Welcome!
Please begin by using the comments link on this post to introduce yourself.
After adding your comment, you might like to download handout packet for this 2 Day Workshop or Tom’s Web 2 Tools Overview handout.
Activity 1: Examples from previous Studies of Asia Workshops
To get a sense of what we will be creating over the next two days, please explore the work created by participants in previous sessions. Try to notice the features, strategies and benefits gained from such a learning platform.
- Melissa A
- Finley S
- Anne G
- Prep T Rocks!
- Maffra Indo
- Chris E
- Wild’s Epic Nihongo Blog!
- Japanese Culture
Brainstorm what you noticed using a shared Stixy board
Activity 2: Creating Your Smart Online Space
- Get a WordPress Blog
- Change the theme
- Make a Post
- Embed YouTube (remember &rel=0)?
- Try TubeChop.com (see the Tubechop Update tutorial)
- Get Firefox for extensions like the video downloader?
- Embed all kinds of media in WordPress (maps, images, documents or polls?)
- Great Tutorials from WordPress.com or WordPress Lessons
- WordPress Shortcodes
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– sample
Fine-tuning your Blog
- Comment Settings
- Siderbar widgets
- Various How-to Videos from WordPress
- Add as a link to your Sidebar (video) or Add a link (page)
Activity 3: The ClassPortal Twist
Tom’s Intro
ClassPortals…
- Focus on one compelling topic (with all its interesting connections to others)
- Embody a passionate interest of the teacher and students
- Continue in the background of class activities drawing attention when something in the real world provokes it
- Act as a platform for things like writing, podcasts, videos, photos, cartoons, data collection, etc.
- Make a contribution to the world’s learning
Links
- Child Slave Labor News
- Possible Topics?
- Brainstorm your passions
- Contribute to Wikipedia? – Simple English Wikipedia on China vs. regular China page
References:
For Ideas
- Change.org: Social Network For Social Activism
- Change.org – Causes in Need
- OXFAM – Reshaping our World – Poverty Maps (+ Complete Story Library from OXFAM)
- Idea Index from the Buckminster Fuller Challenge
For Inspiration
- The Girl who Silenced the U.N. for Five Minutes
- End Homelessness
- 10 Revolutionary Acts of Courage by Ordinary People
- 50 Items That Should Change the World
Activity 4: Developing your ClassPortal
- Download the worksheet.
Look to Learn : : Learn to Look
- Look to Learn – overview
- Look to Learn Web site
- Look to Learn Sample Prompts
- Thinking Routines overview
- Thinking Routines from the Visible Thinking team at Harvard
- Article on Making Thinking Visible by David Perkins
Online Samples
- 1984
- Miniature Earth
- VisionShift: Whose Future?
- “I Can”
- Nuclear Giving
- There’s Data in them ther Kids (cartoon)
- The Global Rich List (interactive site)
Task: Create 2 – 4 Look to Learn Activities for your students
Activity 5: Enrich your site with content and media
RSS Feeds
- RSS in Plain English (Common Craft)
- Netvibes – Lindy’s Cambodia Resources
- Tom’s Strategies and Studies of Asia Resources
- Tutorial: Add a Netvibes Feed
- Tutorial: Add a Link
Other Media
- Consider using Podcasts (Add a Podcast Player to WordPress and review a Podcast Booklet from Tony Vincent)
- Upload a Podcast (through Jotform)
- Consider how students will author (register & add as “category”). See the tutorial Invite Users to WordPress.com.
- Add Flickr images through Creative Commons Advanced Search
- TED / YouTube Channels
- Add the Tools Panel for your site (and use these icons to edit it for yourself?)
- Use Dropbox for online file storage (podcasts)
Managing Links
- (Social Bookmarking explained by Common Craft)
- Diigo Social Bookmarks: get the toolbar, login and start bookmarking!
- Consider joining or pinching from the Look to Learn Diigo Group
- Lindy’s Diigo Studies of Asia Group: Join this Group.
Activity 6: CEQ•ALL – Student-managed Learning
- Pedagogies slides (download and play)
- CEQ•ALL Rubric (pdf)
- CEQ•ALL Rationale article
- CEQ•ALL Profiles (pdf)
Feedback
Important – please complete this form (made with jotform)
Hi my name is Amy.
I am the Year 3/4 teacher at Henderson College in Mildura.
I have worked with blogs a little before.
Welcome, Amy. Thanks for making the big trip to Melbourne for this. It sounds like you are off to a good start with using Blogs.
Tom —
Hi Amy, it will be good to chat as we teach similar year levels. I hope we get some advice as to what is the best content to put on a class blog. Cheers, Anthony
I am a Year 7, 8, 11 and 12 English teacher at St Leonards College in Brighton. My first year at this school and my 8th year teaching. Fairly new to all things ICT but learning quickly and excited by the opportunities. A little frustrated too at the lack of interest from some colleagues, for whom PowerPoint presentations are still ‘new age’!
Hi Susanne,
That’s a lot of English classes! My former life was as a high school English teacher for 10 years. It’s a great subject for using technology.
Tom —
Hi, I am Jackie, I teach at St Leonard’s College, Cornish Campus. I teach year 6. This year is the first time I have really experimented with Web 2.0 tools and I think they are terrific. For our year 6 Exhibition we used a class wiki to rcord our knowledge and thinking. We are also currently using blogs to record our personal (student) portfolios.
Welcome Jackie,
Sounds like you’re off to a great start. I hope to contribute some tech tips and pedagogical strategies that you’ll find useful.
Tom —
Hi Jackie, sounds like you are doing some great things already! I might be teaching Prep next year and the digital portfolios sound like an excellent idea. I would be interested to hear more about how they work. Cheers, Anthony
Hi, I teach Year 2 at Scotch College. I created a class blog last year after a PD session at school. There are a couple of other teachers that are having a go at establishing a class blog too. The IT teacher has set up a staff blog. I have come along today because I feel my IT skills are fairly average and also because I want to get some ideas to enhance my class blog and see what other teachers are doing.
Hi Anthony,
Thanks for coming. I think you’ll find your IT skills are adequate to achieve some pretty amazing things so welcome.
Tom —
Happy to share my portfolio stuff with you, but I am pretty new to this so be gentle!
Hi all,
I am a year 6 teacher at Penbank School on the Mornington Peninsula. I have used Wikispaces with my students but feel that I need to learn more about getting my students working together online. Wikispaces has been good but I want my students to have opportunities to do more than simply embed Youtube clips and socialise with each other online.
http://www.penbank6.wikispaces.com
We have used Wikispaces to great success with the Year 12s. https://stleonardscollegeyear12vceenglishextensiongroup.wikispaces.com/
The traffic is amazing and the collaborative learning has really been the inspiration for me to see what else can be done.
Hi Justin,
Yes – this is the challenge and the task that education must take on in the Digital Era: kids are fine to get online and play, but the technologies can help them achieve much more. Make sure I stretch you, okay?
Tom –
Justin, we also used wikispace. It was terrific as a way to record resources and knowledge.
Hi there all!!
My name is Lisa Duggan and I’m from windy Warrnambool (3 hours west of Melb). It’s a beautiful place to live, right by the beach, however it does mean a looooonnnng trip to the city so forgive me if I’m a bit dazed and blurry eyed this morning. 🙂
I teach at a K-12 christian school called King’s College. I share a Gr 3 class and also teach ICT to Gr P-6. I’ve been teaching there for the past 4 years and have absolute loved the experience of teaching in such a supportive environment. We have a brand new principal this year and he is very enthusiastic about promoting the use of ICT to further engage students in their learning. Our school has not had much technology until the past few years and is really just beginning to explore using ICT in the classroom. I have created a class wiki for my Grade 3 students and would really like to learn how to use it in a meaningful way.
I’m looking forward to sharing the next 2 days with you all and excited about this seminar.
Cheers! 🙂
Lisa
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for taking the long trip in – I’ll bet it was beautiful this morning. Great that you’ve taken initiative at your school. Let’s get started!
Tom —
Hi Susanne, you must be very well organised! I wonder if you have some good ideas about getting boys interested in reading and writing via blogs, etc. Cheers, Anthony
With my Year 7 extension group, I announced that they were all ‘journalists’ and the boys were right into it: https://prismyear7.edublogs.org/
Hi everybody, my name is Evla and I am currently teaching ICT in gr4-6 at Isik College, in the north-west. I’m really looking forward to the holidays because i’m off to Kenya & Tanzania. I’m also assistnat principal at the college & have a staff wiki page. I have some experience in terms of using web2 tools. I’m hoping i will get the chance to extend my knowledge and skills & take lots of good ideas back home.