Motivation

Our college is quickly developing the use of Moodle as a Learning Management system and it is being used at a higher level in some of our VCE classes that incorporate Blended Learning.  This entails delivery of course to several students at the home campus and some students at one or both of our other campuses.  Moodle is used to organise an online course of student activities and video conferencing is used as a way of connecting with remote campuses.

Intended goals / outcomes

Our main goal then was to improve teachers understanding and use of Web 2.0 activities to help with the interaction in their Blended Learning classrooms.  This would also involve an increase in the more sophisticated interactive parts of Moodle

Description of the activity

We met together on several occasions to discuss the needs of the teachers and students and developed a Moodle page to bring together ideas on strategies and tools to encourage students to use the individual Moodle course pages more often and with better outcomes

Use of Online / Web 2 resources & tools

An “Effective Online Learning Focus Group” page was set up for the staff to access and resources and tips were added to this page.

This include results of surveys from students about what they like to see on a Moodle Course Page, Effective Online Teaching discussion particularly centred around catering for different Learning Styles of students, Developing Rich Media resources for classes, and places for sharing and personal reflection

Anecdotes from Design / Implementation

One particular workshop asked teachers to look at various learning styles and try to come up with Moodle resources that would specifically cater to these Learning Styles.  In the area of Auditory Learning, we investigated the use of podcasts and VOKI Talking Avatars to reinforce elements of the course for auditory learners.  This enabled students to go over key concepts by listening to teacher instructions on their computer or IPOD.

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As part of the general staff professional development, a WIKI was set up in the Helpdesk section of Moodle and staff contributed to a list of tips and ideas to encourage all students to want to access Class Pages more often

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Final Reflection

The most important learning that was made was the opportunity to come together as a group of like minded staff and talk about class issues relating to online learning.  There was a sense that we had started on an interesting journey that had a valuable outcome of improving student learning within our classes.  Being able to participate in online cooperative wikis gave us an idea of the way that students could use these interactive tools as well.  The chance to share experiences and valuable insights was fantastic and gave us the opportunity to put together a number of teaching and curriculum ideas that worked in the digital classroom.

Middle School Robotics – ICA Casey College

Motivation

The school is currently developing its teaching pedagogy one of which is currently being called e-technology.  This task was a perfect opportunity to contribute to the trailing of this pedagogy. 

The main motivation for this task was the schools desire to provide a robotics program for its students.  This motivation to do this unit with the aid of web 2.0 was to entice the students to interact with web 2.0 tools and enhance their higher order thinking skills in a technology rich environment.

Intended goals / outcomes

• Trial the e-technology pedagogy
• Improve student thinking and engagement
• Develop the robotics program in the Middle School.
• Students to interact and discuss ethics and understanding of robotics
• Students to see the benefits of resources such as youtube, social networking sites and other web 2.0 programs as a learning tool
• Students to learn about cyber citizenship and responsibilities
• Students to be able to program the Lego NXT robots to move in a designated path, using light, sound and touch sensors.

Description of the activity

In Year 7 Science students were to complete a 10 week program in Robotics.  To enhance their contribution to their learning students all joined the private ning (www.middleschoolrobotics.ning.com ). They set up their own pages, learnt how use of the site and its purpose was established.  

In class students worked on worksheets and activities which were links on the ning. These worksheets were focused on the development of an understanding of robotics and how to program the NXT robots.

At first utilised Look2Learn activities which I posted to the ning.  This developed into regular Look2Learn activities initiated by the students. 

Students were given a range of task such as weekly blogs to complete based on something they did in class, saw on line or were wondering about.

This evolved into online chat and discussion linked to others blogs.

Use of Online / Web 2 resources & tools

www.middleschoolrobotics.ning.com

www.pageflakes.com

www.youtube.com

TEDtalks

Anecdotes from Design / Implementation

This project left me excited about the use of tools such as a ning in my teaching.  Students appeared enthusiastic about their learning and were keen to be involved in the collection of resources and the sharing of information on the interactive site.

Google Analytics was used to monitor the traffic in the ning.  It was encouraging to see that students were logging in on days which we didn’t  have class, indicating that students had an interest in the site outside of class hours.   

Around 20% of students showed an improvement of at least 2 grades during the robotics unit.  This may have been due a variety of reasons; possibly relevance of topic or use of ning as assessment, empowerment of taking control of their learning?

Students assisted each other when they were experiencing difficulties. Most used the site responsibly.  It presented great teaching opportunities to teach the importance of cyber citizenship with real examples when students crossed the line.

The student feedback when asked to blog about their thoughts on the use of the blog confirmed for me that this project met some of the objectives.

Reply by Rachiii on September 6, 2009 at 8:34pm   

I reckon science worked really gud this term, using the laptops (except for when they wanted to be pains and not work), using a wider range of robotics programming skills (if that is even proper english-haha lol..) Using the smartboard and portable thingiee marbobiee (forgot the name..its me what do u expect) hehe lol..its has made alot wiser that robot aren’t magically gonna take over earth. By Cheese!

Reply by Lizzie on September 9, 2009 at 8:19pm

Well congrats to us for teaching you alot to you! Yes, this whole Ning website allows us to talk/explain things to one another whilst at home also considering New Generation Learning, so therefore I would love to continue using this sort of program in science. I think any subjects would be excellent but the subjects I believe the Ning would work best are in Science(of course) Humanties and English because these are subjects that we can talk about whilst at home!

Reply by MY NAME IS… on September 10, 2009 at 4:55pm

This term i have really enjoyed using this ning as a learning utility , its made it all centralized and so we don’t have to bring home homework sheets and stuff.Its good that we can talk to other people and share our ideas and thoughts. I would think we would be able to use this in any other subject (with limits).

Reply by Kaityxox on September 11, 2009 at 7:34pm

Final Reflection

This project has taken me personally through a steep learning curve not only about the technology but also about the way students interact with each other. (How was I to know that ‘brb’ means be right back? …lol)  The many hours a week in monitoring the site has helped me to build a different relationship with the student in an environment I believe was truly student centred learning. 

As I have always say in science you can’t answer one question without asking 10 more…. as much has been learnt I still have some concerns.  Queries include the uploading of video footage of students working in the classroom. Since the ning allows them to be exported to other sites such as youtube where do we stand with privacy etc if a student chooses to export the footage?   I feel there is a need to establish a protocol for both students and staff as to the expected behaviour on line.  I want to ensure that the blogging/discussion format and quality are maintained and in line with the excepted formats for assessment.  I am in the process of setting up a structure to assist students to develop their blogging skill beyond just event recall and include more analysis. 

The science ning phase two has been launched and a few things have been changed.  I have added links to other references and websites like pageflakes which allows students to connect to these RSS feeds for blogs/discussions without clogging up the main ning page.  I plan to utilise the discussion forums more specifically and encourage students to distinguish the difference between a blog and a discussion.  I am keen to maintain if not increase the level of interaction from student on the ning mark II.

From here the task continues as it is now important to pass on what I have learnt to others and ensure that the use of this type of technology is used effectively as part of our teaching pedagogy.

Amanda Swaney – Ruyton

Creating Change in ICT

understanding and use using Professional Learning Resources at Ruyton Girls School -2009

Two Drivers for Change

• Our students responded to a general questionnaire put out by the Ruyton Student Council. They noted that the staff in general did not have the level of expertise in the use of ICT that they would like.
• As a laptop school we saw the need for staff to move into a greater understanding and knowledge about Web 2.0.
• Intended goals / outcomes
• Students would be introduced to new ways of operating in a digital world using Web 2.0
• Staff would evaluate software, programs and applications for inclusion in the curriculum
• Mid-career staff would receive management experience through the oversight of professional learning Teams
• Change requirements would be indentified for inclusion in the 2010 Operational Plan
• Staff would be excited by the potential for change in pedagogy
• Staff would have an understanding of the potential of social networking

Staff nominated to join Professional Learning Teams (PLT) in the following: –

• Use of tablet computers and OneNote
• Use of interactive White Boards
• Web 2.0 – using blogs, wikis and nings
• Using Moodle
• e-learning and the global classroom
• cybersafety
• Additionally the Australian Government Quality Teacher Program were trained in management skills in order to each run a PLT
• Use of Online / Web 2 resources & tools

We used blogs and wikis and nings extensively. The most useful of these has been nings. Use of Delicious and other RSS feeds has also been investigated and used.

Anecdotes from Design / Implementation

One of the key issues that developed through the process was the lack of expertise in the area of Web 2.0 application and the relative low level of understanding and use of social networking in our staff. Our QTP staff tried to manage the learning of the group but without expert help they were frustrated. We certainly learnt that to achieve wholesale change you have to have the experts in abundance to support adult learners both outside and inside the classroom. The impact of the specialist researcher was good but we need to follow up with an extensive program which identifies a need in the classroom and then provides support over a whole term or semester to achieve outcomes.

Final Reflection

We learnt that, as a school, we needed far more support in the classroom as well as individual ICT training. This was communicated to the principal. Through changes in staffing, this need has been substantially addressed for 2010. Staff will be able to develop their ideas knowing that there is ‘just in time’ support and that they can use the support over a number of consecutive lessons rather than waiting for the next fortnightly lesson. The impact of an outstanding classroom practitioner was also noted. Andrew Douch from Wanganui Park Secondary College gave a presentation on a Staff Day at the beginning of Term 4. His dedicated approach to his craft and his use of technology were inspiring. As well he conveyed practical tips for improved student learning using Web 2.0 technologies

Can you compare the characters in the Purim story with the characters of the story of Star Wars? Create a Venn diagram to show your comparisson.

What did you see?

What did you think?

What do you wonder?

This clip ties in nicely with a unit on Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeE8_u-CNoc