Thursday, September 16, 2010

Reality Check Inventions

The Students have designed some inventions and spoken about the on ustream.
I was impressed by the creativity that went into ideas such as the “ultimate hair brush”,
”The Magniball wall” and the “Super Alpaca feeding station”. The ability to adapt, change and think in different ways shows that young students are able to move from designing to inventing. Well done.

It takes bit of strength to get up in front of the camera. There is a pause for about 30 seconds while one student gets up the courage to show what they invented.

 


Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Learning to collaborate? – Games can help

Did anything come out of our collaboration using the Xbox game viva piƱata yes it did!

A recent Visit From Ewan McIntosh Reminded me of some key factors

  • A shared interest or goal makes for a good opportunity to share: blogs and information. It creates that purpose for communication
  • Problems often require communication to solve: a puzzle is a good place to start a collaboration
  • When you are describing something new and dynamic you can’t rely on others you have a unique experience to describe
  • The imaginary world of games reflects the real world, presenting lots of opportunity to think and bring ideas together

Next Term a Syndicate at school has decided to put an Xbox in each class and use them for Creative Writing. I am excited by the  prospect of this an hope that I can be involved in some way. Will blog about this as it takes place.

  • There is still a lot of reluctance to recognise the

    potential

    of Games in Learning
  • Viva la revolution

Learning to collaborate? – Games can help from Media team on Vimeo.


Thursday, August 26, 2010

Connected Schools – Six mths in

We have been working as a professional learning community for six months and we can see impact in the video below.

With the project comes regional goals and as leaders what I see as crucial now is:

  • Communication with other schools (newsletter coming)
  • Collaboration with others like the University and Polytechnic
  • Clear internal roles such as (organiser secondary voice)
  • Sharing of successes and failures (learning)
  • Strategic planning for sustainability and engagement
  • The creation of Reuseable and AAA (anytime ,anywhere, anyhow) material

Great to watch a lot being picked up from our community development day and being used by the students,
EBooks , Voicethread, numeracy interactives. This will make for engaged learners and improved learning outcomes.

Connected Schools Six Months in from Media team on Vimeo.

Hamilton Schools working together to create a professional learning community for themselves and other educators.


Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Digital Citizenship – a big ask

We have students with connectivity and a number of choices to make.
We can protect them to a certain extent and of course we do by filtering and
education B U T in the end we can only do so much ….

I have spoken to students about this and asked them to collaborate on a document where they are asked

What we think as students about digital citizenship.....
What the school should do about students who download age restricted material is ...
How the School should try to protect students from things on the internet is ...
Should the school lock down computers so that we can't install anything ? Why ? Why Not?
What we should be able to do with our computers is...
What we shouldn’t be able to do with our computers is...
Questions we have around digital citizenship are.

Will post back what this group thinks soon


Monday, August 23, 2010

6 Word Stories

6 Word Stories

Describe / Reflect / Wonder about these pictures in 6 words. Remember to write your name




Attribution:
www.flickr.com/photos/14239765@N00/535851460
Attribution:
www.flickr.com/photos/21222992@N00/1682989

Attribution:

www.flickr.com/photos/7764981@N05/2646109147














Leave some feedback for someone else in a different colour


Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Inventions Scamper

Inventions Scamper

When we invent something we might have to look at something a different way and change things. This one way to help us think about things in a different way.

  • S = Substitute
  • C = Combine
  • A = Adapt
  • M = Magnify
  • P = Put to Other Uses
  • E = Eliminate (or Minify)
  • R = Rearrange (or Reverse)
dog bowl

Substiute - change metal for waterproof foldable plastic
Combine - a bowl that has a cushion pillow as part of it
Adapt - build the bowl into the deck of the house so sunk into floor
Magnify - make it so the bowl collects water from the roof or get fed from a tank
Put - it over a dogs mouth as a muzzle
Eliminate - foldable makes it flat and small
Rearrange - use a muzzle or a lead

Work as a team to make a Scamper


Thursday, July 22, 2010


digital citizen ideas from Derek Wenmoth


Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Reality Check -Inventions

After a long time of being busy helping setting up a new professional learning community I finally had a chance to work with students again. So what Am I trying to concentrate on.

  • lots of opportunity for students to contribute, think, do and to create flow
  • using visual material and offering some choice for students to select material
  • reflection on what we have created and opportunities for students to outline where their learning is at
  • looking at habits of mind as prompts for just in time learning opportunities “what habit of mind do you think could have helped you get past this point?” “taking responsible risks”
  • letting student thinking and communication exist in its own right ie not all thinking needs to be reported on or commented on it can just “be”.
  • integrating literacy work into just in time teaching moments with questions like “If this is going to be read by others what might we need to in terms of editing?”
  • Having student share reading and retelling of others oral and written ideas

 

The investigation prompts and some outcomes are below

 

image

 

We are going to look at a couple of movies to find out.

 

Here are a few more links to inventions, and kid inventions; have a look.

image 

This is what 4km thought what  they did was to use typewith.me to describe everything they thought about where inventions come from and then we put them into this Wordle This is what we thought.

image

Where do Inventions come from? from Media team on Vimeo.

What we think about inventions and where they come from.


Wednesday, June 2, 2010

How students advertise.


Monday, May 17, 2010

Education Quotes

Please help me collect some of the great educational quotes. You can even make your own ones up. If you are good ;-)


Sunday, May 16, 2010

Motivation

Daniel Pink talks about motivational aspects in his book Drive

Motivation requires three aspects

  • Real sense of purpose
  • Sense of Autonomy
  • Sense of potential Mastery in what they are attempting

It concerns me that sometimes we seem to focus on things we think they should know rather than what motivates them.
Dan’s talk on the subject has a lot to offer educators looking for improved student outcomes.

At the school where I work I heard some students who were working on a market day project the other day say to a teacher "I have never worked so hard before". The way the student said it was with immense pride. The project has obviously struck a chord and motivated students to learn and achieve.


Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Connected Kids Solve Problems

I was at my computer when the noise that Skype makes when a message has arrived did its thing ie announced a message was there. It was from a student who I had worked with using Google Sketch up the year before his computer had a virus.
What impressed me was the language punctuation and genre that went into I have included the conversation below. The student is in year 5 and quite smart. What he managed to do was outsource his issue to me and get my advice to solve his virus issue. We need students who are able to work in this way because they are independent problem solvers. Note the last line of the conversation I even got thanks when the problem was solved.

These are the key competencies in action. Isn’t the action the best evidence of learning.

 

skype_convo


Monday, April 12, 2010

Google search Tips

I was Looking for a quick reminder about the power of Google search and my friend Barbara Reid sent a link to a Google site where I found this. I’m keeping it handy as i find it takes a few revisits before something like this sinks in. What this has reminded me of is the power of search literacy in helping people be productive in their use of the web. I am one global citizen who backs Google’s removing itself from China on the basis of the information censorship being exerted on Chinese citizens. Click on the Play button and maximise the screen if you want to.


Monday, February 1, 2010

Printing in Gmail


For those of us new to gmail there are a few things to learn. While I try not to print emails and be paperless many of us often need to. Here is a video pointing out howto without getting all the stuff on the side.