easTech

Readers Adapt Their Strategies for Reading Online

2012-02-22T23:12:00.000-08:00

At UWCSEA East, we have been implementing Reading Workshop (also known as Reader's Workshop) to help our students develop into fluent, capable and effective readers. Our Literacy Coach Michelle Goodison has been supporting teachers in this framework, and a lot of professional development has occurred to help teachers introduce the strategies that help students best learn to read.

Increasingly, much of our reading is done online, but there is little research out there to help teachers transfer strategies from offline to online reading. Making Sense of Online Text (Educational Leadership, October 2005, Volume 63, no 2, pages 30-35) is one of the better articles I have read on the subject, but even that was written in 2005!

So what to do while the world catches up with this 'new' way of reading? Adapt our existing strategies for reading online as best we can.

We are lucky to have Mac computers at our school which have a lot of in-built features that support reading online.

We introduced three to Anne Marie's 5th Grade class, taking care to connect them to strategies they already use offline.

The three strategies we introduced were:

Avoiding distractions

Click image to download the original
poster

We teach our students to find a comfortable place which is well-suited to reading. Online, we can easily get distracted by the visual noise of a website - the advertising, the animated gifs, the links to other pages.

Using Safari, many articles have a button called 'Reader' in the address bar. Clicking this button strips the distracting information from around the main text of the page, leaving you a clean interface to focus on.

Solve Challenging Words
Just as students collect and solve challenging words in their offline reading, we can easily define words from within Safari using the built-in dictionary. Select a word, right-click (either a two finger tap or conrol + click), and the dictionary appears with the definition, right in the web browser.

Students need to be reminded to look for the definition that most makes sense given the context of the word, as we would expect offline.

Organize Thinking
Taking notes on the main idea and supporting details in a piece of writing is also important as we read. Choosing Print, then Open PDF in Preview from the print menu, and finally clicking on the pencil icon, allows students to highlight and annotate text.

For teachers, this is particularly interesting, as the PDF can be saved together with the student's annotations, meaning you can see the effectiveness of their note-taking. This is useful in showing the progression of researching online, taking notes, and finally writing in their own words.

While we introduced these strategies to Anne Marie's class, I flipped open my laptop and captured some video of the process. I hope this helps others introduce their students to some tools that can help them read effectively online.

More Minecraft Musings

2012-02-21T16:35:00.000-08:00

Want to know what our kids are capable of achieving in just over a week? Here are some photos to show you some parts of our world!

An aerial view of our world

I believe this is a Spleef Arena (but will need to clarify!)

Rain on our plane

A flotilla of boats

Our Minecraft ECA met on Monday, and it was great to check in with what happened over the week. Top on my agenda was to get a list of all the students together with their usernames - I found it hard to remember who was who!

We refined some of our guidelines based on student feedback, including:

- If you've built something, put a sign with your name on it, so we know who made it.

- Ask if you're not sure about how/where to build something - someone will help.

A group of students worked on developing a training area, so newbies like me would have a place to learn without accidentally smashing things (yeah, sorry about that Rogan). I look forward to learning the ropes soon!

One of the younger students asked if it was ok to copy something that someone had built. The general consensus among players was that it was fine. Then Liam added, "As long as you acknowledge it," and Mohit said, "You've got to modify it a little bit though - remix is ok." I then gave an example of the hot air balloons (in the first photo). Rogan made the first one (with the colours of the Union Jack on it), and Kenneth made his own one, changing the colours to those of the Irish Flag.

I'm not sure if they realised it, but they now have firsthand experience with Creative Commons - they know what it feels like to be a creator and have your work used. Tacit permission has been given to the group to adapt and remix, as long as attribution occurs.

I check in to the server every night to see what's being built, who is on, how the conversation is going etc. The students have been super impressive. I'm really proud of their efforts.

So where to next? I plan to contact Redstone Host to see if we can get a second server, which we will run in Survival mode. The G7 Moderators are already planning to go in early to prepare a training area for Survival, as it's quite a different style of game play.

I wonder what the kids will have created when I next log into the server...

(cross-posted at Tip of the Iceberg)

Massively Misunderstood Minecraft

2012-02-16T19:20:00.000-08:00

Overheard in the lab: "My Mum says she can't believe UWC is offering a Minecraft activity. She says it's a waste of time."

Me: <breathe>

DM from @jplaman:

Me: <breathe>

I guess it's time!

This blog post is proving hard to write. I have rewritten this paragraph about 14 times, mostly because I am trying not to sound embittered! I am saddened that the educational potential in games has once again been overlooked.

As Katie Salen, professor of design and technology at Parsons The New School for Design so eloquently put is:

There is a long history of understanding games as sort of leisure activities, as a kind of waste of time. And that when we see kids playing games that maybe our first reaction is to say, "Oh well they're just playing, they're just kind of wasting time." There isn't a sense of even sitting down with the child and asking them... "What's going on in your head right now?" Because if you sit down and talk to a game player about what they're doing, an incredible narrative will come out of their mouth about the complex problem they're working on. [see the full video here]

I was lucky enough to spend time with Rob Newberry and members of his Minecraft activity who visited our school to show our Techxperts activity the basics of Minecraft. It was very clear to me that Rob was onto something pretty spectacular, and we had to get involved! [Rob is a fantastic resource on setting up an ECA for Minecraft, and Minecraft in general. Without his help I wouldn't have been able to try!]

Without further ado, I started a Minecraft activity at school which met for the first time on Monday. It was absolute chaos. We were setting up accounts and running around madly trying to get everyone into the school's Minecraft Server (thank you Redstone Host!). Thankfully I had some of our UWCSEA Techxperts there to help me out.

Anyway, at the end of the first session, I wasn't sure how things were going to work out. I'm convinced Minecraft has spectacular educational value, but this activity is my own qualitative research experiment.

I decided to log in to the server at home and see what - if anything - had happened since school finished.

As soon as I had logged in, I realised I had completely forgotten ALL commands, including, crucially, how to move and how to talk! By guessing that if I pressed 't' it might let me talk, I managed to chat to the few kids that were logged in and were already excitedly talking away (hopefully unaware of how utterly useless their teacher was at that moment). I asked them how to move - they told me to double-click the space bar, and up I flew.

Flying high above our world, I saw that it was a hive of industry. Houses had been built. A mountain top swimming pool was constructed. People were creating.

One of the students, Kenneth (G3) wanted to show me his house, so I began to follow him. Unfortunately, night was falling in our little world, so I could no longer see where he was going. I could still chat, so typed, "I can't see where I'm going! Where are you?"

[Advance notice: I think this is AWESOME!] Kenneth solved the problem by putting down a series of glow blocks, which emitted enough light so I could see where he was going - a modern day Hansel & Gretel breadcrumb trail. Genius!

Mohit, Liam, Victoria & Aguistin's Pirate Ship

My next obstacle came when I wanted to take some screenshots of a pool built at the top of a mountain. Every time I pressed shift+command+4, I started to sink (as the command for going down is shift).

I complained in the chat that I kept sinking when trying to take a screenshot, and once again, Kenneth came to my rescue. He suggested building a block beneath me, so I wouldn't fall. Makes a lot of sense eh?! The solution was there, but I certainly didn't see it. I love the creative thinking that Kenneth and other players have demonstrated in the short time I've been involved.

Rogan's Soup Kitchen

Day 2 of our server being open showed remarkable progress. Evidence of collaboration was everywhere. One student suggested a walkway (which several of the students pitched in to help with, complete with glow blocks for night time use), signs with directions appeared, pirate ships emerged along with 5* hotels. A soup kitchen was built. Organisation was appearing amidst the chaos.

So what learning have I seen to date? How long have you got?

Collaboration & Team work - A culture of collaboration appears to have existed from the beginning. According so some of the players, some people log in and say, "Who needs some help?" and away they go. I have been particularly pleased to see that Grade 7 students have been working alongside Grade 2/3 students on particular projects. This isn't something I directed them to do (though I am certainly fostering it now), it's just something that happened.

Now we're starting to get players come up with creative ideas which require a slew of people to assist them. Generally speaking it seems to be a very open culture where suggestions are more often than not accepted and enhanced by the involvement of each new member. A sense of pride in their accomplishments show they understand the value of hard work, and how it feels to have completed something they have put effort into achieving.

Rogan's Hot Air Balloon

Creativity & Innovation - James Paul Gee states in his video for Edutopia, "Kids want to produce, they don't just want to consume." It's pretty clear that the students in our Minecraft activity are incredibly creative. Day 3 (today) brought the addition of a theme park, more boats, more hot air balloons and a castle. They have organised their world to make it more efficient and more aesthetically pleasing. It's quite literally a privilege to watch.

Mathematical Understanding - spacial awareness, area, construction, volume... Interaction with Minecraft can only serve to enhance a student's comprehension of mathematical skills and concepts. Imagine if we teachers took Minecraft into the classroom to help students learn these concepts. Engagement would be through the roof, I'm sure. [Students, I'm working on it! Give me time!]

Collaboratively Constructed Walkway by Mohit,
Rogan & Victoria

I could go on, to talk more about problem solving, communication & social skills (no doubt I will, in a later post!), however as usual, it's better for me to stop talking for the kids and let them explain their learning in their own words. Victoria says,

Minecraft is a combination of frustration, excitement, and pure adrenaline. It widens your mind and you can get inspired very easily from other people's creations. You can also learn various tips from more experienced players and most of all you just have fun.

What Victoria so eloquently described was a culture of remix and amplification. Taking someone's ideas and adding your own personal spin on it.. It's a new way of learning (think YouTube videos that go viral and spawn thousands of remixes) in which everyone has something to contribute, something to add, something with which to inspire others.Marius says,

Playing Minecraft makes us think about what we can do to build up a "city". Through this, we enhance our creativity and art skills. We also have to use our logic and physics skills, in a sense where we know where the water (or lava) will flow and where we need to build things to make our constructions work.

Leadership and peer-learning opportunities - Games level the playing field. Tom Chatfield notes that, "A virtual world is a tremendous leveller in terms of wealth, age, appearance, ethnicity and such like..." It means a child can be an expert, a student can be the most knowledgeable source of information. What a powerful concept for a young person - I have something of value to offer my peers and teachers.

This, to me, is vertical interaction on a horizontal playing field. We are combining people of all ages to work together using the same resources to create something special.

Victoria sold Kenneth chickens from her Pet Shop

As Joseph Joubert, the French essayist famously said, "To teach is to learn twice." In the context of Minecraft, the students are a very supportive community, keen to help newcomers (such as myself) develop their understanding of the game. This fits in beautifully with Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger's Communities of Practice theory of learning, where,

"It is through the process of sharing information and experiences with the group that the members learn from each other, and have an opportunity to develop themselves personally and professionally."

Face-to-face friendships develop through similar online interests, and this is becoming evident as we continue to play. I have enjoyed the opportunity to reconnect with students I taught previously, as well as learn more about the ones I teach now.

James Paul Gee speaks of these communities of practice as "passion communities" constructed via social networking, where members are usually held to quite rigorous standards in their area of passion. To the novice, feedback is given, support is provided, but standards are not be lowered.

George's Lava

I hope every parent of a student playing Minecraft takes the time to sit next to their child and really ask them what they're doing, why it's important to them, how/why they create things, and what they're learning. I'm sure they'd be gobsmacked at the responses. How many actually take that time I wonder?

I'd like to thank the members of the inaugural UWCSEA Minecraft Activity for their supreme awesomeness, their willingness to help me learn and share their burgeoning world, which is the product of hard work and fun, all rolled into one.

I'm tired. I've been dipping in and out of this post for far too many days. There's so much more to say, but it's 9:24pm. The server closes in 6 minutes and I want to see how my kids are going. Goodnight!

Getting Connected - the Why and How

2012-02-14T23:06:00.000-08:00

Why?

Screenshot via sxoop.com/twitter/mosaic.pl

The question of why connect is an important one for us to consider. Of course, being connected can lead you to lots of great resources and ideas for lessons, but what we are really talking about here is connecting with people. It is through these personal connections that you can build a network of professionals who are not only filtering and curating information for you, but also becoming "go to" people you can get to know and have professional conversations with.

The reason why we do this is best summarized by David Weinberger:

“As knowledge becomes networked, the smartest person in the room isn’t the person standing at the front lecturing us, and isn’t the collective wisdom of those in the room. The smartest person in the room is the room itself: the network that joins the people and ideas in the room, and connects to those outside of it. It’s not that the network is becoming a conscious super-brain. Rather, knowledge is becoming inextricable from—literally unthinkable without—the network that enables it. Our task is to learn how to build smart rooms—that is, how to build networks that make us smarter, especially since, when done badly, networks can make us distressingly stupider.”
-- David Weinberger
author of Too Big To Know
read an interview with him here

Via http://inmaps.linkedinlabs.com/network

As a school, we are very focused on articulating our individual and team goals with the goals of the college so in one sense, there might not seem like there's a lot of room for a teacher to get creative. However, there is room for creativity and differentiation in our approach and how we teach.

Best practices are already being shared between individuals on the same "team" in many cases, but we should also be cognizant of broadening our scope, stepping outside of our metaphorical "boxes" to learn from each other. If you're a Math teacher in this school, how many things do you know about that are going on in the English classes? If you teach in our Infant School, what approaches to guided inquiry are they using at Dover, Tanglin, Yokahama, or UWC Maastricht?

All this matters not because we feel like we're behind other schools or need to "keep up." The reason it matters is partly due to how our students learn and how they will continue to learn in their future.

The world's information is networked, but so are an increasing number of its people. The network allows us access to fellow practitioners, people who've done what we're trying to do and are maybe just one small step ahead of where we are.

It allows us access to experts in various fields. They are gathering places for passion-based communities that drive each other forward.

By connecting with people online we can gain access to their ideas. We can also gain access to them allowing us see how they think, what they're passionate about, and how they're learning.

Who do you connect with online? How do you connect?
What "rooms" are you in and how do they make you smarter?

How?
Mizuko Ito and her team at the MacArthur Foundation’s program in Digital Media and Learning refer to three very different types of networked learning behaviors:

Hanging out

"Hanging out is not simply relaxing and taking it easy, it is immersing yourself in a new context and understanding how that context shapes and creates meaning. Those skills are going to be increasingly important for the 21st century, so I think we need to be careful not to underestimate the importance of hanging out in the way we talk about it."

- John Seely Brown
author of A New Culture of Learning interview with Forbes magazine

Hanging out means following closely for the purposes that are mainly social. You are in the room trying to find out who the people are, what they're interested in, and how the interact with one another.

Messing around

Messing around occurs once you understand the "rules", norms and people in a space and is characterized by a more intense interaction with the digital media. Participation in the community begins to emerge as you begin to try things. Interacting in this way help you deepen your understanding of the way the group functions and how to get the most use out of it.

Geeking out

"This genre primarily refers to an intense commitment or engagement with media or technology, often one particular media property, genre, or a type of technology."

                                                                                                                                                               -Mizuko Ito
                                                                              HANGING OUT, MESSING AROUND, AND GEEKING OUT
                                                                                                             Kids Living and Learning with New Media

2010 MIT Press p. 65

You're in this level of participation when you become deeply immersed in the network and the tools surrounding it. There is an intensity about your use and interest in the project and the technology or media with which you are working. Immersion in a personal learning network (PLN) definitely fits the description of "geek out" participation.

Here are some ways to become engaged in an online PLN:

Twitter
Talk to an expert - it is always nice to learn from someone who is passionate about a tool, so search out someone you know who is walking the walk. (Your friendly Digital Literacy Coaches - @jplaman, @klbeasley and @louisephinney are three good starters for 10!)

Twitter for Teachers - This blog post has some good suggestions for teachers new to Twitter. You'll find tips, explanations to common misconceptions, and some great suggestions to get you started.

UWCSEA Twitter List - follow your UWCSEA colleagues on Twitter

UWCPD Hashtag - check out the #uwcpd hashtag for links to interesting resources, quotes, ideas and more.

Google Reader
Talk to an expert - Deb Gordon is using Google Reader with her Grade 3 students, Katie Day subscribes to all sorts of interesting things, and Annabel Howard gets a lot of new ideas from the blogs she follows. Follow up with these three, or learn from someone else you know using Google Reader to make them smarter.

RSS in Plain English - Lee LeFever explains how RSS (Really Simple Syndication) works.

Diigo
Talk to an expert - we have many superusers of Diigo at UWCSEA East. Sit with Dave Caleb, Katie Day, Mary van der Heijden, Miles Beasley or the DLCs and get them to show you what they know.

Social Bookmarking in Plain English - a video by Lee LeFever explaining how social bookmarking works, using Delicious. Delicious is very similar to Diigo, so the same things apply, albeit with slight differences in interface.

Icons from: http://www.yootheme.com/icons/freebies & http://www.iconarchive.com/show/pretty-social-media-icons-by-custom-icon-design/diigo-icon.html

Dealing with distraction, 5 tools to help you get things done

2012-02-10T00:20:00.000-08:00

We have chosen to give our students in grade six upwards their own Macbook. This has obvious benefits to their learning allowing them to create, collaborate and communicate with digital tools that they always have at their disposal. However, as Spiderman said:

There's no question that digital tools can be tremendously distracting. Our students have told us that, typically, they will go through a period of "experimentation" when they first get a new tool, join a new network, or find a new game. This stage (hopefully quickly) reaches a peak followed by students discovering strategies to help themselves deal with the distractions. Interestingly, they told us that what they really need is a consequence, like a bad grade, to make them realize just how much this is impacting them before they take steps to regain control.

Here are five tools that you can use to help deal with the digital distractions:

1) iProcrastinate is one of the most popular applications for our students. It lets you create "subjects" that can match your school subjects and then create "tasks" for those subjects. You select the "due date" and can set them up for repeat if needed.
For example, you might create a subject like "Activities" and set up a repeating alert for "Paws for a Cause" that meets every Monday at lunch. iProcrastinate lives in your menu bar at the top of your Mac and you can easily pop it open to see what you've got coming up.

As a bonus, unlike simply using calendar notifications, you can create "steps" to complete each task and even associate files that are relevant to the task.
This is a great program to use if you find yourself forgetting assignments or meetings and to organize all the bits and pieces that go along with them.

2) SelfControl is an application that you can configure to block certain web domains to help you not be distracted by the Internet. You can configure the app to prevent incoming email, block Facebook, web-based games, or any web domain or IP address.
Once you start SelfControl, you move the slider to block your listed sites for a set amount of time. The best part is that you can't undo it once you've started, not even by restarting your machine!

This is good for those times when you have a couple of "culprit" sites that suck away your hours (I'm looking at you Facebook).

3) OMMWRITER is a funky text authoring tool that you can fire up when all you really want to do is write. It is a full screen app so blocks the view of everything else with a simple, zen-like background.

OMMWRITER would be a great addition for anybody who finds themselves distracted during the writing process by the temptation to try every font, color, style and layout found in full-featured word processing apps.

4) Pomodori puts a timer with a tomato (italian - Pomodoro) icon on your Mac. You can use it to set a specific amount of time for yourself to focus on one task. The idea is based on the Pomodoro Technique of setting the timer manually which gives you a physical cue that now is the time to focus on work for a 25 minute period. As a way to motivate yourself, and prove that you're actually on task to your parents, you can tally up the Pomodoros as you complete them.

5) Set up a "Study Buddy" account with Parental Controls if you find yourself unable to resist the urge to open Skype just for a little chat while you study. Note: students do quite often use Facebook, Skype, and Twitter for homework help. But, if you think the balance might need adjusting, one approach you could take is to create a restricted account on your Mac.
Basically, what this means is that you can still maintain your regular account with normal access to everything (and everything that could pull you off task) and you create one or more accounts that you manage with Parental Controls.

Then, when you want to work in an environment with less distraction, simply log in to the "Study Buddy" account and away you go. Check out the guide to 1) setting up the account and 2) configuring folder sharing so that you can access folders from the Study Buddy account.

What apps do you use to help you avoid distraction and stay on task?

*in collaboration with Katie Day

doing more with diigo

2012-02-07T23:10:00.000-08:00

Diigo is a great way to keep track of all of your bookmarks in the cloud so that they can be readily pulled up on any device connected to the Internet. Yes, and... there's a whole lot more that it can do.

Diigo works best when it's tools are integrated right in to your browser. You can install the tools for any modern browser and enjoy the convenience of bookmarking, highlighting and annotating without interrupting your work flow.

Try this:

Use the Highlight button to highlight text on a web page. Your highlights stay and are visible to you when you come back to the page.
Open a web page with an image and "right click" on that image... you can save the image directly to you diigo account.
Create a Smart Folder for a praticular tag.
Join a Group and explore the sharing aspects of the group. (UWC Teachers)

Using diigo with a class.

You can create a group for your class(es). Check with your Digital Literacy Coach to see if student accounts have already been made. The best way to get them into your group is to choose option 3 - invite by email.
Establishing a Tag Dictionary for your group allows you to better organize your information and eliminate similar words that mean the same thing (i.e. Math, Maths, Mathematics).
You and your students can save things you bookmark to your group along with your annotations. As an added bonus, you can embed a widget that displays the group's links in your website, course page or blog.

What interesting uses of diigo will you try with your class?

2012-02-07T04:14:00.000-08:00

Hello Diigo

Your tasks for today will be to:

- sign up (with an educational account)

- create a bookmark

- think about using effective tags

- join the UWC Teacher Group

So what is Diigo?
Diigo is a social bookmarking tool that allows us to organize, store, manage, and search online resources. Diigo allows us to also highlight and tag these bookmarks. And the other great feature is that your bookmarks are not housed on a particular device so you can access them any place any time.

And what can Diigo do for me?
So what can Diigo do for you? One thing it can do is bring great resources right to you. Here are a few samples of some recent Diigo bookmarks:

Sample Diigo Bookmarks
Things that I recently bookmarked and shared

Bookmarks from Miles, Jeff and Mary in the UWC teacher list:

Bookmarks from a group I follow - Literacy with ICT

Other Diigo Resources:
Diigo help page
A video on how to annotate, archive and and organize
Students using Diigo

Date Night - Top Apps for Global Travelers

2012-02-06T21:00:00.000-08:00

The following Apps are my pics for Best Travel Apps Ever, and ones I will be putting to good use this summer when I travel to Europe.

TripIt - One of the easiest & most useful travel apps is TripIt. You simply forward your flight confirmations and/or hotel bookings, and TripIt will put together a wonderful itinerary for you, complete with essential booking references, confirmation numbers and maps of surrounding areas. Best of all, it's FREE! This is my number 1 travel app of all time.

Packing Pro - If you're anything like me, you have a tendency to overpack for trips, meaning I often lug around unnecessary items. I also manage to forget at least one key item every time I travel. Well, no more! This app can give you pre-prepared lists for various types of trips, or you can customize your own lists, meaning you will be well-organised for your next trip.

Travel App Box - This provides several useful travel apps in one, including offline maps, currency converter, tip calculator, basic phrases, pictionary, emergency call numbers, travel games and more. The offline maps in particular, I think will be extremely useful for those between-wifi moments.

Google Translate - When traveling, instant translation can be your best friend. Google translate can even 'say' the words in the language you desire.

Dropbox - Putting key documentation in Dropbox when traveling can be extremely useful. I have photocopies of my passport and green card in my Dropbox, just in case.

Pocket First Aid & CPR - This app not only has great first aid information, but is a place you can store important medical information about your family, e.g. Medical insurance numbers, blood type etc. Very easy to use and handy to have in your back pocket.

Kayak - Flights, hotels, rental cars, travel planner - this free app is a great place to start planning your next vacation. This won the people's choice award at the 2011 Webby Awards.

XE Currency - A straightforward currency exchange app from the popular site with the same name.

Foursquare - Checking in to new places can give you excellent tips from other Foursquare users. I have used Foursquare to get recommendations about what to order at restaurants, and find out recommended activities in the area.

Lonely Planet (e.g. Paris) - Lonely Planet is a wonderful source of information for tourists, and they have guides for all of the major cities.

Local MRT (e.g. Paris Metro) - When traveling to a new place, I always download apps for public transport, as you never know when they might come in handy. Most are free, however some, like Paris Metro, have added value and therefore charge a fee.

Weather+ Free - Anticipating the weather in the countries you visit is always essential.

World Clock - Time Zones - Knowing what time to call home is important when traveling - no one wants to be woken at 3am, even if you are calling from Germany. This app shows the current time in a range of destinations, so there are no more excuses!

Camera360 - This amazing FREE app has a range of different features that will help you take great photos wherever you are. Each effect has a range of sub-effects, meaning the possible combinations are endless. (**if you are using the Singaporean App store, the app description will turn up in Chinese. Don't panic, the app will be in English once it's downloaded**)

TripAdvisor - The popular website is now available in app form. Search for hotels and more, and read user reviews about your upcoming travel destinations.

I hope you find these apps useful. Leave a comment with your favorite recommendations - we're always on the lookout for new apps.

iPads in K1

2012-01-25T23:23:00.000-08:00

“…joy in life doesn’t usually come in long stretches for hours at a time, month after month, year after year . . . but in moments.”
- unknown

K1 HKi used the iPads to take photographs as we went on a number hunt around our school. We found lots of numbers in our environment:

"Look, on the microwave!"

"Teachers use numbers too!"

"5 Jembahs"

"1 dragon!"

We used our photographs to make a number line for their K1 classroom:

The expectations we were working towards:
- use a digital device to create a visual piece of work, with the support of an adult
- use a digital tool to collect and visualize data
- with teacher support, identify steps to take to complete a given task using a digital tool

Things I learned during this lesson:
- the iPads are heavy and a bit hard for the K1s to hold and press the shutter to take a photo. Changing to iPod Touch should solve this problem
- we need to have a chat before starting about the important things to remember when taking photos - #1 Stand Still!
- it is so much more fun (not to mention the connections being made) when a different teacher opens up their classroom for us, Ms. Imogen helped us find numbers in the music room and that was the favourite place to take photos.

Making Learning Visible - Mobile Video in PE

2012-01-11T19:54:00.000-08:00

How do you know what you look like when performing a physical skill?

This is a question I ask myself again and again on the golf course when the round ends up going south. Was it my elbow, my grip, am I shifting my feet, not keeping my head down?

For anybody who's watched an instructor demonstrate a skill I'm sure you know the feeling... 'Am I doing it correctly?'

Video on mobile devices has great potential to provide visual examples to learn from and feedback on performance.
We are fortunate to have a very progressive, committed team of Physical Education teachers who participated in an INSET day lead by the three digital literacy coaches. Here's what happened...

using mobile video to reinforce teaching
Here, we produced some short videos with teaching points included so that students could refer to the videos during the lesson on an iPod Touch when they may not have constant access to the teacher. These videos can be made quite quickly once you've got one set the way you like it, simply duplicate the project in iMovie and swap out the video segments and change the text.

using mobile video for peer feedback
A peer can be a really good coach when learning a new skill. The great thing about using peer feedback is that a lot of learning
can take place for the person giving the feedback as well, not just for the person performing. We talked a lot about being mindfully active and that's really what we're practicing here. Students shoot short segments of video (10 secs or less) on an iPod Touch, capturing only the action, and use it to help give feedback.
Having a video to "back-up" what you're trying to say can really help you make your point and we find that it also breaks down barriers that students may have. If they're shy, having the video immediately shifts the focus off of them and on to the person performing the skill.
A member of the PE department also brought up that video is great for capturing non-skill based
behaviors like cooperation, team-work, leadership, and focus.

using mobile video for self-analysis & goal setting
We shifted devices to the iPad 2 here so that teachers could get experience with shooting and doing simple edits using iMovie on one device on the spot.
The idea here is that students could have a peer record them performing a skill early on and then do a self-analysis by using the voice-over feature of iMovie. They can edit the clips, split the clips and even capture stills at particular points in the video simultaneously pressing the home
button & power button while the movie is
paused in full screen.

using mobile video for assessing progress
Students can go further with the video they capture of their performances and take video at different intervals during a unit. These videos can be exported to their MacBooks to take full advantage of the editing tools available in iMovie for OSX. Using slow motion, reversing the video direction, and using picture-in-picture we can get a detailed view of different aspects of performing a skill.
The aim here is to show progress in specific aspects of a skill. The product is a video that can be a central part of a student portfolio for P.E. These portfolios can be shared with parents and could be used as assessment evidence. But mostly, it's really nice for students to be able to see how far they've come, especially if they feel like they're not being successful at all. The video can often reveal the progress they've made individually instead of what may be the tendency to compare yourself to the best person in the class.

Nuts & Bolts: using mobile video

Creating videos - Making a bank of teaching videos can be a collaborative effort and once they're done, you can reuse them again and again. Also, you may want to consider having students produce them (Digital Media Team or Techxperts possibly?). Once you've done one in iMovie it's a really simple work flow to just duplicate the project and then insert the new video clips and text.

Getting Video On - Uploading videos to your YouTube or Vimeo channel and then emailing the link to the device (MS/HS iPad iPod) is an easy solution but requires good access to wifi (which we found, could be a limitation in some teaching spaces). Alternately, you could ask the IT Dept. to upload a set of teaching videos to iTunes on the devices if you had enough lead time (1 week).

Shooting tips - Turn the device to landscape, keep it still by holding with two hands and bracing, think about the angle - side, back front... what's best to see the action?, capture only the action - not before and after, shoot SHORT segments - less then 10 seconds is often sufficient for skills and several short segments are easier to deal with than one long continuous shot.

Getting Video Off - from the camera roll send email to individual email accounts if segments are short and there aren't too many. Alternately, plug the device in to the laptop and import to iPhoto or iMovie. DO NOT upload to a personal Facebook or YouTube account as the account details you enter will stay on the device and the next person to use it will be able to also access your private accounts!

Deleting - Take time at the end of a lesson to make sure all media has been deleted from the camera roll. Actually have the students show you the camera roll so you can verify that it's empty as you collect the devices back in.

Editing - Making a clip shorter can be done on the iPods, but that's about all you could comfortably do. If you want to edit directly on the device, iMovie on the iPads is one option. To do advanced edits (slow-mo, reverse, crop, p-in-p) you'll want to ramp up to iMovie on the MacBook.

Publishing - We have a college Vimeo account that could be used to publish exemplar videos as well as highlighting the best in the eDunia. Individually, if students have their own personal YouTube or Vimeo accounts they can publish there or they can all use their college Picasa accounts. Video loaded to these sites can be embeded in Mahara and become part of their ePortfolios.

Voicethread Log In

2011-12-08T21:28:00.001-08:00

Don't you hate it when you have a plan and it doesn't quite work out the way you want it to? Well, that's what happened to us on Wednesday during the Staff PD session. Who knew the iPad Voicethread App would give us a hard time?

We don't know why the app wasn't letting some people sign it - it was annoyingly random, but we now know how we can make it work. If, when you open the Voicethread App and you sign in, it says you don't have a flashplayer (see photo 1a) - what you have to do is create an account first (see photo 1b and 1c) and then it will - fingers crossed - all work fine.

Photo 1a

Photo 1b

Photo 1c

Formula for the Best Parent Workshop

2011-12-08T21:18:00.001-08:00

(Cross-posted at Tip of the Iceberg)

This little gem of an idea, came to the Digital Literacy Team at UWCSEA via Robyn Treyvaud, who had been visiting our school to work on the initiation of our generation safe project. Robyn's idea - so obvious I don't know why we hadn't thought of it before - was to include students in the presentation to parents about social networking.

We created a sign up sheet for our workshop, and asked parents to outline the sort of things they were concerned about and/or what they wanted to focus on. Below is a Wordle of parent concerns.

Jeff asked which students in the class he was teaching would be interested in sharing how they use social networking with parents. He got at least 10 students who were keen to help out. I must stress that students were not pre-selected - we only asked for interested individuals, and we didn't prep them as to what to say. Rather, we provided them with talking points to which they responded.

We scheduled a meeting at lunchtime where we shared a wordle of parent concerns, and they talked about their responses to the concerns, and explained to us the different ways they use social networking. It was fascinating just listening to them. At one point during the discussion, I thought, "We should be videoing this!" so turned on PhotoBooth (all that I had available at the time!) and listened.

Here are some short segments from that video which show the sort of things they were saying.

The following day, we had a huge turnout from parents. We sat one or two students at each table with parents, and did a brief presentation from the school's perspective.

We encouraged parents to ask the students about their concerns and turned it over to the kids. It was amazing to see the positive body language of the parents, and see how engaged both groups were in listening and talking with the other.

We asked for some verbal parent feedback at the conclusion of the session, and received some very lovely comments from the parents. One parent said from his discussions with the student at his table, he learned he needs to trust his children more, and involve himself in what they're doing.

Others spoke very highly of the students involved, and said it was much easier to talk to someone else's child about these sort of issues than have conversations with their own children. That said, they now felt more comfortable about initiating the discussions with their own children.

One of the most touching things I saw was one of our Grade 10 students giving the parents at her table her email address, with the words, "If you have any more questions, just send me an email." How great are our students?!

Great IWB Resource

2011-12-06T17:37:00.001-08:00

Noah Katz, one of the Digital Literacy Coaches at Dover came across this fantastic resource which he shared with me.

Triptico (designed by David Riley) is a FREE download which works very nicely in conjunction with IWBs. The free download gives you a number of desktop resources which are fully customizable.

What I love about them most of all is that they are so aesthetically pleasing! I have seen other countdown timers, but none that look as good as this one!

Below are a few examples of the tools in the Triptico IWB toolkit.

Hourglass - countdown timer

Class Timer - another countdown timer

Question Quiz - provide the answer and have students guess the question. Award points to teams if they guess correctly

Class Magnets - create a set of magnets for your class. You could get them to drag their names up to the board when they arrive to record attendance. There are lots of other different ways to use this tool, particularly if you select a different background from the ones on offer.

Find Ten - create a quiz of sorts, and get students to guess which 10 things match the category you choose.

Order Resource - This would work extremely well with Kath Murdoch's 'More True than False, More False than True' activity. Essentially, just order the statements.

What's in the Box - this is similar to the TV Show 'It's in the Bag'. You choose a box, then decide whether to keep it, or risk playing on.

Thinking Routines & the iPad

2011-12-05T17:00:00.001-08:00

The iPad is a great mobile device for recording students thinking on the go. When we combine the iPad, Harvard's Artful Thinking Palette, Harvard's Visible Thinking Routines and the free Voicethread app, a plethora of possibilities become available.

Sign in to Voicethread*, making sure that the domain you are signing in with is uwc.ed.voicethread.com - if not, click Edit, then type uwc.ed.voicethread.com then continue to sign in with your @gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg email/password from there.

If you have trouble with this process, check this link for some suggestions.

(*NB: non-UWCSEA teachers if your school has domain, as ours does, you can edit this on the sign in page, otherwise log in as normal)

I Used to Think, Now I Think
Used when students' thoughts, opinions & ideas might change over the course of a unit. (Click here for more details)

Students could draw and screenshot a picture that represents their initial thinking in a unit. Bring the image into Voicethread and explain their thinking. Follow up by repeating the activity at the culmination of the unit, and add to their initial Voicethread.

See, Think, Wonder
Sets the stage for inquiry. Usually used at the beginning because it stimulates curiosity. (Click here for more details)

Using a pre-selected photo, or one they have taken, create a Voicethread with 3 slides (photo repeated 3 times). Add narration over each slide - one for 'see', one for 'think', and one for 'wonder'.

Below is an example of a See Think Wonder about forces in Grade 2 MLN:

Compass Points
Compass points helps you extend your thinking. (Click here for more details)

East = Excited. What are you excited about?
West = Worrisome. What worries you?
North = Need to know. What more information do you require?
South = Stance/Suggestion. What are your next steps?

Have students take 4 photos representing the four points for a given topic (e.g. current Unit of Inquiry). Create a new Voicethread and have students narrate over the top, explaining their selections.

Beginning, Middle & End
This routine develops observation and imagination. (Click here for more details)

Have the students look at pre-selected image. Get them to choose either Beginning, Middle or End.
Beginning - if this is the beginning of the story, what do you think might happen next?
Middle - if it this is the middle of a story, what might have happened before? What might be about to happen?
End - If this is the end of a story, what might the story be?

Create a Voicethread with the image, and have students explain their thoughts through a voice comment.

Claim, Support, Question
This routine supports reasoning. (Click here for more details) This routine might be better suited to upper primary aged students.

Claim - Make a claim about the image/topic
Support - Identify support for your claim
Question - Ask a question related to your claim.

Using an image that represents your topic, add a voice comment for each section of this thinking routine. This may be 3 separate comments, or 3 slides with one comment on each.

Looking 10 x 2
Great for observation and descriptive skills. (Click here for more details)

Look at an image for 30 seconds. Try and list 10 words/phrases you see. Repeat these steps again, this time trying to list an additional 10 words/phrases you observe.

Add the image to Voicethread and add two voice comments to the image.
Tips
You might like to consider purchasing a camera connection kit to transfer images directly from your SD card to the iPad.

Alternatively, you can email images you wish students to see to the email address set up on your iPad. The students can add the images to the Photo Gallery from there by holding one finger on the image, then selecting save to Photo Gallery.
_________________________________________________________________________________

Credits
Magnifying Glass ( BY NC SD ) flickr photo shared by Lanzen
Compass ( BY NC ) flickr photo shared by Roland Urbanek
Cuff Links ( BY NC SD ) flickr photo shared by Oberazzi
Pale Blue 10 ( BY NC SD ) flickr photo shared by Caro's Lines

Publishing on the Web

2011-12-04T21:26:00.001-08:00

Why?
Having a class blog allows us access to added benefits to enhance student learning.

Some of them include:

Being able to share student learning with extended families/friends around the world. As an International school, our students come from many different places, and being able to share what's going on in (and out of) the classroom with others, enables us to stay more connected.
The ability to connect with other students/classrooms around the world. We would like to begin conversing with students in other countries and learn from/with them.
Interactivity - being able to add comments to our blog posts turns communication with parents into a conversation, rather than purely information. The students (and teachers) love knowing you have commented on their blog.
Learning gets extended beyond the classroom. Teachers may choose to highlight interesting websites for example, which parents can share with their children at home. Alternatively, a comment from a parent may spark an inquiry in class.
For teachers, the blog is a window into their classroom. This allows them to develop professional relationships with other teachers around the world, which in turn, improves their own practice.
The class blog is (for some) the beginning of a positive digital footprint for the children.

You might be interested in these 10 Reasons Students Should Blog written by 12 year olds in Australia.

Myth vs Reality

We would like to reassure parents that having a class blog is not a security risk or unsafe for their children.

In setting up the blogs, teachers have taken a number of precautions to ensure this is a positive experience for all concerned.

Firstly, teachers selected the option that meant their blogs would not appear in a Google Search. This means, that although 'publicly viewable,' it would be very difficult to stumble across them accidentally.

Secondly, teachers have turned comment moderation on. This means that before a comment appears on the blog, teachers need to approve it. They may decide not to publish a comment if they deem it unsuitable.

We will only refer to students by their first names, as a security precaution.

It is important to know that many perceived 'fears' about being online are largely unfounded. There are a number of articles that address these concerns (some are linked below), and we invite parents to have a read through and hopefully allay some of their worries.

Six Myths about keeping kids safe online
The Myth of Online Predators
Online sexual predators, Myths and Facts
Online Safety 3.0: Empowering an Protecting Youth

Best Practices:

We welcome parents' feedback and encourage comments on the class blogs. Below is the information we share with students when they comment on blog posts.

Good comments:

are constructive, but not hurtful;
consider the author and the purpose of the post;
are always related to the content of the post;
include personal connections to what the author wrote;
answer a question, or add meaningful information to the content topic;
follow the writing process. Comments are a published piece of writing.

To subscribe via email, simply put your email address in the 'follow by email' box, and you will be alerted to new posts.

We hope you enjoy your child's class blog, and look forward to participating in the conversation.

Credits
Good Question ( BY ND ) flickr photo shared by e-magic
Boris ( BY NC SD ) flickr photo shared by ianus

Learning about blogs through blogs.

2011-11-20T07:07:00.000-08:00

If you're thinking of starting a blog for yourself or with your students, there are lots of good resources available. In this post, I'm going to draw upon some of the resources from other blogs in an attempt to structure a "blogging 101" guide for UWCSEA teachers.

What is a blog?
A blog is short for weblog. They are typically a chronologically-organized series of literature (or images or video) called "posts" created by an author (blogger) or group of authors about a particular topic.

Michael Hyatt describes the anatomy of an effective blog post this way (I've condensed it):

Lead Paragraph.
Relevant Image.
Personal Experience.
Main Body.
Discussion Question.

I also follow a few overall rules when writing my posts:
Make the posts short.
Use short paragraphs.
Keep short sentences.
Use simple words.
Provide internal links.

Why should you blog?
Steve Wheeler, Associate Professor of learning technology in the Faculty of Health, Education and Society at Plymouth University explains in his seven reasons why teachers should blog post. I've taken excerpts here.

From personal experience blogging is one of the most beneficial professional development activities I have ever engaged with. I learn more from blogging than I do from almost any other activity I participate in. Here are 7 good reasons why teachers should blog:

1) Blogging causes you to reflect.

2) Blogging can crystalise your thinking. In the act of writing, said Daniel Chandler, we are written. Sometimes we don't really know what we are thinking until we actually write it down in a physical format.

3) Blogging can open up new audiences.

4) Blogging can create personal momentum.

5) Blogging can give you valuable feedback.

6) Blogging can be creative.

7) Blogging can raise your game.

if you're think "yeah, but..." Jabiz Raisdana addresses the most common concerns of teachers starting out blogging (or trying to think of excuses not to) in his post deal with the fire. (I've edited)

I just wanted to share some misconceptions about blogging that I have overcome, in hopes that my sharing will help others.
You are publishing so everything has to be perfect. Write from your heart. Do what we ask kids to do. Reflect honestly, authentically. Be vulnerable and your admin and parent community will respect and appreciate your openness to show your learning.
Nobody cares what I have to say. If this is true for you, then it is true for your students. And if this is the case then lets all go home. We tell students that they matter. That they have a voice and that they should learn to share and express this voice. We tell them that when they talk to others, they will learn and grow from collaboration. We tell them that writing is an art, that you craft and improve over a life time. We tell them not to fear failure. We tell them to dig deep and find their passion. We tell them that they are special and that we want to hear what they think and feel….now just tell yourself those things when you don’t know what to write.
It has to all be about tech or education. Find things in your day that you find meaningful. I like to write about epiphanies I have in class. I like to write about ideas that worked and those that failed. I like to use my writing to connect with others, but really I use my writing to help me make sense of my teaching, my life, myself.
You have to blog everyday and all the time. Write when you feel you have no choice. Make it fun. Not a chore.
People who blog do nothing but spend time online. I have a full life with two kids, a wife, a voracious appetite for books and TV and many other hobbies. But I make time to write. I have a routine: Music and the couch- Me and the my words. Make one up. Stick to it.

Why should students blog?
This is a nice list (edits - mine) from Mrs. Ripp - why students should blog - my top ten.

I have written about it before, I will write about it again I am sure, so here is why students should blog:

They have an actual audience to write for. The writing is no longer just for me but the whole world.
You can track their writing progress.
It opens a dialogue. Students have a direct line to their teacher and to anyone else they are connected with. Blogging helps us write back to each other, but great blogging is like a conversation with questions and critique.
It establishes their internet identity in safe manner. By being on the internet and establishing a presence they are actively practicing staying safe rather than just talking about it.
They teach each other. Numerous times my students have corrected misconceptions or created new awareness of concepts being taught within our room. They become teachers rather than just students in our classroom and blogging allows them to continue that outside our classroom walls.
They are global citizens and global collaborators. We speak of creating global citizens but then forget to actually connect kids with kids. My students know where places in the world are because they speak to kids from those places.
Transparency. Too often teachers shut their doors to the world rather than sharing the amazing things we concoct along with or students. Blogging opens up that door and shows the whole world what is happening.
They become aware of themselves as writers. Students start to create their own essence as a writer first playing around with fonts but then creating tag lines for their blogs and deciding how they want to present themselves to the world as writers.
I can easily check in on their learning. When my students blog about a concept I can quickly see whether they are understanding the essential concepts or need another learning opportunity.
You give them a voice. Students need a way to express themselves to take ownership of their learning, so through our blog students tell the world their thoughts on education, their learning and their needs. I am a better teacher because of their blogging.

How do you set up a blog in Mahara?

How do you organize your reading?
We suggest organizing your blog reading by using an RSS reader like Google Reader
By using Reader, you'll "subscribe" the the blog and every time it is updated, the unread items appear in your Reader. Once you read the, they go away. This is a simple way to keep track of the potentially prolific writing generated by all of your students. Your students will want to set-up Reader as well so that they can follow each others writing, any classes you're collaborating with, or blogs that the class recommends.
Reader allows you to make Bundles, which are groups of blogs that you follow that you can share with others. By doing setting these up you make it easy to share a whole group of blogs at one time.
Here are some bundles that I've created for teachers.

What about comments?
Commenting encourages conversation and allows a level of engagement between writer and reader that doesn't exist in other types of writing.
Jabiz Raisdana has compiled a list of comment prompts for students and combined it with a good list of guidelines for student commenting from Clint Hamada that I'm including here.

Be respectful, kind and honest. This is no place to be offensive in any way, shape or form! It is okay to disagree with somebody - it’s even encouraged! – but do so in a respectful manner. Make sure that whatever you write as a comment you would be willing to say to somebody in a face-to-face conversation and you would be willing to repeat in the classroom.
Read before participating. If you are new to the site, take some time to read previous posts to get an idea of what is acceptable. If you are new to the thread, be sure to read the post or topic and the comments that have been written before you.
Make sure your comment adds value to the discussion. Avoid comments that only agree or disagree with a previous post. Be sure you include supporting details in your comment. Also, make sure you comment stays on the current topic.
Communicate clearly. Before submitting your comment check it for typos and grammar mistakes. Do not use slang, abbreviations or TXTSPK unless it is a site where everybody (including your teacher!) will understand it and it is relevant to the topic.
Never use ALL CAPS. It is the same as shouting at somebody and is considered aggressive. It is also a good way to get your message deleted from lots of sites.
Use smileys, emoticons and formatting when appropriate. These help explain the tone of your message. It is very easy to be misunderstood if you do not use them, especially if you are joking!
Don’t be afraid to admit mistakes. If you make a mistake that somebody later corrects, be sure to write a comment saying so. If you change your point of view because of the discussion be sure to acknowledge that.
Problems with other users. If you have a problem with another user, contact the moderator or the administrator privately.
Don’t feed the trolls.
Remember the Golden Rule. It is very easy to misinterpret what you read in the comments because you cannot hear that person’s tone of voice and you cannot see their body language. (If you’re not sure of what was meant, just ask the person to clarify!) This is why it is very important to communicate clearly! Keep in mind the Golden Rule: It’s not just what you say, but how you say it!

Further resources: my "blogging" links in diigo.

2011 Global Education Conference

2011-11-13T16:24:00.000-08:00

We'd like to promote a wonderful professional development opportunity available online, focused on Global Education, for FREE. It's time for the 2011 Global Education Conference! The conference kicks off Tuesday at 12:00AM with a keynote from Alan November and continues all week with online sessions every hour around the clock.

This schedule link is in local GMT +8 time.

To participate, visit the conference Ning and sign-up. Then, you'll log in to the session and the Eluminate utility to participate in the sessions you'd like to see.

The ups and downs of social networks - new research.

2011-11-12T03:48:00.000-08:00

Trimpers Cobra Roll by Scott Ableman/

The Pew Research Center, as part of their ongoing Internet and American Life project, have just released a report called Teens, kindness and cruelty on social network sites. As the title implies, the latest research provides us insight into the widely varying experiences that teens have when participating in social networks ranging from very positive to horribly cruel and everywhere in between.

The main aim of the survey was, as stated by the report:

As they navigate challenging social interactions online, who is influencing their sense of what it means to be a good or bad “digital citizen”? How often do they intervene to stand up for others? How often do they join in the mean behavior?

The results where compiled from 799 12-17 year-olds living in the United States. Though I believe there would be some differences in our population of students at UWCSEA, I do expect the major trends to be similar. 95% of the respondents reported being online and 80% of that group participate in social networks, the most dominant of those, of course, is Facebook (93%).

69% of social media-using teens report that their interactions are mostly kind. They reported that social networks make them feel closer to people they interact with and make them feel better about themselves.

Not surprisingly, there are plenty of bad experiences reported by the teens in the survey. 88% report witnessing cruel or mean behavior, though mostly they say it only happens "only once in a while." One in five teens say they themselves were bullied within the last 12 months, though this language has questionable meaning with teens who often refer to this kind of behavior as "drama." Most commonly, the bullying happened in person and to a lesser extent in other ways including (in order greatest to least) via text message, online, or by phone.

If teens experience meanness, cruelty, or bullying online, we suggest they:

Don't respond.
Save evidence by taking a screen shot.
Block the person and report them for abuse to the service provider.
Tell a trusted adult (parent, teacher, counselor, tutor, etc.)

A bigger problem is that only about 1/3 of students who say the witness cruel or mean behavior online ever seek advice on how to respond to it. This problem of standing by and watching rather than doing something about it is an obvious target of our attention and education efforts. We like to use the phrase "stand up, don't stand by" when speaking to students about how they can actually get involved.

Returning to the original question about who is influencing the behavior of teens online, the respondents point first to parents followed by teachers as being influential sources of information on digital citizenship. We are the people they look to above other sources to learn how to behave appropriately and for advice when they have negative experiences.

Here are some resources that can help guide those conversation:

What has worked for you and your family?

Learning with Laptops and Lanschool

2011-11-07T20:28:00.000-08:00

Laptops in the hands of our student present an enormous array of opportunities for learning. They also present several significant challenges that we must work to overcome, especially for those of us who are relatively new to a one-to-one learning environment. There are several things that a teacher can do to maximize the potential for learning and minimize the challenges.

Why?
Always begin with the why. Why are students going to be using technology in this lesson? What is the learning?

These questions are the critical first step in defining what you use and how you use it. As you plan your instruction, consider how you're using the technology. The SAMR model by Dr. Puentedura can help elucidate the different ways we can use technology in learning.

Spacing and Timing
The deployment of technology in time and space in a lesson can eliminate a lot of distraction and maximize the learning.

Time the technology so that it doesn't "compete" with other activities. Maybe that means starting with large group discussion and then breaking out into small group work with the laptops. The leave the laptops in the bag until they actually need them.

It's also important consider the spatial arrangement of the room. When students are working in groups, do the all need to be on their laptops or can you do three or four students to one computer. As Sugata Mitra points out, it can be really effective way to learn with a group of people around asking questions and giving encouragement to the person driving the computer.

A great post was written by Bianca Hewes on Edmodo about matching the physical arrangement to the learning goal in both online and offline learning activities. She advocates for three spaces, though I think you could easily come up with more: The Campfire - a place to learn from experts or storytellers. A place for whole-group discussions, The Watering Hole - a space for small group discourse and collaboration, The Cave - a space for individual study, reflection, quiet reading and creative flow.

Take care to arrange the physical space in your room and choose the right online environments depending on the type of interaction you're looking for.

LanSchool

This is a tool that you can use to accomplish a variety of tools in your class.

Including:

Instant Polling

Testing
Share your screen
Share student screen
Blank screens
Control Web access
Control App access
Send/Receive files
Take over student computer

and more.

There are great tutorials that show you all the features of LanSchool.

A really important thing to keep in mind however is that there are significant issue with student privacy. When they join your class, you potentially have access to their entire file structure and could take over control of their machine. It pays to have a conversation with the students in advance of using LanSchool and to establish with them the "rules of engagement" for using this tool in the class.

How will you use LanSchool in your class? How are you finding it? Please share by commenting on this post.

Show Me The Learning

2011-11-07T16:45:00.000-08:00

The Digital Literacy Coaches have put together a site for today's Professional Learning day centred around ways we can demonstrate student and teacher learning.

Please click the link below to access the site.

https://sites.google.com/a/gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg/show-me-the-learning/

Adding a Picasa Slideshow to Your Blog

2011-11-02T23:03:00.000-07:00

To get started, make sure you have the iPhoto to Picasa Web Uploader installed.

1. Select the photos you would like to share from your iPhoto Library.

2. Click on File -> Export

3. Click on Picasa and make sure you have Better Quality selected.

4. Sign in to Picasa with your Google Apps account.

5. Click Allow access.

6. Fill in any more details (e.g. album name etc) and click Export.

7. Click on view to go to Picasa & see your album

8. Make sure your album is Public on the Web. Click on Link to this Album.

9. Click on Embed Slideshow

10. Select Large and copy the embed code in the box at the bottom.

11. Switch over to your blog and open the post you want to put the slideshow in. Create a post title, write your text, and don't forget to add some labels (Keywords).

To add the slideshow, click on the HTML button (top left).

12. Go to the end of the text, then Paste the embed code you copied earlier.

13. Click on Compose again, and you should see your slideshow embedded in your blog post. You can continue and publish from there.

iPhoto to Picasa

2011-11-02T21:59:00.000-07:00

Picasa Web Albums Plug In

All teachers have a Picasa Web Album account with their gapps account. Go to https://picasaweb.google.com and log in using your gapps email and password.

To make it easier to upload photos to Picasa you can download a plug in for your iPhoto. Go to http://picasa.google.com/mac_tools.html to download the plug in and follow the instructions:

1. Click on 'Download Now'

2. Accept and Install

3. Click 'Continue'

4. Click 'Continue'

5. Click 'Continue'

6. Click 'Install'

7. Add in your name and password

8. Click 'Close'

9. When you open iPhoto, go into your album, select photos to export, click Export (found in the file menu) and you will see the Picasa Web Uploader

For further instructions on how to add a Picasa Web Album to a blog click here

Blogging in the Infants

2011-10-31T22:17:00.000-07:00

It is almost Blog time!

We are ready to take our blogs that were started previously and;

a) add in the school logo

b) add in a personalized header

(Thanks to Mandy and Sinead, in the communications department, for creating this template for us)

There are many steps to this process but most steps are quite easy.
Before you start, make sure you have downloaded the BloggerTemplate.xml file (see below this paragraph). It would also be helpful if you have a photo you would like in your header - something artistic, something that involves the school, something of your students etc

BloggerTemplate.xml file

Part A - Adding in the school logo

1. First things first, sign in to blogger:

2. Choose which of your blogs you would like to work on and at the top of the page and at this time switch back to the old blogger interface (it is circled below, it says 'switch back'):

Now you should be looking at a page that looks something like this:

3. Click on the word 'Design' that appears under your blog name:

4. Click on 'Edit HTML':

5. Click on 'Upload a template from a file' and when prompted choose the BloggerTemplate.xml file that you downloaded earlier:

I found mine in under lph/downloads:

6. After you have chosen the file simply click on 'Upload'. When prompted to keep widgets or discard them, choose to keep them:

7. Your changes will have been saved and you can now look at your blog:

Part B - Adding in a personalized header

a. Choose a photo you want in your iPhoto Library.

b. Duplicate it (by selecting ⌘ D)

c. Click on edit & tick constrain

d. Choose custom and type in the dimensions 760 x 200

e. Crop your photo. It is now ready for the next stage of proceedings.

1. Click on 'Page Elements' at the top of the page and then click on 'Edit' found below the Header Image box:

2. Click on 'Choose File' and at the same time ensure that the 'Shrink to Fit' box is ticked:

3. Choose the photo from your photo library that you would like to appear at the top of your blog:

4. Click on 'Save':

5. Your changes should have now been saved and you can view your blog:

Hopefully your blog will now look something like this (with the school logo at the top and your photo under the school logo):

Remember to include a Post Title and some Labels (keywords) to help your post be found easily in the future.

Let us know if you have any questions and good luck with your first blog post!

G5 Photography with the iPod Touch

2011-10-18T03:45:00.000-07:00

I had a blast with G5 AMC recently, showing them a couple of tips about Photography, together with some iPod Touch Apps for taking/editing pictures.

Talking to colleague (and photographer extraordinaire) David Caleb allowed me to share the following key tips:

Perspective - try different approaches to a shot. 'Bird's Eye View' and 'Worm's Eye View' give a different look/feel to your photos.
Stay Steady - lean on something, or lock your elbows in - whatever - to help keep your iPod Touch still when you take the photo.

The apps we explored were:

Camera+ - 99c - the editing features of this app make it a complete bargain buy at 99c in my humble opinion. It makes photos taken in poor light that would otherwise be unusable, suddenly have value again. The scenes, effects & borders are my favourite features, and the G5s certainly enjoyed experimenting with them.

TiltShiftGenerator - $2.99 - The app description explains, "By throwing out of focus things that ought to be in focus, scenes appear as if in miniature." This allows some wonderful effects, where a blur can be applied to the exterior of a line, or a circle in your image.

ProHDR - $1.99 - This app takes two images at different dynamic ranges, and merges them together to create an image with excellent exposure. It's great for shooting architecture, particularly where there are shaded sections contrasted with brighter light.

Adobe Photoshop Express - Free - this free app has some basic editing features (crop etc) and some neat effects you can apply to your photos.

Students spent 10 -15 minutes capturing pictures using these apps (sometimes in combination), and then came back to the class for 10 - 15 minutes editing and emailing them to themselves for use in class work later. I hope you enjoy the following examples of their work.

Alex used TiltShiftGen then imported the finished
product into Photoshop Express & changed the
saturation levels

Iris used Camera+ for this image, with an Emo effect
& vignette

Casper took this with ProHDR

Nikhita took this with TiltShiftGen

Florence used Camera+ for this shot
of our diablos

Jackson used Camera+ for this
picture of our wall

Dylan & Adhwaith used TiltShiftGen
to take this shot down our empty
hallway

Jackson used Camera+ with a vignette for this image

Mahara - Sharing a Journal

2011-10-11T20:21:00.000-07:00

By default, any content students create in Mahara, including their journals, is private to them. This is a feature built in to the platform that is actually reinforcing the desired model of having students make considered choices of what they publish and share.
The idea is that students select the artifacts that best represent their learning for a particular purpose, whether this is a class, activity, tutor group, or parent audience.

This video demonstrates how to simply share an entire Journal by creating and sharing a page in Mahara.

Parent Coffee Morning 1: Social Networks

2011-10-06T01:08:00.000-07:00

The Digital Literacy Team at East is pleased to welcome parents to our first Coffee Morning - this time focusing on: Social Networks: Why they matter, and how you can help your child develop a positive online presence.

We looked first at what was worrying you about Social Networks. Here is a wordle which shows your concerns:

The Digital Literacy Team has looked carefully at these. We have examined recent research, talked with students and other parents and teachers to put together some information regarding these issues. We hope you can see your concerns as opportunities to open the doors of communication with your child.

1. Time

How much time with technology is too much? What's appropriate for a child at a particular age? The answers to these questions will be different for every family, and depend on a variety of factors - making it a difficult one to answer!

The DLT team recommends having a discussion with your child about what is reasonable. Homework, outdoor play, relaxation etc are some of the considerations to think about. Obviously the age of the child makes a difference too.

We advocate a balanced approach, where screen time is only part of a set of varied after school activities.

Common Sense Media has some great articles on managing screen time:

So Many Screens

Setting Screen Limits

2. Contact with Strangers

One concern we hear often from parents is the worry that students will be contacted by strangers, who may try to track them down and possibly attempt to meet them. The statistical probability of this actually happening is very low.

Dr. David Finkelhor (director of the Crimes against Children Research Center), in a panel discussion entitled 'Just the Facts About Online Youth Victimization' states,

"Our research, actually looking at what puts kids at risk for receiving the most serious kinds of sexual solicitation online, suggests that it’s not giving out personal information that puts kid at risk. It’s not having a blog or a personal website that does that either. What puts kids in danger is being willing to talk about sex online with strangers or having a pattern of multiple risky activities on the web like going to sex sites and chat rooms, meeting lots of people there, kind of behaving in what we call like an internet daredevil."

For more information, you might like to read the following articles:

The Myth of Online Predators

'Juvenoia' Part 1 - Why Internet Fear is Overrated

Internet via Crimes Against Children Research Center

Six Myths About Keeping Kids Safe Online

3. Digital Footprint

A digital footprint is not necessarily something to fear! Will Richardson, writing for the journal Educational Leadership states:

As the geeky father of a 9-year-old son and an 11-year-old daughter, one of my worst fears as they grow older is that they won't be Googled well. Not that they won't be able to use Google well, mind you, but that when a certain someone (read: admissions officer, employer, potential mate) enters "Tess Richardson" into the search line of the browser, what comes up will be less than impressive. That a quick surf through the top five hits will fail to astound with examples of her creativity, collaborative skills, and change-the-world work. Or, even worse, that no links about her will come up at all. I mean, what might "Your search did not match any documents" imply?

We want to help students develop a positive online presence, ensuring they understand the 'stickiness' of online information, and how to make good decisions about what is shared publicly.

4. Distractions

Part of learning to work effectively in the 21st Century involves managing distractions. Recognizing that homework may take longer if you are distracted, and taking steps to reduce that distraction is an important part of growing up for today's students.

Some of the suggestions we gathered from students, parents and teachers may help:

- Put your Skype on invisible so others think you are offline.
- Turn off Chat in Facebook/Google Chat
- Turn off Twitter notifications (or turn it off entirely)
- Work in a public place (e.g. Kitchen table), so other people can keep you on task
- Take regular breaks
- Set targets and reward with social networking check-ins
- Make homework a family time, where everyone works at the same time
- Work in Fullscreen view, to eliminate 'visual noise'
- Download Self Control, an OSX app that allows users to block certain websites for predetermined time periods.

Common Sense Media's article on Managing Multitasking provides suggestions at different age levels, which you may find a helpful starting place.

5. Access to Inappropriate Content

At UWCSEA we are of the opinion that educating students about what to do when coming across inappropriate content is the most effective long-term strategy. We can't control what people put on the Internet, but we can control our reaction to it.

As part of our school-wide focus on Digital Citizenship, teachers discuss strategies students can use if/when they come across inappropriate content. Some suggestions include:

- Closing the window
- Covering it with your hand
- Changing your search terms
- Letting a teacher know
- Scrolling down the page
- Hitting the 'back button'

We encourage students to be responsible, and not make a big fuss - the worst thing they can do is to draw attention to it.

6. Kids Knowing More Than You

The short answer is, they probably do! That doesn't mean they don't require teacher/parental support in using technology.

You can help by staying interested in what your kids are doing. If they are interested in a particular game, ask them to teach you how to play. Talk to them about what they like to do. Share your favourite YouTube videos. Just keep the conversations going!

Image Credits
cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by zoutedrop: http://flickr.com/photos/zoutedrop/2317065892/
cc licensed ( BY NC ND ) flickr photo by nuclear dwarf: http://flickr.com/photos/kafkapie/4182398090/
cc licensed ( BY NC SD ) flickr photo by escapedtowisconsin: http://flickr.com/photos/69805768@N00/3292899689/
cc licensed ( BY NC ND ) flickr photo by gadgetgirl: http://flickr.com/photos/gadgetgirl70/136334749/

Impact Posters in Grade One

2011-10-05T02:36:00.000-07:00

What's an Impact Poster you may ask? I had the exact same question! An Impact Poster uses a powerful image and a short sentence, quote, or piece of text to grab attention and highlight something of importance.

This week the Grade one students created Impact Posters to demonstrate their learning. Some classes focused on the current unit of inquiry (communities) and other classes chose to focus on what good readers do and / or the learner profile.

These are the steps we followed:

1) Good Searching
We discussed the importance of the words you put into a search box when looking for images. As a group we listed all the words we could think of to do with our topic. At this point we didn't judge any of the words or take any away, we decided to let the students find out which words yielded the best images.

2) Creative Commons Images
We discussed the importance of using Creative Commons images as a way of being a good digital citizen.

3) Inappropriate Images
We can't control what people put on the internet but we can control our reactions to it. We took the time to list all the ways that we can deal with an image that makes us uncomfortable (close the program, scroll down, just ignore it, close your eyes, cover the screen with your hand, tell an adult and ask for help are just a few of the things our six year olds came up with)

4) Appropriate Images
After finding the image that best suited the individual students thinking the image was put into a folder on a shared drive so the whole class could access the collected bank of images. Share and share alike.

5) Adding Text
The next job for the students was to pop the photo into a keynote. We used keynote as it is easy to click and drag images in and to add a text box. We wrote our statements on paper first so we could edit the spelling before we went to print.

What did I learn?
I learned many things while working with our wonderfully creative Grade One students. First off I learned that what I think of as inappropriate and what they think of as inappropriate are two vastly different things. An image of a basement was deemed too scary to see and therefore not appropriate (and here I was worried about naked bodies!). Secondly I learned that I have to find a better way to credit the photos we use from Compfight and Flickr Advanced. For now I am going around after them adding in the credit - so not the correct thing to do! I'm thinking about trying Attribution Helper but we'll see.

Some Resources
- a blog post about Impact Posters from Keri-Lee Beasley
- a Flickr Group with great examples Great Quotes about Learning and Change

Some Examples

Teamwork makes blogging better.

2011-09-26T14:55:00.000-07:00

Blogging is a great way to communicate about the learning going on in your classroom. The challenge however for new bloggers to overcome is the idea of how this medium is different than the "way we've always done it."

One way that blogging is different than emailing or posting a newsletter is that these forms of communication are often more formal, formulaic, and one-way. Blogging is a really versitile forum for sharing the learning in your class. You can easily incorporate images, movies, sound recordings, and a whole host of Web 2.0 applications that make every blog a unique reflection of the style of it's owner.

By their nature, blogs can foster great conversations and can be used to connect school-learning with learning at home. For example, you could post an image of something captured with the digital microscope, ask a question, and watch the comments as students along with their parents continue the learning together.

This creative potential of blogs however can be daunting for first-time bloggers. At the same time, there can be unease about shining light into what is often a very private space.

These uncertainties are magnified when an entire group of teachers starts blogging together. We wonder how our blogs will measure up to the others on our team and in our school.

So here's a bit of advice... we are all different, have different teaching styles, and our blog should reflect that diversity. Blogs should be real. They should be personal. They should not be standardized to the point where we all post the same things at the same time. If you want to do that, send a collaborative newsletter.

But, if you want to reflect the rich diversity of experience and professional practice you bring to bear, then blogging is for you. Here are some tips for getting started with your team.

Choose a common launch date. By picking a launch date that's a reasonable date in the future, the team can all launch their blogs at the same time and we won't have some teachers feeling the pressure to post just because the others have already done so.
Build up a bank of content before the launch. Blog posts can take on a variety of forms limited only by your imagination. I found this great list of 64 different class blog posts (embeded below). Don't know where to start? Choose one of the prompts and have a go. By having a bank of draft posts, you can easily pull one in from the bank if you're having an especially busy week.
Blog for each other first. In order to meet #2, as a team, select a blogging prompt and by the next team meeting agree that everybody will come with a draft post that they'll show to the group. This does three things, it will help build up your bank of content, everybody on the team will have a good idea of the "standard" of how others are posting, and it will allow peer coaching as members of the team introduce new formatting, features, and eventually Web 2.0 add-ons.
Communicate with the parents about the launch of your blog. Let them know why you're blogging, the kinds of things you plan to post and how you expect to use commenting. Promote the launch date and let them know that you'd appreciate them reading and sharing the blog with important people in their child's life (Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, etc.).
Debrief and adjust. After the blogs launch, it's important for the team to get back together and talk about how it's going. A good protocol could be to just spend time highlighting a post from each person on the team. As new tools and techniques creep into the team's blogs, make sure they are highlighted and shared among the group so that you all skill-up together.

List of 64 Ideas for Class Blogs via Free Technology For Teachers by Richard Byrne

Changing Your Password

2011-09-25T17:40:00.000-07:00

Please see the screencast below to show how to change your password via the school website www.uwcsea.edu.sg

Blogging in the Infant School

2011-09-21T00:20:00.000-07:00

Blogging is a way to help communicate what's going on in your classroom with an audience that includes parents. It makes the learning going on in your class visible and provides a forum for interaction via commenting. (Here are some examples of Kinder blogs Mrs. Wills, Zoe Page)

Our teachers in the infant school are using Blogger as the platform for their class blogs. The expectation is that they'll post at least every two weeks beginning Nov. 4. The blog should reflect the individuality of each classroom and the "style" of the teacher. Some classrooms are very visual and we'd expect these teachers to share lots of photos and video examples while other teachers will prefer to write more descriptive, text posts.

1. Getting started with Blogger

2. Adding Comment Moderation

3. Adding Gadgets

4. Preview & About Me

5. Writing your first post

Claymation - 3rd Time Lucky!

2011-09-19T07:38:00.000-07:00

This is the third year Margot and I have worked on a claymation project with the Grade 5s, and we both feel this is the year that everything is coming together!

I have written about our adventures with animation here and here, so you can see a bit of the history.

This year, we are again connecting with the Grade 5 unit entitled Voices.

Central idea: "Through the arts we tell our stories of who we are: our beliefs, our values and our experiences"

What's different this year?

This year, we are making more of a connection to Art.

The students have been instructed to select a piece of abstract art that interests them, and use it as an inspiration for their animation. We showed them this delightful claymation that shows the sort of thing we envisioned.

It's been great to see the diversity in the works of art the students have chosen. We are confident they will be able to express themselves creatively through having selected a work of art that interests them.

This year, we have more measures in place to make kids successful.

Hafiz, the fabulous new TA for art has personally tested the best positioning of the macbooks and the animation stages, and constructed some 90 degree wooden frames to help keep the macbooks in the same position each time.

The more consistency kids can have in keeping their macbooks still, the better their finished product.

This year, we have provided more scaffolding.

Due to time constraints, we launched straight into the projects last year. This year, we have included time to play and learn some claymation techniques. We asked the students to roll a ball back & forth, make it disappear, then explore some other ways of moving. Below you can see Kelly & Maia's first experimentation with claymation.

5 Fab Ideas for Effective Online Research

2011-09-18T21:52:00.000-07:00

Over the past few days, UWCSEA has been lucky enough to have Apple Guru Kathleen Ferenz visit our school. She has been a fabulous resource for me personallyas a Digital Literacy Coach, but also for the groups of teachers she has worked with.

One of Kathleen's many strengths is in Literacy, and she has given us lots of handy hints to do with helping students make sense of online texts, research techniques and some strategies for developing effective research skills.

Many of her ideas come from this great article 'Making Sense of Online Text' which is extremely relevant today, even though it was written in 2004!

Please know that the following Fab Ideas for Effective Online Research are Kathleen's - I am merely sharing them around.

1. Start with images

The right search words are the keys to unlocking the information you are searching for. Kathleen recommended showing students a photo of the sort of thing they would be searching for online to elicit keywords. By way of example, she showed an image of a volcano, and then asked students to think of the keywords that might describe the image. She then used the words the students gave as a starting point for a search.

2. Narrow search by Reading Level

A neat little addition to the 'more tools' section of the Google search results is the ability to search by reading level. I'm not sure how, but I had missed this gem.

3. Scaffold

Our Grade 6 students have been researching about the UWC movement and the other UWC schools around the world. They worked collaboratively on Google Docs to find information under various categories, with the view to making a Keynote presentation later on.

Although the teachers took care to direct students to retain the URL of their sources etc, the Google Docs quickly became a receptacle for work that had been copied and pasted.Kathleen got the students to set up a table in Pages to help summarize and organise their data. This helped bridge the gap between the 'research' and the Keynote.

Too often, students are not provided with enough scaffolding, and as a result, the finished product lacks a depth of understanding. This scaffold will help our students be more successful in their presentation.

4. Summarize & Transform

As part of the scaffolding process, students were asked to summarize their findings into bullet points, which was a great start of course. Where I think Kathleen really raised the bar was when she asked the kids to transform their notes into audio form. The process of transforming written text into a different form (in this case, audio) really made them think about what they had learned, and what was important. It helped put the notes into their own words and moved them away from copying.

Throughout her time at UWCSEA, Kathleen used the technique of transforming text. Occasionally it was creating/finding an image that represented a particular word, sometimes it was a movie recording, sometimes audio. I will definitely be adding this technique to my research toolbox.

5. Search Stories

How do you assess a student's search skills? When Kathleen asked this question to a group of teachers, it certainly made them stop and think. Typically, the skills of searching and synthesizing are seldom assessed, and instead, the quality of a summative task/presentation becomes the assessment.

Using screen capture tools (e.g. Quicktime player) or a specially created video tool to help with the process, students can record their screen and show the process they use to search for relevant information. Google calls these 'Search Stories' (see amusing example here).

[Although this post is primarily about researching, it would be remiss of me not to mention that Search Stories could be used as a basis for literacy - developing storylines, uncovering the plot with each new search category, character development...]

I would like to thank Kathleen for all her support, ideas and above all, her warmth! I hope you find these ideas as useful as we have.

Image credits:
Kathleen Coaching by Keri-Lee Beasley
Volcano Erupting ( BY NC SD ) by kahunapulej
UWCSEA by Keri-Lee Beasley
Singapore map via Google Maps

Students (and Teachers) make self-grading quizzes with Google Forms and Flubaroo

2011-09-08T23:42:00.000-07:00

It's easy to use Google Forms to collect information for surveys and manage sign-ups, but you can also use them for assessments. Geography students are using the Flubaroo script installed in a Google Form to create ten question quizzes for each other.

We spent most of a double period creating the quizzes that they will share with everybody in the class. The link to the quiz can be shared by email or posted to a class website or the quizzes themselves can be embeded on a page. When students take the quiz, the script checks their answers against the key created by the author of the quiz and returns their results immediately via email.
The teacher of the class meanwhile decided to create a Google Form to collect peer feedback of newspaper articles that were written by students in the class. He simply turned his paper-based question guide into a form. This will allow him to gather all the responses in one spreadsheet so he can easily look them over.

5 Reasons to get started with Diigo

2011-08-22T07:00:00.000-07:00

Organise - As you bookmark each page, tag it with keywords, which makes it easier to find later. You can tag sites with multiple tags.

Highlight - Select interesting passages from the text of the website and highlight them for quick reference later. This is great for those undertaking any research, particularly if you are working on a University paper or Masters.

Annotate - Add sticky notes to websites with important annotations, to help you remember key points or which part of your research that particular site relates to. These can be publicly viewable (or not) if you choose.

Share - One of the main differences between Diigo and regular bookmarking is that you can share your bookmarks with others. You can join or create groups for specific areas of interest, search others' bookmarks and share your research findings. Many hands make light work!

Education Accounts - registering for a free Diigo for Education account means you get access to a teacher console which enables you to create accounts for your students.

Why not set up a group for your class and have them search for useful websites at home? That way, you can maximize your face-to-face time by using the most useful websites, rather than spending valuable class time searching for information.

Check out the video below to learn more about Diigo, or catch your nearest Digital Literacy Coach to help you get started.

Diigo V5: Collect and Highlight, Then Remember! from diigobuzz on Vimeo.

Taking attendance for a a class that's not on your timetable.

2011-08-21T22:00:00.000-07:00

Occasionally, teachers will be asked to cover for colleagues who can't themselves be there. In these cases, you need to be able to mark attendance for a class that's not on your timetable. Here's how (thanks to Hemantha Dissanayake for the screen shots).

How to take attandance for another teacher from United World College of SE Asia on Vimeo.

Linking to other sites from your Studywiz course page.

2011-08-21T21:37:00.000-07:00

This tutorial shows you how you can use your Studywiz course page to link to other sites like a blog, or Google site. The suggested process has you editing the course's Information page. You can put different types of information here like a course overview simply by pasting from an existing document or writing with the editing tools. Building a list of links to other relevant course sites just means typing their names, highlighting them, then using the "link" button on the editor to get a window where you enter your URL.

Untitled from United World College of SE Asia on Vimeo.

Presentations - design matters

2011-08-17T20:24:00.000-07:00

During our Professional Learning meeting in the Primary School, we focused on improving our presentations to parents.

Our core message was that less is more. We encouraged teachers to think from the perspective of their audience, and focused on 2 easy ways to improve the design of presentations:

Use fabulous images
Use less text

Fazree kindly videoed our presentation, and we will post it up here when it's ready to go.

In the meantime, please feel free to check out our slides (if you check the presenter notes you can see our prompts).

**Reminder**
To access the UWCSEA templates (keynote and/or powerpoint), connect to the stafffs server and look under college admin.