Online Video Resources

Site2See

The N.S.W's Curriculum and Learning Innovation Centre's Sites2See is an excellent place to visit when looking for online video resources.It is netbook friendly and has lots of Australian content for classroom use  and professional development resources for teachers. There are  the well known video sharing sites such as SchoolTube and TeacherTube as well as fantastic digital resources from the National Film and Sound Archive and Australian Screen's Education section.There are also video and learning resources featuring 40 authors and 27 scientists.The professional development resources can be found in the "For Teachers" section and it is here that you will find Edutopia (US) which has videos K-12 showcasing best practice in technology integration. TILT is also worth looking at for some examples of how teachers are using digital tools to create learning resources.

Teaching Channel

Another professional  development site isTeaching Channel which has just been launched in the USA. Although American it will become a useful  resource for Australian teachers as it is a video showcase of innovative and effective teaching practices. At this stage it is limited in that it only covers classes from Grade 3-8 but  it is only in its infancy and will keep developing,eventually covering  K-12 classes.If you access their website you will be able to subscribe to their video updates via email.

The Interactive Book

It seems as if we are just getting our heads around the ebook when the first full length interactive book for the iPad turns up.It has video and graphics and lots of extra data available with a touch.The book is Al Gore's "Our Choice", a sequel to "An inconvenient Truth". The interactivity is just amazing and no doubt many more digital books will be presented in this way in the future.

Al Gore's Our Choice from Push Pop Press on Vimeo.

Literature Resource Centre

Last week I mentioned how subscribing to the National Library can give you online access to a whole range of academic databases.English teachers will be interested to know that with a library card in their hands, they are able to access the Literatue Resource Center.It's very useful for researching literary topics,authors and their works and enables you to search full text scholarly articles from more than 360 academic journals.
To subscribe  to the NAtional Library follow the instructions on this link

New Space in the ISC

Our students have loved our recently purchased chairs and table in the ISC. They have been generously funded by our Parents and Friends Association and have  allowed us to have another space that can be quite flexible in how it is used. The space is in constant use by students for collaboration, quiet time,use of netbooks,doing private study and participating in  recreational pursuits.It is a very "sort after space" and certainly allows  the ISC to bring aesthetics and function together.

Visible Thinking

I was quite excited to come across a website developed by Project Zero from the Harvard Graduate School of Education this week.It is called Visible Thinking and it offers a framework to help you integrate teaching and the development of thinking with your own content and curriculum.There is a plethora of learning routines on offer  that you can choose from that structure the way students go about the process of learning.It is an easy to navigate website and all of these routines can be downloaded.Some of the routines  you will be very familiar with such as the Think,Pair,Share and KWL routines but there are many other  fanatastic practices that I have not come across before that you might like to try in your classrooms.

When thinking is visible in classrooms, students are in a position to be more metacognitive, to think about their thinking. When thinking is visible, it becomes clear that school is not about memorizing content but exploring ideas. Teachers benefit when they can see students' thinking because misconceptions, prior knowledge, reasoning ability, and degrees of understanding are more likely to be uncovered. Teachers can then address these challenges and extend students' thinking by starting from where they are. (Visible Thinking Website  2011)

The ABC Technology Explained

The ABC have certainly embraced the digital revolution. Not only were they early adopters of blogs,twitter and Facebook this week they launched a fantastic website called The ABC Technology Explained.Its a great initiative providing introductory videos on our new digital world and many  "how to" features on tools such as Twitter, ABCiView, podcasts and Youtube.This is a fabulous information rich resource for educators as well as the whole community.

Tech Tools For Teachers

Tech Tools for Teachers is a free fortnightly e-newsletter about ICT tools or websites that can be used in the classroom.You can subscribe by going on the website TeachGenerationNow. This is an excellent site run by Victorian teachers Kathleen Morris,Simon Collier and Matthew Limb. Each e- newsletter is suitable for primary/secondary teachers and provides an example of an ICT tool/website with step by step instructions. It's a great resource for the busy teacher with  the practical examples based on their own teaching.

eResources - National Library Australia

Last year in a blog post I featured Trove from the National library which is a database of Australian collections such as"Australian Archives and Manuscripts", "Picture Australia" and "Music Australia". It's a great resource for anyone studying Australian history.We can now also subscribe free of charge to eResources and have access to  indexes,full text articles and guides from the National Library on a range of topics. There are many excellent and expensive databases on offer including JStor,Austlit,Art Index,MacquarieNet and Applied Science and Technology.Scroll through all the free resources on the link  http://www.nla.gov.au/app/eresources/list/licenced
I would highly recommend that you sign up to this fabulous service and encourage your VCE students to do so also.
All you need to do is sign up for a library card here eResources

VCE Resources From Monash University

I have just heard about Monash University Library's  commercial service that can provide a wide selection of texts and audio visual resources to support VCE teachers. The library collection of over 3 million items covers every VCE subject and for $22 per item,including delivery,teachers can order texts to supplement their existing resources.Go to http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/  and search on their website to see what is on offer.
To find out more  you can ring 99055153 or email ECS@monash.edu or go to www.lib.monash.edu.au/services/commercial.html

eSupport @Gippsland Grammar

Are you a Year 9 or Year 10 teacher? Last week Phil Phillipou, Director of Information and Communication Technology,  announced that the eSupport team is now available to assist teachers to integrate netbooks into their Year 9 and 10 classrooms.The eSupport team is made up of :

• Phil Phillipou ( Manager)
• Caroline Thomson ( IT Helpdesk)
• 5 staff from Garnsey Campus (Marianne Lee,Joy Reid, Annette Arnot,Anthony King and Shane Reeves )
• Evan Lamb from St Anne's Junior School
• Marc Bain from Bairnsdale Campus

Marc and Bevan will  be offering PD support at their junior campuses only.

The ISC staff are delighted to be part of this team and look forward to further collaborating with classroom teachers.We are aware of the battle of upskilling your ICT skills whilst juggling day to day duties and tasks.We can help you to integrate a range of digital resources into your learning and teaching program which will help prepare your students for a world that is increasingly networked and digital.You might like to consider classroom support for some of the following:

• introducing online collaboration (Onenote,blogs,nings,wikis)
• using blogs for student reflection
• using wikis and nings to manage information and activities for students
• using online presentation tools (MovieMaker,Glogster, Animoto,Prezi)
• using particular software to develop problem solving skills
• introducing online quizzes and polls
• introducing game-based learning activities
• creating online lessons using digital learning objects from Scootle
• becoming involved in global projects and competitions
• teaching your students about digital citizenship
• adapting an existing unit of work to give it a stronger digital focus
• finding online resources to support student learning

Our ISC staff are  keen to share their knowledge and skills and support you in any way possible in your classroom. Don't hesitate to ask us for assistance.Email Caroline Thomson to book us in for assistance.