My Blog: free web tools

4 events

Here are 4 events that inspired me to record my learning journey as a blog:
1. In November 2005 I attended Professional Development courses run by Jacqui Sharp – "Digital Cameras for real Beginners and 101 Ways to use your Digital Camera."

2. I was next inspired by Dorothy Burt who spoke about classroom blogging at a Teachers Conference in Palmerston North in January 2010.

3. My wonderful techie and future focussed husband, Julien, continues to inspire and challenge me to try out new "technology." Hence my iPhone is now my favourite device that I am addicted to and would be lost without. Together with my iPad it has made it so easy for me to keep in touch with current changes in technology.

4. The last event that catapulted me in the deep end and showed me what could be happening in my school, was attending the ISTE conference in San Diego in July 2012. This conference opened my eyes, inspired and motivated me to share my learning. This blog, hopefully, will have ideas to inspire you to get e-learning happening in your classroom.

Monday, January 13, 2014

Wallwisher/Padlet - An Oldie But A Good One

This is one of my favourite apps to use in the classroom! It is an old faithful from way back in the early days of hooking children and parents into sharing the learning that happens in the classroom with home. Luckily it has updated itself. It is simple, versatile, iPad friendly, free and can be used by individuals or be used as a collaborative class project.

Created with Padlet

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

ISTE - An Eye Opening Conference!

ISTE - International Society for Technology and Education

San Diego June 24 – 27 2012

Keynotes - Sir Ken Robinson, Dr. Yong Zhao,
Michael Fullan, Dr Howie DiBlasi

This was THE conference that opened my eyes to 21^st century learning in the classroom!

https://sites.google.com/a/ptengland.school.nz/iste12/?pli=1

(a collaborative file containing notes from the conference - a quick reference for me)

The ideas from this conference inspired me to continue with what I had been dabbling with in the classroom. It also made clear to me that I needed to share the information from the conference with the staff back at school, as the message that the world of education was changing hadn’t got through yet – we were still ignoring the changes going on in other schools that were making ICT an integral part of the everyday classroom programme - our teaching techniques had not moved forward in ICT for 10 years!

Mainly because:-

We had an IT suite of 30 computers with an IT specialist teacher that took IT with each class for an hour a week for the last 10 years. The children were getting an hour of ICT each week, but the teachers were not. No computers in the classroom for the children to use also made it impossible to integrate IT into the everyday classroom programme. Hence a vicious cycle eventuated.

Main Themes from the conference

· Children of the 21^st century are wired differently and need a different style of learning and teaching

· Teachers have an obligation to their children to up skill and present them with rich, stimulating programmes that get their attention and switch them into learning

· iPads, iPhones and mobile devices were THE way forward for IT in the classroom

· There are LOTS of FREE web tools that can be used in class programmes

· Digital storytelling and encouraging student voice were popular themes

· Classroom programmes need to have lots of visuals, include online games that challenge and use flash simulations, avatars etc

· Class programmes need to include lots of socialization and movement – talking, discussing with each other, moving/actions rather than static listening (to the teacher)

· Teachers need to provide constant feedback and scaffold lessons - children need to clearly know what is expected of them so provide clear targets and success criteria

· They need opportunities to collaborate with each other, get involved in authentic, real life issues and to share with others in a global community