Digital Passport - Cybersafety

My class engaged in a session using Digital Passport for Cybersafety - I recommend it as a fun way to begin a conversation around online safety and a valuable experience - log in as a teacher and set up your class using a spreadsheet - it's the easiest way to set up student accounts.

Don't leave it at just playing the games though, using Google Draw we moved on to collaborating on creating a mind map to collate and summarise what the students had learned or had reinforced. Discussion along the way veered slightly from the initial fun on the website and became really valuable, real-world related, and authentic...

The Cybersafety activity also provides a report on each student's responses that can give the teacher further insight...

Horizon Report 2014

The Horizon Report can be found here, it outlines emerging trends and projected timeframes for eLearning initiatives and changing technology and pedagogy within education. It's encouraging to see a variety of initiatives in place at our school already, some of which have been happening a long time ;)

Steve


P.S. Just found a summary that is also worth a look:

http://globaldigitalcitizen.org/6-technology-challenges-facing-education/?utm_source=Global+Digital+Citizen+Foundation&utm_campaign=8a7eb64710-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f244ccc9d2-8a7eb64710-189093337&mc_cid=8a7eb64710&mc_eid=acb4723e8a

Interactive Whiteboards PD 15.09.14

I attended a professional development staff meeting for 60 minutes this afternoon on Interactive Whiteboards. It was presented by a rep from Electroboard and covered the Smart Notebook toolbar and creating interactive tasks.

At first glance the Smart Notebook software strikes me as being very close to Powerpoint in nature...the problem with it is that it isn't cloud based and doesn't promote collaboration. In order to be effective in today's classroom it needs to be accessible by more than one student simultaneously and available 24/7 - not just when an individual has access to the school server.

As our school is new to IWBs, I was fortunate enough to grab the Smart Notebook files from a couple of different schools that had had them in classrooms for years, in order to see how they were being used. Uses ranged from sharing links to websites, links to videos, to homemade matching games, memory games, to displaying contracts for children to work on, replicating worksheets for children to 'interactively' complete, and even to embedding photos of actual worksheets for students to copy and complete in their books - an expensive way to save paper? Most teachers and students I have asked opinions of describe the use of IWBs as similar to having just a non interactive projector. In fact my own class prefer to use the keyboard and mouse of their own computer connected to the display rather than the touch facility of the IWB. We constantly use the board in this manner, to share and feedback on the students own work - I could do this with just a projector, for a lot less cash...

I am really interested to see some activities that are collaborative, rich and engaging, high up on the SAMR Model and would love to check some out from other sources...leave suggestions in the comments if you have any cool recommendations!

I really don't want to be stuck in a situation where I'm standing out the front of the class teaching to the IWB, or having a child take that role - I'd much rather have students using 1:1 technology to create than have 29 students watching 1 person doing the interacting. If the case is put forward that group work would enable this, then possibly a mobile touchscreen tv would work just as well.



I'm sure this is possible - I'm just yet to see it in action. Was pointed in the direction of 

http://www.seeshareshape.com.au 

and 

http://www.tes.co.uk/

and I am keen to get into these and look around at what's on offer that is beyond substituting a paper activity with a digital activity, or making something that looks cool but really lacks substance in a pedagogical sense. I'm yet to be convinced that the student's learning will be enhanced any further than simply using a projector and a computer, in conjunction with 1:1 devices? 

There are a couple of negative blog posts below that unfortunately sum up my feelings at the moment...I found them worth a read...there is plenty out there on the positives of IWBs - but then again who is going to admit they may have been an expensive purchase that promotes out of date pedagogy?

http://theinnovateeducator.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/gary-stager-finally-shares-why-he.html?_sm_au_=iHVPfsD72W1070JM

Steve

Dreaming the Future Meeting - Teacher Blogs

We have a regular voluntary staff meeting a few times a term on a Thursday morning from 8.15am called 'Dreaming the Future'. Originally this time was set aside for teachers that were interested in a particular topic to get together for an informal chat  about new advances in technology, new pedagogical approaches, things that were really out of the box and may or may not impact the way we teach and learn in our classrooms.

They were good chances to interact with other, though I was really never a fan of the way we were seated - one giant oval of chairs, which resulted in 3-4 confident people overpowering the conversation.

I was asked to lead a meeting last week, so I decided to 'flip' the meeting and give everyone the input to read at their leisure, and reserve the meeting time for clarification, discussion and hopefully seeing a few people kick off their own professional blogs...you can view the stimulus here (for CEO employees) if you are unable to access just let me know.

The meeting went well with lots of hearty discussion, in small groups ;) with a few concerns around finding time etc.. I was asked to repeat the meeting for those staff members that couldn't make the voluntary morning session - so we'll look at facilitating this through grade meetings prior to the end of the year.

In reference to having time to blog regarding your own PD, I have also set in motion the possibility of allocating blogging time within our professional development experiences - encouraging teachers to pursue this as a habit should really be a focus for their own benefit as well as the CEO as a system.

Chromebook Webinar and BYODD

I participated in a Chromebook Webinar last Tuesday afternoon for an hour straight after school! For those of you unfamiliar with the Chromebook check it out here...

The Chromebox in my classroom

The discussion started mostly around Chromebooks in the classroom and the benefits of Chromebooks Vs Tablets...here is an interesting article on the fall of tablets from The Sydney Morning Herald earlier this year. Most of the points it highlights I'd tend to agree with, and with the focus from CEO on the Google environment I'd say we definitely have made the correct decision in choosing the Chromebook as our designated device for our BYODD (bring your own designated device) program.

The focus of the webinar then shifted to managed Chromebooks, whereby using a web based management tool an administrator can assign apps, lock down certain sections of the Chromebook, block sites etc. the concept was quite cool, though not applicable to a BYODD program as the devices belong to the students themselves. Apart from this we have no funding for a Chromebook Administrator in any case ;)

Close Up

I asked the question about the presenter's thoughts on the Chromebox as distinct from the Chromebook (my blog pictures featuring ours today) - the lack of mobility was a factor for him, being in a high school setting, which I understood...though I made the point that for $270 a Chromebox makes a lot of sense in primary schools.

We have a perfectly good wired network (although the Chromebox has wireless functionality as well), an aging fleet of Windows XP desktops verging on unusable, but a 'glut' of perfectly good flatscreen monitors, keyboards and mice (mouses?) that will all work perfectly with a new Chromebox! Saves the environment, replaces old hardware with usable technology, requires virtually no tech support, no licensing fees etc - everyone wins. Chromeboxes are pretty much our cost effective exit strategy from Windows based operating systems...

Officeworks $45

One thing to be aware of however is the fact that the Chromebox has left VGA behind as a connection to your monitor or TV, it only has HDMI and DisplayPort interfaces! The photo to the left is of a converter I purchased from Officeworks for $45 - making the $270 Chromebox price tag not so appealing maybe...? Thank goodness Hong Kong came to the rescue with a VGA to HDMI converter for $8ish dollars including postage that does the job perfectly - see below.

Deal Extreme Hong Kong $8 

Bit of a lengthy post, but I thought some of you may be looking down the path of replacing desktops, and with Google's product constantly improving, these devices are more than adequate replacements for aging technology and costly Windows PCs that suit our evolving classroom pedagogy.

As an aside, I took ours home and tried it out on our home TV - excellent media PC! being wireless also it hooks up with your home wifi, plugs straight in, grab a USB keyboard (I use this one) surf the web, check emails, watch youtube/iview/catchup tv etc  - very versatile !

~ Steve

Video Game Addiction

Went to a parent evening last night at Caringbah High regarding video game addiction. Some startling, research supported facts were relayed to the parents and teens in attendance regarding the psychology of gaming as well as the risks and remedies - personally I think a lot of the behaviours referred to are evident in Primary School...I recommend you catch Emil Hodzic's presentation if you ever get the chance...

Ipevo!

           

        Ipevo

Webcam from Hong Kong

At a recent Maths PD day at CEO Revesby, were were given a glimpse of a digital web camera called an IPEVO - I was really excited with the applications I could see immediately in the the classroom including demonstrations of art or craft techniques, using concrete materials in maths, modelling writing, editing, observing experiments, displaying documents and the like...so I ordered one straight away ;) ....... So far I've pretty much used it for everything I have listed above and it has been great! At this point in time they are $85 ex GST from Learning With Technologies, a great IT supplier we use at school from time to time for non-CEO catalogue items...

Being the hardened budget conscious eLearning Coordinator that I am however, I wanted to explore cheaper alternatives, jumping online to check out webcams direct from Hong Kong. I settled on the model above right as it had a flexible mount and looked as though it could do the same job all for $12.

In comparing the the two products - I was wrong. 

The picture quality of the iPevo is much higher, the extension arm allows for better positioning, and it is packaged with it's own software that is simple to use and does a great job.

The cheap webcam had a small viewable area, less clear picture, unstable, short stand and came with absolutely no software - I had to install some freeware to even get a picture...

Although the cost is way above it's competitor in this case - the iPevo wins....let me know if want to borrow it for your classroom (if you are from my school), and depending on more feedback we could look into further purchases...