Free eBooks and Asimov

You can blame Asimov for my science fiction collection of toys, books and props. If it wasn't for Foundation and the Robot Stories I don't think I would be the owner of a Darth Vader helmet or a replica light sabre.

You have to admit the guy could see into our near future - have a look at this video and see what I mean- the first few seconds are important.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZmFEFO72gA

As one of the commenter's on YouTube said - Kahn Academy! (see post below).

I can think of many more examples. And this leads nicely onto this RSA animate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U


Then there has been the explosion in my state of the use of iPads in education and the "need" for eBooks or more importantly eTextbooks. Publishers are scrambling to figure out how to make money from this but they are going to find it hard with the e-books directory.

Richard Byrne has done it again!

Image by beth69358 via FlickrRichard Byrne is one of the giants od Educational teachnology blogging. His blog Free Technology for Teachers has the best name for what he really does. Not only does he find the best stuff, he also knows how it can be used in the classroom. Added to that he has written up some of the best guides to using different technology in the classroom. And he still finds time to actually teach.


He has just released a collaboration of some of my favourite bloggers including Kelly Tenkely & Larry Ferlazzo who are both on my blogroll. This online book is full of not just resources but the knowledge and experience of these educators.

For access to the free book - click here

Free Teaching videos from the UK

I just came across this from one of my linked in groups and I'd thought I would show you. It brings up a bit of nostalga for me, as this is a an all British production, and it looks like a lot of the classrooms I used to teach in.

o2Learn

O2 is a communtication company (Mobile phone, internet) and have set up a moderated "teachertube" like space for teacher to put up video lessons. The difference is the students rate the leesons and there is a 2000 pound prize at the end of November for the best lesson. Interesting proposition.

The videos are moderated and then put into learning areas, where students can browse the list looking for revision topics.

Making your own iwb content

Seems I've taken a holiday from my blog...

Unfortunately I wasn't on holiday... I've been working harder than ever before at my current job as well as a few home projects which I'll show later when I get them a bit further along.

I had an author contact me recently - she was looking for a way to create here own interactive whiteboard resource to go with some picture books that she has written.

Now back in the day I used to use Authorware, Director and Flash to generate interactive multimedia, but that is now over 10 years ago and I have not kept up my skills.

So I went on the hunt for easy to use cheap/free tools to create stand alone multimedia packages that included basic computer based training stuff like quiz es, cloze, matching and drag and drop type activities.

So here is what I found

CourseLab - This is the system we are going to use. Nice interface, no coding if you don't want to and easy to use. Best of all it's free.Image via Wikipedia

LAMS - more server based but again easy to use and set up - Free too

Xerte - More coding than what I would like - but would be really good once you get your head around.

eXe - Easy to use but not enough "fun" stuff for our purposes (storybook), but for secondary and tertiary courses this is very quick and easy. Again free.

ARS/SRS in Higher Education

Queensland University of Technology has released a "Take5" video on the use of keepads in their Business studies courses. It's nice to see one of our clients working with the technology to get better outcomes for their students.

A lot of what she says can be used within a primary and seconday based environment as well.

Lowering the costs of your IWB investment.

Image by AV-1 via Flickr

As part of my job, I not only present at workshops and conferences but produce white papers and material that outlines our products to educate our customers and persuade them to consider our services. It is not an easy job. I write more now than I ever did in school.

I'm lucky that I support product that I believe in and use on a daily basis, but it is still hard not to come across as a "used car salesman".

So for your edification and review I present my latest offering currently in draft. I've cut out the marketing bit at the end, case studies and the call to action, as I know large percentage of the people who read this are from outside Australia. I still think this is a good explanation about the current IWB market and the choices that can be made.

Any comments and suggestions are gratefully accepted and encouraged.

How to Put an Interactive Whiteboard Solution in Your Classrooms for Half the Cost.

You know that an interactive whiteboard in the right hands can engage, enthuse and inspire classrooms of kids. Research shows that using this type of technology in the classroom effectively reduces behaviour problems and increases interest and engagement of students.

But

They are expensive to buy and install, you have other things to spend your meagre budget on and you know that without the right support they could easily become an expensive white elephant in your school.

This education white paper examines how schools across Western Australia have halved the cost of their IWB investment and now have more engaged students and teachers who are confident daily users of the technology. Schools in the southern corridor from Safety Bay to Dawesville, both public and private, have reduced their costs while still providing their teachers with world class equipment and training.

The Three Elements of any Interactive White Board (IWB)

With any IWB installation there are three key pieces of equipment that make the magic happen, the good news is that you probably already have one.

1. The computer – Either a school desktop or a teacher laptop. Make sure if you are using a desktop that it has two VGA outputs, one to the projector and one to a screen.

2. The projector – Don’t skimp on this, get the best projector for the job as it will be what determines what the students see (or not see) and whether the system will get used or not. Do your research about ANSI Lumens, contrast ratios and the merits of regular, short throw and ultra short throw. Don’t forget about lamp lifetimes and replacement costs. Try and get the longest warranty you can.

3. The IWB system – This is what turns pen or finger movements into essential mouse movements and clicks. The interesting thing is that there are four different types of systems to choose from in Australia.

• Resistive — Resistive touchscreens are composed of two flexible membranes coated with a resistive material and separated by a thin gap. When contact is made to the surface of the screen, the two sheets are connected together, registering the precise location of the touch. This technology allows one to use a finger or a stylus on the board.
 

• Electromagnetic — These interactive whiteboards feature an array of wires embedded behind the board surface interacts with the stylus tip to determine the (X,Y) coordinate of the stylus. Styli are either active (requiring a battery) or passive (no batteries or other power source). In other words, the sensors in the board react and send a signal to the computer when there is contact with a magnetic pen.

• Capacitive — similar to the electromagnetic boards, the capacitive type works with an grid of wires embedded into the board. In this case the wires interact with fingers or a stylus touching the screen. The interaction between the different wires and the tip of the finger or stylus is measured and calculated to a coordinate.

• Ultrasonic and Infrared — When pressed to the whiteboard surface, the marker or stylus sends out both an ultrasonic sound and an infrared light. Two ultrasonic microphones receive the sound and measure the difference in the sound's arrival time, and triangulate the location of the marker or stylus. This technology allows whiteboards to be made of any material, but requires a suitably adapted active dry-erase marker or stylus. These systems can be retrofitted to existing whiteboards.

Installation
Installation is one of the ‘Hidden costs’ of interactive whiteboards, something that is only thought about after the decision has been made. Sometimes this can mean the price you were expecting and what ends up coming out of the budget can be two very different things.
There are two things to pay for when installing an IWB system.
- The electrician / installer, sometimes you will need two because of the physical size of the board (essentially doubles the cost)
- The cables and hardware required to make all the connections between all three elements.
- Don’t forget shipping. Sometimes delicate boards need specialised delivery arrangements.

Training
Just ask any principal from any school. If you don’t provide the right support when rolling out new technology that has the potential to change pedagogy then you might as well be burning your money. Staff training is crucial to making the most out of your investment, and again there are two types of training you should invest in.

- Technical training – this need to be done as soon as possible- even before the installation. This helps teachers feel confident that they can use the system to do basic tasks, and to experiment.

- Pedagogy training – Once you have the technical training done you can move on to the real reason you went out and bought the things. Changing the way teachers teach. Best done in workshops with moderated peer teaching with some key motivating ideas that can form part of some action research for your teachers to reflect on how they can use the technology to improve the outcomes for their students.

Once all this is done
You are finished; you have fund raised, procured, installed and trained. How much has that cost you per classroom? For most schools this figure hovers around the $10 000 mark; a big investment especially if you are in a big school and want to set up lots of rooms. Obviously some people are going to miss out. Some will be happy about that, as they only have a couple of years until they retire, but others will be very disappointed. How do you choose who gets this in their classroom and who does not?

Reducing the cost
So how do you bring the cost down to something more manageable? Let’s look at the three components.
Computer? – You already have that
Projector? – As discussed this is something you don’t want to skimp on. Make sure it is a 3LCD.
IWB system? – This is where you can make your savings, and your choices here you can also reduce your installation costs.

A regular fixed Interactive whiteboard (Resistive, Electromagnetic, or Capacitive) by its nature be contained within a specially made board. This means they are limited to the size that they are manufactured to and are expensive to produce, ship and install. Minimum price off the government contact for a small interactive board is $1720.

The Ultrasonic and Infrared system is different, and is the system used by Luidia’s eBeam product to uses the existing whiteboard as the surface and be accurate to 1.1mm on a board up to 3 meters across. The unit is about as big as an adult hand and attaches to the whiteboard surface through magnets, suction cups or permanently attached via bolts or screws. This means that the production, shipping and installation costs are drastically reduced. Permanently attaching the unit to a board with the required cables and end points usually costs $120, and the price of each unit is less than $900 ex GST. This device can give you a working area of up to 90" diagonally, more than most fixed boards.


A Note about installation
Some schools have further reduced or eliminated their costs for installation by using either expert parent or staff help. Capel Primary School has put in a large amount of eBeam installations through a couple of weekend busy bees coordinated and led by their principal. We can supply full instructions and specifications if you feel you have the expertise within your school community.

Training
As noted above training is the follow through that needs to happen if a successful roll out of new technology is going to happen. Unfortunately many of the fixed board salesmen are from an audio visual technology background – not an education background. So their technical training could be great, but the application of that training into an educational environment can be lacking.

Make sure that the vendor you get your solution from, has staff onboard who have experience at the chalkface. People who can successfully meld good teaching practise with good technology. This is where you will get the greatest effect from your investment in interactive whiteboard technology.

Training also needs to be available in a variety of formats to suit the needs of your staff. A quick one hour workshop or even half day is not going to be for everyone. Just like your students your staff have different needs and learning requirements, so will require different delivery.

Face to face – This is usually what you get as part of your purchase a 1 – 3 hour presentation where staff don’t get much time with the board and it is all just a bit of show and tell.

Off site workshops – The opportunity of sending your staff to neutral ground helps them to see the bigger picture and have extended time to discuss test and play with the technology and how they can use it. These are great time to network with other teachers and see how they are using the technology in their classrooms.

Online – Online recorded video delivery is not to be discounted. Here the learner has total control, they can stop and pause, jump to relevant points or get training at point of need at their our place and pace. One of You Tubes’ fastest growing genres is the tutorial, instructional videos that are accessed by thousands of people.

Guides and Manuals – believe it or not some people do actually read these. Make sure your vendor can make them available to all your staff.

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The kids are escaping!!! You'd better run with them!!!

Image by vanberto via Flickr

Recently there has been a big debate on echalk about the role of technology in schools and that very soon there will be a major paradigm shift in the way that our students access technology and information... and therefore how and what we teach. And the thing that frightens teachers and administrators is that there is not much they can do about it.

It was mentioned that schools should provide access to resources that are not normally available to kids at home. industrial kitchens, workshops with lathes and welding gear, theatres with lighting and sound systems - but when they come to our "computer" classes we give them something less powerful than the machine they have at home (including some consoles) and more locked down that at home. No wonder they are leaving computer science classes in high school and acting up in primary computer lessons.

The shift may look something like this...

3G and 4G wireless broadband will become cheaper, have more coverage and better bandwidth.
Internet enabled devices such as netbooks, iPads, PADD's and Phones will become cheaper than textbooks. And how are you going to know if they have a 3G or 4G card installed?


Therefore students will be able to access information unfettered by the school network from devices that are not owned by the school. That means all control is lost by the school and the administration - but does that mean they lose responsibility?

So what would be the point of providing school infrastructure such as computers or laptops as well as the network that runs them... apart from some specialised equipment for graphics video production or music.

What this does mean is that the Internet will be unfiltered for these students... Very scary for administrators - or an easy hand off - a perfect NMP (Not My Problem)?

So we are going to have to start teaching how to use the real Internet - not some sanitised version. It's similar to road safety - we are going to have to teach the students how to cross the road, ride a bike and eventually drive - something that has the possibility it may harm them or kill them.

School is real life, it is not a dress rehearsal or training for real life. When our students walk out the door of our classroom we cannot be the loco en parenti for everywhere they go. So we have to give them the skills to live in the jungle. One by one kids are escaping into the jungle... have you taught them the survival skills they are going to need?

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Free 3D IWB

Image via Wikipedia

I recently (re)posted an article that ended up in a national educational guide. I got commented by "Knaus" to say that most of my ideas could easily be done without an IWB and just the projector.

I've looked at the post and Knaus is right... my intention with the article though was to break teachers out of the whiteboard software that comes with the board and to explore other ways that you can use all or parts of the technology that are in your classroom when you do get an IWB thrust upon you.

Knaus also expressed that an IWB is expensive - and as a good Keepad Interactive employee I have to point out that the eBeam from Luidia that we sell can sometimes be a better solution both cost and portability wise.

So here are some IWB 3D applications.

Google Sketchup - This works really well with an IWB, not only is it quick an easy to create three dimensional objects, you can use your IWB to interactively walk around your newly created 3D scene. Add the annotation function of most IWB software and you can take snapshots and annotate your virtual world. I use Sketchup all the time for my IWB demonstrations, and people are constantly amazed at how easy it is to use, and how effective it is. Design and technology teachers love it for making quick sketches, as do Maths teachers who see the value in 3D shapes.

Digital Library of Mathematical Functions - This is one for the high school maths teachers. This site host one of the most important mathematical guidebooks. Interspersed is 3D VRML and x3d files that show complex mathematical functions in 3D helping students to visualise Surface functions.


Edusim - Designed specifically for use with IWB systems, EduSim is a 3D environment where students walk through, exploring 3 objects and finding interfaces with images, and live webpages. But most importantly it is a multi user environment so you can have more than one student in the virtual world. They can communicate and collaborate in a worlds that can easily be controlled by the school. One of the great things is the ability to create something in Google Sketch up and then import it into EduSim.

Google Earth - Again you can take your models built in sketchup and post them into Google Earth. Google earth games are something you might like to try on your IWB


WorldWind - Similar to Google Earth, but with different layers and no streetview. This is more of a scientific program. By downloading the anyglyph plugin you can use those old fashioned 3D red/blue glasses to make your globe float out from the board. - Real 3D in your classroom. This is one of the program I use regularly to show off how to integrate an IWB into teaching without using the software that comes with the board.

Blender - Now we are getting into the heavy stuff. Blender is a fantastic Open Source 3D editing environment, used to make games, movies and 3D models from scratch. A steep learning curve, but I've taught kids how to use some of the basics in after school classes (demonstrating on an IWB) and they have gone on to make some amazing things in 3D.

DAZ - Bryce - If you want to create realistic and hyper realistic natural looking 3D environments, then this free download is what you need. Way ahead of it's time when released the is a great way to produce ray traced scenes easily. I bought (yes I sometimes buy software) Bryce2 back in 2001, left to go to the UK and other places. I downloaded it recently and got right back into the swing of it within half an hour. Really easy to use 3D software that works through the use of Boolean shapes and visual logic. This works great on an IWB, as you work with a range on onscreen tools rather than key presses like Blender.

DAVID - I've only come across this recently but I can see a great use for it in education already. David is free software that lets you create a 3D scanner out of 2 pieces of cardboard, a laser line level and an ordinary web cam. The results in the galleries are extraordinary, imagine being able to scan student's sculptures and projects straight into the computer - then manipulating them on your IWB.

Build AR ARive - Both of these programs help you to create 3D augmented reality items. Great for augmented popup books. I still haven't figured out how to do the video pop up but I will get there one day.

Rep-Rap / Cupcake CNC - Cheap to make and easy to build (apparently) these are homebrew 3D printers. I don't think it will be long before you will see 3D printers at your local Staples/Officeworks store. If you can't wait for one in your classroom though, they have all the blueprints and parts you need. Although not something to do on your IWB specifically it could be a great way to brainstorm and run a build project with your class if you are that way inclined. Could you imagine the conversation at home -

"So what did you do at school today?"
"Well we are starting to build a 3D printer that can print out any 3D object we have a file of or design."

If you have any more free 3D programs you you with your IWB, please leave me a comment I would love to hear from you.

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Myschool website

Image via Wikipedia

At the beginning of this year the Australian Government via ACARA Launched the Myschools website. a league table of all the schools in Australia, both public and private - based on one metric - the National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy, a series of tests given to year 3, 5 7 and 9 students in May.

To say it is a little unfair would be understating problem. One metric on one week determines the score for an entire school. The test is based on the New South Wales Curriculum (each state has it own curriculum - National Curriculum is coming this year).

The tests are mostly (except for the writing) multiple choice, and the mathematics test has almost the same amount of reading as the comprehension tests, severely limiting ESL students who my be capable of mathematics but can't comprehend the way the question is worded.

The website does integrate information like demographics but the format is difficult to read if you just want to get an overall feel for the school.

Max Cruise wrote an excellent article in Rotarian Life and has given permission for me to copy it into this blog. He has an excellent idea.

Finally, thanks to myschool.com, we can see how badly our local school is performing. We got a NAPLAN average of 301! How bad is that? Actually, it's hard to tell because nobody knows what it means.

Then, even when the score was adjusted for ICEA RAW (although we don't know what this means either), it was only 108, which can't be good, can it?

Humans are funny. If we can rank something or categorise it, we will.

However, it is difficult to see the advantage this latest bureaucratic offering offers us in dealing with disadvantage - ostensibly the reason for myschool - since we know where the disadvantage lies anyway.

Nevertheless, we can now see our rank, thus enabling us to blame someone other than ourselves for our children's failings.

Fantastic! But why stop at schools? Why not a myschool thingy for all public services?
Lets start with politicians; they would surely welcome mypollie.com to weed out under performers. We could use the Commonwealth Research Assessing Politician's Laziness and Niceness scores. Adjusted for disadvantaged electorates, such as those with National Party members.

Better yet, how about a myparents.com? Schools could see who the under performing parents are so that they can be sacked or retrained or given more resources.

Hang on as with schools, we already know where the under performing parents are, so lets give them some dosh and cut out the middle-plan.

As with the current obsession with metrics and KPI's in the corporate world - National testing is not going away... and even if teachers strike on test days (which is what a lot of teachers are planning) there will be some sort of public ranking.

I just wish is was more broad based than one series of tests on one week. We don't assess students on one test for their reports, we take into account a range of assessment tasks as well as behaviour and improvement. It reduces 'gaming" the system and assessments can be made in a range of contexts.

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Ten things to do with your (hopefully TurningPoint) Student Response System

So you are thinking about a student response system (or you already have one), and you are wondering if it is a good investment. You may have seen it in use at a conference and thought –
“This has possibilities in my school or classroom.”

But if you are looking for ideas; here we have my top ten out of the hundred or so uses for the Student Response System from TurningPoint.

1. Use the conditional branching tool to show a class based choose your own adventure story. This was one of the ways I got my year five boys into reading, “pick a path” and “choose your own adventure” stories. Using TurningPoint you can create these stories in a power point complete with multimedia, and the whole class chooses the direction of the story. The real power of this is when you get the student to write, collaborate and create their own. This lets them brainstorm and explore plots and characters rather than just complete a linear progression of draft, draft, final draft, good copy.

2. Collect data quickly for discussion of statistics, use the mean, mode, and variance tools to discuss what they mean. Statistics and measurements abound in our daily lives, so it is a good idea and is part of a maths program to discuss these measurements of statistics. Unfortunately sometimes gathering the data for this exercise takes up a large amount of time – I’ve seen a class go out and count cars in the car park and then count cars as they go past for a whole maths lesson. Using the SRS students can quickly produce data sets based on the answers from the peers in their class. This gets collected in seconds and the data analysis can be completed quickly and efficiently, giving more time to discuss what they mean and how they are calculated.

3. Facilitate peer teaching with paired questions that shows the difference between two answers. Jeffery Stanger is a great leader in the use of this technique, especially with student response systems like TurningPoint. By asking paired questions and using the peer instruction technique students can achieve a deeper understanding and therefore achieve better recall during assessment by being able to learn from and teach their peers.

4. Get the audience involved in a debate by using the moment to moment slide to do “the Worm”. As we will see during the year (in Australia) audience responses to public debates are very important to our politicians. Why not use that technology in a class or even interschool debate where your audience can feedback how effective the debaters are at persuading the audience to their point of view. The moderators and adjudicators can then use this information as part of their calculations of score for effectiveness. This can then be analysed through the report function so that the debaters can find areas to improve their delivery.

5. Use them at P+C meetings and parent/teacher nights to identify areas of concern and to celebrate positive programs in the school. Sometimes involving parents in the school community can be tough especially if you have a couple of dominant power players in the existing mix. By introducing TurningPoint to meetings and information nights the school gets honest and representative feedback from parents in a non threatening way that lets every parent have their say on an equal weight.

6. Teach time and project management by using the ranking wizard or the weighted response slides. Both of these tools can be used to help students manage projects and priorities both in their academic and personal lives

7. Use the system to have a “peoples vote” at events such as science fairs and exhibitions that the wider public are invited to. This engages the community around the school and gives them a feeling of inclusiveness in the school.

8. Put one keypad on each table at a fundraising quiz night and do all your questions through the system – with no marking and automatic leader boards it gives you more people to help in other aspects frees them completely to be part of the experience. I have helped with a range of these nights and both the audience and the committee members involved love the ease of use of the system. If you use the speed scoring you reduce the effect that the use of smart phones have on the outcome of the event.

9. NAPLAN (National numeracy and literacy tests for Australian students) test preparation and data gathering – pre test your students on last years NAPLAN test to find areas of concern and address them before the actual test. Using a student response system means you get the results instantly and can drill down to individual students or merge data sets to find whole cohort patterns. Using this technology can also reduce student (and teacher) test anxiety when the test comes around as the students are used to the format and the types of questions that they will encounter.

10. Prior knowledge probing – don’t just assume, ask. You may be surprised what your new batch of students know and don’t know. By using an SRS to gather data, you can work from their strengths and identify areas where concentrated instruction may be helpful. It’s also a great way for new students to get to know each other without singling students out. You can then use that data to form a profile of your class.

Like any tool in the classroom whether it be an IWB or a pencil, there are great ways to use a SRS such as TurningPoint, just as there are ways to use it badly that makes no real positive difference to the outcomes of the students. But I encourage you to use your creativity and your professional know how to get the most out of this technology that might just help you understand what is going on in their heads.

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The teacher, the System Admin and the Manager of Information Services

I know what it is like for many computer teachers in small schools where you do all of the above and then some... I remember getting help desk calls from parents of my students. (Well we were 60kms from the nearest computer store).

So if you are juggling hats as well as budgets there may be a few free tools out there that may be of use to you. Especially if you have admin privileges.

iTalc - I've written about iTalc before - like many tools it can be used for good or evil (webcams recording kids at home - shame on you!!!). iTalc lets you monitor students screens, take them over or even shut them down all from your teacher workstation. Very helpful for working with a teacher who can't seem to connect to a printer.

TightVNC - one of the components of the above italc. TightVNC hooks you into other computers that are not on your desk. I used to use it to control my servers remotely when I was a system admin.

Clonezilla - the open source version of Norton Ghost, where you can set up one computer and roll that setup image to hundreds of others. It also has that magic - redo from start option when you can't figure out how a teacher or students has mucked up a computer so badly that you just have to rebuild it.

The Dude - A free network layout discovery tool. Great for system admins who have a semi tech savvy staff to work with, who occasionally add in new parts of a network without telling you. Also great for that post planning and documentation thing that you have to do sometimes.

OK so these are for the techs. Have you got any other tools in your tool kit? Please let me know.

A.P.

FOG - Another open source cloning/imaging system that helps you role out a standard operating environment across many computers - recommended by Brian B - check out his blog - This Swiftly Tilting Planet

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Educational Technology - IWB's

eBeam Montage" style="border: medium none ; display: block;">Image by eBeam via Flickr

OK I know that this article from Bill Ferriter published in "Teacher Magazine" is just one guy, but it is doing the rounds and I feel I should respond. "Why I Hate Interactive Whiteboards"

First off I have to agree with his point about expense - IWB's generally are very expensive. (warning! employer plug). That's why I like selling the eBeam solution because of the reduced cost of both the product and installation.

I also have to agree with assertion that this type of technology is teacher centric. Yep it is a teacher mostly tool whether that teacher is the teacher or a student using it to teach/explain a concept to an audience. The IWB is a presentation tool - that's it. If you are not a presentation type teacher or more importantly your students are not presentation type students then it's not going to work.

A furniture maker is not going to value a chainsaw the same way a lumberjack is, even though they do work with the same basic material.



I liken teaching to being a tour leader on a bus in Europe. There is the complete package tour where everything is done for the client, where they stay, what they eat, what they see and what information is given to them (think people within a certain older age (55+) bracket or a very young age bracket (18-21). It suits these groups of people as either through lack of experience or physical condition they find that this is safer and reduces cognitive load so they can enjoy and take in their physical surroundings.

Then there is the the JOJO (Jump On, Jump Off) Tour, where you have a choice of where you stay (hotel, hostel, B+B, camping ground) and whether to stay with the group, stay longer and wait a couple of days for the next JOJO bus to come through. There is a tour leader who can help and guide you and there is generally a set path around the Continent with some choices to make.

Of course then you have the people who are confident enough to plan their own trip without a physical guide, just the "Lonely Planet" that is completely thumbed through and treated like a holy text and their research on the Internet. Using local transport options they head out and explore on their own.

At different stages of my "traveling" career I chose all three of these options. Four months in Europe on a JOJO bus tour was great as I have an interest in architecture and I knew that the complete tour experience would probably only give it minimal service - so I could stay for four days in Barcelona marveling at the work of Gaudi, but when I needed help I could always contact the tour guide for help. When we travelled through South America we went with a package tour for safety and convenience reasons, once that was over my girlfriend and I continued on our own with only the guide book to help as we explored Brazil on our own.

Teaching is a lot like guiding the tourist - Sometimes a subject or concept just has to be planned out the the nth degree just to get through it all and to get to the overall concept quickly. Sometime you can facilitate them as they move through the curriculum but not be on their case about being at the bus by 8:30am that morning. And sometimes students will go off on their own to pursue knowledge and understanding on their own.


After working in schools in Australia, the UK and Japan, sometimes you need to be the tour leader, guide or just the guy at the information desk pointing them in the right direction and hoping they get there.

In a strange sense of coincidence someone on echalk forwarded a link to a paper the contained the following history

The Summit County (Ohio) Educational Service Center Newsletter (December 1995) reprinted some historical responses to new educational technologies:

"Students today can't prepare bark to calculate their problems. They depend on slates, which are more expensive. What will they do when the slate is dropped and it breaks? They will be unable to write." From a Teachers Conference, 1703.

"Students today depend on paper too much. They don't know how to write on a slate without getting chalk dust all over themselves. They can't clean a slate properly. What will they do when they run out of paper?" From a principal's publication, 1815.

"Students today depend too much on ink. They don't know how to use a pen knife to sharpen a pencil. Pen and ink will never replace the pencil." From the National Association of Teachers Journal, 1907.

"Students today depend on store-bought ink. They don't know how to make their own. When they run out of ink they will be unable to write words or cipher until their next trip to the settlement. This is a sad commentary on modern education." From The Rural American Teacher, 1928.

"Students depend on these expensive fountain pens. They can no longer write with a straight pen and nib. We parents must not allow them to wallow in such luxury to the detriment of how to cope in the business world, which is not so extravagant." From the Parent Teachers Association Gazette, 1941.

"Ballpoint pens will be the ruin of education in our country. Students use these devices and then throw them away. The American values of thrift and frugality are being discarded. Business and banks will never allow such expensive luxuries." From Federal Teachers, 1950.

Brings you back to the old pencils in classrooms metaphor?

To me the the biggest value of the IWB is reducing workloads of teachers and making them think differently and openly about the resources available while providing focus for teaching and presenting. The fact that students find it engaging is in a way secondary.

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What are we teaching?

In fact, one of the saddest but most common conditions in elementary school computer labs (when they exist in the developing world), is the children are being trained to use Word, Excel and PowerPoint. I consider that criminal, because children should be making things, communicating, exploring, sharing,not running office automation tools."

---Nicholas Negroponte, Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab (2007)

I'm glad to see others have seen this and it's not just me - and it is still going on.

My question is

How do we stop teachers using "computer time" to write up the good copy of their story and moving them to the student to creating a multimedia storybook/glog/video.

The role of computers in education.

You would think that for someone who works in educational technology I would have a firm grasp of where technology sits in schools in Australia.... Not really. Part of the problem is things change really fast in the outside world. When I was at school the internet was not accessible (it was there though), computers were found in one place - the lab, and the only time I got to use them was for doing some basic accounting applications.

20 years later and things have changed so much outside but still stayed the same in the classroom.

Recently on echalk the denizens were discussing the role of the computer teacher and whether they will eventually be phased out. It really depends on your view but here's how I think it will go (re posted on echalk).

We have a continuum with traditional subjects.

With abstract knowledge/understanding based subjects (such as Maths and English Lit) at one end and Product/Process based subjects (English and Industrial workshop) at the other, with other subjects spaced out in between. The question here is where does computing fit in... Comp Sci down one end, Robotics at the other and game making in the middle perhaps?

Actually the more I think about it English as a subject fits computing in schools much better than the old Pen analogy.
English is used in just about every subject to a certain degree to read, process and output data, we are now moving to a point where computers are used in every subject (one hopes) to a certain degree either to read, process or output data.

English Lit=Comp Sci English=AIT English+subject=Computers+subject.

"computer" teachers will teach the first two much like English teachers share the English/ English Lit classes. Much like the support staff for literacy and numeracy there will be integrators for subjects other than computing to help teachers use the technology effectively.

Sorry this post is a bit of a ramble and I think it needs to be a bit more focused - I'll work on it.

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Cruising through SourceForge

Sometimes I just like to cruise through SourceForge for to see what is new and whether any programs have floated to the top of the pile. Here are two that I think are worth having for high school. And because they are Open Source they are free.

SweetHome3D is a 3D home decoration program that takes you from plan to rendered 3D environments. You could use it in maths classes to model rooms, layouts and organise space. It will even do outdoor environments. A easy way to start to learn how use CAD programs without all the extra bits.

If you are still using office 2003 (WA DET schools I'm looking at you) then this tool bar might be useful to you if you are in the maths dept. It allows you to render mathematical equations directly into word. Mathematics Toolbar, Drawing Toolbar and Math Database

If you have Word 2007 there is no need for this tool as it is built in to the newer version of office.

Lastly Wikipedia have just released their own reader - Wikireader at $99 US. You can update it for free yourself. It seems like a good idea - I'd like to have a look at one just to try it out but my budget is a bit lean at the moment.

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FREE Content is King!!!

Two posts in one day... it must be school holidays.

I've been organising my bookmarks recently (shock! horror!) and figured out that I have a lot of stuff sitting there that really need to be talked about.

In WA the Education Department is setting up a Online Teaching and Learning Network - which is great but is costing a fortune, and will be closed to anyone who works outside the Department of Education. So any teacher in the independent or Catholic system plus anyone who has skills to produce open content are effectively locked out.

These are 7 Content clearinghouses to find stuff to teach with that are open and encourage participation and in some cases contribution. This group is leaning to high school to University level but OER and Curriki have a lot of k-7 resources.

Intute a UK based service. Intute is a free online service that helps you to find the best web resources for your studies and research.Intute is created by a consortium of seven universities, working together with a whole host of partners.

HippoCampus is a project of the Monterey Institute for Technology and Education (MITE). The goal of HippoCampus is to provide high-quality, multimedia content on general education subjects to high school and college students free of charge.

Connexions is: a place to view and share educational material made of small knowledge chunks called modules that can be organized as courses, books, reports, etc. Anyone may view or contribute:
* authors create and collaborate
* instructors rapidly build and share custom collections
* learners find and explore content

I first heard about Connexions on TED.com

Open Educational Resources: born from the creative commons movement. OER content is made free to use or share, and in some cases, to change and share again, made possible through licensing, so that both teachers and learners can share what they know.

Merlot: MERLOT is a leading edge, user-centered, searchable collection of peer reviewed and selected higher education, online learning materials, catalogued by registered members and a set of faculty development support services. MERLOT's vision is to be a premiere online community where faculty, staff, and students from around the world share their learning materials and pedagogy.

MIT Open Courseware: MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) is a web-based publication of virtually all MIT course content. OCW is open and available to the world and is a permanent MIT activity.

Curriki : Curriki is an online environment created to support the development and free distribution of world-class educational materials to anyone who needs them.

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• Dr. Barbara Kurshan: Come in, We're Open (huffingtonpost.com)

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Video Resources

There are a lot of video sites out there now - so much stuff is being uploaded it's hard to find what you are looking for, even with a good search engine.

NEOK12 to the rescue. Not a video site, but an indexed repository of videos from a range of different servers, all vetted for use in education. The videos are streamed through their site so if your school blocks YouTube this might be a way around it.

Use these videos with TurningPoint Anywhere and you have a visual and interactive lesson to start a topic and an opportunity to check prior understanding, prediction and comprehension.

The New Literacy Generation

Image via Wikipedia

I just read an article from Wired magazine regarding the literacy of this generation. It seems that Stamford University has done a huge study and found what a lot of us who work with technology in education and blogger generally) already suspected.

Students are writing more now than ever in the history of education and large amount of it is outside the classroom mandated essays and coursework.

emails, blogs, facebook, review sites, Wikipedia... the list of ways that people write and use text is huge and it is all with an audience in mind, usually people we don't even know if it is a broadcast.

What is also interesting is that the style of writing adapts as the writer writes for different purposes and audiences so the smiley face has not crossed over to the essay or term paper.

There are a couple of important things we must as teachers take from this.
1: Literacy is more important now than ever before in society - we are moving from Read Only to Read/Write. This includes written, video, sounds and images.
2: People / students will write for an audience, especially if the audience is more than just a teacher.
3: That the purpose must be authentic for writing to be enjoyable.

View the full article here - http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/17-09/st_thompson

English langauge PowerPoint Files

Image via Wikipedia

I got this from Larry's blog.

Barry Fun English
This site has a large range of PowerPoint files specifially focused on english language for either lower primary or ESL learners. These lend themselves to be integrated with TurningPoint ARS to make them even more interactive.

It is great to see some very good interactive resources devoted to english and literacy - instead of 1000's of printables.

Barry also has a range of flash games and tools that can be used online or with eBeam Scrapbook. - I do like his version of wheel of fortune.

Lots of stuff means lots of work....

I have been bookmarking some sites - I should do it through delicious but... oh well here are a few sites and programs I have been looking at lately. Some of these will be put into the Keepad Interactive WA website. in the links section.

Draw Anywhere - a web based diagraming solution, you have to sign in but it looks great, and you can collaborate on diagrams in real time. http://www.drawanywhere.com/

Learner.org - great web based interactives for maths, science, social studies, history and art.

Sandfields - a bunch of primary based flash resources. All are downloadable. some are subject speciafic others are adaptable to any learning area. Dowload them and put them into your ebeam scrapbook flash resources. http://www.sandfields.co.uk/games/games.html

Nickpower - A great site for primary science teachers - interactives and links as well as some nice tools on his tools page that help with setting up experiments.

Teach ICT - A British based ICT site with all the ICT courses and resources for high school. A great place for multichoice questions to put into turning point.

Have fun with that lot - Piles more to get through this weekend.

Image via Wikipedia