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