Week 3 - 17th March 2009

http://www.pa.ash.org.au/natcom/natcom3/models/portfmod.asp

Australian Digital Portfolios Model
This website described the model as students collecting, synthesising, reviewing and editing information in order to successfully publish in the form of Digital portfolios.

Using Technology to Support Alternative Assessment and Electronic Portfolios
This website described and discussed the use of technology to support alternative assessment from a number of perspectives. This website provides helful references and links to other digital portfolios allowing us to gain a deeper insight into the digial portfolio concept. It provided a number of insightful online videos and podcasts.

ePotential DEECD Digital Portfolios

In this "e-learning ICT showcase" webiste we learned more about powerful learning through the use of digital portfolios. The School Captain of Daylsford Primary School "Kara", told us her story of learning through the use of the Digital Portfolio. During this short clip it is clear that the student has thoroughly enjoyed her time creating this personalised piece of work and it is clear that she has excelled throughout the developmental process.


Brochure Designs

Today Greg introduced us to the concept of designing a brochure using MS Publisher. This was an effective "How to Guide for the Classroom". I found these instructions easy and simple to understand.

Digital Portfolios- A PowerPoint Presentation about Digital Portfolios
A Practical Approach
This powerpoint presentation gave us a teachers insight into the concepts of digital portfolios.
The purpose of the digital portfolio was outlined as, " to tell a story of development in skills and understasnding through the exploration of real life situations". It was outlined that the most effective portfolios allowed for student management, reflection, goal setting and are collected and documented in an efficient mannor.

http://webct.latrobe.edu.au/webct/urw/lc13350432606041.tp13350432647041//RelativeResourceManager;JSESSIONID=3KLcJzQBQlJThdnsXWNddhCtbt8GFjk3dcfBV0hv42v2CbLvw0PJ!874875402!ecourse6.latrobe.edu.au!80!-1!-453144431!ecourse7.latrobe.edu.au!80!-1!1240715425199?contentID=14640071848041

Smart Digital Portfolios -Smart Classroom Bytes
This website that Greg introduced gave us a further understanding into the notion of "Learning with Digital Portfolios". The website helps to give the teacher a brief overview of the most recent ideas on using e-portfolios and how to utilise them in the most "effective way in regards to classroom learning. The website explained how e-portfolios were a "holistic approach to presenting and communicating an individuals progress and achievements". I particularly enjoyed the way in which the e-portfolio was used as "a visual guide that maps where you have been, where you are going and how you plan to get there". Furthermore, the website discussed how the digital portfolio is also a learning tool for teachers and an exceptional learning tool for students. Moreover, the article outlined how "a whole-of-school approach to integrating digital portfolios delivers consistency and stability". Although i agree that the digital portfolio concept is a great technology integration within the classroom environment; a profound statement to make about technology. However, i don't agree that the use of technology in the way of digital portfolios delivers consistency and stability.

Digital Portfolios: Fact or Fashion?
This article relates to the undeniable "value of portfolios as an assessment tool", its research and its well documented and effective use in education accross the board. The article brings to light and discuss in detail the positives and negatives of portfolios and raises the question, "can digital portfolios add value to existing practices or are they a fashion soon to be forgotten?". Intreguing yet pondering. A vital question to be thought about by educators. i fell that there is no is no simple answer to this question, rather than, teaching like technology changes and morphs such as the way society changes. I feel that Digital Portfolios will be required within education as long as we require them and technology permits; that is until something else can overpower the whole digital portfolio concept ?

http://www.hrdesign.com.au/dp/planning-dp.html

Digital Portfolio Resources - I found this website particularly helping in furthering my own understanding as to what a digital portfolio is and it's purpose. That being, "collections of student work that richly represent the learner and provide authentic evidence of learning. They demonstrated evidence of the student's efforts, progress and achievement in one or more areas and illustrate a learning journey". This website has and will continue to be a great resource for the continual growth of my own e-portfolio, offering suggestions on many critical areas such as support areas, planning, templates and resources.
Thanks Greg!!!

The Digital Portfolio Process- Helping Students' become Life Long Learners - Today Greg introduced the class to The Grange College and the two complementary Australian National Schools Network Research projects.

These research projects have effectively aided in the development of authentic assessment structure for habits of the mind, which evidently, through the development of Digital Portfolios, encourages and aids in the development of the skills of self-assessment; crucial to any student in development and future learning. The article carefully articulated several strategies although no agreed strategy was agreed upon. One approach outlined the importance of teacher assessment of student work and student self-assessment through the development of digital portfolios.

I found it particularly interesting that the article reflected on the point that "The nature of Habits of Mind is such that students must continually strive to reflect upon, develop and refine them through life, becoming progressively more self-directed, self-managing , self-monitoring and sefl-modifying in their learning to become life long learners".This concept pushes and encourages the individual student to become more responsible for how they learn and progress. An interesting and progressive way for educators to think and reflect upon.

Today Greg began class by introducing the concept of the "e-portfolios". Greg explained how the e-portfolios are self reflection tools which brings students and teachers together. Greg also discussed with the class how an e-portfolio is not just a collection of student work but evidently, only a small collection. The e-portfolio presents samples of a particular student's work which present growth over time. The e-portfolios show individual student reflection by reflecting what they will continue to learn. A characteristic of the e-portfoliois that during its developmental stage it is continuous and ongoing, allowing opportunities for monitoring student progress towards achieving mandatory goals and outcomes.

During the development of our individual e-portfolios we are going to be establishing an e-portfolio ready to be used in interviews when applying for positions in schools later in the year. Our practical worshop sessions allow us to create digital curriculum materials ie. multimedia, online films, brochures, animations, concept maps and webquests in sem 2 and games, suitable for primary school curriculum areas. As we each progress individually we will continue to provide evidence of a range of teaching materials for our e-portfolios from the other unit in which we will be studying during the Diploma of Education. I think this is a great way for up and coming teachers to learn about and become prepared for their teaching careers.

This was a sample of 3 e-portfolios in which we were able to view and form opinions on what we thought about the content and layouts:

http://www.indiana.edu/~reading/ieo/bibs/portfoli.html
http://www.anglit.net/main/portfolio/default.html
http://www.pgcps.org/~elc/portfolio.html


This is an example of an online e-portfolio - creating in Microsoft Publisher

Week 2 - Tuesday 10th March 2009

Cyber Pigs part 2) Cybersense and Nonsense
This is the second part to "Privacy Playground", designed for ages 9-12. During this game the Cyber Pigs learn more important lessons about authenticating online information and observing online ettiquette rules. The Cyber Pigs also learn about how to distinguish between fact an dopinion and teaches them how to effectively recognise bias and harmful sterotyping in online content. I feel that the most important lesson learnt in this game is, "just because its on the internet doesn'tmean it is right".

Department of Education: Early Childhood Development *Forms and Templates
This website outlines all the "Forms and Templates". School may also wish to use these templates to develop their own "Acceptable Use Policies". Greg outlined the importance that all schools should read about and be familiar with all "Duty of Care" requirements. This is also for new and upcoming teachers such as ourselves to also becomefamiliar with as we will be required to know all our school standards, policies and procesdures.

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/Boxguitar.shtml
"Enchanted Learning" is a sight dedicated to thousands of crafts, games and other educational activities for teachers to use as a classroom reaource. This website is fantastic as there is an endless list of activities catered for any age and subject. I will deffinately be using this website as a teaching tool.

Then example Greg presented to the class was an activity was called "Box Guitar". The materials were all things which could be found in the classroom or household such as: rubber bands, cardboard box, showbox or tissue box and paper towel tube. An fun and easy activity which gets children to develope their higher order thinking. Fantastic!

http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/games/privacy_playground/

Cyber Pigs is a media awareness network for media and internet education resources. As a class we investigated a "Privacy Playground: The First Adventure of the Three Cyber Pigs". This is a game sparticularly designed for 8-10 year old children. In this game the Cyber Pigs play on their favourite website . During the game the encounter marketing ploys, spam and a close encounter with an angry wolf.
The purpose of this game is to teach children to spot online marketing strategies, protect their personal information and to teach them how to avoid online predators. The attached teachers guide outlines how to play the game, gives background information on the issues of online marketing, spam and childrens privacy and provides classroom games and activities. This type of education and awareness is imperative for todays school children and their teachers. This should be a mandatory part of any school curriculum.

http://www.education.vic.gov.au/management/elearningsupportservices/www/classroom/default.htm

We also spoke at length about the dangers of cyberspace with children. In recent times we have seen (especially reported in the media) how children can become victims of "Cyber bullying". And, in extreme cyber bullying cases we have seen teenages take their own lives. Society is only now starting to see just how powerful the internet is, especially on children. The internet, although an extremely useful tool, can also be a dangerous one and therefore partents/guardians must monitor their childs use of the internet. I feel that cyber bullying is an extremely important topic both in and out of the classroom.

Today Greg presented the concepts of "Cutting and Pasting" images into our blogs. I found this very interesting as i did not previously know how to do this. The first couple of times were a bit "wobbly", but after you have followed the process a few times, one becomes more confident with this process.

What is QUIA about? This website helps educators to be able to teach more effectively by giving them the tools to create, customise and share learning activities. Furthermore, this website helps students learn more by effectively bringing together many resources of thousands teachers together in one place. I like to call is an education "super highway".

Below is a copy of the "Leap Frog" activity sheet, to record materials and findings/results.

Greg began today's class by getting all students to get into groups pf 3 and creating a frog that jumped using only specific allocated materials. These allocated materials included - glue, paper cardboard, an elastic band, sticky tape and a picture of a green frog on a piece of paper.

Greg gave us each a handout with a number of thought provoking headings( refer to above). We used this sheet to record what we found out about this experiment, how we got there and how many times it took us to create a relevant design that was successful in jumping. The headings included relevant areas of the design and creating process - Investigate/Design, produce, problem to be solved, resources and alanyse/evaluate. Greg used this to show us types of "warming up" activities and exercises a teacher would give to students' in order to teach them to think about processes in more depth.

Greg explained that the point of getting students' to record what they discoved throughout the design process and the exact steps that aided them in getting to the end product is that they could go back to their recordings and remember (doing) the process. From this concept children could make a poster of write a short story on how they worked through the task hurdles and put up in the classroom to share with their peers. Something that students' can be proud of, a problem they solved. It is an effective routine to get students' to carry out this format of problem solving each time this type of classroom activity is carried out. A great ongoing classroom activity could be that children could create a "Problem Solving" blog (exercise book), so that each time throughout the term that a problem solving activity was done, the children could use the handout (refer above) to record how they solved a problem.

Greg strongly advised that this type of classroom exercise be carried out on a daily basis, and i agree strongly. Ten to fifteen minutes would all you would need and it gets children to think systematically and creatively. Even if Science isn't timetables into the daily curriculum it is easy to integrate into other subject activities such as English. These types of exercises help children to develop their cognitive skills and can help children who find learning difficult and who may find it easier to "play games" (based activities), and may not even realise they are learning.

Teachers need to embrace and integrate technology in the classroom, use it as a tool to challenge bright students and excite and encourage struggling students.

During this activity the skills in which we used were writing, talking/communicating, hand and eye coordination by cutting and pasting and using our own problem solving skills. By teachers incorporating these activities into classroom exercises with technology children will further develop previously mentioned skills, allowing students' to carry them over to their other subject areas. The "Leap Frog" activity was fantastic as there was no right or wrong answer, as long as the frog jumps then it was "correct"! By carrying out activites on a daily or weekly basis, thsi evidently helps develop children's higher order thinking techniques.

During todays class Greg introduced us to a website called www.quia.com/web

This program can be used fro creating quiz's and other word/number activities that incredibly allows the used to obtain instant results for their attempts. This can be an effective teacher resource or children could also manipulte their own creations. (Alos,) this website allows the teacher to create whole class activities or to individual students on particular focus areas. The possibilities are endless. As you can imagine, quizes are on anything, for example - Geography. The teacher could create a quiz on capital cities.

The site also has an "activities" function where like the quiz, a teacher or student can set up games sucha s hangman, battleships and other word/number games to be incorporated into the class lesson. I think this is a brilliant learning resource and tool because it keeps children interested and incorporates fun into the learning environment. Like any great teaching resource/tool it can also be used for any teaching subject.

http://vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/essential/interdisciplinary/design/index.html#H2N10200

During today's claass Greg introduced us to the VELS ICT: Design, Creativity and Technology Standards. These standards stressed the importance of engagement in designing and creating for students and teachers. The standards also outlined the significance of the evaluating processes, products and technological systems, all the while using a range of matericals as a way of developing creativity and being innovative. It also outlined that within this particular area, creativity can be discribed as using imagination, lateral and critical thinking throughout the design and developmental process. VELS also stated that design is a vital process in transforming ideas into creative, practical thoughts and ideas.

http://www.go2web20.net/

Deffinately one of the best websites/ ICT tool i have seen thus far. What an absolutely rich and interacrtive way of engagng children.

Throughout all 12 stories there is a morel and in the story i read the morel was "about being aware of and protecting yourself against evil and harm". The language in each story is easy to read, informative and extremely descriptive. Fantastic for primary school students especially.

Part 2 of Lesson 4 - English 26th March 2009

Using www.abc.net.au/dustechoes

This website gives children the opportunity to explore indegenous Australian Aboriginal stories

Get the children to re-write the storey in their own words or using "Inspiration".

Week 4 & 5

http://www.storygames.com/TeachmanPF/Rebus.html
Story games website - Rebus stories

http://webct.latrobe.edu.au/webct/urw/lc13350432606041.tp13350432647041//RelativeResourceManager;JSESSIONID=dL15J1nMpJybtsz66cVG1cpv6NTrHnJXCG2vdG3n9QSbjv6FPh4J!-335098922!ecourse5.latrobe.edu.au!80!-1!874875402!ecourse6.latrobe.edu.au!80!-1!1240804940233?contentID=14714118752041
Educational games for the classroom. Some of these games have been put together and designed by the UN.

http://connect.globalstudent.org.au/
Connect - Website for children

http://www.education.vic.gov.au/studentlearning/elearning/default.htm
eLearning and ICT - DEECD Website


http://www.abc.net.au/zimmertwins/
ABC Zimmer Twins - this website allows you to create your own online movie.

http://www.toondoo.com/Home.toon
Toondoo - Create your own comic strips and share them.


http://www.dfilm.com/live/moviemaker.html
Devolver Movie maker-
Teaches process of sequence in making digital film online with sent URL. Not reccommended for primary students.

http://www.highlightkids.com/

http://vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/essential/interdisciplinary/design/index.html#H2N10200
VELS Design and Creativity
A great teacher reference when using art in the classroom.

http://www.education.vic.gov.au/primary/
Great Education Websites for Children

http://catchmentdetox.net.au/
ABC Toxic Catchment Game
In the form of predominantly games, this website teachers students all about water catchments, run off systems and other critical environmental factors.

http://www.sketchswap.com/
My picture.
Sketch Swap - You can create your own picture and then click send. After you have sent your picture you are sent another picture in reply to your sent one.
An amazing concept, suitable for any VELS level.

This is the picture i received after i sent my picture.

http://www.reasonablyclever.com/mini/kidsafe.htm
Reasonably Clever - make your own lego person and paste it into other programs as a graphic.
What a fantastic website! This website wouold effectively capture the attention of all children. And those children who are not so academic.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=92755126-a008-49b3-b3f4-6f33852af9c1&DisplayLang=en

http://myths.e2bn.org/about/accessibility.php
Myths and Legends - UK website where children can create their own movies online.

http://www.ziptales.com.au/
ZipTales - Australian Website
This interactive website has many links for many subject areas. It includes everything from "Puzzle Palace" (problem solving and higher order thinking), "Write Time" (english and maths), "Story Machine" (maths, science, english and religion) etc.


http://www.xtranormal.com/
Online Digital Films - Xtranormal website, make online films and animations
Another great interactive website where children can make their own 3D movies. There are a number of specific steps in which the website directs you through which includes: 1) Pick your scene, 2) Type a script, 3) add actions and sounds, 4) publish and share.
A perfect website for the higher VELS levels.

http://www.abc.net.au/rollercoaster/rollermache/
Roller Mache
This is a free interactive website aimed towards school children aged between 8-15 living outside of metropolitan areas. It focuses on children being able to create theirn own content. This website prides itself on providing children with a safe space to present their own creations. The main areas of the website include Inspire, Plan, Create and Gallery.

http://www.buildyourwildself.com/
Build Your Wild Self
This website allows you to create an online animated picture of yourself. First you choose your human self, then your more animated parts, background, hair etc. The only limit is your imagination. A great website to get your students' imagination started. This website could be particularly effective as being incorporated in English. You could have retells, picture stories etc. A website such as this helps to engage the students on a deeper level and get them to use tools other than a pencil and a paper.

Week 5)


This is a sample shot of the movie i made. It's very amature-ish but i would assume like anything else, the more you use the site the better you become at creating. My movie was about two old friends who bumped into each other in the street and discovered they were both studying to become teachers.

http://www.digitalfilms.com/index.php

Digital Films - Week 5
I love this website as you can incorporate this ICT tool in any subject and more VELS level 2 and up. Another great ICT tool that i will be taking with me into my classroom.

This website allows you to make your own digital movies for free. The website allows you to choose your own background scene, characters, animated actions, dialogue, introduction and concluding credits. The website allows the creator to put their name as the creator and email their movie to their friends. However, once you have signed up for free and are registered you can access more advanced features of the site such as saving and editing the movies you make.

http://www.mindomo.com/
Mindomo - Free online mapping software
This website is another great mind mapping tool. This website allows you to share your mind map online allowing your students/collegues to have a direct link to your personalised mind mpa to an existing webpage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map

Greg directed us to Wikipedia: Topic - Mind Maps

Wikipedia defines a mind map as; a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea".

Mind Maps allow you to effectively visualise, structure and classify your ideas and/or prblems and can be as simple or as complicated as you wish.

http://www.mindmeister.com/

MindMeister- Mind Mapping Tool
This website allows you to sign up for free membership and helps you to manage, create and share your mind maps online and be involved in "real-time" brainstorming sessions with friends and collegues. Users can create, manage and share mind maps online and can access them anywhere, anytime.

Teachers are able to access different mind maps from different countries from around the world. One can also work with other teachers from around the world and see the changes on the mind maps as they happen. I feel that the most beneficial element of this resource is the notion of the sharing of ideas with different teachers on a global scale.

http://econtent.thelearningfederation.edu.au/ec/p/home
Access to FULL Learning Federation: Interactive Website
This website gives teachers access to more than 8165 digital learning resources. I found this site to be of great relevance as the resources available range across all the VELS Progression Points.



WEEK 4 - 25th March 2009

During today's class we were introduced to the concept of "fun" mathematics, using the M and M website.

Example Exercise to use in Mathematics, English, Information Technology etc. Today's class was a great example of how teachers can use and intergrate technological resources during class, especially mathematics.

Ask children to ask 10 maths questions to ask the class. Use this type of momentum.

By using charts and graphs this exercise intergrates and introduces the use of Excel to children with and fun and creative twist.. What the mathematics used behind the exercise?

1. We used mnm's, smarties and/or jellybeans.


























2. Divide lollies/objects into coloured groups ie. red, blue, yellow, green


























3. Count each coloured group and plot your results on the excel graph


























4. Show students how to colour-code each graph column


























5. Ask students to create questions they can ask fellow students. Get students to walk around the classroom and view each others work.

The prime learning focus of this exercise is to create an enjoyable and interactive learning environment while learning mathematical skills.