EVALUATION of SDD 17th December

Use the comment section of this post to provide feedback about this SDD session (you can even include comments about other sessions, where relevant)


Any positives? 
Any suggestions?
Any reflections?
Any suggestions for future ICT TPL that you would like?




Please remember to visit this blog regularly - as I will be maintaining it and will continue to add professional learning resources and links for you to read, visit and experience.


Thank you :-) 

Teachers Setting up Blogs

In 2010, the NSW DET will be releasing a blogging package for staff to use with their students. 


This package has been trialled, reviewed and modified by 22 schools, in preparation for it's release across the state.


Until then, nearly all interactive social networking sites are blocked to students and staff.


Currently, staff & years 11 and 12 have access to edublogs. Staff have access to blogger. All staff and students have access to Moodle, if a school decides to download, install and set up this free and flexible web - which has forums, wikis and messaging - all interactive components for staff and students to use within school created course structures. 


ACTIVITY FIVE:
Log in to Ingleburn High School's Moodle site and create your account.
This can be found at Ingleburn High School's webpage. 
Once there - go to the "Online Learning" tab and click through to Moodle.
Once at Moodle - log in to activate your account (Use the same details as you use for Novell).




ACTIVITY SIX:
Set up your own test site via edublogs
Follow the prompts (Hint: use your fullname as user name, use first initial last name as your blog address, use your det email)

21st Century Pedagogy

 

Online learning is ideal for engaging students in higher order thinking skills, if prepared and guided appropriately, as there are many tools available for students to engage in collaboration, sharing, publishing. thinking, creativity and design. 

The above diagram illustrates the retention rate for students based on a variety of teaching strategies. The retention rate for information given during a lecture averages 5% - whereas the retention rate when students are actively involved in discussing, doing, using and teaching.

The diagram below attempts to describe all the components of 21st century pedagogy. Very few, if any, of these strategies are static. All require some level of interactivity, communication or reflection. As a teacher, this has significant implications for how we teach the young people in our classes. 

ACTIVITY FOUR: have a look at each of the diagrams provided and reflect on their implications for teaching, planning for the classroom and what types of strategies need to be regularly incorporated into all lessons. In your blog comment for this post make a note of some of them implications you can think of for you and your lesson planning.

NSW DET - Internet Filter Checking

There is no point making fantastic lessons online - where you want your students to access websites you specify - if those sites are blocked by DET!!!


NSW DET have a "graded" level of internet filters - Teachers have the most "open" filters. Senior students have more than years 9 & 10, All of the above have more access to certain sites than years  7 & 8.


There is an EASY to use tool for you to check the Internet Filter settings within the DET portal.


In the My Applications tab you can scroll down to :


Internet Filtering - Web Filter Check
Use this tool to check if staff or students at your site area are allowed access to specific URLs.
For assistance, contact your local IT Help   


Once you have opened this, you enter the web address of the site you want to check and it will give you a list of which year groups have what access (if any) tot he site you are testing. 


ACTIVITY THREE:
1)  Log in to your DET Portal. 
2) Click on the My Applications Tab
3) Scroll down to Internet Filtering - Web Filter Check & open site
4) Enter the following Web Addresses to see who has access to what sites:
   a) www.youtube.com
   b) www.edublogs.org
   c) www.twitter.com
   d) www.wordle.com
   e) www.smh.com.au
   f) www.ebay.com.au
   g) www.blogger.com
5) Remember to comment about what you have discovered in this activity

WORDLE - a fun online resource for students! Vocab, terms, key words etc...

Wordle is a fun, creative online tool for students and staff to use.

There are MANY uses for this fun word tool - 


A "Wordle" enables you to see how frequently words appear in a given text, or see the relationship between a column of words and a column of numbers. You can tweak your word "clouds" with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes.


The size of a word is proportional to the quantity associated with that word, which, in the case of free text, is the word count. For instance, if your text consists of the words "apple apple apple banana banana papaya", then "banana" will appear in a font size twice that of "papaya", and "apple" will appear in a font size 3/2 as large as "banana".

43 Uses for Wordle -Click on this link and go to this slideshow - there are many examples of how Wordle can be used.


Wordle can be used by teachers as a printout for students to use, it can be used online, it can be saved as an image ... students can create their own Wordles.


Have a look at this interesting use of Wordle - the entire inaugauration speech of Obama has been turned into a Wordle cloud. It is publish alongside previous president Bush's speech. This is an easy and visual way to compare the content of 2 important speakers and their speeches. 


23 Classroom ideas for the use of Wordle is an interesting site to look at - and it has a sample of the author's own Wordle for their CV.


ACTIVITY TWO - After visiting the links embedded in this post, make your own Wordle. Leave a comment to this post, including a reflection about how you could use this tool in your class. (you could even add the link to the Wordle you created!)

WELCOME ... to my little corner of cyber-space!!!

This blog is a professional learning place, primarily for the staff of Ingleburn High School.


It is not a space for my personal venting, reflections and sharing about my life (I have a personal blog for my need to rave on about myself!!!)


This blog is a place for me to collate, collect, share and publish links, resources, information and news that may be of interest to staff. 


The nature of a blog is that it is meant to be interactive. The blogger shares and the readers comment and engage in dialogue with each other and with the author of the blog.


There is a comment button at the bottom of the post - click that - enter the relevant details and post ... 


Blogging with students - or with colleagues - is an interactive activity - so comments are essential when considering the value of a blog. 


Comments can be a simple statement, they can start a debate about the topic, they can include links for additional, related online information .


These make the experience dynamic and fluid.


When using blogs with students imagine the potential - the literacy requirements for accessing and utilising a blog; reading, writing, thinking, anaylsis, ICT skills, synthesis etc ...  


ACTIVITY ONE for our SDD session, please leave a comment on this post - introducing yourself.