EVERNOTE

EVERNOTE

I have delighted in using Evernote over this year, although I wasn't always sold on the idea!

WHAT IS IT?
Evernote is essentially a notepad with pages that can be grouped in books. It organises, tags and allows multimedia to be stored within individual notes for organisation and keeping information together despite being stored in a variety of ways (text, audio, images etc.).

PRACTICAL APPLICATION IN THE CLASSROOM
I have a book for each student in my class. I first starting using it to assess homework. It wasn't an in-depth assessment that lead to a final mark, but moreso a record of what was presented, whether key objectives were achieved/demonstrated and for feedback to the student. I took photos as they presented their information, used the 'tick-a-box' feature when questions were answered and/or items included, and comments about their overall performance. This information was stored on one note in the students notebook and these notes emailed to them after their presentation. What an excellent way to feedback to students - often before they had unplugged the VGA cable and returned to their seat!

WHY I HADN'T USED IT
I wasn't sold on having notes for this and notes for that - especially since that's what my desk looked like! But once I saw a use (like most web based tools or ICT ideas) I made it work in my favour, to help my be organised, communicate with students and retrieve information quickly and easily.

WHY I WILL CONTINUE TO USE IT
Interestingly, many staff now use Evernote to record staff meeting minutes and to create 'To Do' lists or to record important dates and deadlines. This information has been emailed to all staff by individual staff members to improve communication (often, by the time people have left the meeting room! I plan to use it to record Professional Development notes, as well as record parents meetings (perhaps by audio as needed). I have a tutor/home group in 2012 that I meet with each morning and I plan to include relevant information from discussion we have.

The access from website (www.evernote.com) as well as the MacApplication as well as the iPhone app as well as the iPad app... make this even easier to use as all the information is stored via the cloud. Easy!

MORE TO LEARN
I plan to investigate the 'Shared' notebooks function. Perhaps I can add each student to my individual notebook I have for them, as well as the Tutor Groups. If anyone has done this - I'd be keen to hear from you!

APPS FOR SPORTING STATS

As the summer season approaches, here are some Apps that may help coaches  and/or players to view a stats round-up of the games they play. I have focused on Basketball and Cricket, but these Apps should give you a taste of the type of info you can extract from any sport.

BASKETBALL
Basketball Stats Lite (free)

Basic stats capture, but everything included - can print a Shot Chart, individual and team stats. Easy to use interface, player and team manager let you view stats for individual game as well as a season.

ESPN iScore Basketball ($10.49)

Brilliant functionality and awesome interface. Twitter posting and website iScorecast allows those not at the game to follow it play by play by entering a code on a website (even to the point of who has the ball, who they pass to etc.). An excellent email function allows match data for one or both teams to be emailed in .csv .xls. or .pdf formats, with individual stats, team stats and individual player shot charts. Easy to use with a variety of different data entry formats depending on how much or little of the game is to be captured. Well worth the $10.

CRICKET
nxCricket HD - Cricket Scorebook ($14.99)

A brilliant cricket scorebook app that keeps on improving with each update. These guys really respond to user feedback - any gap is soon rectified. An awesome interface and ease of use make this app super appealing for junior and senior teams. Amount of overs, number of runs per extra, maximum balls per over can all be modified, making it flexible enough to use for junior teams. The player photos, and email functionality also make this a useful app for feedback. Some features take some time to understand (eg batting line-up, retiring batsmen batting a second time etc.). The Manhatton and Worm graphs provide instant feedback for the team. I use it every game!

CRICKET COACH PLUS HD ($2.99)

An excellent app to use during training to show body positioning/movement and timing of a skill example. Can use slow mo, superimpose video overlay, as well as the ability to draw on the paused video to demonstrate points. I use each session for batters, bowlers and fielders.

HANDWRITING vs TYPING

It's becoming a big question, particularly with the recent influx of schools taking up 1:1 laptop programs.

msofficesupport.blogspot.com

Shang Lee brings up some good points in her blog (read here) best of all in her opening line explaining the last time she wrote something substantial was in an exam. The point of handwriting exams? I'm not sure.

The tactile nature of handwriting and the 'feeling' of the words expressed by authors may be missing, but this can be outweighed by getting ideas down quickly etc. To be honest, and an upfront apology to all authors, I don't get much of a 'feeling' from writing (except maybe frustration and cramp after prolonged periods).

The decision by Indiana Department of Education to lift enforcement of handwriting to be taught raises many questions. Feeble reasons to continue handwriting include the need for signatures, and the old favourite of educational discussions 'because we've always done it like that'. More details can be found here which include an outline about some other state's decisions.

For me, I'm not sure what's right or wrong, but I know that I need to handwrite in my life, and not every form of communication is from typing. If this is communication I need for myself (ie shopping list, reminders etc.) then it is no one else's responsibility, nor will it impact on anyone else, as to its legiblity. The problem is if it is communication with someone else (a 'please call back' note, a hand written order form etc.) then responsibility is on me to ensure my writing can is legible to communicate to my audience. Should I open my laptop, create a new word processing file, type, spell check, print, collect and deliver? Is it speed vs legibility now?

With NAPLAN rumoured to be going online around 2014, national organisations seem to be placing emphasis on the need for ICT to communicate ideas, as opposed to handwriting (or is it to avoid the 6 month wait for results?). ICT has been given priority in the 7 General Capabilities of the Australian National Curriculum, and the decision to move assessments online reinforce this priority.

After all of this discussion, one thing's for sure: if we abolish the teaching of handwriting, this will definitely impact on sales of Post-It notes...

https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=121834014517627

END OF YEAR REVIEW MUSIC

It's that time of year when graduations and end of year reflections are upon us. I've searched for some sites where songs are suggested for these, but thought I'd put together some of the most famous ones and a few curve-balls that can be used. Under the Copyright act - schools may use and distribute movies made "for commemorative purposes". Although I use them to show to the class/school and add the line "This presentation is not for reproduction or distribution" just to ensure less problems are encountered in regard to copyright, as well as students photos being distributed.

Please comment and add your own - there's plenty more than this list!

"Time of Your Life" by Greenday (overused, but still good)
"Enterlude" and "Exitlude" by The Killers (bit quirky, but fits nicely!)
"All These Things I've Done" by The Killers
"Sunsets" by Powderfinger
"These Days" by Powderfinger
"The Metre" by Powderfinger
"Undiscovered" by James Morrison (kind of about love, but the chorus is relevant)
"Learnalilgivinanlovin" by Gotye (again, a bit about love, but message is there)
"Right here, right now" by Fat Boy Slim (more for the beat/build up, not the lyrics!)
"The Best Thing" by Boom Crash Opera (oldie, but a goodie)
"How Far We've Come" by Matchbox Twenty
"Are You with Me?" by the Potbelleez
"Angel" by Sarah Mclachlan
"Galvanise" by The Chemical Brothers (more for the intro, but the "Push the Button" lyric could be fun too!)
"Light Surrounding You" by Evermore
"Forever Young" by Youth Group (a cover version, but the best in my opinion)
"Ready to Go" by Republica
"Learn to Fly" by Foo Fighters
"My Hero" by Foo Fighters
"Imagine" by John Lennon
"Shine On" by Jet
"Fix You" by Coldplay
"Wake" by Linkin Park (used as an intro can be very powerful)
"Shadow of the Day" by Linkin Park
"Plans" by Birds of Tokyo
"Firework" by Katy Perry (big message behind this)
"Drive" by Incubus (good for graduation - looking into the future)
"Sing" by My Chemical Romance (bit of a "call to arms" or "stick it to 'em" song, but talks of believing in your self/your school)

TOP 5 DIFFICULTIES WITH 1:1 LAPTOPS

Recently I spoke to a group of 14 principals from Thailand who were investigating Australian schools that have a 1:1 laptop program. When I was approached I immediately thought 'Awesome! I can show them this and that and we can do this and the students can get this ready and show them this task ...' Then as I found myself speaking to some students who had some creative uses of laptops with their learning, I stopped myself from the promotion side of things and remembered when I was new to the idea of 1:1 laptops. I wanted to find every problem, difficulty and essentially how my job would be made harder. I changed my tact when preparing the students and said 'be honest - go and get the best files/applications that help you with your learning. Tell me why it's better to do that task on a laptop'. With not much else, the boys did this, it was honest. Having worked through this idea some more, here are my top 5 difficulties for running a 1:1 laptop classroom.

#1: NETWORK/ADMIN ISSUES
These are usually out of anyone's control, but it is so frustrating to have a lesson planned, a webpage saved, and email sent to students etc etc and them not be able to access it. Having said that, I have been more creative with thinking on my feet!

#2: FLAT BATTERY / BROKEN LAPTOP
A frustration because it shouldn't happen! Students running out of charge toward the end of the day is only topped by students running out of charge at the start of the day! This doesn't happen often, but trying to organize a replacement activity for this one or two students adds to the excitement of a day in a 1:1 classroom. Accidents happen, and we realize that broken laptops will happen.

#3: JUSTIFYING THEIR EXISTENCE
This has only been a rare conversation, probably not one that detractors from the 1:1 idea would bring up to a teacher, but still annoying that people can't see the benefits. Thankfully parents are generally supportive, once they are aware of what's happening for their child. Technology obviously isnt going to go away anytime soon, so laptops MUST be used in schools. How their used is the key.

#4: DISTRACTED STUDENTS
There are many reasons why students are drawn away from the task at hand when using a laptop. Despite software monitoring being available, my feeling is that it is an indicator that the work has little relevance to the students. Hard to ensure everything is relevant, but you are less likely to find distracted student if they are enjoying and engaged in their learning.

#5: SEARCHING FOR THE BEST
Seems hardly a difficulty, and more 'best practice' however trying to find an application, web resource, quiz, keynote etc. That does exactly what you want for your students is difficult. A constant search for good sites drives me away from looking on a bad day! There are more and more apps being developed and web sites being created for the education sector, pleasingly more and more are being made by teachers or with a teacher's hat on... Not just 'this will be good for schools' attitude from a developer who is removed fro the education setting.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? PLEASE COMMENT ON YOUR BIGGEST DIFFICULT OR ROAD BLOCK WITH THE IDEA OF 1:1 LAPTOPS...

ICT IN AUSSIE RULES (PART #2)

Reviewing the 2011 football season it was brilliant to see the development of skills and strategy over the year. ICT helped the players learn these skills through videos, questioning and discussions. It was pleasing to hear the players talk on the field with keywords used in these videos, like "Kerr-Cousins guys, Kerr-Cousin" relating to the movement of the ball down the wing and drawing an opposition player out of the play.

Obsurvey.com was also used at the half-way point to gain feedback about the football program. Keywords, strategies in the forward or defensive half, player enjoyment and the structure of training were all part of the survey. The results were an interesting mix of keywords used by coaches, gaps in some players' knowledge of extended ideas and an overwhelming emphasis on the importance of fun while playing footy!

I look forward to finding some apps to include next season and integrating iPads into the program. It is a quick and easy way of communicating game play and assessing player understanding and gain their honest feedback through anonymous survey. Go ICT!

DIGITAL FOOTPRINT

A digital footprint is essentially anything online that concerns you. It may even be considered as anything online that has your name attached to it. A quick google search will reveal things that you may prefer not to be revealed, or even open your eyes to what some people in the room found out about people who share their name... as John found out when he searched his name to find two blokes having a pash...

Privacy settings are a great way to lock your information down, and not imprint your digital footprint like a dinosaur's that lasts for 100s of year (maybe more). Problem: privacy settings are, for good or for bad, regularly changing and it's something you need to keep on top of.

Being a good digital citizen requires you to understand other's digital footprint and appreciate that they may not want their image/blog/website/personal lifestyle choice blurted out for all to read/see/comment on/sack over...

It is important to take control of your digital footprint and regularly search yourself - commonly called 'egosurfing', but maybe a better name should be 'ensuring-digital-footprint-is-ok-surfing'. If something comes up that you do not give permission for, you are responsible for doing something about it. Email the webmaster, call up the author, engage solicitors, DO SOMETHING! Because you're the one it effects.

We need to teach students this as well... not just in a 5 week block that we can tick off, but it needs to be constantly referred to and discussed. Have students ask questions, get them to egosurf, check things out.

At the end of the day though, if you don't do/post anything you wouldn't want to share with your boss/parents/partner/children/granny, then it's really not a problem...!

QR CODES

Last week my class had their annual open night. This night offers an excellent opportunity to communicate ideas and information about class room learning and routines. Usually, the students excitedly show their parents pieces of work displayed on pin-up boards and even their laptop. But do the students effectively communicate the 'point' of the task? Or is it just a 'this is my work' exhibition? I thought we could do more.

Parents and families arrived, signed in on the iPad and took a loaned Apple iTouch (or used their own mobile device) to scan the QR codes. Using these QR codes provided more information that I dictated and felt was important to share with our visitors. There was also a question for the students' visitors to ask them to test their understanding of the topic, piece of work or why routines were adopted. It was awesome to see interested parents and students from other class come in to scan the codes and to find out a little more than the brief "Here's my work" response from students!

Thanks to Apple for the loan of the iTouches. This is certainly not something I will include in every lesson, but QR codes served the purpose with minimum fuss - just a download of a QR encoder, printing and laminating (just to make it look pretty!). Thanks also to @marragem who provided the inspiration for QR codes in the class room. :)

TECHNOLOGY FAILS THE TEST... LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE BEFORE IT

Many people - parents, interested colleagues, others - have questioned 'Why a 1:1 laptop program?' Recently leading educationalists from all over the world have joined the debate (correct word to use?), including a university academic from a Perth university. Dr Keith McNaught discussed his views in a recent 'West Australian' article http://yhoo.it/mXik5H. It got me thinking. Not because I disagreed, but because I agreed... somehow...

He talks of it being a tremendous opportunity, digital learning. And he's right. He's also right in saying that interactive whiteboards are glorified projector surfaces. Posture, ergonomics and personal safety when carrying around a laptop or iPad are certainly considerations that need to be addressed. But does that mean we wait ten years until some mad-crazy invention is created that can carry a laptop safely without stressing the lumbar section of the spinal column? These issues are being addressed, and require some problem solving amongst families, considering personal situations. There are no right or wrong answers, as there weren't with the introduction of Graphics Calculators, mobile telephones, sports shoes, surf-label bags, heck - even wallets!

Was there this much discussion when the quill was introduced? How about when it was first introduced that students required a massive textbook for each subject? Was there this much discussion when paper replaced chalk and slate? Was it proven to increase students scores? If so, I'd love to see the research. Or were there still some kids slipping through the net? Do worksheets (what many schools class as 'education' or 'teaching and learning') result in higher grades? Truth is, as much as we are all trying, we have not found the fool proof method of educating our kids today - not just to achieve good test scores, but also in applying, creating, analysing, synthesising information/ideas/concepts we guide them through.

When we consider how children learn and how adults teach, and whether digital learning should be a part of education, some constants remain. Has student learning improved for all students over the past 30, 40, 50 years without the use of interactive whiteboards, mobile learning tools and 1:1 laptops. Has it benefited every student? I'd say it hasn't.

I'm intrigued by the idea of research and proving ideas before we spend money - we feel compelled to prove something will work before we try something. We must have evidence! Surely one factor could be that students, and members of the community alike, are using laptops out of the classroom. Is this not enough of a reason to look at using them in the classroom? I am a teacher, not an administrator. I don't know how budgets work. I am a teacher, not a father. I don't know what it's like to see money wasted on digital resources that could be spent in my household budget somewhere else. Should the question not be: How can we change things in schools so that these devices (which are used effectively in people's lives outside of the classroom) are effective tools in helping our students discover, create and learn about the world around them.

We can bash the laptop idea all we like. We can have a swing at interactive whiteboards as well. We can even be really conformist and bag out the corporate sector who are no doubt making squillions from convincing us we need their products in our classrooms for our students' learning. They're easy options.

The fact is laptops cannot guarantee higher scores. As worksheets can't. As text textbooks can't. As slate and chalk can't. Does the possibility that maybe some kid, or kids, somewhere during some lessons might actually link what happens in the classroom with their reality scare us so much we knock down the idea of digital learning and technology? Does the possibility of kids being engaged in their learning frighten us as educators? Does the possibility of kids collaborating on a task at 5:30 on a Saturday afternoon, or playing a bit of LiveMathletics or creating a Keynote/PowerPoint about decimals/apostrophes/rainforests/(insert concept here) make us want to revolt against the idea? Sounds like it. What kind of educators are we? In my experience, laptops (Apple Mac or PC or anything else for that matter!) can engage, motivate and make parts of learning relevant to a child's life. As much as I loved my teachers, that didn't happen in my education.

COPYRIGHT IN THE CLASSROOM

"Nothing is copyright in schools, because we use resources 'for educational purposes'". Agree? I did. For many years, however, I'm beginning to feel that it just doesn't cut it anymore.

I feel that using images or video created by someone, somewhere, whether we can see them or not, without reference or acknowledgement, is as wrong as it is to reproduced written content used in assignments and projects. On a PD to New Zealand during 2010, a pre-conference workshop run by Tessa Gray alerted me to the point of copyright. Essentially:

• Just because we do it, doesn't make it right;
• Just because it's done by others, doesn't make it right;
• Just because the author won't know about it, doesn't make it right;
• Just because the chances of 'getting caught' are low, doesn't make it right; and,
• Just because we are part of an educational institution, doesn't make it right.

What will happen when students leave the 'educational setting' and don't reference their use, reuse or derivatives of works? There are real and heavy consequences for misuse of copyright. We, as teachers, need to educate our cyber citizens what society's expectations are on the referencing and use of digital material. When else are they going to learn it?

While this has been the second year of me teaching in a 1:1 laptop classroom, it is the first year I have made a push for, in particular, image referencing in Keynotes and Pages documents. My students have embraced it (thankfully!) and now pick each other up on unreferenced resources. Heck, they even pick up me now! Playing music with creative tasks using iMovie and GarageBand is a definite 'no-no' as well.

It is amazing how quickly students pick this up. Discussion concerning Creative Commons licensing has not only made things more clear in my head, but also created an expectation of acceptable use of digital resources. An element of referencing included on assessment rubrics (even a 'Yes/No' section) has also given students the opportunity to gauge their own use in line with Digital Citizenship standards.

For more information, visit http://creativecommons.org/about
I also have created a display/cards that can be used based on the several license options. The above address also contains help sheets that are displayed in the classroom.

ICT IN AUSSIE RULES

I have used video images from various sources to teach good skills in Aussie Rules football. My year 5/6 team visit a website (linked from a bit.ly shortener) during the week where a video and/or images are uploaded with discussion of what to look for, what didn't work well or sometimes a quiz about what the player would do to stop that particular movement of the ball etc. I opened up the comments section and the reports are interesting to read. I wonder how I could have explained the strategies we want to put into our game plan without this use of video (that can be viewed as many times as the player needs). Would I explain it through words? Maybe draw on a whiteboard? Give the player a handout sheet with diagrams and explanations? Static drills? I'm not sure. Does having videos mean I can do extra things with the team? Maybe, maybe not, but it certainly allows me to illustrate the points more clearly than I ever could with words. I love having a team website!

Twitter in the Classroom

"Thou shalt not use Twitter in the classroom".

Since when was this a rule of teaching? OK, so primary school age students are too young to have their own account, but does that mean the students can't use under the direction of the teacher/s? Maybe so, but an interesting one to ponder nonetheless.

Imagine students communicating with the world (in actual fact it would essentially be parents who follow) in real time some exciting findings in their learning and some of the work that they produce. Great!

We have teachers collaborating, we have parents engaging with this social media and we have education forums/hash-tags which work swimmingly, but I believe that students can involve themselves as part of their class routine. The big key here is 'under direction' of the teacher. Obviously promoting this to the students with no discussion and monitoring would be a recipe for disaster, and possibly illegal or at least against Twitter's terms and conditions of use. In fact it may promote students to investigate it independently by themselves at home. You would hope students would have been given the skills and strategies to ensure they stayed safe using this communication medium.

I'm not sure where I sit with this, but consideration should be given to this useful communication tool.
Mr N

Key Teacher ICT 2011

What a day at the CEO to meet and work with other Key Teachers in ICT.

jogtheweb.com
blogger.com
grouply.com
were all investigated and will provide the catalyst for further teaching and learning discussions over the year and beyond.

Stay tuned!
Mr N