ICT in English NZ

Making the user pay

noreply@blogger.com (Kotare) — Fri, 12 Mar 2021 01:00:00 +0000

The recent developments of cycleways in Lower Hutt are producing the predictable backlash from the local motorists, On 11 March 2021 Victor Ward of Lower Hutt wrote a letter to the Dominion Post arguing that cyclists should have to pay the cost of constructing cyclepaths.

I wrote a letter which was not published but then irony of that sort is seldom appreciated in mass madia. Here, however, is my letter as a blog post.

Victor Ward raises the principle of user pays to fund cycleways. This is an idea which is worthy of further consideration. Victor Ward will be aware of other groups of road users, principally pedestrians, who use the footpath, which is as expensive as a cycleway to construct and maintain. These pedestrians, like cyclists, do not pay for their use of the footpath. Isn’t it about time we explored how they could contribute? At the same time, we would want to include the other users of footpaths, wheelchair users, scooter riders and infants in prams and pushchairs. Then there are mountain-bike trails and bush walks, where mountain-bikers and trampers are using council funded facilities for free.
While a levy on wheels and tyres would cover wheeled users, taxing footwear has difficulties, as some pedestrians walk barefoot, while most motorists wear shoes and are already paying for the roads. Nevertheless, some means of enforcing user pays across all transport users is only fair to the long suffering motorist.

There are good responses in the DomPost of 12th March. Read those too

Stimulating interest in Literature through video

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 06:09:00 +0000

Contributed by Simon Evans

For the last twelve months there has been a small project on Youtube called Bookfighters. Five friends from around the world challenged one another to read a different book each week and share their thoughts on the same youtube channel. What resulted from this was a series of discussions around shared text.

My own response to this project was to create a youtube playlist of my own entitled ‘Book Corner’ where a variety of individuals shared their thoughts on a recent book they have enjoyed.

The same questions were asked of each participant and they are available for download.

Do you think could work with your class?

Cross post on Educating the Dragon.

Photographing Student Writing, Creative Commons and EduCampNZ

noreply@blogger.com (Claire Amos) — Mon, 23 May 2011 18:44:00 +0000

Image:Some rights reserved by TilarX

Over the last two weeks there have been two main threads of discussion:

David Schaumann shared and idea for Photographing Student Writing.

Just thought I'd share a spontaneous moment where ICT fitted nicely into
teaching today. My level three English class were writing paragraphs
based around a close analysis of a scene from their film study. I was
thinking about how to manage feedback, then remembered the Ipod in my
pocket.

Chose three students, photographed finished paragraph, emailed it to
myself, then brought it up on the data projector to provide feedback.

Quality was reasonable, feedback was really meaningful and students now
have the possibility of immediate publication as a motivator to provide
more polished work.

The other thread was around Copyright and Creative Commons.

Also Karen Melhuish wrote a post about Educamp, with Wellington hosting their first EduCampWelly on Saturday 21st May. Check out the wiki to see what went down!

If you are interested in connecting and sharing ideas/experiences about using ICTs to enhance learning, the EduCampNZ series of events might be for you. The Educamp ‘unconference’ concept has snowballed from one event last year, to four in 2011. Be part of the movement!

There are four unconferences being held around New Zealand in the next few months (at the moment only the North Island - unless someone keen wants to get the ball rolling down South.

"EducampNZ is a user-generated 'unconference' focused on e-learning and education.We're all about growing our learning, networking, and, of course, having fun! Everyone is invited to participate in some way..."

Google Docs Discussions, Google Apps Webinars and many upcoming events...

noreply@blogger.com (Claire Amos) — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 20:27:00 +0000

In this issue:

New Google Docs Discussion Feature
Google Apps Webinars
Upcoming Events

Google Docs Discussion Feature The other week Google announced an enhancement to the Google Docs commenting system. The enhancement is being called "discussions." Discussions will allow document collaborators to have threaded conversations in the margins of a document. By including the @ symbol before a collaborator's name you can reply directly to that person. Another option in discussions is the option to be notified via email of replies to your comments in Google Docs. Right now discussions in Google Docs are only available for new documents. If you created a document prior to yesterday midday, it won't have the discussion feature enabled.

Watch the video to learn more about Google Docs discussions. Source

Google Apps for Education Professional Development Webinars
A new round of Google Apps for Education Professional Development Webinars is on offer. These provide fabulous free PD for staff.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Introduction to Apps Scripts
This webinar will cover a high level overview of Google Apps Scripts with basic example demonstrations. One of the advantages of Apps Script is that it lets you customize Google Apps to fit your organization needs.
Register

Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Introduction to Google Docs
Explore Google Docs and learn how this suite of services can be utilized for productivity, communication and collaboration in the classroom. This webinar will also include a tour of the recent updates, classroom management strategies and a "Top 10" tips.
Register

Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Taking advantage of templates in Google Apps
Learn how to harness the power of templates in both Google Docs and Sites. Organize your institution's standard forms and documents through your domain's template gallery.
Register

Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Introduction to Google Calendar
This webinar will focus on using Google Calendar in the classroom.
Register

You can also access archived webinars in our Google Apps for Education Resource Center.

Other Upcoming Events

NZATE/IFTE Conference
18-21 April
University of Auckland

This is the annual English conference this year, so start thinking internationally. Check out the conference site here.

Emerging Leaders Symposium
28-29th April 2011
Albany Senior High, Auckland

Did you know?
• 10,000 of New Zealand's 50,000 teachers are nearing retirement age.
• 50% of newly-qualified teachers leave the profession within the first 5 years.

We need to foster emerging leaders in education. We need to give them a voice and support them to develop a vision for the future of education, because soon that future will be in their hands. To this end, a group of emerging leaders have convened a two-day symposium in Auckland on 28th and 29th April 2011. Emerging leaders are invited to attend this 'unconference' to prepare a vision for the future of education in New Zealand-Aotearoa. This vision will be presented to Karen Sewell on the second day of the symposium.

What can you do?
• Spread the word. Print the attached flier and distribute it.
• Send people to the website
• Join our Facebook page
• Seek out emerging leaders in education. We need people who can look beyond what is, to see what might be.

EduCampAKL
Saturday 6th August,
2011 Epsom Girls Grammar School, Auckland

If you are new to the un-conference format, read about last year's event: EduCamp is based on a user generated 'unconference' where the focus is on e-learning and education, sharing ideas we've discovered and learning from each other. Everyone is invited to participate in some way. The purpose of EduCamp is to both learn and contribute. No real agenda is set and it will be up to participants to determine the focus for the sessions, grow their learning, network and have fun! More including video Check out the EduCampAKL wiki.

EduCampWelly
21st May, 2011
Wellington College

Just wanted to announce EduCampWelly is taking place on May 21st, here in what will then probably be bleak and yet bracing Wellington.

To quote the blurb: "EducampNZ is a user-generated 'unconference' focused on e-learning and education.We're all about growing our learning, networking, and, of course, having fun! Everyone is invited to participate in some way..." The organisers are keen to have individuals from across the NZ primary, ECE, secondary, tertiary sector involved - as well as those from the MOE and beyond. Teachers, administrators, geeks and non-geeks are all welcome. It's about having some input, sharing ideas and listening to others who are all about making education, learning and our place on the planet better.

The venue is Wellington College - a big thank you to them for their generosity and wifi.There is no fee for attending. There is no food or drink provided, but one of Wellington's friendliest wine establishments is nearby, as well as a limited assortment of cafes and golden arched eateries.

If you attend, you're responsible for contributing, challenging and considering. If you don't attend, you won't get to see the historic glory that is the Basin Reserve. Direct all questions, thoughts, and ideas to the wiki.

ICTs and diversity, ideas for using Flip cameras and more!

noreply@blogger.com (Claire Amos) — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 04:59:00 +0000

In this issue:
• ICTs and Diversity
• Using Flip Cameras in the Classroom
• Christchurch Support Wiki
• NZATE/IFTE Conference Reminder

ICTs and Diversity
Phil inspired an interesting discussion about ICTs and Diversity when he made a request for idea for an upcoming article. Click here to check out the archives. Some highlights include:

From Suzie Vesper: There is a MoE project that could be of interest to you in relation to meeting the diverse needs of learners. We have set up a trial virtual school to support ESOL students from around the country. Students are put forward by their own schools and then become part of our online school working with virtual teachers and having access to course work in Moodle, live lessons in Adobe Connect, documents and eportfolios in Google Apps (including Teacher Dashboard) and collaborative, social spaces in ELGG. We are also bringing in other existing online tools such as Voicethread, Raz Kids and Study Ladder. Our focus is on how we can help support students using ICTs that have limited access to specialist teachers within their own schools. There are two of us that are eTeachers for the trial programme and it should be a very interesting year!

And from Fiona Grant: Some interesting considerations in Tiakiwai and Tiakiwai (link below) that emphasise the importance of context and relevance to the learner and their experience in selection and design of learning experiences, teachers knowing the learner and awareness of how our (the teacher's) cultural and social understandings impact on how we use and integrate ICTs.

A Literature Review focused on Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) and e-Learning in the Context of Te Reo Maori and Kaupapa Maori Education. Tiakiwai and Tiakiwai (2010)

Similar to Liz, we have also used the ELP Honeycomb to develop some shared principles identified as being key components of effective teaching for Pasifika learners (synthesised from Pasifika Education Plan, Teaching for Diverse Students in Schooling BES...) and similar with the Maori Potential Approach from Kahikitia to explore these ideas in this eStory on Software for Learning.

Using Flip cameras in the classroom
A request came from Kerri Jopp for siigestions and ideas about using flip cameras in the class room. Two sites were recommended: a google doc with Many Ways to use Flips - contributed to by teachers around the globe and Kelly Faulkner shared a post from her blog. You might also like to check out the Google presentation 43 Interesting Ways to Use Your Pocket Video Camera in the Classroom

Christchurch Earthquake
As large numbers of Christchurch schools re-open this week, a reminder about the wiki set up by Marielle Lange where you can either offer help to those schools or seek help if you are in one of those schools. To date there are quite a few offers of help at the wiki where teachers may offer or request specific help – this could also include secondary. There is one page for "I can help" and another one for "I Need Help".

NZATE/IFTE Conference Reminder
This is the annual English conference this year, so start thinking internationally. Check out the conference site here.
Please note - The IFTE/NZATE "Much Ado About English" conference organising committee is happy to extend the early bird deadline for Christchurch schools/teachers until 15th March to allow more time for Christchurch schools and teachers to process their registrations in light of the Christchurch earthquake.

Sites for creating comics and a new home for Ulearn11!

noreply@blogger.com (Claire Amos) — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 08:58:00 +0000

In this issue:
• Sites for creating comics
• New location for Ulearn 11

Sites for creating comics
Moira made a request for good sites for creating comics. This resulted in a flurry of recommendations, including; Kerpoof, Toondo, readwritethink interactive comic, superactioncomicmaker and makebeliefscomix
Suzie Vesper shared the following links: Comic Life is an excellent software application for creating comics. You can get information about this on the Software for Learning website I've also put together an educator's guide to Comic Life available here. You can also search Software for Learning for comics and it brings up three options.

Or you can also check Jaqui Sharp’s comic links on Delicious.

ULEARN11 is ON in the Energy Events Centre in Rotorua
From the Ulearn website: CORE Education is working hard to ensure Ulearn11 will continue as normal this year. We want to continue the momentum of past conferences ensuring that those strong networks created over the last 6 years of Ulearn Conferences continue.
Start planning your attendance. Check out all the details here.

Christchurch Earthquake, Facebook, Blogger and more

noreply@blogger.com (Claire Amos) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 09:09:00 +0000

In this issue:
• Christchurch Earthquake
• Using Facebook
• Blogger
• NZATE/IFTE Conference Reminder

Christchurch Earthquake
Our thoughts go out to all of those affected by Tuesday’s devastating earthquake and particularly to our fellow teachers from Christchurch who will, once again, play an incredibly important role as young people and their families try to achieve a sense of normality in the coming months - Kia Kaha! Make sure you check out one of the 101 English Blogs, the Motivating Ms M. post on Natural Disasters. Inspired by this momentous event, the post looks at ways we can encourage empathy in our students through writing activities. Make sure you check out the post and share your thoughts and ideas.

There have been several offers of help from teachers around the country to our colleagues in Christchurch. On literacy online, Marielle let the community know about this wiki where teachers may offer or request specific help – this could also include secondary. There is one page for "I can help" and another one for "I Need Help".

You can also join the Rise Up Christchurch Facebook page here.

Using Facebook
Simon Evans added a few more resources for teachers using Facebook with their students. Forgot the Facebook discussion on Software for Learning, Facebook in Education and Facebook/cybersafety on Educating the Dragon blog.

Blogger
In response to an earlier blog discussion, Allanah provided some support for using blogger with this step by step what to do.

NZATE/IFTE Conference Reminder
Early bird registrations for the April IFTE Conference close in a week on 1 day international English teachers’ conference is a very reasonable $400. There is no annual English conference this year, so start thinking internationally.

Please note - The IFTE/NZATE "Much Ado About English" conference organising committee is happy to extend the early bird deadline for Christchurch schools/teachers until 15th March to allow more time for Christchurch schools and teachers to process their registrations in light of the Christchurch earthquake.

Book Reviews, considerations for teachers online and more

noreply@blogger.com (Claire Amos) — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 05:47:00 +0000

Book Reviews

Rebecca shared her class Reading Log blog and made a request for some book review formats. Allanah recommended the Manaiakalani Project, Fiona suggested looking at some existing reviews and Diedre shared a range of resources which can be accessed through the archives here.

Considerations for teachers using Web 2.0 and Social Networking sites

Moira sent an email asking about the Teacher Council’s position on teacher’s using Facebook which prompted an interesting discussion. Karen recommended several readings that can be accessed here. Nancy shared some of the great Netsafe resources available on the issue of considerations for all educators using Web 2.0 and Networking environments with their students. A timely reminder, considering the furor that has arisen around the “profanity-laced blog”, written by the American English teacher Natalie Munroe. If you haven’t seen the article, you can read it here.

101 English Blogs

We now have 52 blogs signed up; will one of you be next?

NZATE/IFTE Conference Reminder

Early bird registrations for the April IFTE Conference close in a week on 1 day international English teachers’ conference is a very reasonable $400. There is no annual English conference this year, so start thinking internationally.

The Horizon Report, 101 English Blogs and IFTE/NZATE Conference

noreply@blogger.com (Claire Amos) — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 21:04:00 +0000

In this update:
• The Horizon Report
• ICTs in English Blog
• 101 English Blogs – 36 signed up, still looking for more English teacher blogs!
• IFTE/NZATE 'Much Ado About English' Conference – early bird registration closes March 1st

The Horizon Report
Joanne Thom sent an update about the recently published Horizon Report:
Not sure if anyone has posted this link yet: The key trends at the start are particularly interesting (and are reflected in this forum, I think):

The abundance of resources and relationships
made easily accessible via the Internet is
increasingly challenging us to revisit our roles
as educators in sense-making, coaching, and
credentialing.

People expect to be able to work, learn, and
study whenever and wherever they want.

The world of work is increasingly collaborative,
giving rise to reflection about the way student
projects are structured

The technologies we use are increasingly
cloud-based, and our notions of IT support
are decentralized.

ICTs in English Blog
Fiona Grant sent through a post about how to make the most of our blog

Claire has also made searching the Listserv updates on the blog easier by adding labels to each of posts. These are a really handy for searching past Listserv topics.
You have two options - either click the label at the end of the update post to view all posts which include that topic or scroll down the page to the View posts by topic gadget and click the relevant key word.

You can also use the Search this blog gadget, however this search will return every instance of that word in the blog.

101 English Blogs Project
The project is humming! Check it out here. We already have 36 English teachers from around the globe sharing their English blogs. I would love to add more Kiwis (and Australians) to the list!

The aim project is to encourage 101 English teachers from around the world to start blogging (or share existing blogs) about their English teaching. The '101 English Blogs' blog will list each of the 101 blogs and will be a place for sharing and highlighting what is going on in over 100 English classrooms around the world.

Are you an English teacher? Keen to be part of the project??
If you are an English teacher and are keen to share your reflections, ideas and resources with a wider English community, all you need to do is establish a blog, or share an already established one. You can simply share your blog URL, so it can be one of the 101 listed blogs or you can even become an author of the 101 blog as well - so you can post occasional updates about what you and others have been blogging about.

As the project facilitator, I will also try to visit and highlight posts from bloggers within our 101 English Blogs community. However, I am hoping that this can as much of a shared project as possible, so if you if you would like to join this blog as an author, please do! I would also love your support in sharing the project with your colleagues and by signing up to the follow the blog.

Interested? Feel free to contact me at am@eggs.school.nz or through our forum.

IFTE /NZATE 'Much Ado About English' Conference 2011
18-21st April 2011
Of particular interest to this forum is the strand 'New Technologies, New Practices'
This strand invites contributors to focus on, but not be limited by, one or more of
the following sub-themes:
• Impact of digital technologies on teaching and learning
• Challenges and tensions for teachers
• Changing parameters of the classroom
• Transformative possibilities for teaching
• Online learning
• Digitization of literature
• New conceptions of text
• Pedagogy of e-learning
• Co-construction and the digital classroom
• Assessment practices in new times
• Plagiarism, intertextuality and creativity
• The social networking classroom

Check out the details here (and consider presenting a workshop as well!)

Safer Internet Day

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 03:54:00 +0000

Feb 8^th is Safer Internet Day!

At the end of last year a student asked me "Who's responsible for what is on the internet?" The answer to that question has certainly become easier to answer since the advent of Web2.0. The answer is 'you and I'. We define the internet by our contributions to it. We make it a meaningful and safe tool by the way we use it.

Here’s a two helpful bits from NetSafe’s hub of cybersafety resources designed to help teachers and students create a 'safer internet'.

Help students understand Booleen logic by showing them how booleen operators can instantly change search results.

Microsoft has developed lessons plans and demonstrations to help young people develop critical thinking about the validity of online information.

Over 160 cybersafety and digital citizenship resources are available online.

Take the NetSafe Poll!

We’ve identified 5 videos on cyberbullying and internet safety produced by organisations around the globe. Each takes a different approach to delivering the message.

We’d really value your comments about who you see as the appropriate audience for these kinds of messages and if you think they spark some understanding with children and their parents.
View the videos here

Nancy

NetSafe

Choice of Font, Reading Comprehension, NZ Book Month, 101 English Blogs and more

noreply@blogger.com (Claire Amos) — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 05:01:00 +0000

In this update:

Choice of font for 2011
Reading Comprehension
NZ Book Month
101 English Blogs - looking for English teacher blogs!
IFTE/NZATE 'Much Ado About English' Conference

Hi all,

Great to see our online community is humming already. There were two main threads this week: choice of font and reading comprehension. I also want to to highlight a few upcoming events!

Choice of font 2011

Phil Coogan shared an article : Who's laughing now? Teachers told detested Comic Sans is the right type after all

Allanah King responded with this post about the Kiwi Font: A few years ago I was bemoaning that fact that we didn't have a NZ handwriting font and John Greatorex from Aussie took up my challenge and made the Kiwi font. I sent him the NZ handwriting booklet pages and he copied it from there. Perfect for New Zealand

It is his business but $60 for a school license is not bad.

Karen Melhuish added another idea to the mix. Or you could convert your own handwriting to True Type, as Derek Wenmoth explored last year. (Not sure mine's up to it, mind you....!)

The question is, why (she says, rather provocatively)? In these times when many of us can type faster than we can wield a pen, is handwriting a dying art??

Miriam Tuohy added - Thought you might be interested in this website, which looks at the use of comic sans and typography (briefly) from a design point of view. Worth a look if you have a few minutes, and has a link through to alternative fonts for dyslexia if that is a concern.

You'll notice that even though the site is decidedly anti-Comic Sans, it does recognise it as a useful choice for young children and dyslexics. Personally, I don't see why, as children move on from learning to read, having an awareness or understanding of print design elements would be a bad thing - another type of media literacy, if you will. I certainly see young kids choosing all sorts of horrendously illegible or unsuitable fonts for use in their keynotes etc at school here. I know it's not something everyone cares about, per se, but it is something that affects our perception of written communications, whether we're particularly aware of it or not.

My favourite site for finding beautiful free fonts lately, is myfonts.com - you may be able to find something you like there. This search is for the category "legible" with price = $0 :-)

Reading Comprehension

Rochelle Jensen shared Robyn Hurliman's effelowship research and here own resorces for developing a reading comprehension task.

One of our key reading goals is to support our students ( Yr 6) to gain a deeper understanding of the text by using a range of comprehension strategies.

Have found the ‘Literacy Circle’ work by Robyn Hurliman, from Owhata School fantastic in supporting the implementation of literacy circles. Thanks Robyn!

I have created the following learning path, this path will be used as part of our literacy rotation/task-board.

Into The Book also looks fantastic.

NZ Book Month

Check out the lastest ICTs in English blog post about NZ Book Month

101 English Blogs Project

The aim of this project is to encourage 101 English teachers from around the world (okay probably just NZ...)to start blogging about their English classrooms. The '101 English Blogs' blog will list each of the 101 blogs and will be a place for sharing and highlighting what is going on in over 100 English classrooms.

Are you an English teacher? Keen to be part of the project??
If you are an English teacher and are keen to share your reflections, ideas and resources with a wider English community, all you need to do is establish a blog, or share an already established one. You can simply share your blog URL, so it can be one of the 101 listed blogs or you can even become an author of the 101 blog as well - so you can post occasional updates about what you and others have been blogging about.

As the project facilitator, I will also try to visit and highlight posts from bloggers within our 101 English Blogs community. However, I am hoping that this can as much of a shared project as possible, so if you if you would like to join this blog as an author, please do! I would also love your support in sharing the project with your colleagues and by signing up to the follow the blog.

I have established English blog #1 The Virtual Classroom which will follow my three English classes (Year 11, 12 and 13) at Epsom Girls Grammar School. Now I just need to find 100 more....

Interested? Feel free to contact me at am@eggs.school.nz or through our forum.

IFTE /NZATE 'Much Ado About English' Conference 2011

18-21st April 2011

Of particular interest to this forum is the strand 'New Technologies, New Practices'

This strand invites contributors to focus on, but not be limited by, one or more of
the following sub-themes:
• Impact of digital technologies on teaching and learning
• Challenges and tensions for teachers
• Changing parameters of the classroom
• Transformative possibilities for teaching
• Online learning
• Digitization of literature
• New conceptions of text
• Pedagogy of e-learning
• Co-construction and the digital classroom
• Assessment practices in new times
• Plagiarism, intertextuality and creativity
• The social networking classroom

Check out the details here (and consider presenting a workshop as well!

What are you reading?

noreply@blogger.com (Fiona Grant) — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 05:56:00 +0000

March 2011 is New Zealand Book month. While I am always interested in what people are reading I am also wondering- what are you reading it on?

Having just spent the last month on holiday my reading material was strictly hard copy although not sure how long this will continue. Have also been regaled by some amusing stories from recreational readers and their iPads.

If you missed last November's e-reader discussion on the list serv it included useful links for those exploring effective use of iPads and e-readers in schools.

New Zealand Book Month encourages Kiwis to celebrate books and reading with lots of suggestions for how people can get involved. I am not seeing a lot of obvious reference to e-readers on the website, however I am sure there is a place for things digital amongst the book month activities listed in addition to joining the Facebook page

I am currently reading Stephen Fry's The Fry Chronicles: An Autobiography (which can be purchased in any number of formats) and return to work this week with a quote referenced from it's pages...

"Work is more fun than fun" Noel Coward

ICTs in English Update - it's a bumper edition!

noreply@blogger.com (Claire Amos) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 17:49:00 +0000

In this update:

e-books
Upcoming conferences
Handy handouts
Moodle 2.0 news
Free PD opportunities

e-books

It has been a busy couple of weeks on the forum with a lot of discussion around e-books! There is clearly a divided camp out there - one still passionate about the tactile experience of paper books and those passionate about the pragmatic nature of the e-book. I for one am happy to have a foot firmly in both camps - I will always love the smell and romance of a second book shop and will continue to collect and fill book shelves around the house. That said, I also think I need (okay...want) an e-reader for Christmas - much easier to transport a virtual library to my seaside summer holiday! Or maybe I need an ipad (for the virtual magazine shop).

It would be interesting to see how we would view this forum discussion in 10 years time?! Would we be heartened or humoured. It sort of reminds me of the discussion that used happen when vinyl started to be CDs and now itunes...I guess it is just a matter of "only time will tell".

Karen Melhuish shared some interesting resources to support this discussion:

Are Electronic Books Effective in Teaching Young Children Reading and Comprehension?

Digistore wiki on integrating digital content

Electronic books in the just-released Horizon Report 2010 (from page 8)........sneak peek via Derek Wenmoth's blog

Upcoming Conferences

Learning @ School Conference

23-25^th February 2011.

Much Ado About English

IFTE /NZATE Conference 2011

18-21st April 2011

Of particular interest to this forum is the strand 'New Technologies, New Practices'

Check out the details (and consider presenting a workshop as well!)

Finally, here are a few things I have been working on and looking at over the last couple of weeks. I thought they may well useful as you start to think about how you might integrate ICT into your planning for 2011

Handy Handouts

I have put together a series of handy one page handouts suitable for teachers or students, including:

Introduction to Facebook Groups
Introduction to Google Sites
Introduction to Google Forms
Introduction to Google Docs

Moodle 2.0

Many of you will have heard that Moodle 2.0 is coming. It was officially launched on 24th November. If you are intereted in finding out more about how Moodle 2.0 differs from the present version, you can check out the release notes here:

You can find out more about Moodle on Software for Learning

PD opportunity for teachers - a free online seminar for Google Apps for Education

With senior classes gone and the term winding up, you might like to take up this opportunity for some free PD!

Taking the Core features of Google Apps to the next level.
Skill level: Intermediate
Lead by Michael Wacker, Google Apps for Education Certified Trainer and Google Certified Teacher

We will explore 5 "killer" features to be used in a K-12 setting in 5 Google tools. Take your Google astuteness to the next level. Join us to learn tips and tricks on Search, Documents, Forms/Spreadsheets, Sites, and Calendar.

or you could simply check out a Google apps demo here.

Secondary English Teacher Blogs

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs C) — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 06:01:00 +0000

It was great to hear about some of the ways that English teachers and departments are thinking about and are integrating ICT into their class and department practices.

After the Introduction to e-learning workshops at the SAATE (South Auckland Association of Teachers of English) PD day held on Friday, Chris from Aorere College shared their Dept website with me. Still developing content but you can see what they are doing here Aorere English Department.

Manurewa English teachers are experimenting with the new 'group' content of Facebook. After finding that the students were not that keen to use the school 'intranet' group pages were set up for some English classes. Students familiar with and already using Facebook were ready and willing to discuss there class texts there. Teachers also found that the their personal profiles were no longer of interest to the students!

What else is being done in Secondary English teachers out there.....

ICTs in English Weekly Update - Digistore, Software for Learning and Mix and Mash Month!

noreply@blogger.com (Claire Amos) — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 07:43:00 +0000

Last week Fiona Grant sent out some updates:

Wiki Updates
Digistore wiki: Teaching and learning with primary sources (original documents and digital objects) Practical support material for teaching and learning with primary sources. Includes archived materials from NZ and international museums and libraries. Includes some very handy teacher guides and analysis tools that can be downloaded and repurposed.

Software for Learning wiki: Focusing Inquiry
In this snapshot of learning see how a 'smart tool' can support teachers to learn about their students' learning. The snapshot includes easy to follow instructions that can be downloaded to accompany short screencasts demonstrating each step.

Mix and Mash Month
A chance to show the world what you can do with New Zealand digital content and data. Entries close Tuesday 30 November 2010

Categories include:

Best redesign of a teaching resource

Awarded to the best new teaching resource created by remixing existing educational materials for use in the NZ curriculum.

Best poem inspired by the New Zealand Poet Laureate Awarded to the most inspiring poem remixed from words and images chosen by NZ Poet Laureate Cilla McQueen.

I would still love to hear from you about anything you have trialled in 2010 or are planning for 2011!

Creative Commons, Cloud Computing, Social Networking, Blogs, Wikis and more...

noreply@blogger.com (Claire Amos) — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 00:47:00 +0000

Nothing to report from last week, but I would like to highlight some great free ICT PD opportunities again!

K12 online conference – a free online conference taking place now!
K12 Online invites participation from educators around the world interested in innovative ways Web 2.0 tools and technologies can be used to improve learning. This FREE conference is run by volunteers and open to everyone. The 2010 conference theme is "Cultivating the Future." This year’s conference began with a pre-conference keynote the week of October 11, 2010. The following two weeks, October 18 and October 25, forty presentations will be posted online for participants to view, download, and discuss.

Here are a few more of the presentations that look particularly interesting for secondary (English) teachers.

Creative Commons: What Every Educator Needs to Know - discover how learners of all ages are gaining access to millions of free images, audio files, video elements, and written materials allowing the creation of unique multimedia products.

C^4: Leveraging The Power Of Blogs And Wikis In Student Learning – a great example of how a combination of wikis and blogs can be used in and beyond the secondary classroom (I also like that it is the students teaching us as presenters in this one!)

Don’t Fear the Cloud, Embrace and Leverage It! – a great introduction to the concept of ‘cloud computing’ and why we don’t need to fear Google Docs

The Classroom Social Network – It’s More than Fun, It’s Fundamental to Modern Learning! – great ideas for using social networking to support teaching and learning. Focuses on Weebly, Facebook and Twitter.

All of these presentations will be available indefinitely, make sure you check out the whole conference schedule!

I would love to hear from you about your reflections about how you used ICT in English in 2010 and/or your plans for 2011 – are you using a class wiki? A Google site? Setting up students with blogs? A Facebook group? Sharing on Google Docs? Using Wikieducator? Blogging about your teaching? Using Weebly or Ning? Trialling Prezi as a presentation tool? Creating Learning Paths on Digistore? Share your e-learning stories (or plans) here!

K12 Online, Allanah King, Teaching and E-learning, Twitter and more...

noreply@blogger.com (Claire Amos) — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 01:13:00 +0000

Nothing to report from last week, but I would like to highlight some great free ICT PD opportunities!

K12 online conference – a free online conference taking place now!
K12 Online invites participation from educators around the world interested in innovative ways Web 2.0 tools and technologies can be used to improve learning. This FREE conference is run by volunteers and open to everyone. The 2010 conference theme is "Cultivating the Future." This year’s conference began with a pre-conference keynote the week of October 11, 2010. The following two weeks, October 18 and October 25, forty presentations will be posted online for participants to view, download, and discuss.

Check out the link here to see the schedule for upcoming presentations and for links to presentations that have already taken place.

Of particular note, is the presentation by NZ’s own Allanah King which looks at ‘A Week in the Classroom 2010’. Check out the presentation above, or the full presentation and supporting info here.

Other interesting topics include: ‘Creative Commons: What Every Educator Needs to Know’ and ‘The Classroom Social Network’ – lots to check out!

If you prefer your PD to be more bite-sized, you are welcome to check out the Teaching and e-learning blog. This blog is designed to provide ICT PD support for all teachers, offering weekly updates and online tutorials. You feedback and ideas are welcome!

Twitter update
Also, Fiona Grant has been working at establishing a #tag for identifying posts relating to ICTs in English, simply add #ictinenglish to any posts relating to the use of ICT in the English clasroom, that way related posts can be easily searched! These posts will also be displayed on our ICTs in English blog

If you check out the K12 online conference, make sure you share you feedback and recommendations here!

Room 23 Waimataitai School

noreply@blogger.com (Serena) — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 21:17:00 +0000

"We are a group of 5 year old children who love learning. Our teachers are Mrs Donaldson and Mrs Charteris. Visit our blog here..."

Room 23 Waimataitai School

PLNs, Twitter, e-learning resources and more.....

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs C) — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 20:23:00 +0000

One of the benefits of moving from the classroom last year into School Support Services is that I have had the time to 'look' around and discover some of the FAB resources, ideas and links that I have been following on my own Twitter PLN. The down side is that while I can share them all with teachers that I work with, I need to be back in a classroom in order to be able to use them with students myself !!!

Thought I'd take this opportunity to share some of the tools/activities/resources that I have bookmarked to use with an English class (when I get back into one!!!!).

A great resource for poetry techniques is Patterns of Poetry .

Shakespeare plays in a Wordle .

A couple of great links for writing around comic books and superheroes are Real life superheroes and Superhero Squad .

Fun writing starters at Shortest Book Titles , UK TwitterLit , 100 best first lines and Weird things banned at school

Pairing poetry with photos at Poetry Pairing .

A fun way to differentiate tasks The Differentiator

Fun with language learning at 11 longest words ... and with photos of famous people (US Presidents) !!

Discussion around books at Banned Books

Some interesting conversations around literature Complicated relationships and Book Covers

Great editing/adapting of films 40 film speeches in 2 minutes and Film tattoos

For those of you thinking that I'm not going for any 'high brow educational theory' here's a study and thesis site for Plath and movies for Gifted Students.

The thing is of course, that by the time I have finished this there will have been approximately 60+ tweets from the 60+ (I can't keep up with too many more) tweeters that I follow on twitter :o The joy of time and a mobile internet connection!

Alison Cleary
@http://mrscsbookblog.blogspot.com/
@The Invisible Teacher
@Twitter

ICTs in English Weekly Update - Term 4 Week 1

noreply@blogger.com (Claire Amos) — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 23:20:00 +0000

Last Week on ICTs in English

There was a continuation of the discussion around the topic of ‘Using Twitter as a PLN’

There were several great recommendations:

From Simon Evans:

Software for Learning There is a full write up about twitter and some useful links on the Software for Learning website for teachers starting out.

From Tamara Yuill Proctor:

I have found Twitter a useful way to gather information/resources over the past couple of months. I did a collaborative paper where one of the tools I looked at was Twitter - a small section of this is posted on my blog if anyone wants to have a look.

From Fiona Grant:

A Twitteraholic's Guide to tweets, hashtags, and all things Twitter

by Sue Waters

And Allanah King:

This wiki of Twitter types may help you.

Other contributors also offered up their “Who I follow” lists for inspiration

Kelly Faulkner - @kiwispouse

Karen Melhuish - @virtuallykaren

And for those who can’t bring themselves to peruse twitter itself, I really like this software that allows you to read Twitter links of the people you follow as if it were a newspaper!

Here is my paper paper.li

You can even view twitter entries about a specific topic (posts identified with a specific keyword – referred to as a hash tag on Twitter). Here is one for #edtech

By using this, you could even follow topics from Twitter without even joining Twitter – but what fun would that be!?

This week I would love to hear from you about how you are integrating or combining software and websites for your students – do you combine Moodle and Google Docs, or wikis and blogs? What else?

ICTs in English Weekly Update, Term 3 Week 10 (and Ulearn!)

noreply@blogger.com (Claire Amos) — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 02:13:00 +0000

During the holidays I was lucky enough to attend the Ulearn conference (where I even got to meet a few of you face to face!). Thanks to the Core team for yet another great Ulearn! Common themes dealt with at the conference were around how quickly the world is changing and how students are changing also - the term Digital Natives was mentioned often. When it came to workshops I attended several that dealt with Google Apps. I was particularly interested in the development of Google sites, particularly when these are intergrated with other Google apps such as embedded forms and calendars.

As any good conference does, I came away with many questions.

How are we meeting the challenge of faced paced change and meeting the needs of increasingly diverse learners (I refuse to believe they are indeed all digital natives). Also, how are we starting to integrate all of the great software out there? Are you embedding apps into your wikis? Embedding forms or calendars or videos into moodle?? It feels like it is no longer about one software, but more about the effective integration of a whole range of tools and strategies to meet specific teaching and learning needs. Your thoughts (and own questions) are invited!

The last week of last term was a quiet week on the ICTs in English forum.

The following is the post I sent out during that week (any other recommendations about who to follow is also invited!).

One idea that seems to be going down well is the idea of using Twitter as a PLN (Personal Learning Network). All this really means is that you create a Twitter account for yourself and simply "follow" people or companies that can keep you updated and deliver you relevant links and readings to your home page.

You don't even have to "tweet" yourself if you don't want to. I have only recently got back into Twitter, and have found that it is really effective as a kind of personal professional development tool that can be completely tailored to my own needs and interests. Below are some of the people and places I have been following:

Considering Twitter as a PLN!

Who you could follow on Twitter:

MinEducationNZ Ministry of Education NZ
Edscapes PPTA Professional
edconnectnz Edconnect
tedtalks TEDTalks Updates
TKINewZealand Te Kete Ipurangi
educationweek Education Week
TeachersTV Teachers TV
netsafeNZ NetSafe NZ
SirKenRobinson Sir Ken Robinson Los Angeles

eschoolnews eSchool News
DigistoreNZ Digistore
Software4LnrNZ
Interfacemag Interface Magazine Auckland, New Zealand
shiftingthinkng Shifting Thinking
NZCERPress NZCER Press
CoreEducation Core Education
nzcurriculum NZC

Another good technique is to have looksy at who like-minded educators are following, and poach from their list! You could check out:

ClaireAmosNZ That's me!
virtuallykaren Karen Melhuish

fionagrant Fiona Grant

Let me know who you recommend from the Twittersphere (including yourself!) and how you use it.

ICTS in English Weekly Update - Week 9, Term 3 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Claire Amos) — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 03:18:00 +0000

Google for Teachers -

Last week on ICTs in English:

Catherine Lee shared her e-learning story:
I've had success with a project using video inspired by Rattle ya dags.

The task was for my Y9 English students to create a short presentation (30 seconds or so) that would be inspirational for other teenagers -- either 'life lessons' or what they would tell students entering our school as new Y9s. We used wallwisher to create the success criteria, & I put a selection (mostly ones with young women in them) of the videos on Moodle. We looked at several of them together as a class too. A few technical hiccups, but fun, & some lovely videos.

Karen Melhuish shared an idea for using Google forms:
I've started using these instead of tools like Surveymonkey. They are easy to create and allow you to tailor a whole range of question types to find out what your students know/think. You can then share them, embed them in a class blog, or send to students/parents via email (and you can choose from a range of exciting themes and colours!;-))

The results are automatically collated in a spreadsheet - and you can share that too, to help groups plan next steps together. So, for example, you could use this to:

gather understanding to inform your planning prior to the start of a unit
check understanding/mood/engagement throughout a course to help you adjust your teaching as you go
ask for students' feedback on what you're all doing during a unit of work
ask students to self-assess against various questions

Suzie Vesper shared her passion for Google Tools:
I am a huge Google fan. I've started to amass resources for Google Tools on my wiki (not all completed yet but a lot there).

Tom Barrett has to be the best blogger out there that talks about using Google Tools. He has many examples of how to use Google Forms including how to collect reading responses from students. He had an example of using Google Earth to create an interactive story map where there are recordings of children embedded in the map speaking as if the main character moving around the location. He shows how he has used Google Docs for collaborative writing and a WHOLE lot more.

He is also the instigator of the collaborative series of presentations full of 'Interesting ways' to improve teaching and learning and a few of these focus on Google Tools. He actively seeks new ideas for these if you have something to add.

I know that Rachel Boyd set up a collaborative writing project between her junior Nelson class and a class in Auckland. The kids jumped onto a Google Doc at the same time each morning as their partners in the other school and then collaboratively wrote a story with them. You can read about it on her blog.

For an online ESOL school project I am working on, we have been creating activities for the students to use with the new Google Drawing tool option (part of Google Docs). You can see an example of a labeling activity I put together here.

Thank you for your contributions this term - hopefully I will get to meet some of you face to face at Ulearn, in the mean time here is some reading for your holidays!

I have also been investigating the potential for Google apps, here are a few handy links if you would like to learn more!
Google Apps for e-portfolios
100 ways Google can make you a better educator
Free Technology for Teachers: Google Tools Tutorials

ICTS in English Weekly Update - Week 8, Term 3 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Claire Amos) — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 00:25:00 +0000

Last week on ICTs in English:

Jill Hammonds launched a Earthquake-Shakeup wiki

This is designed to be a truly interactive collaborative teaching and learning opportunity!

From the wiki creator Jill Hammonds: "Over the next weeks we hope this will be a place where schools, students, experts and other interested people from around the world will come and share their ideas and experiences around earthquakes. This is a collaborative project opportunity, and the collaboration extends out to helping me design the inquiry and the wiki site. Please click on Edit on any of the pages and contribute your thoughts and ideas. "

This is a great opportunity to participate in an exciting and and important project. It is entirely open and public which means anyone can edit the site - so feel free to add your ideas or use it with your students.

Karen Melhuish drew our attention to the ‘Computers in New Zealand Schools’ discussion series:

Over the next few weeks Computers in New Zealand schools is holding a series of online discussions with authors who contributed to the April July 2010 issue of the journal. The first of a series CINZS open discussions with authors is about to kick off with Marilyn Small. For those of you who have not yet caught up with Marilyn’s article she was an e-fellow in 2009 investigating the impact of an authentic audience on student engagement and motivation in literacy. The context was Manaia School’s involvement in Pukeko Echo, a children’s television show run by Channel North.

To be involved go to:

Integrating movie making into classroom programmes and inquiry learning - Marilyn Small, click here.

The current discussions are accessible from the contents page for each issue. You need to log in if you are to contribute to the discussions.

Deidre Senior, Keryn Pratt, Sue Bedford and Andrea Robertson will all be available for discussions over the coming weeks.

Over the next week I thought we might look at Google apps and docs.

If you are interested in finding out more about how Google can be used to support the teaching and learning of your students, you might like to check these links:
Google educator
Free tech for teachers - google tutorials

Or if you are already using them with your students, it would be great to hear from you!

ICTS in English Weekly Update - Week 7, Term 3 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Claire Amos) — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 22:28:00 +0000

Last week on ICTs in English:

Barbara Reid shared their ICT PD cluster wiki:
In our clusters, we are encouraging teachers and students to create tutorials for others. The wiki has a mixture of tutorials off the net, as well as ones created by cluster members. .

Alison Cleary also shared another great resource "produced by teachers for teachers":
- 'At Learn it in 5, you'll learn what is Web 2.0, and strategies
for using Web 2.0 technology in the digital classroom - all
in 5 minutes or less' - produced by teachers for teachers.

This week I would like to highlight the ICT strategies page on English Online.

And in particular the e-learning as Inquiry page on TKI

Considering that as part of NZC implementation we are all expected to teach using an evidence based inquiry cycle (see below), a resource like this one is very helpful!

"All schools need to do a couple of things - they need to design and implement a school curriculum and they need to teach using an evidence based inquiry cycle that informs what they do and monitors the impact of those decisions." - Chris Arcus (NZC Curriculum Manager) - Edgazette August 2009

Sign up for the ICTs in English listserve here.

ICTS in English Weekly Update - Week 6, Term 3 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Claire Amos) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 05:53:00 +0000

Last week on ICTs in English:

I shared an "unintentional English Resource" in the form of The Sartorialist blog

http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com/

and in turn Craig Martin shared another favourite - Open Culture

and Barbara Reid drew our attention to a great blog and a blogging challenge:

Chris Betcher has written an informative article on Resigning Learning Tasks where he talks about using blogging for writing and encouraging students to write.

If teachers are interested in using blogging as a platform for writing, there is blogging challenge just about to start. One for students here, and one for class blogs here.

The blogging challenge has many suggestions for writing and encourages participants to visit other blogs and leave comments and so helps to gain an audience.
This week I thought we might focus on some handy tutorials available online:

Above is a link to a Glogster tutorial which was highlighted on the 'Free Technology for Teachers' Blog.

Software for Learning is another great source of support:

What online tutorials have you been viewing lately??

Sign up for the ICTs in English listserve here.