The Austalian Federal Government’s NetAlert website and telephone hotline, where families can download free internet filters and obtain net safety advice, was updated today with some new services.
The hotline, which can be reached at 1800 880 176, started taking calls from 8am.
The provision of content filters is an interesting initiative, but will it work? There is a comparison table of the content filters, so let’s wait to hear the feedback as to how good (or useless) the free internet filters really are. Teachers should be able to provide very good feedback, as we have been grappling with safety issues in schools – for what now seems like ‘forever’.
In the meantime, there are some good online Education programs that can be used by primary or secondary teachers – anywhere in the world really.
Not to be outdone, students in Year 5 were busy today setting up their various group blogs ….. lots of giggles, ohhhs and demands to get started NOW!
Kate is taking a different approach with her students, setting up a shared blog space for groups working on different topics, such as: Visual Ventures (electricity); Safety First (issues for different scenarios); New Concepts (cool maths problems to try and solve); Riddles & Poems; Religion (World Youth Day – the latest on the cross, and living the message of Jesus).
I wish I could share the looks of wonder and excitement that I saw on these faces in every group. The focus and interest in getting further involved with blogging is interesting to see.
Five Green Specials and all the students blogs are just getting underway, though it will take a few weeks to get these properly underway – as a new teacher is taking over from Kate soon who will be at home with her new baby!
However, the kids in Riddles and more for English already have a couple of podcasts on their blog! Great work kids! I have a feeling that we will see (hear, watch?) beaut things happening on these blogs as the year goes on.
But seriously, we have been able to explore quite a few different dimensions of blogging with Kate’s and Elizabeth’s class. It is great to be able to set up learnerblogs safely using gmail accounts that are an alias of the main account the teacher has set up to manage her classes blogs.
It’s been very rewarding working with Elizabeth and Kate on establishing and expanding blogging ideas for their school – thanks for letting me share in the learning fun 🙂
If you want to set up learnerblogs, and don’t want to let students loose on this using their own email addresses, then simply create an account e.g. myaccount@gmail.com. Then you are ready to create learner blogs with email alias accounts by using the plus (+) sign and name e.g. myaccount+student1@gmail.com; myaccount+student2@gmail.com. All the authorization and management matters related to your students blogs will come to the gmail account that you have set up.
Read Doug Belshaw’s post about 8 things I like about Edublogs (and learnerblogs) to get some ideas if you are new to this. Doug also has a nice way to enter his teacher and student spaces at Mr Belshaw.co.uk– explore further to build your own ideas.
Language learning is the most critical component of young students learning experiences. Jamie, Co-ordinator of the Literacy and Web 2.0 project, teaches Year 1, and decided to bring Writing Procedures to life!
Enter ‘cooking’ and loads of fruit, bread, juice, butter, cinnamon and more! Yikes – so much preparation, and all essential for embedding good understanding of writing procedures.
So today’s work was about using technology tools to enhance literacy learning, and was the culmination of a very busy week. Jamie showed them the steps, carefully engaging the students, so they understood the steps. Then each child was able to navigate the computer, and do their own sequencing and recording. Photos, narration and publishing made Year 1 very happy little people – and this was just their first time!
All the teachers are sharing their digital resources in a number of different ways – wikispaces, podcasting, and videosharing on Teacher Tube, which allows teachers to create their own groups space, and share videos about the topics that the student is working on. The ongoing blend of Web 2.0 tools are important – and these teachers will continue their exploration of many different Web 2.0 tools.
The great thing about the project so far is the diversity of tools, both Mac and PC, that are being used for the first time, and in a co-ordinated fashion across the school. While the students are experiencing different learning opportunities – so are the teachers! Just you keep ‘packing a punch’ Jamie as you keep working with your fabulous team 🙂
We knew it was easy – but our students proved it to us today! It was Matt’s turn to share his class with me as we explored another learning experience with the kids. Year 4 is working on poetry ….. enjoying poetry now after inspiration from “Matt the Muso”!
Just a couple of weeks ago Matt was introduced to MacBooks, and the musician turned teacher discovered that there really is great scope for (garageband inspired) musical influences in his classroom.
Today his students “met” MacBooks and GarageBand for the first time, and armed with a poem they were ready to take up this muso’s challenge. The students very quickly chose a drum beat for their backing track, recorded their audio track (matching the poem to the beat), and then chose sound effects.
This was just the beginning of their creative experience, and will lead to podcasting and sharing of media files with parents. Great learning …. and what a buzz! Thanks very much Matt 🙂
Thanks to a post by Chrissy (Teaching Sagittarian) I have been prompted to mention the next WOW2.0 broadcasting through Worldbridges and EdTechTalk, which takes placeTuesday nights at 9 p.m. EST. (Which is Wednesday morning at 11 a.m. Sydney time).
WOW2 is for all who are using the tools of the internet whether it be in a classroom setting, leading seminars, authoring books, maintaining blogs or wikis, or just enjoying the tools of the internet in an educational and exciting way.
This week’s show features four Australian educators:
Graham Wegner – Teaching Generation Z – Judy O’Connell (me!)- Jo McLeay – The Open Classroom – and Jason Hando – Clever Learning. Vicki Davis, fantastic ‘coolcatteacher’, writes a little more about it, while Jo McLeay does some preliminary thinking getting ready for the exciting event! We also get pulled in on the NECC2007 blogs feed – now that is something!
We will be talking about Education 2.0 in Australia – things that are happening, tools that are being used, integration and more – and especially what needs to change to make things keep moving right along!
Women of Web 2.0 (WOW2) is brought to you by Cheryl Oakes, Jennifer Wagner, Sharon Peters, & Vicki Davis, four women who not only love using the tools of the Internet but also love sharing the tools with others.
Their mission is to provide a professional voice in educational Web 2.0 discussions. Conversations coming from the WOW2 network will move across gender, race, and country lines and display the beautiful diversity of the internet kaleidoscope. WOW2 are advocates for professional ethics, emerging technologies, collaborative projects, quality best practices research, and teaching students critical thinking skills.
Another year, another CEC Forum 😉 How time flies!
Nevertheless many educators gathered together on the first day of the school holidays to attend the ICT Forum organised by the Catholic Education Commission NSW.
As promised my presentation for the session, introducing the concept of social bookmarking, is provided below.
You may like to use this delicious_setup.pdf from David Warlick to help yourself or your colleagues set up a Del.icio.us account.
For a detailed presentation that covers all the key aspects of managing and using your Del.icio.us account I highly recommend the one below put together by Michael Sauers.
Just start your viewing after the TechSupport page.
Working with a group of teachers the other day, I was inspired to reflect upon just how much things have changed in just 6 months!
Of course the workshop was about Web 2.0, and we had some attendees who were at the ‘big toe in the water’ stage, as well as Bob, Martin and super enthusiastic Deputy Principal John. What a great school to have such a passion to move on through Web 2.0. Bob at McAuley runs a blog to support their ‘Focus on Learning’ project (which is about Web 2.0) and which will represent money well invested by the State in this school! Bob has joined me on FaceBook, and we had some interesting discussions after the workshop about the value (or otherwise) of Facebook for teachers. The answer? Not much value right now, but we will keep our eye on it 🙂
Bob & Martin, along with some teachers from a number of our other schools, are also involved in a Learnscope project – once again around the use of Web 2.0. My young geek friend Melinda says:
The focus in this project is to acquire sound evidence on which to base future organisational decisions about communication and networking processes.
This will be done through investigating the use of web 2.0 tools:
to support VET teachers and students as learners
to facilitate workplace communication about VET teaching and learning issues
in supporting industry and TAFE networking opportunities.
What’s different then you ask? Well, not just the fact that it has become ‘mainstream’ to undertake specific projects to investigate and integrate the best possible use of Web 2.0, but that through Web 2.0 we can reclaima teachers prime role of mentoring, nurturing, modelling or even teaching! students with technology that is online, intuitive, and embedded into the framework of learning and teaching.
The difference now is the existence of Web 2.0 as a framework for social networking and social communication; and Web 2.0 as a state-of-the art technology that is more and more intuitive rather being an ‘add-on’ to the core business of learning.
I’ve hear someone at work say a few weeks ago: “Web 2.0 is out there – we don’t need to do anything special to incorporate it into learning.”
Oh dear! – of course those of us ‘on the road’ and working with teachers know that the story is very different. . and that we are lucky to have so many projects to help people make the transition to Web 2.0 learning and teaching!!!!
So what WAS so different yesterday?
Not the workshop, but what happened afterwards. The staff attending the workshop didn’t all just pack their bags and run. A bunch of us gathered around and watched some videos that Bob has collected in his EventHorizon VodPod!! Were you doing that 6 months ago? A year ago?
We watched the amazing TED talk about Photosynth. We topped it off with some comedy! before driving home on a cold winter’s afternoon.
A very impressive Web 2.0 presence from Seattle Public Schools who have clearly got a great lead on integration of social networking into their learning frameworks!
Know as L3RN – Learning equals creating, learning and broadcasting, A visit to their fantastic portal is a must. School libraries have their own area for News, tips, resources, and help from Seattle Schools’ libraries.
The portal has browse, video, audio, docs and channels in its suite. Fantastic.
Thanks to Awapuni for ‘links for you’ through Del.ici.ous!
[Cross-posted from: iLibrarian because it is too important to only post in one place!]
An email during the week reminded me that I haven’t promoted EdTechTalk to new readers to this blog.
May 15 marked EdTechTalk’s first anniversary – and what a year! Wow, professional learning at its best!
Edtechtalk is a webcasting network of educators dedicated to helping those involved in educational technology explore, discuss, and collaborate in its use. The EdTech Channell currently webcasts 7 shows:
CyberQuoll
WiseuptoIT
Netty’s World
Of course the workshop was about Web 2.0, and we had some attendees who were at the ‘big toe in the water’ stage, as well as Bob, Martin and super enthusiastic Deputy Principal John. What a great school to have such a passion to move on through Web 2.0. 
judyoconnell.com 