VITTA Conference 2008

Had a great experience at the annual VITTA conference held in Melbourne last Monday thru to Wednesday. Highlights included the keynote presentations from Derek Robertson from Scotland and Andrew Owen from Monash University, on the use of games as hooks for learning as well as being great tools for teaching/learning. Something I am looking at following up in some form next year.

There was a plethora of sessions on the use of Web 2.0 tools for classrooms and some really practical ideas. A great session was presented by Jess McCulloch and Anne Mirtschin from Hawkesdale P-12 on how they are 'shifting' their teachers thinking in relation to the use of ICT.

Personally it was great to meet several people whom I follow via Twitter or their blogs/wikis, especially Darrel Branson, aka 'the ICT Guy' who won the Primary ICT Leader of the year award, well done Darrel. Part of this too was being interviewed by Tony Richards from 'The Ed Tech Crew' for the weekly podcast that he an Darrel put together.

A great conference and my Delicious account is larger as a result.

a reminder about why we have our IWB's - more than 'chalk and talk'.

Interactive Whiteboards Introduction

(tags: interactive whiteboard)

Slideshow for Graduates at Harrietville (2008) re using ICT in the classroom

The following is a presentation done for Graduate teachers. The presentation and discussion was to prompt and promote the use of technology and some of the Web 2.0 tools available to enhance both teacher practice and student learning.

Presentation for Graduates Harrietville 2008

view presentation

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

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'.