Primaryschool.com.au

Global Collaborative Project K-6 Links

2011-02-05T13:54:00.000+11:00

Paulo Freire suggests that we treat schooling like banking. We deposit knowledge into kids brains because we think they will need it sometime in the future. We teach kids that knowledge is something to be memorised rather than something to be used. It reminds me of the way I hoard things in the back of the closet, fooling myself that I will use them one day. This is really counter to how people learn outside of school. We learned to walk and talk on the job. I like the idea of global collaborative projects because it is learning on the job. Here are some project links.

Classroom Management: It's An Art

2011-01-29T14:45:00.000+11:00

It is the start of the school year in Australia and a good time for teachers of all levels of experience to reflect on how they relate to students. I have collected some links to help with this. For any beginning teachers, my advice is that you learn on the job and it helps if you have good teachers to work with who can model how to relate effectively to students and mentor you. If you do not have a mentor, find one. Everyone has their own style and it is related to their philosophy about teaching and learning but I suggest the following as helpful:

Know Your Students - Show a thorough and genuine interest in your students. Get to know as much as possible about their family early on by going through records, talking to other teachers about them, listening and talking with students and their parents. Parents know their children best so do not be scared to build relationships with parents. Focus on talents, not weaknesses. Every child has a talent. Let kids know what you think their talent is and celebrate it.

Planning - Be prepared and classroom management is not such a big deal. Plan for a balance between novelty and routine. Kids feel comfortable with routines. They also need novelty as this provides opportunities for learning. If you think you would be bored sitting through your own lessons, the kids will be too, so do more preparation and try to make it stimulating for them. An interactive whiteboard will not save you.
If the circus van breaks down outside your classroom window, stop the lesson and take a look. Encourage and act on positive and negative feedback. Be clear and firm about acceptable behaviour from minute one. Again, this is related to preparation. Be clear in your expectations beforehand. Keep your instructions brief. Effective teachers are kind and firm. Kind comes first. Kind words have the power to change lives.

Philosophy about Learning - Do not pretend to have all the answers as Google will always win. Be a co-learner and model learning as a never-ending journey. Learning happens everywhere, not just in classrooms. Good teachers provide occasions for learning and accept they cannot force learning to happen. Let kids make mistakes and reflect on them. My teaching mistakes continue to be very instructive.

Philosophy about Childhood - Childhood is a social construct that reflects society wanting to protect children from exploitation. One unfortunate byproduct of this construct is that some people teach as if kids are made into humans through an industrial or factory model of schooling. Kids are immature but if you treat them like sub-human life forms they will reciprocate accordingly. Kids are capable of a lot more than we give them credit for. Kids have feelings and effective teachers take account of this.

Teaching is an art, not a science, so take your canvas and brush and create a masterpiece of your own. Sorry, I will get off the soap box now.

Christmas K-6 Resources and $600 so far- Last Chance to help me reach $1000 for Movember

2010-11-27T13:06:00.000+11:00

Find several pages of Christmas Links in my Themes section and please check out this cute Christmas Story.
Thank you to those who have contributed so far. Movember aims to change attitudes and raise some serious funds for Prostate Cancer research, because every year 2,900 Australian men die from prostate cancer and over 18,000 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer and Beyond Blue because one in six men experience depression at any given time but most men do not seek help.
Thanks again for your support and I am hoping to reach $1000 by Tuesday. Donate at my mo space page .

The Bruce Lee Legacy

2010-09-18T08:37:00.000+10:00

Mandarin is the most commonly spoken language in the world. There are twice as many Mandarin speakers as English speakers. If you want your students to learn a language that will be useful to them in the future, I suggest learning Mandarin. I have collected a few links to help you. I am amazed at the number of great free videos out there. Some of my long-time readers will remember that I lived and worked in China for 2 years. I didn't learn much Mandarin, but the fact that I tried a few phrases opened many doors to me. Just learning a few phrases can break down many barriers. Speaking of barriers, this week I have posted a couple of my old China Diary entries from 2006. Hope you enjoy them.

China Diary - The Bruce Lee Legacy

One of the teachers on staff this week had one too many people stare at him in the street. Someone came up, invaded his personal space and stared long and hard. The teacher pushed the offender aside but decided to do some staring of his own and went up to the Chinese gentleman and invaded his personal space in return. Loud and heated words were exchanged, that neither side understood, and a crowd began to gather. At this point the teacher decided he had made his point and left. Another teacher hearing this story suggested that confronting the person was highly dangerous as there was a good chance he was a martial arts expert. The truth is the average person in the street here is just as likely to be a martial arts expert as you and me. I get the feeling that most Chinese people don't have time to drop in the local Shaolin monastery to steal a stone from the master's hand or to practice flying through the air in slow motion wearing pyjamas. Like Australians, they are basically too busy trying to earn a living and keep the tax man at bay and they really just want peace and quiet. Now and then when I am out for dinner someone across from me will have a good long stare with their mouth agape. I fight them with the deadliest martial arts move I have, the Australian wink, click, shake of the head and smile. It may take me three or four winks but I always end up subduing them by forcing them to smile.

China Diary - Happy With Uncertainty

Despite the excitement I experience every time I enter a supermarket in Guangzhou for another shopping adventure, it would be nice if, just for once, I could take an Chinese Australian interpreter with me so that searching for simple items that I take for granted at home, would not be such a chore. Take toothpaste for example. You would think that even an inexperienced shopper like me could find a tube of standard peppermint flavoured toothpaste in the supermarket. Not in China. There are literally hundreds of different flavoured toothpastes on the shelves. Up until now I have been buying toothpaste according to the pictures on the packet. The first week I didn't even realise you could have different flavoured toothpaste and ended up with a Colgate tube that was honey flavour. It tasted sweeter than honey and I am positive it was actually causing more tooth decay. I persevered for a week with the honey before returning for another attempt. The time was just as bad. I asked a shop assistant in my best Chinese for peppermint toothpaste and came home with something that tasted like charcoal. Next time I studied the pictures on the boxes carefully and decided the picture of a mint leaf on the pack assured me I would get peppermint. Unfortunately it must have been a picture of a tea leaf as I have been brushing everyday with what tastes like a cold cup of tea. I am nearly out of toothpaste again and who can guess what flavour it will be next time. In China you have to be happy with uncertainty. I think this time I will just open a few packets and taste them all until I find the right one. It is no wonder the Chinese think foreigners are strange.

Share My Computer? No Way!

2010-09-11T09:41:00.000+10:00

I feel I need to respond to a recent article by Jamie McKenzie, “Over-Equipped? Is it possible to have too many laptops?” His argument is that “It turns out that one-on-one is perfect for some activities but not the best choice for other learning activities.” I would have thought this would be obvious to any teacher, but I don't see the connection between the tools one chooses to complete a learning task, and personal ownership of a laptop or netbook. Sometimes pen and paper is quicker and more efficient than using a computer but we don't tell kids they have to share one exercise book or pen between two students.
He also cites an article from the New York Times that states that giving out netbooks to teenagers from poor neighbourhoods actually lowers writing and maths test scores because kids spend their time playing games on the devices. You can manipulate data to suit editorial comment at any time but I imagine the lower test scores are a result of student's disinterest in the school system in general. Kids see that authentic learning is taking place outside of schools rather than within them. The kids are saying, “I don't care about what the tests measure because it is not going to get me a job anyway". As I have stated previously, handing out netbooks doesn't change much in schools. Technology management is about people. It is change management. Teachers need support in learning how to use tools effectively. If they don't have this support, they can't make use of the a laptop's potential to support new types of learning that engages students. Good teachers, quickly learn how to use computers well in their classrooms to engage students. Just like they probably used blackboards well to engage students. Bad teachers don't do this. Invest in teachers and you invest in students.
Netbooks are getting cheaper all the time and soon students will all have something like an iPad in their bag whether teachers like it or not. So why can't each child have a netbook? How would you feel if you started work at a new company and you were told you had to share a computer with another worker? If you really believe that it is best if kids share computers, demonstrate your support for the concept by giving your laptop away and sharing a computer with the teacher in the next classroom. Go on. I dare you.

What is Constructivism in Education?

2010-09-05T11:37:00.000+10:00

In a recent blog post, some of the assumptions behind my thinking were identified and quite rightly challenged:

Learning new digital technologies is, in and of itself, a good thing. Fair comment. What is the point of students mastering new technology if it doesn't lift levels of engagement and thereby improve learning outcomes.

Digital media learning has an inherent "nature" or "essence", which is, at its core, best suited to "constructivist" models of learning. The problem with the term constructivism is that represents a broad spectrum of positions that include Social Radical Constructivism (there is no reality other than what I imagine). I have worried about this term myself and need to clarify what I mean by constructivism.

That risk-taking and failure are also inherently good things, and in the case of schools and digital technologies - are in fact, inevitable things. I think that some of those who are passionate about educational reform and technology believe that schools need “a bomb under them” and need to try new strategies that reflect the use of technology outside the classroom. My view about risk taking is a little different. I think we all can learn best by doing things ourselves or “learning on the job” which inevitably leads to mistakes and learning from these. As Halverson and Jenkins state:
“In the apprentice system, it was taken as given that most students would learn, eventually, what they needed to know, while the public school system starts from the premise that only a small portion of the population can fully master its expectations.”
“The idea that the apprenticeship model was successful for individual learning is by and large true. Because the master could work closely with the learner in apprenticeship, most learning failures could be mitigated or averted.”
“The long-term individualized attention to learning-from-failure that came with apprenticeship learning was not a part of traditional public schooling. This intolerance for failure at the system level has been translated into a similar intolerance to experiment at the classroom level. Contemporary public school policies insist that all students show learning progress, which has led to dominant models of instruction that emphasize efficiency, smooth learning trajectories and predictable outcomes. Schools are often reluctant to experiment with high-yield, high-risk, instructional practices. Innovation is risky - most innovations fail, and even the ones that succeed are usually fundamentally transformed before achieving wide dissemination.”

Student choice is an inherently good thing, and should, as a default position be expanded - while the teacher's power in the classroom, as a default position, should be diminished. I think that rather than leading to anarchy, teachers gain strength as leaders in the classroom by modelling their own learning. If the aim of education is to build an enthusiasm for life-long learning, students need role models who can learn with them. But, yes, it is again a valid criticism that I have not explored and argued opposing positions.

What do you think?

Computers ≠ Student Engagement

2010-08-28T19:20:00.000+10:00

Engaging students and enthusing them about learning has always been my goal. That is the main reason I have advocated the need for technology rich classrooms and in particular, one computer per child. A ratio of 1:1 in a classroom is not twice as good as 1:2. It is about one hundred times better. If I only had 30 computers in a primary school, I would give them to year 6 only. Anything less than 1:1 is just a distraction and annoying. Can you imagine sharing a pen with 4 other kids when you were at school?

I have been running one-to-one trials in primary schools for a couple of years now and reviewing recent research about one-to-one programs has changed my thinking. The little I have read suggests that there is no evidence that giving each kid in your class a computer will lift their test scores. That's obvious, I hear you say, but I think like many, I was carried along with much of the hype surrounding the promise of technology. I am beginning to understand that student-teacher interactions or relationships or classroom dynamics or whatever else you like to call them, are much more important in lifting students levels of achievement than the technology. Don't get me wrong. One netbook per child is essential, but my reasons for believing this have changed. A netbook can be "an instrument whose music is ideas" or an "imagination machine" or they can be digital exercise books. Teachers who use them as exercise books are wasting the devices' potential as cognitive tools that can help to ignite a love of learning in each student. That is where the student-teacher relationship comes into play. Recently I was telling a class of kids with netbooks that backing up data to a USB stick can be a problem because magnets can wipe the data from them. Before I had even finished the sentence some kid put up his hand and said, " It says here that's a myth about magnets and USB sticks". This 10 year old had googled my sentence and exposed me as imperfect. Someone had told me the story about magnets years ago and I swallowed it and passed it to kids for years. The embarrassment made me realise that I can no longer be the "Sage on the Stage" when kids can check everything I say on Google. It means teachers have to admit we don't know everything and that cooperative learning and collaboration is just as important for teachers as for kids. What I should have said was, " I need a group of you to work out a procedure for backing up data that we can communicate to other students around the world so this myth is busted. Google it and get back to me when you have put something together in a wiki."

Teachers are the gatekeepers of any innovation and are notorious for sticking their heads in the sand. Even if every kid is given a computer, as is happening in high schools, teachers are the ones who decide if, how and when they will use use them no matter how hard you twist their arms. I think many of them are just being used as paper weights. I hope I am wrong.

Someone once said that, "learning is the product of effort" and Seymour Papert called his Logo activities "hard fun". I think any learning activities have to be hard fun in order to be worthwhile and computers are tools that can help teachers create hard fun. Note that I said they help teachers. The computers don't do it on their own. Teachers have to come up with the ideas, ask the kids what they think (that's novel) and be prepared to abdicate the thrown. So if you are not interested in lighting the fire of learning in kids, don't bother with computers, they will make no difference.

Desperate Houseplants

2010-08-21T12:02:00.000+10:00

As I collect resources each week I am finding Youtube has more and more useful videos that can be used to support what we do in the classroom. The classic this week was a short from Seasame Street called Desperate Houseplants . I am really grateful to people who put valuable resources like this one up on Youtube. It really helps all teachers achieve learning outcomes.

Free Scootle Campaign

2010-08-15T09:25:00.000+10:00

I get lots of requests each week for resources to help teach spelling and I hope these resources are useful to you. There is one website however, called Scootle , an Australian and New Zealand government initiative, where there are hundreds of useful learning objects but unfortunately, it is open only to those who have a login and password, so it is no point listing its links on my site. I do not understand this thinking. Sites such as the ABC, BBC, Thinkfinity and many others, make most of their education resources available for everyone and everyone benefits. I find it annoying having to login when I am working in schools as well. Australian taxpayers paid for Scootle so why shouldn't all Australians have access to it? Why not let parents use it at home? Why stop people around the world gaining benefit from it? Why block kids and teachers in other countries from using it? Why place annoying logins and passwords between kids and learning. The return on investment comes from how well the learning objects improve learning outcomes, not from selling rights to them. I have paid for them already through taxation and so have many of you. Tell me how you feel about it below or tell The Learning Federation , who created the resources, what you think. Let's set Scootle free.

Creative Commons

2010-07-25T21:09:00.000+10:00

As students and teachers use more and more digital media in their daily work, the issue of usage rights is becoming more important. I have collected some links related to the concept of Creative Commons this week. I suggest you learn about the concept of Creative Commons and visit Smartcopying, where you can learn how copyright issues affect Australian schools.

Chindogu School

2010-06-12T18:55:00.000+10:00

Charles Leadbeater, in a presentation about the nature of innovation, recalls looking out the window of the classroom when he was at school and wishing he was the the man mowing the oval. It doesn't say much for what was happening in the classroom. Ken Robinson argues that our whole school system is just preparation for university entrance exams and there is a danger that what passes as learning in schools is increasingly becoming irrelevant and like Chindogu, that is, a good idea but pretty useless in reality. It is fairly obvious that for learning for take place, students need to be engaged. The reason I enjoy helping kids brainstorm problems and try to solve these problems by creating inventions, is that I have seen kids who are usually uninterested in school, come alive and show their creative talents. It always reminds me of Chris, an ex-student, whose problem was getting in trouble with his mum when he arrived home from school for scuffing his black leather school shoes on the playground. His solution, shoe bumper bars. He used wire and a piece of old garden house and shaped the hose to surround his shoes to stop them getting bumped. I still laugh about it as I write. It was a piece of perfect Chindogu , nearly as good as Dust Slippers for Cats. We are reminded constantly that workers of the future need to be creative problem solvers. What are we doing about it?

ICT Skills Revisited

2010-05-30T13:32:00.000+10:00

I had a request this week for ICT Skills Checklists. I have collected a few links but with some reservations. ICT literacy is more than ticks on a computer skills checklist. It is a new kind of multi-modal literacy that involves creative fluency as well as interpreting meaning in various digital forms. I can understand teachers wanting a checklist (just tell us what to teach). In my experience, teaching computer skills in isolation is a common starting point for teachers starting out using technology. With more ICT experience, they tend to use technology to teach content in new ways and their pedagogy changes with increased personal use of technology. If you want to develop a checklist of ICT skills:

Look at where your students and staff are at. Most ICT projects that descend from above like UFOs, eventually crash land.
Use something like the ISTE NETS as a basis for your planning.
Consider carefully where your staff are at. Consult Tom March's excellent list of teacher competencies.
Think big picture. Chris Betcher's list of 5 Simple Skills is a good discussion starter for staff.
Don't base skills on proprietary software. Software such as Excel can change from year to year.

If you are still not sure where to start there are two skills I consider to be vital. The first is teaching your kids to touch type. In the 80's I was often faced with a lack of computers so I used to beg, borrow and steal them from whoever and wherever I could, including the local tip (sorry, I hear you saying, if I want to know about the past I will ask you). As long as the kids could input words on a screen I could teach them to touch type and that was my only goal. I told the kids that by the end of the year I expected them to be able to touch type with a towel covering their hands. The benefits are:

It really makes a computer so much more useful as a tool when you can see what you are typing on the screen.
You can measure the results (unlike most things we do in schools). Try this great site to see what I mean.
Kids will see you in the street in 10 years time and thank you for it.

The other skill is to teach kids how to search. Most kids (and teachers) search skills are like much of the content on the Internet (shallow). The "Digital Native" thing is a myth in my view. Many kids are very adept at wasting their time on the Internet and their skill set is very specific, rather than the generic, problem solving set they require.

Cool Things I Found This Week:

It was good for me to reflect on ICT Skills and where they are headed.
If Youtube is blocked at school, try one of these 30 alternatives
Zotero is enough to make you want to go back to school. It is a great tool for research.
6 Word Memoirs are a great idea for English lessons.
We have to get better at searching using Google ourselves before we can teach kids how to do it.
10 things Netbooks do better than Ipads.

Global Projects and Webquests

2010-05-22T12:23:00.000+10:00

I am all for making learning activities as meaningful as possible and giving students an audience for their work. Think about it. Would you write if nobody was going to read your work? Engaging in projects that involve communicating with students in other schools and countries is a great way to lift levels of student engagement. There are problems sometimes with time zones and school holidays being at different times of the year when you join in a northern hemisphere project but these are outweighed by the quality of the learning that can take place. I have collected some links this week to some global projects. If you have any I can add to my list, please let me know.

Cool Things I Discovered This Week:

Mobile Phones are not used for making calls much any more.
TakingITGlobal.org is the social network that connects you to the global issues that affect us all.
Are you staring at a screen for too long? Don't worry. We won't have screens soon.
Guy Kawasaki stands by the success of presentations that use 30-point fonts, 20 minutes, and just 10 slides (the 10/20/30 rule) for less soul-deadening effect.
The 10 Zens of Technology Planning.

Moodle

2010-05-15T23:18:00.000+10:00

I have been using Moodle as a Learning Management System for over a year now and training a few teachers how to use it, and I feel convinced that there are many good reasons for using it in the primary school. It is a fantastic tool for storing and delivering content and all of your digital resources related to a unit of work in one place that is accessible from any internet connection. You can use it to store flipcharts, embedded videos, worksheets, links, activities, assessment items and your teaching program. I have seen it used for organising and planning Literacy and Numeracy Groups, Inquiry units and personal projects. The problem anyone who hasn't used Moodle before is that the Moodle courses (units of work) are often stored behind a firewall on a school or district server or may require an enrolment key in order to access them, so it is difficult for me to show you exactly what I mean. I have some screenshots below and some links this week to sample courses. There is some new learning involved in getting familiar with Moodle. I have taught myself so you can too. Best place to begin to learn about Moodle is with these 2 Minute Moodles . You could then download some free software such as Poodle that allows you to run Moodle on your own computer (I haven't tried it sorry) or follow this link and learn how to run Moodle from a USB stick (I have been told though that it runs pretty slow via a thumb drive). You could also try a free hosting service such as Ninehub or Keys To School in order to dip your toe in the water. You will perhaps run out of space fairly soon and have to consider paying for some kind of hosting, whether it be your own school, district, diocese or a provider such Sentral , suggested to me by Warren McCullough . Hopefully the links collected this week will help you get into Moodle. Happy Moodling.

The example above shows how a Kinder teacher embedded all her dance instruction videos into a Moodle course in preparation for an upcoming school social.

This unit shows how students can follow a procedure, see a work sample and upload their completed assignment for marking.

Cool Stuff I found this week:

Google keep buying up useful applications.
Ecological Footprint Calculators

Powerpoint: The Butcher's Paper of the 21st Century

2010-05-08T13:11:00.000+10:00

PowerPoint has been around since 1987 but I am constantly shocked by teachers, presenters and students who use it in utterly appalling ways. Remember teacher inservice days where every surface of the room was covered with butcher's paper? Powerpoint is the butcher's paper of the 21st Century, putting yet another generation of learners into a hypnotic stupor. I feel sorry for anyone who tries to use it for their presentations these days because it has such a stigma attached to it. My pet hates are stupid sounds, transitions and having more than 4 lines of text per slide. Consider the Year 10 student whose recent Geography assignment involved using PowerPoint for a Geography essay. Yes, an essay. The student was told they had to create a PowerPoint with 30 slides and that they had to put MORE than 4 lines of text on each page. There was no presenting involved with this presentation and no originality. I have seen some great activities using PowerPoint with infants classes (I prefer Open Office Impress because it is free and Prezi makes me seasick), but they are exceptions. This Year 10 assignment has to be one of the worst. I have been preaching how to use presentation software effectively for years. As someone said, your slide show is meant to be a visual aid and not a visual distraction or sleeping pill. This week I have collected some slide show tips as well as some great ideas for using presentation software in the classroom.

Cool Things I Discovered This Week:

PowerPoint is good for hypnotising chickens.
Great PD opportunity: 31 Days to Become a Better Ed Tech Leader
Kids can be historians
The Creative Thinking Spiral: "In this process, people imagine what they want to do, create a project based on their ideas, play with their creations, share their ideas and creations with others, and reflect on their experiences—all of which leads them to imagine new ideas and new projects. As students go through this process, over and over, they learn to develop their own ideas, try them out, test the boundaries, experiment with alternatives, get input from others, and generate new ideas based on their experiences." This sadly is still a foreign concept in many classrooms.
A great Art site

Scratch

2010-05-02T18:06:00.000+10:00

Scratch is a programming language created by MIT, that makes it easy for kids to create interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art and share them on the web. Students using Scratch learn many mathematical ideas and can collaborate with others and be creative. It represents constructivist learning at its best. It is the kind of thing that Bill Gates started out doing in his garage and you know what that led to. I urge you all to download this small program that runs on the smell of an oily rag from http://scratch.mit.edu/ and give it a try. Better still, let your kids play with it. They will be hooked. Please have a look at the links I have collected for you this week.

Cool Stuff I Learned This Week:

The Sistine Chapel looks much better when there are no people in the way.
Kids understand Maths best when they are able to teach it to others.

Web 2 Lockout

2010-04-24T18:36:00.001+10:00

I am always trying to find an audience for student work and I find it really frustrating that there are so many great web2 publishing sites that kids have to be 13 years old in order to sign up for an account. I think it would be far better to have a rating system for websites like we find with TV shows (G, PG, M, R). Many kids ignore the rules and lie about their age but I do not encourage kids to to do this. One way around the problem is to create a gmail account for the class such as MrsSmithYear6 at email.com and give students the password. When a teacher signs up using this email address, students can then all access the one account. This week I have tried to collect links to sites that offer free educator accounts or that do not have the 13 years of age policy. Please let me know about others I can add to the list or let me know what you do about the 13 years of age rule.

Cool Stuff I Learned This Week:

My 10 year old daughter showed me how to use an iPhone when we were wasting time in a mobile phone shop at a shopping mall. We don't have an iPhone in our family but she was able to show me how to use just about every function on the device.
Diigo, Animoto, Voicethread and Glogster have Educator Accounts. I am hoping other Web2 giants will follow.
Screencasting has many classroom uses.

Theme: Disasters Year 5-6

2010-04-18T20:58:00.000+10:00

I collected some links on disasters for Stage 3 this week and while on the subject of disaters, I am not sure if you will be conducting NAPLAN tests at your school or not and I am not teaching a class at the moment. If I was, I would be getting my class to do as many past NAPLAN tests and practice tests as possible. Yes, teach to the tests and get back to the real learning once they are over. If you are interested in the sad topic of standardised testing, Gary Stager recommends reading , The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education by Diane Ravitch, a previous education advisor to the Bush Administration and architect of standardised testing. I think it is about time we did some standardised testing of our politicians.

Personal Learning Networks

2010-04-11T15:41:00.000+10:00

I have just returned from The ACEC Conference and have some great new ideas. One, advocated by Steve Collis , is to create your own Personal Learning Network as a means of professional development. Yes, he does deserve the title Happy Steve. His happiness infects everyone he meets. He argued that traditional professional development days do not allow for the fact that each school is unique with different people, history and circumstances. The development day also does not allow for needs of individual teachers. Digital Age PD is about relationships and community and making your learning personal. I have been sending out a newsletter for 8 years now and it has functioned as a personal learning environment rather than a network. I intend to change that. I hope my links this week will give you some ideas for creating your own personal learning network. Before the conference I was not an avid Twitter fan but I have changed my mind. Steve explained that Twitter was like a cocktail party, where you can listen in and participate in conversations that interest you. The penny dropped for me at this moment. I downloaded Tweetdeck and have begun in earnest.

Bullying: Old Problem, New Playground.

2010-02-21T13:23:00.000+11:00

The role of technology in bullying is overemphasised. It is a case of bullies having new tools at their disposal. The number one factor is, of course, student engagement in bullying or victimisation in face to face environments. Results show that students' roles in traditional bullying predicted the same role in cyberbullying. So basically, students don't become bullies just because they have a computer. I would be very interested to know the exact ratio of bullying that occurs on mobile phones compared to computers as well. I think much more occurs using mobile phones. The accepted wisdom to bullying at the moment seems to be to have a whole school approach which has zero tolerance for bullying in any form. I hope these links I have collected will help you do that.

Classroom Management

2010-02-13T13:32:00.000+11:00

I have collected some links this week to help teachers with classroom management. When it comes to managing students at school, everyone has their own individual style. It is not something that happens overnight. It takes years to develop the skills to handle most everyday situations at school. My suggestion to any young teachers starting out, is to realise you are a beginner and talk to the most experienced teachers on staff and ask them what they do or ask for advice about problems you may be experiencing with students. But don't take all their advice as gospel. Their strategies may not suit you or your class. I found that each year I had to change my strategies depending on the composition of the class. I also found out the hard way that some strategies don't work for all kids. Getting to know your kids really well at the beginning of the year and establishing a good relationship with them is the first place to start. One thing I try to do is catch kids being good. A simple reward system where you allocate "Free Time" reward points when you see students working well can help most of the time. Put a poster up where the kids can reach it with pockets next to their name. Give them reward cards to put in their sleeve. They can redeem it at any time of the day (within reason) and do the activity of their choice. They can even invite a friend if they have enough points. Vary this idea to suit your style and ideas. For a few years I had students who just refused to bring in homework. I set up a lucky dip bag and let them pick something from the bag each week if they completed their homework to a reasonable standard. It probably cost me $200 for the whole year (a tax deduction) but saved lot of grief. Everyone did their homework.

Visual Ventures

2010-02-06T15:18:00.000+11:00

The ability to create a story, demonstrate mastery or understanding of a concept using images and video is now a basic skill that all students require. Reading, Writing and Arithmetic are just not enough. By the way, I like Chris Betcher's list of basic skills for the 21st century (touch typing should be added).

As I became more experienced in teaching digital storytelling and film making, I gave up on using video cameras and ended up using the most basic tools available to many students, digital cameras and mobile phones. I also now demand that student videos be no longer than 60 seconds in length. I have no problem with students preparing a 3-5 minute film to show at a class film night (yes popcorn included) but for video assessment items, less is more and saying what you need to say in 60 or even 30 seconds is a great discipline for students. Video also allows some students to really shine. I have seen this with New Arrival and ESL students. They can really surprise you when English is no longer a boundary to their expression.

The Big Questions

2010-01-30T10:01:00.000+11:00

When I ask the young IT guys where I work how to do something, they answer patiently and politely but I can tell they are thinking, "Why don't you google it?". That is the world they have grown up with. It would have been hard to imagine this 15 years ago. Students now need to be able to sift through the information mountain, process it and use it to answer meaningful questions. I always try to make this job easier for students and teachers with my website, but ultimately, students need to be able to do it themselves. Think of my links then as scaffolding in this process.

I feel that asking the big questions can really enliven your lessons and motivate students. Take our recent Australia day Celebrations as an example. Is it Survival Day or Australia Day? Is it a commemoration or celebration? Was it Settlement or Invasion? At first you get their parent's answers, but after digging deeper, even young students can form their own answers.

When you want a cake recipe you google it. Soon, and I mean soon, all students will have a netbook or notebook on their desk and they will be able to immediately find information. 3 years ago I was advising teachers against using Wikipedia. Not now. The skill set we give students is different. Will you be ready for it soon?

Reading Interactives K-2

2010-01-23T16:09:00.000+11:00

Welcome back to all the Australian teachers who are back at work this week after the summer break. This is the 9th year that I have sent out this free newsletter in much the same format. With 22,000 subscribers it seems like a winning formula, but I am asking each of you to let me know what direction you would like both the newsletter and website to take in the future so that it can best serve each of you, my faithful friends. For example, I cannot possibly find all the really good websites you need for each theme and there must be so many you could add to my lists. So please email me at info@primaryschool.com.au and speak your mind.
The links I have compiled this week are aimed at K-2 but I am sure you can use them in a variety of ways. I need to make special mention of the Adrian Bruce website which has some great free reading interactives. Also, there are resources that are only available to Australian and NZ schools via the Learning Federation that are excellent.

School Food Resources

2010-01-13T17:41:00.000+11:00

This week I have collected resources related to school canteens, school lunches and growing food at school. You could argue that it is none of our business getting involved in what students eat at school. I disagree. We know the statistics. Australians are fat and our children are going to pay for it, if not though their own illness, then indirectly through taxation to support an ever expanding health system that is needed for coping with obesity related disorders like diabetes. Teachers need to get involved. Probably like you, I ate too much during the festive season and it is showing. Shedding the extra kilos is not easy. I also have no idea how to grow my own food. Better to teach students good food habits as early as possible and I believe students learn best by doing. Just out of interest you may also like to look at have a look at this video . It gave me something to think about.

Movember

2009-11-07T16:04:00.000+11:00

Hi,

I am growing a moustache this year for Movember. I have decided to put down my razor for one month (November) and help raise awareness and funds for men’s health – specifically prostate cancer and depression in men.

What many people don’t appreciate is that close to 3,000 men die of prostate cancer each year in Australia and one in eight men will experience depression in their lifetime - many of whom don’t seek help. Facts like these have convinced me I should get involved and I am hoping that you will support me.

To sponsor my Mo, you can either:

• Click this link and donate online using your credit card or PayPal account
• Write a cheque payable to ‘Movember Foundation’, referencing my Registration Number 143555 and mailing it to: Movember Foundation, PO Box 292, Prahran, VIC, 3181

Remember, all donations over $2 are tax deductible.

Movember is now in its sixth year and, to date, has achieved some pretty amazing results by working alongside The Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCFA) and beyondblue: the national depression initiative. Check out further details here.

If you are interested in following the progress of my Mo, click here. Also, this link has heaps of useful
information.

Thank you

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd Drops In

2009-08-28T20:20:00.000+10:00

This week during Kevin Rudd's visit to Lismore, he made time to come and visit OLHC Primary to have a look at the school's netbook program. He arrived without any fanfare (and with a surprisingly small contingent of security personnel) in the front seat of a sedan. He was very relaxed and made time to stop to speak to any children who wanted to meet him and was very friendly and interested in what they were doing. The Year 5 class he visited have been doing a unit of work on genealogy and using the Internet to research their family tree and to plan a virtual trip to the countries of their ancestors. He was very patient and considerate in all his discussions with the kids and laughed and joked with everyone. One of his aids was joking and teasing him and he gave back just as good. As he was walking around the classroom he noticed one student using the web cam on a netbook, so he bent down and put his head on the child's shoulder so the student could take a picture with the web cam. It was really a kind and considerate gesture and something the student will never forget. The PM commended the kids for their work and said he wished he had a computer when he was at school. It is a great testament to our country that a leader can stroll in to a school and listen to kids without pretence, scripting or the need for a huge security apparatus. I couldn't imagine it happening in many other countries. In all the excitement we forgot to take Kevin down to the Kindergarten room. Perhaps this was one place his security had advised him not to visit. I know through personal experience of the security dangers. Kinders also have the knack of asking very tricky questions. I am proud to say I survived as a Kinder teacher for one year but constantly having kids pulling at the hairs on my ankles while reading stories to them can wear you down. This was despite placing a security cordon on the floor around my chair with masking tape. What hope would Kevin have if I couldn't keep them in control?

Netbook Project Progress Report

2009-08-22T16:39:00.000+10:00

Since May this year I have been working on a project with OLHC Primary School, South Lismore, NSW. The project is seen as an important trial for other schools in the region for many reasons. It is the first large role out of netbooks in the primary school environment where each child has a computer on their desk. Each of the 60 year 5/6 students has a HP Mini 2140 Netbook for use during the school day.

The netbooks are charged each evening in lockable trolleys (PC Locks). Each trolley hold 16 netbooks and only require one wall socket to recharge all 16. The Netbooks are fitted with 6 cell batteries to provide longer battery life between charges. Despite being used solidly for 3-4 hours a day, the netbooks are yet to run out of charge during a school day. This includes other younger grades, starting to make use of them during down time. The netbooks run a version of Linux called Edubuntu instead of Windows and are connected to the Internet using a Cisco wireless network.

So far the project has surpassed all expectations. The HP Minis seem very robust and we haven't had a hardware fault with one of them. The students took to the new operating system like ducks to water and already know more about it than the teachers. There continues to be bugs in some of the open source software that we are addressing each week, but overall Ubuntu seems at this stage, to be more than viable alternative to Windows. The ability to add programs across the network at will, without the need for expensive licences and time delays alone has many advantages. Added to this is the knowledge that reducing software costs has allowed the school to put more computers in front of students.

All of this is of no use, unless the focus is on learning rather than the technology. Although it early in the project, the devices are opening doors to learning that were not accessible before. Both teachers and students are beginning to see that they are now learning in a community not a classroom. I have been co-writing learning activities with teachers at the school and delivering these activities using Learning Management Software (LMS) called Moodle. This has allowed me to expose teachers to new pedagogy and web2 tools that they are incorporating into their teaching repertoire. This LMS is also allowing students to access learning activities and upload their assignments from anywhere that they have Internet access.

My advice to anyone embarking on a similar venture is to be ambitious and aim high in terms what technology can deliver in improving learning outcomes. I can also now see that the continuing reduction in price of the netbooks means that parents should be more than happy to co-contribute to such a program if it means their child will have a netbook of their own to use at both home and school. After all, students spend only 20% of their time at school and 80% outside and as adults we don't like sharing our computer with anyone else. Edubuntu also makes such an idea easier in terms of management and security. The infrastructure costs and overall planning is very important but a 1 to 1 netbook program should never be about money, but improved learning opportunities for students.

Open Office Wins

2009-07-05T11:43:00.000+10:00

I have been using Open Office (the free and open source office suite) for 6 months and am a convert. There were some annoying differences about the product that reminded me how set in my ways I am, but I am totally sold on it now. Small, sleek and powerful. If you want to know why you should give it a go, you can check out this link. Features such as being able to create PDFs from your Writer documents or exporting your slide presentations as Flash SWF files are enough reason to interest many. I have collected a list of links for you this week to help you jump in. The suite doesn't have a good clipart collection packaged with it but you can easily add open source collections. The pick of collections for schools is WP Clip Art which includes instructions for downloading and installing the collection into OO. I have found some problems opening word.docs in OO, particularly where tables and marcos are concerned, but the problems are not major. If you are concerned about compatibility with Microsoft Word, You can set Open Office Writer to save all your documents as word.doc by default or download and install the Sun ODF Plugin for Microsoft Office which allow MS Office to open ODFs . But I feel once you start using it, as I have, you won't go back to MS Office and you will soon convert your friends and colleagues as well. As for students, they don't have the same hang ups as teachers. They won't even think about the differences. Do your school a favour and load it on every machine and then send kids home with a copy to install at home. If it doesn't work out, just uninstall it.

Educational Technology Brain Food

2009-06-28T12:48:00.000+10:00

I had a request this week from a subscriber wanting some links for a parent who requested that her child not use computers at school and that she would prefer her child be given worksheets when the rest of the class where using computers. The teacher wanted some information that would convince the parent that computers are an essential part of education at school and home. The argument is moot because computers are pervading more aspects of our lives. How many handwritten letters, for example, have you received this year? Is learning handwriting more important than learning touch typing? I try to respect others when their opinions differ, and I can see some truth in the belief that we may be becoming slaves of Information Technology rather than masters. What happens for example, when the power fails and you can't use your Interactive Whiteboard? For this reason I have tried to air the views of both sides of the debate in the links I have prepared this week. My stance in terms of Educational Technology has always been that no gadget can be a panacea for poor teaching. Rather than trying to win arguments, a more productive use of time is be the best teacher you can be using ED Tech and let it be a case of the "proof in the pudding" with the achievements of students in your class. One way to improve your knowledge and skills is to engage in some professional development by subscribing to Educational Technology Blogs where other educators share their ideas and experiences. I hope the blogs I have collected will help and by all means, please send me links to ones not on the list that you think are worthwhile and I will add them.

Teaching Writing: You Be The Expert

2009-06-06T19:25:00.000+10:00

The theme of my newsletter this week is Teaching Writing to Year 1-2 and I have to admit that the process of learning to write remains a mystery to me despite teaching for 25 years. Teaching kids is not like fixing computers. There are no zeros and ones, just a lot of shades of grey. My error rate in teaching writing would obviously be lower say, than in performing brain surgery, but there were always kids in my class that I couldn't motivate no matter what I tried. For this reason I am quite wary of Literacy experts (or any experts wearing ties for that matter for it was their sophisticated models that provided our present economic mess) telling me what works. So please take my suggestions with an equal grain of salt. There is no one solution suitable for every student. One tip is to try as much as possible to provide kids with an authentic and meaningful purpose for writing. Telling them they have to write because they will need it when they grow up just doesn't cut it any more. Plumbers earn as much as doctors in Australia and I don't know many who write poetry in their spare time. There needs to be a more immediate reward. Why not try publishing student writing in a book or on the Internet? Why not appeal to their egos? Advertisers do it to us every day. And finally, get the kids to write copious amounts every single day and don't worry if you can't correct it all. You don't have the time. Better to let them write more, than hold them back until you covered it in red ink. My writing improved significantly when I was writing essays every night. It took my a while to work out that it is like learning to surf. You have to do it every day if you want to improve. Have strict rules for editing work that is to be published and don't worry about what isn't published. Reflect also on how many hand written letters you have posted this week. The sooner the kids have computers on their desks the better. Have a look at the links I have provided for you this week and see if you can find anything that might work in your classroom. Keep an open mind and keep trying out new ideas. It is more art than science. You be the expert.

Find A Kid To Fix It

2009-05-30T18:23:00.000+10:00

I finally handed over netbooks to each of the year 5 and 6 students this week and it was a momentous occasion for me. I have dreamed of what it would be like if all the kids in my class had their own computer on their desk since the day I started teaching 25 years ago. All those years ago I had one Microbee computer with a cassette tape drive in my classroom that took 30 minutes to load a simple program. This week I was in front of a class of students who were all connected to the wireless network, accessing the Internet, shooting and editing video and emailing their work to their teacher to mark. I had spent a lot of time preparing an image for the netbooks, making sure all the software was working and ironing out security issues but I knew that there would be problems bound to surface. I also wasn't sure how the kids would go navigating the Ubuntu interface that is slightly different to Windows. I decided the best approach was not to spend too much time talking to the kids about the computers but to let them explore the new machines, stand back and watch what happened. I handed them out, fully charged with a 5 hour battery life and told them to try everything out. Within about 5 minutes some of them had worked out how to use the built-in video camera, change the wallpaper, customise the desktop and discover nearly all the bugs that I hadn't anticipated. I realised I should have given them the machines sooner rather than trying to work out what the bugs where myself. It was really amazing when you consider that they had never seen Ubuntu or any of the software programs that came installed. If I had done the same thing to a group of adults I am guessing there would have been frustration and people giving up because the software wasn't exactly what they were familiar with. So if you can't work out how to use something on a computer, hand it over to a 10 year old for five minutes and then beg them to teach you.
Am I worried that I will have to make changes to 66 new machines to fix the problems that the kids found? Not at all. One of the many great things I am finding about Ubuntu (yes it is free as well) is that I can make changes to the one master copy of the software on their netbooks and as soon as they restart their machines, the changes are automatically installed and enabled.

Chalk Makes A Comeback

2009-05-24T11:12:00.000+10:00

It was a pretty challenging week on the North Coast of New South Wales with cyclonic conditions bringing widespread flooding, gale force winds knocking down trees, power lines and eroding beaches and schools being shut for 2 days because of fears of children being stranded in flood waters. It was the third such event this year and I think we have had enough rain to last for a while. I learned a few valuable lessons from it all. The first lesson was how much I rely on computers and the Internet and the second was the importance of radio in these situations. Being without power for a couple of days and not knowing what was happening in the local area, I spent quite a bit of time sitting in my car listening to ABC local radio for information on road closures as well as flood and weather warnings. I can't express more highly the value of this service. People were ringing the radio station and asking questions about how to get to different locations to avoid the flood waters and other listeners were ringing up with suggestions. It really turned into an interactive medium. Evacuation alerts were being broadcast warning residents to move to higher ground. The information also greatly helped me navigate my way to work and I found the reports were pretty accurate and up-to-date. Well done ABC local radio. I am going to buy a portable radio before I forget. Thanks also to Country Energy whose workers must have spent days sitting up in power polls in high winds and bucketing rain trying to get the power back on. I am also going to buy some chalk. It might end up being useful for those long days at school without electricity.

No More Trouble

2009-05-16T14:40:00.000+10:00

I don't watch TV. It has the same effect on me as drinking Kava. I particularly avoid TV News and newspapers. Why? I always found the news depressing but living in China helped me give up the habit completely. After spending 3 years with no English TV and no news, I was happily oblivious to terrorist attacks, pandemics and political controversies and I found my state of ignorance actually made no difference to my life at all. (perhaps more optimistic about the human race). I also just can't stomach the bias. As the song says "Don't believe the hype". I know I should watch a little, being an educator, but I have found that having an RSS reader on my iGoogle page allows me to get the news I am interested in sent to my desktop. I did see something on the RSS this week that got me thinking. Civilians in Sri Lanka and Pakistan caught up in the crossfire of war. It always seems to be women and children who get in the way of boys with their deadly toys. It reminds me of a cartoon I once saw where a kid asks his dad, "How do soldiers killing each other solve the world's problems?" As Mahatma Gandhi said "If we are going to bring about peace in the world, we have to begin with the children". For me that means it starts at home hopefully and teachers can do something about it in the classroom. So this week I have collected some links related to Peace Education which I hope you will make use of. I have included the usual, paper cranes and songs. I don't usually go for that kind of thing but I was impressed with Playing For Change and their version of Stand By Me and No More Trouble . My personal view is that singing about peace doesn't do that much except making you feel good. I am more interested in teaching about the root causes of war which is feel are lack of tolerance and an excess of bias, greed and racism. These are really hard values to challenge because most kids come to school with their parent's views firmly entrenched. But we can all do a bit to chip away at the wall that divides people and stop glorifying war.

Intranet

2009-05-10T13:08:00.000+10:00

I am starting to see a few schools buying scanning kits for the photocopiers. These allow you to digitise all those old useful worksheets you have been dragging out of the filing cabinet every year for centuries and turn them into editable files stored, displayed and distributed to students without the need to photocopy them. Punch in your Inbox number. Load the tray with 100 double-sided worksheets. Press Scan and walk away. No more dragging around filing cabinets when you move schools. No more hoarding mountains of paper in the spare room or garage at home and no more wasting paper. I am sure you can think of many more advantages. Why haven’t you heard about this technology before? Because photocopy suppliers make money from every page you print, not from you turning your photocopier into a scanner. So ask your principal about it now.
So once you have scanned all the worksheets and handouts, you are going to need a convenient, safe and accessible place to store them. We have all been guilty of losing valuable files on old thumb drives that die on us just before the beginning of a lesson. One answer to this problem is a school Intranet, which is best described as an internal and secure Internet for your school. Intranets are great tools for collaboration and a place for students to save and display their work. They also support efforts to individualise learning and use constructivist pedagogy. Students can collaborate on projects, have more control over their learning and participate in learning that interests them. This is all great in theory but it won't work unless the teachers and students find the Intranet useful, usable and convenient. If teachers have to learn html to be able to display their next lesson on their IWB, the Intranet will die. This is where Content Management Systems (CMS) are essential. A CMS allows you to enter content much the same way as you would with a word processing program and without the need for learning html coding.
There are many free CMS software downloads and the one you choose will depend very much on what your school wants to achieve with the Intranet. Your goals are the most important place to start, so I suggest that if you are serious about creating a school Intranet or improving your existing one, read carefully the excellent free resources provided by James Robertson, a Sydney based expert in the field of Intranets. That way at least, you will build the Intranet that achieves your goals and hopefully it won’t be a case of the “tail wagging the dog”. My advice is to consult widely with other staff from the start and find out what things they find really annoying about your present Intranet or tasks that can be made easier, such as programming (always a winner) and deliver some small improvements that will win you support and build momentum for change in your school. This is much better than asking people what the want. Most people don't really know because it is all new to them. Solve a problem for them and you are a winner. Find out what the problems are now and work on solving those first. Once you decide on some goals and some timeframes, it is probably also worth thinking carefully about the best CMS for your needs have a look at my links and visit sites like Dave's Educational Blog . Ease of use, for example, is not always the best reason for choosing a CMS. You have to think carefully about governance and a policy for content creation as well as making sure someone is responsible for maintaining every page of the site so that content is always up-to-date. Happy scanning.

Adaptive and Assistive Technology

2009-05-03T15:33:00.000+10:00

I ran into a teacher the other day who was singing the praises of a new type of software that would be terrific for some reluctant readers in his class. He told me the software could read out texts is a spoken form. He saw a demonstration of it but was flawed by the cost. I agreed with him that the price was outrageous and being a bower bird, I would try and find him a free version. I found a couple of programs and having a play with them, I realised that Text To Speech (TTS) software has got so many other applications. I haven't paid much attention to this kind of software before, and regretably to Adaptive and Assistive Technology in general, but it got me thinking that I should do some more foraging for some free alternatives. I expanded my list a little and tried to find other types of free Adaptive and Assistive Technology and it made me remember when I first asked some of my students in china to use their mobile phones to create a 2 minute film. Some of these students had very little English but were able to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in the visual form with stunning clarity. The same is possibly true with students will special learning needs. So let them lose with something like Photostory 3 or the powerful and simple to use Linux alternative, Smile or with their mobile phones and see what they come back with. Most of what I listed is for Windows or Mac but I am sure you would be able to find lots of Linux alternatives. And if you can't find it, contact the The Ubuntu Accessibility Team, who volunteer there time to improve the accessibility support on the Ubuntu platform and the software that runs on it, as I am sure they would enjoy the challenge of creating something for you.

Death By Powerpoint

2009-04-18T12:17:00.000+10:00

Sorry, but I just cringe every time I have to sit through a Powerpoint presentation. If you want a good laugh, read "Power corrupts. PowerPoint corrupts absolutely" by Edward Tufte. To its credit, Powerpoint has been around for 20 years, and if used effectively, can be a useful tool. Let a class of kids loose on Powerpoint and you usually get lots of clashing colours, annoying noises, animations and not much useful information. I usually start with a lesson on how to prepare an effective presentation and I am fairly strict with the rubrics I set for assignments using Powerpoint. I just really needed a change and this week searched for other presentation alternatives. I like Open Office Impress and think that it is a good free alternative to Powerpoint for most presentations. I think Impress has actually been engineered to be similar to Powerpoint to allow MSOffice centric types an easy transition. I found a few interesting online tools but the prize so far goes to Prezi . It is a non-linear presentation tool that allows you to zoom in and out, move around at will and save your presentations. It takes a short time to learn to use and is such a breath of fresh air compared to Powerpoint. There are some shortcomings, which will no doubt become apparent as you use it but the concept of a zooming presentation tool is quite exciting and revolutionary. You can sign up for a trial version.

Video Is Coming To Your Classroom

2009-04-13T19:56:00.000+10:00

I can see in the near future when students will search for and view videos related to content they want to learn about, when they need it and not when we feel like teaching it. If you haven't paid much attention to Teacher Tube and You Tube before, you had better familiarise yourself with them quickly. There are so many good tutorials appearing on these sites now that you can use in your classroom. If you have problems viewing You Tube at school there are various tools such as Keepvid and FLV Player to help you. There are many advantages to saving your lessons as video tutorials. How many times in your life have your taught that fractions lesson to Year 6? You can almost do it in your sleep, so why not share it with other people and have it as a resource to pull out once a year. You can do the lesson well once on video and keep it for future use. A little more work at first certainly, but you will have it very ever. Kids who are having trouble understanding the concept can watch it several times until "the penny drops". There are many students who have not been served well by traditional classroom instruction who are going to benefit from this change. Remember when you missed school for a week because of illness and missed learning a whole topic in Math, never to really catch up? If you are a visual learner like me, the advantages are obvious. I have been slowly working through Tomaz Lazic's Moodle video tutorials and I must say it is my prefered way to learn what I need to learn. And that is a key point. We learn things when we need to learn them, not when someone teaches us. As Winston Churchill said, "I like learning but I don't always like being taught". It is also a great way to help kids revise for exams. If you don't believe it is going to happen soon in the primary classroom, look at what has taken place in higher education. Most univerities offer lectures in video format.
Let's face it. Most of us are digital dinosaurs. We grew up in the pre-digital age while the kids we teach have been born into it. We are going to have to get with it. So how do you do it? A simple way is to use free software like Cam Studio which allows you to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and and save it as a video. So you really don't need a video camera really at all. Start by visiting Teacher Tube and looking at how others have done it. And it is not such a new thing after all. Have a look at Ma and Pa Kettle's Maths instruction video for a laugh. One of my old favourites that I have shown many kids over the years, Donald in Mathmagicland is also worth a look. Why didn't I present this information in video format? Good question. I will work on it.

Moodle

2009-04-05T06:45:00.000+10:00

You may have guessed by now that I like free stuff or as Australians say, I am tighter than a fish’s bum. I object to having to pay for resources that are freely available on the net. That is one of the main reasons I made my collection of links called Primary School available to you. I think it is kinder to think of myself as being like a Bowerbird. Collecting digital treasures for my website nest. If you are not an Aussie, have a look at this video from David Attenborough. Moodle is one of these treasures. I am looking for new ways of delivering content to students that takes advantage of the power of ICT and I am finding Moodle to be fairly exciting for the following reasons:

It is FOSS (free and open source software).
Being FOSS it is constantly evolving and improving.
It is modular and you can add useful objects and tools to it (the number and range of these will increase).
It allows teachers to create a course (unit of work) and deliver this content to anyone, anywhere, any time.
Learners only need a browser such as IE or Firefox (Please give Firefox a go) and an internet connection to use it.
It allows you to create your course and improve on it each year (no more handing in programs, I hear you say)
It allows you to collaborate and share courses with other teachers and so, reduces the incidence of duplication (how many of us are creating the same units of work today and reinventing the wheel?).
It manages assessment and student feedback really well.

Ok. I admit there are a few hitches. You will have to move out of your comfort zone and learn something new. I get sick of teachers telling me, "Not more things we have to learn!", but that is what life is all about. If you don't learn, you don't grow. My suggestion is that you start by watching these videos. Then look at the examples I collected and then log in to the Moodle demonstrations at http://www.moodle.mylearningspace.com.au/ and http://demo.moodle.org/ and learn how it works (I am a novice too and hope never to be considered an expert at anything). One of the problems I have found is finding primary school Moodle courses that are available for public viewing. You have to log in as a guest and I often find I am locked out, so it is difficult to view good existing examples. The other problem is that, while you can run Moodle on a single computer, you really need to get a computer nerd to download and put the Moodle software on your school or regional education office server so you have somewhere secure to store the precious courses that you create. You can get around this by using a free Moodle hosting service such as Ninehub.com as a way of dipping your toe in the water. They host the Moodle courses for you and the only drawback is a bit of google advertising at the top and bottom. When you open a new account at Ninehub.com you can easily create a new course and play around adding topics, resources such as links and activities such as quizzes or forums. Once you have created something useful in this account, test it with the kids at school, then show it to your IT administrator and convince them to host it on your school or regional server. If this fails just leave it on Ninehub.com . They also offer a paid service if you want extra features. To me Ninehub.com looks like a good place to start (I hope I am not proved wrong sorry). The other problem with Moodle is that it looks really high school centric but I am sure that once primary teachers like me get a hold of it, there will be new modules and new ways of using it that are more suited to primary schools that will emerge. Go on. Do yourself and your students a favour and have a go.

P.S. No sign of the new netbooks yet that are ordered but I am hoping we can get hold of them by next term. Hopefully, I can have a couple of decent units of work ready to deliver via Moodle when we get the devices up and running.

Wikis In Education

2009-03-29T10:15:00.000+11:00

Simply handing out netbook computers to students without rethinking the way we teach is a waste of time. I fear that many devices intended for high schools as part of the governments Digital Education Revolution Plan will end up collecting dust. Inservice training for teachers is the only thing that will make the devices truely useful. Teachers need to see how the netbooks can be used to enhance learning. Teachers need to learn new strategies in small chunks and have successes with these strategies. That is why I have been called in assist with the netbook trial at OLHC Primary South Lismore. I have been working 1 to 1 with teachers each week and helping them move forward from where they are at in terms of IT use and I am really enjoying it and starting to see changes already. I have started playing around this week with wikis and how we can use them in the classroom. We are starting with a wiki where teachers can plan a unit of work collaboratively. Each teacher can add content, suggestions and resources and we should have a really useful unit of work ready for next term. I have chosen to use Wetpaint and I like the way you can add some useful widgets such as a Photobucket slideshow. I also like that you can email Wetpaint and ask them to remove all advertising if the wiki is for educational use. We are also looking at how students can use wikis for their work. There seems so many possibilities. The Wikis are private at the moment but we will make them public when we are happy for other teachers to see them. I'll keep you posted.

This Textbook Is Broken

2009-03-18T07:15:00.000+11:00

I had a link to a video entitled " This Textbook is broken!" sent to me today by Chris from his Betchablog. It says a lot about the future of education and how kids view using textbooks.

Software Success

2009-03-14T15:33:00.000+11:00

I have been busy for the last two weeks deciding which netbooks we will use for the school trial as well as assessing, evaluating and trialing open source software applications that we can add to the student netbooks. We narrowed the choice to the Intel Classmate 3 and the HP Minibook. HP Minibooks won out because of durability, a 4 year on site warranty, price and features. As for software, there is no end to the amount of free software you can easily download for Ubuntu. Some of the highlights so far Open Office 3, which can save and read in word.doc format, The Gimp, which is an excellent Image manipulation program, iTalc which lets you view and control other computers in your classroom network including seeing what all users are viewing and locking screens. There are just too many more programs to mention here. And yes, there is no need for authentication codes or money. The other pleasant part is that when I couldn't work out how do something using The Gimp, for example, I posted a question on a forum and had solution really quickly. I have never had that kind of success with Microsoft software problems.

To add to this, the process of downloading and installing the software is very simple. Ubuntu uses a Synaptic Packet Manager to manage all downloads. You search for the software you want inside the manager. It looks for the software download site on the internet. It downloads and installs it with one click. Simple.
I only had one major software problem that looked to be unresolved. The school uses Promethean IWBs in all classrooms and I couldn't find Promethean software and drivers to support Ubuntu. If we couldn't get around this it would mean that teachers would have to keep Windows running on their computers so they could use their IWBs. It was the only piece of Windows software that we couldn't do without. I sent a lot of emails everywhere trying to get some help and fortunately Promethean decided to release a Linux version of their software and drivers. I downloaded it easily and so far it works like a charm. So far so good.

Is There Anyone Out There?

2009-03-01T11:54:00.000+11:00

I have been scouring the internet unsuccessfully this week looking for other schools who are using Linux, Ubuntu or Edubuntu. I have had a lot of open source software evangelists and techies wishing me luck and saying how important the project is but it appears that most schools seem to think it is too much of a brave new world to move to Ubuntu in preference to Windows. A couple of computer support staff in schools have told me their bosses have let them load Ubuntu onto an old standalone computer or two just to show them how it works but nobody out there seems to have taken up Ubuntu across their school. This has created more feelings of excitment for me but also the feeling that I am travelling on my own.

In other news about the project, the jury is out on which netbook we are going to use for the trial. I have been playing with the Intel Classmate 3 . One teacher asked me, "Are you going to choose the Bob the Builder laptops?" The classmate has some good features such as a handle but I get the feeling it is not as robust as the HP Minibook. I didn't like the twisting hinge and the Classmate's keyboard and felt it wouldn't last more than a year in the hands of primary students. I tried out the classmates touch screen and tablet PC features also but thought they were a bit of a gimic and wouldn't be supported by Linux software anyway. We will have to make a decision soon as to which device to adopt. I have also been waiting to hear which devise the NSW Department of Education and Training (DET) decide to buy for High School Students as the sheer numbers they order will reduce the price greatly I imagine.

Windows V Edubuntu: The Battle Begins

2009-02-22T17:11:00.000+11:00

I really enjoyed wiping Windows of my computer last week and installing Edubuntu, an Linux distribution of Ubuntu that comes bundled with lots of applications suitable for use in the classroom. But I keep finding that I need to use Windows for so many tasks that I have previously taken for granted and I haven't worked out how to do the same tasks using Linux. I have also found that the drivers required for some hardware such as IWBs doesn't seem to be available yet in Linux. This has meant that I have had to install Windows as well on my computer and boot to either Windows or Edubuntu depending on what I need to do. What happens if I boot to Windows to use a IWB? I keep using Windows and revert to my old ways of doing things. Hopefully this will pass but it reminds me that moving to using Linux all the time as an Operating System (OS) means a lot of relearning for me and a lot of time. Time is never easy to come by when you are a teacher but I will battle on. Why bother? It's all about choice. I want to be able to have a choice in terms of OS and not feel that Windows is the only computer environment where I can work comfortably and I also like the idea of free software, especially for schools.

Parent Meeting

2009-02-13T06:23:00.000+11:00

With any project such as this, parental support and participation is essential and I am happy to report that the school had a big roll up to our information evening, where staff spoke to Year 5 and 6 parents about the pilot IT project. We told them about developments in the Federal Government's Digital Education Revolution plan and how it would eventually impact on primary schools. Our plan for a managed wireless network in the school and the environmental benefits of using digital content in the classroom in reducing the school's carbon footprint. He then went on to speak about the origins of Open Source software and the benefits to the school community of embracing the use of it. My role was to introduce the operating system, Ubuntu and the particular distribution we are intending to use which is called Edubuntu which comes bundled with applications suitable for educational purposes. I wanted to reassure parents that the operating system uses a graphical user interface that children and parents would quickly become familiar with. I then went on to show them Open Office which is a free alternative and powerful office software suite.
We collected parent questionnaires at the end of the meeting in order to gauge parent views about what parents would like to see come from the pilot and I will spend some time next week reading through them. I do feel that the response was quite positive. We had one dissenter who challenged the whole notion of using computers in schools, but generally the response was quite positive.
This week for your homework boys and girls, I would like you to visit the Open Office website and download and install a copy to try. You can choose to save any word processing documents as .doc if you are worried about other people not being able to open and read the documents you create. I would be very interested in your feedback about it.

OLHC Primary Lismore Netbook Trial Begins

2009-02-07T12:08:00.000+11:00

I have just started a new project working with OLHC Primary School, South Lismore, NSW. The school is getting an netbook computer for each of their 60 year 5/6 students. The project is seen as an important trial for other schools in the region for many reasons. It is the first large role out of netbooks in the primary school environment where each child will have a computer on their desk all day. The netbooks will be running a version of Linux called Edubuntu instead of Windows and the network management of the system, both from a wireless and software point of view is going to be new territory for all involved. On the educational side, it is going allow teachers involved in the trial, to really explore new ways of learning and I feel priviledged to be part of it.

For me it is very exciting (get a life I can hear you saying). I started this week by banishing Windows from my notebook computer, installing Edubuntu and so I feel that I have jumped in at the deep end. It felt quite liberating saying goodbye to Microsoft (for now anyway). For a long while I have had the feeling that I didn't really have a choice about the software I use in the classroom but after giving Edubuntu www.edubuntu.com a run this week I can see that it is more than just a viable alternative. Not only is it free (and all of the applications that come with it), I like the way my new Gnome desktop works. It is only early days of course but I am very optimistic about it and know that the kids will adapt to the new OS and applications, much quicker than any teacher can.

So now the fun begins and I hope you come back and read my blog and comments from others each week in the hope that you can learn from it as well. My first task is to work out an effective way to store and recharge the netbooks each night in a storeroom at the school so if you can offer any suggestions about this it will be greatly appreciated.