The Virtual Staffroom

VSR35: Free As In Speech

chris@virtualstaffroom.net (Chris Betcher) — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 21:15:51 +1000

Mark Osborne is the assistant principal from Albany Senior High School, a brand new school in Auckland, New Zealand. Mark joins us to talk about the way his school leverages the power of Open Source software, cloud computing and hosted servers to shift the load of managing IT infrastructure offsite. We are also joined by Australian teachers Roland Gesthuizen and Peter Ruwoldt, both passionate about the power of Open Source software for education.

VSR34: Short Notice

chris@virtualstaffroom.net (Chris Betcher) — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 16:51:23 +1000

After rustling these guys up on Twitter, Rob Newberry, David Wees, Linda Pilkington, Britt Gow and Suzie Vesper join us to talk about copyright, iPads and iPods, and pretty much anything else on their minds!

VSR33: This is Not Amazing

chris@virtualstaffroom.net (Chris Betcher) — Sat, 29 May 2010 16:26:46 +1000

During the recent Australian ITSC Conferences run by Apple Australia, Chris Betcher gave the keynote address called This is Not Amazing. This podcast is a recording of that keynote. The slides will be available on the Virtual Staffroom website at www.virtualstaffroom.net

VSR32: Be Very Afraid

chris@virtualstaffroom.net (Chris Betcher) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 17:02:23 +1100

In this episode I have the great pleasure of having a chat with the enigmatic Professor Stephen Heppell. With a story for just about every occasion, Stephen is a absolute mine of great insights and perspectives about the future of education. Be Very Afraid is one of Stephen's many educational projects. It brings together students from all over the UK to showcase some incredible ICT related projects. There is some truly amazing learning taking place here. In this episode we get to hear some of the backstory to BVA as well as a few of Stephen's personal insights about it. We finish with a chat about education in general and some really wonderful insights into getting the best from our students.

VSR31: The Culture Shift

chris@virtualstaffroom.net (Chris Betcher) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:45:56 +1100

Pamela Livingston, Leslie Wison and Ben Jones know an awful lot about implementing successful 1-1 computing rollouts. They have all had extensive experience with some huge state-wide rollouts of laptop devices to students. In this episode we dig into the core ideas behind a successful 1-1 implementation.

VSR30: The Whiteboard Conundrum

chris@virtualstaffroom.net (Chris Betcher) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 09:27:36 +1100

Love them or hate them, interactive whiteboards seem to have become a part of today's modern classroom. There are many teachers who see them as a wonderful 'window to the world', able to open their classrooms up to a plethora of digital experiences, make learning richer and more engaging in the process. Then there are others who see IWBs as the devil incarnate, a scourge on the educational landscape that sets our classrooms back by thirty years. They claim them to be setting the sage back on the stage and ruining the student focused nature of the classroom. The truth is that interactive technologies are whatever you make of them. Join us in this episode as we speak with five experienced and opinionated IWB users and try to dig into the deeper questions behind the use of this technology.

VSR29: The C Word

chris@virtualstaffroom.net (Chris Betcher) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 21:04:37 +1000

This episode is a roundup of thought, ideas and impressions from the recent IWBNet Leading a Digital School Conference on Australia's Gold Coast. I wandered around on the last day with my iPhone voice recorder and asked a few people for their thoughts on the event and how they might put some of their ideas into practice. It was a terrific conference with a basic message about the need for change as we lead our schools forward into the 21st century.

VSR28: All this Scratchin'

chris@virtualstaffroom.net (Chris Betcher) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:39:33 +1000

Scratch is an easy to learn programming tool developed by MIT and is finding enthusiastic users all over the world. In this episode we have a chat to two experienced Scratchers, Bill Kerr and Peter Ruwoldt. Peter and Bill teach in South Australia and have been using Scratch extensively with their students for quite a while, so they were the ideal people to chat to in order to find out more. Peter was very involved in Scratch Day, an annual event to promote Scratch, and he shares some of his insights about this.

VSR27: Raising the Bar

chris@virtualstaffroom.net (Chris Betcher) — Sun, 17 May 2009 23:56:45 +1000

Jarrod Robinson, Ben Jones and Shane Roberts are not ones for sticking with the status quo. Our conversation explores some very cool tools being used for integrating technology with PE, such as Bluetooth broadcasting, QR codes and the Wii Remote.

VSR26: Cold Snap

chris@virtualstaffroom.net (Chris Betcher) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 23:12:17 +1100

In a bit of a departure from the usual format for the show, in this episode we play a recording of a Skype call between our three Year 5 classrooms at PLC Sydney and Anthony Powell, a communications technician at McMurdo base in Antarctica. The Year 5 students were doing an integrated unit of work on Antarctica and we managed to arrange this call for the kids to have a chat to Anthony about life in Antarctica and to ask him a few questions. The three classrooms were connected to the call individually in a group conference call. It's a nice example of how Skype can be used to break through the walls of a traditional classroom and bring kids into contact with real people in faraway places.

VSR25: Computer in my Pocket

chris@virtualstaffroom.net (Chris Betcher) — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 18:32:13 +1000

Learning with cellphones is a hot topic in many schools at the moment. Phones are usually banned, but a few brave schools are looking for ways to leverage this powerful mobile technology. In this episode we chat to two teachers with a great deal of experience with cellphones for education - Liz Kolb from Ann Arbor, USA and Toni Twiss from Hamilton, New Zealand. Liz and Toni have been doing research into this area and have some great insights to share.

VSR24: From the Front

chris@virtualstaffroom.net (Chris Betcher) — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 18:50:43 +1000

This episode is a compilation of live interviews conducted at the Second Leading a Digital School conference in Sydney, Australia. This conference is held every year and focuses on providing school leaders - principals, administrators, head teachers, IT managers and librarians - with the skills and mindsets needed to lead our schools into the 21st century. The conference has a broad focus across a number of areas, but the sensible integration of technology is a strong theme. For this podcast, I wandered around the conference and spoke with delegates, presenters and vendors for a snapshot of some of the ideas and thoughts they took away from the event.

VSR23: Cos I'm Free

chris@virtualstaffroom.net (Chris Betcher) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 02:28:30 +1000

Pia Waugh is the president of Linux Australia, so-owner of Waugh Partners, and a leader of the OLPC project in Australia. She is passionate and knowledgeable about the use of Open Source technologies in schools and business. In this episode Pia shares some insights into Open Source software, how it can be leveraged for use in education and talks about the One Laptop Per Child project. If you believe that software should be free, not just free as in beer, but free as in speech, you'll enjoy this episode.

VSR22: Moodlemania

chris@virtualstaffroom.net (Chris Betcher) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 00:15:55 +1000

In this episode we are joined by three highly experiences Moodle users who share some insights with us. Talia Carbin, Darrel Branson and Julian Ridden each work intensively with Moodle in three different settings and in different ways. Moodle is an amazingly competent and powerful open source learning management system used by schools, colleges and universities all over the world. It is based on the theory of social constructivism, which essentially means that people learn better in groups than they do on their own. Moodle has a powerful set of tools to support this mode of learning, and as more teachers come into contact with Moodle it becomes increasingly important to understand how to use these tools well to engage and direct student learning.

VSR21: Teaching Tech

chris@virtualstaffroom.net (Chris Betcher) — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 23:53:38 +1100

Kim Cofino from Thailand and Susan Sedro from Singapore get to work with other teachers at their schools and assist them to successfully integrate technology in authentic and meaningful ways. Both work at large international schools in Asia, where technology integration is taken seriously and done well, and in this podcast we get to hear some of the success stories and wise advice that Kim and Susan have learned as they fulfill their demanding roles.

VSR20: The Kiwi Connection

chris@virtualstaffroom.net (Chris Betcher) — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 01:19:15 +1100

Jane Nicholls, Chrissy Hellier, Allanah King and Simon Evans are leading educators from New Zealand who live and breathe collaborative technologies. In this episode I get to chat with them about topics as diverse as podcasting, Skype, Twitter and Second Life, and have a lot of fun in the process. Simon had a bit of trouble with Skype and only managed to make a couple of cameo appearances, but the rest of us had a great chat as we flitted from topic to topic. Although these Kiwis know how to have a laugh, there is still plenty of educational wisdom in this podcast.

VSR19: Beyond the Filters

chris@virtualstaffroom.net (Chris Betcher) — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 23:37:11 +1100

In this episode of Virtual Staffroom, podcaster and teacher Chris Betcher gets interviewed by Texan librarian Carolyn Foote. Carolyn and Chris discuss a range of issues including dealing with the restrictions of policies and filters, the use of Skype as a powerful tool for cross-cultural learning, and pretty much anything else that came to mind! Carolyn asked if we could record this chat for a librarian's research project she was working on about the use of Skype for educational purposes, and we agreed to have the chat and release it on the Virtual Staffroom as well.

VSR18: The Learning Trail

chris@virtualstaffroom.net (Chris Betcher) — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 22:29:17 +1100

Anne Wade is research project manager at Montreal's Concordia University, and her focus is on a project known as ePearl - the Electronic Portfolio Encouraging Active Reflective Learning. ePearl is a web based tool that enables students to gather, present and reflect upon their work, creating a trail of digital assets that follows them through their school life. Anne presents an overview of the system and gives some insight into the background of this project.

VSR17: I Like Chinese!

chris@virtualstaffroom.net (Chris Betcher) — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 17:34:15 +1000

A small school in country Australia might seem an unusual place to find students learning to speak Chinese, but not for Jess McCulloch's students. Jess is an extremely enthusiastic Chinese language teacher who is turning to technology to help engage and excite her students about the language. In this episode Jess talks about some of the cool tools she is using, and planning to use, in her classroom.

VSR16: Global Conversations

chris@virtualstaffroom.net (Chris Betcher) — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 12:22:51 +1000

The K12 Online Conference is a unique and innovative approach to professional development for educators. In this episode we talk with the conveners of the event and discuss the history and philosophy behind as well as hear from previous participants. This episode will make you want to take part!

VSR15: Whiteboards Everywhere!

chris@virtualstaffroom.net (Chris Betcher) — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 03:28:16 +1000

This episode comes to you directly from the Fourth National Interactive Whiteboard Conference held at Emmanuel College on the Gold Coast. Organised by IWBnet, the conference assembled many presenters to share a huge variety of ideas, techniques, tips and advice with their colleagues. In this podcast we wander around the conference doing on-the-spot interviews with delegates, as well as bringing you part of a Skype videoconference session with Ben Hazzard from the SmartBoard Lesson podcast.

VSR14: Questions are the Answer

chris@virtualstaffroom.net (Chris Betcher) — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 21:28:24 +1000

As a leading teacher-librarian, Barbara Braxton knows about information literacy. In this epsode, we talk with Barbara about the information process, the concept of literacy in the 21st century, the art of developing"thick questions", and how to create tasks that avoid the need to plagiarise in the first place. Barbara is well respected amongst the Australian online teaching community and she has some great insights into how we get kids to use information. Oh, and a couple of political viewpoints as well....

VSR13: Happy Birthday Edublogs

chris@virtualstaffroom.net (Chris Betcher) — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 20:23:09 +1000

Edublogs is a well-respected free educational blogging service started two years ago by James Farmer. Since then, the service has grown in leaps and bounds, and now hosts nearly 100,000 individual blogs for teachers and students. In this episode we talk to James about the Edublogs service, where it grew from and where it's going. It's been an amazingly valuable and versatile service for the educational blogging community, and Edublogs offers one of the most cutting edge free blogging services on the Web. I'd been trying to arrange this interview with James for a while, and coincidentally we just happened to record this on Edublogs' second birthday. Happy Birthday Edublogs and thanks for sharing the love James!

VSR12: Use It Till It Breaks

chris@virtualstaffroom.net (Chris Betcher) — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 19:26:49 +1000

Adrian Bruce is an innovative Australian teacher who freely gives away his worksheets, quizzes, posters, etc, over the Internet as a way of helping other teachers. After nearly 10 years of giving his stuff away, Adrian's website currently gets over 2 million hits every month as it distributes his work to students all over the world. A past winner of the Microsoft Innovative Teacher Award, Adrian is continually trying new things, playing with new software and thinking of new ways to integrate ICTs into his work. In this episode we get some insights into the mind of a truly creative and generous teacher.

VSR11: Taking It Further

chris@virtualstaffroom.net (Chris Betcher) — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 12:49:55 +1000

The Flat Planet Project is a remarkable wiki project run by Simon O'Carroll from Ontario, Canada, and Neil D'Aguair from Surrey, UK. These two teachers of Religious Education met via the blogosphere and together came up with a simple yet incredibly effective research project for their students with topics such as climate change, vegetarianism, air pollution and endangered species. In this episode we talk to Simon and Neil about the behind-the-scenes of the Flat Planet Project. Using the free Wikispaces service, their students worked collaboratively across the Atlantic to create an incredibly impressive joint project. Along the way, both teachers and students got far more out of the project than they expected.

VSR10: Open Minded

chris@virtualstaffroom.net (Chris Betcher) — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 22:36:50 +1000

In this episode we talk with Rob Ruberry and Jason Hando, two Australian teachers that have a good deal of experience with such Open Source tools as Joomla, Mambo and Moodle. We discuss how these tools could fit into your school and about the pros and cons of Open Source software generally. Open Source software holds some interesting possibilities for education. With some amazing products around that are generally completely free to use, it's no wonder that more and more schools are starting to look seriously at GNU/GPL Open Source as a viable alternative to the common proprietary software model.

VSR09: Changing Focus

chris@virtualstaffroom.net (Chris Betcher) — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 20:02:20 +1100

Our guests in this episode are Bruce Fuda and Mark Harriott from Stromlo High School in the Australian Capital Territory. From 2007 the ACT School system no longer has a traditional syllabus structure and instead requires schools to develop their own curriculum based on a framework derived from the national curriculum statements and profiles. As well as redeveloping its curriculum, Stromlo High has recently restructured itself to be a Year 6 - 10 school. And because the school already has a strong use of technology it has also been targeted as an IT-focused school where the use of ICT in learning and teaching is just a normal part of the way the school works.

VSR08: Flat Classrooms

chris@virtualstaffroom.net (Chris Betcher) — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 18:15:54 +1100

Flat Classrooms are about removing the boundaries of geography and time, and enabling students to work with other students wherever they might be in the world. In this episode we talk with Janet Barnstable from Oak Park, Illinois and Sharon Peters from Montreal, Quebec. Both Janet and Sharon are leading proponents of collaborative online learning projects, getting their students to work on projects with kids in other countries by leveraging the power of the Internet. The term Flat Classrooms derives from Thomas Friedman's book The World is Flat.

VSR07: Getting One to One

chris@virtualstaffroom.net (Chris Betcher) — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 06:39:04 +1100

In this episode we explore the issues that arise when a school starts thinking about moving to a one-to-one computing model using laptop computers, an area in which Australia has been somewhat of a pioneer. We talk with Paul McMahon, an Australian educator living in Hong Kong, about the sorts of planning and background involved in transitioning a school from a fairly traditional learning environment to one in which students are given laptops as learning tools.

VSR06: A Bird's Eye View

chris@virtualstaffroom.net (Chris Betcher) — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 16:51:28 +1100

Luc Zwartjes is a geography teacher from Belgium who has developed a deep interest in the use of GIS (Geographical Information Systems) and GPS (Global Positioning Systems) with his students. Luc's work with his students using GIS is a fabulous example of a passionate teacher working with students on real-world problems using sophisticated technology to create engaging tasks.

VSR05: Look at the Board

chris@virtualstaffroom.net (Chris Betcher) — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 17:24:43 +1100

Interactive Whiteboards seem to be a popular topic of discussion amongst teachers, so in this episode we talk with Bryn Jones from Fremantle, WA, and Paul McMahon from Hong Kong about a range of ideas and issues around the use of IWBs. We also touch on the value of an IWB enabled classroom as well as a number of new IWB technologies for the future.

VSR04: Across the Pond

chris@virtualstaffroom.net (Chris Betcher) — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 16:54:27 +1100

In this episiode we explore the use of Skype as a communication tool by hosting a group Skypecast with members of the Australian OzTeachers group. Skypecasts enable a large group of people to get together in a virtual chat space and talk in real time.

VSR03: It Takes Leadership

chris@virtualstaffroom.net (Chris Betcher) — Sun, 22 Oct 2006 15:22:29 +1000

Interactive Whiteboards are becoming a central component of a 21st Century classroom. Join John Pearce, Margo Metcalf and Mal Lee as they talk about the best ways to implement an IWB program.

VSR02: The New Web

chris@virtualstaffroom.net (Chris Betcher) — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 07:11:46 +1000

What is Web 2.0 and why is it important? This episode talks with Michael Cridland, a young Brisbane teacher who is looking at ways to incorporate podcasting and blogging into his classroom.

VSR01: Learning for Life

chris@virtualstaffroom.net (Chris Betcher) — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 15:19:15 +1000

This episode features a conversation with Anne Baird from Wedderburn school in Victoria. Anne talks about the role of ICTs in today's classrooms, the changing nature of learning and the importance of the teacher's role in learning.