Warrick's Blog has Moved

After trialling edublogs, and the power of word press I have decided to move all future postings to the edublog page at:

http://warrick.edublogs.org/

Thanks blogger, it's been fun.

http://warrick.edublogs.org/

Warrick's teaching and learning blog is currently not here; it's at:

http://warrick.edublogs.org/

archives, old postings etc. remain here for the time being.

on the other hand

on the other hand, in five years of working with blogger blog, I've hardly ever had a problem like this:

Error establishing a database connection

This either means that the username and password information in your wp-config.php file is incorrect or we can't contact the database server at localhost. This could mean your host's database server is down.

• Are you sure you have the correct username and password?
• Are you sure that you have typed the correct hostname?
• Are you sure that the database server is running?

If you're unsure what these terms mean you should probably contact your host. If you still need help you can always visit the WordPress Support Forums.

Is this a better blog?

A better search, the ability to post pages not just posts, the fancy little calendar thingy, a free wiki space to book; is word press a better blogging platform? And if I move, what happens to all my meticulous postings?

http://warrick.edublogs.org/

Blog Software Compared

This is an unattractive but handy table for comparing hosted blogging solutions; ie. the software that you'd use to create a blogging system. I'm looking at putting something into the technology budget discussions for next year and want to find a good effective blog engine we can use on our own school system servers.

Blog Software Breakdown

Wozcast 11

My latest podcast, Wozcast 11 is now online. This one features:

Tablet tools compared: OneNote, EverNote, Go Binder and another look at audio editing software with SONY Acid Express 5.0, Adobe Audition 2.0 and good ol' Audacity. Recorded June 12, 2006

Find out more at http://web.aanet.com.au/warrickwynne/wozcasts/wozcasts.htm
or subscribe via Itunes or something similar using the xml link below:
http://web.aanet.com.au/warrickwynne/wozcasts/wozcasts.xml

Model Schools Wiki

I had this idea last week that we build a wiki for students to teach other students about how to deal with technology issues and managing their notebook computer. Model Schools Wiki is a similar idea, a wiki for teachers by teaches, about integrating tech in teaching.

This space is a collaborative environment where educators can contribute to and access information related to using technology in K-12 classrooms.

http://wiki.monroe.edu/index.php?title=Main_Page

edublogs.org - free blogs for education professionals

Haven't tried this yet, but am impressed with wordpress and their blogging system:

"Create your own ad free fully featured WordPress blog at edublogs.org. Including free Yacapaca assessment tool from the Chalkface Project. In addition to a free blog, all users also get an ad free wikispace!"

edublogs.org - free blogs for education professionals

Effectiveness and Delight in an Online Learning Community

I like lots of the ideas in this short abstract about an article by Anne Mason in Computers in NZ Schools particularly the awareness of the social nature of learning; 'the head and the heart'.


The Internet is increasingly being used as a social learning space, not just as a repository of information. Online learning communities are underpinned by social constructivist learning theory, where the teacher is a ‘facilitator’ of learning, rather than a ‘source’ of predetermined knowledge. Studies undertaken by Ultralab in England indicate that ‘delight’ is an important aspect of online learning. New Zealand researchers investigated the teaching strategies and other factors that led to primary students experiencing delight through the Learn-Now program. Conducted through The Correspondence School in New Zealand, Learn-Now involved 75 students in an online learning community. Blackboard software was used to create a secure online environment, with multiple spaces. In one space, students could participate in collaborative projects, such as collecting and sending stamps to support a family in the Philippines, or create a project of their choice. The Chit Chat space enabled students to get to know each other and practise using computer texting (abbreviated language) or adding colour and movement to their electronic communications. The Cyber Clubroom area housed clubs that the students created around pets, sports, or other shared interests. In the Business Centre, students practised leadership and life skills by creating and running their own businesses. The teacher used deliberate strategies to maximise the potential of the online environment for learner-centred teaching that engages ‘both the head and the heart’. She provided time for introductory activities so all students were familiar with the software. She used chatty, informal language to begin communications, but clear, formal language to give instructions. Exemplary model material was provided to students, but they were also given ample latitude to design their own programs. Delight was evident in students throughout the program, indicated in their communications and high level of engagement. Analysis indicated that delight arose chiefly from the use of the ICTs themselves, from the social learning incorporated into the program and from the authentic learner-centred nature of the activities.

MySpace Discussion

A bit American-centric in terms of the specific legislation being discussed, but a good extended discussion of the costs and benefits of social networking sites like MySpace (also, sharable as a PDF file)

http://www.danah.org/papers/MySpaceDOPA.html

The Official Face Blog

One simple but effective way to experiment with blogging in the classroom is what Frances Jacobson Harris calls the 'Official Face Blog'. This is a blog that serves as the official face for a class, or a faculty, or a library, 'the spot for news, updates and communication with students, staff and parents. Blogs of this sort focus on current information and are generally not highly interactive' (Frances Jacobson Harris, Learning and Leading with Technology, May 2006)

Harris gives the example of the Huntingtown High School Library Media Centre
at http://www.hhsmedia.blogspot.com/of this kind of blog and it's that model I've been using with my Year 11 English class this year at http://11en2.blogspot.com It's not radical, but the class announcements, set work and homework are all easier to manage than any html app I've seen. Students can also use RSS feeds, or even email notifications, to keep up to date.

Harris talks also of 'Single Purpose Blogs' (dedicated to a single function, rather than a global resource), and 'Active Learning Blogs' that work on collaboration and feedback. I'm leaning towardss WIKIS for that kind of active collaboration, but more of that later.

EdTechTalk - Educational Technology That Talks

Some good podcasts on educational technology:

EdTechTalk is a community of educators interested in discussing and learning about the uses of educational technology. We webcast several live shows each week. During shows, listeners can use any common media player (i.e. Windows Media Player, Real Player, or iTunes) to listen to the discussion and use the chat room to make comments and ask questions. It is also possible to join in the discussion using skype or (sometimes) a U.S. based teleconference.

EdTechTalk - Educational Technology That Talks

Engaging Teachers

Good post from weblogg-ed on one of the issues with technology in learning, engaging teachers:

"If we are being asked to engage kids where they are, how do we engage teachers to take on that task? Sure, it’s easy to say that as educators we have to rethink our classrooms and our pedagogy, that we have to employ new practices to prepare our students for a different learning environment. But how do we really engage them to do that? David writes about Telling a New Story, and I do think that we need to create some new narratives about teaching and learning to share. But the hugely difficult question is how do we engage teachers to become the types of learners that their students are becoming? How do we engage teachers to rethink their roles in the classroom now that their students have just as much access to information as they do (with some exceptions)? How do we engage teachers to become lifelong learners and to model that learning in more transparent ways?"


Weblogg-ed » Engaging Teachers

Teaching Australia

Hadn't seen this site before, or if I have, it's changed a lot.

Teaching Australia; the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership

Teaching Australia

The Wonderful World of WIKI

I was inspired again, after the ICTEV Conference I podcast about last week, to rejunevate my thinking and acting about wikis. I've been working on a tabletpc wiki site for a while now, trying to gather together, in an ongoing way, my thoughts and impressions about working with the tablet pc.

Now, I've also created a little wiki about The Wonderful World of WIKI to gather together my thoughts and impressions about working with wikis in teaching and learning.

I've added both sites as permanent links to the Blogroll on this site.

Wozcast 10 is now Online

Not entirely happy with the audio quality, but Wozcast 10 is now online. This one focuses on the ICTEV Conference I attended yesterday. The podcast is a 30 minute reflection on:

>>The ICTEV Conference 2006; Jamie McKenzie loves librarians, blogging hacks, mapping curriculum, values and ICT, designing the technology rich classroom.

The ICTEV Conference website is HERE
The hack for removing the navbar on Blogger sites is HERE

Download it, or even suscribe to the Wozcast HERE

ICT Connecting Learning

Spent most of the day yesterday at the annual ICTEV Conference: ICT Connecting Learning at Melbourne Grammar School, which was a pretty interesting sort of day, with some good sessions. If I have some time later today I aim to put together a podcast focused on the day. Meanwhile, check out the absence of the navbar on this blog; a hack that a teacher at the conference put me on to.

Why does it matter? Well, some teachers have been reluctant to use blogger as a school blogging solution because of the ubiquitous 'Next Blog' button, which could lead anywhere. I must admit that even I was a bit concerned, and my current teaching blog is really just an announcement page with no student writing at all. I don't see blogger as the ultimate classroom blogging solution, but I feel better now that the navbar has gone.

Rationale in moving to the Tablet PC

Meanwhile, someone who actually might just 'get it', Virginia Tech in the USA is moving all its students to the tablet pc format. Here's part of their rationale:

It has always been the philosophy of Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering to get the right technology in the hands of our students. This reasoning fostered our decision in 1984 to become the first large public university to require our entering engineering freshmen to purchase a PC. This pioneering decision provided our engineering students with a state-of-the-art technological undergraduate education.

In 2002, the time was right for the College of Engineering to switch the requirement to a notebook. Today, in order to provide the opportunity for our engineering students to continue their education at the cutting edge of technology, we are moving to the Convertible Tablet PC. Use of this device in and outside of class will provide our students with experiences that they will use in the future.

Rationale in moving to the Tablet PC

Kooky American Professor Bans Laptops in the Classroom

from the SMH today:

As the professor lectured on the law, the student wore a poker face. But that was probably because, under the guise of taking notes on his laptop, the student actually was playing poker - online, using the school's wireless Internet connection.

The scenario is not uncommon in today's college classrooms in the US, and some instructors want it stopped. So they have done the unthinkable - banned laptops.

The move caused an uproar at the University of Memphis, where law professor June Entman nixed the computers in March because she felt they were turning her students into stenographers and inhibiting classroom debate.

Students rebelled by filing a complaint with the American Bar Association, although the organisation dismissed it.

At the University of Pennsylvania, law professor Charles Mooney banned laptops from his classes two years ago for similar reasons.

Around that time, said Mooney, he was serving as an expert witness in a lawsuit. During a break in his deposition, he recalled asking the stenographer if she found the case interesting. She replied that she didn't remember anything she had taken down, Mooney said.

"I thought, 'That's what my students are doing,'" he said.

Laptops lose their class - Technology

New Push for national year 12 certificate

ACER continue their ideological crusade for national curriculum (no doubt with them in the driver's seat!) From The AGE today:

The Federal Government says it is pushing ahead with a controversial proposal to develop a national year 12 certificate, despite Labor claims that the issue was being put on the backburner.

A national certificate would replace the existing state and territory qualifications, under recommendations of a Government-commissioned report released yesterday.

Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop has called for public comment on the report, which she said made "a strong case" for an Australian Certificate of Education.

Push for national year 12 certificate - National - theage.com.au (-): "Chee Chee Leung"

English Lite: the last word

This letter to the Sunday Age today (30/4/2006) pretty much sums up my attitude to the 'classics' debate; keep it balanced, and keep reading fun as long as you can.

Fun with classics

I can understand where the Prime Minister is coming from, when he claims that kids should be taught the classics, as opposed to the "dumbing down" of English these days. Unfortunately, I think he's going about it the wrong way. Learning the classics is much the same as learning a musical instrument — you need to learn the technique before you can really play.

However, a good way to learn technique and keep it interesting, is to begin with something you already know. So it is with English.

I was educated in the '70s, so I'm one of that generation of people who understand what adjectives and the like are and how to use them. We also studied the classics at high school: Shakespeare, Chaucer and Browning, but I also remember studying (as a part of Year 11 English) the lyrics to Sympathy for the Devil. That elicited quite a heated debate; much more than Chaucer or Shakespeare. It also taught me to value so-called "pop culture" as being as worthy as anything else. I have also, as a result of my own study of pop culture, gone back to the classics to see where a great deal of this stuff has come from. So, before we throw away any child's chance of appreciating reading and literature, wouldn't it be best to combine both — pop and classics — and have the teachers point out the similarities of both, much like some do with music? You can't discard "technique" but you can make it fun. And isn't that the best way to learn?
David Jeffery, East Geelong

The New Defence Minister

Thought we might be free of all future Nelson related postings, but couldn't resist just one more comment on the worst education minister we've probably ever had, now serving the nation proud in defence! This cartoon from The Australian today.

PM Attacks 'dumb' English

Just when you thought, with the disappearance of Nelson down the gurgler, that schools would be left to get on with it, this from the AGE today:

PRIME Minister John Howard has attacked the "dumbing down" of the English syllabus in Australian schools, declaring it is falling victim to postmodernism and political correctness.

After previously questioning history teaching, Mr Howard yesterday pointed to English teaching that treated traditional texts "no differently from pop cultural commentary".

He felt "very, very strongly" about "dumbing down".

"There's evidence of that in different parts of the country," he said. "When … traditional texts are treated no differently from pop cultural commentary, as appears to be the case in some syllabuses, I share the views of many people about the so-called postmodernism," he told ABC radio in Brisbane. "I think there's a lot of validity in that."

Mr Howard said the curriculum and syllabus had to be set by education authorities, but "I sometimes question the decisions they make … about the content".

He described West Australian Government plans to move towards an outcome-based education as "gobbledegook". Under this system, a student's performance is judged against the achievements of other students.

"We all understand that it's necessary to be able to be literate and coherent in the English language. We understand it's necessary to be numerate. We also understand that there's high quality literature and there's rubbish, and we need a curriculum that encourages an understanding of the high quality literature and not the rubbish."

But the Australian Association for the Teaching of English called Mr Howard's comments glib and ignorant.

Full text HERE

State schools to offer IB

Public schools could soon be offering an alternative to the VCE, with Victoria having approved the International Baccalaureate for state schools.

The internationally recognised diploma has been available only at private schools in Victoria, but some public schools have expressed strong interest in the program.

Education Minister Lynne Kosky will today announce that state schools may offer the diploma, subject to approval from the Education Department."

By Chee Chee Leung
April 18, 2006

State schools to offer baccalaureate - National - theage.com.au (-): "State schools to offer baccalaureate

Things Schools Should Do according to some special interest group: #39392198221 in a never ending series

from the AGE today: The Bracks Government should revamp the Victorian school curriculum so it puts more emphasis on teaching students about the history of war, according to the RSL.

RSL state executive member Neil Slaughter said that while Anzac Day had become increasingly recognised in recent years, many young people still did not place enough value on sacrifices made by soldiers during war.

He said there ought to be more emphasis on teaching the young about war history — and that the RSL should have a greater say on how it was set within the school curriculum.

"Schools have definitely got to get it right. The RSL has got at its disposal tremendous resources as far as people are concerned … They could make a great contribution."

In Victorian schools, students can learn about Australia's war experience as part of Australian history, but it is not a compulsory part of the curriculum.

Premier Steve Bracks, who was in Singapore with Mr Slaughter, agreed that more could be done to teach young people about war.

By Farrah Tomazin
April 17, 2006

Design Specs for the New Student

Everyone's got something to say about the future, but no-one does anything about it!, or something like that. I quite liked this one, from a blog I read a lot: can't quite remember which one, and EverNote pointed back to Bloglines, not the original feed when I clipped it. Since I only read a few educational blogs I'll endeavour to get a specific reference:

Every student must be a critical thinker, problem solver, innovator, effective communicator, effective collaborator, self-directed learner, information and media literate, globally aware, civically engaged, financially and economically literate. These should become the design specs for 21st Century education.

Copyright makes web a turn-off

Can't quite believe the ludicrousness of this story! From the Australian today:

Australian IT - Copyright makes web a turn-off (Simon Hayes, FEBRUARY 28, 2006) (-):

"Copyright makes web a turn-off
Simon Hayes

SCHOOLS have warned they will have to turn off the internet if a move by the nation's copyright collection society forces them to pay a fee every time a teacher instructs students to browse a website.

Teachers said students in rural areas would bear the brunt of cuts if the Copyright Agency was successful in adding internet browsing charges to the $31 million in photocopying fees it rakes in from schools.

The agency calculates the total due by randomly sampling schools each year for materials they copy, and extrapolating the results.

The battle between the schools and the agency will go to the Federal Court over its attempts to make schools pay for asking students to use the web.

Negotiations between the Ministerial Council on Education Employment, Training and Youth Affairs, representing the schools, and the agency have broken down over plans to change the scheme to include a question in the survey on whether teachers direct students to use the internet.

'If it turned out we'd have to pay them, we'd turn the internet off in schools,' the council's national copyright director Delia Browne said."

What are portfolios for?

Thinking of the last posting, about hosting portfolios online, using simple software like the new Mac creator, or Google page creator made me think again of original PURPOSE and AUDIENCE (it comes from being an English teacher!)

Who is the portfolio for?
What is the portfolio for?

Is it final performance, burn this thing off as a dvd and take it to the job interview?
Or is it work in progress, change over time, artefacts, record of growth

Surely the latter. If that's the case then the first model isn't as effective. It needs to be secure, preserved, maintained for a small audience (teacher, parent, student) over time, and for the purpose of charting growth and facilitating new growth (ie learning)

That doesn't mean it can't be created with the familiar and powerful tools at our disposal, and placed in a web context where icons and previews and hyperlinks rule, but it does mean we can't just stick it on the web.

The Web as an Eportfolio Platform

The web as eportfolio platform: it's just crazy enough to work!

Canadian software developer D'Arcy Norman writes:

I’m involved with an ePortfolio project with our Faculty of Education - aimed at getting student teachers to build a series of high quality, interactive, personalized portfolios outlining their development as professionals. It’s more about the journey (self reflection, writing, documenting) than the destination (the final website) so we were looking for tools that wouldn’t require technical know-how in order for the students to produce interesting products. When the project got off the ground (in the fall of 2005), there wasn’t really any off-the-shelf product that fit the bill, so we started to implement an instance of Pachyderm so the students could start authoring in it.

But, things changed recently, when Apple announced and released iWeb. It’s a dead-simple app to use, and comes with some great design templates. The output is just standard HTML, which can be served from anywhere.

To help figure out if iWeb would serve as an adequate ePortfolio management platform, I just whipped up a quick and dirty skeleton of my own ePortfolio to see how it works out. After about 15 minutes of play time, I’m really impressed. Built-in blogging (with multiple "blogs" in a site, each with their own RSS feed). Great content-agnostic templates that let you basically do anything you want to.

Read more HERE

Google Page Creator

I've also been playing around with the new Google Page Creator, and have set up an alternative version of the wozcast page, using the Google software. See it at the link below

warrick - wozcasts

Wozcast 9 is Now Online

Wozcast 9

the latest in a irregular series of podcasts is now online. This one discusses>>>

What is online learning? A discussion of some of the tools and tactics that might characterise online learning today including online learning platforms like Blackboard, Video on Demand, Macromedia Breeze, Blogs, Learning Objects, Wikis and good ol' podcasts.

Download it or subscribe HERE

Classroom bloging makes sense coz...

Of course classroom blogging does make sense; in essence it's writing isn't it? Ongoing, reflective, linked to the world writing.

But maybe in classrooms it makes sense to point it and refine it and give it shape and specific purpose. Is any student really going to respond to 'oh yeah, and post about your feelings abut To Kill a Mockingbird in your blog'? A: if they admit they have a blog they're surely not going to pollute it with school stuff, and B: they probably have another idenitity from the one you're allowed to see in the classroom, and never (rarely) the twain shall meet. and C: if every teacher asked this what a haphazard diversity we would create.

So, maybe a purpose built, specific purpose, time-delineated blog is the way forward for the classrooms; ie. 'a reading reflection on the current text study and your responses and ideas in OURspace (not MYspace!) which we'll keep alive this semester'

I think that's the way I want to go first; though I think my 'Classroom Announcements' blog is beginning to work. It doesn't make sense to anyone other than my English class, but it's not supposed to! It's purpose driven, specific, time-delineated. At the end of the year it's done.
You can watch it develop at http://11en2.blogspot.com/

Classroom Blogging makes sense how?

More thoughts on the classroom blog, web 2.0 and all that jazz in this interesting post from D'Arcy Norman. I can feel a podcast coming on!

We talked about the current implementation of blogging in the context of a class. Someone mentioned that a student may have 5 different blogs - one for each class - and must post content to each blog in order to get “credit” for their work. And, at the end of the semester, the blogs are nuked from orbit. So, not only is a student’s work divided across several quasi-related locations, it is so closely tied to the Class that in ceases to exist after the Class is over

The Vancouver Education Blogging Sessions at D’Arcy Norman Dot Net

Get smart

from the AGE technology section today:

Get smart - Technology - theage.com.au:

"VICTORIAN students making the daily trip to and from school havemore than books and pencil cases in their backpacks. Laptops, PDAs and flash drives jostle with mobile phones and digital music
players as technology blurs the divide between home and school."

Collaboration/Web 2.0 - Online Word Processors

I've just started playing with two online word processors that I sought out to solve a problem I had this week. Imagine a long and complex Word table with lots of names and lots of role descriptions, to be sent out to lots of people to check, and me with the job of making sure all the changes are correct, merging the various email replies and going out of my mind trying to work out which version is real...

Enter, the online word processor. I put the doc. online, and give others rights to edit it. They do the fixing on the document itself, which is then exported at the end of the process. Both of these programs coped with a complex table directl paste out of WORD. I'll play with them for a while and blog

Meanwhile, check out:

Writely (the web word processor)

Zoho Writer (the online word processor)

My initial impressions after 7 minutes! are that Zoho is more intuitive, and maybe slightly quicker. Screen shot from Zoho above

PBWiki

I've been playing around with pbwiki for a while and just beginning to get the hang of the formatting and layout involved. I've created a test wiki for a group of teachers at school who are involved in trialling tablet pcs for classroom use.

That wiki is here: http://tabletpc.pbwiki.com/

It's been quick and easy to setup as an individual user; the next challenge is how it wil go as a collaborative tool for the group. I'll keep you informed.

Check out the PBwiki tour!

Read/Write Web presentation at D’Arcy Norman Dot Net

D'Arcy Norman is just a lowly educational geek blogging from the University of Calgary, but his blog is great reading, and he shares podcasts, presentations and downloads on the read/write web or web 2.0 Some good material for introducing these concepts to students or staff

Read/Write Web presentation (slides and more) at D’Arcy Norman Dot Net