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Pass the Pen – IWB Workshop

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By tmarch, August 31, 2010 5:57 pm

Empowering Primary Learners through IWBs

The Blurb: In a world where rich resources have never been so freely available, our students must get “hands-on” experience making learning choices.  Thus, once teachers have learned the basic tools of the Interactive Whiteboard, the challenge is to use IWBs as a shared learning space with students. Employed as a window to the world, an IWB connects classroom learning with engaging Web 2.0 resources and applications that can enliven classroom practices and “flatten the learning hierarchy.” This session prepares teachers to empower their students to move beyond “technology as entertainment” and to apply the riches of the Web to achieve deep learning and positive habits of mind.

Pedagogical Framework

3 ‘levels of use of IWBs by teachers in their research:

  1. Supported didactic – where the IWB is used to enhance traditional board-focused didactic teaching
  2. Interactive – where the teacher recognizes some of the additional benefits of the technology and endeavours to stimulate interactivity by questioning and involvement of pupils
  3. Enhanced interactive – where the teacher moves from the instructional to the involvement role and uses the technology to stimulate, integrate and develop interactive learning.

Benefits from the Enhanced interactive phase:

  • makes learning more interesting, authentic and relevant to students
  • allows more time for thinking, observation, discussion and analysis
  • increases opportunities for communication and collaboration
  • supports exploration and experimentation by providing immediate visual feedback
  • support multiple forms of conceptual representation

Today’s 3-Ring Circus

pre-requisites:

  • online space
  • IWB Basics

The Productive Circus

  • Students as Teachers
  • Students as Real-time Collaborators
  • Students as ongoing Content Creators

Download the Handout for today

Links - Students as Teachers

Literacy

Numeracy

Mega Sites

Students as Real-time Collaborators - Web 2.0 Tools

Students as ongoing Content Creators

Audio – Podcast

Text – Wikipedia Page

Video – Interviews, Guides, Screencasts?

Maps – Producing Google Map Tours

News Updates – Blogging

IWB Resources

Smartboard

Promethean

Feedback & Ideas

Stixy

categories workshop | tags ,

Look to Learn for Early Years

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By tmarch, August 30, 2010 4:18 pm

Welcome!

Look to Learn: Developing a Culture of Inquiry in Early Years’ Classrooms

The Blurb: Experienced teachers know that positive routines form a foundation to classroom learning.  We often use them to manage classroom behaviours and basic skills. However, routines can also be used to engage students in critical thinking and knowledge building, activities often considered beyond the abilities of early years learners.  Participants in this one day session experience what it’s like to “Look to Learn” from the inside and then use and create such activities for their own students. See how rich digital media like blogs, videos, podcasts and images stimulate interest that is then developed through routines that prompt critical and creative thinking.
Here’s a set of materials to guide what you do.

Look to Learn Links

Online Samples

Building your Looking to Learn Platform

Choose your Approach

  1. Easy YouTube downloader for Firefox
  2. TubePrompter
  3. Get a Wordpress Blog

If Wordpress, then get started!

Visible Thinking Tools

Site to visit Regularly

Manage your Rich Media Links

  • Diigo Social Bookmarks: get the toolbar,  login and start bookmarking!
  • Consider joining or pinching from the Look to Learn Diigo Group
  • Revisit the Look to Learn site to bookmark what you like

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Curriculum Mapping @ the AIS Executive Conference

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By tmarch, August 30, 2010 5:53 am

I’m spending two days at the AIS Executive Conference in Brighton-Le-Sands on Botony Bay, Sydney.  On day one, the committee set up an excellent program featuring John Hattie, Alma Harris and Peter Freebody.  The three keynotes complemented each other and contributed to a solid basis for further discussions.  My interest focused on John Hattie whose book Visible Learning is fast becoming the bible for evidence-based educators.  John made presented an insightful and no holds barred case for what strategies have a greater effect on student achievement.  His bottom-line is that the difference is educators whose attention is on evaluating the effect they have on student learning.  It’s a reminder of the simple wisdom of questions like those put forward by the likes of Rick Dufour:

  • What do we want the students to learn?
  • How do we know when each student has learned it?
  • What do we do when a student experiences difficulty in learning it?

On Day Two, my friend Steven Armstrong (Deputy Head Academic) and I shared Oxley College’s journey so far with Curriculum Mapping.  We offered a “warts and all” tale that begins with a hazy vision of where we want to go and ends (so far) happily with a very successful inspection by the Board of Studies earlier this month.

Our slides are available (+notes page) as well as a handout with a few example maps and template.

categories workshop | tags

AGQTP WebQuests 2.0

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By tmarch, August 24, 2010 3:41 am

First Impressions

  1. Here’s a Stixyboard for brainstorming  “What are WebQuests?”
  2. Now let’s try Putting the WebQuest Pieces Together (doc)

A little history lesson & Background

WebQuests all started with this page posted by Bernie Dodge: Some Thoughts About WebQuests.  I was team-teaching with Bernie in a teacher prep course on creating interdisciplinary units.  I soon began a three year fellowship where the first thing I did was to post the first (non) WebQuest for use outside of our course: Searching for China (version 0.9).  This was, “good, but not a WebQuest.”  Why? A few years later it became this updated version of Searching for China.

Use the QuestGarden Search to explore others’ WebQuests.  Use the Comments on this post to share good ones that you find.

Sample WebQuests by Tom or Web-and-Flow

Getting Started

One really good way to develop a WebQuest is from a ClassPortal.  Below are the ClassPortals you’ve begun.  Do any of the topics suit a WebQuest?

Reviewing ClassPortals from the group

If you want to use this approach (or begin a new blog for a WebQuest) you might want to copy/paste this template into a Page on your blog.

Guides for your Process

Collaborative Checkpoints: add your milestones – Questions, Roles, Tasks, etc.

Resources

Articles

categories workshop

Be-Dazzling Principals in Melbourne

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By tmarch, August 22, 2010 11:02 am

The Day

On Monday I’m presenting Day One of a conference for primary principals from the Outer North Western area of Melbourne.  The task for the day is to inspire — to bedazzle —  these leaders with how ICTs can excite learning for themselves, their teachers and students.

Although we will explore plenty of dazzling ICTs, my goal is to do more.  I hope to empower participants with a customisable roadmap, one where they use the exciting aspects of technology to promote a sustainable culture of Real, Rich and Relevant learning in their schools.

Quick Brainstorming

Let’s begin with sharing vision our challenges and goals by getting input via

TypeWith.Me

The Vision

My unhidden agenda is that technology needs to do more than “sex-up” traditional lessons.  Here are examples of how an educator frames a task so that it inspires students to stretch to their best.

What is Dazzling?

Students engaged in autonomous knowledge building. Why?
  • It’s an expression of the Joy of Learning
  • It’s what’s called for by governments & business
  • It makes online access more than amusing ourselves to death
  • It produces better retention of information and promotes higher order thinking, superior outright performance and psychological wellness.

Here are examples:

Share your ideas on Stixy

How do we Nurture this?

Look to Learn

Hands-On!

Do the Dazzling

Web 2.0 Intro

categories Tom's Work | tags

Working with Mater Maria

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By tmarch, August 19, 2010 1:59 pm

Welcome!

I’m delighted to have a whole day to work with the staff of Mater Maria College in the northern beaches area of Sydney.

Here’s a set of materials to guide what you do.

Getting input:TypeWith.Me

I’m still convinced that for a school to successfully implement digital learning four conditions must be addressed. They are:

  1. a place to meet online
  2. a set of Rich Routines to do once they are there
  3. a longer process that develops a renewed understanding of Curriculum – shifting from seat time and product to mastery and performance.
  4. finally, a framework that shifts the ownership and management of learning to students (where is has always belonged)

Online Space

  • Get a Wordpress Blog
  • Modify the Blog’s Appearance
  • Settings for success
  • Making a Post – embedding YouTube
  • Creating a Page

Rich Online Routines and Examples

All learners (children and adults) come with a range of abilities and experiences.  They progress at different rates.  This truth is one that the Industrial model to schooling has been struggling with for a century.  Fortunately, in the digital era, this limitation doesn’t exist.  1:1 learners can and do progress at individual paces.  What we need are new classroom routines – beyond “chalk and talk” – that nurture and support individuals to achieve their potential.  The “Edge-ucators Way” is a platform for helping students and teachers move in this direction.

Look to Learn:

ClassPortals:

WebQuests:

CEQ•ALL

categories workshop | tags

Varsity College – Gold Coast

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By tmarch, August 17, 2010 12:24 pm

In addition to the Innovation Expo, I have the opportunity to share my school-based approach with Varsity College on the Gold Coast. They are leaders in 1:1 implementation with further expansion coming in 2011.

Here are handouts that ICT / Pedagogy people can use.

Collaborative Tools

Some Examples

Look to Learn:

ClassPortals:

WebQuests

Resources

Tutorials

categories workshop | tags

Innovation Expo – Gold Coast for eLearning

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By tmarch, August 16, 2010 10:25 am

Over the next two days the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre will become the hub for digital learning in Australia.  A great group of keynote speakers has been assembled to complement an outstanding cast of local experts.  I’m fortunate to present to the conference on The New Curriculum: when Learning goes 1:1 and a session unpacking CEQ•ALL.

I’m making my 2 Day Workshop handouts available because they bring together my work and a good collection of supporting links.

In addition to the Innovation Expo, I have the opportunity to share my school-based approach with Varsity College on the Gold Coast. They are leaders in 1:1 implementation with further expansion coming in 2011.

categories Tom's Work, workshop | tags

Studies of Asia

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By tmarch, August 2, 2010 5:50 am

Welcome

I have the pleasure of facilitating another 2 Day workshop for the Studies of Asia group at the Victorian department of education.  Lindy Stirling, State Advisor, Studies of Asia (see the Studies of Asia Wiki) has organised this session at the Clifton’s in blustery Melbourne.

The extensive handouts are available here:

Please begin by using the comments link on this post
to share your personal learning goals for the session.

You can also explore the work created by participants in previous sessions:

1. Smart Online Environment

  • Your current space or Wordpress.com
  • Get a Blog
  • Modify the Blog’s Appearance
  • Settings for success
  • Making a Post – embedding YouTube
  • Creating a Page

2. Rich Resources

  • Get a Diigo Account
  • RSS Feeds from Pageflakes
  • Set up a page of feeds
  • Add it as a Pagecast link from your blog
  • iTunes – browse and subscribe
  • YouTube / TubeChop
  • TED Talks

3. Digital Learning Pedagogy

  • Dispositions, Habits of Mind, Intrinsic Motivation
  • Look to Learn
  • ClassPortals
  • WebQuests 2.0

4. Self-managed Learning Framework for students

  • CEQ•ALL
  • The Remembered 20%
  • Map Skills to Hit 50
  • The Students’ Half

Studies of Asia Links

categories Uncategorized

WebQuests 2.0 Workshop

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By tmarch, July 27, 2010 8:16 pm

Welcome to a New View of WebQuests

Let’s start with a brainstorm: What are WebQuests?

My introduction to WebQuests occurred in 1994/95 when Bernie Dodge shared this new format he had been brainstorming for integrating the Web into classroom / online learning.  After several years of being all the rage, many people now treat WebQuests like “old news,” as in, “oh, we did those last century.” I don’t mean to be snotty, but actually, not many people did really do WebQuests in any century.  People who know my BestWebQuests site might be aware that out of 2000 activities reviewed, only about 16% of what called themselves WebQuests actually prompted students to transform newly acquired information into new understandings.  Most were glorified info hunts, solved through skimming Web sites followed by copying and pasting.

Part of the problem is that a WebQuest demands a few areas of experience or expertise.  First,  you have to know your way around the Web well enough to tap into the rich resources and interactive potentials available. Second, you have to really “get” critical thinking.  People do best who have internalized models like Mazano’s Dimensions of Learning, Costa’s Habits of Mind, Perkins et al.’s Visible Thinking or Wiggins and McTighe’s Understanding by Design.  It’s not enough to max out at Bloom’s synthesis and evaluation, because we’re really looking at constructing new meaning, accommodating new schema, building new understandings.  The third key area of expertise is the ability to facilitate student-centered group learning – that 3 Ring circus of classroom excitement.

Sample WebQuests

Revisit What are WebQuests?

A Process for the Day

To help “edge-ucators” who already have these backgrounds, let’s look at a new process for quickly drafting what could become a vibrant and fun WebQuest, taking advantage of great Web 2 tools.

A Rich Topic, Concept and Theme

Survey your curriculum for a topic rich enough in complexity to warrant long-term and in-depth study.  Within this topic, there will invariably be at least a few robust concepts to empower student manipulation of important variables.  These concepts will certainly link to broader themes, which when tapped into connect the topic across other equally rich topics.

Examples
Topic Concept Theme
Sustainability Sustainability depends on a delicate balance among resources, pollution, population and economics Social Justice, Globalization, scientific innovations
Folktales & Fables Stories that endure across the centuries and cultures provide insights through a rich mix of core human experiences, compelling characterization and powerful emotions The fine arts, folk arts, mythology

360 Perspectives

Once you have a rich topic and some notion of related concepts and themes, take a quick 360 degree survey of who would have vested interests in the topic.  Who cares about the topic?  Who is affected by it?  Who are the “stakeholders?”  List as many of these as you can.  Finally, match up your list to see if you have a balanced list where all sides are represented.  There should be sparks ready to fly between more than a few of the perspectives you’ve listed.  For example, if you have “greenies,” you’d better have developers or manufacturers.

Quick Resource Search

Don’t take more than 30 minutes to make a quick tour of the Web to see if rich resources exist on your topic.  You aren’t gathering a complete hotlist of resources, just making sure things exist to enliven the experience for students.  Consider using your Diigo toolbar and a group or make a list. Be smart, look in TEDTalks, YouTube / iTunes EDU, Diigo groups, RSS feeds and great content providers (Trove, WWF, etc.).

Possible Questions

A WebQuest is guided by a big question – this empowers students to discover their own path through the topic and connect the new learning to what they already know.

Possible Roles

Your 360 Perspectives brainstorm now combines with your quick search to line out what would seem to be the best 3-6 roles to get students deep into the topic.  These will immerse students in areas of expertise that they will use to reshape the gray areas into greater definition and understanding.

Possible Real World Productions / Constructs

Given the topic, the question and the roles, what kinds of things to people make who spend their professional lives caring about the topic?  Do they make formal plans, create artworks, raise awareness, invent solutions?  Choose at least one that makes the most sense for your topic and also sings with some excitement for you and your students.

Possble Real World Feedback

Who could you contact who might be willing and able to provide authentic feedback to students on what they come up with?  These could be parents or older students, but better if they are professionals in the field.  The feedback could be provided in person, but comments through a social network or Skype conference can be just as good.

You’re Ready to Go!

Use the above process to draft together what could become a great WebQuest.  Use your favorite platform like Wordpress to develop the WebQuest and tap into all the great Web tools you love to flatten the learning hierarchy so that you can join in on the learning fun and role-model the joy of learning for your students.

Here’s the process as a handout you can work with.

WebQuests 2.0

Resources

WebQuests .9 & 1.0

categories Tom's Work, Web 2.0 | tags

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