November the 1st marks a range of events around the world. One of them being World Vegan Day. For those that are unsure what vegan means, check The Vegan Society website here for all sorts of answers to those burning questions!
If you are in Auckland check out this event:
In Hamilton there is an event at Gaura @ Waikato University, Saturday 1 November, 8pm til late. Vegan sausage eating competition, live music, heaps of vegan food. – Donation entry!
Today I had the amazing experience of sharing Blog Action Day with my class. What was going to be a morning event turned into an intense day long session exploring the idea of Poverty and what it means.
We started the day with the following video when the students enter the class:
On the student whiteboard I placed the following: Poverty – What does this mean? Define it.
This started the morning off with some great discussions and it gave me the chance to gather the students ideas, thoughts and discussions in a informal setting. By listening to the students I could see a range of misconceptions that they had in regards to what Poverty means. Many of my students believed poverty only happened to children and was only in certain countries. I found they had many misconceptions and certain ideas. Some of them had ideas entirely based upon tv ads. Many believed that poverty didn’t occur in NZ at all (please see dizzy agains blog post in regards to this).
Through discussing all the things we have that we take for granted each day the students became more aware of the basics that they have everyday. An interesting element of this discussion was when they were asked to analyse and prioritise 4 elements that we take for granted – 2 that were given by me – school and food, 2 that they could choose. For many they felt that school was the least important. This intrigued me, so we discussed further and realised that school should be changed to education. This opened a huge discussion as to where and when we are educated. A powerful conversation.
We then discussed the impact that one person can have. Andrew Churches had passed on the link to the girl effect .
This is based on the notion that one person can be powerful amongst many and change the course of history.
The day provided the opportunity to have some powerful and thought provoking conversations. It has been interesting to see the changes in thinking and definitions for these students. The result of the days discussions, research, interactions and thinking can be seen at our class blog Twenty2 .
Blog Action Day is the perfect opportunity to make the blogosphere take thought on one topic, one issue. Through taking part we have had the opportunity to educate many.
October The 15th
Make your voice count.
Thousands of people.
One issue: Poverty.
Join Us.
Songza is a fantastic music jukebox site that is great for use in class and at home. Through Songza you can create your own songlists that also include the video’s for most songs. If you sign up and create an account your playlist is saved and can be played from any computer that you log into.
The students in class have picked this up easily and we are developing a large mix of songs on our playlist. We have tracks ranging from the Jackson 5 to The Feelers to Nesian Mystik onwards. This allows us to create a personal playlist that reflects the musical tastes of my students.
Songza has a simple layout which makes it very simple to use. By searching for a song or artist in the search box a list will appear on the left hand side of all the results. Clicking on a song in this list brings up four options: play, share, rate and add to playlist.
Play: Play this song without adding to your playlist.
Share: This includes four more options – Link, twitter, embed, share with a friend.
Rate: Rate the quality of this recording. This helps Songza weed out bad recordings!
Add to playlist: this will place your song in your playlist.
Once you start to create playlist this becomes the middle list on the page. Songza will remember your list, even if you do not create an account – but only on the same computer. To save your list you must create an account.
Songza also has the ability to mash in with applications such as twitter so that you can send a song straight to twitter. By sending it to twitter it appears as your tweet with the message you set and a link to the song on songza. Great for sharing what you are listening to or your mood!
SiSoMo
Creative communications
Kevin Roberts Saatchi & Saatchi
http://www.sisomo.com/
what are the elements of sisomo – kids fun, music, sound, film etc
Why should you use sisomo? reflects the worlds our students live in
- music, advertising, virtual worlds etc
- engages
- fun
- teachers to teach and learners to learn and create
- helps teachers compete in a screen age
How are you using SiSoMo? Youtube Smartboard aspects
Looking at writing with myst Tim Rylands http://www.timrylands.com/
http://www.timrylands.com/blog/
Samorost http://amanita-design.net/samorost-2/
Beginning Inquiries in different ways
- CD arrival
- You tube videos
- Dove ad’s / getting ready for billboard etc
Tube TV http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/32278
Loading movies to keep on server for students to refer back to
Kerpoof http://www.kerpoof.com/
Kids keen to write – if it interests them What are we doing to hook them in?
Creating characters for Jak & Daxter Publish 2 ways – written and multimedia email to game publisher for feedback
Providing the stimuli for writing – topic anything! Stimuli – through SiSoMo
Presenting story in keynote using animations and sound. e.g. starwars – far far away animation
delicious/fpsnz http://www.timrylands.com/blog/
Zac Mills – > zacmills@mac.com
rbvandijk just tweeted this… just a bit of ULearn!
Making A difference http://twentyfivedays.wordpress.com/
Community of practice
Shifts in paractice due to the way technology connects us
Here comes everybody – clay Shirky http://www.shirky.com/
http://www.amazon.com/Here-Comes-Everybody-Organizing-Organizations/dp/1594201536
when will change happen? what will change?
Transforming
New ways of learning Outside the managerial role – the traditional ways we have learnt previously
Professional Learning Communtities
Networking outside of the educational communities
Making a commitment to the people we work with
Governments moving forward
How do we get there?
Clay Shirky:
We aren’t preparing them to share the right way
Clarence Fischer shirky – collective action
Sharing and connecting
Connecting with others Community of practice
Clarence Fischer Monitoring vs mentoring
21st Century Learners Project http://abpc.wikispaces.com/
K12 Online Conference
We as educators have to embrace and take this on Nothing will change if we don’t understand it for ourselves.
You are not going back to change the way you teach You are changing the way you learn
It starts with us as individuals Are we working in isolation?
Collaborating with like minded people Having powerful conversations
Mutual accountability
Last round of educators that have to decide if we are going to take part in this change.
Our students must embrace the technology as this is the world that is changing
What jobs are being created without tech at the core?
Moving to collaboration Collective action
Morally – what are we going to do? We have a moral responsibility as educators
What is your learning management system doing for you?
Communities that are out there already and are providing these opportunities.
QR Codes Interacting with my environment – Japan etc
Tactile Google Earth http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLconRxEyzc
Busuu.com http://www.busuu.com/
Global challenge Award http://globalchallengeaward.org/
Values Exchange http://www.values-exchange.com/
Mathletics http://www.mathletics.co.nz/
Skoolaborate http://www.skoolaborate.com/
Kids demanding stuff all the time – easy access to learning.
The need for change
- how are the teachers changing?
- are teachers changing?
How are we creating vision?
4 key ideas – globally aware => participate in online/global projects – critical thinkers – independent and interdependent thinkers
Who has this vision? How often is it changed?
Frank Rowther Strategic Foundations
Teachers – online units Principals on board
MLC conversations – students have private names but teachers have access to see who is speaking. Bullying.
anonymity – naming of others policies for this
Learning management systems – use with Year 4 upwards
re-designing continuously
Skoolaborate
Second Life – Teen Grid – Child Protection Safety Check
Built up of Blog (online global units creating by all) Virtual Worlds
Online units of work major focus Skoolaborate built up by all those that participate
Getting the teachers on board
Modules created in areas on SL
Marketing strategies – given linden dollars to market research and create a business that can function based on their own market research.
Mentor students and them create/develop
Kids creating the new MLC building on SL from pdf architects plans
Developing tools – use of google calendar etc
Creating avatars that change social norms/ideas/predjudice etc
The Horizon Report http://wp.nmc.org/horizon2008/ http://horizon.nmc.org/wiki/Main_Page
3D Web Browser – Melbourne http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,25642,24364321-5014239,00.html
The cost of this? How does it work?
Junior students working in Club Penguin
Nings
Skype
Internet Use Policies
Cybersafety – hectors world etc
WOOHOO!
Its finally here! After a great pre-conference with Westley Field the conference has begun.
I will be posting notes on my blog but also here at my jottit account.
Looking forward to catching up with everyone!
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