collaborate, communicate, create
Anne Mirtschin
A chance for your students to get their stories on the ABC and win a trip to the Heywire Summit!
May 22nd
The ABC’s Heywire competition gives students in Years 10, 11, 12, and in tertiary courses,* from rural and regional Australia a chance to ‘tell it like it is’ on the ABC and in Canberra. All they have to do is submit a story to the Heywire website about life in their neck of the woods, or an issue in their community. Stories can be in text, audio, photo or video formats.
Their teaching notes can help you put ABC Heywire in to your curriculum.
Students can enter stories they have already produced in class, or educators can download our teaching notes (developed in partnership with ATOM and VATE) to incorporate Heywire into their curriculum: http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/201105/r768530_6520711.pdf.
The autobiographical storytelling at the heart of Heywire is ideally suited to units such as: identity, belonging, journeys, place, or personal narratives.
Entries close Monday 16 September 2013. Find more information and upload stories at http://www.abc.net.au/heywire.
The ABC selects approximately forty winning stories from around Australia to be produced with the help of
ABC staff and played on ABC Radio, ABC TV or abc.net.au! Winners also score an all-expenses-paid trip to
the Heywire Regional Youth Summit in Canberra in February where they stay at the Australian Institute of
Sport and build their leadership and communication skills. There’s even a reception at Parliament House!
To get an idea of what makes a great Heywire story, check out last year’s winning entries: http://www.abc.net.au/heywire/winners2012.html.
Don’t hesitate to contact ABC Heywire for more information: phone 1800 26 26 46 or email abcheywire@abc.net.au.
Free Online Blogging Webinars
Feb 19th
Regular bloggers will know of the extensive work of Global2 member Anne Mirtschin. Anne’s school is one of the biggest volume users of Global2 and Anne’s On an e-journey with Generation Y has been regularly nominated as an edublogs blog of the year. What you might not know is that Anne also hosts two regular free webinars throughout the school year that brings together teachers and educators worldwide. Tech Talk Tuesdays run from 4pm to 5pm, Melbourne Australia time (gmt+11) whilst the eT@lking series is on Wednesdays 8-9pm, Melbourne, Australia time (gmt +11).
Having been both a participant in a number of these webinars as well as presenter in a couple, I can highly recommend them as a great vehicle for personal professional development. This next week’s offerings are particularly pertinent to bloggers, both newbies and experienced.
On Tuesday the guest presenter is one of the best classroom based bloggers going around, Linda Yollis.
In this session, Linda will share the way that she approaches the all important commenting element of blogging and will also discuss how to get parents involved.
You can read more about Linda and Teaching Commenting and Encouraging Parent Participation here. To access this webinar click here and enter your name then follow the prompts.
On Wednesday Sue Wyatt will will speak about the upcoming global Student Blogging Challenge.
With more than 400 students registered already, Sue will cyberwalk us through the challenge and explain how it all works – the posts, pages etc.
Read more about Sue and the challenge here. To access the webinar click here and enter your name then follow the prompts.
An Exciting Teacher Blogging Challenge!
Jan 8th
- in getting both yourself and your students using 21st century tools like blogs?
- in learning about some new tools you could use in your classes?
- in being a mentor to teachers and educators who are just starting their journey with 21st century technology?
- in improving your blogging, extending your network globally and sharing with others?
Then the teachers’ blogging challenge is for you! This challenge is being organised through edublogs, of which globalteacher and globalstudent blogs is a campus, and starts Monday, January 10th. This 30 day challenge will have two components:-
- Two weekly challenges for those new to blogging
- Two weekly challenges to those who are experienced in blogging
The first topic will be “30 days to kickstart your blogging” and will cover topics such as writing effective blogs posts, embedding media, and building readership. Hence the hashtag for twitter, blogging references etc is #ksyb. Sue Waters and Ronnie Burt will provide the newbie challenges, Anne Mirtschin the advanced challenges and Sue Wyatt will provide a reflective post each week.
Be part of this great challenge and read So you are joining this first challenge! Fun, networking and learning for all!
Blogging isn’t just for Big Kids!
Nov 4th
Being a secondary teacher, I have found blogging with years 7 to 12 to be a powerful tool for learning. However, Kathleen McGeady, who teaches grade 2, will tell us why “Blogging isnt just for Big Kids!” in an exciting webinar on Tuesday, November 9th at 3:45pm (Melbourne, Australia gmt+11). Her class blog, http://2kmblog.globalstudent.org.au/reached 20,000 visitors last week – a great readership to talk about!
Here is the link to join this online session in elluminate. You can enter the room, up to 30 mins prior to its commencement.
In this online webinar, Kathleen will discuss and share the following:-
- How I got started
- Why I got started
- About our class blog
- Benefits of blogging
- The process I follow to introduce students to blogging
- How blogging has flattened our classroom walls (global connections and global projects)
- Some of the web 2.0 tools we incorporate into blogging
- Tips for better blogging
About Kathleen: Kathleen is in her seventh year of teaching at Leopold Primary School on the Bellarine Peninsula. She is currently teaching grade two,is an Ultranet Lead User and has always had a strong interest in ICT which she was able to explore further through Teacher Professional Leave in 2008.
Kathleen’s class blog is a central part of her teaching as are iPod Touches, IWB, global collaborative projects and various Web 2.0 technologies.She writes a blog for educators and, along with Simon Collier, Kathleen began a weekly e-newsletter for teachers in January 2010 called Tech Tools for Teachers.
Blogging – the “door” to digital literacies!
Jul 17th
- word cloud made with http://www.wordle.net
Having blogged for more than three years, I am as passionate about blogging as ever and see it as one of the few online tools that can embrace the both the emerging and establishing digital literacies. Over this time, I am convinced that blogging is the “door” to digital literacy. Digital literacy is defined as “the skills, knowledge and understanding required to use new technology and media to create and share meaning”. It is a true 21st century language.
Although there are times when it could be argued that blogging should be a private space or kept within a ‘walled garden’ of the classroom, blogging should also be ‘out there’ for a global audience to reach. This has been written for an educational setting, but is equally true for all those people who wish to survive and excel in the 21st century.
Blogging is a crucial 21st literacy skill. Why? In the following, I have listed what I personally see as some of the key digital literacy skills and how good blogging can display these skills.
- It creates a personal identity/digital brand/footprint. Blogging puts on view, who we are, what we have been involved in, how we think, what we like, our skills, what we have created, it is our online advertising etc . Opens the door to employment, scholarships, networks etc
- Digital text literacy can clearly be used:- hypertextand hyperlinked language should be visible in blog posts. Using blogs and reading blogs teaches important digital navigation techniques.
- Ethical issues: Cyber safety, plagiarism, digital citizenship, digital commerce, netiquette, reuse ethically are all skills that should be taught, or could be incorporated into blogging. Evidence of avatars, vokis, appropriate usernames, language, original images/media etc
- Base for digital connections – blogs provide the base for virtual contacts to discover, maintain communication, provide base for discovery and continue connections over a long term basis. They are essential when, in an educational setting, firm and lasting connections are to be made with another/other global classroom(s).
- Multi- literacies – Blogs can provide a ‘doorway’ or platform for exhibiting digital media including images, visual data, animations, podcasts, digital movies, music, digital storytelling, podcasting, screen casting. These can be embedded within a post or page or linked to.
- Networking literacy – impact of networking, making friends, what does it mean to comment and be commented on, blog rolls , how to promote blogs and posts etc
- Organisational literacy: Use of tags, categories, blogrolls, #tags, links to commonly used resources, timetable page, embed online calendar
- Global literacies: use of translators, common txt language, multi-media to convey messages etc
- Authenticity – Spam/phish detection in regard to comments and links
- Communication literacy: – blog can and should show evidence of other forms of communication eg video conferencing, global, immersive environments
- Empowerment – empower our students to work on a constructive online presence, give them a positive use of the internet, empower self confidence to overcome any form of cyber bullying.
It is vital to have a good, online presence where others can connect to, communicate and create with, and continue an ongoing, readily contactable network. Blogging provides all this and more! Digital literacies must be taught – let’s blog!
What do you think? What are the key digital literacies? What further digital literacies are there? How does blogging support them?
Online sticky notes
Jan 27th
When sticky notes came in, it made organization a lot easier. Notes could be written and stuck on desks, books, calendars reminding people of all the things that had to be done. These would include telephone messages taken by admin staff etc.
Now online tools offer a similar service. Two that we have used in our classrooms have been stixy and wallwisher. Both offer similar outcomes with a few different features.
Why use in the classroom? Students enjoy using these online tools. They are quick and easy to complete and even the least motivated and skilled will always add something. The teacher can collect opinions, thoughts, ideas etc within 30 mins and it can be visible to all or kept private. Here is an example of a wall put together by my year 7 ICT class in Australia and the year 7 class from Manila in the Phillipines discussing bikes where we live as brainstorming for a potential collaborative project. Another one by the year 7s on “What makes a good teacher!”
Wallwisher
Features
- online notice board that will add images, music, text, video
- nifty feature for viewing videos – although the videos are added within the note, the option to play expands the window for effective viewing.
- user friendly
- easy drog and drag
- can edit at a later stage
- easy to embed code in an online space eg wikis, blogs and presents well. Even large walls can be viewed by using the scroll bars given.
- teacher can set up an account, provide students with link and they can add to wall without requiring a user name and password.
Limitations
- Comes with limited number of themes but cannot change colour of individual notes
- Limited range of backgrounds
- No options for text formatting
- Restricted choice of compulsory images for banner
- Publicize the link and others can add sticky notes
- Limited to 160 characters per note
Stixy
Features
- ability to change colours of the notes – personal customiztion
- choice of text formatting and other great formatting features
- able to add links easily
- option to sign up for a calendar
- photos, notes, todos and documents (max size 50mb) can all be added as separate stixy notes
- not limited to a restricted number of characters
- ability to tag
Limitations
- cannot embed in another online space eg blogs, wikis etc
- cannot add video
- Requires registration by all users
Possible Classroom uses include:-
- gain opinions quickly for simple questions eg What food should the canteen offer?
- get quick feedback on a question eg What do you hope to achieve this term/semester
- collaborate with other classes globally or locally to compare habits, cultures, opinions, ideas etc
- brainstorming
- reminders
You could start the school year by getting students to list their goals etc. Have you used either tool and if so, how have you used it? (Please add as a comment below)
Global handwashing day
Oct 11th
Yr 7s wash hands
This week is global handwashing week. Global handwashing day is on October 15th. My students will be writing a post on this global event and answering these questions as a post:-
-
Why would there be a global handwashing day?
- What purpose would it have?
- Write about good handwashing practise – what is handwashing, why handwash, where…., when…
- Check out the official website and link this to your post
- Form a group of three and take a photo of one or two of your group washing their hands. Add this to the post. Go out one group at a time. Share the photo amongst your group and add this image to your post c
- Think of at least 12 words that come to mind when you think of handwashing. Put these words into tagul to make your word cloud. When finished grab the code and embed it in your post. Make sure that you refer to the site and link it to tagul.
We have asked some of our global connections to email us a photo of them washing their hands so that we can put these up on our noticeboard.
Outcomes
-
Encourages students to think on a global basis.
-
Raise awareness of the impact of the H1N1 flu strain, the effects of the current typhoons, tsunamis etc may have on the increase in disease etc
-
Realise that we are indeed the ‘lucky country’
-
Makes students realise that people throughout the world have similar passions and goals, and if we work together we can start to solve some of the worldwide problems.
Blogging@lunch
Aug 30th
Blogging@Lunch As I do not teach in the primary school at Hawkesdale P12 College, this year, and as we have been involved in a number of projects with the ICT classes that I do teach, our dedicated blogging class time has been greatly reduced this year. Access to computers is another problem, so much so, that we need to look into a 1:1 laptop school program.
To encourage students to continue blogging, a Blogging@Lunch option was given to students at lunchtime on a Tuesday last week.
Despite cold, wintry weather over the last few days, we had a lovely sunny day on the first day it was offered. Despite the fine weather, a number of students came in to the computer lab, to take advantage of the opportunity. There was a range of age groups represented, from newbie 8 year olds through to 14 year olds. This was really pleasing and shows the keen interest students still have in blogging, even after two years of being bloggers. Students checked their comments, responded to these comments or wrote posts. Therefore, the activity will continue on Tuesdays.
nb On the second Tuesday an even larger group of students came in to take advantage of blogging time.
Online quiz generating sites
Jul 13th
An email from MargM (our literacy coordinator) circled our staff requesting potential sites that might be used for generating online quizzes. Here are the responses that she got:-
- Class tools - is a great site for creating free games and quizes. It also gives an embed code for use in blogs, wikis etc (from librarian, Faye) Get the students to make up their own quizzes at the end of a unit of work.
- Quiz zone
- The Millionaire game from this site is highly recommended powerpointgames Tips from Rebecca “ If you go to this site you will find some great templates. I saved ‘Millionaire’ to my network folder so we are using that rather than the internet to access it all the time.”
- Try Languages Online “You can make all sorts of simple games and then download them as zip files do you don’t need to have internet access. Don’t think they are drag and drop activities, but some good ones nonetheless. It says it’s for languages, but it wouldn’t matter what words you put in.”
And finally also from our librarian is:- http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/Directory/- a huge directory with links to all manner of web2.0 tools
Ideas for using these applications in blogging
The teacher –
- embed a quiz into a post for students to complete,
- list class instructions for using one or more of the above sites for class use.
- Get students to add a comment back on the post at the end of the day with their evaluation and use of the quiz maker. (reflective higher order thinking skills)
The student
- get the students to make up their own quiz at the end of the topic. Emed the code in their blog post. They tag, by using a comment ,on the blogs of two or more students in their class to answer their quiz. Those students then comment back when they have completed the quiz with reflective comments.
- Write a tutorial explaining how to use one of the quiz makers for other potential readers to follow.
- Write a review on one of the quizz makers
What students need to know in order to blog!
Jun 6th
Rationale for student blogs:- To give students a platform to connect, communicate and collaborate with an authentic audience that includes students, teachers, parents, local community and a global community.
Blogging is a tool that allows students to make their work look good, shows what they have learned and achieved, gives voice to their ideas and opinions, provides a space for journal entries, allows an area for reflection and a platform for digital portfolios. (See my 20 reasons for students to blog post)
To create student blogs, the following essential content and topics will be covered in my classes.
- Appropriate user names, passwords and blog url
- Writing posts and pages
- Using the dashboard and managing posts
- How to categorise and tag post entries (for personal and search engine purposes)
- How to write reflective and descriptive journal entries
- Appropriate content for school based online blogs
- How to instigate and maintain conversations, using comments
- How to comment appropriately on blog posts, email thank you replies to people who comment on their blogs
- Appropriate behaviours including plagiarism, cyber safety and digital citizenship
- The use of widgets in the sidebar eg website links, categories, clustrmaps, feedjit,
- How to use their blog for reflective purposes.
- How to insert images
- Resizing images using eg irfanview etc
Worthwhile content
- Introduce various web2.0 tools to give an attractive appearance and rich content eg toondoo, wordle, slideshare etc
- How to use and create avatars, vokis etc
- How to add hyperlinks
- Addition of further widgets for effect eg weather pixie, flag counters etc
- How to embed web2.0 tools by using the resultant code
- Work that reflects their own personal identity and learning styles
- How to add or link multimedia content including podcasts, digital stories and movies
- How to add MS Powerpoint using slideshare and other MS Office docs (for PC schools) etc
See also “Features of a good quality student blog“
