Tom’s Work

Hume eLearning Conference

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humeOnline Tour

This set of links serves as a main menu of sites for the Elluminate keynote Tom March is doing for the Hume eLearning Conference.

Sample Skills

Bookmarking

Feeds & Podcasts

Cool Web 2 Tools

Handout for this session (doc)

You can view the recorded Elluminate session

https://tommarch.com/classportals/

Curriculum Mapping in Melbourne

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I’m fortunate to be working with ACEL and ASCD as they bring Heidi Hayes Jacobs and Ann Johnson to Australia to continue the introduction of Curriculum Mapping to our schools.  My perspective is that available technologies enable students to “side-step or super-charge” their learning.  The determining factor is a meaningful and individualised curriculum that engages intrinsic motivation and develops a culture of thinking.  My session is titled “Curriculum Mapping + Web 2.0 = Personal Learning” as I don’t think education stands a chance of taking advantage of digital technologies without better articulating and tracking individual student learning. Curriculum Mapping has to happen.

The following handouts accompany the session:

Finally – don’t miss the Conference Archive on Heidi’s Web site, CurriculumDesigners.com for access to presentations, handouts, etc. A real treasure of support.

CPTLA Conference – Teacher Librarians!

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Nice to join some of my favourite people: teacher librarians.  Part of what makes them so precious to schools is that they perform one of the few roles that has truly altered in the past few decades.  From card catalogs to server closets and from a stack of Britannica to Encarta collapsing under the weight of Wikipedia.  Teacher Librarians have had to step up to the times, whereas some in classrooms have not had to face the challenges of change.

Part of what I’m talking about in this keynote is “Info Lit 2.0”.  Yes this involves great Web 2 assets, but more importantly, a clear awareness that in our digital world, we owe it to our students to pursue the second definition of “literate”.  The awareness needed is that “taught” information literacy skills really only achieve the first:

Literate:

  1. Able to read and write
  2. Knowledgeable or educated in a particular field or fields.

 

Like all forms of critical and creative thinking, it’s the disposition that counts once the skill is learned.  This means we must develop a culture that fosters the sensitivity and inclination to engage in the task.

Then we are ready to couple the Challenge and Skill in a scaffolded process.  I tend to “take the mickey” out of Info Lit “processes” that have a neat little step called “synthesis”.  This is where WebQuests came into the mix, addressing the “insert magic here” aspect of most Info Lit approaches.  Similarly, Flow theory shows the way: a balancing act between Challenge and Skill where scaffolding is decreased as skills increase. The nice thing is that teachers and teacher librarians can get into Flow just as easily as students!  I hope that the Look to Learn strategy and tutorials for using WordPress and Pageflakes support participants as they explore the challenges of our evolving profession!

Here’s a handout for the session that focuses on the Look to Learn strategy and a few handy Web 2 tools and tutorials for working with them,

Look to Learn Launched

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I’ve just launched a site I’ve been wanting to get onto the Web for a while.  Called “Look to Learn,” the site combines what I like to call “Real, Rich and Relevant” resources with thinking prompts.  The rationale is to help teachers and students use such activities frequently (3+ times / week) as a way to nurture a culture of inquiry and to help students develop a disposition toward such thinking.  Another way to put it is, “Here’s an engaging way to foster an appetite for deep learning and the joy of learning that accompanies it.”

Web 2 & the Studies of Asia PD

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Welcome to participants in this two day workshop held at the University of Melbourne and organised by Lindy Stirling, State Advisor, Studies of Asia (see the Studies of Asia Wiki).

Day 1

We will mostly be working from Tom’s CEQ-ALL site.  The outline of Day 1 with Tom  is:

  • Web 2.0 – Empowering Learning
  • Beginning with Web 2 Tools  WordPress, Pageflakes & Diigo
  • Designing your Learning Activity

Here’s a page of handy Web addresses and resources.

Day 2

Lisa Hayman will facilitate Day 2 which will bring in the VELS and authentic assessment as well as more time to work on the learning activities.

Gifted and Talented

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Tom March is working with Gifted and Talented educators from the Victorian department schools.  The day will focus on two main points: CEQ-ALL and the 1,2,3 Strategies for Meaningful Learning.

Here’s a handout of links and resources

Working with Loreto Kirribilli

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At sessions today, I’m working with the teachers of Loreto Kirribilli to consider CEQ-ALL as a unifying process to contextualise their outstanding learning framework which is designed to help students “develop as intelligent, confident, wise and lovable young women, with a strong sense of social responsibility.”

Through the course of the day, I’ll be sharing my latest views on the Immutable Trends and the related Challenges for Education, followed by hands-on workshops where teachers will set up their own Web 2 learning space. We’ll use WordPress.com and Pageflakes (tutorial) and perhaps get into Clipmarks and Diigo.

Loreto Kirribilli has a fantastic mission which says in part: “… to provide an education which liberates, empowers and motivates students to use their individual gifts with confidence, creativity and generosity…”  This is exactly the kind of focus a school needs to traverse the challenges and opportunities of our digital era in education.

AIS-NSW ICT Integrators Conference

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September 22-23 is the IT Integration Conference in Sydney – one I’ve come to look forward to.  Doing the keynote last year introduced me to this group of talented people working to integrate ICTs in independent schools throughout the greater Sydney region.  Because a lot of my work in Australia is with independent schools, it’s a fantastic network of people pulling the same levers of cool tech tools, professional development, curriculum design and systemic change.

I’m doing 2-3 eSpots on Pageflakes (my Pageflakes and a How-to) and Diigo & its new educator accounts.

There’s also a workshop on “Leveraging Blogs for Authentic Learning.”

Examples from OxleyLearning.org

Here’s a handout.

NavCon 07

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Navcon 07This week sees another iteration of the NavCon Conference. This year it’s held in Gosford on the Central Coast of NSW and is hosted by the Catholic Diocese of Broken Bay.

I am presenting a spotlight presentation and a workshop.

A handout for the workshop outlines Four Main Strategies (doc) for integrating Real, Rich and Relevant Web resources into pedagogically sound practice. Help links are available on the 2nd10 site.

Welcome to “MyPlace”

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Myplace

This is the first public announcement of a new project. Targeting promotion of intrinsic motivation and critical thinking, MyPlace uses Web 2.0 technologies to enrich personal learning.

(Okay, so that last paragraph and image were a quick post made in the minutes before a presentation in Melbourne, Victoria. Thanks to the colleague who provided the nudge after noting the long-lingering New Year’s Eve posting.)

MyPlace is a multidisciplinary, multi-age project that attempts to provide a Real, Rich and Relevant learning environment for students.  Using the latest social-networking Web tools, the project invites students to find personal meaning in an exploration of what the world might look like for them.  Climate change, global economics, shifting demographics and geo-political tensions virtually guarantee that the world of our students’ early adulthood will be anything but predictable.

You are invited to explore the MyPlace site.  Contact tom at ozline dot com if you are interested in participating.  A Users’/Teachers’ guide blog also supports the site.