Integrating ICT

Shared from :
The Hack Half Hour ABC
http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hackhalfhour/programs/s2359534.htm

Recently I attended the free Cybersafety Outreach professional development program for teachers sponsored by the Federal Government.  This is an eye opening workshop. As well as this, it shares lots of teaching resources to help teachers address duty of care when their students are using the Internet, including cybersafety videos and  policies and procedures  

 I recommend teachers become familiar with DET and ACMA’s resources to address cyber safety. Much of it involves teaching students to be critical thinkers

 The workshop commenced with a profile of a modern student.  “A modern student is one where the Internet and technology are a regular part of life, where the Internet is the primary source of information, technology a key communication tool and primary means for socializing. Generally time spent using technology increases with age and is a crucial part of fitting in as a teenager, where peer pressure is enormous and important in maintaining social connections.”(Taken from Cybersafety Outreach presentation)  Girl interactions are more a source for socialization and boys for entertainment such as gaming. It outlined all the tools students are using such as social networking (with students having large number of contacts), Youtube, MSN, gaming,  Internet enabled mobile phones and digital cameras, Wii and  playstations. Many students are still quiet young, under 13 (the legal age) and still using these. We then discussed how school ban these devises and how student become disengaged in school. This lead on to a current need for schools and parents to address common cybersafety issues.

 As these tools are increasingly being placed in the hands of children along with this comes a growing need to teach them values and ethics in the tools use so as to endeavour to protect them from abuse and  so that the student can then make informed decisions.

 Teachers need to ensure their students have knowledge and skills to effectively operate in the online world. The ACMA cybercitzen profile is based on four foundation capabilities:

1. Digital Literacy: involving critical literacy, publishing and downloading safely and ethically online. The workshop discussed things such as consequences of online profiles and how to reduce risks to personal safety, reading terms and conditions, and aware of copyright issues.

 Have a look at terms and conditions on Facebook.  Did you know this?

http://www.facebook.com/terms.php?ref=pf

“For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (”IP content”), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (”IP License”).”

 2. Positive online behaviour: involving critical thinking and learning how to behave online and cyberbullying and cyberstalking

 3 . Personal and peer safety:  Safe social networking behaviour and being aware of what is inappropriate content, being aware of privacy and identity theft. What to do about cyberbullying and cyberstalking.

4.e- security ; e-tools to protect your computer such as anti virus and anti-spyware.

 The ACMA provides a variety of resources to help parents, schools, and teachers address their obligations to minimise risk of harm to students. The workshop also introduced a variety of website resources teachers can use to develop student knowledge and skills. I have provided a like of links to these sites below.

Critical Literacy -  have a look at these hoax websites

pacific northwest tree octopus.   http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/

http://rythospital.com/2008/

 avoid fake websites  http://whs.d214.org/results/whslibspecial/researchhelps/fakewebsites.htm

Australian drop bear              http://www.dropbears.com/about.htm

 http://www.brookview.karoo.net/Sellafield_Zoo/

 http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoaxsites.html

 http://www.thepregnancytester.com/

 http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/webeval.html

 Evaluating websites

http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/cmis/eval/curriculum/ict/webeval/

 http://www.library.cqu.edu.au/finding/websearch/evaluating.htm

 Media awareness

Jo Fool Jo Cool  

http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/games/jocool_jofool/kids.cfm

 http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au/news/technology/index.php

 Digital Citizenship

http://www.digizen.org.uk/

 http://www.digizen.org.uk/downloads/cyberbullying_teachers.pdf

 http://www.digizen.org/cyberbullying/fullFilm.aspx 

 Student safety online

 Netty’s World : http://www.nettysworld.com.au/ (2- 7yrs old)

CyberQuoll:  http://www.cyberquoll.com.au/  (10- 12 Yrs old)

 Cybersmart Detectives http://cybersmart.engagelive.net/ (11- 12 yrs old)

CyberNetrix: http://www.cybernetrix.com.au/ (12- 14yrs old)

Wise up to it : http://www.wiseuptoit.com.au/ (13 yrs +)

Lets fight it together: http://www.digizen.org/cyberbullying/fullfilm.aspx

( 13yrs +)

 bullying no way

http://www.thinkuknow.org.au/site/index.asp

http://www.staysmartonline.gov.au/

https://www.staysmartonline.gov.au/budd-e/

http://www.netsafe.org.nz/index_for_ie6.htm

http://www.nettysworld.com.au/ (2- 7yrs old)

http://www.bebo.com/Safety.jsp

http://cybersmart.gov.au/en/Schools/Cybersafety%20policies%20and%20procedures.aspx

 Copyright

 http://smartcopying.edu.au/scw/go

http://smartcopying.edu.au/scw/go/engineName/search/pid/1

 There are lots of other resources on Youtube if you search 

Cyberbullying

 Cybersafety

2009 ECAWA Conference was a great place to learn about different ways of integrating ICT into the classroom and to learn about what other people are doing.

Professor Barry Vercoe for MIT and OLPC gave the inspiring keynote address. He explained the OLPC One Laptop Per Child project. This project has given ownership to specially developed and donated laptops to help disadvantaged children in many parts of the developing world. Now 2 million laptops already deployed to places like Rwanda, Palestine refugee camps, Columbia, the pacific, Papua New Guinea and now to remote indigenous communities of WA.

 These specially designed XO laptops are loaded with free learning software activities and lesson plans; they use a moodle learning environment and are a mesh network to encourage the children’s collaboration, communication with each other and foster creativity.

 They are gifted to the child. OLPC is based on 5 principals: child ownership, low ages of children (6-12 years old), saturation (entire country), connection via meshed network and free and open sources software. Child ownership 1:1 was of significant importance.

Other keynotes included representatives from different educational sectors explaining their plans to address the digital revolution.

• Glenn Veen, Director Technologies and Telecommunications, Department of Education and Training.

• Associate Professor Joan Squelch, Head of the School of Business Law and Taxation, Curtin University of Technology, spoke about state and federal law as it affects teachers using ICT and social networking sites.

·         Jenny Jongste, Curriculum Consultant (ICT), Catholic Education Office, spoke about new developments in ICT for teachers in Catholic schools.

Glenn Veen (DET) gave an overview of DET’s ICT development plans – what has happened and what will be happening in the future. He talked about the principles of the DET SOE:

• Improved level of centralised support
• Reduced amount of technology required in schools
• Reduced initial and total cost of ownership
• Reduced workload anytime and anywhere access
• Increased centralisation of core data
• Sustainable solutions
• Flexibility. 

Glenn outlined the big picture view. He talked about future use of virtual servers and general ICT services being common across all schools using cloud computing, centralised backups archiving and data storage of all school content, student access from home, increased energy efficiency and lower total cost of ownership.

 Day two keynotes included Dr Marie Martin of Learning Conversations who outlined the general characterises of 4 different generations:

• Silent  Generation (1925-46)
• Baby Boomers (1946 – 65)
• Gen X (1966- 80)
• Gen Y (1981-2000)

Dr Martin talked about what this means in today’s work environment as colleagues from different generations work, collaborate and communicate. She outlined a need for schools to recognise the needs of staff from different generations.

To recognise all generations are different, not better or worse but with different values, motivations, work ethic, training and leadership styles. Schools need to identify ways in which all can lead, work to achieve purposes for everyone, document and disseminate decisions to all,  need to keep information flowing in a variety of formats including mobile texts, schedule staff activities with flexibility, such as balance face to face with input .discussion time. Importantly think about when, where, how the work needs to be done – use the Internet.

Valerie Maxville from iVEC highlighted the various and exciting careers in the ICT industry. She talked about the new super computers of iVEC and how they are being used for research and data storage.

Valery emphasised that Australian Computer Society (ACS) is working with the local ICT industry to improve interaction with educators.

The conference also had many workshops that increased teacher awareness of web 2.0 and other online tools. Various online tools mentioned included

• Twitter
• Wufoo – makes collecting information on the web easy -contact forms, invitations, online surveys and event registrations
• Wordsift visualize  text
• Wordle- generating “word clouds
• RSS - Really Simple Syndication
• Flickr
• Posterous
• Tumblr
• Nambu
• Social Bookmarking sites Diigo & delicious.
• Use of  Widgets
• readwriteweb.com
• Mindnode –mind mapping
• skitch share screen shots
• Gliffy.com web based drawing software
• Bubbl.us  brainstorming
• Mindmeister
• Lulu.com publish work
• Twiddla.com is a free, no-setup, web-based meeting playground

 Many of these are tagged on delicious.com by tag ECAWA. ECAWA delicious site also tags by learning area.

 There were also numerous workshops, some relating to the new AIT courses and some for both primary and secondary teachers. Workshops included Scratch for game making, use of virtual worlds, using Google Earth, podcasting resources, e-portfolios, blogs and wikis, using interactive whiteboards and software such as ALICE and KidZanimation.

Lots of teaching resources are shared such as Jeremy Hurst sharing podcast sites of greenTV, TEDtalks and National Geographic. Teachers sharing their websites such as Vic Gecas and Rosie Macalpine

This conference definitely shows the importance of web 2.0 tools for students learning how to learn, be creative, collaborate and communicate on the world stage.  Governments around the world are building the infrastructure that will enable the classroom for the 21 century.

Using “ My Facebook”  for a personal and/or  professional profile. This interested me, so how can I learn about it?

Once again Sue Waters of Edublogs has another interesting Elluminate recording at Edublogs Live “Pimp My Facebook!” It tells you all about setting up your own Facebook account and reasons why you should consider using it for professional reasons.

There is lots of other information about PLN Personal Learning Networks at Edublogs Live.

 E.G.

7 things you should know about Blogs

Wanting to actually participate in an online conference. I saw a tweet from Sue so I had a go.

I finally managed to watch and listen to a live broadcasted education conference. Even though the broadcast kept dropping out I still got some great ideas and links.

Sue Waters talked about global collaboration by using blogs.

She discussed Collaboration :

• Why
• What outcome are you  trying to achieve. Start with outcome first.
• For what purpose
• Then choose appropriate tools. She suggested a number of collaboration tools that are out there being used.

She talked about how Blogging can be used for collaboration. How a blog is good for reflection and also for starting a conversation between students in your school, between schools and around the world. She stressed that before you use this tool with your class try it for your own purpose first.

Then I listened to Steve_Collis again with a poor broadcast.

He was talking about producing a school radio station in the area of LOTE. Where he encourages students to write and perform RAPs as a means of learning. He use audacity and podcasting to produce the raps  and radio broadcast

RAPS could be used for a variety of learning purposes: key words, science symbols, historical dates etc

I was sent an email with a link to an Atomic learning webinar seminar about “21^st Century Skills: What do they look like.”

 There is lots of support and advice to help teachers integrate ICT. 

Recently I watched and listened to a recording Edublogs Live Events on Elluminate presented by Sue Waters
http://edublogslive.wikispaces.com/
• Go Wild With Wikis: Part I
• Go Wild With Wikis: Part II
I used the Elluminate recording of the Illuminate workshop

Either watching the archive or participating live in these workshops is a great way to learn. On the advice of the workshop I then looked at the 3 Wiki projects suggested.
• Flat Classroom Project

Each of these provided an excellent example of a collaborative Wiki and also lots of resources and information that can be used in a variety of ways both for a Wiki and for other teaching activities.
Have a look at these:
Flat Classroom.
• The Keynote: Dean Shareski

The Flat Classroom Project 2007 Keynote Address from shareski on Vimeo.

• Project resources toolbox

Horizon Project 2008

• Keynote; Don Tapscott

NetGeneration

Keynote

NetGeneration

 Have a look a the various Wiki topics

Mobiles (A)
Cloud Compute (B)
Geo-Everything (C)
Personal Web (D)
Semantic Apps (E)
Smart Objects (F)

I have tried to support teachers to start small with a class Wiki. I have developed a couple of these to support teacher’s activities such as study of a novel. However I find teachers are driven by the program and find they have little time to experiment. Hence I have not actually got the Wiki running. I hope this information demonstrates possible benefits and encourages more experimentation.

For the last few weeks I have been acting as VET Coordinator – a new experience. I attended a talk by Ross Clennett about recruitment.  To my surprise   Ross Clennett devoted some time to the use of   ICT and web 2.0. He talked about:

Recruitment

Recruitment agencies are using:

• Online video adds
• Defencejobsgames.com
• Seek.com

Social media

How companies (eg Telstra, Deloitte) as well as other recruitment agencies use Social Media (linkedin, Facebook, twitter etc) to:

• Confirm information about applicant
• To check on employees absent from work
• Many companies have a Facebook site and Twitter

 Online profile or portfolios

He encouraged the development and use of an online professional profile – as recruitment agencies increasingly use resume sites. (Linkme, bloglines)

 Using the Internet to prepare for the Interview

• Be prepared
• Know the company
• Learn about actual job – key selection criteria
• Learn about workplace culture

 This information reinforced what was talked about at the Edna workshop on the use of e-portfolios.

Last month I attended an Edna workshop as the Edna site now has a new layout. It is an essential site for teachers. This is a short summary of the various resources that were discussed and available through Edna.

Firstly it was stressed that Edna does not own the content of its site but directs users to other sites content. Edna’s staff work to provide quality, relevant, educational resources. It has lots of relevant resources divided into the various educational sectors; school and VET are those relevant to secondary school teachers.

Below are some of the relevant Edna links that were explored:

Back from holidays.  The ABC has lots of great resources that can be used to add value to learning, for years TV programs have been used. There are lots of other resources such as podcasts, vodcasts, websites with activities etc.  I personally download podcasts from Radio National which I enjoy while travelling or doing housework.

A teacher colleague recently shared such a site with me. She will be using this with her English class. It is a great free site for your students with lots of possible class applications. Many classes look at the media and advertising or perhaps movie making. Have a look at the ABC’s The Gruen Transfer site. Under Consumer Revenge and Ad Remixer.  Students can have a go at producing their own movie advertisement. It has an easy step by step process to follow. They can also have a look at what others have produced in the Gallery. I think this promotes 21^st Century Literacy skills is engaging and promotes creativity and critical thinking.  Thanks Amanda

Voicethread is a great tool for students to express their views and to collaborate on a topic.

An English topic on Australian Identity. This is a quick example to get your students started.

I suggest you begin by watching the threads explaining ” What is a Voicethread”