Pictures of Practice in Schools
Examples of how teachers and students are using ICT to support and enhance learning.
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.
At this time of the year teachers have usually spent a significant amount of time setting up their classroom/s and organising resources as well as establishing processes, routines and expectations with their students… but what about the online classroom?
The literature around learning in the 21st century abounds with references to removing the walls of the classroom and “engaging students in ways not previously possible, creating new learning and teaching possibilities, enhancing achievement and extending interactions with local and global communities.”
Learning in an online World – Contemporary Learning MCEETYA.
This can be a daunting prospect for we ‘digital immigrant’ teachers to include in our thinking about our classrooms and how they operate … where to start? … what’s available that suits my students’ needs?… how can I learn about it ?… how will I manage it?
Here are details about three great examples of teachers in our schools who are moving into this territory by implementing an online presence for their students this year.
I recently had the opportunity to visit a middle school (grade 8 ) classroom at Claremont High School, where many of the resources and technologies featured in this blog recently are being used every day.
An interactive whiteboard was installed in the classroom at the beginning of the year, and the teacher, Kirsty Sing, uses it constantly with her students. There are four desktop computers in the classroom, augmented by two banks of 10 wireless laptops that can be booked when needed, making it possible for students to individually follow-up collaborative work done on the interactive whiteboard.
Kirsty makes extensive use of online resources and makes them easily accessible to her students. She says, “I tend to now present most of my major tasks on a webpage made with Microsoft Word. The students can view it on the large screen but can also re-visit it later if they want to re-read instructions or follow links. It’s also useful for students who have been absent. I am now playing with edublog as a way to present this work online (instead of being stored on a school drive).
There are some learning objects from The Learning Federation that I have used during whole class instruction. One of the students will have control of the pen while the remainder of the class help solve the problem an/or work through the object. This is also the case for some of the objects on Shodor and the Virtual Manipulatives site. ”
Kirsty uses the online resources in a range of ways, e.g. she has downloaded and printed resources from the Writing Fun site and put them in a folder for student reference so they can be used offline, as well as online. She says’ “This is an excellent site. I use it for teaching text types and constantly revisit it to help students structure their writing better.”
As well as using a range of free online resources, the school is considering subscribing to online materials; in particular the animated movies on the Brainpop web site. “It is a website made of 3-5 minute cartoon movies that explain concepts easily for students in an interesting and engaging way. I have shown many of these to my classes – some topics include “Simile and Metaphor”, “Fibonacci Sequence”, “The Periodic Table”. There are hundreds of topics to choose from. A free trial can be gained from the site for 5 days. “
