Week Five- News Round Up-Christchurch Earthquake

This week, I wanted to think about last Tuesday's Christchurch Earthquake and how media coverage, including the web and social networking have responded, particularly when considering children.

Many of you will have had students arrive in your schools to have some respite from the continuing aftershocks especially those who have suffered enormous loss.

The Rotorua Daily Post reported today that 'Quake TV may disturb children' and that 'adults should limit what their children saw on television...there can be too many negative images of people being distressed and bodies being found...this can reinforce in them that it could happen here' This was also reported on 3 News this morning

TV One's Breakfast Show featured psychologist Nigel Latta describing how the quake will be a 'defining moment' in a child's life and that they would not necessarily "look back and remember the terrible stuff". He believes ' some "pretty robust" children will come out of Christchurch following the quake'. If you are interested in hearing Latta speak about what the research says about speaking to children post disaster click the link HERE to hear the radio comments

How have you approached talking about the earthquake with your kids, either as a parent or as a teacher?

Contrast this with the Kiwi Kids News website who have prepared a special report on the Christchurch Earthquake. "Included are the best news links, videos and teaching resources for classroom use" or the 'When my home shook' website where Primary and Intermediate students provide personal accounts of how they are coping and how their communities are supporting one another



Now I am not for a second considering that there is a right or wrong way to approach dealing with such a disaster but it is worth considering, especially if questions students have asked me are also being asked of you.

How did you respond when you heard about the 10,000 people strong Student Volunteer Army recruited via Facebook to help those suffering?

What about the 'Farmy Army' arriving on tractors helping to clean up and distribute supplies?

I am interested in your thoughts and comments and know that most of us cannot even imagine what it is truly like

K

One person can make a difference

Bruce Hammonds recently posted on his blog - 'mavericks our only hope' which certainly gives another view to a topic such as the one below about teams - read about it at Bruces Blog.

Is Teaching too big a job for one person?

Teaching today is a huge job and the demands make effective teams in schools crucial

How many of Lencioni's five dysfunctions of a team do you see regularly within the teams you work with?

What about successful teams you work with or have worked with in the past? What made them work? What lessons can we learn?



How many staff are simply complying but not committing? Is this acceptable? If not, what can we do abut it?

Trust is the foundation of a successful team- this is not 'New news' but what about Parker Palmer's Chicago research that found that Professional learning Communities based on a firm foundation of trust had a 1 in 2 chance of improving learning outcomes for students, BUT without this there was only a 1 in 7 chance.

So these are the questions for you and i challenge you all to discuss these in your ICT teams and e-mail them through to me or add your comments to this post

How can we build trust within our Teams, including the e-central Cluster?

How does a lack of commitment from one person affect the rest of the team and those they come into contact with?

How can a fear of conflict, leading to avoidance of it mean that we avoid the 'difficult conversations' or decisions that must take place?

Are we suffering from an avoidance of accountability where we o longer expect people to do what they said they would?

Are we being attentive to our results or are we collecting data or information for no real purpose?

I will be considering this more and uploading additional material to the wiki later next week, including some recommendations established within the workshop, can we reach agreement across the cluster on habits to cultivate to avoid the Team dysfunction described in Lencioni's pyramid?

This has given me a lot of food for thought and as always, I welcome your feedback
K

Week Four- Learning at Schools Focus- Wednesday morning

First of all- my heart and thoughts go out to everyone in Christchurch. As many of you know, I am from Christchurch and my family and friends are still there. Watching the news footage was disturbing and I feel shocked and numb by the devastation.

It is difficult to focus up here in Rotorua, but I will endeavor to share my experiences and learning with you and welcome your questions, comments and feedback. I am also looking into posting resources on the wiki that you can access.

Carol Moffatt a leading NZ ICT leader opened by emphasizing the crucial focus of 'working with people in the space they are in' and this is a particular focus for Dave and I this year. The more we know about where you're at and where you want to getto, the more we can help you get there!

"Building a human infrastructure will always be more important than building a technological infrastructure"- Do you agree?

Scott McLeod, co-creator of the wildly popular 'What do you know?-Shift happens' video continued with the first keynote identifying how we can encourage political decision makers to see the development of e-learning and how this is reflected by our changing world.

Can someone overseas do your job cheaper? Can a computer do it faster? If so, your job is in DANGER!

The days of factories moving offshore are now being replaced by the replacement of 'cognitive labour' by computer systems or location independent services- when was the last time you replaced a face to face local interaction with an 'automated transaction' , things like airport automated check in anyone, online mortgage checker, booking a hotel online or even internet or telephone banking.

How do we prepare our students for this changing workforce in the developed world?

McLeod believes that despite all we speak of e-learning/ICT and student centred learning today's classroom still resembles those of the industrial age, teacher at the front, standing in front of the chalkboard (Interactive whiteboard) a difference he believes is negligible, delivering knowledge with the addition of a few neat gadgets-

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

One of our biggest hurdles?



Do we understand the true dangers in the digital world and prepare our students with the ability to behave appropriately in a secure online environment or do we use scare mongering and strict filters locking everything that COULD be a danger.

When are we going to start tapping into the potential of our students as collaborators and leaders, as participants rather than an audience?

Until later
K

Week Three's WOW- Harness the lure of Facebook in the classroom

Some of our students spend A LOT of their time on Facebook so how can we harness this to enhance thinking and learning within the classroom??

My Fake Wall is a website currently in Beta which guides you through setting up a 'facebook' wall for a historical figure or even a character from a story. You can use photos, or images freely available or even original illustrations.

I thought this example created by a student using Cinderella was a real giggle and shows the possibilities as an activity to demonstrate understanding.

The downfall??

It does have quite a few ads on the site and you do need to register (which is free), this is where setting up a 'dummy' e-mail account used only for sign ups to websites you use with students could come in handy.

An alternative is offered by Glenn who writes the History Tech Blog and posted about how Social Media could be used in the classroom. Check out that Blog post HERE

He suggests using a Fake Facebook Powerpoint Template and also this Rubric to guide students through the task to focus on the thinking NOT the tech

Danny over at The Whiteboard Blog considered how this could be applied with science and created this fab 'Facebook page' for Sodium



I would love to hear what you think of this as an option and if you do use if, post links to your pages!

Until next time
K

Week Three: Blog Round Up

Welcome back to the second Blog Round Up for the Year

This week brings some interesting combos-

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR +MUSIC VIDEO + HISTORY TEACHER + JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE?

Not the most common of combinations, but I was absolutely enthralled to view these amazing videos combining the effects of the original Music videos with Historical figures or events created by Amy Burvall a History teacher from the States who is behind the History for Music Lover's YouTube Channel

To read the Full Blog Post about Amy and the videos on iLearn Technology, Click HERE which also lists of the videos currently available (including King Tut, The Vikings, Henry VIII, Joan of Arc and the Spanish Inquisition)

Please see one of Amy's clips below- Never again will I think of Napoleon without also thinking of the Violent Femmes



What about PRICELESS WORKS OF ART + FAMOUS GALLERIES+ ANYTIME +FREE

Many of you would have already heard about the Google Art Project which allows you and your students to virtually "visit the World's most famous galleries and view hundreds of artworks at incredible zoom levels" but I believe it is worth sharing agin.

Even if you have seen these masterpieces in person, this is an amazing perspective, free of the crowds clambering to see the same artwork you have dreamed about since you were small and available anytime without a $2500 air fare

The video below is a great 'Insiders peek' into what was involved in getting this off the ground, imagine being one of the team sitting inside the Uffizi after hours filming Botticelli's work?

The applications for this site in the classroom are HUGE



Don't leave me stranded here in e-central alone, share your ideas, thoughts, comments and views- I look forward to it!

WOW- Websites of the Week

There are some fantastic websites out there and for this first post I would like to highlight THREE that I believe are worth a look

It would be great if other teachers across the cluster could share some of their favourites as well so that we can all build up ourBookmarks Tab!

uJam- A free Cloud Computing alternative to Garage band
The Ed Galaxy Blog is calling Ujam a 'Garageband killer' and the best web app of 2011. A big call, so what does it do? Basically, uJam let's ANYONE create a professional music piece in minutes by simply singing. No instruments required. This can then be edited (even the style) and then sent privately and the best part is that it is currently FREE.

Want to find out more?
Watch the video below. Blew my mind- Watch out Britney, there might be a hit single waiting in one of our classrooms!



RSA Animate Videos
Many of you would have viewed the Ken Robinson video posted on this blog back in October last year and been struck by how the drawing reinforced the ideas presented in a memorable and engaging way. RSA Vision Videos are a collection of "video lectures, from the world's most inspiring thinkers'. RSAnimate has animated many of these to capture our interest even more!

I particularly enjoyed Dan Pink's talk about Drive-extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Check that out here

RSA Animate-Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us from The RSA on Vimeo.

A great way to enhance our professional learning in an interesting way?

Finally,

Search Cube- Sick of searching the web and then scrolling through endless lists of results?

Search Cube is a visual Search engine that offers a straightforward search box for entering search terms. The search results it yields, however, are images of home pages. These home pages are arranged on the six faces of a cube, with 16 sites displayed on each face.. It shows previews of up to 96 websites, videos and images. You do need Flash 9 or higher but this is a site I am using with my class tomorrow! View the demo below



I am really looking forward to comments suggesting other websites that I can add to my bookmark folders
Until next time
K

January Blog Round Up- Part 2 of 2

Welcome back folks! Tonight's installment is the final part of our January Blog Round Up prior to our weekly updates. For those of you interested in delving deeper into subjects covered on the blog, we are considering setting up a 'Read more' link to enable you to do this while those of you that are time poor can read the 'slimline' version here.

Thoughts??

5 Tasks to Teach yourself to Teach with technology
Nik Peachey is a Learning Technology consultant in London and has a number of blogs, websites and video tutorials but one post that caught my eye was discussing tasks you can undertake as a teacher to get used to using technology.



If you like these, he followed this post with another three tasks and also has a FREE ebook 'Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers'

Feel like Flipping Classroom Instruction on it's head?
The Innovative Educator is a great blog and a great post was shared yesterday about a current 'HOT' topic- 'Flipping Instruction'.

What Might this look like?




Why? " I mean when you think about it does it make any sense that school is generally a place where people come together to sit and listen to the person at the front of the room? It generally doesn't make the most sense to get a group of people together to sit and stare.

What if instead, educators spent class time doing and homework time for the watching of lessons/lectures. The other benefit of this is that these can be viewed and reviewed anytime/anywhere. The result is a lively bustling classroom where students can spend their time learning, talking, doing".

Want to Read More? Click Here- 'How the Flipped Classroom is radically transforming learning'

Finally, just for a laugh
How much 'IT speak' has seeped into our vocabulary without us knowing?
Below is a great sketch from The two Ronnies that Dave shared at Clyde Primary last week and then Sarah e-mailed me with this week, so I knew it was too good not to share, especially as Orange was my mobile phone provider back in the UK...



Until Next Time
K

January Blog Round Up- Part 1 of 2

The land of Blog has been busy over the Summer Break and as the first of a regular weekly Blog Round Up , I will endeavor to select a few highlights in this two-part special. If I miss anything in my brutal editing process, please do comment and add other pieces of interest that can be shared across the cluster.

It would be great if we had regular contributions to these postings, collaborating and sharing across the cluster- especially those of you that have some great blogs that you follow!

After much thought, I have decided to open with 'THE BIG PICTURE', What can we expect from 2011 and are we prepared for it?

Derek Wenmoth from CORE has put together an interesting presentation that he is sharing with clusters he works with entitled' Challenges, changes and Trends 2011' that does a great job at considering what lies ahead.

Challenges, change and trends 2011

View more presentations from Derek Wenmoth.

He has also created a LiveBinder with all of the links

From thinking ahead to considering our continued focus around Digital Literacy and Digital Citizenship, I found this post about Teaching ethical and safe technology use and am interested to hear your thoughts.

How much is common sense? How much do we do without considering it? How much have we neglected in favor of the newest app or website?

A dozen ways to teach ethical and safe technology use

1. Articulate personal values when using technology.

2. Stress the consideration and application of principles rather than relying on a detailed set of rules.

3. Model ethical behaviors.

4. Build student trust.

5. Encourage discussion of ethical issues.

6. Accept the fact students will make mistakes.

7. Allow students personal use of the Internet.

8. Reinforce ethical behaviors and react to the misuse of technology.

9. Create environments that help students avoid temptations.

10. Assess children’s understanding of ethical concepts.

11. Educate our students and ourselves.

12. Educate your parents about ethical technology use.

And finally, many of you are aware of the interest that Games Based Learning (GBL) holds for me and how it can be applied in the classroom to add value to learning rather than as a reward or an activity for 'fast finishers'.

As predicted by Ewan McIntosh last year at Remarkables, GBL is not going away, it is gaining greater interest.

This was evident at the 'Learning without frontiers festival' in London and many presenters wanted to talk about how video games can provide an ideal medium for learning.

These speakers are summarized by Steve Wheeler in his January 11 blog post entitled 'Games Based Learning", check it out here if you are interested in finding out more

That's all from me tonight, it was tough to filter out what not to post. I know you are all busy people and hope there is something here of interest to you. Even if not, please share your ideas, thoughts, links and inspiration so we can all be part of the learning adventure!

K