Tom’s Work

10th Anniversary Clean-up Sale

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Tom March
G’Day All, It’s time for a little house cleaning…

After over a decade as a “Web-based educator,” I’ve accumulated a few too many things to look after myself. So it’s time to see if they can find a better home. Next month, I’ll share a few domains that are catchy, but that I’ve never used. This month, though, it’s time to see if any school district, company or association is interested in two of ozline’s most popular Web sites…
BestWebQuests for Sale

BestWebQuests.com

  • Launched in 2001, BestWebQuests is the only directory of fully reviewed directory of WebQuests that are really WebQuests.
  • Here’s an example review. Note the barchart. This is created automatically by adding and reviewing the site through BestWebQuests’ powerful Control Panel and comparing it to the BestWebQuests’ Rubric
  • Included in the site is all the coding (written in Active Server Pages – ASP), a comprehensive administration back-end and a database of over 1100 quality WebQuests.
  • Includes the domain bestwebquests.com and bwqu.com (for BestWebQuests University – the potential for an online course)
  • BestWebQuests can be installed on any Windows server
  • Offers over $15,000 considered – as is: The database suffers from my neglect over the past two years and a fair bit of LinkRot renders 404s for individual WebQuests. If the quality of the database is important to the purchaser, we will go through and update the links for an additional cost.
  • Development offers considered – if your organization wants grow BestWebQuests into a mecca of Web 2, Challenge-based learning resources, I would be happy to consult on such an enterprise.

Web-and-Flow.com for Sale

Web-and-Flow.com

  • Launched in 1998, Web-and-Flow was Web 2.0 in a Web 1 era. Teacher and librarians create up to six different Web-based activities from the Interactive software.
  • Includes a built-in Link Checker to assist educators to keep their activities fresh each year.
  • More than a Web-page maker, Web-and-Flow was lovingly written by me as online mentoring in curriculum design. Included are a host of Help pages and Tutorial modules. The Purchaser would retain copyright to the written content if they want to repurpose it.
  • Includes the domain web-and-flow.com
  • Successfully licensed to school districts and associations to foster a collection of educator-made learning activities.
  • Written in robust Perl, purchasers might want to develop a revision in something like php and AJAX. This would create a real killer-app for a start-up company or expand the reach of a current portal.
  • Offers over $25,000 considered
  • If the purchaser wanted to redevelop Web-and-Flow into its full Web 2.0 + potential, I would be pleased to serve as a design consultant as an additional contract.

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.

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