Whilst looking through some resources on the ePotential, I came across a video that was made about my classroom (as well as others). It was shot in 2006 and this was the last year I taught at Essendon Nth Primary School. Renee Hoareau, Executive Officer from VITTA was on the production team.
Find more videos like this on Classroom 2.0
Add comment November 25th, 2008
Our very first online conference is fast approaching. The WMR Ultranet Team has been sponsored by the Knowledge Bank, DEECD to host an online conference.
The purpose of our conference is to support our teachers and leaders in the Western Metropolitan Region, as well as others from around the state and globe. Our three key themes are Create, Collaborate and Communicate. Our program is designed around these themes with a look at tools such as wikis and blogs, digital stories, mobile technologies, and strategies around thinking, cyber-safety, budgeting and resourcing for effective eLearning.
We have some wonderful presenters lined up with Kym Nadebaum as our keynote presenter. Kym’s session “The Song Remains the Same” is sure to raise as many ICT questions as it answers. Other presenters include Anne Mirtschin, Stephen Palmer, Tony Richards, Peter Davis, Trudy Brentnall, Louise Bowe, Rob Pyers, Colin Schot and Martin Mielimaka and the Ultranet Team.
Our online presentations run between October 7th and 9th. To support these sessions we have also planned hands on workshops between October 21st and 30th. So I guess, it is a hybrid – virtual and f2f.
A full program can be seen on our Ning and on our wiki. You can also join our Ning and create your own profile.
A poster can be seen here – now-conference-poster.
Hope others can make it too 
Add comment September 13th, 2008
Since 2000 I have been dabbling in the use of digital portfolios with my primary school aged students. Back in 2000, the teachers at my school experimented with dubbing school events, such as excursions and special days, onto video tapes. Wow, was that an effort! Video recorders, banked on top of each other in order to save time. Argh!
We then started to redefine the purpose of the digital portfolios and develop some thinking about how to implement them. We wanted them to be a vehicle to not only showcase student digital work, but a place for students to reflect on their new understandings and challenges.
These were some of the important considerations. We wanted them to be -
With my class we had five main headings -
These headings were loosely associated with the Whole Brain Model by Hermann.
With each of these headings we brainstormed some of the possibilities for adding to the digital portfolio. What I found really interesting, and so did the students, was that the same topic/activity could be grouped under different headings. For example, a claymation about ‘Acid Rain’ could be added to the Creative Me, Organised Me or Investigative Me. Therefore, the students needed to justify why they were adding it to a particular section. Now that was powerful! Students would say things like -
‘Well, I had look up the information and find out things.” Investigative Me
“I had to make sure I was organised and on time.” Organised Me
The digital portfolios were are big part of the ongoing learning for the students, and built into the weekly planning by teachers. The students took great pride in their portfolios and were burned to CD for them to take home.
I wonder now how the Web 2.0 will impact on the purpose and implementation of the digital or e-portfolio?
Interesting times ahead I think.
7 comments August 4th, 2008
This week a 2nd Bloggers’ Feast was organised. Unfortunately the turn out wasn’t as big as the last, but the company was great and the conversations fun and interesting. Jo McLeay organised the night and invited Andrew Churches whilst he was here in Melbourne visiting schools with his colleagues.
It was a great opportunity to catch up again with Jo, who inspires me with the work she is doing with her students. I learnt on the night, that Jo has been blogging with her students now for three years. Wow, that is fantastic and a what a great positive role model for those just starting out in the field. I know that I will be tapping into her experiences and expertise more this year.
Andrew was a pleasure to meet f2f for the first time. I have been chatting with Andrew on Twitter and via our blogs this year. I can’t remember exactly how long, but do know that his work on tweaking Blooms Taxonomy of Thinking into the Digital Blooms was what caught my attention in a big way. It supported the work I was doing in my region with helping schools integrate technology and providing some good example of high-level thinking and learning with technology (and not just for the sake of it). So wow, got to meet the guy who wrote it. Awesome. And a great fun guy too.
IWBs were brought up on several occasions. Both these educators have a lot to offer in their beliefs and practical knowledge in the use of the boards for ages P – 12. A great rubric was discussed that was created for the use of Interactive Whiteboards by Juliette Major (Education Services, Catholic Education Office of Canberra and Goulburn). This is certainly a way for teachers to self-reflect on their use and generate discussions in our (WMR Ultranet Team) IWB forum coming up this month.
An excellent night! Thanks Jo and Andrew
4 comments July 26th, 2008
Professional Learning for teachers can take many different shapes and forms. There can be workshops, presentations, action research and peer coaching. Most recently Online Learning Networks have emerged through the Read/Write Web allowing teachers to learn anytime, anywhere.
In their research Joyce and Showers (pdf) tell us that Coaching (Peer Coaching) is the most effective way to ensure skills and knowledge are transferred to the classroom. We all know how easy it is to lose IT if you don’t use IT!
Type of training -
Theory: Knowledge Mastery = 85% Skill Acquisition =15% Classroom Application = 5-10%
Practice: Knowledge Mastery = 85% Skill Acquisition = 80% Classroom Application =10-15%
Coaching, Study teams, Peer visits: Knowledge Mastery = 90% Skill Acquisition = 90% Classroom Application = 80-90%
As a classroom teacher myself for many years, I fully appreciate the need to have the real person right there by your side or just around the corner to call on for support. However, I also see the great advantages of the read/write web and that there are many opportunities to call on support in an online world.
So I am very excited about the possibilities of Peer Coaching and developing Professional Online Learning Networks – especially in the area of embedding ICT across the school and the curriculum.
I am running training in the Western Metropolitan Region this semester and look forward to meeting many teachers from both primary and secondary levels.
Training dates :- August 26th and 27th, September 12th, October 20th, November 10th, December 4th
Add comment July 24th, 2008
Can we make a difference to student learning through the use of ICT? As a classroom teacher who has loved using ICT in her class for many years, I have to say YES! However, it has always been difficult to articulate why I have felt this.
Is it because students are more motivated? Or engaged? Or is more than that?
Is it because they are interacting more with each other, analysing their own and peer’s work, collaborating and creating products as a response to other learning? Reviewing, revisiting, rewriting? Reflecting and questioning?
Tonight I am reading an article by Carole Kimble, Ed. D called The Impact of Technology on Learning Making Sense of the Research 1999 (pdf download). It reminds me of some of my previous posts here on my blog about the way ICT is integrated or embedded into learning. Kimble explores the notion of doing more than just teaching the skills of technology. She highlights higher order thinking skills and problem-solving as way to maximise learning with ICT.
I recently had a comment on my blog by Jo McLeay about the way I think of ways that students can use new Web 2.0 tools to help them learn. I think as teachers we do this. However, not all teachers are on the same page with the use of ICT or with teaching and learning practices. And I guess the assumption that we all know how to effectively teach with ICT just because it has landed in our classroom, is one of the problems facing us now with so many advances in technology in such a short time.
Kimble writes, “Care must be taken to focus future research on understanding how learning and instruction should change to best use technology…”
As teachers or leaders I think we can make a difference to the learning of our students and each other. The ideas and the research explored in Kimble’s paper are certainly worth considering when I embark on delivering Peer Coaching training in my region this semester, and generally the work I do in schools.
4 comments July 14th, 2008
This is a photo taken on April 16th at the Dimboola Memorial Secondary College. DMSC put on a great 2 day conference to highlight their work with the Leading Schools Fund with the focus on technology in the classroom. Dimboola teachers were passionate about the use of their Interactive Whiteboards and had them set up in just about every classroom.
Here is a snapshot of how the IWBs were used -
Deputy Prime Minisiter Julia Gillard was there to acknowledge their wonderful work and was available for questions, chat and photos after her speech.
Obviously I took the photo opportunity
4 comments April 27th, 2008
“Hullo. I am Angelica. I am 5 years old. I really don’t have much of a past. In fact, I am the future.”
If we were to teach not only for today but also for tomorrow, what should we be teaching our students. Hedley Beare raises this question in his story about Angelica, a fictional 5 year old sitting in your classroom.
Today we asked teachers what they believed to be the most important 21st Century Skills were for our students. These were some of the comments -
I have set up a VoiceThread below and would love for you to add your comment.
2 comments April 24th, 2008
Where are you now? Oh, I see you. On the couch reading. Feet up. Using your laptop with a small snack by your side. Lights low. Music going, telly in the background. Did I just see you get up to get a drink?
With Information and Communication Technology (ICT) becoming more prominent in classrooms since I was in school (and most parents of our students these days) the physical layout has had to change somewhat to accommodate computers. In my experience I have seen a variety of ways that teachers and administrators have decided to arrange the technology in the classroom.
When I returned to teaching in 2000, computers were neatly positioned at the side of the classroom and students would sit facing the wall to do their work independently as part of rotations.
Then as a school we moved to positioning the computers at each table cluster. There was normally 4 table clusters in a room. This meant the students would have a computer at their table without having to leave. They often worked in pairs or in groups.
In my last classroom in this school I was lucky enough to be part of the pilot for laptops in a classroom. We had four laptops in my room and they no longer needed to be neatly set up against a wall or positioned at a table. They were free to roam around for learning to take place anytime anywhere! And boy did it!
I would have to say that when we moved from computers fixed to walls to becoming mobile units that could be used anywhere in the room to anywhere in the yard, then this was the time learning took off in my classroom. My Grade 5 students would pick up a laptop just like they would pick up a pen or a book. If they needed to research, look up a word, publish or even create a music piece the laptop 
joined them wherever they were.
So that’s where the computers are!
7 comments April 13th, 2008
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