Latest developments ...

Technology in our schools is exploding with the multitude of possibilities at the moment. I've seen some really exciting things happening both in the schools of our region and also driven by the CEOM.
Some of the exciting stuff at the moment includes:

• Deb has arranged some excellent webinars over the past few weeks. While I missed the third one from Mr Google the first two were very good.
• I've spent a bit of time looking at the level of uptake that some of our schools are buying into with Twitter as a promotional tool and to drive better communication with the parent community. Those schools where the Principal has led the way, I'm now starting to notice teachers following their lead. Good to see.
• The impact of our Parramatta visit early in the year is starting to create some big waves at my own school with perhaps for 2013 a total restructure of the BER project. It currently houses a computer lab and library. Perhaps next year it will become an open plan learning area for the 5/6 level. Borrowing again from the Paramatta experience, we have invested in an iPad Trolley but next year may go 1:1 in the senior area.
• The CEOM has just launched their video casting project which is really exciting. I have set it up on my MacBook but alas I have no one to connect to yet. When you set your up and want to connect ... I'm on.
• All schools are bust collecting data for Insight at the moment. If you want to collect some of your own data on anything happening at school, I use a free tool called SurveyMonkey online. The free version will allow up to ten questions. I use it as an evidence source for our AAP.
• Taking on new technologies: I'm using the strategy wherever possible, that if we are going to take on some new technology tool, let's try to take on one that has multiple uses. In that light, I think our school is going to become a BIG user of Evernote next year. The process has already started for our staff. Start here: Evernote for Schools

Facebook for the classroom ...

worth a look, just because of this video!

Collaborative story making ...

Storify

Here's another web2 tool that I have just come across. One of the people I follow on Twitter used this tool to present some material from a conference.
Certainly worth having a look at. To see for yourself, visit this link: http://storify.com/tour

Evernote ... a great school Resource

This is a resource I have taken a five minute look at five times over the past couple of years. This weekend I'm going to spend a good couple of hours on.

 

Our Journey to iPad learning ...

Well, we've taken the plunge! The extra money in this year's budget helped but the amount of work involved has been quite extensive. More than I thought it would be.

One of the things I'm trying to accomplish as well is documenting what is happening and why. Communicating this to all involved and giving them a voice. So a small blog seemed like a good idea. It's another one of those READY FIRE AIM strategies but I'm starting to get concerned that there might be too much firing and not enough aiming!

Anyway, to see where we are at have a look here: St Kevin's iPad Trial

Delivering 'e'PD ...

Today I had my first experimentation with delivering PD without being at the PLT meeting. Last night I prepared a wiki on our PD and then had staff access the wiki together for 10 min just to go through how to access and then they were left to complete the PD in their own time at any web enabled location by a set date. I grabbed the idea from the notion of flipped classrooms and thought that perhaps a better way was to prepare the content now and use the time together for discussion and exploring. It just developed from there.

The notion of developing ePD is attractive because it has a life beyond the time taken. Teachers are tired after school as well and to be able to complete the PD in their own time in the environment of their choice was appealing. There is still the collaborative aspect as their posts can be seen by all.

To see the wiki I created click here: http://skormond.edublogs.org/wiki/staff-wiki-elearning/

One of the issues I mulled over for a while was ... do I use a wiki or a blog to post this information? I decided on a wiki but I'm not sure if I chose right.

Below is brief rundown of blogs and wikis ... not quite as serious a discussion as it could be but some of the differences between each is presented.



For a more formal and dry comparison you could try this one presented by a New Zealand teacher.



Further Reading: http://web2debate.wikispaces.com/Guidelines+for+using+Blogs+and+Wikis

Another Educational Resource I've started ...

The Return of Apple

Not since the days of the Apple IIe have I considered the Apple as a viable alternative to PC's in an educational setting. After getting my first iPhone, I began to realise that perhaps Apple did make some pretty cool items. Then came the iPad and I thought; this is actually a great tool for the classroom.

So I've just ordered a class set to use in the school and I had to get a MacBook to control this setup. Well I have just spent the past hour using a MacBook and I cannot believe what I have been missing out on over the last unpteen years! This is what's called a paradigm shift!

I'm sold ...

Update Your Twitter Profile

So, now that you have set up a Twitter account, how do you get rid of that silly egg and add some other information about yourself?

First of all, log onto your Twitter account on your desktop computer. You can edit your profile on most smartphone apps but they all do it in a different way, so I'm going to show you from a desktop internet connection which will be the same for all users.

Your Profile should contain a picture that represents something about you. Either a picture of yourself, the school, or perhaps the school logo. If you run more than one Twitter account, use different Avatars for each. The picture is called an avatar. The default avatar is the Twitter Egg.

Your Profile should also contain some further basic information. Personally I won't generally follow a Twitter account that I know nothing about. As well as this your Profile can contain you website, and a short bio about your school, or personal mission statement if it is a personal account.

Here is a small swish file that shows how to access the Profile section once you have logged on to your Twitter account. To view the video in a larger format, click the box on the right bottom corner.

If you have any further questions, just post them here or to my Twitter account @Mavenshare

I also made an earlier post on this blog about why you might want to set up more than one Twitter account.

Social Media/Control

To read the full text and background material click here: http://www.theage.com.au/technology/quit-facebook-or-be-expelled-school-says-20120516-1yqp0.html

Appearing this week in The Age was an interesting piece on Facebook. The issue at the heart of the discussion is cyber-bullying. It’s not something that we haven’t already heard a lot about. I know that there are very strong feelings about it in general, what is the school responsibility, what is the parent’s responsibility and what is the child’s responsibility? It is a far more complicated problem than most people realise. That’s why no clear answer has been given and society in general moving ahead.

Today's Meet

Join Today's Meet and let us use it as a easy way to exchange ideas. I have created a meeting room called SEprincipals. Go to http:// todaysmeet.com/SEprincipals. Add your name and start exchanging ideas. I have opened the room for a year. Have a go!

Teaching students "how to search" :google

More on the issue raised at our conference that children in our schools do not know the ins and outs of how to search on the net efficiently. I came across this great resource for teaching Google. Complete with lesson plans! Just click the image to go to the site.

Are your teachers utilising web 2 tools?

Some yes some no ... we could all use a little help. Here is a resources to pass on to them. It's not posted here as being a "best of", just one of many places, but a start ...

• Web 2.0 for the Classroom Teacher An Internet Hotlist on Web 2.0created by Sue Summerford

An online class ...

I'm toying with the idea of creating an online class. I could possibly use some of the social networking tools to create this. Twitter, Wiki, Facebook, perhaps there are others. This might be a cross level class from say year 4-6. As a first experiment I'm thinking that rather than an instructional online class, this might be a discussion type class, but I'm not sure, as this posting contains my first thoughts on the matter. I'm interested in getting the thoughts of our massive reader base. All nine people :).
Perhaps this class might travel across some our schools and include the senior body of more than one school. We could incorporate skype in this as well. Is anyone interested in partnering or joining this venture? Post your comments below or shoot me off an email or twitter.

• email: mday@skormond.catholic.edu.au
• twitter: @mavenshare 

Wikis in the classroom ...

From the blog of: Free Technology for Teachers

5 Ways You Can Use Wikis

Today I had the privilege to participate in Discovery's Beyond the Textbook forum. One of my take-aways from the day's conversation is that most of the technologies that we want to use to make textbooks interactive and meaningful for students already exist, we just need to organize and utilize them in a way that makes sense for teachers and students. I've combined that take-away with a recent request from a reader to delineate some ways that teachers can use Wikispaces to create this list of ideas for using wikis in classrooms. Please feel free to add your suggestions, with links if possible, in the comments below (please note, I'll be on planes for the next 18 hours so there will be a delay between your comment submission and its appearance on the blog).

Changing Education ...

Students as Teachers

While on conference in Sydney last week I came across a new tool which can be used by students and teachers as well as the leadership of the school. In any learning community there is a constant flow of new and interesting tools to use on the net and on our devices that enhance our learning and help increase engagement. Staying up to date is often the hardest thing. One of my useful strategies is to use Youtube to teach me about new products and programs. There are always plenty of how to's and tutorials to view. This is because there are so many mavens out there that are happy to share their learnings. But wouldn't it be better if we could easily make our own how to's and videos? Easily and for FREE. Then perhaps you need Jing.

How many Twitter Accounts do you need

I was asked today, how many Twitter accounts are needed. Do we use one for personal and one for school, or do we have one account and use it for both?
Unfortunately, this isn't a simple one to answer. There are a few impacting issues and one needs to be clear on the goal and purpose of the account before this can be answered.

Adding contact details

Hi folks, Christine has pointed out to me that my video on adding contact details does not work because when users (authors) log in they don't see all the options I see as the blog creator. Not something I had realised as I'm new to this blog. Sorry about that. Here is the explanation and solution.