The Blogging School

Today I was lucky to be involved in some vigorous discussion with some school staff about the value of blogging, and how we might go about getting teachers to embrace blogging.

This podcast from Tim Tyson on The Blogging School comes from November Learning Podcasts. Tim says:

"Historically, community dissatisfaction with school communication has remained unchanged despite Mabry's best efforts. However, in one year, with the advent of blogging, that level of dissatisfaction has been cut in half. School and community communication is but part of this story. Blogging can also be leveraged to maximize student engagement and academic achievement as well as student collaboration with peers and professionals around the world".

I recommend listening to this. You can find the podcast here.

WiFi learning

The next time you stop to think about learning and teaching directions, make sure you spare a thought for our youngsters.....who are encountering teachers from a very different era! Enjoy!

K-12 Online 2006 Conference

Announcing the first annual "K12 Online 2006" convention for teachers, administrators and educators around the world interested in the use of Web 2.0 tools in classrooms and professional practice.

This year's conference is scheduled to be held over two weeks, Oct. 23-27 and Oct. 30- Nov. 3 with the theme "Unleashing the Potential."

There will be four "conference strands"-- two each week. Two presentations will be published in each strand each day, Monday - Friday, so four new presentations will be available each day over the course of the two-weeks. Each presentation will be given in podcast or screencast format and released via the conference blog and archived for posterity.

THE FOUR STRANDS ARE:

Week 1
Strand A: A Week In The Classroom
These presentations will focus on the practical pedagogical uses of online social tools (Web 2.0) giving concrete examples of how teachers are using the tools in their classes. They will also show how teachers plan for using these tools in the delivery of their curricular objectives.

Strand B: Basic/Advanced Training (one of each per day)
Basic training is "how to" information on tool use in an educational setting, especially for newcomers.
Advanced training is for teachers who have already started using Web 2.0 tools in their classes and are looking for: (a) advanced technology training (eg. how to write your own blog template or hack existing ones), (b) new tools they can make use of in their classes, (c) teaching ideas on how to mash tools together to create "something new," (d) a pedagogical understanding of how technologies such as Weblogs, wikis, podcasts, social bookmarking sites, RSS feeds and others can deepen learning and increase student achievement, or (e) use of assessment tools to measure the effectiveness of Read/Write Web technologies in their personal practice and with their students.

Week 2
Strand A: Personal Professional Development
Tips, ideas and resources on how to orchestrate your own professional development online; the tools that support Professional Learning Environments (PLEs); how to create opportunities to bring these technologies to the larger school community; how to effectively incorporate the tools into your personal or professional practice; or how to create a supportive, reflective virtual professional community around school-based goals.

Strand B: Overcoming Obstacles
Tips, ideas and resources on how to deal with issues like: lack of access to tools/computers, filtering, parental/district concerns for online safety, and other IT concerns while trying to focus on best practice in the use of Web 2.0 tools.

CONVENERS & KEYNOTES
For organization purposes, each strand is overseen by a conference convener who will assist and coordinate presenters in their strand. The first presentation in each strand will kick off with a keynote by a well known educator who has distinguished his/herself and is knowledgeable in the context of each topic. This year's conveners and keynote presenters are:

A Week In The Classroom
Convener: Darren Kuropatwa
Keynote: Bud Hunt

Bud Hunt teaches high school language arts and journalism at Olde Columbine High School in Longmont, Colorado. He is a teacher-consultant with and the Tech Liaison for the Colorado State University Writing Project, an affiliate of the National Writing Project, a group working to improve the teaching of writing in schools via regular and meaningful professional development. Bud is also the co-editor of the New Voices column of English Journal, a publication of the National Council of Teachers of English. A consumer of copious amounts of New Media, Bud blogs and podcasts about his practice and larger educational issues at http://www.budtheteacher.com.

Basic/Advanced Training
Convener: Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach
Keynote: TBA

Personal Professional Development
Convener: Will Richardson
Keynote: Ewan McIntosh

Ewan McIntosh is an educational technologist and teacher of French and German. Based in the Edinburgh area of Scotland he frequently works around the UK and Europe, leading student and teacher workshops and conferences. He is an experienced workshop facilitator in the area of Web 2.0 technologies in education across stages and curricular areas. Ewan blogs at http://edu.blogs.com

Overcoming Obstacles
Convener: TBA
Keynote: Anne Davis

Anne is known for seeing the educational possibilities in the use of weblogs with students in classrooms, having implemented wonderful ideas and weblog projects with students and teachers in K-12 classrooms and at the university level. She currently works at Georgia State University in the Instructional Technology Center in the College of Education as an Information Systems Training Specialist. Her weblog, EduBlog Insights is a co-winner of the Best Teacher Blog in the second international Edublog Awards, a web based event that recognizes the many diverse and imaginative ways in which weblogs are being used within education.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS
We'd like to invite you to submit a proposal to present at the conference. If you have something you'd like to share with the community, both people who are new to blogs and/or experienced bloggers please email the appropriate conference convener above with your ideas. The deadline to submit a proposal (just the proposal, not the finished product) is September 30, 2006. One of us will contact you to finalize the date of your presentation. Your presentation may be delivered in any web-based medium (including but not limited to...podcasts, PowerPoint files, blogs, websites, wikis, screencasts, etc.) and must be emailed to your assigned conference convener one week before it goes live, (see above strands) so that it can be uploaded to the server.

The conference organizers are:
Darren Kuropatwa

Darren Kuropatwa is currently Department Head of Mathematics at Daniel McIntyre Collegiate Institute in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He is known internationally for his ability to weave the use of online social tools meaningfully and concretely into his pedagogical practice and for "child safe" blogging practices. He has more than 20 years experience in both formal and informal education and 13 years experience in team building and leadership training. Darren has been facilitating workshops for educators in groups of 4 to 300 for the last 10 years. Darren's professional blog is called A Difference (http://adifference.blogspot.com).

Sheryl Nusbaum-Beach

Sheryl is a technology/education consultant for the National Education Association (NEA), the Center for Teaching Quality, SRI International, the Virginia Community College System, the Virginia Department of Education, the Miami-Dade Public Schools, the Alabama Best Practices Center and adjunct instructor in the School of Education at The College of William and Mary. She has had several journal articles and book chapters published, been featured on public broadcasting television and radio shows, and is a regular presenter at local, state, and national conferences speaking on topics of homelessness, teacher leadership, virtual community building, and 21st Century learning initiatives. Sheryl blogs at 21st Century Collaborative (http://21stcenturylearning.typepad.com/blog/).

Will Richardson

Will Richardson is known internationally for his work with educators and students to understand and implement instructional technologies and, more specifically, the tools of the Read/Write Web into their schools, classrooms and communities. A public school educator for 22 years, WillÂ’s own Weblog (Weblogg-ed.com) is a primary resource for the creation and implementation of Weblog technologies on the K-12 level and is a leading voice for school reform in the context of the fundamental changes these new technologies are bringing to all aspects of life. Will is the critically acclaimed authour of the best-selling book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Tools for Classrooms (March 2006, Corwin Press).

Conference Tags: k12online, K12online06

If you have any questions about any part of this, email one of the following:
Darren Kuropatwa
Sheryl Nusbaum-Beach
Will Richardson

I will post information about registration as soon as it becomes available.

Reading Cafe Launched by Sue

Susan H has been working hard at her College! Here's her report.

Reading Cafe launched.


Each fortnight our Library becomes a hive of reading activity as students from years 7-10 share book titles, reading experiences, read, eat their lunch & have a drink & sweet treat provided by the library.

The gains in literacy, confidence and having a good time are already evident within most English classes & certainly in fiction borrowing in the library generally.

The CEO Literacy Book Week Grant 2006 will certainly further add to our fiction collection, as most members of the Reading Cafe have provided wish lists of book titles.

We also hope to be able to get visiting Authors such as Catherine Jinks, Stephen Herrick and Morris Gleitzman to speak to the students at lunch.

Booksellers such as Bloomin' Books Kate and Jenny from Megalong Books at Leura are coming to speak to the students.

Short book reviews are going to be published from the Cafe on the school intranet.

The photos show the students catching a bit of the reading pleasure, even an artistic Year 12 student has got involved by designing Thelma, our Reading Cafe Mascot.

Online guide to "primary sources"

You might like to consider this on-line guide to primary sources (materials from or directly related to the past).
http://www.awesomestories.com/

It is free for libraries, schools and educators world wide and links to more than 100,000 sources at national archives, libraries, universities and government web sites.

It has an alphabetical subject index
http://www.awesomestories.com/fast_find/index.shtml of more than 325 pages, including listings of video clips,
http://www.awesomestories.com/fast_find/v/3.shtml

You just have to request a free membership using this form.
http://www.awesomestories.com/group_signup.php

Internet and Information Skills

This year we have had two professional development days for Parramatta Diocese teachers and teacher librarians, presented by James Herring of Charles Sturt University on the topic Enabling Curriculum through Information Literacy and ICT.

Here is some information about James own book:
The Internet and Information Skills: A guide for teachers and school librarians

As a result of recent developments in teaching and learning, teachers and educators are being encouraged through their training to use ICT to develop more innovative teaching methods, and students are frequently required to use electronic information resources as part of their assignments.

Networked internet access is now the norm in both primary and secondary schools, and is available not only in the school library but in computer suites and classrooms. Increasingly both teachers and school librarians recognize that information literacy is a key skill needed by today's pupils, who are tomorrow's workers in the knowledge economy. Thus the need for students to become effective information users is paramount.

This new book provides teachers and school librarians with the ability to exploit the internet effectively both as a learning and a teaching resource; in particular to improve their skills in accessing the most relevant parts of the internet to improve their teaching and provide suitable information sources to aid students' learning. It offers valuable insights into information literacy skills and provides help with, and examples of, the most effective ways of teaching information skills to students.

Available at the CEO Library. Contact Erika or Lisa on 9840 5737 or 9840 5735 to borrow a copy.

Queensland's Online Literature Festival will run on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for three weeks, August 28 - September 14, 2006.

Many Australian children's authors and illustrators will be available to chat online with students.
Authors include RL Stine (Goosebumps Series), James Moloney, Nick Earls, David J Smith (overseas author)...with more authors to be advertised shortly.....

Registration is now open!!!

Please note: They now have a waiting list facility, if a session is full. Put yourself on the waiting list, in case a school cancels. If a chat is found to be popular (waiting lists have more than three schools on) then they may be able to contact the authors to offer extra sessions, to those on the waiting list.

Learning at the British Library

The British Library's new Learning website is devoted to promoting the wonders of the book, and to opening up the mysterious and magical qualities of the Library's collection.

Virtual visitors can browse a treasure trove of fascinating texts and images: from medieval banquet menus to ancient Iranian myths, from 18th century ship's logs to Russian Constructivist book covers, from Victorian freak show posters to WWII maps.

There are over a thousand texts on the site, as well as wonderful audio recordings from the Sound archive, and a range of multimedia elements. The site is divided into six themed sections, making navigation easy and enjoyable. In launching the new website, the Learning team aims to bring the British Library's world renowned collection to a wider audience, and to inspire learners of all ages. The material provides myriad opportunities for personalised learning, individual research projects and classroom activity

Peter Scott's Library Blog

Plagiarism Seminar

This seminar is intended for teachers and teacher librarians who wish to develop further understanding of the issues in preparation for the NSW Board of Studies Program HSC - All My Own Work.

The Keynote session will be presented by Dr Joy McGregor from Charles Sturt University, whose research into 'plagiarism' makes a significant contribution to our overall understanding.

The program includes the following topics and speakers in this order:

• Working with others (Judy O'Connell, CEO)
• Acknowledging sources (Di Laycock, Barker)
• Scholarship principles and practices (Colleen Foley, DET)
• Copyright (Debbie Leatham, Kings School)
• Plagiarism (June Wall, Riverview).

Organised by the Australian School Library Association. Flyer and registration form is available here.

BOOK IN 2 BOOK WEEK 2006

Thanks to Halina Levenets, Teacher Librarian at St Bernadette's School for finding and sharing this blog with us.

BOOK IN 2 BOOK WEEK 2006
This blog is for school children to celebrate literature in 2006 in a different manner. We will look at a number of titles that have been shortlisted by the Children's Book Council of Australia, and the children will record their thoughts on the books we share.

Perhaps some of your students would like to add some comments to this blog?

Learning Technology Forum

Wednesday and Thursday this week saw Learning Technology teachers from primary and secondary schools in the Parramatta Diocese gather for a two-day forum.

The presentations from this forum will be made available via podcast - and I hope provide the links for you when they are available .

The forum was opened by Kevin Jones, and as Head of Curriculum he was able to provide some clear insights to 'set the scene'.

Kevin focussed on the beliefs that underpin/enable/epitomise 21^st century learning, and the approaches that will enable (if not ensure) quality 21^st century learning. Some of the key points were about the beliefs that must drive our understanding and the staffroom approaches that help us be more effective.

The Beliefs
Learning in the 21^st century is about

• student “centredness”.
• Student ownership
• Student choices
• Student responsibility

The Approach
Collaborative work practices (staffroom approaches) will help us meet the learning needs of our students.

These practices must include use of technology that enhances collaborative work practices for:

• Programming Organisation of assessment
• Marking to standards
• Evaluation
• Cross-curricular approaches

As Kevin explained, "Our approaches and practices have to reflect our beliefs about individualised learning". "We need to think about our own approach" "We need to think about what our current practices indicate about our beliefs about learning".

Then we will engage more effectively in how to use the tools.

I followed with a presentation on Engaging the google generation through Web 2.0. For this session I drew from the article of the same title published in SCAN, Vol 25 No 3 August 2006.

International School Library Day

The International School Library Day committee invites you to
consider participating in activities to celebrate this globlal celebration of school
libraries.

Visit the International School Library Day 2006 webpage here.

Time is running out to sign up for the Bookmark Project. This is a worldwide project involving students creating a bookmark which will be sent to another school on or before October 23. Deadline for matching will be September 8. After that day, no further schools will be matched. Sign up now. More information is available here.

Don't forget to share what you are planning for International School Library Day with others. You can submit your ideas at here. Your submissions will be available for others to view soon!

Don't wait, share your ideas now.

Rick Mulholland
Teacher-librarian (Surrey, BC, Canada)
International School Library Day Coordinator (IASL)

Enabling Curriculum - Learning at Emmaus

Today we have a group of teachers and teacher librarians gathered for the day to work with James Herring on Information Literacy and ICT.

Participants have brought a range of experiences and expertise to contribute to the discussions today. I am blogging this event during the first session after lunch - Advanced searching and search engine design.

Participants are exploring advanced searching techniques in Google after discussion of options and possibilities when searching the web for learning materials. Try using Google to do a domain search of the BBC site. Google provides a powerful search tool to use for site searches. Don't forget, it is possible to search for specific file formats such as word or powerpoint.

Try this in the Advanced search:

Type in year 7 discovering democracy. Now go to the Domain box and type in det.nsw.edu.au (note that you don't need www). Now click Google Search. You will see year 7 discovering democracy site:det.nsw.edu.au so Google is searching for your information only in that site and nowhere else. This demonstrates the way that complex sites can be searched using the power of Google.

James explains that Google is now the most popular and most used search engine across the world, but we shold not always restrict our searches to Google, even using advanced searching. After exploring Google, participants then worked with a range of other metasearch engines, learning about the variations, and discovering the particular features of visual search engines such as Kartoo , a visual meta search engine. Participants also explored Clusty and Mooter.

Developing advanced searching techniques and understanding the myriad of ways to search for information is a vital part of our skillset. We need to share this information with our teachers and each other.

Thank you to Sharon and Emmaus staff for hosting a lovely day!

Educaton au Seminar - changes in learning

Friday 4 August I am attending a seminar hosted by Educationau. I was spotted when I arrived looking for a powerpoint for my tablet PC, so that I could blog the event. I was provided with a 3M wireless card for computer, and away I went.

The whole seminar is interactive and being published in various ways on the web.

The ideas are not new. But for the group that we have here today it is a strong opportunity to share and discuss, and after listening to key speakers take time to reflect on the directions we are going with our Web 2.0 technologies.

Collect the podcasts here.

Go to Technoratic and search the tag "eduaueventaug06" to see what is written.

Go to these blogs...
Learning with the Fang
Al Upton and the miniLegends
HeyJude

RSS blog is available here.

IFLA Section - School Libraries and Media Centers

From the School Libraries section of the International Federation of Library Associations:

The IFLA Section School Libraries and Media Centers recently added a school library advocacy kit to its webpages. You can find the document here: http://www.ifla.org/VII/s11/pubs/s11_AdvocacyKit.html

In the document you will find links to resources you can use to promote school libraries with you institution, association, or (educational) authorities. The advocacy kit supports the Ifla/Unesco School Library Manifesto and the Ifla/Unesco School Library Guidelines. This document is only a start.

Take a little time to read through the site, and in particular take note of International Research Links and other important statements.

The Alexandria Proclamation on Information Literacy may be accessed here.