JTP Innovative Learning

We’ve been playing on the Ultranet for a little while now: we know how to log in, how it works and have some ideas for how we might best use it for teaching and learning. So what next? In a few weeks time, the Department of Education will provide schools with access to Release 2 of the Ultranet. This is the part of the Ultranet that involves parents and students.
 
At the moment, only members of the teaching profession can access the Ultranet, but all that is about to change. First, students will receive a letter with a username and password to allow them access to the Ultranet. Younger students will get help to set up their username and password at our school, older students will be encouraged to do this at home. The process, as far as we've been told, should be fairly straightforward. The password each child will receive will be temporary only, and they will need to change it the first time they log in to the Ultranet. The instructions will be enclosed in the letter they’ll receive and as we learn more about it, we'll try to send home some tips and tricks! Every student will also have to set up 3 'secret questions'. These will help children re-set their password, if (and when!) they forget it!
 
Once each child logs on, they will be able to explore the Ultranet. Of course, initially, there won't be much to see as we make plans on how best to use this great new resource to enhance the learning of our students. Don't be disappointed if there's nothing there - there will be soon enough! The use of the Ultranet is one of the biggest and most significant innovations we have seen in a really long time. We want to make sure we are using it to it’s full potential, and as we haven’t seen Release 2 yet either, we might take some time to learn about it ourselves first before we invite students to join in the fun! Parents will receive usernames and passwords later on in the year. They will have access to ‘Community Spaces’ – where they can join school groups and committees they belong to. They will also have access to the Learning Portfolios of all of their school-aged children, who attend State Schools (even if they are at different schools).
 
This great tool will revolutionise how we teach, how our students learn and how parents are involved in their schooling.  Look out for more info in coming weeks!

Did you know…
 
That we had a great day on Monday learning about the Ultranet and Web 2.0 tools?
 
Despite newspaper, TV and radio commentary to the contrary, we had a very productive day on Monday this week. The Ultranet is a great tool that will allow us to work online with our colleagues from around the state and will provide a very safe and secure online environment for your students.  While there were some ups and downs with access on Monday, the Ultranet is much more than just a website: it requires a shift in learning and teaching styles. We need to learn how to use it to its full potential and we need to learn what works and what doesn’t with regards to online tools: blogs, wikis, forums, chat rooms, social networks, email, online assessment, cyber-safety and more! Just because we couldn’t log on for a while on Monday didn’t affect us learning about all of these exciting tools.
 
The staff at my school participated in workshops throughout the day, experimenting with ICT and discovering how to integrate engaging and educational tools into our day to day programs. When the Ultranet has passed it’s initial phase of introduction, all of what we learnt will be used within the safe environment of the Ultranet.
 
Victoria is the first state in Australia  (and one of the first in the World) to have a custom-built, designed-for-education, online environment that is for not only students but teachers and parents as well.  It has it’s teething problems, which of course can be very frustrating, but the big picture is that we need to move with the times and to focus on what our students now need in order to learn and grow effectively. While there was certainly a fair bit of frustration across the state on Monday, the reality is that any system that can hold 1.5 million users at once is going to have glitches initially.  We are excited for the next stage of the Ultranet, which is when students and parents will, slowly, be brought online to join the community!

Did you know...
That netbooks are different to laptops? Well, they are! A netbook is a small, portable computer with, usually, a 10" screen. They are lightweight and they do pretty much everything a full size laptop can do.
Netbooks are becoming more and more popular in schools because students can learn differently than with desktop computers. How? Well, netbooks are small and can be used where ever they are needed. They go where the students go: to art, to music, to the reading corner in the classroom. And, if you have a one to one netbook program the greatest benefit is that students don't need to timetable 'computer time'.  Students feel more engaged, more committed to learning and can make real world links to what they are learning! Gone are the days of learning by rote – our students today learn best when they are able to create, engage, produce, communicate and interact.
Netbooks can cope with a wide range of software and Internet websites. While they are not yet powerful enough to run all the high-end multimedia softwares out there  every new release sees an increase in what a netbook can comfortably do. When students have closer to one to one access to netbooks in their classroom, research from Harvard University has shown that the computer becomes a tool, an aide to learning, rather than an 'activity' that we do in class. These days we don't 'do' computers, we integrate them. We encourage students to make decisions about what tools they will use to assist their learning and why. Is a pen and paper the best option? Is a group discussion needed? Could an online resource support your learning?
Box Hill North PS and Mitcham PS are two local schools who have both noticed exciting improvements in learning when they stopped treating computers as a subject to be taught and began to think of them as a tool to enhance learning. It's exciting to think where computing will take us next!

What is a blog? How do you use a Wiki?
 
These are questions that Ultranet will help us answer. As with many technology tools, it is often easier to see them in action but in this week's article, I'm going to try and clarify the different purposes and uses of these now everyday tools.
 
The Ultranet is a virtual learning environment that offers different 'spaces' for different purposes (learning, information sharing, group meetings, personal info). On all of these spaces, blogs and wikis are an important tool. They allow users to interact, give opinions and share learning. Most importantly, it encourages us all to reflect on our learning - what we teachers call 'metacognition'. So how might they be used in a classroom?
 
Blogs were initially a kind of online diary, a web-log. There is one owner, who posts their thoughts, ideas, opinions and then accepts comments (or feedback) from those who read their posts. In Grade 5 and 6 we use Blogs in our classroom programs. Students access information online and complete tasks, reply to others and ask questions. The Blog is owned and run by the classroom teacher who posts the activities and the students respond. They aren't owners of the space but can contribute - following cyber-safety guidelines of course!
 
Wikis are collaborative. Wikipedia is a well-known online encyclopedia that has been created by thousands of individuals around the world. Every member can edit, add to or contest any content. Each member has equal ownership and privileges. In classrooms we use wikis when we want students to create, design, debate and interact online. For example, a wiki based on our local environment lets all students upload photos they have taken, write about their research findings, edit each others' work and create pages for different sub-topics.
 
As Blogs and wikis continue to evolve it can be difficult to see the differences. But the way they are used is the key point – both offer 21st century learning in online virtual environments. The Ultranet, soon to be released for student access, will give the opportunity to use Blogs and Wikis for a variety of learning and teaching opportunities.

Did you know…
 
That an Ipod touch is a teaching tool?
 
It’s true! All around the world, teachers are making use of these mini-computers. They are perfectly designed for small hands and are mobile, rather than portable.  That might sound strange but a mobile device (think about your mobile phone) is always on, always ready to go, whereas your portable laptop can be easily carried but needs to be turned on and booted up. Mobile is always available and easy to use.
 
I wonder if you have ever seen a pre-school child play with an iPod touch or an iPhone? Last week,  I watched in awe as my friend’s 3 year old taught herself how to open, close, scroll, zoom and pan on my iPhone – I timed her, it took 3 minutes! That’s it! All the learning about the tool was done and she was then focused on the dancing unicorns and the counting patterns on the screen. As teachers, it’s great when the ‘how do I use’ stage of a new technology is replaced with ‘what can it teach me’!
 
Since the first iPod was launched in 2001, Apple have sold over 250 million of them, and the iPhone is catching up fast (not to mention the iPad – which I admit to coveting badly!). This time last year there were 50 000 apps (applications or tools) for the iPhone and iPod touch – today there are over 250 000. The apps that are used in a classroom setting vary depending on the content but I recently saw an art teacher use iPod touches to teach her class about Impressionist art. The students selected their favourite image, used another app to annotate their ideas and thoughts onto the paintings, then they uploaded their image and notes to a website to share with the class. Finally, they used a dictionary and thesaurus app to choose 3 words to describe the painting and then used Google Earth to see satellite and street images of the actual landscape.  Ever child was engaged, every student was working at their own level and every member of the class had their opinions heard and their ideas shared. Pretty exciting stuff, if you ask me!!

Did you know....

We have 36 IWBs in my school?

And why do we have them? Because, as a school, we believe that our students are different to previous generations. We see how differently they learn and what they get up to in their spare time - and no, it's not all bad! Despite the recent media and government furor over childhood obesity, a quick poll of some of our students shows that in most classes around two thirds play sports regularly. These are the same students who are online most days, who perhaps have a cell phone, who almost definitely know how to use a digital camera, who use vocabulary we have never heard, who have an online presence and who expect to be able to create web content as an author. Even some of our Grade Preps and Ones have helped upload images online!

In teaching, Interactive Whiteboards offer us a doorway to new resources, tools and learning methods. If you've seen one of our boards in action, you will probably have noted how quickly and easily the students navigate pages, programs and documents, but IWBs offer much more than simply software! We can study triangles by 'flying' over the Eiffel Tower, we can share understandings by drawing graphic organisers, we can see 3D images of people and places we are learning about, we can experience history by hearing speeches and seeing old-world video footage, we can even use Skype to video conference with other students, teachers and experts around the world in real-time.

Importantly, our use of IWBs can enhance learning and help our students develop deeper understandings, for example, we can manipulate virtual shapes to see how they work, we can watch rocket launches in slow motion to see forces in action and we can create our own digital books, magazines and cartoons to  develop our writing skills.

IWBs let us link different areas of the curriculum together in a much more unified way: maths activities that involve reading topographical maps or reading tasks that ask us to write to our local environmental agencies via their website or science experiments that require graphing or spreadsheets to share the class results. We can travel underwater, climb up mountains and fly into outer space - and it's all interactive!

At Laburnum we are very lucky to have such great teaching tools. So, the next time you are in your child's classroom, remember, it's not just a 'big white thing' at the front of the room!

did you know...
that the top ten jobs in the workforce today, did not even exist in 2004?

Think about what that means for schools and learning! What are we teaching now? What will be relevant for our students in the future? How do we prepare students for an unforeseeable future?

At my School, we are doing this by keeping up to date with what is going on in education around the world. We are introducing web-tools and teaching transferable skills, like how to reference materials and how to check that a website is giving valid information. We are introducing the Ultranet to our staff and together we are learning to integrate technology into daily classroom programs. We are working with our students to help keep them safe, Using real-world tools like wikis, blogs and email we will give our students the best chance of becoming good digital citizens who are prepared for whatever the future holds!

At my school, across a wide-spectrum of ages, we have students who are managing online networks of hundreds of friends, who can interact with people around the world and who expect this access to continue to grow and become increasingly important. While we don’t have a crystal ball, we can use the past 10 years as a reference to see that ‘times they are a changin’ ‘!  In fact, a recent presentation I saw quoted scientists and futurists as saying that “At today’s rate of change, technology will experience 20,000 years of growth THIS CENTURY”!

Our students will continue to need reliable and up-to-date resources and stable Internet access, as well as dedicated and caring teachers who can help prepare them for an exciting, challenging and unknown future! And that's what we are working towards.

Is there really a change in the way we live and our students need to learn? Think about this: when was the last time you got up to change a TV channel or used correcting fluid or sent out film to be processed?  Not that long ago, right?
But –the big question is, will you ever need to do those things again?

that in 10 years it is predicted that blackboards, cds, desks, reports and traditional grade classes will be obsolete in schools?
 
That means that by the time your prep child is considering VCE, or your grade 6 child finishes university and thinks about beginning a career, schools and universities could be completely unrecognisable! What will classrooms look like? What will going to school actually mean? Who will teach your child? Will teachers be trained in the same way using the same theories? Who will be their classmates?
 
Last week I mentioned that we are likely to see technology grow at an unprecedented, almost immeasurable, rate. Schools haven't traditionally moved as fast as society when it comes to technology. We have to wait and assess the challeges and weigh up the benefits before we jump in to using a technology. We have never, ever had technology made for us. Teachers borrow what's out there and they use their professional knowledge to see the possiblities for learning. Everything we use, technology-wise, in school today was made for some else: either for big business or corporations or for people to interact or to support people's hobbies and interests. At Laburnum, we are getting really good at seeing the potential in technologies. We have students in Grade 1 talking about social networking and how to be safe: we have Grade 6s creating stop motion projects to explore the challenges of bullying and self-esteem: we have Grade 5s using collaborative sites, like wikis, to learn from each other and to give and receive feedback. Our school offers a range of technological opportunities for learning. But what's next? As society changes, and as education changes, we have to keep looking at what’s out there and ensuring that Laburnum renews software and hardware resources and continues to improve student access!
 
Last week I began with a comment about the top jobs today not having existed in 2004. The statement was made by the US Secretary of Education Riley. He goes on to say:
 
 “Rather than focusing on specific technologies or specific problems, we need to equip students with those concepts that are common to all problems, all technologies, all skills, ranging from workplace engineering to ethics to entrepreneurship.”
 
That’s our challenge!

Did you know...


   * That social networking is over-taking email and instant messaging in popularity with our students?
   * That in a recent survey of the student population at Laburnum Primary School, 60% of students from Prep - Year 6 are members of at least one social network - and a large number of the remaining 40% had seen a social network and interacted with others online in some other way?


As parents and teachers we need to make sure our children understand who they are communicating with online and what privacy monitors are in place. For example, did you know that in Club Penguin and Moshi-Monsters, your child can become 'friends' with anyone and most children can work around the 'safe chat' functions (even students as young as Prep have done so!)  Our students think and work quite differently to us and they learn through social interaction, both online and off: unplugging the computer isn't the solution!

What we can do is continue to talk about their online worlds with them, we can spend 20 minutes a month just watching what they do online and we can moderate what they are accessing using filters.  Online social networks offer a world of learning for your child, but we wouldn't let them navigate a busy road by themselves without help and training, so we should also support them in navigating their busy cyber-worlds with the same help and training.