A Future Vision for the ISC

On the 24th March I was very privileged to be able to attend the SLAV's "Creating Collaborative Learning Spaces" conference held at the VUT Conference Centre, Melbourne.The focus of the day was literacy and learning in the 21st century and the vision school libraries need to have if thay are to match their students' needs and adequately prepare them for their future.

The day was introduced by Joseph Gerassi,Principal of Bialik College who oversaw the building of an elearning centre at his school in Melbourne.It was certainly a space to inspire a culture of learning and the centrepiece of Bialik. It catered for different learning styles by providing noisy spaces, quiet spaces and studio spaces that enhanced social interaction,collaboration and reflection. I particularly loved their outdoor courtyard which could accommodate a range of learning activities, including performances and I also loved their NewsCafe.

Keynote speaker was Erica McWilliam who is well known for her educational reform and its relationship to "over the horizon" living, learning and earning.Her most recent book is "The Creative Workforce:How to launch young people into high flying futures"She spoke about the changing nature of professional work in all jobs.She saw networks as being all important in the future with the disconnected person being at risk.Her mantra is "I link therefore I am".She believes our skills and competencies must be embedded in networks of social and cultural capital and our highest achievers are not necessarily our best learners but our best networkers.Erica was certainly inspirational and gave us lots to think about.

Lyn Hay,a lecturer in Teacher Librarianship at the Charles Sturt University also spoke about an exciting new concept for school libraries called the iCentre.What is an iCentre?It is a central facility within the school where information,technology,learning and teaching needs are supported by qualified information and learning technology specialists.It provides students and teachers with a "one-stop shop" for all resourcing,technology and learning needs on a daily basis.The efficiency of this concept makes sense to me and I would love to see the ISC evolving into this in the future. Here is Lyn's slideshare from the conference below.

rethink – rebuild - rebrand: think iCentre

View more presentations from Lyn Hay

Game to try?

Last year the Horizon Report predicted that gaming will become mainstream in education in 2-3 years.There are already some games being used in our school and some teachers are starting to see their potential as a powerful tool in learning. Mark Dolbel highly recommends the role playing game Ayiti for year 10's where players take responsibility for a family in Haiti.He also loves Traveller IQ: World Challenge for all year levels.It's a fun game that teaches map awareness skills.Both Mark and Toni Salevson also use annually the ASX Sharemarket Game to teach students about personal investment.Our Maths Department has also just introduced the Mathletics Program that uses games to promote learning and engagement.

I have recently come across Adrian Camm's wiki Games in Education which is a fantastic resource that will help familiarise us with how games can help students to learn. Adrian is a teacher in Northern Victoria and I was fortunate to attend a workshop that he was running a few years ago.He was the first person I knew who was using wikis in his classroom (Physics) and since that time he has won many awards for his innovations.He is certainly an inspirational educator who is passionate about technology in education.

His wiki will be of particular interest to Maths, Science and Literacy teachers as well as those teachers who cover global issues. He provides lists of games and explains how they relate to the particular curriculum and suggests age levels. He also provides current research into gaming and a "Game Creation Tools" link which is exciting for those who want to dip their toe in the deep end.

You may find that the games that interest you are blocked but if there is anything that takes your fancy email Mike and he will unblock pronto! I also liked this Slideshare presentation that was on Adrian's wiki that gives a good rationale for games in education.

Good Video Games and Good Learning

CSI:The Experience Web Adventures Last year I passed on to Steve Anderson a great game that his Year 9 students enjoyed about forensic science called CSI:The Experience Web Adventures. Funded by the US Science Foundation they are a series of interactive cases featuring characters from the TV show CSI:Crime Scene Investigation. These cases allow players to experience different types of forensic analysis and solve mysteries with the team. Each game takes about 30 -45 minutes and students are able to register as a guest. However games can not be saved and resumed at a later date which is a downside. All in all, it's a fabulous resource with an educator's guide, online activities and cool sites to other forensic sites. Stop Disasters Game One of the games on Adrian Camm's wiki which will appeal to our Geography teachers is the Stop Disasters Game.It was developed by the UN International Strategy For Disaster Reduction and seems extremely pertinent to our current global situation. The aim of the game is for students to learn how they can stop disasters from occurring.It covers five disasters- flood,fire,hurricane, earthquake and tsunami.Each scenario takes 10 -20 minutes to play, depending on skill level. There are also teacher fact sheets,videos and links to other resources. Cool Maths-Game.com Finally, maths teachers might like to explore Coolmath-Games.com which allows students to play games and learn maths at the same time.

iPads for Learning

Last month I mentioned that the 2011 Horizon Report predicted that mobile technology will have a big impact on learning over the next 12 months. Although there is resistance to the use of mobiles in the classroom it is not surprising that there are "ipad trials" springing up in Australian schools

Here are some sites and reports to look at.

iPads for Learning: Victorian government:
This website is for educators who want to learn about using iPads in education. Here you will find information about the Victorian school iPads for Learning trial including specially selected apps,classroom ideas and technical tips. The 10 participating schools include primary, secondary, Prep to Year 12 and specialist settings.


St Peter's College Adelaide
In the Senior School, 338 Years 11 and 12 boys have been provided with wireless iPads to support an eBook program. Licences have been obtained to supply all students with e-textbooks via personalised secure access. A user friendly interface, Keystone, has been developed. Users have the ability to download and purchase eBooks, upload and share their work and ideas.

Other schools trials:

•Queensland state schools: Throughout Semester 1, Kedron State High School and Doomadgee State School will explore the teaching, learning and business potential.

•At least five independent Sydney schools will trial iPads in select classes this year.


Also check out the action research study from the Crowther Centre in Melbourne and the questions under each of the three strands: pedagogy,learning and useability. Brighton Grammar,Swinburne and Apptitude are working together on the big question:

"Does the use of gesture-based mobile devices such as the iPad have the potential to change the way students will interact with, perceive and manipulate digital content and will the changes in learning style facilitate improved outcomes in literacy and numeracy?"

I look forward to the findings of these trials and studies.

New Online Databases for 2011

The ISC online database collection is constantly growing with five new databases being added this year. This makes for a very comprehensive range of "paid for"online resources that cater to the English, Science and Humanities curriculum.

These databases can be found using the following path: ISC VLA-Online databases link
They require the password "carter"


Global Issues in Context offers international viewpoints on a wide range of global issues,topics and current events.Featured are hundreds of continuously updated issue and country portals that bring together a variety of highly relevant sources of social,political,environmental and cultural issuesIt also includes rich mulimedia.



Opposing Viewpoints in Context provides contextual information and opinions on hundred's of today's hottest social issues. Continously updated,it features news articles,topic reviews,full text magazines,academic journals,statistics,images,videos and audio files.





Science in Context provides contextual information on today's most significant science topics. It also features news articles, full text magazines,academic journals,images,videos and audio file.

Bloom's Literary Reference Online examines great writers,important works, well known characters, and influential movements and events in world literature.

Lastly,the Health and Wellness Resource Centre provides access to medical reference material including articles,journals,pamphlets and videos.

New Harvard Bibliography Generator

We have recently purchased a new online Harvard bibliography generator developed by the School Library Association of South Australia.It was chosen because it includes new technology sources such as YouTube, podcasts,wikis and blogs.It is also visually appealing,well designed and easy to navigate.
It has three levels -Junior, Middle and Senior with the Senior section being more sophisticated in appearance and more comprehensive in the range of resources cited.The Senior section also includes examples of in text referencing.
Our Year 8's and Year 9's have been formally introduced to this new tool and no doubt many other students have discovered it and are already making use of it.It certainly takes the difficulty out of acknowledging sources and teachers should now be expecting students to "cite it right"!