Web 2.0 - some good videos

Another video from TeacherTube about Web 2.0. This is a great way to introduce Web 2.0 to others. Clearly illustrates and defines Web 2.



Another one I thought was great answers the question :who are our students writing for? and gives ideas for using Web 2

Quality teaching

Alton-Lee, A. (2003) says that quality teaching is identified as a key influence on high quality outcomes for students. She argues that the evidence reveals that up to 59% of a variance in student performance is attributable to differences between teachers and classes.

The ten research-based characteristics for quality teaching that she points to are:

1. Quality teaching is focused on student achievement (including social outcomes) and facilitates high standards of student outcomes for heterogeneous groups of students


2. Pedagogical practices enable classes and other learning groupings to work as caring, inclusive, and cohesive learning communities


3. Effective links are created between school and other cultural contexts in which students are socialised, to facilitate learning


4. Quality teaching is responsive to student learning processes


5. Opportunity to learn is effective and sufficient


6. Multiple task contexts support learning cycles


7. Curriculum goals, resources including ICT usage, task design, teaching and school practices are effectively aligned


8. Pedagogical scaffolds and provides appropriate feedback on students’ task engagement


9. Pedagogy promotes learning orientation, student self-regulation, metacognitive strategies and thoughtful student discourse


10. Teachers and students engage constructively in goal-orientated assessment

Make animations

A great online site for students to go to make animations is Aniboom.



When the student has finished they are able to export the file as an animated gif to use in PowerPoint presentations, web pages etc.

However there is a need to be careful here as there is an area where you are able to watch animations that others have made and some have adult content.

Another program that is available - free to download is Scratch.

They have excellent support with pdf files and videos on the site to help teachers and students. I have uploaded the Getting started with Scratch pdf file into the files on the left of this site so you can download that and get an idea of the program.

Factors Affecting Completion Rates in Asynchronous Online Facilitated Faculty Professional Development Courses

As I am delivering some professional development online courses for teachers I found this an interesting article in the International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning (December, 07).

Study results strongly suggest that achieving comparable completion rates for online facilitated courses relative to classroom courses requires the development of support structures comparable to existing structures for classroom and web-based training courses. >

Well worth reading if you are delivering online courses. In the same edition is another paper "Longitudinal Comparison between Online and Face-to-Face Courses in an Adult Continuing Education Program" which also makes some good points.

The digital native and animation web link

We hear this term a lot. Do we all mean the same thing?
Here is a video (from TeacherTube) that defines one person's idea of a 'digital native' and gives us food for thought about our schools and teaching.



Also worth looking at is Tess Ewart’s Presentation Handouts web site where I found a great video and handout about using animations with children. Although she is promoting a piece of software for this purpose you do not have to use this to accomplish the same thing. I use a variety of pieces of software for animation including Microsoft gif animator (free), Squirtz (free), MovieMaker (free on PC), iMovie (free on Mac), Image Ready (part of PhotoShop) amongst others.

Interactive whiteboard lesson

TeacherTube has a great video to help with using interactive whiteboards. In this video they are also using Google Earth.

Show me the child

Based on 'give me the child until he is seven I will give you the man' there is a really interesting longitudinal study that has been done in Otago (New Zealand) which has been following people born in 1972.

As adults fewer than two-thirds of the original sample of 1037 people still lived in Dunedin, but 97% returned to volunteer yet more detail on their health and wellbeing.

The researchers have been collecting an amazing amount of data which shows a wealth of information that has implications for us as teachers.

The Listener has an article (which is very readable) about this study. Take time to have a look and see what you think.

Laptops in schools

The BaltimoreSun has an interesting article on using laptops in a school. Interesting article to read.

The last word in the article.

We're strongly considering putting on the teacher's laptop a program that would show what every kid has on their screen to see which kid is playing Solitaire

A useful tool for teachers

Video-get looks to be a great tool for teachers wanting to download video from the web for their classrooms:



Also from TeacherTube a video about elearning and how powerful this learning can be. A very effective video.

Online Publications

Online Publications is a great website (from the UK) with many free (pdf files) for teachers. Some of the publications include CD ROMS etc which schools can order. There are lots of good ideas and worthwhile publications here.