Using Quick View

You are able to see documents or movies or anything, really, quickly and easily.

Click on the last button in the VIEW (see picture) when you are in a FINDER window - this is Cover Flow look.

Now when you move through the documents in the FINDER and you hit the space bar, the document will pop out and you will be able to view the contents. This is great when you are looking for a document but forgot what you named it.

It also works really well in MAIL.

Day 3- part 1 in NZ, Day 3 part 2 in USA

Woke to another wild and woolly day in Auckland. Visited 2 extremely impressive impressive primary schools in Summerland and Marina View. Both have fully integrated uses of laptops within the classrooms where children jsut use them as tools for their learning whenever they need them. Marina View also have an amazing TV studio where the students run all of it, form content to production, we all got to have a hands on role in the creation of a new show. Somehow I ended up on the master computer that was responsible for showing all the green screens and live feeds. It went reasonably well.

We flew out Wednesday night for San Francisco and arrived 4 hours before we flew out Wednesday in San Francisco. The international dateline has a lot to answer for in relation to how tired I feel now. Currently it is 9:00p.m. on Wed the 25th.

Off to Oracle, Google and Apple tomorrow and hopefully will be fully rested as I'm off to bed now.

Wet and windy Auckland

A quick summary of today as I'm about to head out for tea. Auckland turned on a treat for us with wind, rain, hail, thunder and lightning, all of which I'd almost forgotten existed!!

Started today with a trip to Nextspace to look at their new software innovations, in particular relating to 3D design, so very useful applications with Deep Exploration.

This was followed by a trip to Papatoetoe High School to view their networks, labs and interact with the students. In some respects we are ahead of what they are doing which for them is cutting edge, so we have pockets leading the way.

We finished the day by visiting Buckland Beach Intermediate school which blew my mind. 11/12 year olds running a TV and radio station as well as using animation, web 2.0 tools and e-portfolios to great effect to give the students a 'voice' within their learning. Heaps of sites to follow up on that they were using to great effect.

That's it as I need time for it all to sink in, will use the 13 hr flight to San Fran tomorrow for that to happen.

Insights for today:
"We need to understand the knowledge that people have that are inside our buildings"
"Technologies change, but people usually don't"

The eagle ...err magpie... has landed.

Just a short message to say that I've made it to Auckland safely after a 3 hr flight. The tour group has a diverse range of backgrounds and interests so after just a few short conversations with other members of the party I've learnt a few things already. Tonight after landing in the wet (I didn't worry about getting too wet, have missed that feeling of late!) we got the motel and headed out for dinner and an introduce yourself to the group which I had the pleasure of having my name chosen first. An early night for me tonight.

Tomorrow is an early start and visits to secondary schools.

Insight for today:
We are now catching up (via the Government funding to schools) to where we should have been 3 years ago. How do we speed this up so we don't end up further behind tomorrow?

Up, up and away!!!

Well, this is the first post before I head off on the ACCE 2008 study tour. To be honest with the busy end of the term I haven't really had too much time to contemplate the full ins and outs of the tour, but I'm sure hte time on the plane will help with that.

I head into it full off ideas that I think are possible now, but hope to gain greater insights into what is currently being done around the world with a view to Sandhurst schools being seen in time as innovative leaders in the use of ICT and teaching and learning.

The map below has a brief outline of the tour, but the main points are school visits (primary & secondary) in NZ, workshops and visits to Apple HQ, Googl HQ and Oracle in San Francisco and the ISTE conference for 5 days in San Antonio, with 17,500 other like minded educators.

View Larger Map

Well I'm off to get some sleep before flying out. I am excited, but also anxious about missing my girls, Nick and Lou, but through iChat, Skype, email, txt, phone and this blog I'll be as connected as possible while being 20,000+ km's away.

My aim is post each day, hopefully I wont be having too much fun to forget!!!

Spotlight

Spotlight is one of the handiest tools you will use on your Mac.

Up in the top right hand corner you will see a magnifying glass and when you click on it, you will see this search facility.



Type a word that you will search for into the box.

NOTE: this word can be anywhere in a file, a letter (if you use Mail) - it doesn't just have to be in the title of the document you are looking for.

So, if I have a strategic plan and I know I wrote a word in it like "Byzantine", i just search for Byzantine and it will find the file. It will also show a dictionary meaning and lots of other things.

Very Handy!

A vision of K-12 education

Another clip that Grant & I have been using which has a really powerful way of promoting the use of ICT in the classroom.

This project was created to inspire teachers to use technology's power to engage students in higher level thinking. Equally important, it serves to motivate leadership in schools to provide teachers with the tools and training to do so.

Creating a Google account for your class/students

Having a Google account opens up and amazing array of online tools and applications that could be used to create effect in your classroom.

A Google account allows for such things as the creation of online documents/spreadsheets/presentations (think PowerPoint) for collaboration, creating and saving online maps with Google Maps, blogs for classes or students, RSS feeds through iGoogle, shared calendars etc as well as software such as Google Earth, Sketch Up and Picassa.

To create a Google account, use the following link: https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount

Please note, if students are to have their own individual account in SINA to be able to create an account as no 2 Google accounts can have the same email address. So class email logins will only work once.

Are you paying attention?

This clip from Teacher Tube has been shown around at various sessions that Grant and I have been presenting at, so by popular demand we have put it here for you. Has major implications for schools and the ICT Vels domain.

This video is at www.teachertube.com

Setting security for your blog

This video will show you how to change your security settings for your blog. Remember you should do some work with your students re internet safety and in particular what information should or shouldn't be put up on the web. I would suggest to begin with, you introduce the students to blogs by having a class one first.

The video is hosted on YouTube so may not be accessible in your school.

Creating a blog

Use the following video to help you set up a blog for yourself or your class. Remember this will get you the basic blog up and running but you will need to change your security settings, layouts etc.

This video is hosted on Youtube so it may not be accessible in your school.

Do schools kill creativity?

A must-see for every parent and teacher.

Education guru Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it.

Lots of things to think about, particularly in relation to the potential use for ICT as a creative learning tool across the curriculum.

21st Century Learning

This is a clip we've put together that might be useful for school staff to view in relation to what 21 century learners (our students) are like.

Just ignore the bloke who's speaking (yes it's me) and the fact the start is like an episode on the old favourite TV show 'Monkey'.

A handy blog trick

Now this might not be as amazing to some as others, but having created this blog, (which I'll add some info on how to do later) I have now been able to use my email to update it.

So instead of logging onto my blog and posting there, I simply created an email message (the one you are reading now) and sent it to this blog's email address.

Pretty simple really!!! A great way for co collaborators for your blog to contribute quickly and effectively.

Welcome

Hi and welcome to the Sandhurst ICT Network blog.

The idea behind this blog is to:

• Keep you up to date with some of the the big picture goings on with ICT as a learning.
• Provide some hints and tips
• Give you some practical ideas for your classroom
• Keep connected and enjoy

Please use the blog to leave comments about what you find helpful, for not only us, but other teachers as well.

About Us

Grant Fitzgerald and Glenn McMahon are Education Officers for the Sandhurst Catholic Education officers.

Our role is with Curriculum and Learning Technologies and working with teachers and schools on how best to use teachnology in the classroom to help further the outcomes, achievements, experiences and opportunities for students and teachers on school.

Both of use are passionate about the difference, particularly the use of web 2.0 tools and creative uses of technology, can have for both our students and teachers in this new era of the read/write web for our 'digital natives'.