Supporting the key competencies: managing self The New Zealand Curriculum identifies five key competencies that are qualities essential to students becoming active members of the community. These key competencies include managing self, thinking, participating and contributing, using language, symbols, and texts, and relating to others.

Although these key competencies are interwoven as part of the broader New Zealand curriculum, the focus for this post is on how technology can support students to manage themselves.

Self management is associated with self-motivation, the development of autonomy and lifelong learning skills. It is particularly linked to self-assessment. This might include managing projects, personal organisation, goal setting, reflection and strengths and weaknesses, in and beyond school.

How might software, programs and app support students and teachers to develop this key competency?

Through the use of organisational and goal-setting tools, students can be supported to become more resourceful and resilient in the way they manage their learning.

The Ministry of Education cites Zimmerman and Kitsatas (1997) when it advises schools that self management is something to be taught (rather than caught), and describes the following four stage process that helps students to become self regulated learners.

• Observing the teacher – modelling
• Imitation – attempts with feedback as required
• Self control – independence
• Self regulation – adapting to new challenges

Key Competencies: Managing self - The nature of the key competencies suggests managing self involves self-motivation, a “can-do” attitude, and the ability to establish personal goals, make plans, and set high standards for oneself. It is about students knowing who they are, where they come from and where they fit in.

The e-Learning Planning Framework reflects this process and vision to suggest that students move towards using “technologies appropriately, in a continuous cycle, to support the way they set their learning goals, manage life-long portfolios and work towards becoming self-regulated learners.” (Teaching and Leaning dimension, ‘Empowering’)

Suggested links:

• Trello is an organizational tool allowing you to view all your projects, all your tasks, all of your classwork and collaborations at a glance.
• Moodle is a virtual learning environment that can be tailored to support different e-learning situations.
• Netvibes is an • online aggregator service for users to organise their digital content by creating a personalised web browser start-up page.
• A managed learning environment (MLE) is a collection of software tools and digital content that supports learning.
• ePortfolios or digital portfolios describe a digitised collection of artefacts documenting an individual’s learning. The collection may include a variety of digital elements including text, graphics, multimedia and Web2.0.

So, what software have you used with students to help them to manage themselves?

This is cross-posted from my own blog:

My first tip is how to use Flubaroo to mark the results collected from students through a Google Form. The video below gives you an overview of how you can use it. I've followed the step-by-step instructions on how to use Flubaroo from their site and it worked really well and in record time!  I can see this saving me HOURS of work.

My second Google Form idea came from an older post on the Google Docs blog showing how you can use Google Forms to create a 'Choose your own adventure' story. This would be quite a novel way for students to build their own pick a path stories.

Here are a couple of examples of this in action:

The lily pad

The woods 

The final useful idea is using Google Forms to collect information which can be used to create individual letters (mail merge). This would be really useful if you are using Google Forms for administrative purposes.

Have you stumbled over any good Google Form tips recently or have you tried some of the above already?

Greg Carroll highlights some of the benefits for teachers of using wikis for professional development.
 
More social media, so the argument goes, means better communication, more collaboration, more learning opportunities. But there is more to 21st century learning than simply starting a wiki and hoping for the best. So what might effective learning using wikis in the classroom look like?

Harvard doctoral student and education researcher, Justin Reich, has just released a report and white paper (pdf,578KB) detailing his investigation into wiki usage in K-12 schools in the US. He has identified that just 1% of wikis were "collaborative, multimedia performances of understanding." Over 40% were either failed wikis, trial wikis or those established for teachers to share resources with no student involvement, arguably missing the opportunities for co-construction that wikis present. Choosing the best tool for the job is key here.

On his blog, EdTechResearcher,  Reich lists a number of things he thinks educators can learn from his study, including:

• teachers should clarify learning goals and be sure that their assessment criteria align with the most important goals.
• establishing high quality presentation within the wiki. Early norms that teachers set determine the behaviours that follow.
• ensuring ICT administrators help support professional development in implementing the use of wikis using effective pedagogy.

The choice of tool is important too. A wiki might be chosen to enhance collaborative construction of text, while a blog would be more suited to reflective journaling.

In this Software for Learning snapshot, Jemma Tutty from Ashburton College has shared how a mini unit on career planning has been enhanced by the use of Wikispaces. One advantage of using wikis is that schools can move towards providing student and community access to ubiquitous resources, and make connections to wider networks. The e-Learning Planning Framework reminds us that we are working towards students successfully engaging in collaborative authentic, learning experiences, enhanced and supported appropriately by technologies. Effective use of a wiki might help them do that.

Useful links

• PBworks is a ‘free to educators’ site that allows users to host and share information between students, faculty and staff.
• Wikispaces for Educators allows users to create ad-free wikis that are simple enough for the beginner but contain a range of features for the more experienced user.

Further reading

• Articles and resources on using wikis in the classroom.
• Using blogs and wikis in education.
• Wikis, blogs and podcasts: A new generation of web-based tools for virtual collaborative clinical practice and education.
• Using wikis in schools: A case study (pdf, 279KB)

“Twitter only becomes useful when you have scale”

Chris Betcher              

Twitter is a micro-blogging platform which allows people to share their thoughts, useful links and resources with their network.

 

Many New Zealand teachers are taking to Twitter as a means of driving their own professional learning. By ‘following’ people who share your interests, we can build a network of professionally like-minded individuals who share our own experience in and out of the classroom, useful links to news items or professional readings. This informal network, which can help us create our own professional learning network (PLN), can open our horizons to new experiences, trends in education and opportunities to participate within our wider educational community.

 

In the Professional Learning dimension of the e-Learning Planning Framework,  it highlights the importance of teachers and leaders seeing ourselves as learners. We can use Twitter, and other social networking platforms, to build a professional base to discuss ways to enhance our teaching and leadership practices. Chris Betcher also talks about building a professional network on Twitter of 60, 100 or more before deciding that it is not worth using. One of the key advantages he talks about is that colleagues you know and trust act as aggregators for you by sharing links and information that may be of use to you.

 Where to start?

How about following some of these educators to get your network started:

• Software for Learning: @Software4LnrNZ on Twitter
• Enabling e-Learning: @enablearning on Twitter
• NZ Education ‘Twits'

StatusNet is an open source, microblogging platform that helps you share and connect in real-time. You can encourage collaboration, build and engage your community, while still maintaining your class or school identity.

Other social networks

Twitter is a social networking service. Many teachers use this tool to engage with other educators and students.

Edmodo is a free, secure, private micro-blogging and social network environment. Students and teachers can share ideas, files and assignments and communicate and collaborate around learning.

Twiducate is a free micro-blogging and social networking site for educators and students. This software is designed to engage students in learning opportunities beyond the classroom.

Twister allows you to create fictional "status updates" that can then be printed off for display purposes.

Further reading

• The ultimate guide to using Twitter in education
• 50 ideas on using Twitter for education
• 6 examples of using Twitter in the classroom
• Using Twitter as an education tool

 

 

Whether you use Skype to talk to the grandchildren, or Adobe Connect to participate in online workshops, you are using web conferencing software. There has been a steady increase in the use of web conferencing software globally as companies go multi-national and as students and teachers look for flexible, low-cost solutions for professional development and further education. With the cost of travel rising, and the cost of technology decreasing, web conferencing has become a means of delivering a wide variety of professional support, from hosting meetings to facilitating students’ programmes of learning.

Skype in the classroom, for example, highlights how teachers are successfully using Skype with their students. The educational potential of having experts, from around the world, Skype into your classroom is coming of age.

So, how are New Zealand schools making the most of web conferencing in our increasingly networked world?

There are many schools around New Zealand that participate in the Virtual Learning Network community (VLNc)'s Programmes of Learning. This is a network of school clusters and educational institutions who collaborate to provide access to a broad range of curriculum and learning opportunities for students through online learning. The Learning Communities Online Handbook was started in 2002 as a guide for rural secondary schools in New Zealand who were exploring the use of video conferencing as a means of expanding access to course options for students.

Web conferencing with peers or teachers can extend learning opportunities, link isolated groups of learners and provide a choice of options for engaging with the curriculum. Another benefit of web conferences is the ability for teachers to be available online for questions or discussion with students. Web conferencing can make learning more flexible and personal; students and teachers can discuss issues via the conference from home and are able to juggle other demands. Web conferencing offers a tremendous tool for educators and students alike.

It is worth noting that, even using face-to-face technology, such as Skype, being able to ‘web conference’ successfully and with the appropriate ‘netiquette’ is a skill students and teachers will require. In addition, online courses or workshops require a certain amount of self-motivation and drive as learners work without the pressure of physically presenting themselves week after week.

Web conferencing tools can include web pages, messageboards and emails, as well as presentational tools, such as Powerpoint, and video streaming. Sessions can be recorded so learners can review or catch up on a missed session.

There is a variety of software available, much of it free for educational use that requires only a headset and microphone. Support material and tutorials for much of the software listed below are available on the main product pages.

e-Learning Planning Framework: Technologies and Infrastructure

ENVIRONMENT: Technology is part of the physical environment of the school to enhance learning and administration. Online learning platforms - such as those provided in web conferencing software - provide student and community access to resources, and to connect to wider networks.

Below are some suggestions:

Skype freeware allows users to communicate in real time with or without video connection, and can be used with multiple users on the same call.

ooVoo is a desktop and mobile application VOIP (Voice over Internet protocol) allowing multi-user video conferencing.

Anymeeting is a web-based conferencing service . It is designed for hosting meetings of up to 200 delegates.

Dabbleboard is an online collaboration tool with an interface focused around a shared learning space similar to an interactive whiteboard.

Blackboard collaborate is a comprehensive learning platform designed specifically for education.

Elluminate Live! is a web conferencing program. It "rents out" virtual rooms or vSpaces where virtual schools can host classes.

Face Flow is a free video conferencing software which will allow you to converse with up to four participants at a time.

Adobe® Connect™ 8  provides the means to teach, learn, and collaborate remotely, at any time.

Google Hangouts now allows you to collaborate with others, you can view each other's desktops,  view and edit documents together, and scribble and share notes.

Further suggestions from Derek Wenmoth’s blog: Free Web Conferencing Tools.

“Students’ feeling of entitlement toward mobile technology” is a key idea in Stephen Heppell’s video. However, he also discusses how students’ thinking shifts when they take responsibility for the learning environment.

The students thought it best that schools’ enable the technologies and infrastructure, but the use and management of the device is the students’.

With the shift toward Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), schools will need to manage the supporting infrastructure, while we, as educators, need to chiefly focus on how to use the device for learning. The e-Learning Planning Framework describes, in the Teaching and Technologies dimensions, the ways in which this process might be developed in schools.

For those of us who are predominantly using iPads or iPods in the classroom there is an active group within the VLN that has a raft of links and ideas to support us.

iOS is not the only option available to schools and when asking parents to finance the device negotiating creative, supportive solutions is essential. Android and Windows Phone7 may offer cheaper options and many apps are available across platforms.

The number of available apps is growing on a daily basis and the challenge of maintaining any directory is something of a Herculean task. Software for Learning is prioritising apps suggested directly by New Zealand teachers.

If you wish to suggest a particular app for students to use in the classroom, you can fill in this brief form for Software for Learning. Alternatively if you know of an iPad app please add a comment to the School iPad/iPod User Group. 

Useful Snapshot links from Software for Learning:

• Using Global Positioning System application, Layar, to share information about students, their school and their town.
• Using Sportypal to personalise and extend athletic achievement.
• Using Thinking Space mindmap as a presentation tool.

Fotopedia has a vast array of stunning photography available for view. It is a collaborative photo encyclopedia that hosts high-quality images whose subjects are matched to Wikipedia articles. Fotopedia magazine has a vast array of quality pictures supported by insightful text on various topics and themes. The most recent at time of publishing being on San Francisco Bay.

But topics range widely from “10 things to do in Tokyo” to “The Song of the Passerines”. Members can sign up independently or through a facebook account and have access to the community space, the forums and user guides. Users are able to add photographs or articles they have written, link these to other supportive material on the site and share their knowledge.

With a focus quality articles and a need for exemplary material this community seeks and offers support to creators as they expand the knowledge base in this resource. Topics, photo albums and articles vary so secondary students and teachers could well find material to support their learning or use this platform as a place to showcase that learning.

Members are able to create photo-driven articles which include Wikipedia and Google Maps information. They can add a limited number of photos per day resulting in a high quality selection of photos.

As well as taking part in the encyclopedia, professional and amateur photographers on Fotopedia can create albums to display their works, use Wikipedia articles to add context and to advertise popular albums.

But the real power of Fotopedia lies in their apps. These cover various topics, themes and locations. All easily adaptable for classroom use.

Useful links

Apps Fotopedia Heritage  - Created in cooperation with the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Fotopedia Heritage provides a virtual passport to the hundreds of sites that constitute the world’s collective cultural and natural human legacy.

Fotopedia Wild Friends - This app is packed with rare and candid scenes, including of artic foxes, chamois, dolphins, ghost sharks, gray wolves, humpback whales and more…

Other Fotopedia apps - Available apps cover a variety of locations around the globe.

Articles

Try Fotopedia for Lessons About Wildlife - a couple of thoughts about Applications for Education written by Richard Byrne

Fotopedia blog  - for announcements, features and the latest on app development.

Fotopedia Heritage – iPhone App of the Week  - elearningstuff reviews the Fotopedia Heritage app

Fotopedia Shifts From iPad Books To Photozine With “Wild Friends” App  - Tech Crunch review of the Wild friends app.

by Pinelopi Zaka (pinelopi.zaka@gmail.com, @paz11uc)

Many teachers are using blogs in the classroom, exploring their unique potential to engage learners through sharing their work with a real audience. A recent article in the online journal Computers in New Zealand Schools: Learning, Teaching, Technology gives an example of using blogs in a primary classroom from the teacher’s point of view. Gillian May started blogging with her students at the beginning of this school year and through her article she unveils some of the unique advantages that this had for her as a teacher and her students. Some of them include:

• · Strengthening home – school connections, by enabling families to have access to student learning.
• · Enhancing student engagement, by motivating them to share their learning with a real audience.

“Our class blog has changed the way our classroom operates and it has improved the link between home and school beyond our wildest dreams”.

“It gives the students ownership but more importantly it gives their learning real-life purpose that means something to them.”

Sara Kajder talks about the potential of emerging technologies such as blogs to provide students the opportunity to write for a real audience, share their learning and become active members of online communities (Kajder, 2007). Not many years ago, the web was a place where people could find and retrieve information. Now, the read/write web gives everyone a voice and instead of passively consuming information we can actively create it through online collaboration (Richardson, 2006).

As teachers, we have the responsibility, but also the power to teach students how to effectively and responsibly take advantage of these opportunities that the read/write web offers. Teachers don’t need sophisticated computer knowledge to do that. As Gillian May said

"Prior to June 2010 I had no experience with blogging. I was introduced to the idea at a professional development session, and decided that I might have a play with setting up my own class blog”.

Trial and error is probably the best way to do it! As we experiment with new tools and as we observe the advantages, especially with student engagement and motivation, but also with parents' involvement in student learning, we get further motivated to continue. Of course, the more we commit to it, the more sensitive we need to become on consequent implication, such as privacy, security and ownership; the web provides many opportunities for professional development about these issues. Lifelong learning - isn't it?

Resources:

• Photo by Cathy Cassidy
• Kajder, S., B. (2007). Unleashing potential with emerging technologies. In K. Beers, R., E., Probst & L., Rief (Eds.). Adolescent literacy: Turning promose into practice (pp.213-229). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
• May G., (2011). A teacher’s experience of using blogs.Computers in New Zealand Schools: Learning, teaching, technology. Vol. 23, No. 2.
• Richardson, W. (2006). Blogs, wikis and podcasts and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Chapter 1: The read/write web. Thousand Oaks, Ca: Corwin Press.
• Open content licencing for educators: A free online workshop designed for educators who want to learn more about open education resources, copyright, and creative commons licences. 23-27 January, 2012.

Cross-posted here.

Getting started with a Youtube Channel

Once you have created a Google Account it is a relatively quick process to create a youtube channel. The following instructions will assist you in beginning that process.

• Use your Google Account details to log into youtube.
• Your account name appears at the top right of the Youtube screen.
• Select it and the dropdown menu will appear.
• Select My Channelfrom the list.
  • Create a username – you may not get your first choice.
  • Select Gender.
  • Click Next.
  • From here you can create a Title for your channel using Settings.
  • Change the Theme and Colors.
  • Or simply select upload from the top right menu bar to get sharing.

Getting started with a Google Account

The following instructions will allow you to create a Google Account.

• Select the Sign in table on the Google Homepage, it is on the top right of the screen.
• Select Create an account for free.
• You will need to input the following:
  • Your current email address
  • Choose a password
  • Re-enter password
  • Location
  • Birthday
  • Word Verification
  • Click accept. Create my account.