Saturday, December 29, 2007

Social networking

We had an interesting case here in New Zealand (reported on the News just before Christmas). A young girl working for a large retail shop was upset over having to work late in the build up to Christmas and said so on her blog. This was seen by the manager at the store she worked at and was then called in and her employment terminated. She was unhappy about this as 'she hadn't mentioned where she worked'. However she mentioned the store by name in other posts on her blog - saying how much she enjoyed working there.

This is something that people don't seem to understand - their blog can be read by anyone and come back to haunt them at a later time. As teachers we need to make sure that our students do understand about how emails and blogs are sent and how they are not secure and that deleting an email does not mean it has gone for good! Some of them are incredibly naive.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Coming of Age plus Flickr and Blogger accounts

A great new video by Terry Freedman - coming of Age





A tutorial to explain how to set up flickr and blogger accounts, and and then details how to use this tool in a classroom science project.


Monday, December 17, 2007

Literacy progressions

The literacy progressions are available.
The purpose of the draft Literacy Learning Progressions is to provide teachers with a professional tool that shows them what knowledge and skills their students need in order to meet the reading and writing demands of the New Zealand Curriculum.


Well worth checking out. There is a pdf file to download for you to use.


Wednesday, December 12, 2007

ICT conference for kids

I went to Star of the Sea in Sumner, Christchurch, New Zealand this morning. How exciting to see what these children are doing.

The children in the Senior School (Year 8 - around 12 years old) organised the whole thing.

They planned the conference for the school with a 'futures' theme. These children formed groups and planned various topics around the theme. They wrote lesson plans for the work they are doing over the two days of the conference, designed a logo for the conference, issued invitations to various people and organised a welcoming committee for visitors (with a map and name tag for visitors).

Today they had set the conference up and were teaching, facilitating and mentoring the other children.

They set up teaching posts, video cameras, digital still cameras, laptops (with microphones) in various areas around the school for the conference.


Planning

Year 8 children teaching a group


Concentrating on a task - using PowerPoint - notice the storyboard they have completed prior to starting this

Using Sim City to find out about the effects of water levels rising due to global warming

The conference will conclude with a celebration of their learning tomorrow afternoon. What a fantastic experience for all these children.

The children are to be complimented on their organisation the did a wonderful job and it was fantastic to see all the children involved in their learning in an authentic and meaningful context.

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Pupils tracked with chips!

Love it.

Check out Pupils can be tracked round town with chips - very interesting concept.

Children are to be tracked around schools and other sites they visit for lessons via microchips embedded in their uniforms.The manufacturer of a radio-frequency identification chip is marketing it nationwide following a trial with 19 pupils at Hungerhill School in Doncaster this year.
The chip is embroidered into school jumpers using conductive “smart threads”. This allows a pupil’s identity, photographs and other details, such as whether they misbehaved in their last lesson, to flash up on the nearest teacher’s laptop or hand-held computer.



I wonder if this will become the norm and what pupils and parents think about it.

Unfortunately I suspect that when I was a kid I would have been working ways around how to fool the teachers!!!

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Face to face / web based learning

I have been reading and thinking about the differences between delivering face-to-face and online delivery. I have put some of my ideas in the following table.

Any other ideas???
Face to face learning environment
Web based delivery
Engaging learners with quality materials
Physical presence of teacher
Needs to be able to compensate for the lack of physical
presence in the virtual classroom by creating a supportive environment
where all learners feel comfortable participating and where learners know
that their teacher is accessible.
Largely based on high level of oral communication
skills
High level of written and verbal communication skills
for communication.
Values critical thinking in the learning process.
Text based resources
Digital resources come in many forms and include content-free
resources, such as software applications and communication tools, and
content-rich resources. Content-rich resources provide a clear learning
intention as well as an engaging learning experience, immersion in a context,
and a benchmark for learners' own work. Learners can view from a variety
of resources to reinforce their own learning. Learners have control when
and if they access the digital resources.
Provide opportunities for learners to control their
own learning to become independent learners.
Creating learning situations
Designing environments that engage learners
Requiring learners to construct knowledge in a way
which is most meaningful to them
No flexibility for learners when they learn –
lessons are provided at a given time
Provide flexibility for learners when they learn
No flexibility for learners where they learn –
in face-to-face situations
Provide flexibility for learners where they learn
Synchronous discussion only not allowing for time
to reflect before sharing ideas
Design ways for learners to add to asynchronous learning
allowing the learner to read, reflect, write, revise if wanting to before
sharing ideas with colleagues
Act as moderator to organise, plan, establish and
maintain relationships by guiding and developing discussion
Provide intellectual stimulation
Encourage participation
Design opportunities for purposeful interactivity
which is engaging and stimulating
Imparts knowledge and skills to learners
Provides guidance and support to learners
Provides scaffolding to ensure learner success during
self-directed learning

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Blogs in plain English

Commoncraft has made a video 'Blogs in plain English'. It is fantastic what so many teachers are doing in their classrooms to enhance the children's learning and also reflecting on how/why they are doing this.

Monday, December 3, 2007

Comic strip generator

A great online tool to use in the classroom (free to register and use) is the Comic strip generator.




Lots of ideas on how children could use this to enhance their learning in a fun way.

Saturday, December 1, 2007

21st century skills

In our classrooms we are wanting to enhance the children's learning and encourage higher-order thinking skills - the integration of ICT can help us to do this. Some recent research about teachers and ICT integration in classrooms found that the majority of the teachers studied were unclear about what they meant by higher-order thinking skills.

enGauge has a very good area on their site about 21st Century skills. Here is their list:

Students Who Are Higher-Order Thinkers and Sound Reasoners:

Identify the essential elements in a problem as well as the interaction between those elements; use electronic tools to facilitate analysis.

Assign relative values to essential elements of a problem and use those values to rank elements in meaningful ways; assess similarities and differences in problems and their elements.

Construct relationships between the essential elements of a problem that provide insight into it; extract implications and conclusions from facts, premises, or data.

Create and apply criteria to gauge the strengths, limitations, and value of information, data, and solutions in productive ways.

Build new solutions through novel combinations of existing information.



Another video from teachertube about blogging in plain English. Many of my students have difficulties thinking about using blogs or wikis in the classroom so this is another video I will be directing some of them to:

Friday, November 30, 2007

Not too sure about this one!!!

Went to the web site to get this blogs readability level so for anyone reading this:

cash advance

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Web2

I am constantly encouraged by seeing the blogs and videos from New Zealand teachers about what they are doing in their classrooms.

Here is another video by a Nelson teacher about Web2 in her classroom.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Pivot animations

Pivot animation is a free downloadable program.

Love this use of the program. It was made by Year 2 students in Australia.



Here is a podcast by Christopher:

Monday, November 19, 2007

Introducing Web2 & children's conference

Great new video on teachertube for teachers or to use for Professional development with teachers, about using Web2 in the classroom.



I will certainly be using this with my students to help them with this concept.

Our Lady Star of the Sea school in Sumner, Christchurch, New Zealand, are holding a ICT based conference for their students on December 13 and 14. The conference is being run by the senior pupils in the school. On the final day they will have a celebration of their learning. These conferences are so great for the children and they learn such a lot in a fun environment. I am going and will post some of the photos I take on my blog.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

YouTube

New Zealand has its own YouTube web site. Not a lot on it just yet but growing fast. Worth checking out and supporting.

A review of the New Zealand document Digital Horizons - Learning through ICT makes interesting reading.

Don't forget to check out Mark Treadwell's site:-




There are also some interesting ideas for classroom teachers to find ideas for integrating ICT into their classrooms in the Practical Support web site. There are also case study videos to support teachers.

Exploratree by Futurelab has a site where you can make a mindmap - easy to use for classroom teachers who do not have Inspiration.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

E-learning

For those who are developing or using online courses don't forget to check out the blog where I put things that I have come across, such as about an interesting work I have been reading by Katrina Meyer: "THE METHOD (AND MADNESS) OF EVALUATING ONLINE DISCUSSIONS".

Found an interesting video on TeacherTube on 21st Century pedagogy that some like to share with others.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Web2 in education and ScreenHunter

Use of Web2 in education - useful references to find interesting ideas.





A little program to take a screen capture shot is ScreenHunter which is available as a free download.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Inquiry learning

Here is a video from YouTube about inquiry learning. Worthwhile viewing.....

Friday, November 9, 2007

English Online site

The English online site is a great source of information for teachers.

There is a new pdf: Darren Crovitz explains that the explosive growth of web-based content and communication in recent years compels us to teach students how to examine the "rhetorical nature and ethical dimensions of the online world."


TKI also has a great forum for teachers to contact others and share ideas. Those of you with smart boards in your classroom may be interested in accessing these resources:

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Social networking and graphic organisers

A web site for teachers to join a social network.

The aim of this is to share ideas and resources that can be used in the teaching and managing of information and communication technology.

One of the videos from this site about Peer feedback in ICT:




A great site to download pdf files of graphic organisers to use in the classroom - teaching notes provided.

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

21st Century skills

A report has just come out from the USA but probably reflects what a lot of people here feel about 21st century skills that are taught in the classroom.

A summary of some of the findings are:


Eighty-eight percent of voters say they believe that schools can and should
incorporate 21st century skills such as critical thinking and problem-solving
skills, computer and technology skills, and communication and self-direction
skills into their curriculum.

Sixty-six percent of voters say they
believe that students need more than just the basics of reading, writing and
math; schools alsoneed to incorporate a broader range of skills.

Fifty-three percent say they believe schools should place an equal
emphasis on 21st century skills and basic skills.



Social networking in schools

A new report that is available about social networking in schools which is very relevant to us for the classroom.

Letting Social Networking into Schools


Creating & Connecting Research and Guidelines on Online Social - and Educational - Networking

National School Boards Association

September, 2007


School districts may want to reexamine their policies and practices in order to use social networking for educational purposes, says this report. Time spent using social networking services and Web sites now nearly equals television viewing among youth. A remarkable 96 percent of students with online access report that they have used social networking technologies, such as chatting, text messaging, blogging and visiting online communities, such as Facebook, MySpace and services designed specifically for younger children, such as Webkins and the chat sections of Nick.com. Yet the vast majority of school districts have stringent rules against nearly all forms of social networking during the school day - even though students and parents report few problem behaviours online.
Both district leaders and parents, says the report, believe that social networking could play a positive role in students' lives and they recognize opportunities for using it in education - at a time when teachers now routinely assign homework that requires Internet use to complete.
What do students do online?
41% post messages
32% download music
30% download videos
29% upload music
25% update personal Web sites or online profiles
24% post photos
17% blog
16% create and share virtual objects
14% create new characters
10% participate in collaborative projects
10% send suggestions or ideas to Web sites
9% submit articles to Web sites
9% create polls, quizzes or surveys
The report recommends that school boards:
Explore social networking sites.
Consider using social networking for staff communications and professional development
Find ways to harness the educational value of social networking.
Ensure equitable access
Pay attention to the nonconformists (defined in the report as skilled online but lukewarm about school)
Reexamine social networking policies.
Encourage social networking companies to increase educational value.


The pdf file of the report is in the file box for those who want to read it.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Essential understandings for 21st century literacies

Read an interesting article from Kim Cofino
Effective Learners

Students and teachers will understand that learning is a lifelong process and that the pace of technological change requires us to focus on learning how to learn, rather than learning specific tools. It is expected that neither students nor teachers will know how to use every available tool, rather that they will be comfortable learning how to use new tools independently.

Independent learning requires that student and teachers are able to evaluate information for authenticity, relevance and bias as well as evaluate tools for applicability and effectiveness. As independent learners, teachers and students will be able to filter out unimportant stimuli and information so that they can focus on the important and useful, to be able to navigate graphical interfaces as well as different types of text and media formats.

Lifelong learners are reflective, they routinely practice metacognition to think about how and why they understand what they do, and they constantly strive to look deeper at their own thinking, processes and practices. Lifelong learners are intrinsically motivated to better understand the world around them and to use that knowledge for self-improvement.

Effective Collaborators

Students and teachers will develop the behaviors, attitudes and dispositions required for working in partnership with others, whether in person or over distances. Global collaboration requires effective communication, social and cultural awareness, and flexibility. Effective collaborators actively take responsibility for their role, and are able to delegate or share responsibility when necessary. Effective collaborators are equally comfortable as either leaders or participants. Effective collaborators appreciate and internalize the essential interdependence of all human endeavors.

Effective Creators

Students and teachers will understand that an essential component of lifelong learning is analyzing, synthesizing and applying what they’ve learned to make an original contribution to society. Effective creators are critical thinkers who are able to “think outside the box” and analyze systems to identify and solve problems. Effective creators are constantly innovating and routinely use metacognition skills to evaluate and improve their own work. Effective creators are goal oriented, using time management and multitasking skills in order to work at their highest level of productivity. Effective creators understand that, as members of an interdependent society, their work must adhere to standards of ethics and social responsibility.



This is certainly relevant to us as educators.

Something else I found interesting was what a 14 year old pupil thinks about the use of Web 2.

And on teachertube.com a video on Web 2 in the classroom: where does it fit in?

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Information R/evolution

Great video to show the way we access information has changed (and is continuing to change). It raises questions about the skills needed in order to harness, evaluate, and create information effectively.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Thanks Giving

Love this video made by a Grade one class:


Sunday, October 7, 2007

Rugby

Well I can't let it go past: 'New Zealand is in mourning!'

The French beat us in the World cup semi finals!!!

The papers are full of it; everyone is talking about it...

"it is ONLY A GAME"

I do wish we had won but we didn't and there is no going back.

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Exploring ICT use in a UK primary school

Australasian Journal of Educational Technology
2007, 23(3), 390-407


A great read about integrating ICT into a primary school. Research was carried out over two years (2003-2005) and included observation of lessons, document analysis, interviews, and questionnaires with staff at the school. Many of the teachers were 'fitting in ICT' rather than using ICT as a tool to enhance the learning of their students in meaningful and authentic contexts.

Problems, beliefs for example give insights for us.

Teachers make a difference......

I believe that a good teacher makes a huge difference for the students.

Here is an interesting video about that very idea.



Stephen Heppell has some good points to make with supporting video.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Web2 in the classroom

For those (like me) who were unable to go to the ULearn conference (I was teaching the whole week) Ewan McIntosh's blog gives a whole range of stuff for us.

I found the following on Internet4Classrooms which I think is appropriate:

Web 2.0 is more about users and content than about surfing on the Internet. It's more like what can the Internet do for me as a creator, a collaborator, an active participant,
rather than a passive viewer of what is out there on the web.


Here is a video "What is Web 2.0?"



This web site also offers many valuable links for the classroom teacher.

I have also put a lot of information relating specifically to the use of blogs in the classrooms.

This is another look at why use blogs in the classroom environment.




Interesting slide show about using Web2 in the classroom.



Another idea I came across is a Random Ideas Generator to encourage higher-order thinking skills. It is simple and works like this:



Some good ideas in this video:

Monday, October 1, 2007

Free software

For those without Inspiration but want to use brainstorming there is a free alternative on the web. It is bubble.us Also don't there is Sqirlz water reflections, animations and morphing software.
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Saturday, September 29, 2007

K12 online conference

Don't forget to check out the K12 online conference which starts on October 15.
The K-12 Online Conference invites participation from all educators from around the world who are interested in innovative ways Web 2.0 tools and technologies can be used to improve learning. This is a FREE conference run by volunteers and open to everyone, no registration is required. The conference theme is “Playing with Boundaries”. The 2007 conference begins with a pre-conference keynote the week of October 8, 2007. The following two weeks, October 15-19 and October 22-26, forty presentations will be posted online to the conference blog (this website) for participants to download and view. Live Events in the form of three “Fireside Chats” and a culminating “When Night Falls” event will be announced. Everyone is encouraged to participate in both live events during the conference as well as asynchronous conversations.

Derek Wenmouth, from Core Education in Christchurch, is a key note presenter. He has put up a 'taster' video - check it out and see what you think.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds are opened up to all. There is a free (like that word!) tool that allows anyone to create a virtual world has been launched. This article from the BBC News explains about it.

Must try it out....

The opportunities for the classroom are limited only by the teacher's imagination...


There is a demo on the BBC site.



The site to build your world is Metaplace.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Great web site regarding integrating ICT in education

Found a great web site from Scotland which has some great ideas for integrating ICT into the classroom. These ideas can be adapted and changed for the needs of your classroom.



An interesting article about competencies which gives food for thought.

They start: By defining ICT competencies we intend to provide a frame of reference for the outcomes with regard to knowledge, skills and attitudes that can be achieved at the end of primary education through the use of ICT in the classroom.
It is not our aim to merge this set of ICT competencies into a new curriculum or new subject area in primary education. We view ICT competencies as a support to achieve the developmental objectives and attainment targets. Nevertheless, society also asks for what is called sometimes ICT literacy.
Therefore we want to commit ourselves simultaneously to both goals. On the one hand, we face the challenge to work on the educational objectives in a efficient and child-centred way. On the other hand, we want to respond adequately to the expectations of society and continuing education with regard to ICT competencies. That is why we are looking for instructive activities that reinforce our education sector in the first place and strengthen this ICT competency at the same time.

As a consequence of this view, the core of the ICT competencies is embodied in the skills that are inherent in the vision of attainment targets and developmental objectives. They are competencies focusing on the learning process. They enable pupils to use the possibilities of ICT in a functional way so that their own learning process is backed and reinforced. Indeed it is all about ICT as a means for co-operation, independent learning, making differentiated exercises, exchanging information…
For that reason they are explained by or concretised in sub-competencies and classified in a manner that fits in the learning process in the classroom: respectively planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating. Where they are specific to the core competency, also operating subskills or attitudes are mentioned. These subcompetencies are only important in relation to the core competency to which they belong.


Thursday, September 20, 2007

Packaging all the files PowerPoint needs to run your presentation

When people insert sounds and videos into PowerPoint they often wonder why these don't play when they use another machine. All the files need to be accessed each time the presentation is played.

PowerPoint provides an easy way for you to package all the files you will need into one folder so that you can have these on a memory stick, CD etc.


Blogging

Many classrooms are now using blogs. Because there is so much about this I have created a new blog just about blogs in the classroom.

Check it out.

PowerPoint files

Many times PowerPoint files can become large (file sizes). This is often due to the size of graphics that have been added.

You can compress the graphic files from within PowerPoint.





Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Published resources available

D & W Publications have simple, easy to use tutorials available for teachers and students - Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Access, PhotoStory3 for Windows, and FrontPage.














These are available for $NZ25 plus postage and handling from diane.brooks@inet.net.nz. They are also available in pdf form for $150 for a school - unlimited copies may be made for use within the school OR $25 for a single copy for use.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Professional development for teachers

Cole (2003) talks about education technology workshops for teachers being held in USA. She points to a crowded room of teachers watching presenters using a PowerPoint presentation pontificating about how to create highly interactice lessons! Cole queries (as I do) how effective this approach is.

Cole believes that teachers need to be engaged, understand the objectives of the learning, and participate in meaningful activities.

Cole also acknowledge that planning meaningful learning experiences takes a lot of time and that the implementation of these experiences will often take longer than delivering old-fashioned lectures.

Points that Cole (2003) makes about those delivering technology workshops is that they to:

- provide opportunities for collaboration
- utilise staff members
- keep class sizes manageable
- engage in meaningful and authentic tasks
- encourage critical thinking (teachers should question why they are using the technologies and in fact sometimes the use of technologies is not the best tool for that particular task)

Video by Derek Wenmouth about Teachers as professional learners:

Digital students@Analog schools

Are we catering for our students??

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Are machines us/ing us?????

I rather like this video -

A nice free program is Sqirlz Reflections which allows the user to make water ripple giving an impression of movement.

These can then be used in PowerPoint presentations, in web pages etc.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

The connected classroom

Some really great ideas showing the history of education (abbreviated)and changes that have happened (and are continuing to happen).



I also found this one on teachertube.com which raises questions for all of us....

Web 2.0

Found a great video on teachertube - this is a great source for teachers.



This video clearly shows the benefits of using Web 2.0 to enhance teaching and learning.

Sunday, September 9, 2007

Higher-order thinking skills

Integrating ICT into the classroom enables these to be used to enhance the children's thinking and learning. The use of ICT also enables teachers to promote higher-order thinking skills.

A central goal of education is helping students learn how to think more effectively. This site has a lot of great information.

To help teachers apply Bloom's taxonomy in their classrooms is this great site.

I have also uploaded a file to help with the assessment of higher-order thinking skills.

Saturday, September 8, 2007

Online maths games

Some great online games here - you will need Flash player to view these.

They will be great to help reinforce many maths concepts.

Another great site for Maths this has the levels for US and Australia so you need to change for local class levels. Again you need Flash Player to view but there is a link to download this if you need it.

And yet another one from the UK.

Internet in schools

Part of ICT that is growing rapidly is the use of the Internet. Unfortunately, at present, usage of the Internet has been allowed, in many schools, in an ad hoc fashion due to the rapid expanse of the Internet. It is imperative that schools develop guidelines, school policies and strategies for the use of the Internet and students are made aware of these. Some schools require pupils to sign a contract regarding the Internet usage. A study in New Zealand found that there was no secondary school in New Zealand that not had pornography sites accessed (TV 3 News 2002).
The Internet provides areas that can be used effectively by students and teachers in the teaching and learning situation such as Web Quests , ‘Virtual Learning’ sites, instructional sites with drill and practice or tutorials as well as being a place to use research skills in order to locate information relating to a topic or problem. Skills needed to use this technology are important in the classroom as it opens up information hitherto inaccessible in the classroom. Of course the amount of information is vast and an important information literacy skill required of all users is the ability to sift through and extract relevant information as well as being able to decipher fact from fiction. We now find that there is a danger of ‘information overload’. Limberg (1999) found many students had difficulties in distinguishing what was important since much of the information the students found was not important or was irrelevant to their needs. The skills required for this are able to be taught during as part of the Action Learning Model when students are required to extract relevant information for their needs.
The Internet provides opportunities for communication through using email. Email provides opportunities for skill building as in, checking the email regularly, making sure the messages are grammatically correct, making sure messages are spelt correctly, using short concise paragraphs with a line space between each one, signing off each letter with your name, using a signature at the bottom of the email message, and email etiquette such as not writing in block capital letters.

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Download files

There are files for you to download in the bottom right of this screen. Please feel free to download and use.

Monday, August 27, 2007

A research cycle

For children to develop their information literacy skills they can use a research cycle to guide them through the steps.

This is a small video I have made showing the steps.

Why the computer is not dominating schools

Have things changed??
Selwyn, N. (1999). Why the computer is not dominating schools: A failure of policy or a failure of Practice? Cambridge Journal of Education, Mar99. Vol. 29 Issue 1 p77


In this paper Selwyn argues a case for shifting the emphasis in educational policy toward “a more limited but integrated and societally focussed role” in regards to the use of computers in the classroom. As I go round schools observing teacher trainees on Professional Practice I often see a computer gathering dust in the corner of the classroom. Does this support Selwyn who argues that computers are “fundamentally at odds with the structure of the school organisation”? He outlines a body of research from 1966 to 1997 that describes how many felt that the computer would become a focal point of the classroom after they were haphazardly put into schools and points out that there is a body of research to state that this has not happened. There is evidence to show that very little thought was given to how the integration of ICT into schools was to be carried out. As long ago as 1990 Ham (1992) points to the Sallis report (1990) which said that if computer technologies were ever to be used effectively as tools for learning in the New Zealand curriculum there needed to be a major focus on teacher development. Brown (1993), in an article, stated that in his view the most effective approach was to build on existing curriculum, make learning more effective and enjoyable and enable teachers and students to do things in ways that were not possible before. Selwyn however argues that the “computer’s limited integration into schools is merely a replication of the catalogue of previous educational technologies which have also failed to make an impact …”. He makes no attempt to explain the technologies he means and how these were to be integrated into the classroom. He also states that the computer “follows on from a long line of previous innovations all of which have quickly faded from prominence” – again he makes no mention of what previous innovations he is discussing. Many of these statements are sweeping generalisations without explanation or evidence to back them up another example of this “educational computing policy has remained fundamentally flawed.”
However Selwyn also makes very good points which are backed up by evidence regarding the integration of the computer into school classrooms focussing on the ‘why’ rather than the ‘how’ of computing and developing long term use and positive attitudes towards computing.
This article gives the reader food for thought and offers some interesting ideas.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Using a writeboard


A great idea to use in the classroom is a writeboard where people can "write, share, revise, compare". I can think of many ways this can be used in the classroom.
You just need to set up an account for a group to use.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Integrating ICT into the curriculum....

I see many teachers using innovative ideas to integrate ICT into their classrooms. I am currently looking at using wikis and blogs in the classroom environment.

A game for children to play in the learning environment is about the Big 6. The Big 6 is a great way to help children develop their information literacy skills and was developed by Mike Eisenberg and Bob Berkowitz. I like this website which clearly explains how to use the Big 6. This is a research cycle for problem-solving and guides students through the 6 steps of the process. I have downloaded this game as an example for my students to see how they can use this in the classroom. I wonder if others have also downloaded it and use it in their classrooms.

It is interesting to speculate what the classroom of the future will look like. The learning environment in primary schools has changed rapidly in the past twenty years - secondary schools appear to lag behind. I wonder if teachers in secondary schools find it difficult to plan for two (or more) curriculum areas in a unit so that different teachers are teaching different parts of the unit - that would make a good start particularly if the students were then able to use ICT as an authentic tool in a meaningful context.

What will the next five years bring.