Top 100 Tools for Learning 2010

Joy, Annette and myself have just completed our 12 week online SLAV Personal Learning Network where we discovered a range of Web2.0 tools for

• Professional Learning
• Research
• Presentation
• Teaching and Learning

A Personal Learning Network is a collection of people with whom you engage with and share ideas online. They can be made up of colleagues,experts,students or like minded people. In this instance our PLN consisted of teacher libarians from Victoria.

It has been an amazing PD opportunity for us with many challenges and large learning curves occurring.It has filled our minds and conversations, invigorated us and definitely set us on a path to share our knowledge of these tools with other staff in the future. Below is Jane Hart's 100 Tools for learning list for 2010.Many of the ISC's favourites are high up on this list.Jane Hart is the CEO of the UK Centre for Learning and Performance Technology and she compiles this list yearly.It's based on 500 plus contributors top 10 lists of their favourite tools. Last year Jane's presentation on Slideshare was viwed over 90,000 times and I'm sure this year's will be as popular.Her Winners and Losers page is also worth looking at as it shows new tools that have made the list,those that have gone up or down and those that have completely dropped off the perch.

Over the next few weeks I will review the ISC's favourite tools so stay tuned!

Top100 Tools for Learning 2010

View more presentations from Jane Hart.

Year 7 Geography

ISC staff have collaborated with Year 7 Geography teachers this year to ensure that all Year 7's are familiar with using Inspiration and Moviemaker.In Geography this year their investigation of an Asian country required them to upload a movie,a mindmap and a PMI chart to their Geography VLA Discussion Board. This allowed them to then view and assess each others ' work.It was an inquiry project that involved many skills and steep learning curves for both students and their teachers.It was great to see students helping one another out and the excitement and satisfaction gained when students finally uploaded their tasks in the correct format.
Hopefully this cohort will now be encouraged to use Moviemaker as a presentation tool as like most programs lots of practice is needed before you become an expert.A tutorial on how to use Moviemaker can be found in the document section in the ISC VLA as well as below
Also below is a copy of the Year 7 Asia Assignment and a student movie.

eSmart Schools for Victoria

It was great to hear the Victorian Govenment's announcement yesterday that all schools in Victoria will be able to gain access to funding and support to become an eSmart school.The program has been developed by the Allanah and Madeleine Foundation and already trialled by a number of primary and secondary schools.It will now be rolled out to all schools which is good news for us in our own quest to teach our students to keep safe online and be responsible users of technology.I did hear that schools would receive $2000 to help them deliver the program.

In Full Bloom

In the Term 1 "In the Know" newsletter I wrote about the digital version of the Bloom's Revised Taxonomy.It incorporates Web2.0 technologies that enrich the classroom as well as including the traditional classroom practices. Go to the Edorigami wiki which has detailed information about each level. Mike Fisher's wiki is also dedicated to the Digital Bloom's Taxonomy but is very much a work in progress.His original chart that identifies the tools that enhance learning is on the left but has evolved to the chart on the top right which allows tools to live on more than one realm of the hierarchy. The arrows indicate the fluidity of which the tools can move through the different levels.They are handy charts to refer to when discussing learning tools for the 21st century teacher.

Ereaders in the ISC

Last week in Australia we celebrated CBCA Book Week as an opportunity to focus on quality Australian writing for young people.To help celebrate this occassion and further promote reading, we launched our new ipad,Kindle and Kobo.We decided it was time for us to try out these three popular models of ereaders so that we could discover for ourselves their potential in our school context. As well as downloading ebooks onto these reading devices ,we also have put a range of applications on them so as to give our students the opportunity to explore their various functionalities. The interest from our students has been incredible. Students are able to borrow them for use in the ISC only at this point of time and there has been a constant demand for them since Monday.

Long live the book!I'm sure we will not be seeing the demise of the book as we know it for a very long time . However,we are interested in promoting and fostering reading in all modalities and the next twelve months will most likely open up many possibilities for the ISC. Electronic reading devices do transform the concept of a book and they are also transforming reading from a solitary experience into a social one. Readers are now able to connect with authors and online fan communities and as author

Scot Westerfield states , the learning continues well after the book is read via the online feedback loop. The Youtube video below is worth watching for a bit of fun!

Cath Crowley: Fellow in Residence 2010

Melbourne author, Cath Crowley's residency on the 16th and 17th August was a great success. Cath is a popular children and young adult fiction writer and her novels are published in Australia, UK and USA. She ran writing workshops with each Year 7 group and spoke to our Year 8's and 9's about her life as a professional writer.Our students responded very enthusiastically to Cath and our Year 7's produced some remarkable work considering the limited time she had with them.

I was so impressed by the students at Gippsland Grammar. They were enthusiastic
and their pieces of writing were original and full of wonderful detail.
Cath Crowley August 2010.

Cath loved her time in the ISC and we really appreciated her energetic approach and hope that she will return to Gippsland Grammar in the future.

Personal Learning Network

Joy, Annette and myself are currently participating in the SLAV Personal Learning Network online program. The focus of this course is the development of a PLN that will help us in supporting the integration of Web2.0 tools into our school curriculum. Its a 12 week course and we are being exposed to a whole range of tools and resources over this time. Another participant in the course aptly called it a Degustation (Gourmet Platter) of Web2.0 tools. We are up to Week 3 and frantically keeping up to the hectic pace.Fortunately we are learning heaps. I look forward to exploring the tools that are relevant to our context in more depth once the program is over.

This week the topic has been Professional Learning and we have been introduced to some great new social learning networks for education. One that I would highly recommend is the Australia Series.It has been developed by Australian educators and provides free online professional learning and conferencing via Elluminate at Australia friendly times. It is accessed via LearnCentral and you can acces events that are relevant to you.

Ted Talks were also a revelation, providing over 700 video clips on thought provoking topics.
Sir Ken Robinson's Education Revolution is somewhat different from Julia's fast food model!



I also enjoyed Carl Honore's "Praises for slowness"

Just Practices in a Brave New (Virtual) World

The transcript from an ABC 7: 30 Report in April this year is an interesting read in light of our up and coming conference on Friday.It reported that one in four students were being bullied and that cyberbullying was a growing problem and out of control.Teachers' unfamiliarity with social media and their lack of training was stated as why schools haven't been able to tackle this problem so far. Our conference will hopefully give us some strategies for dealing with this issue and go along way in helping us to prepare students for a society full of technology.The student and parent sessions will also be invaluable in teaching our students about appropriate and safe use of technology.

For those who are interested, there are lots of digital citizenship resources on the net.It's not difficult to become overwhelmed with what's on offer but here are some recommended sites:

• 
  
  Cybersmart-The Australian Governement's cybersafety program provides resources and advice for schools,students and parents so that they can safely enjoy the online world


• 
  
  Stay Smart Online - Provides all Australian online users with information on the simple steps that thay can take to secure themselves online,including online transcations


• 
  
  Cybersafe Classroom: Working with the web - DEECD site with resources for developing skills in safe and ethical use of the web


• 
  
  SOSO Smart Online Safe Online - An interactive site that encourages students to be safe online and to take a stand against cyber bullying


• 
  
  BrainPop Digital Citizenship - Animations and activities to encourage safe and ethical use of the web


• 
  
  Digital Citizenship - An excellent resource that helps with the process of teaching students how to use technology appropriately

Showcasing Events and Curriculum Projects in the ISC

Recently we set up a permanent wall mounted 42" display monitor in the ISC. Its purpose is to not only promote reading and activities in the ISC but also showcase Gippsland Grammar events and ICT projects.The display monitor is already creating a great deal of interest from the students and I encourage all teachers to use this tool to not only showcase exemplary work but provide students with an audience to view their ICT products.I'm sure it will raise the bar if students know that their assessment tasks will be viewed by a larger audience.

Education Services Australia

It might have gone unnoticed that Education.au and Curriculum Corporation merged to become Education Services Australia in March 2010.It aims to meet the needs of all educational sectors,particularly in relation to the implementation of National Curriculum and the Digital Education Revolution.The Services it provides are :

Scootle - A rich digital curriculum content resource for schools

me.edu.au - An online professional network for educators with a strong Web2 focus

Edna - A resource supporting all education sectors in the use of ICT.

Cyber smart - Provides activiites and resources to help young people stay safe online.

Myfuture - An excellent national online career information resource

Global Education - Funded by Austaid ,aims to increase the amount and quality of teaching of global education.

Teaching Australia - A national body for the teaching profession which promotes quality teaching

A new Education Services Australia website will be launched soon at esa.edu.au.Until then, previous links to Curriculum Corporation and Education.au are provided.

Scootle - Your one stop shop for digital curriculum content

Last week all teachers at Gippsland Grammar were given the opportunity to register with Scootle.Scootle has been developed by Education Services Australia and basically replaces what we called in the past,The Learning Federation.This online learning repository contains all the digital curriculum content from Learning Federation with the addition of some great new features. After having a play around with it I can see that it will become a starting point when planning learning activities.The new features that were not available on the former TLF are:

• Access to teaching units
• Access to assessment resources
• Ability to create learning paths and share them with students and teachers
• Access to collections based on themes/topics.
  

At this point of time we have 31 teachers registered across the three campuses.I will be managing our school account which means I will be keeping the users list up todate and provide PD on its use when requested by individual learning areas

Trove - National Library of Australia

Have you tried Trove? Trove as in "treasure trove" is part of the National Library of Australia and has a wealth of information. It's a free service and it includes content from a variety of sources, including library, archive and musuem collections, university repositories, digitised newspapers, web archives and online biographical databases. In fact, it contains over 90 million historically significant items. A great database to assist researchers to discover information resources held in Australian collections such as:

• Australian Archives and Manuscripts
• Picture Australia
• Music Australia
• Libraries Australia
• Australian Newspapers
• Web Archive (since 1994)

Magazine Madness

Our students have embraced our two new custom made magazine tables with a passion.They were generously funded by our PNF Association and built by our maintenance staff. Each table accommodates 12 magazines and students now have a better access to our wide range of magazines. At times I have to pinch myself as it often looks like a scene straight from a doctor's waiting room!

New Resources in Teacher Reference

How to Give Effective Feedback To Your Students - Susan M. Brookhart

Susan Brookhart covers every aspect of the topic. From what kinds of feedback work best, to when to use it, how often and how to use oral,written and visual feedback. Lots of examples given.




The New Teacher's Companion:Practical Wisdom For Succeeding in the Classroom - GiniCunningham

A handy resource for a beginning teacher.Lots of tips,pratical advice and ideas across the whole spectrum of good teaching practice.

Transformative Assessment - W.James Popham

A definitive guide to formative assessment. What it is,how it works and why you would want to use it in your classroom.W. James Popham clarifies how it can transform your teaching into a more powerful and postive process.

Teaching with Web 2.0 Tools

Learning in the 21st century is all about networks and the connections we can
make to other learners and teachers both in our communities and around the globe.

Will Richardson 2009

Joy and I were very priveleged to hear Will Richardson speak at a SLAV conference last year.He is a leading US educator specialising in the understanding and implementation of Web 2.0 in schools.He believes it will only be those who use technologies to expand their global connections who will flourish in the future. Those who don't will be left on the sidelines.

Web 2.0 is the term used to describe tools and applications on the internet that allows users to create content,collaborate and share online. It is all about developing networks and connections.This is in constrast to Web 1.0 which was all about consuming information. Well known Web 2.0 tools include blogs,wikis, Facebook and twitter. These tools have already become very mainstream.Even our local ABC radio has a facebook and blog presence!

New Web 2.0 tools are constantly being developed and it is often difficult to keep up with it all. However there are lots of very useful sites to help us learn about these tools.Below are some sites that I recommend:

Amazing Web 2.0 Projects Book

Free Technology for Teachers

Web 2.0: Cool Tools for Schools

ICT Mindtools

Teach Web 2.0

101 classroom ideas for 1:1 is also an excellent resource.It was developed by DEECD to support the 1:1 netbook implemenation. There is a copy in Teacher Reference for your perusual

What are the skills of the 21st Learner?

Teachers as Learners

The question for teachers today if they want to remain relevant is not "should we use technology" but "which technology to use and how to use it to improve teaching and learning." Our challenge is to match the needs of our learners and to do this we need to be strategic learners ourselves by updating our practices in this rapidly changing digital age. A good place to start is to agree on what 21st skills young people need.

The Australian Curriculum and the 21st Learner
Its worth looking at the emerging Australian curriculum. ACARA acknowledges significant changes to our Australian society and a need for young people to have a wide but everchanging set of knowledge,skills and understandings.The draft Australian curriculum for English,Maths,Science and History identifies what deep knowledge and skills will be taught in each learning area.In addition, to reflect the nature of work in the 21st century, ACARA has also identified 10 general capabilities and 3 cross curriculum dimensions.
The 10 capabilities are:

• literacy
• numeracy
• ICT
• thinking skills
• ethical behaviours
• creativity
• teamwork
• intercultural exhange
• social competence

The 3 cross curriculum perspectives are

• indigenous perspectives
• commitment to sustainability
• skills,knowledge,understandings related to Asia and Australia's engagement with Asia

These 21st century skills will be our "design specs" for 21st education so that we can prepare young people for their future.

As mentioned before, if we want to prepare students for the 21st century,we do need to look at our own practices.We need to embed the above skills into our school's curriculum. Take a look at the video Vision for the 21st Century Teacher to see what the 21st century teacher should look like.

Heidi Hayes Jacob's Curriculum 21 :essential education for a changing world is also a fantastic read. She is a world reknown curriculum designer who urges us to transform our curriculum to match the times in which we live.(We do have a copy in Teacher Reference). With regards to curriculum content and assessment she suggests that teachers should become comfortable with at least one new tool a sesmester.
She recommends the following strategic plan :

• Review the technological resources in the school
• Identify at last one unit to revise
• Plan to replace an assessment practice with a 21st century upgrade within the unit
• Share the proposed change with colleagues
• Learn to use the tool
• Revise the unit and begin implementation with students
• Tolerate some frustration
• Celebrate the victories
• Revise and share with colleagues

Its all about risk taking and moving out of our comfort zones.Our own Gippsland Grammar ICT Showcase &Share blog gives us a great opportunity to be able to share these experiences as we become learners first,teachers second.

Happy Birthday ISC

I have decided to launch this blog to coincide with the ISC's 10th anniversary on the 16th May. In the year 2000 I couldn't imagine all the technology possibilities that have now become available to our learning environment.Teaching and learning has been transformed by technology and by our new knowledge about how we learn and how our brain works.We can certainly celebrate how far we have come in the past decade but also acknowledge the need to move forward so that we continue to meet the needs of our 21st century learners.

I have been exposed to ideas about Web2 and its applications for teaching and learning for a few years now.I thought it was time to start my own blog as it is a good way of sharing with you my own learning as I continue to explore emerging tools and trends.I hope it will get more sophisicated as I learn more about blogging. I will be taking baby steps to start off with but after viewing the inspiring video Librarian's Manifesto I am giving it a go, expert or not.I intend to update the blog weekly and you will be able to access it on the ISC VLA.
Everyone is encouraged to use the "comments" function on each of the posts as they appear, as 21st century learning is all about sharing ideas and experiences!


Emerging technologies

Technology is increasingly a means of empowering students, a method of communication and socialising, and a ubiquitous,transparent part of our lives.

Horizon Report 2010

The 2010 K-2 Horizon Report has recently been released.It is an annual report that predicts what emerging technologies
will be influential in teaching and learning over the next 5 years around the globe.It draws upon global viewpoints, including Australian representation and is regarded worldwide as the most timely and authoriative source of information on new and emerging technologies in education.Each year,the report identifies and discusses six areas of emerging technologies.
The top trends are:
one year or less - cloud computing ( Twitter,blogs,Flicker,teachertube)
one year or less - collaborative environments (wikis,Netvibes,Voicethread)
2-3 years - games based learning (Arcademic Skill Builders,GameDesk)
2-3 years - mobiles ( iphone,ipad,Google Tablet)
4-5 years - augmented reality
flexible(computer) displays( Very thin interactive screens)

These six technologies will have a significant impact on how we teach within the next five years
In one year or sooner,according to The Horizon Report,schools will be using mobiles and cloud computing,if they are not already doing so.

You may well ask like I did "What is cloud computing and isn't augmented reality already happening?" The report explains

that cloud computing refers to surplus computing resources available
from specialised data centres that power the world's largest websites and web services.

It also explains that augmented reality has been around for awhile but it is only recently that we have been able to use smartphones to find restaurants,compare products and be entertained.
A hard copy of this report can be found in Teacher Reference in the ISC.

Digital Literacy Across the Curriculum


Another excellent resource is the Digital Literacy Across the Curriculum handbook from FutureLab,UK. The handbook aims to introduce teachers to the concepts and contexts of digital literacy. It is supported by cases of digital literacy in practice and it is particularly relevent to our 1:1 netbook program in Year 9.

A hard copy of this report can also be found in the ISC.Click on the image for a closer look.