Journeys with Learning

Macarthur Schools Joint 1:1 Staff Professional Learning Day

The Macarthur Schools Joint 1:1 Staff Professional Learning Day is an initiative to support teachers in their move to a 1 child-1 laptop(1:1) learning environment in 2008. This posting supports a session on Web 2.0 tools delivered on the day.

This session will look at a selection of web 2.0 tools that can be integrated into your classroom practice immediately.

The presentation can be found below, hosted on slideshare and the examples displayed can be found at http://del.icio.us/MarkWoolley/MacPDDay

[slideshare id=50739&doc=web-20-tools-for-your-classroom-right-now-10302&w=425]

The Web 2.0 tools in our grab bag can be found at the links below

For each of these tools it is simply a matter of signing up and start exploring. You can probably find a class expert for each of these tools

You can find additional information about blogs, wikis, del.icio.us and RSS on the pages of this blog.

Technorati Tags: Web2.0, Education, Learning

Connectivism Online Conference

Connectivism Online Conference is an open online forum exploring how learning has been impacted by ongoing changes. The conference will run from February 2 – 9, 2007.

Attendence is free and would benifit any teacher interested in how the web, technology, and social trends have changed the way learning takes place.

Technorati Tags: Connectivism, Conference, OCC2007

Schools for the Future

At the recent Catholic Schools Expo I was fortunate to sit in on a presentation by staff from St Clares Narellan Vale.

Anita and Trish presented a very engaging presentation on their schools approach to learning, based around a commitment to collaboration, innovation and engaged learning.

St Clares used 21st century pedagogies, collaborative learning and peer observation to drive new classroom design which would empower their students.

You can hear Vince Campbell’s introduction to the presentation here. Unfortunately in an effort to capture all the audio the quality has suffered.

The audio from Trish and Anita’s presentation has had the “interactive” portions edited out but will make sense, especially when listened to in combination with the keynote presentation below. (Please be patient it may take a moment to load.)

Presentation Part 1

Download

Presentation Part 2

Download

Technorati Tags: StClares Education Learning

Kids Congress

Today I was lucky enough to attend a “Kids Congress” hosted by the Diocese of Broken Bay

From their introduction

‘The Diocese will be facilitating an inaugural ‘Kids Congress 2006’ for Year 5 students to
come together, to consider and debate real world issues and to present their learnings, all within a 21st
century learning environment.

‘Kids Congress 2006’ will be a unique event for approximately one hundred (100) of our Year 5 students (two students per Year 5 class).

This learning event will be “designed for kids and organised by kids”. “

Sounds simple right?? Imagine 116 year 5 students from 50 odd schools coming together to learn from each other. Almost 12 months in the planning, both by adult and student organising committees.

Kids Congress clearly demonstrates the potential of ICLT’s and myclasses to enable and encourage collaboration across schools. At one point there were 15000 planning emails from year 5 students, multiple forums and discussion rooms.

At the links below you can find student blogs, podcasts, Kids Congress information and photos.

Kids Congress DBB 2006

Kids Congress Podcasts

Kids Congress Blogs

Kids Congress Flickr Photos

From talking to the students it was clear that this was a valuable experience, students learning from each other about issues that are of concern to them. Time well invested in creating the leaders of the future.

I interviewed a number of students about their experiences, unfortunately the wind made the audio quite ordinary. However Andrew, one of the great technical support students shared this with me. audio

Personally I am sold on the idea, but what do you think? Would it be valuable for the students of Wollogong Diocese??

Technorati Tags: Kids Congress, Education, Learning

Gary Browns Keynote from ASTD

The Apple Schools Technology Day was held at Port Kembla Golf club last Tuesday. I decided to record the 2 keynotes to make them available to those people who weren’t able to make the day.

Gary started his Keynote with a history of apple and how they have innovated over the past 25 years. After a Top 10 hits of Apple presentation he moved into talking about apples in education and then “Connecting, publishing sharing communicating using Web 2.0 to engage the natives.”

Gary focused on why it is important to engage students with their technology, the technology that drives their world.

Gary finished with a great movie about the new ipod. Ask him to share it some time or view it here

You can listen to this part of Gary’s presentation podcasted here. I recorded this from the crowd so the audio quality isn’t great.

Independent Learning Projects – The importance of Rich Questions

I have been working with a couple of schools this year where students are engaged in year long independent learning projects. These schools have engaged students in learning more about areas that they are passionate about but the two experiences offer me an opportunity to compare and contrast their approaches.

Having just visited one schools final presentations last night I became intensely aware of the importance of questions, rich open ended questions that challenge and extend the students. Without fail, the students who extended themselves and really engaged deeply with their subject area were the students with the rich questions leading to significant learning experiences.

Michelle Shearman presented a superb short session at the Apple Schools Technology Day about her experiences with a year long research project. One of the key features of her implementation of the project was her focus on “Rich Questions”
I guess the best way to summarise the importance of questioning is to quote Michelle
“Rich Questioning = Rich Thinking =Rich Understandings”

You can view Michelle’s abbreviated interactive presentation from the ASTD below. Just click on the “screen” to progress the show. You may need a little patience while it loads. Michelle can be contacted at mshearman@maryimmac.woll.catholic.edu.au .

There are a number of comments about questioning and its importance at the end of this post. If you can’t see the comments please click “here” or on the comments link to the right of the presentation below and continue the dialogue.

Download

Paul Meldrum’s Keynote on Web 2.0 and Podcasting

Paul made an entertaining keynote on podcasting in particular and Web 2.0 applications

Paul posted all his links on del.ious.us If you have a del.ious.us account it would be well worth while adding Paul to your network.
http://del.icio.us/paulmeldrum

Paul is encouraging teachers an schools to use social bookmarking tools like del.ious.us to share resources. He shared many innovative uses of technology including a very powerful use of podcasts for professional learning and the creation of podcasts to enhance student learning.

You can listen to a recording of the first half of Pauls keynote keynote here, again it was recorded from the audience so the audio quality isn’t spectacular.