Glogs in Year 10

There has been much excitement in our camp this week  as Year 10 Geography students have been presenting their glogs. This term the eSupport team, John Fraser and Fiona Dawson have put their heads together to come up with a technology enhanced existing unit of work.Although happy with the previous content, John believed that the  current Year 10 Geography unit "Human Impacts on the World Environment" needed some "jousing up"In the past students had shared their knowledge by creating a poster and as John said "it's just not doing it for them anymore."Introducing them to glogs seemed the perfect answer.Glogs are online interactive posters in which you can embed images,text,files,videos and links and share them with others.They are created by using the web tool called Glogster and we love it because:

● students don’t need email addresses as the eSupport team registers the students.
● it is easy to use and interactive.
● it allows you to make Glogs in a private and safe online environment (teachers monitor their students’ Glogs; students can access Glogs that their classmates create).
● it uses an easy to use drag and drop interface containing multimedia elements.

 
Both John and Fiona have commented on how engaged and focussed their students have been in this unit this term. This tool has given them far more scope  to express their creativity, knowledge and ideas and we have been thrilled with their efforts.


 Click on the links below to view  a sample of the students' work.The video in the USA glog is a "must watch."Click on the arrow in the centre of "Reduce,Reuse,Recycle."The animation on the Pakistan glog is also excellent. Find it at the bottom of the glog as an attachment

USA
Pakistan

80 Days That Changed Our Lives

To celebrate its 80th birthday, the ABC has launched 80 Days that Changed Our Lives.Its a collection of audio visual archival material that captures memorable events in our history.It explores 80 key events that have shaped our world and has organised them into themes and a timeline.Its a great introduction to key events that have shaped our society and visitors can make comments in the forum and vote for their most memorable moments in history as well.

QR Codes Help Promote Book Week



 

We are now seeing QR codes everywhere!On business cards,brochures,magazines and newspapers.A QR (Quick Response) code is similiar to a barcode in that it encodes information and they are a very convenient way to connect people to further information such as written text,websites,phone numbers or email addresses.In the ISC we are now thinking about how we an use them to promote our resources.This week, Joy has created QR codes for our  Childrens' Book Council of Australia's 2012 short listed novels,linking them all to book reviews.There is a display of the titles with their QR codes on the western glass panel in the ISC. Copies of each of the novels also have the QR codes on their front covers.With the growing number of  mobile devices in the school, it is another way our students can access further information about the shortlisted novels.

iPads in the Classroom

Yes, I have previously posted about apps that can be used in the classroom but this resource,  The iPad As is absolutely a winner and a "must" visit.The list is driven by learning goals that promote critical thinking,creativity and collaboration.

Evernote

At conferences these days,the sharing of favourite apps is becoming a topic of conversation.Last week at a SLAV Conference that Annette attended, educators were singing the praises of  Evernote, a note taking application. Its main advantage over other note taking systems is that it provides a searchable catalogue of all your notes which are synchronised across a variety of devices.This gives you access to your notes no matter where you are or what device you are using.It also allows you to add voice recordings,handwritten notes,photos and screen clips from web pages.Yes it can keep track of everything!
Watch the introductory video below

These tutorials will also help you to get started

Some More Useful Resources

Getting Started With Evernote
10 Evernote Tips For Students
10 Tips For Using Evernote Effectively fom ReadWrite
Evernote For Schools

Evernote can be an excellent research tool for students,enabling them to capture,organise and maintain multiple sources of information from any device.

Scoop it

In last month's post on ipads for learning  you might have noticed that other educators had used Scoop.it to collect articles about ipad usage in schools.Scoop.it has become a popular  social networking platform that allows you to curate and dissemminate information.It is basically a website that allows you to collect relevant or interesting articles from the web  based around your topic of choice.It differs from other social bookmarking sites in that rather than you trawling the web looking for resources it  trawls the web searching for content which it then suggests to you.Other Scoop.it users who are following your topic can also suggest new resources to you.A quick way to build up you resources.It would be great for research work and an excellent tool to develop students 'critical thinking skills as they would still have to decide which articles are worth collecting.
Its layout is "magazine" style and so is visually far more appealing than the Delicious and Diigo curating tools.I like the way you can click on the articles and go straight to the article itself, and have websites suggested.  You can even follow other peoples' Scoop.it.
You can subscribe to Scoop.it for free if you limit your topics to five.However, the ISC will subscribe to an education account which is US6.99 per month, allowing us to  have 20 topics.This will be a great way to provide access to resources for our students and share professional learning resources with teachers.

Watch the You tube video below for a quick introduction or for more detail  click on the link below.
Scoop it training video

Scootle Keeps Improving

There is now a formative assessment tool   called Improve on Scootle.I haven't heard of anyone using it as yet but  it sounds  very useful and well worth exploring. You can create customised tests and quizzes for students as well as access a number of English and maths tests and quizzes (NAPLAN) that already exist.
Students are able to join classes via an Improve Teacher Pin code. After they complete a test or quiz Improve provides them with results and access to other activities to help them to further improve their learning.

 To access from Scootle, just click on the "Use Improve" button on the top right hand corner.
For further details  and teacher support click on this link