Sir Ken

This is a video of a talk by Sir Ken Robinson. Although it is quite long it is well worth watching as there are great thought-provoking ideas in it.

eLearning Research

Sarah Jones from the Ministry of Education has created a social network on Ning for eductors interested in elearning.

The aim of this community is:

From research to practice: transforming New Zealand education through
e-learning

Teachers are encouraged to share evidence about the impact elearning is having on teaching and learning. Members are invited to share research they are doing.

It is so fantastic to be able to share ideas and thoughts with others and to get their feedback.

H. Sapiens Digital: From Digital Immigrants and Digital Natives to Digital Wisdom

In the latest edition of Innovate is an interesting article by Marc Prensky (of Digital natives fame) about Homo Sapiens Digital. He discusses Digital Wisdom and how technology may enhance the homo sapiens digital. It is an interesting read and gives a lot of food for thought about the future.

"I do not think technology is wise in itself (although some day it may be) or that human thinking is no longer necessary or important. It is through the interaction of the human mind and digital technology that the digitally wise person is coming to be. I believe it is time for the emerging digitally wise among us, youth and adults
alike, to embrace digital enhancement and to encourage others to do so. With our eyes wide open to enhancement's potential harm as well as its benefits, let us bring our colleagues, students, teachers, parents, and peers to the digital wisdom of the twenty-first century."

Prensky (2009)

Typealyzer

Typealyzer is a fun site where you can have the writing on your blog analysed!

It also shows you what parts of the brain were dominant during the writing.

Children would have a lot of fun having a look at this. I tried how it would work by using a class blog - it would be a lot of fun for children. I wonder if it would change during the year, for example when the teacher originally set up the site and then as children added to it.

Science education

To help teachers develop their science programmes go to Science Learning.

This site has been set up by colleagues from Canterbury University, University of Waikato and the University of Auckland.

It is aimed to be used with Years 5-10 but there is a lot here that could be used with different levels. There are video clips of various scientists, demonstrations, animations as well as up-to-date information and data.

How wonderful is this, having so many resources to help in our classrooms?

LEARNZ - Virtual field trips

LEARNZ is a educational site for NZ teachers which offers virtual field trips for your class.

I know that many use these experiences regularly but did you know that this year it is free to register your class!

There are 22 trips planned for this year including CSO Making Music and Cool Wind Farm to Antarctica. These experiences are interactive and have a live component where they build relationships with the teachers and students.

There is a video you may like to look at which tells you about the LEARNZ tours.

"LEARNZ offers 20 virtual field trip experiences in 2008 and 20 in 2009: students stay at school but visit places they would never otherwise go to and interact with people they would never meet. Students' participation is supported by online background materials and activities, and is enabled using live audioconferencing, web board and diaries, images and videos uploaded daily.

New for 2009. All New Zealand Registered and Provisionally-Registered teachers are eligible to register free for 2009 (register once - no annual renewal required). Available Now: Teachers, once you have activated your registration, you have full access for 2009 to all field trips for your personal use. You also have access to a personalised control panel called MyLEARNZ (make sure you register first) where you can create a login for your classes and enrol them in 2000-2009 field trips, plus much more!

"

I would be interested in hearing about teachers experiences with LEARNZ as well as hearing from teachers in other countries about Virtual Field trips they are using.

Almanac for Virtual Worlds

FAS (The Federation of American Scientists) has a Virtual Worlds Almanac wiki for people to use. Teachers and students can to here to find information about many virtual worlds.

"We hope this will make it easier for the community to collaborate and to keep abreast of innovations and new product offerings," said FAS President Henry Kelly in a press release. "FAS is interested in the potential virtual worlds offer for education and learning."

I would be interested in hearing from teachers who are using virtual worlds, such as Second Life, in their teaching contacting me.

TPCK

During the summer holidays I have been reading The Handbook of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK) for Educators, Edited by The AACTE Committee on Innovation and Technology.

If you have not read it here is a brief summary.

It looks at the concept and implementation of technological pedagogical content knowledge which is the knowledge and skills teachers need when they integrate technology into their classrooms in meaningful ways. Above left is a graphic to show the the TPCK framework - the complex interplay of three primary forms of knowledge: CK (content knowledge), PK (pedagogical knowledge) and TK (technogical knowledge).

Science web site

Have just been reading an ESchool Newsletter about a science web site for schools.

The Siemens Foundation and Discovery Education have unveiled their new web site aiming to engage students in science education. They provide videos and hands-on activities for earth, life, and physical science to help educators turn their students into aspiring scientists.

I have been looking around the site and it is great. Teachers will find many ideas for their classrooms in here.

You need to sign up to enable you to down videos for example. They obviously think that only people from the USA are going to sign up as you need to give data about your school and give the State you reside in but just ignore those bits and the sign up goes through OK.

Referencing

A student of mine sent me a link to BibMe an easy way to store a bibliography list.

I have tried it out and found it really useful. You can quickly put in the information about your source and it will save in APA, MLA etc. A useful web site for teachers and students alike. I still like the Citation Machine as well but the beauty of this one is it will save the list for you and then you can download it when you are ready. It downloads as an RTF file to Word or another word processing programme.