Status5 May 26, 2007
Posted by Steve in ClassBlog, Elearning, Technotrivia, Web2.0.1 comment so far
The Honours Programme is rolling along and is developing into something quite special. It would not surprise me that we are doing a “First” in NSW incorporating social networking software and student activities who signed up for the Honours Programme. (See Honours page on this site).
The Honours Programme co-ordinator was already doing a superb job with the students. My input advocating the use of groups found at yahoo and the option to create a blog has added another dimension to the programme.
Within the Honours Programme are a few genuine gifted and talented people. In the ordinary school structure, they usually are marginalised by their peers. According to studies, these type of people need some way to publicise their thoughts and ideas.
As the Honours Programme advances into the school year, the group has developed their own synergy and energetically help each other out. The genuinely gifted and talent people have created their own blogs which have been read by their peers and given positive, reinforcing feedback. These people are no longer ‘marginalised’. Wow. Great Pastoral stuff.
My Year 8 Technology group finished their animated gif tasks. The better students were able to upload their gifs to their blogs. The less able students created the animated gifs and were marked in their storage directory. I expected to see a couple of students zoom off with their blogs but it does not seem to have happened. Sigh.
It was made known to me over the week that students share the only computer at home and that they have allocated times as to when they can use it. Would you believe that is the first time I ever considered such a thing? that students have limited time on a single computer at home.
The Year 8 Technology students are onto their next task. Basically, they are to create a radio type commercial using Audacity and they are required to mix tracks. Needless to say, they are having a great time experimenting. The finished products are expected to be uploaded to their blog site as a mp3 file.
I am involved in assigning sessions at the Computing Studies Teacher Association (NSW) inservices which take place once a school term. Four workshops run at any one time and participants choose which workshop they wish to do (numbers permitting).
The committee lives all over the place. I started something new in May 2007. I uploaded the session assignment sheets and the agenda document to docs.google.com.
This way Committee members get to look at the documents as they evolve from one inservice to the next. They may make changes or comments as to how the evening should be guided. Hopefully, this will allow the Committee members be more involved in the assigning of sessions, hence, collaboration. Of course, strict deadlines over-rides everything else!
Audacity Inservice May 8, 2007
Posted by Steve in Sample.add a comment
I was involved in an inservice where the focus was on Audacity software. We had a small group but the mixture was interesting. We had about 1/3 computing teachers, 1/3 music teachers and 1/3 linked to a library or audio / visuals within there school. It was a fabulous experience and it was soooo nice to be on the other side of the fence for a change.
Sheepishly, I admit that the end products of the music teachers were much better creatively as compared to we computing teachers. But we beat em with resolving technical issues! The end products were surprisingly good, diverse and made for interesting ideas to use in the classroom. The calibre of the participants was staggering. I was the only one to try to read off an old radio script.
I start with Audacity in the classroom this week. It will be fun and games and I am looking forward to it!! I love experimenting with Year 7’s and Year 8’s!
Techstuff 2 May 6, 2007
Posted by Steve in Musing, Technotrivia.1 comment so far
My computer lab was re-imaged by the IT blokes over the school break. I did extensive testing (so I thought) with the master machine. But, alas, after the entire lab was re-imaged, the students discovered they could not access their flash drives through the USB ports. The IT blokes spent hours trying to overcome the difficulty but to no avail. So they had to add to the master machine and re-image the computer lab again. Mind you, I have never experienced a major re-imaging of a computer lab without something going wrong. My compliments to the IT blokes who are snowed under with requests.- Assisting people with their computers goes with the turf being a computing teacher. As we visit our friends socially, I am being asked to set up their wireless router which they have purchased, installed but not able to get the software operational. Fortunately, setting up the software usually goes smoothly. It is just time consuming. My testing always involved interacting with the school’s email or directories. If the system can handle that, it can handle anything.
- We (the school) did our first evaluation of a Learning Object prototype from the Learning Federation. It was a Maths module dealing with ratios. Much to my surprise we had work stations that could not run the module because they didn’t have an updated version of Flash Player or Shockwave. My solution: I brought in my department laptop and my wife’s laptop for two students to use. The process was very interesting and the students did identify a couple of areas that could be improved with the prototype. I was somewhat surprised that the Year 7 and Year 8 students did not know the word ‘ratio.’ Evaluation sheets were filled out and Express Posted back to Melbourne. We did not raise an invoice because no casual relief was brought in and I used a Prep period to carry out the evaluation. My thanks to the Maths co-ordinator who was open to the idea of evaluating a Maths Learning Object prototype.
- I attended an inservice entitled “Blogging to Learn” by the Association of Independent Schools. When I applied for the course in February, I knew little about blogging. By the time the course actually took place, I had experimented with blogs in the classroom and as a teacher. I did get some valuable information from the course and shared what little I knew. Participants seemed impressed with what my Year 8 students were doing.
- The Honours Programme seems to be going well in terms of using communications. We still have a few students who have not joined the TIGSHONOURS group which suggests technical difficulties. This has been a long, drawn out process. I bet we do better in 2008 in terms of establishing online communications.
- Next project: setting up blogs for the partipants!
- I have yet to evaluate SchoolKit which is from Western Australia.
- Due to circumstances, I bought Office 2007 for Home and student use to place on our laptops. We are allowed to put it on 3 laptops. While I have not actually used Word 2007, I was most impressed with the new layout and the use of tabs. I am used to using tabs in the newer web browsers. It will be interesting to see how others adapt to the new layout.
- I also succumbed and purchased Photo Shop Elements 5.0 for home use. Paintshop Pro was uninstalled. I was getting confused when using the two different graphics program. Now I am synchronised with school. Version 5.0 should have more features as compared to version 2.0 which the school uses.
- My Kodak digital camera has seen its day. It eats up the batteries at an uncommon rate. Solution: purchased a new Olympus digital camera and a 2 GB memory card for the camera. The small size of the camera appealed to me.
TechStuff 1 April 17, 2007
Posted by Steve in Technotrivia.comments closed
Below are listed some of the technical, behind the scenes, type details that have been happening and I have been involved in some way:
- Honours students have been sent invitations to join TIGHONOURS group the last day of Term 1
- at the time of this entry, responses have been weak
- those that have joined have already produced their own synergy as they collaborate with each other
- as an educator, it is fulfilling to observe students create their own synergy
- the Honour’s co-ordinator must be pleased
- The school has subscribed to a hosting service. URL: http://tigs.com.au/
- WordPress Multi-user Application has been set up by Andrew Greenlees who did this outside of normal working hours.
- we tried other open source blog applications but they did not meet my criteria and I was most familiar with WordPress. URL: http://tas.tigs.com.au/ will take one to the super admin site.
- the administrator can interact with any blog created on the site (good)
- Some of my Year 7 Mentees have interacted with me during the April holidays via emails
- the Python people do not seem to be making much progress during the holidays
- the Year 7 workload seems to prevent them from extending themselves in other areas?
- The Junior School asked if a ‘discussion area’ could be set up.
- I set up a Forum area at our new Moodle site. URL: http://tigs.com.au/moodle4tigs/
- The initial setup went smoothly
- I discovered the TIGS email system would not accept emails from the Moodle site (bad)
- Andrew Greenlees again spent numerous hours outside of working hours finding a solution
- The site has been thoroughly tested. Let us hope this is what the Junior School actually wants.
- This is a newer version of Moodle from what I have used in the past.
- I experimented with Edumate2 from home:
- the mark-book is certainly easier to use as compared to the iWise version
- some of my class lists were inaccurate. To whom do we report errors?
- contact details seem to be lacking a lot of data, data that I would have thought would be easy to migrate across. Heaven help the clerical staff if they have to enter the data by keyboard again.
- the Relations within the contact list seem particularly good and should be able to handle any complex family scenario. eg. which parent has access to student records at school.
Status4 April 17, 2007
Posted by Steve in Musing, Web2.0.1 comment so far
I finally finished a significant book entitled: The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman. It appears to me to be the most significant book since Alvin Toffler’s ‘Future Shock’.
The videos that have been referred to on this site actually make use of the concepts that have been explored in the text. Basically, the text has stated that due to recent events, technology has made the world flat and it will have impact upon our society. Some of the main points that come to mind:
- Our education system prepares students for assembly line type work which is no longer applicable because the likes of S. Korea, Taiwan, India and China are carrying out the actual manufacturing.
- Our education system needs to SHIFT its focus. We need to make use of technology to aid in the shift of focus.
- The ability to synthesise material from different areas and be able to explain the concepts in a simple manner is a needed skill in the future.
- those students who take up music, drama or take up a hobby in-depth, tend to develop these type of people
- hence, the Arts are necessary to aid in the development of the holistic student
- in the Pacific Northwest of America, schools have shut down their arts programmes due to financial considerations.
- The ability to collaborate with others will be essential where distance is no longer a factor.
- People will need to be able to interact with the public readily.
- India has the ability to do everyone’s taxes since they are an educated population. Australian accountants beware! the Indians can do it overnight!
- Within accounting, those people who create new concepts will be the ones that will be retained.
- The flattening of the earth will create more job opportunities but small businesses will evolve that hire 5 - 10 people as compared a company hiring 50.
- Business structures will become more horizontal as compared to vertical.
- Web 2.0 services on the web (workflow software) will allow businesses to work smarter not harder. They will be able to let the software do the administrative work on the web which in turn allows the owners to concentrate on their core business. [Triple Convergence 1]
- eg. the advent of e-tickets for airline reservations. The consumer is doing the work of clerical staff.
- Different businesses will need to connect to each other and collaborate with each other rather than the old ‘command and control’. (Supply chains for the likes of Woolworths, Aldi). Emphasises ‘just in time’ strategy. [Triple Convergence 2]
- 3 billion more people have joined the market place with the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, the demise of the USSR and the entry of countries like India and China. [Triple Convergence 3]
- this will increase the size of the market as Indians and Chinese develop their middle class as consumers
- communication technology allows the Indians and Chinese to carry out tasks that used to be reserved for respective countries. eg. call centres, and production of Interactive White Boards in Canada (which most probably will move to China).
- The education system will need to shift to encourage students to be able to design, develop and create. Technology such as video editing is a natural mechanism to encourage these skills. The likes of podcasting, blogging, NoteIT, wikis and other Web 2.0 services also are other mechanisms that can help encourage ‘the swinging voters’ (swinging students) to become engaged in their schooling.
- The development of high order thinking skills is still the top skill to develop but technology should be able to compliment those subjects that develop high order thinking skills in their own way.
- Currently there have been strong statements that ‘homework’ should be abandoned and not so much demands placed on students outside of school hours.
- if we adopt this attitude, Australia will become less competitive with its brainpower
- the next generation may have to work harder to maintain its quality of life
These are just a few of the points that come to mind. It is apparent to me that the education system needs to re-think its focus. No one will change their ways too much if the New South Wales Higher School Certificate Exams remains in its current state: that is a 3 hour written exam for each subject.
Pay Attention (Video) April 13, 2007
Posted by Steve in Stimulation.comments closed
Pay Attention: from TeacherTube
A list of resources can be found here. Darren Draper is a Technology Curriculum Specialist in the Jordan School District in Utah. He put together the following presentation to motivate educators around the world to more effectively use technology in their teaching.
Status3 April 9, 2007
Posted by Steve in Elearning, Musing.add a comment
The IT assistant at school, Andrew Greenlees, has worked tirelessly over the Easter break to figure out how to use WordPress Multi-user at the school’s additional domain website: tigs.com.au I haven’t quite figured out how we are a commercial entity as compared to an organisation or an educational entity. It looks like Andrew has successfully met all the criteria that I set. In the long run, it means a much cheaper alternative as compared to using EduBlogs Premium for the school. We will start the Honours students off first. Semester Two will see a rotation of Technology classes and we will add the new classes at that time.
Of course, the site is available to any subject who wishes to make use of a blog.
The videos on this site have at least a message to get across to mainly teachers. It appears that there is great resistance to the use of Technology in the classroom. I tend to dispute that, especially at my current place of employment. If the Web2.0 services cannot be used to promote the high order of thinking, then it isn’t being used to its potential. Developing a quiz program (drill and grill) is not high order thinking in my opinion. Technology should compliment what already exists. It is not meant to replace current strategies.
For me, the most difficult skill to develop in students is the ability to show relationships between concepts in writing. Why writing? because the Year 12 Three Hour Exam is a written one and that is what we teachers are building up to.
It is more important for students to be involved in the creative process using technology. They need to create the Podcast, they need to create the Blog and they need to create the short 3 - 5 minute video. This ‘Project Work’ integrates all the facets of learning. After they create the end products, they will be more critical of the mass of digital data that is bombarding them. We hope that the multi-media tasks also helps develop that ability to show relationships between concepts.
Yes, the students are digital students. They make use of the iPod, mobile phone, digital camera but that does not make them critical users. Activities need to be developed to nudge the development of analysis and critical thinking.
The use of Web2.0 services are another bunch of activities that we can place in our teachers’ “bag of tricks”.
Linear Text April 8, 2007
Posted by Steve in Elearning, Stimulation.add a comment
VideoThis YouTube video shows how text has had impact upon society. Probably need to be fairly technically inclined to fully appreciate. XML evolved from HTML. XML allows one to worry only about the content of a database webpage, not what it looks like. The webpage will look the same on all computers which is particularly good for business transactions.
Fear Factor Technology April 8, 2007
Posted by Steve in Elearning, Stimulation.add a comment
The following is a short TeacherTube video to stimulate teachers in the use of technology.
Visual Learners April 7, 2007
Posted by Steve in Elearning, Stimulation.comments closed
This relates to Visual Learners.
