We’re Closing Down…
Hi all,
Thank you for your readership. Unfortunately we will be closing the blog down, and we won’t be posting further.
Please monitor the #ACTLearn hashtag for the latest trends etc. We also recommend Scootle Community as a good way to keep in touch with education news.
Cheers!
3 Things I found on Twitter this week
Well, things are a little quiet here on the social media front as we busy ourselves with the SchoolsNET rollout. Still, the good thing about Twitter is that we can get our information quickly, and in bite-sized pieces. Here are some things I have found Twitter this week.
Sue Waters shared this link to Anthony Speranza‘s article about Digital Storytelling. It’s a great read, explaining the importance of a multimodal approach and including some great examples (make sure you watch the ‘Henri 2, Paw de Deux’ video). An easy way to bring technology into the classroom and enhance literacy learning. Well worth a look.
The very clever Ewan McIntosh presents an interesting video that discusses the different types of learning spaces that exist, and how we can harness them; work with them as we design (and re-design) classrooms and learning spaces. Food for thought.
An interesting article that encourages us to think carefully about the need for iPads in the classroom. Do your staff have the time/energy to investigate and evaluate apps, and plan new ways of teaching? Is it more important to put an iPad in every student’s hands, or to hire great teachers? Have you thought about the ways your students will use iPads? Are you sticking to one device when you should be looking at multiple platforms and systems? A good read if you’re planning on some big purchases.
3 Cool Things We Found on Twitter this Week
Hi all, while we wait for school stories, one thing that remains extremely active is Twitter. If you haven’t had a look yet, why not give it a try? Here’s a little guide to get you started: Twitter for Beginners. You can also check out this resource, created by the Powerful Learning Practice network: Twitter for Teachers.
And here are a few cool things that we have found on Twitter this week:
Edudemic posted a video where a 2nd grader posted a video demonstrating how they use Evernote for improving their fluency. It’s worth a look. If you don’t have Evernote, or access to it, this could still be done using the basic apps found on an iPad: voice recorder, camera and notes tool. Basically, students record themselves reading, and then can reflect on the skills that they need to work on. The same concept could be used for public speaking or writing.
What Teens Get About the Internet that Parents Don’t
There’s a lot of pressure on students nowadays: getting a job, having the right set of skills, housing affordability, etc, etc. It’s probable that these pressures are tricky in America, where this article was written, but it’s something to think about. This article is about teens learning from the Internet, and how powerful a tool it has become. Worth a look.
25 Twitter Tips for Students and Teachers
Another Edudemic article. Here are 25 tips for making Twitter work for you in the classroom.
Another thing that came up on Twitter this week was the idea that schools might benefit from parents (and other community members) donating their old smartphones to schools. What do you think of this idea?
Still looking for exciting stories!
Now that schools are up and running for the year (wait, isn’t it nearly the end of term?), I’m sure there are some exciting stories to tell about the teaching and learning in ACT schools. If you (or anyone you know) is doing cool, innovative stuff with your kids, please let us know. You don’t even need to write the blog post, we can do it for you!
5 Cool Things We Found on Twitter
We’ve jumped right back into it after a lovely long summer, and I thought we should kick off the year with a few interesting Twitter finds.
Cisco Connected World Technology Report by Cisco
Do you check your smartphone before getting out of bed? According to this Cisco survey, 90% of the Generation Y folks that responded to their survey do. There’s some interesting reading here. After all, many of our teachers are Generation Y. And it’s probably a good indicator of what’s to come with our students.
Obvious to You. Amazing to Others by Derek Sivers
We never think that the things we’ve created or the ideas that we have are going to be an amazing revelation to others. This nice little video reminds us that maybe, it is.
Social Media for Administrators by George Couros
A collection of articles by George Couros about the growing importance of social media in education, and the ways that teachers, schools and jurisdictions are using various social media platforms with great results.
Blogger’s Guide to Creative Commons by The Blog Herald
If you haven’t heard of Creative Commons, it’s a collection of licences that allow people to use, share and remix other people’s work. Perfect for a participatory web where we are constantly creating and sharing. Creative Commons images give us a safe option for using images in our work, free from any copyright concerns. This blog post shares three images that help explain what Creative Commons is and how it works.
Getting More Out of Student Blogging by Sue Waters
Sue Waters is an Australian educator with a strong presence on Twitter. This article is about student blogs and helping them to develop their skills. Sue discusses scaffolding the blogging process, digital footprints, developing good commenting habits, and monitoring student blogs. Well worth a read.
Speaking of Twitter, here’s a presentation we put together the explain the basics about Twitter, and give you some ACT contacts to follow. Please feel free to use it: Twitter for Beginners
iLearn – Digital Technology at Calwell Primary School
Engaging all learners through the use of digital technology at Calwell Primary School
Throughout 2012, Calwell Primary School Executive, Teachers and Learning Assistants worked together to investigate the use of iPads in engaging students in their learning and in improving outcomes. Renee Berry (Executive), Warren Brompton (Teacher) and Belinda Scargill (Learning Support Assistant) worked collaboratively to utilise iPads in the classroom with a focus on working with students with identified learning difficulties (Integration Support students) and engaging year 6 students in Mathematics.
Students were encouraged to be active participants when investigating the effectiveness of iPads in the classroom. Teachers utilised student surveys, visual checklists, assessment data, daily journal reflections and discussions to gather information around the use of iPads and make adaptations accordingly.
The iPads were integrated into everyday learning and teaching rather than seen as an extra add on. They were used to support students with a range of learning needs to access the curriculum, understand difficult and challenging tasks and as a ‘calm and cool down’ resource for Integration Support. Teachers and students worked together to support each other to apply the technology effectively – with a focus on students owning and understanding their own learning.
The use of iPads in the year 6 classrooms resulted in improved learning outcomes. In particular, student’s improvement was evident in their willingness to attempt and engage in mathematical tasks. Results also indicated that Integration Support student’s engagement in curriculum tasks increased when an iPad was utilised.
As a result of the projects more iPads will be purchased with financial support from the P&C and further work in utilising iPads across the school will continue. The work in 2012 has provided teachers with an effective model in engaging all learners through the use of digital technology at Calwell Primary School.
How we used iPads to support student engagement…
Calendar/ Reminders/Camera:
The ‘general features’ that are already installed on all iPads are easily accessed by students and teachers and were used on a daily basis at Calwell. The reminders, calendars and cameras were integrated into daily use to support students who required an overview of class routine, a list of tasks for the day and visuals of activities or experiences that they will be involved in. Students could organise their own work quickly and easily and ‘mark off’ when they had completed tasks. Teachers could further support students by providing additional information in the notes section e.g today you will be in the group with… or use ‘pop’ up reminders when a change of routine is approaching.
Speaking, Recording and Playback Apps
Speaking, playback and recording apps are a fantastic way to engage students and support a range of learning abilities and needs. Explicit teaching lessons can be recorded by the teacher and played back to students. These apps allowed students to watch the lesson as many times as needed. This was particularly supportive when teaching concepts in mathematics. There are many apps available that do this. We used Educreations and Showme.
Problem Solving and Strategy Games (Jenga)
Problem solving games were utilised to explicitly teach social skills and guide positive interactions with others including turn taking, winning and losing and listening and responding appropriately. Apps like Jenga were used by the LSA to guide conversation, encourage students to work in small groups and as a ‘brain break’ when students required some ‘time out’.
Curriculum and Calming Apps
We found a range of apps that supported students when accessing the curriculum. Apps that appeared ‘game or comic like’ were the most popular with year 6 students. We used both curriculum and calming apps to support student engagement in classroom tasks and for a ‘break’ if students were feeling anxious or unsettled. This also supported re-engagement and we found that students were willingly to ‘give work a go’ following the use of iPads.
Notes App
The notes app was used for written tasks. Students felt confident to write without the fear of ‘getting it wrong’. The notes page also supported students with fine motor difficulties and allowed them to get their ideas down on paper. Students were confident and comfortable to take risks when writing.
This post was submitted by Calwell Primary School. If you'd like to share your school's story with us, get in touch!
Combining Learning Technologies with Creative Thinking Capability from National Curriculum
This is a lesson I taught towards the end of the 2012 school year. My aim was to connect two of the Australian Curriculum general capabilities. The lesson incorporated the Information and communication (ICT) capability with the Critical and creative thinking capability. More specifically I wanted the students to communicate ideas and feedback using ICT while operating ICT.
The objective of the lesson was to develop creative thinking. Students had five exercises to work through. These activities are not new. They have been used by many teachers who engage students in thinking skill development. For further information check out Habits of Mind and Michael Pohl Thinking Keys.
- Bar key – Choose any product. Make a part bigger, add a part and remove a part. Rename your invention.
- Commonalities key – What are the commonalities between a toothbrush and a car?
- Question key – The answer is inventor. What are the questions? Write 3 questions.
- The reverse key – What are 10 things you think an inventor would never do?
- What if key – What if you were an inventor. What would you invent and why?
The students worked cooperatively in groups of three on a MacBook. All groups had several minutes to respond to each exercise. The responses were recorded on a blog set up on a website.
Once all groups had typed in their responses, they had the opportunity to read the other responses. They were invited to give written feedback via the blog remembering to follow cyber etiquette rules.
The students did not have difficulty using the ICT to communicate as hey had prior experience, however on occasion when emotions ran high, some students chose to call across the room to another group to give their feedback. Interesting! In fact it got quite heated at times with activity 4 as they students had very strong opinions on this.
Below is a selection of the responses for exercise 2.
This lesson developed and rehearsed their general capabilities. Working in groups led to collaboration and connection. Students could help each other with the ICT skills, the literacy and the thinking skills. It also reduced anxiety about giving answers in an online forum.
One young boy, who is generally very competitive, expressed positive delight in working with a different group of students and said he didn’t realise there were such friendly, cooperative students in our class. A great outcome for him, and a reminder that I should regularly change the composition of cooperative groups.
This post was submitted by Trish at Mawson Primary School. If you'd like to share your school's story with us, get in touch!
Awe and Wonder
I’d like to share a personal reflection with you. That’s sometimes frowned upon in this sort of forum, but it’s a topic that I keep coming back to.
This is a photo of my son, Oliver (then 8). It’s taken during a rainy walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The whole way across, he was totally engaged with the experience: counting steps and calculating distances (as only a 8 year old can!), taking photos and gazing open-mouthed at the wonder of the amazing construction. As a teacher, I saw this look a few times on my students’ faces. And quite a lot of the time I didn’t. At home, I see it a lot, when Oliver is building stuff out of Lego, drawing, creating crazy contraptions and imaginative storylines in the backyard, writing songs (oh my goodness, so cute!), on Minecraft or just noodling around the net on his iPad.
Just a couple of days earlier, I’d attended the EduTech conference where the very passionate and interesting Roger Pryor had spoken of the need for ‘awe and wonder’ in the classroom. That students should be excited to come to school every day. That they should be exploring and creating and analysing an talking and all those wonderful things. Actually, engagement, ownership of the learning and the changing classroom were themes of the conference. That diversity is normal. That technology use is normal everywhere (except school). That we can’t afford not to personalise education. That if mainstream education was like ‘alternative’ education, we wouldn’t need alternative education, because people wouldn’t be dropping out.
Luckily, Oliver is generally happy to go to school, and he has a fantastic teacher that makes the day interesting. And I know that there are many teachers in Canberra that strive to create fantastic learning experiences for their students (a few of them contribute to this blog!), but there always seem to be ‘bits’ that are boring or irrelevant. I know I’m guilty of providing them. Why is this? Is it the structure of schools? Is it the curriculum? Is it our teaching practice? Is it the technology? Is it the expectations placed upon us by the community and society? Is it the kids? Do they need to be 100% engaged all day, every day?
I don’t know the answers, but I’d love to know your thoughts.
5 Cool Things We Found on Twitter
This week, many of the stuff coming out of Twitter has been good food for thought. So today, I’m offering five articles, found through Twitter, that will hopefully give you something to think about as you close up the year and look to 2013.
What is Personalised Learning? by Josh Griffith
It’s getting a lot of press at the moment, but just what is personalised learning? Josh Griffith outlines a few different learning approaches that are emerging in classrooms: Adaptive Learning, Blended Learning, Differentiated Instruction, Flipped Classrooms, 1:1 Technology, Project Based Learning, Individual Learning Plans and Learning Labs. Have a look and think about how this applies to your school. How do we actually personalise learning? Is your school doing any of them? We’d love your feedback.
Save or Save As? by Tina Barseghian
As adults, we know a bit about the way computers work and how we should manage the information on them (some would argue that there are many that are not so good at that!). This article asks whether we should teach students these skills, along side all the other ‘stuff’ they’re learning to do. What do you think?
Alice Leung is a head teacher at Sydney’s Merrylands High School. In this article, Alice compares the ‘resistance’ that teachers have to using technology in the classroom to the experience that iPhone users have when presented with a new phone option. Interesting analogy, but it might strike a chord. I’m an iPhone user and I totally get what she’s talking about. Perhaps it’s a good way to start the discussion with the teachers in our schools that aren’t quite ready to adopt new practices.
How about you? Do you switch from phone to phone without too much angst, or do you set up everything ‘just right’ and leave it that way?
Innovative Technology Doesn’t Mean Instructionally Innovative by Frank LaBanca
A school finds out about a cool new technology, buys a class set of it, then struggles to figure out what to do with it. Sound familiar? Luckily we’ve got a lot of very innovative people in our system, so it’s not especially common, but it’s definitely something to think about. The purchase of any technology should always be prefaced by some thorough reflection and planning: what exactly do we want our students to learn? What do our students want to learn?
This article argues that innovative technology doesn’t mean there’s innovative teaching going on. That the technology must be used in a meaningful and transformative way. We would love to hear of some examples where this is happening. Please comment below and let us know.
12 Principles of Mobile Learning by Kevin Corbett
Access. Metrics. Cloud. Transparent. Play. Asychronous. Self-Actuated. Diverse. Curation. Blending. Always-On. Authentic. Have a look and see what you think.
“Aspiring to Inspired Teaching and Learning”
The Inspire Associates project is a ground breaking pilot being delivered in partnership with the University of Canberra and ACT Education and Training Directorate
This project allows a diverse team of classroom practitioners one day a week out of our school environment to promote and develop innovation within best practice teaching and learning.
We are particularly focussed on exploring and promoting student action oriented initiatives in order to empower student engagement, voice and participation throughout schooling in the ACT.
Each of us contributes a unique and diverse set of skills and experience to the team. I am Tiffany Mahon, a curriculum, pedagogy specialist and Arts Executive Teacher at Melrose High School. Ian Thomson is a multi-media specialist and Pastoral Care Executive Teacher at Kingsford Smith School. Trish Ghirardello is an ICT co-ordinator, Executive Teacher and year 5/6 classroom teacher at Mawson Primary School and Peter Smythe is a Science and Mathematics teacher who has developed an innovative personalised learning program at Gungahlin College.
All of us are passionate and dedicated classroom teachers who are striving for learning environments that engage and empower our students as active participants and leaders in the learning process. We are excited to have the opportunity of engaging our colleagues across the system in a substantive conversation about what the innovative teaching can contribute to the creation of truly personalised learning for every student, every day in our classrooms.
On a collegiate level, we are keen to foster and promote a shared language and culture of contemporary teaching and learning across the system and to move further towards a culture that embraces then Quality Teaching Model as a normal part of our daily teaching practice.
A central question for us has been, “What can ICT contribute to ensuring sustained and transformative conversations are taking place across the whole system as opposed to isolated pockets of excellence within schools and school clusters”, and “How can ICT help us to share our specialist abilities and expertise with a wider range of colleagues to the benefit of all?
We have worked on piloting and testing MyLearning, the collaborative learning platform designed for school communities that will replace the clc. And we are each also engaged in making films, podcasts and webcasts in partnership with our students, about the extraordinary student voice, participation and engagement activities occurring in ACT schools. We plan share these with a system wide audience.
In addition to these team projects each of us will undertake individual projects aimed at applying research, in action oriented projects that utilise best practice use of ICT. We will each tell you more about these projects as they evolve over the next six months.
Placing pedagogy front and centre if and when ICT is involved and innovating and promoting student voice, participation, engagement and leadership is what inspires us.
We are keen to hear about and share what inspires you and your students every day in your own classrooms across the ACT.
ACT Learning Innovations 