My Plick

NBC's best pictures of the year is a new favourite for me at MyPlick,
but there are a lot of other great presentations there. I plan to use this site for presentations from now on - hopefully it will work with Sliderocket, my other new favourite tool for presentations. Although Sliderocket is currently in Beta and by invitation only it is shaping up for me as really cool - especially with the ability to upload existing Powerpoint files.
Meanwhile, back in school my Year 13 media students have been having some fun with Animoto - Elise showed her presentation to us the day after I introduced the class to it. This just proves that students will do 'work' at home if we make it fun enough - she had even read some of the tips!

Comics as texts

Teaching with comics resources from thinkfinity arrived (via my friend Miguel Guhlin) at a very opportune time. Having ordered a supply of graphic novels through our National Library service, I had been wondering about some ways to use these for more than purely a source of recreational reading to encourage reluctant readers into texts.

Another very useful resource about Powerpoint and how to is here.

'We think' sums it all up nicely

This animation by Charles Leadbeater sums up a lot about web 2.0 and how students can operate in real world situations today.
I intend to show it as a lesson starter for classes to encourage them to see themselves as powerful learners.


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Now playing: Radio New Zealand - Belfast Touring Poets Group
via FoxyTunes

Moodle morning

A team of teachers and associates braved the cold and surrendered part of their teaching recess on Wednesday to join in what turned out to be a very collegial and productive experience. Several Mount Maunganui College teachers were joined by Jan from Trident at Whakatane, Richard from the Katikati Matamata ICT PD cluster, Mel Gibb from Tauranga Boys College and Amy Wilson from Bay of Plenty Polytech - along with some of our children and Mel's new (boxer dog) baby Millie. The best part of the day was that we all enjoyed helping each other in an extremely supportive learning environment.
To me this was a classic example of the way classrooms/learning environments should be structured. What do you want to achieve? What steps could you take to achieve this? Who can help you? Why are you doing this (purpose/audience)? Where do you plan to publish/create/post it? When do you plan to complete it - are there steps in your timeline?
For those who came with a specific purpose in mind they were happy to have achieved those goals, for others - once they had explored some of the possibilities of establishing a moodle class or metacourse - they were back to some solid thinking and planning before we take the next steps.
Clearly it is essential to know what we want our learners to gain from an experience before we set it up - it is essential that we are not continuing to follow the time honored tradition of busy work that merely keeps learners occupied. If ICT is to be integrated successfully into learning we must constantly keep asking ourselves why we are using a particular tool and how will it help learners gain what they need, and to remember that the needs are extremely broad and varied - maintain the no size fits all approach.

Maungatapu Winners

These great kids are the age group winners in the Jane and the Dragon animation competition - well done, they created three great animations. Their creations are a reflection of a huge amount of effort and some wonderful team work, not to mention the support of their teacher Vicki Coe. It was great to meet them and view their prizewinning products today, and to be able to show them Marvin software which now has them enthused about creating more animated stories next term.

Words of wisdom

Footnotes: As a teacher… from David Truss's blog

Thanks for sharing these thoughts David - I know I will be referring back to them regularly for reassurance when I am 'back in the classroom' next term. It is helpful to have like minded colleagues supporting this approach to teaching and learning, it is not always easy when you feel you are on your own with this one, and hard to imagine with the technology we now have at hand that so many continue to act as if they can continue to teach AND ASSESS in their time honoured traditional ways.

I guess you could say that at times I too have ‘acted my way into a new way of thinking’. My actions as a learner influenced my actions as a teacher, as these footnotes suggest.

¹ As a teacher, I don’t take any marks off for something coming in late. It is my job to make sure that students demonstrate their learning and meet the learning outcomes during the year. All time lines within the year are arbitrary (and usually teacher determined) and not a requirement worthy of penalty. Exceptions may be made where either Personal Planning or Goal Setting are part of the outcomes.

² As a teacher, I am very vocal about students needing to speak up and ask questions. “Don’t be a Marshmallow!” was a saying that I took from my Grade 10 English teacher Mr. La Point who used it to symbolize placid students sitting in his class and choosing not to speak up. At first being called Marshmallows in my class was funny, but soon students would catch on that they were not meeting expectations when they were being Marshmallows!

³ As a teacher my response to ‘how long does this assignment need to be?’ has always been, “It needs to be as long as it needs to be.” Students hate this answer, but after a while they get it. In a nutshell: I’ve read three brilliant sentences that have said more than three long-winded paragraphs.