MYSA - Events - Semester 2 International Travelling Scholars from Canada Alec and George Couros - working together to deliver workshops across Australia 20 July - 10 August Learn more about open learning, social media and critical literacy Anywhere, anytime, anyone: transitioning toward 21st century learning We are currently exiting the age of the personal computer and entering a new mobile reality. Emerging technologies now provide us with the tools to drastically transform our learning environments, and for the first time in history, learners now have the technical ability to learn anywhere, anytime, and with anyone. Major topics discussed will include: social media tools and networks in teaching and learning personal learning networks for always-on professional development digital citizenship & digital identity digital portfolios royalty-free (copyleft) media in presentations and projects digital storytelling open & connected learning. Dr Alec Couros Blog Twitter: George Couros Workshop Locations
Why I’m trying to make myself redundant. (cc-by-nc-sa Kaptain Kobold @ Flickr) A week tomorrow The Northumberland Church of England Academy opens its doors to students for the first time. As you’re probably aware by now, my role there is Director of E-Learning. I want to be in a position within three years whereby I’ve made myself redundant. I’ve had the same conversation with a number of people. What will you be doing as Director of E-Learning? What’s the next step after this position? The answer to the first should be easy, but it’s not. – providing for ‘anytime, anywhere’ learning. – ensuring accurate and up-to-date information flows freely between relevant parties to enable Academy spaces to be conducive to learning. – allowing for every member of the Academy to be (potentially) accessible both synchronously and asynchronously at any time. – promoting best practices, workflows and – of course – Open Source Software . The final stage is to ensure technologies are being used to engage students. :-p ‘So… what do you do?’
Guide to Using Twitter in Your Teaching Practice : KQED Education | KQED Public Media for Northern CA Are you interested in using Twitter or other social media as a teaching tool? Our culture has transformed significantly where online distribution of ideas has become commonplace. Our students’ needs have shifted and they require digital citizenship skills. We’ve seen all sorts of creative use cases, but here are the most common forms: Teachers and students use Twitter for communication and conversation so they can keep the in-class discussion going after class! Twitter is a great way to add context to content especially when students need to study a topic and find experts in the field and ask them questions on Twitter! Below, you will find some great resources for your school community to help jump into using social media, specifically Twitter, as a learning tool. As you know, being a teacher means you’re uniquely positioned to provide valuable guidance and insight to your students around areas related to online safety and digital citizenship. Back to the top Understanding Twitter
How Twitter in the Classroom is Boosting Student Engagement Professors who wish to engage students during large lectures face an uphill battle. Not only is it a logistical impossibility for 200+ students to actively participate in a 90 minute lecture, but the downward sloping cone-shape of a lecture hall induces a one-to-many conversation. This problem is compounded by the recent budget cuts that have squeezed ever more students into each room. Fortunately, educators (including myself) have found that Twitter is an effective way to broaden participation in lecture. Increased Participation Classroom shyness is like a blackhole: Once silence takes over, it never lets go. That's why, Dr. During lecture, students tweet comments or questions via laptop or cell phone, while the TA and Dr. Students in another Twitter-friendly classroom at Purdue University agree that digital communication helps overcome the shyness barrier. A Community of Learners Conclusion More social media resources from Mashable: Image courtesy of iStockphoto, lisapics
Free ICT Technology help videos for teachers Video Notes This looks like a superb tool. Allows you to add notes to any YouTube Video and then save them. You can then open your notes, click on any part of the video and it will play that part of the video. I think I am going to love this tool. I have been looking for something like this for ages Take notes from your youTube videos-Superb Tool for studying Pinterest Pinterest is really a visual way of bookmarking your favourite websites, pictures, videos etc. Livebinders Really impressive tool that has lots of potential for e-Portfolios and collaborative work. Scribblemaps Add pictures, text, routes and much more onto an interactive map and then share it. Fotobabble Upload a picture, add your voice and share. Working with the Corpus of Contemporary American English Great trainin from Phil Longwell on using the COCA corpus. A simple way of doing Audio Recordings A really simple way of doing Audio recordings which allows you to add them as links or save as MP3 files.
Learning Goggles The term ‘Learning Goggles’ is one I use frequently to describe how it is possible to learn from everything and anything. You’ll have noticed on the main blog page that this is what Full On Learning is all about. So whether it is listening to a business-guru describing the best way to motivate a team, stumbling across a new way to explain research into how the brain changes as we grow up or looking at the way in which the London Underground is designed, there’s always ideas and insights that we can use to design learning. Being curious about the world means that we’ve always got our Learning Goggles firmly secured. This page is dedicated to resources, think-pieces and ideas that you may find helpful as you develop all aspects of learning in your school. By looking at the world through Learning Goggles, we can see just how many amazing learning opportunities exist all around us, in what we are already doing and what may, on first sight, seem completely unrelated. 1. Expedition G&T 2. 3.
Teachers – The 10 Stages of Twitter | dedwards.me Stage 1 Sign up to twitter following persuasion/pestering by colleagues. Follow Stephen Fry, a famous sportsman/popstar and a news channel. Stage 2 Overhear colleagues chatting about twitter and a great article they found. Stage 3 Think about posting first tweet. Stage 4 Upon realising you have no followers ask colleagues how to get them? Stage 5 Have a mini twitter conversation with colleague, even retweet a couple of statements. Stage 6 Practise a couple of tweets that include @names and hashtags. Stage 7 Retweet any link you find interesting as people might read them. Stage 8 Thank colleagues for introducing you to twitter, impressed with the knowledge you have gleaned and your growing number of followers. Stage 9 Reflect that twitter is an incredibly positive place and everyone is full of praise. Stage 10 (the reason for this post) When seeking opinion from a range of people, ask PLN to respond. Stage 10 happened recently with a question: I look forward to the next 10 stages. Like this:
10 New Ways Twitter Is Changing The College Lecture Continuing our theme of using Twitter in education this week , we bring you a look at the ways Twitter is causing the current lecture model to evolve. The following analysis is brought to you by our content partners over at Online Universities . Gone is the time when PowerPoint was the most impressive communication technology in the lecture hall. Mobile devices are welcome in the lecture hall once again : Not long ago, cell phones were met with intense hatred in the lecture hall, villainized as noisy distractions. Lectures become a conversation : Without Twitter, lectures are often a one-way street, with professors lecturing for about an hour, mostly uninterrupted. Bashful students are speaking up : Thanks to Twitter, students who might be afraid to raise their hands and speak up in a large lecture hall are given a less socially intimidating way to contribute. More students get connected in large lectures : Students stay engaged beyond the lecture : Review sessions happen anywhere :
5 Opportunities to Get iPods & iPads Into Your Classroom Educators often question how they can acquire iPods and iPads to use in their own classrooms, especially when so many districts are experiencing serious budget crunches. Many feel that that it just isn’t possible because their districts don’t have the money or don’t believe mobile technology is worth investing in. I know how you feel; I have been there. And here’s my advice: stop waiting for the district, and start taking your own steps to make the change in your classroom on your own. When I first began using iPods and iPads in the classroom, it was long before the touch-screen era. Here are five opportunities I took advantage of in order to start opening the doors to mobile learning in my classroom, and eventually in my district: The first iPod in my classroom was my personal iPod (that I bought off eBay). DonorsChoose’s slogan is “Teachers ask. Let’s face it, iPods and iPads have become incredibly popular consumer devices over the last few years. 3,710 views, 34 today
Twitter for Professional Development: Ultra Beginner Edition, Part 2 Written by Mark Brumley Beyond the Basics In the post Twitter for Professional Development: Ultra Beginner Edition, I offered a simple way to demonstrate the power of Twitter to teachers. If you are introducing Twitter to your colleagues, I highly recommend following that model. Sharing The next step is for teachers to share what they learn. A zillion possibilities exist to share content including a shared Google doc, Evernote notebook and, of course, the faculty room bulletin board. With newbies, I suggest using Diigo. Login to Diigo and create a new group. Social Bookmarking Now the most difficult part by far; explain social bookmarking to your teachers and have them create Diigo accounts. Okay, that’s the hard part…now for the fun. I’m not going to lie; this is an exhausting professional development session.