulty to become fiendishly tricky. The creator of Bridgebuilder has since left Chronic Logic and you can get an updated version from his new site. The total size of the game is only 239Kb so it is quick and easy to download and setup.

I have used Bridgebuilder with a senior science class to look at simple engineering principles such as trusses, arches and the importance of triangles. The physics engine in the game allows you to examine where the stress is distributed in your bridge and is great for illustrating the effects of compression and tension forces.

I have also used it with a year 4/5 computer club as a problem solving exercise. It would be a great game for early finishers in a primary classroom.

Chronic Logic have since released sequels, Pontifex, Bridge Construction set (A.K.A Pontifex II) and Bridge it (essentially a remake of Bridge Construction set with glitzier graphics). All three are available to buy from their site, or you can download a demo. They will do educational pricing if you email them with your needs. The gameplay for these later versions is similar but the bridges are three dimensional and there are new materials to play with including suspension cables and hydraulics for the creation of draw-bridges so that you can make a greater variety of designs. They are brilliant and offer a more involved challenge but it is hard to beat free.

The second game that I feel compelled to recommend is Fantastic Contraption which is similarly themed in that there are levels of increasing difficulty, it is a physics based game, and triangles are king when it comes to stability.

The aim of the game is to move a box or ball from a starting area to a goal area. You have at your disposal two types of rod, self-powered wheels and unpowered wheels with which to move the box or ball. You can fling it with a catapult, build it into a car, send it on a conveyor ride, or pick it up with a crane. There are usually many ways to succeed in the task, and many more ways to fail.

The principles of gravity, pulleys, levers, force, friction and Newton's Laws can all be explored.

Again this is an excellent problem-solving exercise for all age groups. It is browser based so no need to install anything. For an extra US$10 you get access to a gazillion levels designed by the community. You can rate them for difficulty and quality. There is a companion site made by fans that helps to keep track of all of the extra levels. It has been bought by the Fantastic Contraption owners so should become integrated with the main site soon. It also has a wiki that has a page about the physics of the game so you could have your students explore the gravity constant in the FC 'universe'.

I spent waaaaay too much time playing this in during my recent holidays, give it a go.

Mixedink: Write democratically

2009-01-07T17:30:00.003+08:00

By now, many people will have used wikis, blogs, Google Docs, Zoho or something similar to get their students collaborating on a task. They all enable multiple editors to work on a piece of writing, be it a poem, a practical report, a letter, a procedure or an essay.

Mixedink also allows people to collaborate but it differs in the execution and is aimed towards getting larger groups to work together.

Anyone can start a piece of work for any purpose. As with other services, invites are sent to potential collaborators. If for example you write a letter to the government of Japan complaining about whaling, collaborators can read and rate your work. They also have the option of writing their own version and while they do, paste in and modify the best bits from your letter. When they are happy with it they publish their version and then other collaborators can repeat the process until there are many versions, each rated by their peers. At the end of a period set by the organiser of the letter/article etc the version with the highest rating is the 'winner'. Below is a demo video:

MixedInk from MixedInk on Vimeo.

Implications for teaching:

Collaboration in all forms is an essential skill and this service could be a great way to inspire and direct students to think about a given topic. The rating system encourages analysis of existing ideas and the drafting process encourages synthesis. One problem that many students have is in drawing on a number of secondary sources to create their own work. We have all had to mark a zillion cut-and-paste horrors. Plagiarism is something that can't be overcome without explicit teaching of how best to stitch together concepts and ideas. This tool has the potential to assist teachers and students to examine the process of writing a good piece that uses other's work ethically.

As with all work involving collaboration online, care would haveto be taken to set guidelines for students re: language, personal attacks etc. but this should be standard for all classrooms anyway.

The rating system does have the potential to favour popular students and we don't necessarily want the physically attractive yet illiterate students to have their work rated highly. I would advocate having the students set up anonymous accounts that only the teacher knows the true name for. It is a shame that Mixedink hasn't prepared for educational users by allowing educators to create class sets of numbered IDs like a couple of other web 2.0 services do. Maybe later.

Likewise there might be some hurt feelings for students whose work is rated lowly. This is something that students should be prepared to deal with and it is an opportunity for some real self-examination ie "did I work hard enough?", "how can I improve my writing?", "Why did Jenny's get rated so highly?"

Some ideas for use:

Interclass debates: Imagine if the main arguments for and against were assigned to whole classes or even year levels. An interesting way to see what arguments would hold the most weight with a large number of people

Writing an 'issue' letter: Write to government or a company to voice your discontent or otherwise about an issue.

Story writing: Set the class a character, problem, setting etc and let them create.

School newsletter: Crowdsource an article on any topic

Student council: Prepare submissions to the school executive about an issue of concern to students.

You get the idea!

What I'd like to see for educators:

1) The ability to create bulk logins for students.

2) As mentioned above, the rating system could become a popularity contest. I would like an alternative rating system that rates work according to an algorithm involving number of visitors, average time spent reading the article divided by length of article, number and amount of paragraphs copied etc.... but then, I am a maths teacher.

Typealyzer - Spooky insights into the mind of a blogger

2008-11-26T09:56:00.006+08:00

Long time, no post. I guess that is what you get when you teach and have a family. Some things just have to come third.

I recently came across Typealyzer. It is a simple concept. Paste the URL of a blog into the box that appears and it gives you an analysis of the personality type or the author and a chart of what sort of brain activity was going on e.g. logical/mathematical, intuitive etc

Apparently it references some sort of database and applies an algorithm to spit out these results and for the couple I tried it seemed to be on the money. I don't know how much store I put into a lot of these left brain/ right brain things but it could be a great way to engage your students in metacognition and motivate their writing. What a great discussion point if someone who seems to be all hard-nosed and logical seems to be writing an emotional blog.

The creators point out that it is not necessarily profiling the personality of the writer, but of the voice that they are using in their blog. You could well have multiple blogs that each have a different assessment. I have included my brain chart for this blog... hmmm... do you think it matches a science / maths teacher?

Sproutbuilder - Grow your Own Widgets

2008-09-08T12:53:00.007+08:00

Sproutbuilder is a platform that enables you to make your own flash widgets without knowing a scrap of code. It has an easy-to-use interface that enables you to drag, drop, resize, copy and paste elements on to your project, which can be any size from a micro button to a full webpage. These elements include buttons, text, shapes, images, audio, video (including Youtube clips), RSS feeds, Google forms, Polldaddy polls and more. Whats more, you can embed the sprouts just about anywhere: wikis, blogs (of course) Moodles, Facebook, Myspace, Netvibes etc. or just email them.

When it launched earlier this year I had a play around with it but didn't really have much of a purpose in mind when making my own sprouts. However, I started incorporating them into my wikis: Countdowns and slideshows mainly and when my school launched its Moodle recently I started to see the applications.

A standard Moodle looks pretty boring. 'Nineties in its outlook you might say. So I started using Sproutbuilder to add a little bling, some RSS feeds, slideshows and useful links at the top of every subject. Of late I have started using Sproutbuilder to make little interactive modules for the students. You can see these at a new blog that I have started called Edusprouts where I hope to be able to aggregate not just my sprouts, but the sprouts of other teaching professionals. Not all sprouts will be suitable, forms and countdowns will probably have little use outside the confines of the course that you build the sprouts for, but for general sprouts like the one I have included below, any (science) teacher could find a use.

Down for everyone or just me?

2008-09-05T08:11:00.005+08:00

With our ever-increasing reliance on internet based resources like wikis and blogs it becomes frustrating when the page just wont load. Is it a problem with the school's systems? My computer connection? Is the site down for some reason?

The easiest way to check is to use Downforeveryoneorjustme just type or paste in the address of your online resource and get independent confirmation like in the screenshot below:

The Whiteboard Challenge

2008-09-03T15:18:00.004+08:00

Get over to the Whiteboard Challenge wiki and try your hand at one of the challenges being set for users of interactive whiteboards by teaching professionals.

Every two weeks a new challenge is being posted and participants are encouraged to blog about their exploits. What a great way to encourage both innovation and reflection in our practice.

There is a button that you can grab from my sidebar for your own blog or wiki in order to promote the event.

Handy classroom organisation tools

2008-06-19T12:13:00.004+08:00

I was reading a post on Classroom 2.o the other day and came across a reference to two delightfully simple tools for classroom organisation.

Termites for creating seating plans and
Monkey, for creating productive groups

I have always wanted some tools for this purpose and had toyed around with Excel and just couldn't seem to get it right.

Termites allows you to input 'relationship' scores for your students. That is, if you think that they work well together you give them a score up to +10 and if you'd rather that they didn't sit together you'd give them a score as low as -10. The generator takes these values into account when allocating seats. If you have a student who has poor eyesight you can specify that they are placed at the front of the room. If you have a real firecracker you can even 'glue' them to the seat closest to you so that you can keep a wary eye on them and everyone else will be shuffled around them.

Creating the table layout is also blindingly simple. You are presented with a grid of whatever size you like. You then click on a box to make it a table and click on it again to clear it. Very easy to set up rows or pods.

Monkey works on the same principle of entering relationship values but also gives you the opportunity to input an 'ability' score from 0 to 100. You then have the opportunity to group according to ability as well as taking into account the relationships. Group size and number is customised in the same way as for Termites and so is 'glueing' a student into a group.

Try them out, they are as educational software should be. Easy, simple, created by an educator, useful and free!

It takes the hassle out of making new seating plans and you could choose to have a different plan ever week if you so desired with a press of the button.

Why you need a start page. Netvibes is my pick.

2008-06-09T13:05:00.009+08:00

Start page, home page, whatever you like to call it, it is the the page that greets you when you start up your browser.

Many people leave it at he default, which for a school is usually the school website or learning platform. This isn't necessarily a bad place to start, but is it the best?

Many other people keep it simple and start off with the basic Google search as their starting place. Let me tell you: that is sooo 90's.

These days it is all about personalisation of information sources. Why go looking when you can make the information come to you? Customisation is the key. It enables you to make the information come to you.

Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! all have customisable start pages in iGoogle, MSN and My Yahoo! iGoogle and My Yahoo! work pretty well and both allow you to add and remove different elements like search boxes, RSS feeds, calendars, games and widgets.
MSN is the most restrictive of the three allowing only basic changes to content.

I was a long time user of iGoogle and you can see my start page below:

iGoogle - Upload a Document to Scribd

You can see that I had customised it so that I was getting the latest news from New Scientist, Science Daily, Techcrunch and others and that my latest emails were also on hand. For fun I had a pregnancy countdown for my new baby-to-be.

If you look closely you can see the option to add more tabs which means that you can effectively customise any number of pages and have them close at hand.

However for the past few months I have moved over to using Netvibes, which along with Pageflakes, makes the customisable homepage more of a social experience. You can save and share tabs and even your whole 'universe' ie all of your tabs together. You can browse other peoples tabs and add them to your home page.

Here is mine below:

Netvibes - Upload a Document to Scribd

At first glance it looks the same as iGoogle. But here's why I like it better:

You can customise the number of columns
More colour options
You can fit more information in the same amount of space
The social side of it, browsing and sharing tabs
A huge gallery of widgets to choose from
French people made it, so of course it is magnifique!

Imagine using it with your students. You could make a tab with feeds and links to resources for a course or assignment to get them going in the right direction. Students could share tabs that they create with peers. As a minimum, students will be able to group all of their educational links on one page.

If you zoom in on the top left of my example you will see an RSS feed from the discussion forum of a Wetpaint wiki that my students are working on. I have a constant eyeball on what they are doing. My professional reading comes to me. I have all my science feeds and web2.0 feeds on hand.

I would be interested if there is anyone out there using Pageflakes who can let us know its benefits...

Use Widgetbox to embed any web page

2008-05-16T14:10:00.007+08:00

You may already know of Widgetbox, it is a great place to find useful widgets to put in your wiki, moodle or other online learning platform. Calendars, countdowns, maps, video, it has it all.

You can make your own widgets without even a skerrick of code and this includes embedding pretty much any web page so that students don't have to open another tab and get off track. You simply follow the links to create your own widget by putting in the URL of the wep page in question and setting the size you would like.

Voila! Then it is simply a matter of copying the code and inserting it in your wiki, moodle etc.

Update: I have to retract the above couple of paragraphs, I got an email from Widgetbox rejecting my widget :( I should have read the fine print a little better, it turns out that they don't allow full page embeds. I guess it would slow down their servers too much.

Instead have a look at the Blidget (Blog widget, isn't that great? A new word made from two relatively new words) I made on Widgetbox. Neat huh?

IWBs in Secondary: Where is the Interaction?

2008-05-03T11:46:00.004+08:00

Here is a presentation I made for the 21st Century Learning conference in Hong Kong.

The key idea is that IWBs are a great tool, but they aren't inherently interactive. Interactivity really depends on the teacher and the pedagogy used.

| View | Upload your own

Make your own newspaper clippings

2008-04-21T16:27:00.003+08:00

Wikis and Blogs in Education

2008-04-14T19:30:00.003+08:00

As well as presenting a professional development session on VoiceThread last week I also presented the following session:

| View | Upload your own

The title was a bit of an 'in' joke. I was going to present on screencasting as well but it was just going to be toooo much.

As with the VoiceThread I wanted to focus on the why rather than the how of wikis and blogs. So much professional development is about how to put an image in or how to embed content but doesn't address the "show me the educational value" side of the equation.

I got good feedback, other than a couple of people who wanted more time to do the how. Oh well, I guess I will have to organise some follow-up sessions.

Picnik, minus the ants

2008-04-14T19:15:00.002+08:00

I have come across an excellent online photo editing tool. Picnik offers all of the basic editing features that you would need for touching up photos. Resizing, cropping, rotating, colour manipulation plus added effects make this a very convenient application. There is an addon for Firefox and an extension for Explorer available so that with a click of the right-mouse button you can be editing any online image in Picnik.

Educational use:
Any time you have students working on wikis, blogs, VoiceThreads, Photostory, PowerPoints, you name it, there is a use for this application.

V is for VoiceThread

2008-04-06T16:56:00.005+08:00

What an amazingly simple concept is VoiceThread:

- Upload images

- Comment via microphone or keyboard

Genius!

I am presenting the educational rationale for using VoiceThread to staff at my school tomorrow. Here is the slideshow:

View Upload your own

China shoots off own foot

2008-03-09T22:17:00.003+08:00

Not really a newsflash but something has got me thinking: China is sabotaging the education of it's children.

I sit typing this in Urumqi (Wikipedia link), I am lucky enough to be on a school trip here. I won't be able to view this post when I am finished because the Chinese government blocks access to Blogger and Wordpress blogs amongst others. http://www.blogger.com/ isn't blocked, just everything with blogspot in the URL.

Last year during the Summer holidays I went to Beijing to do a Mandarin short course, I had set a wiki based assignment for my science students to work on. However, the Chinese government was also blocking PBwiki so for two weeks I could not give my students any feedback on their work.

The Chinese government blocks blogs and wikis because it fears them as tools of freedom of expression. There have been a number of high-profile cases where Chinese citizens have been persecuted for what they have written. I don't wan't to get into the politics of right and wrong. That is the Chinese government's decision to make.

However, while the growth of use of Web 2.0 tools in schools in other countries is proceeding apace, China, with its reluctance to give people access to these tools is potentially cramping the educational opportunities for its students.

Of course, students could access these tools through a proxy so why does the Chinese government bother?

This post might be flagged by some bot and read by a member of the communist party because of key words in the text. So if you are Chinese, and reading this in China as part of your job as an internet sensor. Think about how this restrictive policy may affect the future of your country and have a word to your bosses about it. Maybe it is time to change.

Tools in my pocket: 7 Things I take into the classroom

2008-03-07T23:07:00.017+08:00

There is a lot said about all of the web 2.0 tools that we can now use in our teaching (well... I can't stop talking about them). But what about the physical knick-knacks that make life easier? Well, here is what I have taken to carrying around in my pocket at school and what I consider a minimum for any self-respecting connected teacher.

Sony Ericsson K810i: My phone.Where would I be without it? Alarm, timer, stopwatch, calculator, calendar, camera, voice recorder... I've used all of these functions and more. There is a whole other post there waiting for me to write it.
Jawbone Bluetooth Headset: Yes, I look like a dork. But I am just starting to explore using it with my interactive whiteboard to screencast parts of my lessons. I can also use it to amplify my voice through the computer and class speakers if I have a hearing-impaired student.

Omiz Bluetooth Dongle: So that the headset can connect with the computer and so I can zap photos straight to the screen from my phone.
Interactive Whiteboard Pen: My interactive whiteboard isn't much use without it.

8GB Imation USB Flash Drive: When there is a software failure on my classroom computer; browser trouble; Adobe reader isn't working; Office won't start up; Media Player on the fritz. I plug in my trusty stick loaded with PortableApps and fire up Firefox or Sumatra PDF portable or Open Office or VLC media player. I also carry the installation files for various pieces of licensed school software so that I can easily repair or reinstall components.
Multiformat Card Reader: For getting student's photos off of their cameras and phones and onto the server for their PowerPoints and reports. Okay, maybe this isn't always in my pocket, but when I know that we are doing something with photos, I chuck it in.
Regular, Garden Variety, Whiteboard marker: For when all else fails... always have a plan B

Encyclopedia of Life

2008-02-29T16:45:00.008+08:00

Hooray! As a science teacher I am of course very happy that the Encyclopedia of Life is up and running.

It is an ambitious project aimed at compiling information on every catalogued species, that's no small task when there are 350,000 documented species of beetle alone! Nonetheless they have made a start with 25 exemplar pages like the one for the mosquito below.

"That doesn't sound ike much of an achievement!" I hear you say. The exemplar pages are rich with knowledge: text, images, video, and are the 'ideal' that the EOL is aiming for. There are also tens of thousands of species pages that are on their way to getting there and 1 million 'minimal' pages that need fleshing out.

They have put a call out for people wiling to be 'curator' for one or more species from their field of expertise. Why not sign up if you have the chops?

In the meantime this is another blow to the development of student research skills. It's all there for them.

Comparison: Google Sites vs Wikispaces vs PBwiki

2008-02-29T13:31:00.007+08:00

The battleground is set: Google has finally unleashed it's version of what a wiki should look like after buying one of the, at the time, major players, JotSpot, back in 2006.

How does it stack up when compared with two of the current most popular wiki providers to educators?

PBwiki: I have used PBwiki on the past, it was my first 'wiki love'. I administered a wiki that was used by 80+ students who created over 600 pages. It was mostly stable but the major problem was that students had difficulty with formatting. They kept expecting it to act like Word and for all that the editor is supposedly WYSIWYG: WYS is not always WYG. In particular they found tables tricky and formatting around images.

I spent quite a bit of time on their forums, there were some helpful users but the prevalence of spam made it look like the support staff were not keeping on top of things. They have since migrated the forums to a more professional looking provider so let's hope that support has improved.

I am now really looking forward to PBwiki 2.0. I received notification of an impending invite to the beta so I'll let you know how it goes once I have signed up and played around. One of the most highly anticipated features is page level access which seems to have been implemented with teachers in mind. It will enable the admin to restrict a student's access to only their pages, their group's pages, or their course pages depending on what you want the wiki to do.

Wikispaces: I have been using Wikispaces more often than PBwiki of late because I like the clean lines, all of it's components seem better integrated and because they give so much more storage space. It also looks a little like Wikipedia so students have that instant recognition of what it is for.

The lack of variety in fonts and colours is a double-edged feature. On the negative side, pages can look downright boring, on the positive side, students spend less time mucking around with formatting and concentrate on the content. Embedding HTML elements has always gone smoothly for me, unlike once or twice when PBwiki did not like what I was trying to embed.

Google Sites: What can Google possibly have to this offer in this already mature field?

Seamless integration of Google Apps

A huge wealth of expertise in making things just work

A nice interface

So far, in the limited time that I have been testing it out, the WYSIWYG editor has worked as advertised. Tables have behaved properly and uploading files has been a cinch. Embedding Youtube videos was, of course, effortless.

But then they have gone and done something weird. Google sites is only open to organisations signed up to Google apps. I can't just sign in with my Google ID. As an individual I can't make my own Google site, to organise a family reunion, say without buying a domain. You need a corporate or education domain so as a teacher I was able to set one up using my school email address and the domain of my school. Its odd but I guess they have their reasons. No doubt the news is out there and I just haven't read it yet.

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An Oldie but a Goodie: xlmarks

2008-02-28T18:07:00.001+08:00

Now this app is not web2.0, its not web1.0, heck, its not even web beta. It is seriously old school.

I have been using xlmarks for a number of years because:
- It works
- It's simple
- It's small
- It easy to retrieve / mine student data
- Multiple class results are easily combined
- It does pretty much all I need it to

What is it?
As the name suggests it is an Excel template that can be used to track student results in a course or subject. It was developed by Efofex software who incidentally make great graphing and other mathematical / scientific software. Xlmarks is freeware, anyone can distribute it so long as they don't make any financial gain.

If you are a whiz with Excel and wish to customise it you can, Efofex will give you the password if you ask them nively. They do warn you, and rightly so, that the formulae used are pretty tricky. I hhave messed with it in the past and have had to start all over again due to unintended domino effects.

Download it from Efofex

Screencasting made easy: FreeScreencast

2008-02-22T12:16:00.008+08:00

There are many different screencasting tools out there, read Alix E. Peshettes' recent post on Classroom 2.0 for a rundown on some of the best. Sean P. Aune has also created a list on Mashable of twelve of the best with screenshots.

FreeScreencast is a free, integrated software + hosting solution that has recently come onto open beta that shows promise.

After registering you are prompted to make a small download and install the software. It is very quick. Using the software is simple, you have the option of recording full screen, a window or a user-defined region. When you hit record your screencast begins, when you stop you have the option of previewing, saving and/or uploading it straight away. There is a link to the website from the uploader and once there you can manage your screencasts; change the name, description, and tags.

Of course the gravy in all this is that you get to search other people's screencasts and use the now obligatory comment system. Embeddable, my new favourite unrecognised-by-some-spellcheckers word, is what these are; so of course I have included an embedded screencast below... on how to embed a screencast in Moodle.

Part of their getting started tagline reads: "No tech degree required" and it really is true. Its simple, clean and easy.

How you could use it in your teaching:

- Screencast yourself performing a process on an interactive whiteboard e.g. Solving an equation, drawing a diagram, highlighting verbs (your imagination is the limit here) and embed it in a wiki/social network/ Moodle etc for your students' revision or distance learning
- Illustrate how to use an application for fellow staff or for your students

Quizlet: Rote learning can be fun?

2008-02-22T08:33:00.006+08:00

Quizlet is an excellent resource for those students trying to remember definitions, dates, conjugations, names, places, formulae….whatever

Put simply is a site where you input questions and answers and it then tests you on those answers after first familiarising you with them using 'guess and check' type strategies. It will keep hitting you with the things you get wrong until you get them right. It tests you in several different ways, type in the answer, multiple-choice and true or false. There is also an embeddable 'Scatter' activity which is my favourite.

Here is one that I whipped up with a measley 3 terms:

There are already many such quizzes that have been entered by other students and teachers. A look at the home page shows quizzes with titles like: French colours, The industrial revolution, Latin Vocabulary and Geometry Rocks. You can of course search for relevant quizzes

Possible ways to integrate it into your program:

- Individual learning: just alert the students to its existence
- Allocate groups to create quizzes on topics that you allocate or they nominate and try them out on other class members
- Language teachers: conjugate –er verbs in French. Pin yin to English for Chinese
- Students evaluate existing quizzes for accuracy and relevance to your topic
- Set up a glossary for the unit you are working on and have the students complete it and send a screenshot to you of their best scores
- The whole class contributes to a quiz on your thematic unit. Have each student add 2-3 terms.
- Make the construction of an accurate quiz part of an assessment task
- Next year, have the students do one of the above tasks and compare it to what your class did the year before. Students can evaluate their ideas as a comparison. Did they miss things? Did they think of something beyond the last class?

Comiqs: Create comics from photos and art

2008-02-21T16:48:00.003+08:00

Engaging some students in literacy tasks can be difficult. Comic books have long been recognised as an effective way of getting students, particularly boys, to read. Now, a web 2.0 site in beta, Comiqs, provides a simple interface to create comics from any images that you fancy. You simply drag across the layout you would like for a page, upload and drag across photos and add speech and thought bubbles. Added functionality includes the option to access your Flikr account from within Comiqs.

Making your own comics is nothing revolutionary, you have always been able to make make comic strips using Word or PowerPoint (or pencil and paper!). However, Comiqs includes the functionality of comments, sharing and embeddability. Here is my lame attempt, created in five minutes from one of my own photos, it is only one page, but multiple pages are easy to set up:

It is not the only site that enables you to do so. I should also mention Comeeko, but a word of caution, some of the advertising is not suitable for children.

Educational applications:

- Junior science: Students could make a comic highlighting lab safety; create a
- biography of a scientist
- Primary/Secondary Literacy/English: Create short stories; develop characters for everyday objects; create biographies or autobiographies
- Art/Design: What layouts work; Colour combinations; Scan and upload work
- History: Biographies
- Languages: Dialogue