Techie Brekkies for students

This term we decided to start a new venture two or three times per term to support students keen to share and use technology together. Our first, early in September, was an introductory ‘fun time’ in Escape Rooms. We provided a simple ‘Covid Friendly’ breakfast and our event was booked out in two days.

Following this we held another event today when students came prepared to work in Minecraft to imagine and design a new library space. Again breakfast was a very important element.

We saw some amazing designs emerge – a floating library high above the earth with a lift system, a Japanese inspired building, a library with a ‘dungeon’ space deep below the earth for the Teacher Librarians to plot together, and a beautifully organised library full of books surrounding a pool!

This was a great example of how collaboration and teamwork occurs in that vital ‘Third Space’!

 

 

Engage students with technology

Kelly Walsh shares ’10 highly engaging uses of technology in the classroom, along with dozens of tools and resources for implementation’ in 10 of the Most Engaging Uses of Instructional Technology (with Dozens of Resources and Tools). This is a great place to explore for new ideas as the new school year begins.
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Flipped Classroom explained

Educational Technology and Mobile Learning have posted a graphic and two videos to explain what in entailed in ‘flipping’ your classroom. It is one of the best explanations I have seen. As personal technology use expands in our school with the implementation of BYOD, Flipped Classroom is now a possibility.

“Flipped classroom or flipped learning is a methodology, an approach to learning in which technology is employed to reverse the traditional role of classroom time. If in the past, classroom time is spent at lecturing to students , now in a flipped model, this time is utilized to encourage individualized learning and provide one-on-one help to students.”
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Google Drive Explained

This video by Martin Shervington very simply, yet comprehensively, explains everything we need to know about Google Drive.

What is Google Drive? A complete guide how to use it. The ease of collaboration makes this something we will look at for using for our Inquiry Circles.
Cloud (storage), Creation, Collaboration, Communication
How to access Google Drive, including from Google+

Year 3 Guided Inquiry Presentations – Vokis

Last Friday all 51 year 3 students and their teachers shared a summary of their ‘reports’ on a selected aspect of The Human Body via personally created Voki avatars. We all enjoyed the variety of information and also the reflection of each child’s creativity in their selection of avatar, background and voice. A lot of laughter and peer learning took place! All Vokis are available from the 2013 Guided Inquiry page
Voki_Jodie

Technology, communication, connection and relationships

Connected, but alone?

As we expect more from technology, do we expect less from each other? Sherry Turkle studies how our devices and online personas are redefining human connection and communication — and asks us to think deeply about the new kinds of connection we want to have.

Sherry Turkle studies how technology is shaping our modern relationships: with others, with ourselves, with it.

 

 

Learning about the Web – 20 different aspects

This site presented in book format by Google with illustrations by Christoph Niemann answers a lot of questions about the Internet; the ‘cloud’, browser cookies, phishing, open source and other things that students need to understand.

What’s a cookie? How do I protect myself on the web? And most importantly: What happens if a truck runs over my laptop?
For things you’ve always wanted to know about the web but were afraid to ask

Web tools for Inquiry Based Learning: Guided Inquiry

The Eduwebinar site has published a page of tools to support Inquiry Based Learning. These are organised by the steps of the Guided Inquiry process as set out in Guided Inquiry Design: A Framework for Inquiry in Your School by Carol C Kuhlthau, Leslie K Maniotes and Anne K Caspari.

For each step there are tools listed and linked to support learning – organising search strategies, organising information, presenting conclusions and supporting the evaluation of Inquiry Learning.