This session will look at the way internet safety awareness is being developed at Penrhos College using Web 2.0 tools, tablet notebooks and a variety of applications that encourage students to be creative in their use of technology.

A need was recognised by the school to raise awareness of internet safety and in particular, social networking and the implications of ‘digital footprints’ (electronic trail we create when entering data online).

Using the college Portal as the medium for delivery, students were challenged to develop their understanding of net safety by exploring NetAlert endorsed resources such as Netty’s World, Cyber Netrix and Wise Up to IT.

Students were encouraged to utilise learning strengths to create a variety of responses including forum discussion, podcasts, mindmaps, recorded interviews, animations, video and pictorial representations.

Practical components will include a very brief demonstration of key ways in which the following applications could be used to develop and represent understandings:

• Audacity to record and export mp3 files
• Inspiration 8 IE to create mindmaps
• Windows Movie Maker to create simple video presentations
• Microsoft Office PowerPoint as a tool for multimedia representations
• Sharepoint Server with Scholaris Web 2.0 tools

This course is designed to assist teachers to bring out the full potential of OneNote as a learning tool for their students.

It is applicable to nearly any discipline such as Mathematics, Languages, Science, Geography, Music, Design etc.

Participants will have the opportunity to create their own student OneNote scaffolds ready for use when they return to school. The course includes:

• basic functions of OneNote

• creating subject and term folders

• examples of different types of scaffolds

• units of work

• learning materials

• assessment planning

• group & project work

• modelling organisational skills to students

• fast and easy ways of creating scaffolds

• sending scaffolds to students

• inserting other texts e.g.

• blackline masters

• text book pages

• teacher generated work sheets

• web pages

• powerpoint presentations

• audio & video recordings

• combining with Outlook tasks

• using shared sessions

• uploading amendments and additions to student scaffolds

This Discovery Session will be a condensed version of one that I have been invited to jointly deliver with Gary Stager (USA) and Peter Skillen (Canada) at NECC 08 in San Antonio in July. That sessions title is “What Effective Computer-Using Educators Know about Teaching: An International Perspective”

Abstract:

Taking inspiration from Will Richardson’s keynote address at ELH07 I returned to school determined to leverage the potential of Web 2.0. Luckily I was able to engage the interest of a passionate and talented Head of Art who helped me implement a whole of school project.

In the first two weeks of this year, every single year 7-12 visual art student at St Hilda’s created a blog to use as their ongoing Visual Art Diary. The long term aim is to have this develop so that in 5 years time our current year 7 students who continue with their Visual Art studies to year 12 will have accumulated a six year Visual Art Blog that represents their development as an artist over their life at the school. As the blog is stored on Google Blogspot, the student can choose to continue to develop the blog beyond their time at school. It will also be used by students as a part of their portfolio when applying into tertiary studies. The Art program makes extensive use of Web 2.0 technology. Current and past students work is displayed via our online Art Gallery (GoSHA), student’s multimedia pieces are embedded on YouTube and the Head of Faculty has developed a Wiki that is a used by all art students as a resource vital to their studies. Peer mentoring is a feature of our Web 2.0 strategy.

At St Hilda’s we have been looking at ways we can leverage the already strong skill set students have developed within their own social network software experiences. How students interact within social network spaces is an area we have chosen to explore with a view to developing educationally relevant and enriching experiences. We also hope that by using Web 2.0 resources in this way, appropriate and safe online behaviour is both demonstrated and modelled. The success of this program in Art has seen us expand blogs into English and to use Google docs in a range of subject areas, including maths.

The first part of the presentation will be a run down of the program described above, relying heavily on student examples of work. The hands on session will cover the nuts and bolts of implementing such a school wide program. You really do need to consider boring things like naming conventions, getting everyone onto iGoogle, appropriate behaviour speeches etc. Once successfully setup, the whole thing is self-supporting. The students basically use their MySpace skills to maintain their blogs. Our experience has been that all technical requirements needed to register, login, gain basic editing skills etc are covered in a single lesson. From then on, the focus is on maintaining a quality blog.

Software used: Internet Browser (whole session will be Web 2.0 based)

Hands on part of the session will cover:

• Setting up blogs on blogspot - How you name them is important. It must be in such a way that staff and students can always find each other via a consistent naming method. This allows you to keep an eye on what is happening
• Why Blog? – examples of how blogs can be used across a range of studies
• iGoogle – what it is and why you need it to drive your blog / youtube presence
• youtube – friend of foe? How you and your students can use youtube relatively safely and in a productive manner. It saves network drive space as well
• Google Docs – use them to collaborate online
• Hosting off campus – using free online resources to store and host materials

Tertiary enrolments in Computer Science are plummeting world-wide and even the game programming industry is finding it hard to find quality graduates to employ. While school-based multimedia studies have oversupplied the “market”, programming skills are becoming rarer. What can we do? We can look at such new products as Alice and Scratch and Phrogram, which have been developed upon the premise that programming (both the teaching of it and the learning of it) can be a heap of fun (remember LOGO?) and can also be used to achieve the “holy grail” of actually attracting girls into “heavy” computing, like 3-D animation and software engineering. Even for students not headed into a career in ICT, programming can vastly and dramatically increase engagement using these new platforms.

The main aim of the session will be to equip educators with strategies and tools by which to encourage independent, collaborative learning practices in their students without constant, restrictive direct instruction. Software to be used includes Microsoft Office Word, Internet explorer, wikis, blogs and del.icio.us.

The presentation profiles a series of literature projects and English strategies. The use of Toshiba Tablet technology supports a wide range of software used for each project including a web-based forum for students to communicate with other schools overseas on the same projects. Inspiration and the unique Tablet facility are featured in all projects where high quality student work is presented in a variety of formats. History, Literature, Science and the odd quirky topic and task are all featured in this curriculum.

This TTLI will provide participants with an opportunity to create a short movie clip in order to provide them with the skills and experience to implement a digital story project in their own class rooms using readily available tools that are standard in the Microsoft Windows environment.

The workshop will begin with an overview of digital storytelling and the requirements in a Microsoft Windows based environment. It will also include a discussion surrounding the management of a group project and elements of successful cooperative learning with video.

The five hour session would mimic the steps and skills students would require in order to create a digital video. It will begin with the brainstorming session for ideas for the story. The TTLI will cover vocabulary required to create video sequences such as the different types of shots and camera angles. Participants will be required to storyboard their video, shoot the video, download the video to a PC, edit sequences, incorporate titles and music and finally render the entire production into a video file to show the rest of the group.

Comic Life is a relatively new software program in which students use their own photos and graphics to construct comic book stories. This application supports the English, Communication and ICT learning areas, and in today’s visually oriented world is a great tool for teaching ways of conveying compelling messages using a combination of words and pictures. Primary school and older students find Comic Life highly motivational and for those with reading and writing difficulties, the ‘comic book genre’ is one they can both cope with and enjoy. Comic Life is also a brilliant tool for helping students on the autism spectrum make sense of a day’s events and for setting up modeling scenarios for appropriate social interactions.

Participants will see how technology such as Computer Algebra Systems can be used to promote thinking in mathematics. Combining handheld devices and computer software enables teachers to provide an integrated learning environment that engages students through questions that challenge understanding rather than processes.

You may have seen a shared session using OneNote but now let’s take it to the next level. DyKnow is a Tablet based program used extensively in the US which allows for a collaborative classroom environment. There is two-way interaction between teachers and students and also the control that you have been looking for in terms of managing what students are doing with their computers in your classes. Some of the features of this program include:

• Pre-prepare panels of curriculum and send them one by one to students without need for a data projector in the room
• Give students control over a panel to run the class (you decide who has control and when)
• Conduct instant polls of students and present data instantaneously back to students
• Embed live web pages into your panels without opening Internet Explorer
• Take remote control of any computer in the session
• Allow each user to see the full screen of any other user, regardless of what program they are showing at the time
• Block all screens and keyboards instantly to force attention if required
• Filter programs that can be used and web sites that can be viewed

This session will outline the research conducted into the development of critical and creative thinking using notebook technology and present some of the findings. The focus will be on the "hands-on" use of software (Rationale) that can help develop students' critical thinking.

Google have a whole suite of web-embedded tools that have interesting applications in the classroom. Not only are they free, but they enable creation, collaboration and sharing of information and resources in ways we haven’t seen before. Nowhere is this more useful than in the 1:1 classroom, where real-time collaboration on a host of projects becomes possible. This TTLI will look at how Google Applications can transform classroom practice. From simple beginnings, using iGoogle to customise your desktop with your choice of learning tools, through news and secondary search options like Books, Scholar and Groups which help teachers and students find the most up-to-date, relevant and authentic information available the moment it’s published. We will then go on to look at Reader and Notebook and see how easy it is to collect, organise and share the information you find. See how note-making becomes simple, flexible and powerful. From there, participants will experience how Documents and Spreadsheets can be moved from the static to the fluid, with real-time editing, data-capture and collaboration. Teachers can retain control and students become accountable for their actions as all contributions, edits and additions are automatically tracked. Finally, we will finish the day with Maps and Earth. Google Maps has become a powerful mashup platform. See how easy it is to superimpose 3rd party data onto maps and create your own data overlays as resources. Or get your students to create their own mashups, with their own ideas and information.

Ivanhoe Grammar School is running an Innovative pilot program in partnership with LaTrobe University where the students attend introductory seminar sessions by academics, then choose an area to research under the umbrella heading of sustainability. Students attend the university one day a fortnight where they have access to university staff and resources. Internet access is unrestricted and students are encouraged to use the ICT skills that they are comfortable with to support their learning. Consequently final projects included Blogs, MySpace sites, movies, animated PowerPoints, selected use of Youtube clips, and a variety of Web 2 tools that were introduced to them during the semester such as animoto, and voicethread.

Many of the projects were science based due to the background of the academics who offered to be involved in the first round. Students were encouraged to look at two sides of issues so as to include ethical and economical opinions as well. The projects were inter-disciplinary inquiry based projects, and as such would suit any subject area. We have evaluated the program to date, made some changes for semester two and are making further modifications for 2009.

Intro: The mediascape journey as part of a primary integrated ICT curriculum will be viewed as a powerpoint presentation with visuals to include video clips and mediascape samples created to date.

A suitcase of resources will be provided as a take away cd rom; to be used during workshop and in conjunction with mediascaping software. It will include themed sound files, images and some flash video and a maplib (Image plotted with GPS signals). An opening web page to scaffold research and content production will also be included.

Participants will be walked through the production process and given time to develop their own mediascape. They will make photostories, use movie maker, convert video to flash swf files using a video converter, create a simple web page and slideshows to support their mediascape. A simulation tester makes up part of the mediascaping programme and participants will be able to test their product.

PDA’s with a stand alone mediascape could be provided for those interested in participating in a portable/ mobile experience.

Participants will need to have downloaded:

• Mediascape: http://www.mscapers.com/
• Photostory
• Moviemaker
• Flash file converter (if wanting to work with video files) There will be some free trials available on the net.

A year in the ICT world is a long time and this session embraces this fact and sends a message to delegates that change is far from overwhelming, it is essential and exciting.

At the session’s core is a ‘Hands On, Minds On’ approach designed to give teachers ‘just a brief feel’ of the variety and power of freely available educational software and web tools. Intermeshed within the exploration of tools are demonstrations and experimentation with of a variety of processes that I know work in classroom situations to integrate ICTs into all areas of curriculum in highly creative and engaging way e.g. co-learning, scaffolding, creative processes, design briefs, possible organisational strategies and personal goal setting.

Course participants will leave this session with a plethora of great teaching ideas in their tool-box, an incredible amount of inspiration and realistic goals to implement back in their schools and classrooms.

Software (Take a deep breath and brace yourself)

How to Co-learn Software (Scratch), Awe & Wonder in Science Ed (Microsoft’s Worldwide Telescope), Digital Story Telling (Comic Life, Inkscape, Photostory 3) A Step Beyond Powerpoint (Microsoft Producer), Podcasting – from initial concept to published on the Internet in ½ and hour (Audacity and Pod-o-Matic), Tips & Tricks for Successful Clay Animation (Monkey Jam), How to Make your Blog Stand Out (http://adrianbruce.com/teacher-toolbox & Classblogmeister.com), Functional and Creative Photography (Scanners, Online Tools & Paint.Net) Using design briefs for engaging & challenging Computer Aided Design (Google Sketchup or Lego Digital Designer) Mind Mapping as a powerful thinking and organising tool (C-Map), Integrating Digital Music Making (Ejay & Ordrumbox), Online art creation (Mr Picasso Head and a few others) – NB the session also aims to be flexible enough that delegates can explore any software that I mention throughout the day if they feel it is something they would like to check out.

This session would examine the use of various sources of online curriculum/training in the ICT program at Genesis: such commercial systems such as Atomic Learning, Lesson Studio ICT or a Queensland site IPT-Online (used for senior studies in Computer Science), through to low cost or even free-access systems like LearningElectric (MS-Office training) or the more general UK-based systems ALISON and GCSE Bitesize (the latter produced by the BBC). We are exploring ways of using these systems to offer "anytime-anywhere" learning to our students and parents via LMS or website portals currently under development. (I would also touch on the pros and cons of video-based training such as Centennial Media and LearnVisualStudio.com, which can be also added to an LMS), and also perhaps Scootle(if time)).

1. View - Examples of teachers and students using Web 2.0 products such as VoiceThread, blogs and wikis for capturing student voice, formative assessment and personalisng learning in the global world.

2. Discussion - around the use of the New Work Order. Prepare students for the 21st Century. Explore examples of collaborative online learning and the application of Web 2.0 technologies in teaching and learning. The radical change (paradigm shift) to the knowledge age that parallels the movement from Web 1.0 - Web 3.0. So, if we are heading towards personalising learning, what should we be teaching? Time: 15mins

3. Explore – a range of Web 2.0 tools – VoiceThread, Wikispaces, Google SketchUp, Google Earth, Google Maps, Shelfari, Netvibes (and RSS feeds and their potential for accessing professional readings), Skrbl, bubbl.us, Slideshare, del.icio.us, Vixy Net and a few more. Time: 35mins

4. Wrap-up and discussion – What are 21st Century learners and teachers doing explicity in their classrooms to improve learning outcomes?

In February 2009, after nearly three years of planning, Calvary Christian College will welcome the first cohort of students into its one-to-one technology program – “iLearn2020”. For the staff, parents and students of Calvary, iLearn2020 represents an exciting vision for the future and the culmination of the three years of tough educational debate, discussion, critical infrastructure change, and intensive professional development. This presentation will outline why and how Calvary Christian College has embarked on this journey and explore some of the triumphs and tribulations on the journey to preparing for a one-to-one learning program.

In February 2009, after nearly three years of planning, Calvary Christian College will welcome the first cohort of students into its one-to-one technology program – “iLearn2020”. For the staff, parents and students of Calvary, iLearn2020 represents an exciting vision for the future and the culmination of the three years of tough educational debate, discussion, critical infrastructure change, and intensive professional development. This presentation will outline why and how Calvary Christian College has embarked on this journey and explore some of the triumphs and tribulations on the journey to preparing for a one-to-one learning program.

Have you ever wondered how you can create realistic movement in animation? This workshop will introduce you to the tips and tricks of rotoscoping. You will learn how to import video footage into Flash, how to draw over your footage, create an animation and use it in different scenarios. No drawing skills are required – just some patience and a willingness to learn how to trace frame by frame to create anything from a music video, cartoon, advertisement or just a way of teaching your students how to use Flash.

This session will provide an opportunity for scholaris users from across Australia to meet and discuss their own approach to the use of the Scholaris Learning Gateway. A number of schools will present particular aspects of their portal environments, particularly those used for teaching and learning. Representatives from Scholaris International/Solutions IT will also present an overview of product development plans.

This session is suitable for both users and technical managers of the Scholaris Learning Gateway and both ELH and Schooltech delegates are welcome to attend.

This session will provide an opportunity for scholaris users from across Australia to meet and discuss their own approach to the use of the Scholaris Learning Gateway. A number of schools will present particular aspects of their portal environments, particularly those used for teaching and learning. Representatives from Scholaris International/Solutions IT will also present an overview of product development plans.

This session is suitable for both users and technical managers of the Scholaris Learning Gateway and both ELH and Schooltech delegates are welcome to attend.

School portals are currently a major area of investigation and development in both government departments and in individual schools and are seen as a critical part of the changing face of education moving forward. A fully implemented school portal can have a deep reaching impact on learning and teaching, as well as the efficiency and effectiveness of school communications and wider administration and management processes. The portal can also provide a foundation for significant, appropriate and sustainable organisational change.

This session will clarify exactly what a portal is and why it differs from other web based technologies such as internal intranets and external websites. Independent of any particular portal technology, the session will provide a range of hints and tips to assist schools with implementing and using portal technologies in their learning and teaching as well as administrative areas, and is appropriate for schools who are investigating and planning portal implementations as well as those already on the way.

Initially, I will showcase some examples of learning sequences in different subject areas. These sequences include discussion forums, live chat, internet resources, Q & A, voting activities and testing. Participants will observe how a variety of experiences can be placed within a single sequence which can be monitored and controlled by the teacher. Best of all these sequences are re-usable and can be stored and shared as learning objects.

A hands-on session follows during which participants will design and build their own sequences using LAMS – Macquarie University designed and developed, this open source software is freely available and easy to use. It is an ideal starting point for teachers who are exploring classroom technologies.

I will be using online tools to facilitate this session….these will provide access to the required software and provide a platform for showcasing participant efforts afterwards.

Simple technologies now exist to enable students to model complex systems themselves, and thus support them to think and act like scientists and gain a deep understanding of the scientific process of modelling. Students can follow a process of inquiry and scientific investigation where they examine a phenomenon, design and build a model, gather data from it, and then further evaluate and refine their model in a cyclic process.

In this workshop, two pieces of free software for modelling will be demonstrated. Both are Mac and PC compatible. Starlogo TNG is an agent based modelling system for creating virtual worlds. Within the virtual worlds agents follow simple rules, but can often behave and interact in surprising ways. Models of systems such as ecologies, cells, societies, economies, and more can be created. Starlogo TNG is suited for use from year 7 to 12. Squeak EToys is a media rich environment designed for primary and middle school students, where they can design their own creations using sound, images and video. Using Squeak, students can build dynamic simulations and models and thus explore big ideas in Science and Maths, such as gravity, velocity and acceleration, negative numbers, direction.

Participants will see how MLC has moved to an integrated response to today’s online environment. This response recognises the challenges and dangers of online communication, but emphasises above all the centrality of these modes of communication for young people. It is not about blocking and banning, but questioning, learning and thinking. MLC’s multi-faceted approach is centred on students developing an understanding and responsibility for their online presence. Critical to this has been the creation of an Online Safety and Ethics Committee in 2006 of students, teachers and Learning Technology Consultants who continue to work together to develop and manage a series of outcomes and authentic learning activities. During this session participants will hear how this development occurred, see examples of the framework in action and have an opportunity to discuss issues and planning relevant to their own school context.

Publishing student-generated content openly on the Internet can be done safely, and with benefits to student motivation and engagement. A range of examples from the presenter’s school will be given: from a Year 3 project at www.nbcsgreenfingers.com (created using Google Apps) to podcasting www.youtube.com/frenchfm using Audacity, to a student-created literature guide http://frenchonlinelittleprince.wordpress.com/.

The presenter will also showcase and discuss several experimental projects (for English, Geography, and French students) he is currently running, involving students publishing and podcasting directly to the Web from their mobile phones, via such services as www.utterz.com or www.gabcast.com, and of course www.twitter.com. The presenter will comment on these projects’ success or failure and explore issues of copyright, privacy and parental/student permission, with reference in particular to Australian and overseas guidelines.

Survey Monkey is a simple yet effective method for students to display their knowledge and understanding on a particular topic. Having completed the required research, students create a questionnaire to test their peers. Using the software, students are able to easily email their classmates, who can complete the task online. The results are correlated in a simple and easy to read format. The students then create a spreadsheet and graph from the results of their classmates. The teacher can also use the results as a form of assessment.

Software:

• Survey monkey (free online – students can subscribe using school usernames and passwords)
• Excel
• Email Client

This will be an expose of how staff and students at Carey are using the Tablet Technology in its first year. Tanya May will demonstrate general Tablet usage and how they are used in LOTE and Humanities classes and Kylie Taig will show what can be done in the Maths and Science classroom.

Kate will be showing a unit of work she has devised and conducted with her students in Year 8 involving ICT skills which are easily transferrable to other subject areas. Some of these skills include shared sessions in Microsoft OneNote, the use of Inspiration, Audacity for recording sound clips and converting them to .mp3 format, Camtasia, the use of forms in Microsoft Word and ArtRage2 etc. It is envisaged that delegates would spend most of this session exploring some of the techniques employed in this unit of work.

Tired of repeating yourself? Sounding like a broken record? Come find out how to create a simple podcast, so students never miss a thing, and can use each podcasted lesson as an excellent resource for study and revision. This presentation will focus on the basics of podcasting – Audacity Software, Hardware, Set Up, Recording, Editing, and Saving the file for student use. This session addresses all discipline areas for use from P to 12!

Participants will be introduced to the MUVE 'Second Life' and the educational opportunities that exist within this virtual environment including recent work completed by Masters students in developing pedagocically sound activities 'in-world'. This work also includes the use of other digiital technologies including podcasting, wiki's and blogs.