Penpals in Japan

This year Jake's Year 9 Japanese class has  collaborated with Sakuraoka Junior High School in Ibaraki, Japan. Each student in  his  Year 9 Japanese class firstly sent a letter  to the school.They then decided to go digital and after much practicising,recording and editing sent this delightful video  to their friends in Japan.Well done to Jake and his Year 9 class of 2013

Video Letter to our Penpals in Japan 2013 from GJ Tobiyama on Vimeo.

PISA 2012:How Australia Measures Up

Last week   ACER (Australian Council For Educational Research) released a report called PISA 2012: How Australia Measures Up. Managed by ACER, it provides an opportunity to compare 15 year olds' literacy,numeracy and scientific skills across the globe.Half a million students took part from 65 countries and although Australia is still performing above OECD averages, our students' reading and numeracy skills have declined and scientific literacy has stayed stable.Australia performed equal 17th in Mathematics,equal 8th in Science and equal 10th in reading. This report is published every 3 years and provides a benchmark for educators worldwide.For more information access the website and  slideshow below:

PISA 2012: How Australia Measures up

OECD Literacy and Numeracy

Recently the OECD also  surveyed  24 countries which revealed  some sobering results for some countries. The recent audit tested the literacy,numeracy and problem solving skills of more than 160,000 people aged 16 - 65 across the 24 countries in the OECD.Although these  countries are all deemed wealthy, recession hit countries England,Northern Ireland,Italy and Spain  performed poorly. Australia actually outperformed the UK and The United States,coming 5th in literacy and 13th in numeracy.Not surprisingly, Japan was on top, followed closely by Finland. The UK results do  make for poor reading with 16-24 year olds' literacy scores lower than UK adults aged 16-65. Also UK graduates were only performing at the same level as Japanese school leavers. Ouch!Read this article  from the Guardian for more information about how the 24 countries fared.

Holiday Reading in the ISC

The ISC  team  invite you all to attend our  Holiday Reading Function  on Friday 6th December. It will start at 3:30 pm and drinks and nibbles will be supplied. Liz and Trevor from Collins Bookstore will also be making their regular  "guest appearance" to tell us about the latest summer  reads. We hope that you are able to come along and help us celebrate the end of the year.This function  is a great opportunity to  start unwinding and easing  yourselves into holiday mode.

Holiday Reading Lists 2013
Staff Holiday Reading
50 Books You Can't Put Down
Australia's Top 100 Favourites

Nature,Beauty,Gratitude

My home is certainly my sanctuary and I am often  grateful to be able to live in the foothills near Briagolong,surrounded by so much  natural beauty.Two weekends ago I was thrilled to  sight for the first time, musk lorikeets (not the parrot above) feeding on the callistemons and also a Jacky Dragon laying eight eggs in a shallow burrow.Consequently, this week when I stumbled across this stunning Ted Talk by Louie Scwartzberg, I had to share it with you as it celebrates the rhythm of life and reminds us that we truly  live in a beautiful world.

Top Tools For Learning 2013

Top 100 Tools for Learning 2013 from Jane Hart

In September, Jane Hart released her 2013 "Top Tools For Learning" List.It has been compiled from votes of over 500 learning professionals in workplace learning and education from 48 countries.The top tool for the 5th year running is Twitter with YouTube and Google Docs following close behind.

As well as viewing the slideshare above, the slideshare below categorises the 100 tools which is quite handy.
 

Current Learning Technology Trends from Jane Hart

Cloud Computing Explained

If you haven't had enough of Stephen Fry on the ABC, you will enjoy watching this short  animated  video narrated by the ubiquitous Stephen.Commissioned by Databarracks it  explains  the concept of cloud computing in a business world

Tips For Critical Thinking

I have accessed  from   Edutopia this week many interesting articles that deal with developing critical thinking skills in students  from KIPP (Knowledge is Power) King Collegiate High School in California.Click on the  Edutopia link above  to access the article called "10 Tips to Develop Critical Thinking in Students"and find out about this school's mission,resources and programs offered.

Another good resource about critical thinking comes from Teachthought :Planning For Critical Thinking: A 5 Step Model.Click on the image below to access.

This model recommended using the TFQ Strategy for helping students to develop their own questions.You can find Teaching Students to Ask Their Own Questions on this  Harvard Graduate School of Education link

Stage Fright

This excellent video from TEDEd would be a  good resource to use  when helping prepare students for presenting in front of their peers.It talks about the science behind stage fright and discusses ways to overcome it.

Cakes To Cherish

1st Prize -Decorated Cake,Tiered
Elise White

  

2nd Prize -Decorated Cake
Charlotte Thackray

Kate Lynch

1st Prize,Decorated Cake
Breeanna Ingram

The ISC display case has been catching attention  this week with students stopping to marvel at the creativity of some of our Year 9 students who had participated in the "Food for Entertaining" elective.On display are cakes that  were entered into the Sale Agricultural Show and as you can see they scooped the prizes for most events.They are certainly works of art and I can't imagine ever wanting to eat them.Congratulations to Wendy and Sue for their hard work and inspiration.

                                                         

    

    

Chinese Luncheon for VPRC

Congratulations to our Year 7 and 8 students who have now completed their 2013 Victorian Premier’s Reading Challenge. They are now awaiting their certificates that acknowledge that they have read over fifteen books.

Once again convenor, Joy Reid, has done a fabulous job keeping this six month program alive and she plays a key role in promoting a reading culture at our Garnsey campus.Many of our students have read voraciously during this challenge and the twenty five students who read

over fifty books celebrated their achievements at a Chinese Luncheon held at the Gippsland Dragon on the 23rd October.

Finland's Formula For Success

We have all heard quite alot over the last few years about the success of the Finland education system and how it is being touted as the best in the world.Since implementing its education reform in the 1970's, Finland has vastly improved its reading,maths and science literacies and is now always at the top for international tests.Their results certainly provide food for thought. Why are they so successful? Why do the Finns  outperform the Australian education system?As educators what can we learn from this system? Below are two videos that give us an insight into the Finnish education system and its formula for success.





Highly educated teachers the key to success - from William Smith, Ed. D. on Vimeo.


See link below for the transcript

Highly Educated Teachers The Key To Success

Year 9 Students in Spineout Magazine

As previously mentioned in a post, in Term 3, our Year 9 students created Book Trailers as part of their Wide Reading Program in English.Click on the image above to access the online magazine  Spineout's Oct/Nov issue  to see  three of our students' book trailers. There is  also a video there that they created about their project.To find our students' work you will need to click through several .Contributing to this magazine is a great way of  sharing ideas and creativity  outside of the classroom setting.

Like,Post,Share:Young Australians' Experience of Social Media

The Australian Communications and Media Authority has recently  published  the report Like, post, share: young Australians’ experience of social media.In 2011–12,  ACMA surveyed children’s and young people’s attitudes towards the internet and social media. They looked particularly at their attitudes and behaviours around online risk and risk management, and explored the role of other people—parents,siblings and friends —in helping children and young people navigate their online lives. Check out this report to find out how the internet is playing an increasingly important role in the lives of young people.

Virtual Learning at Harvard Graduate School Of Education

It was very interesting hearing Liana's  reflections on  the Future of Learning Seminar which she she recently attended, held at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.The key drivers  and shapers of the changing nature of learning  were identified as  globalisation,the digital revolution and mind/brain research.
The digital revolution is giving schools many opportunities for learning and Liana spoke about how the Harvard Graduate School of Education has put its hat in the ring with its  curriculum research project called EcoMUVE.
EcoMUVE  uses immersive virtual environments to teach middle school students about ecosystems and causal patterns.
The goal of the EcoMUVE project is to help students develop a deeper understanding of ecosystems and causal patterns with a curriculum that uses Multi‐User Virtual Environments (MUVEs). MUVEs are 3‐D virtual worlds that have a look and feel similar to videogames.Harvard is also piloting EcoMOBILE,an augmented -reality app for smartphones that gets students outside to observe their own local ecosystems for technology enhanced field trips.Project organisers believe that blending virtual and real ecosystems  can have a positive impact on student learning and I am sure that we will be hearing lots more and hopefully participating in some of these exciting initiatives in the future.

 

Just Delete Me

 

 

If you are anything like myself,the amount of accounts you subscribe to can become somewhat overwhelming and difficult to manage.At the time, I often think something is worth subscribing to but then I find that I might never use it again. No wonder there is now talk about how to manage someone's digital footprint in their demise. Justdelete.me could be the tool you are looking for to help you get rid of your unnecessary accounts.

Keeping Your online Identity Secure

Of course it's not just about managing your internet accounts.Adrian Craven's Gizmodo blog gives you some great tips about how you can make your personal details  secure online and manage all of your accounts effectively.

Collaborative Learning

Once again,I thought that it would be worth re- acquainting you with the Teaching Channel.It has many excellent vidoes that you can use for your professional learning.I also like the fact that most of the videos only run for 1-2 minutes,so very good for the "time poor" teacher
Recently they have added some videos on collaborative groups.Learning is noisy and talking collaboratively with peers is essential for discovering key concepts and refining ideas for students of all ages.I thought  the video below was worth sharing with you.

After having watched the video,Teacher Channel poses these questions to reflect on:
What makes the 1-3-6 process successful?
Why is it valuable to have students work individually before forming groups?
How does working in groups of three prepare students for working in groups of six?

YouTube Audio Library

There has been some good news  from YouTube this week.They have just launched a new service called YouTube Audio Library. It allows  people to download copyright free music. Although there are no lyrics, there is a huge range of music to choose from and it will be a great platform for us to use with our students to access free music downloads. The ISC will set up its own  account and students will be able to access it from the relevant  places on the portal and on Libguides.Until that is set up, here is a link  to my account YouTube Audio Library  if you would like to check it out.

All the music embedded in the library can be browsed through the following criteria:

1- Featured
This part contains the most popular hits that people have downloaded

2- Genre
You can use this to specify the music genre you are looking for .Some of the genres used here include: classical music, Jazz and Blues, Reggae, Country and Folk, Rock, Pop and a couple more.

3-Mood
Choose music that suits best the following moods: angry, ambient, happy, romantic, sad, calm, inspirational, dramatic, dark, funky, and bright.

4- instrument
You can also choose your music according to the instrument being used in it like : Acoustic Guitar, Bass, Drums, Electric Guitar, Organ, Piano, Strings, Synth, Trumpet.

5- Duration
You can look for music clips according to their time duration ranging from 1 minute to 25 minutes.

CBCA Book Week

From the 17th - 23rd August, the Childrens' Book Council of Australia is celebrating  Book Week.To mark this occassion, the ISC has a number of activities that will help promote a strong culture of recreational reading within our campus.Our Executive will be visiting our Year 7 English classes to talk about the books they have loved reading and  at lunchtime there will be a number of quizzes and prizes to be won..Book trailers created by our Year 9 students will be shown in the ISC each lunchtime and also in the front window of  the Collins Bookstore in Raymond St,Sale.The ISC will also be launching the Wheeler's ebook platform to the senior campus as well as Good Reading online  and Spimeout online.Finally,well known Australian author, Michael Gerard Bauer, will be visiting our campus as our 2013  "Author in Residence",running creative writing workshops and speaking to our Year 7-9 cohort.

Below is a great presentation given by science fiction  author, Neil Gaiman at Book Expo America 2013.He explains well the importance and value of reading.His presentation was called Why fiction is dangerous?He states that "it is dangerous because it lets you into other people's heads;because it gives you empathy;it shows you that the world doesn't have to be like the one you live in."I couldn't agree more!







I'm sure you are all well aware of the benefits of reading, but here are two articles  and infographic that you might like to look at.Pity about the spelling on the infographic though!

Proof Of Benefits of Reading
10 Benefits of Reading

Why I Can't Skip My 20 Minutes of Reading Tonigh | Create infographics

Good Reading Magazine and SpineOut Online

As part of Book Week,  the ISC  is  also making available to teachers and students Good Reading Online and Spineout Online.These two fabulous resources can be accessed  from the "Reading and Books" section on the ISC Libguide. Good Reading is an informative and  interactive Australian  online magazine about books and reading.It is a brilliant resource for our school and I hope many of our community members make use of it.

Spineout,also from the Good Reading team specifically caters for young adults.It's a place where they can express their ideas,submit reviews of newly published books,book trailers,creative writing,artwork and music lyrics.

Below is an example of one of the pages from  the latest issue.



 

Wheelers eBooks in the ISC

Book Week seems to be the logical time for the ISC team to launch its Wheelers ebook lending platform.Using their own devices, students and staff will be able to download ebooks 24/7. After two weeks, the downloaded ebooks will just disappear from their device.
Over the next two week years 7 and 8's will be instructed on how to go about this process. The other  year levels will follow after this.
There are a number of instructions to follow before  all of this wizardry can take place. You need to:

• Download Adobe Digital Editions to your computer
• Register with the Gippsland Grammar ebook platform
• Download an ereader app to your device.(The ISC uses bluefire reader)
• Go to to Wheelers  site of ISC Libguides to start borrowing

Below are some videos created bty Anthony to get you started.They can also be found on ClickView and Libguides.Also you can click on the image above to access Joy's instructions.

If you need any help with any of  these steps,please ask us for assistance

Scootle Community

This week I discovered that Education Services Australia has created a Scootle Community for teachers to discuss and share ideas and information  about the Australian Curriculum with their peers across Australia.This new social network tool also allows teachers to access digital lesson plans,curriculum resources and research.

Scootle Community can be used anywhere and at anytime using a desktop computer, smart phone or tablet. It was released in May 2013 and  can be  accessed via Scootle.
If you tweet, find it at https://twitter.com/ScootleComm

 

Science Week

Considering that it is Science Week  from the 10th - 14th August, I thought that you would appreciate this video called "10 Reasons To Love Science"

Twitter For Teachers

If you are just starting to use Twitter as part of your professional learning network but are finding it somewhat confusing, here is an excellent  free guide from rossieronline called Twitter For Teachers.It will help clarify terms and put you in the right direction.

 

2013 Gippsland Grammar Year 9 Book Trailer Award

In 2012, a wide reading unit that involved students creating a "book trailer " to promote the book they had read was introduced to our  Year 9 cohort.It was very successful and  fulfilled the  overarching aim which was to  put reading and books back on Year 9 students' radar.With so many students being "time poor", reading unfortunately often takes a back seat so it was delightful  to hear them having converstations about books and their reading.Consequently we have run this unit again this year.
It has been  a powerful learning experience for the Year 9's,giving them the opportunity to produce a real product that can be shared by others.At the end of the unit our students were able to demonstrate that they could:

• engage in independent reading and use critical thinking skills to create a book trailer
• use Animoto or Moviemaker as a creative tool
• have an understanding of Copyright Law and Creative Commons
• Find royalty free images and music
• Create  a Creative Commons Licence
• use wikispaces as a platform to upload and share creative work
• peer assess and reflect on their learning

On Friday, 2nd August, we held the 2013 "Gippsland Grammar Book Trailer Award " presentation in the Lecture Theatre.Hosted by Tyler Smith, our Year 9 cohort enjoyed watching the top four trailers from each of the four English classes, as did those who were present. It was so hard choosing the best four from each classs as the standard was so high.However,at the end of the showcase,Kate Arnup announced the overall winners and  congratulated the whole cohort on their outstanding achievements.The overall winner of the competition was Nathan  with his book trailer "The Walking Dead".Nathan goes into "the hall of fame" and receives a $50 Collins book voucher. Receiving the $25 Collins book vouchers for being"highly commended " were  Kirsten  for " Perks of Being A Wallflower" and Isabel  for her "Water For Elephants"book trailer.Well done to all Year 9's!







The Walking Dead by Nathan S is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.




Perks of Being a Wallflower by Kristen C is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.



Water For Elephants by Isabel P is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Supporting Literacy and Numeracy

In light of our focus on literacy this term you probably would be interested in having a look at Teach Learn Share.The Australian Government is supporting a range of initiatives to improve literacy outcomes for students,one of those being the establishment of the Teach Learn Share database.This is a place where teachers can share their most effective approaches to literacy and numeracy teaching and learning in Australia.The database includes descriptions of successful programs and provides links to relevant research.

Formative Assessment/Assessment For Learning

 

 

Are you aware of the Assessment for Learning website which has been developed by Education Services Australia (ESA)?It contains excellent professional learning resources that individual teachers can use as part of their own professional learning journey. There are a total of  8 learning modules:

• an introduction to assessment and learning
• learning intentions
• success criteria and rubrics
• effective teacher feedback
• strategic questioning
• peer feedback
• student self assesment
• formative use of summative assessment

If you ae interested in completing any of these modules, you need to fill out a "Professional Learning" form so that your PL hours can be  formally recorded.

Also worth looking at on this site, is the section that contains 32 very detailed assessment tasks covering a range of subjects.

Year 8 Book in a Bag Task

For your interest,here is this year's video created by Lyn of the Year 8  Book in a Bag wide reading activity that was held in Term 2.The Year 8's enjoy this task and the display of the bags always receives loads of interest from our students.



2013 Book in a Bag by Lyn Mc is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Health and Wellbeing at Gippsland Grammar

It was great to hear so many postive comments  about our "Be Well" Staff Conference held on the 14th July.It has made us all reflect on how we treat ourselves and others and the importance of being kind,caring and compassionate human beings.It was therefore serendipitous that I was tweeted today with  Edutopia's  5 Minute Film Festival -9 Videos on kindness,empathy and connection  link.I am sure you will personally enjoy watching these videos and some of you may be able to incorporate some into your teaching.

At the Conference,Jan mentioned the need to find a a "life balance" rather than a "work/life" balance which is just as well as we certainly spend more waking time at work than at home.My personal goal from the day was to stop neglecting my own personal fitness.Consequently there have many laps of Lake Guthridge and The Red Gum Forest at Briagolong since. I must say I do feel better for it.There is definitely a spring in my step!

ABC Health and Wellbeing has some great articles that are relevant to workplace health and wellbeing  and are well worth a visit.Links are below:

Build Your Stress Fitness

Health IQ: Workplace Health Quiz

Health IQ:Stress Quiz

Can Stress Trigger Heart Attacks

Did you know that although you might exercise for at last 30 minutes a day,the health benefits are negated if you are sitting for 10hours a day?Stand Up For Your Health.Apparently the longer you stand, the longer you live!

Finally from the TeachThought blog is Using Habits of Mind to Promote Teacher Happiness

The Value of Twitter

Twitter has become a powerful tool for many of our world leaders.It also has become a powerful tool for professional learning and connecting online for many educators,being the backbone of many a Professional Learning Network.Some of our  teachers are also beginning to use Twitter as a tool in the classroom.Although I have posted about Twitter in the past, it's worth revisiting, in light of the Twitter workshop held at the Garnsey Campus on the 22nd July.

I thought the links below are worth sharing with you:

• 75% of world leaders are on Twitter

• Through Twitter discussions, teachers can follow the latest in education.Just follow the top 20 hashtags recommended by Terry Heick, Director at Teach Thought

• Although I have previously posted this link, I  thought that those of you who attended the Twitter workshop last Monday might be interested in this Scoop.it on The Value of Twitter

• Jeff Dunn, author at Edudemic has also provided teachers with ideas for integrating Twitter into the classroom using the  Bloom’s Taxonomy.See the infographic above. 
  
   

Lastly, TeachThought and Edudemic have recently  collaborated to produce a spectrum for using Twitter in the classroom.



Future Trends in Learning

Raising Modern Learners is a newly created fortnightly online newsletter  by educators,Will Richardson (US) and Bruce Dixon (Australia). Although aimed at parents  it's a  a new go-to place if you  want to stay informed and be part of the conversation  about issues in contemporary education. It will be thought provoking and will advocate for more student centred change in our schools.

We’re dedicated to helping parents (and educators) stay abreast of these changes in timely, thought-provoking, concise, and interactive ways, and to help them find ways to advocate for more modern, student-centred change in their schools that reflects the needs of [our]time.

The latest article entitled "First take:are we finally getting tired of the tests" advocates reducing the number of standardised tests our students take,stating how often they are unable to gauge the attributes of a contemporary leaner.As I said,thought provoking. News articles come out fortnightly and can be accessed via the website or you can download the free iTunes app for either iPhone or iPad.

2013 Horizon Report

For your interest,each year I post about the latest  NMC Horizon Project that examines emerging technologies for their potential impact and use in teaching, learning, and creative inquiry within the K-12  environment.


Six emerging technologies are identified across three adoption horizons over the next one to five years, as well as key trends and challenges expected to continue over the same period.
Top trends are:

1 year or less - Cloud computing and mobile technolog

2-3 years - Learning analytics and open content

4-5 years - 3D printing and virtual and remote laboratories

Super Heroes:Science

Science teachers will be interested in the “Superhero Science" collection.Recently launched, it is a new  six educational video series from TED-Ed that explores the science behind various super powers—and the fallacies that each power assumes. The videos cover speed,strength,body mass,invisibilty,immortality and flight.



Teaching With Google Glass

 

 

Check out this article in Edutopia about Andrew,the first teacher in the world to use google glasses.It's an exciting story about  how Andrew  was selected to experiment with google glasses in his capacity as a teacher. This onerous task inspired him to create a series of videos.One of those videos is below but to see the full collection of videos and to read about the future of this device go to his  article in Edutopia.

 

In The News - paper.li

This week I have added the In The News paper.li.Paper.li is a web 2.0 tool that allows you to custom create your own newspaper. You can pick the topics you want to cover and source an array of articles that are updated daily from around the world .It is very much like a newsfeed.I am only experimenting with it at the moment and this blog will only allow it to be placed  on the top of the blog.Would love to know what you think of it. Please leave a comment.

Some Well Earned Holiday Reading

Last Friday the ISC held its Holiday Reading Function for staff. It was great to see so many books borrowed by those who attended.The home made food was well received and the drinks were timely. Once again we were priveleged to have Liz Watts from Collins Bookstore  join us to talk about the latest releases.It was also great to see so many staff enjoying  themselves and beginning to wind down from a very hectic pace!

eSchoolNews

One of the digital resources in my Professional Learning Network (PLN) is eSchool News.It's a free newsletter for teachers about educational technology and has lots of articles that are very relevant to where we are at, here at Gippsland Grammar.Unfortunately I was unable to embed the newsletter on this post  but nevertheless, click on  eSchoolNews to access the June edition.In this edition I particularly liked the the tip Don't be overcome by"There's an App for that"syndrome. which was in the article about successful iPad programs. It suggests that rather than constantly searching for apps that address specific curriculum content,view iPads as creative tools that are part of the learning process.Use them to create mock interviews,podcasts,practice and record foreign language (yes,Jan is doing this already!),create screencasts and animations.If you would like to register for eSchool News  and customize your own news, use the QR code on the top left of the screen in the June edition or go to the eSchool News website.

10 Video Projects Teachers Should Try

Following on from the above post that mentions using mobile devices to foster creativity is this blog from  the "We Are Teachers Blog".It's probably telling you how to suck eggs but the suggestions might trigger some ideas.Our Year 9's are currently creating book trailers for their Wide Reading Project.Let us know what else is happening on our campuses by leaving a comment on this post. .Click on 10  VideoProjects Every Teacher Should Try

The Padagogy Wheel

You would most likely be familiar with the Bloom's Digital Taxonomy which is an update of the Bloom's Revised Taxonomy.It is all about how to use Web2.0 tools to faciltate learning.

American educator and well known presenter, Kathy Schrock, then went on to  create "Bloomin Apps". Thanks Rebecca Wells for sending the Kathy Schrock link to us this week.Allan Carrington from The University of Adelaide has now gone a step forward to create A Padagogy Wheel for mobile devices,in particular the ipad.(Click on the link or image to get a poster size image of the wheel and its hyperlinked apps.) Allan acknowledges how Bloom's is still fundamental to good teaching and learning.He has added 62 ipad apps to the wheel and put them  where they could serve the pedagogy.Once again, the mantra is "its not about the tool,nor the app.....it's all about the students."

Click on  Allan's Scoop.it The Padagogy Wheelhouse  or video below  for more information.

High Road To Reading

On Tuesday 21^st May, Lyn McNally and myself took thirty students from Years 8 and 9 to hear local author Scot Gardner speak at the State Library’s “High Road To Reading “ event. This was held  at the Wellington Shire Library. They laughed their way through Scot’s quietly delivered talk, entranced by his many tales of where he gets his inspiration for his storytelling. Scot writes for young adults and children and has a great ability to see through the eyes of adolescents. Scot is a very gifted writer and his books include Burning Eddy, One Dead Seagull, The Legend of Kevin the Plumber, White Ute Dreaming, Gravity, The Other Madonna, The Detachable Boy, Happy As Larry, One Wheel Ride and The Dead I Know. In 2012, Scot won the Children’s Book Council of Australia prize for older readers with his novel “The Dead I Know” which has recently been released in Canada.
Some of you might remember Scot from the days when we ran the Year 9 Wellington Writer's Gig.He recently trained as a teacher and up until the end of last year he was teaching at Kurnai College in Churchill. He has  now made the decision to stick to writing fulltime!

Re-imagining Learning

We are hearing so much about what constitutes new learning. There is project based learning,passion based learning, explanation based learning,game based and of course mobile learning that allows and promotes student centred and  personalized learning.


This  4 minute video by the MacArthur Foundation (USA) is well worth watching as it talks about the need to re-imagine learning as  new technologies  are changing the way students learn.With the ability to interact with many people,peers will play an increasingly important  role in the new learning environment.

Devices in the Classroom:The Right Questions To Ask!

With our current discussions about what devices we should be using in our classroom I thought that this recent article from Edudemic was very timely for us all.We need to be student centric rather than tool centric and ask why we are using these tools,rather than how can we use these tools.

 

Click on the image above to access the article

 

 

Also from Edudemic is a great infographic about how parents perceive the value of mobile devices in the classroom.Click on the image below to access the infographic and the Living and Learning With Mobile Devices Report



Untangling the web

With the need to include the issue of "Impacts of ICT in Society" into our curriculum (Australian Curriculum, ICT capability), it is worth listening to Alex Krotoski's recent presentation at the State Library of Victoria. .Alex was the inaugural speaker at the Digital Society series.She is an American academic, pyshologist and journalist who writes about how technology impacts our lives.She is soon to release her book Untangling the Web:What the Internet is doing to you.She explores how the web influences our relationships,our perception of ourselves and urges us to create positive online personas.Sounds like an interesting read and a "must" for the ISC

   

Gaming

 

If you click on the image above you will access a very interesting article from onlineuniversities.com that talks about how gaming allows  students to take risks,experience failure and consequently learn heaps on the way. Although the article has a higher education focus,it is as applicable to schools where there is pressure to perform.

 

Another worthwhile article from Edudemic is 25 Things To Know About Gamification.