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Rowville Secondary College – a SLAV/Connect Web 2.0 winner!
Nov 23rd
Michele Berner, English teacher and e-learning coach and Katherin Grelis, Teacher Librarian at Rowville Secondary College have developed a winning way with Web 2.0.
As joint winners of this year’s SLAV/Connect Web 2.0 competition, Michele and Katherin have devised an exciting and engaging unit of work using a number of Web 2.0 tools. Michele explains:
I teach a Year 7 class for English and Information Technology. I wanted a project that would incorporate both English language skills and competencies and would integrate ICT. With the help of Katherin Grelis, a teacher-librarian, we developed a unit that would answer the following questions:
Who am I?
Class blog: http://7eenglish.globalstudent.org.au Student blogs are linked from here.
What is the essence of me? Where did I come from? What makes me who I am? Where will I be in the future?
What happened in history?
What significant events occurred on the day and year I was born?
Class wiki: http://starringme.wikispaces.com/
During the year, 7E English was introduced to blogs and wikis as an integral part of their coursework. There is a class blog: http://7eenglish.globalstudent.org.au and each student has their own blog linked to the class blog. Students spent some time at the beginning of the year setting up their blogs and learning to post, tag, comment etc. Students have completed a number of writing tasks on their blogs. I found this to be an effective way of developing student prewriting, drafting, writing, editing and evaluation throughout the year.
The Web 2.0 competition was a good opportunity to develop student skills in a variety of Web 2.0 tools, to gather photographs and other evidence and produce information that linked to their study of the autobiography genre. This would therefore make the online history a more complete representation of the student. The class blog has a number of tasks designed to build up a personal picture of the student: in effect, to answer the question of who am I? Students set up pages on their blog and all their writing was posted there. The table below outlines the tasks students completed. Each task also used ICT by requiring students to take images, edit them, use a web 2.0 tool, upload and embed, and demonstrate appropriate file management.
An instruction booklet was provided to students which outlined all the tasks and the websites they were required to access. A copy of this booklet, the unit planner and other relevant files can be downloaded from the class blog.
These are the tasks the students completed for the project. They created pages on their blogs where each task was posted.
| Who am I? | 3 poems: About me, I am….. My bedroom Billboard. Bring in a headshot photo of you and create a billboard using http://bighugelabs.com/billboard.php. Wordle - Describe your personality – one word for each letter of the alphabet. Make it into a wordle. | |||
| My Interests | Explain in detail your favourite things in life and why you consider them to be your favourite. Photos of interests Collage – bring 10-15 personal items (eg photos, medals, trophies and scan them on the photocopier to create a collage of you. Save it as .jpeg image and post on the page | |||
| This is me | Open ended sentences. Using the site, Glogster, create a glog – multimedia poster which incorporates different elements of your personality and character. It can include music, photos, text, video. When you look at the finished Glog, what should emerge is “You”. | |||
| My Memories | Provide three memories for each of the following sections. Memories of long ago. Memories that make you laugh. Memories that make you cry. Memories that are warm. Memories that are precious. After filling in the blanks for Task 1, pick one from each category and write a 4-5 sentences describing each one. Create a Memory wall using the program Wallwisher: http://www.wallwisher.com/ |
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| My Family | 6 photographs – family /pets. For each photograph, write 5-10 lines explaining the importance of your family member or pet to you. Photocube 3d: http://www.photocube3d.com/ | |||
| My Future | Letter to YOURSELF and tell yourself things that will happen in the future to yourself. Here are the topics you are to write about…:• Something to look forward to…• Something to watch out about…• Something/someone to avoid…• Something to work hard at…• Someone to be especially nice to…• Someone to really listen to…• Somewhere to be sure not to go… | |||
| What happened on the day I was born | What happened on the day I was born? What events occurred in the year of my birth? What happened on the day I was born? On the wiki site: http://starringme.wikispaces.com/, each of you have a page where you will type your findings. Your page is: the date of your birthday (No two students have the same birthday in the class so you will be responsible for locating the appropriate information for this date in history).
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| Task: Quiz Using any of the events from the wiki, you are going to generate a quiz which includes 10 questions based on the information collected in the Wiki. Look at each of the dates on the Wiki, find something that interests you and create a question from the information. Also provide the answer to your question.
Step 1: Planning: Create a three column table in WORD.
Step 2: Create the quiz. See class blog for further instructions Step 3: Put your name as the author of the quiz Step 4: Obtain the embed code for your quiz. Step 5: Embed the quiz on your WIKI page
Link to the quiz generator http://classtools.net/main_area/template_loader.php/?quiz
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Skills Developed
Students should develop skills in the following:
- Interpret, analyse and evaluate information on a student’s life (past, present and future) with the assistance of technology
- Read and follow multistep directions to complete a complex task
- improve technical skills by using web 2.0 tools to publish elements of their life
- evaluate their own work.
- create appropriate graphic organizers to provide a structure for information
- apply the writing process to write effectively in various forms and types of writing
- Locate and use multiple resources to acquire relevant information
- evaluate reliability of information
- record relevant information using a variety of note-taking and organizational strategies
Implementing the project
The project was completed in English and IT classes for a period of 4 weeks. Year 7 students are not the best at following instructions on handouts so it was often hectic and students were completing different activities in the booklet as they worked at their own pace. As students completed some of the ICT tasks, they assisted other students which worked well.
Continuing use of the unit
During Semester 1, Yr 7 English study Autobiography. In 2010, English teachers will be able to use the Who am I / Starring Me unit to study this genre whilst the ICT and Web 2.0 skills that accompany each task can be taught during the class’ Information Technology classes.
The project will also form part of our ICT showcase; demonstrating to teachers how to integrate ICT into a unit of work and how to use blogs as a daily part of the class activities.
What a fabulous unit of work Michele and Katherin have developed. There is plenty for all of us to take from the tools they have incorporated and the way in which ICT has been embedded into the unit of work. The beauty of blogs and wikis is that they can be tweaked and updated year to year without having to reinvent the wheel entirely. As new tools become available, they too can be incorporated into the unit.
Congratulations to Michele and Katherin for their SLAV/Connect Web 2.0 competition success. It is obvious that it is well deserved.
Tagul
Sep 29th
Tagul is a resource similar to Wordle. However, Tagul allows users to sign up, save Taguls and embed them into webpages.
Gorgeous tag cloudsHere is some information from the Tagul website:
Tagul is different
…Wordle clouds cannot be used as in the way tag clouds are usually used, like being embedded on a web page and serving as navigation units. That leaves the niche that Tagul is intended to fulfil. Tagul clouds are not toys and designed to be used on blogs, web pages or any kind of sites as a replacement of ordinary tag clouds. Each tag in Tagul cloud is linked with an URL and is “clickable” that enables visitors to use it for navigation.
Tagul looks to be another useful resource for the toolbox.
Free eLearning conference
Jul 31st
KnowledgeBank is hosting a free eLearning Conference for interested Victorian teachers. It will be held from Monday 3 August to Wednesday 5 August through the online conferencing program Elluminate. Here are details of individual sessions from KnowledgeBank:
Monday 3 August
Learning is Real, Rich & Relevant – Keynote – 21st Century eLearning Conference
When Monday, August 3, 2009, 9 – 10am Where Online in Elluminate Event type Knowledge Bank Online Event Presenter Tom March Summary Tom March has contributed to authentic teaching, learning and children for the past three decades. He finds this often involves technology as bothinspiration to creativity and a means to impressive accomplishments. Recognised as a Teacher of the Year Finalist for San Diego County after five years in the profession, he concluded ten years as a classroom teacher in 1995 by taking a three-year fellowship at San Diego State University. There, Tom worked with Professor Bernie Dodge to develop the WebQuest model. Since moving to Australia in 1998, he has contributed at least one new product or initiative every two years. These include Web-and-Flow, BestWebQuests, ClassPortals, The New WWW and CEQ•ALL. Each initiative builds on what’s been learned and addresses new needs of Web-enriched education. He regularly keynotes, writes, and facilitates workshops focused on aspects of making learning for Real, Rich and Relevant. Elluminate Link sas.elluminate.com…
iPod Touch in the Classroom – 21st Century eLearning Conference
When Monday, August 3, 2009, 11am – 12pm Where Online in Elluminate Event type Knowledge Bank Online Event Presenter Louise Duncan – eLearning Coordinator-SHS Elluminate Link sas.elluminate.com…
Linking Special Education & Mainstream World via Blogging – 21st Century eLearning Conference
When Monday, August 3, 2009, 11am – 12pm Where Online in Elluminate Event type Knowledge Bank Online Event Presenter Sue King – Teacher Belvoir Summary Sue is a Special Education teacher with a passion for providing resources and support to mainstream teachers working with students with special needs. This session will demonstrate how blogs can be used to motivate student learning, share resources and develop world wide learning networks, for parents, teachers and students. Elluminate Link sas.elluminate.com… Blogs and Wikis in the Classroom – 21st Century eLearning Conference
When Monday, August 3, 2009, 2 – 3pm Where Online in Elluminate Event type Knowledge Bank Online Event Presenter Marion Spencer Summary Jennifer Frisardi is an experienced Secondary ESL and LOTE teacher and Primary Classroom Teacher. She is currently working as a teacher at Mooroopna North Primary School which has IWBs in every learning space and student access to laptops. Jennifer has been developing Ms Frizz’s Blog and a Class Wiki. She finds that since her students use their laptops for the majority of literacy and numeracy sessions, either investigating websites, directed to from Ms Frizz’s Blog or doing work on their wiki pages, the laptops have become a tool for the students which is not far removed from their exercise books or pencils. It is her aim to have the students viewing the laptops as a useful learning tool and not as a special treat. The Blog and Wiki have proven useful tools for increasing the effective use of the internet by the students in her class and their online publishing skills have also noticeably improved. Elluminate Link sas.elluminate.com… Sharepoint V3 – 21st Century eLearning Conference
When Monday, August 3, 2009, 2 – 3pm Where Online in Elluminate Event type Knowledge Bank Online Event Presenter Marion Spencer Elluminate Link sas.elluminate.com… Tuesday 4 August
IWB Interactive Whiteboard – 21st Century eLearning Conference
When Tuesday, August 4, 2009, 9 – 10am Where Online in Elluminate Event type Knowledge Bank Online Event Presenter Monica Sketcher – Teacher Summary Monica Sketcher is a dynamic and energetic teacher who wears many hats for her role at Mansfield Primary School (too many to mention!). She works as a full-time teacher in a team teaching situation with 2 shared Prep grades. Monica is passionate about the inclusion of ICT applications and tools in her daily program and has her Preps completing amazing work independently on their computers. In her role as ICT co-ordinator, Monica has enjoyed sharing her ICT ideas with her colleagues so that the inclusion of computers, laptops and IWB is a daily part of a classroom routine. She has made PD accessible to her local smaller neighbouring schools by offering training ‘online’ and ‘on demand’ to match people’s needs.
The aim of this session is to provide participants with some ready to use tools on the IWB for any classroom situation. Some activities will be user-created, online or downloadable. Participants will be asked to share their ideas, so that this session is relevant to their unique teaching situations and so that we can create a large resource of IWB ideas for participants to take away with themElluminate Link sas.elluminate.com… Remote Control Response Paddles – 21st Century eLearning Conference
When Tuesday, August 4, 2009, 9 – 10am Where Online in Elluminate Event type Knowledge Bank Online Event Presenter Derek Bowey – Teacher Summary Derek is in his 14th year of teaching. Currently teaching at Wodonga Senior Secondary College, he has a role in helping imbednew and effective technology into teaching and learning practice. Derek is enthusiastic about technology and it’s potential application in education. He is not a technical expert, but he hopes those who are not familiar with the remote response paddles (software and hardware) find his presentation of some interest: Workshop Content: (a)Software and hardware (remote response paddles) that allow students to respond to multiple choice questions.(b)Basic preparation – screen dumps. (c) Images and explanations of tools being used.(d) The power of immediate feedback and automatic collation of data for planning individualised future lessons. Elluminate Link sas.elluminate.com… Building a learning network in your town or region – 21st Century eLearning Conference
When Tuesday, August 4, 2009, 11am – 12pm Where Online in Elluminate Event type Knowledge Bank Online Event Presenter Mark Richardson – ICT Coordinator – PD Organiser Summary Interested in networks and networking?? They’re great aren’t they? Especially the ones without servers, WAPs and blue cords! What did he say? Yes, networks of teachers you use ICT to enhance teaching and learning are essential to a vibrant pedagogy in classrooms. Whether it’s face to face or online, personal learning networks are an essential part of any teacher’s toolkit Mark Richardson shares his experiences of networking in a primary school, a DEECD region and in rural and regional Victoria. Elluminate Link sas.elluminate.com… Classroom Blogging in Early Years – 21st Century eLearning Conference
When Tuesday, August 4, 2009, 11am – 12pm Where Online in Elluminate Event type Knowledge Bank Online Event Presenter Tamara Steinhauser – Teacher Summary Tamara Steinhauser is a Year 2/3 teacher who uses ICT to engage students in her classroom. Tamara started using a classroom blog last year as a means of showcasing student work to the community and enabling students to reflect on their own and other students’ work in a secure, moderated online environment. This session provides a first hand insight into using Blogs in your classroom program to motivate and engage students through all areas of the curriculum. Elluminate Link sas.elluminate.com… Delicious and DIIgo & Exploring free softwares – 21st century eLearning Conference
When Tuesday, August 4, 2009, 2 – 3pm Where Online in Elluminate Event type Knowledge Bank Online Event Presenter John Spencer – eLearning Coordinator Summary John Spencer is an experienced teacher of ICT. He is currently an ICT teacher at Peranbin Primary College. This year he has 24 days of Professional Leave aimed at increasing effective use of ICT in his school. This workshop will look at using Diigoand Delicious (social bookmarking sites) in a classroom setting, along with other Web 2.0 applications available on the Internet. Elluminate Link sas.elluminate.com… Wednesday 5 August
Online Resources for Early Years classroom – 21st Century eLearning Conference
When Wednesday, August 5, 2009, 9 – 10am Where Online in Elluminate Event type Knowledge Bank Online Event Presenter Kerry Rowett Summary Kerry Rowett is a primary teacher who currently works at Connect (previously the Victorian Education Channel) at DEECD (Ed Dept). She has a particular interest in exciting online tools enabling students to communicate and create online. A practical session focused on how to find and use great websites, animations, videos, games and web 2.0 tools for use in the Primary classroom. Elluminate Link sas.elluminate.com… Principal & eLeader Forum – 21st Century eLearning Conference
When Wednesday, August 5, 2009, 9 – 10am Where Online in Elluminate Event type Knowledge Bank Online Event Presenter Brendan O’Brien and Richard Olsen Summary Brendan has an extensive background in ICT, science education, classroom teaching and teacher education. Richard is co-director of IdeasLab, and has been at the forefront of resourcing a 21stcentury agenda for Australian schools. Elluminate Link sas.elluminate.com… ‘this is the Ultranet’: the basics – 21st Century eLearning Conference
When Wednesday, August 5, 2009, 11am – 12pm Where Online in Elluminate Event type Knowledge Bank Online Event Elluminate Link sas.elluminate.com… Using Digital Learning Objects on Remote Tablets – 21st Century eLearning Conference
When Wednesday, August 5, 2009, 11am – 12pm Where Online in Elluminate Event type Knowledge Bank Online Event Presenter Michael Barnard Summary Michael is an experienced teacher of mathematics and physics at Wodonga Senior Secondary College, and is also an integral part of the Excellence in Mathematics and Science Program at that school.Perhaps you don’t feel as if you are taking full advantage of the Digital Learning Objects that are provided by The Learning Federation. This session will demonstrate how the “It’s a Drag” vehicle braking distance simulation can become the basis of an engaging mathematics lesson that caters for a range of abilities. The task involves collecting data then using a spreadsheet as a tool in its analysis.The use of a wireless tablet in the classroom will also be covered.To participate in this session you will need access to the DLO (available on-line: eduweb.vic.gov.au…) and Microsoft Excel or equivalent. Elluminate Link sas.elluminate.com… Dataloggers in science lessons – 21st Century eLearning Conference
When Wednesday, August 5, 2009, 2 – 3pm Where Online in Elluminate Event type Knowledge Bank Online Event Presenter Brahm Deo Elluminate Link sas.elluminate.com… Infomercials made by children! – 21st Century eLearning Conference
When Wednesday, August 5, 2009, 2 – 3pm Where Online in Elluminate Event type Knowledge Bank Online Event Presenter Rosemarie O’Brien Elluminate Link sas.elluminate.com… PhotoStory and Audacity as aids to develop literacy skills – 21st Century eLearning Conference
When Wednesday, August 5, 2009, 2 – 3pm Where Online in Elluminate Event type Knowledge Bank Online Event Presenter Helene Bearup Elluminate Link sas.elluminate.com…
There appears to be something for everyone! See you in Elluminate.
Google Translate
Jul 30th
Here is a handy tool for LOTE teachers and anyone else wanting to communicate in languages other than English. Google Translate can do three great things:
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Enter a phrase in your selected language for search in another language
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Add a widget to your webpage to allow it to be translated instantly by readers in other languages
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Create content in other languages
Languages supported are:
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Albanian
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Arabic
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Bulgarian
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Catalan
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Chinese
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Croatian
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Czech
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Danish
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Dutch
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English
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Estonian
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Filipino
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Finnish
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French
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Galician
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German
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Greek
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Hebrew
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Hindi
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Hungarian
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Indonesian
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Italian
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Japanese
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Korean
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Latvian
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Lithuanian
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Maltese
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Norwegian
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Persian
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Polish
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Portuguese
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Romanian
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Russian
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Serbian
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Slovak
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Slovenian
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Spanish
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Swedish
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Thai
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Turkish
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Ukrainian
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Vietnamese
Google Translate seems like it could be very useful, however you may need a Google account to use it.
Power League
Jul 22nd
Power League is an interesting concept. It provides free access to its site which is based on the idea of leagues. Leagues are forums or discussions about particular topics; students can discuss, question, debate and even vote. If a league is not suitable or available, teachers can start their own league.
Homepage
Power League is a way to get students actively engaged in topics quickly and easily as they can all have their own say and opinion and vote on the topic, whereas in class, there are often students who are reluctant to voice their opinions. Although designed in the UK for Key Stages 3 and 4 (years 7-9 and years 10-11), Power League is a very useful site for Australian teachers and is ideal for debating or any class that requires discussion. This teacher guide will give you much more information.
FUSE
Jul 21st
Victoria’s Department of Education and Early Childhood Development has released stage one of their new website. FUSE; Find, Use and Share quality Education resources is set to be revolutionary for teachers by the time it is complete by early 2010. Even now, it has many features both for Victorian DEECD employed teachers and others outside of this system. Teachers can log in using their Edumail details to access extra content and features.
FUSE homepageFUSE is the one place to get everything you need for teaching and learning. It also provides the ability to save, bookmark and package items for later access. So if you are looking for items such as URLs, documents and videos for teaching a unit of work, they can be found, saved and packaged for easy access at a later date. Teachers can also rate and comment on resources.
FUSE has been developed in conjunction with organisations such as the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, the State Library of Victoria, Scienceworks and Museum Victoria.
Innovation and Next Practice Branch Assistant General Manager Katrina Reynen at the release of FUSETeachers are ecouraged to upload to FUSE. Documents, URLs, videos and more are accepted in all types of formats.
FUSE is the total online planning tool that will be the virtual library inside the Ultranet, once the Ultranet is released. Teachers can begin using this fabulous tool now with the confidence that it will be a major part of the Ultranet.
Bright Ideas has already uploaded a document, a URL and a video to FUSE to share with other teachers.
Games ‘valuable learning tool’
May 13th
A very interesting article was recently published in The Age Green Guide entitled Games ‘valuable learning tool’. Written by Jason Hill, the article says, ‘Education experts say computer games boost a range of skills in children’.
April 9, 2009
Education experts say computer games boost a range of skills in children, writes Jason Hill.
Computer games can be a positive learning tool for children as young as three, according to Australian education experts.
Patricia and Don Edgar, authorities on children’s media, education and social trends, recently wrote a paper for the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority in which they argue that there is growing evidence that games are effective and valuable learning tools.
Skills developed from games include comprehension, decision making, multitasking, collaboration, concentration, leadership and communication.
Dr Patricia Edgar says it is not surprising some parents fear the impact of games on their kids, because many “fear the unknown” or are concerned about violence.
“Anyone with children knows how absorbed and passionate about games kids can become,” Dr Edgar says. “Parents worry about something that takes over their kids’ lives as games do – games which they can’t see much point to.”
Dr Edgar, whose latest book is titled The New Child: in search of smarter grown-ups, encourages parents to “sit with kids, let them explore and learn”.
“Parents have to put in the time. Then they will know the content of the games, and their involvement will help the kids to learn.”
Dr Edgar believes games can also have an important role in the classroom, although more research and investment is needed to produce educational games that enable kids to learn at their own pace and collaborate with others. The games also need to be fun, she argues.
“Kids always learn best when they are entertained. Entertainment should not preclude education, but somehow we have this notion that if something is educational it has to be serious and can’t be fun.”
Dr Edgar says some educators have had their distrust of new media vindicated over the past decade as “the entertainment industry has commercialised childhood and turned kids into consumers producing material for its merchandising potential”.
“(But) I think we are about ready for a change in these values, which could lead to some healthy, profitable, educational entertainment to bridge the divide.”
She believes it is a positive step that libraries are now offering computer games, both for their learning potential and for attracting children to the institutions.
Lalor Library in north-eastern Melbourne has enjoyed success through introducing consoles such as the Xbox and Wii into the library, as well as networked PC games. Branch manager Felicity Macchion says her priority in introducing gaming three years ago was to offer disadvantaged community members access to new technology, and she has been thrilled with the results. “Implementing video-gaming into the library environment has increased memberships, borrowings and has created an enjoyable atmosphere for all ages.”
Earlier this week, the State Library of Victoria hosted an event enabling gaming newcomers to get hands-on with the latest releases and discuss how the games can be used positively in public institutions such as libraries and schools.
For several years the library’s Experimedia section has featured locally developed games.
For the latest gaming news, visit www.blogs.theage.com.au/screenplay
As per the previous post Getting video games on the school agenda and the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development’s video games trial games are well worth investigating as part of a total pedagogy that caters for today’s children and encourages engagement and attendance.
Gaming for learning
May 1st
For anyone who showed an interest in using video games for educational learning, there seems to be a plethora of information around about libraries, schools and gaming. You may have to refer to one or more of these sites to get gaming on your school agenda. Here is a selection of those sites.
The American Library Association has a website named ‘The Librarian’s Guide to Gaming’, which is ‘an online toolkit for building gaming @ your library. There is a lot of information on the site which includes ‘tools and resources’, ‘best practice’ and ‘evaluation’.
American Library Association Gaming Toolkit
Helen Boelens recently let IASL members know about some more video game research that was being carried out. She says, “The research is being carried out by a researcher at the CLU (Centrum Leermiddelen Studie Utrecht – Centre for educational tools Utrecht), together with Kennisnet, which is a Dutch national foundation which supports the use of ICT in education in the Netherlands. The CLU is affiliated with the University of Utrecht, a university which has a strong faculty of education. The study which is being carried is about the effect of serious gaming on young people of upper secondary school age (16 years of age and older) and how these games can be used as educational tools, as part of their education. This research is presently taking place. A final report will be published when the research has been completed.”
Some other discussions about using computer games in schools include Computer games explore social issuesby Kara Platoni. “Students have to win PeaceMaker, a simulation of the Middle East peace process, twice — once while playing as the Israeli prime minister and once as the Palestinian president.”
Patricia Edgar (the founding Director of the Australian Children’s Television Foundation) and Don Edgar have written an excellent paper on the topic of Television, Digital Media and Children’s Learning for the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority which promotes the use of all types of media in learning and teaching.
School change and video games by Mark Wagner, Ph.D. looks at school change through video games.
Learning to game and gaming to learn: videogames in education is a wiki with a lot of links to research that has focused on the relationship between video games and school learning.
Videogames as learning engines by David Warlick is another presentation that looks at the correlation between video games and learning.
Education authorities in Scotland have been leading the way in gaming for learning. Check out Derek Robertson’s Consolarium for more information about how games are being used in schools.
Schoolyard Blitz @ Mooroolbark College
Mar 28th
Last year Mooroolbark College teachers Jodie Tilley and Pennie White developed a wonderful WebQuest. This WebQuest was an award winner in the Education Channel (now Connect) and SLAV WebQuests and Beyond 2008 competition.
- Schoolyard Blitz! home
Jodie explains how the WebQuest came about. ‘The Yarra Valley eLearning Community implemented a 1:2 laptop program for year 7 and 8 in seven schools including Mooroolbark College and was running PD to support the curriculum development needed. I am a maths teacher at Mooroolbark College. I attended a professional development session run by Pennie White on Student Collaborative Projects with an emphasis on WebQuests. Pennie White was a Development Manager for the Yarra Valley eLearning Community and was based at Mooroolbark College at the time. During this session, I became interested in using WebQuests with my class but was pretty disappointed at the lack of Maths WebQuests available. Pennie and I decided to work together to make a Maths WebQuest and this is how ‘Schoolyard Blitz’ was created. Having Pennie as an eLearning Coach in my school enabled this great project to get off the ground. Without the joint expertise and time invested this innovative curriculum would not have come about.’
Jodie says, ‘I was interested in finding a creative way to teach measurement to my Year 7 students. After brainstorming together we decided that students could design an outdoor area of the school. Pennie thought that Google Sketch-up would be the ideal 3D modelling program that students could use to do this. The best thing about this quality program is that it’s free and comes with video tutorials. This meant that we as teachers did not have to fully know how to use the program ourselves!’
Process page
Jodie continues, ‘The WebQuest itself presents a scenario to students where they work in teams of three or four to design an outdoor space of the school with a budget of 100,000. Students worked as architects, accountants, designers and computer model creators on this four-week assignment. Students had to measure the dimensions of the physical space. They had to create a scaled drawing on graph paper and develop their design for the space. They had to use the Internet (with a hotlist provided by the WebQuest) to cost the equipment, furniture and materials needed.’
Evaluation page
Jodie explains, ‘They then used Google Sketch-up to create a virtual 3D model of their design. They had to present their submission using PowerPoint to the rest of the class. I ran this WebQuest with my year seven class with great success. The students were highly motivated and were even seen working on this in their lunchtimes.’
Jodie has also provided a list of VELS Standards addressed in the WebQuest:
- Strand: Discipline Based – Domain: Mathematics – Dimensions: Number, Measurement, Space and Working Mathematically
- Strand: Interdisciplinary Learning – Domain: Information and Communication Technology – Dimension: ICT for Creating
- Strand: Physical, Personal and Social Learning – Domain: Interpersonal Development – Dimension: working and learning in teams
Well done to Jodie and Pennie for creating such an interesting and engaging WebQuest and for winning a Smartboard in the Education Channel (now Connect) and SLAV WebQuests and Beyond 2008 competition. Hopefully this will inspire Victorian educators to submit their Web 2.0 projects to the Connect and SLAV Web 2.0 2009 competition.
Pageflakes @ Casey Grammar School – a winning combination!
Mar 16th
At the end of 2008, Julie Squires and Mark Phillips from Casey Grammar School were awarded the then Education Channel’s (now Connect) ‘Webquest of the Year Award’ for their Webquest ”Earth 2.0 Headquarters – Is it possible to create a completely sustainable planet?”
Earth 2.0: is it possible to create a completely sustainable planet?
Julie, then teacher librarian and Mark, then Head of Humanities decided to collaborate on a project that the year 10s could undertake. Julie explains, ‘I was really motivated to have a go at entering the then Education Channel/SLAV Webquest of the Year Competition (now Connect/SLAV). Although time was short, we got our page together and had a number of students ‘test drive’ and critique the site.’ The students suggested that Julie and Mark add more games and make it ‘more fun’.’
The Webquest has a lot of links, mostly devised by Julie and Mark. These include a wiki, several vokis, trading cards and a blog.
Earth 2.0 wiki
After taking the students ideas into consideration, Julie and Mark completed the site and entered it into the competition. The rest is history! Julie and Mark created their Webquest using the Pageflakes Web 2.0 resource. Congratulations to Julie and Mark for creating a vibrant and engaging piece of work for their students. Their recognition by winning the 2008 Webquest and Beyond! Competition was richly deserved.
