Pictures of Practice in Schools
Examples of how teachers and students are using ICT to support and enhance learning.
At the recent AATE/ALEA Conference in Hobart, I ran a workshop presentation about using ICT to personalise literacy learning for students in the early and primary years. I used the Writer’s Notebook writing strategy to structure my presentation as many of our schools are using it with great success.
Here is a copy of the presentation if you would like it: ‘Using ICT to personalise English-literacy learning’.
It is quite a large file with lots of screen shots (over 4 MB), so it may take a few moments to open. If you want to download your own copy to use and edit as you need, please feel free.
During the workshop we discussed the ‘Literacy Room’ resource that I have created; if you are a Tasmanian Stae school teacher, this link will take you there: ‘The Literacy Room’ (you may have to log in with your department username and password)
For those of you who are outside our system, I have exported the links to an Excel spreadsheet; it isn’t ‘pretty’, but hopefully might save you some searching time!
Any feedback or suggestions for additions to it are always very welcome!
Since the end of last year I have been using an Acer Aspire One netbook, so thought I would share my experience with you.
The initial reaction of many people on seeing this little computer is something like, “oh … it’s so cute!” … and it is!
The Aspire One’s small size (approximately A5) and light weight (around 1 kg) means that it is very portable and easy to slip in a bag to take with you. The battery life I have found to be 4 hours and sometimes more, so taking the power cable is often optional, although I do make sure I plug it into mains power each night to re-charge it ready to go next day.
The wireless connection is fast and reliable (a network cable port is available too), and while web browsing requires more scrolling around on some sites, using the full screen display (press F11 key) often helps.
The screen has a good clear display, although I found that a bit of ‘fiddling’ is needed to get it to work with an interactive whiteboard. I often use the external display (VGA) port to connect to a larger monitor when one is available … perhaps it’s a reflection of my aging eye sight!
The smaller keyboard is surprisingly easy to use, although I have found the touch pad a little more challenging.
It has a built-in microphone and web cam for use with communication tools such as Microsoft Communicator® or Skype®. I find that an external microphone is worthwhile plugging in; it has jacks for microphone and headphone as well as 3 USB ports available.
It doesn’t come with a built-in CD/DVD drive, so installing software that comes in that format needs to be done either by plugging in an external CD/DVD drive or accessing a shared drive through the network.
The Aspire One won’t do tasks that require a lot of processing power such as large video editing or running Google Earth 5.0, but then a netbook is designed for general web browsing and using basic applications such as word processing, creating presentations and spreadsheets, and I have found that it does those things very well.
It has plenty of on-board storage (120 GB), a storage expansion slot and a ‘multi-in-one’ card reader; so there are no worries about storage space for every-day tasks.
Physically, it seems quite robust and mine is travelling well … although I suspect that compared to the treatment an Aspire One might get in the hands of students, mine is a bit like ‘the car driven by a little old lady to church on Sundays’ … I guess time and experience will tell. I think the ‘clam shell’ case is a very worthwhile addition.
If you have some experience with a netbook, use the ‘Post a Comment’ link to share your thoughts.
Cyberbullying is an ongoing issue in many schools, both high schools and primary schools. It happens with a range of technologies from mobile phones to Internet sites such as YouTube and Face Book.
Some general resources:
There is a wealth of information, strategies and materials available to educate students, parents and teachers; some useful ones are listed here:
Cyber Smart Kids Online - Anti-cyberbullying resources, including advice for students about what to do about mobile phone bullying.
SuperClubsPLUS Australia – supervised social learning environment for primary aged students with a strong Internet safety and appropriate use focus
I am often asked by teachers for sources of copyright-friendly images (photos and clip art) that they can use with their students.
Sources:
Collections such as Pics4learning or
the Phillip Martin clip art collection 
are designed specifically for education and are a good place to begin and are suitable for students to search directly.
Some other collections (such as Classroom clipart) 
come with ‘freebies’ and advertising that can be a nuisance, but if you can block or ignore them, they are a useful resource.
The image collection in the eCentre Resource Centre provides a good collection of Tasmanian photos, drawings and diagrams. e.g. try the key word “bridge”. Note: access to this collection is limited to Tasmanian teachers and students with a VKey login.
Teachers TV is a digital TV channel from the UK, directed at adults who work in (K-12) schools, including teachers, principals, teacher assistants and professional learning leaders.
It includes a collection of over 2000 short videos covering a broad range of topics; behaviour management, literacy and numeracy; ICT and interactive whiteboards, to name just a few.
