Fun stuff - or adventures in html...

Free sketch at dumpr.net

Sooooo many cool websites and programs!
In fact there are probably too many! I know I spend far too long playing when I should be doing other things.

Social/networking
Facebook, myspace, msn messenger and bebo are all popular. Possibly some privacy or security issues there, plus they're all blocked anyway, so we can't use them at school, but heaps of kids (especially the techy ones) will use at least one of them!

Games
Personally, I'm hooked on Scrabulous, which I discovered through Facebook. It's basically scrabble, but you can play it with anyone around the world. Very cool, but careful - it's addictive!
Bored.com is right up my 12 year old son's alley. Games, videos, jokes etc...
And funtrivia is good for people who like a bit of the old trivia.
And there are thousands more for filling those idle moments. Will post more later.

Media
You tube is extraordinarily popular with all young people, but as you probably know, it's blocked on school networks. But there are some really great videos out there that can be used in class. Luckily there's Teacher Tube, which so far is clean and hasn't been blocked. Some good stuff on there if you're prepared to search.
And if you like playing with digital photos, Dumpr is one of my favourites. My profile photo and the beautiful cow above are both created on Dumpr. Some very cool stuff on there...
If sound is more your thing, download Audacity. You can record sounds, as well as edit audio files. Play them faster, slower, backwards or loop them continuously, then save to use on your smartboard.

And what about the educational stuff?
Oh yeah, that's what we're here for, isn't it? Well of course the stuff I've mentioned is very useful in educational contexts, but there are also some great bits and pieces you might find useful.
Jenny Eather has created some excellent sites which we use quite a bit. Her maths dictionary is very cool, with an A-Z listing of maths concepts and interactive examples. And you've probably used Rainforest Maths too. She has also created Writing fun, which outlines each text type, has examples of each spanning all of the primary grades and demonstrates the language features in each text. A very useful resource.
While you're at it, check out the learning objects that are currently only available through myclasses. There are thousands to choose from, and most of the time you can find one that suits what you're teaching. More of them soon through the wiki.

I could go on and on. But you've probably got enough to look at now...

PS - Please forgive the weird sized font - I'm still figuring out html!

Education Today and Tomorrow

Check out this video. One of many I'll put up which try to sell the 'let's teach digitally' argument...

Yay! Not just me and my mum!

Hiya! Nice to see I have a reader or two! Thanks for the support you lovely people.

Today I'm wondering what the heck I'm doing. I walked out of work tired and cranky and resenting all the time I put in. But I've had my swim now and I'm feeling much better thank you very much!

But this teaching thing is an awful lot of work, isn't it? So what's the point of adding more work (i.e figuring out how to use this program or that hardware)? Sometimes I wonder.

Yes, we do have these digital natives coming up through the system, but there are also a heap of kids who don't have regular access to computers. Although - these kids usually watch a fair bit of TV, have an xbox or PS2, and are pretty familiar with other technologies.
But if they don't have access at home, shouldn't we be giving them as many experiences as possible while they're at school? If we don't, it might affect their options for the future. Mightn't it?

Anyway, even if we don't want to do the work, it's going to keep coming at us. So I guess in a way we're stuck with it.

More later when I'm in a less rambly state of mind. Sorry to those of you who actually read this post!!

Are you a native or an immigrant?

Did you grow up with technology? Could you type your name before you could write it?
Nah, neither did I.

The Family Way
But I had different experiences to many people my age. My grandfather was an avid electronics buff, typed about a million words per minute and had a pretty good handle on computers. He used to create cute little computer programs and send them to us on cassette tapes for our old 'sharp' PC. My mum was also pretty handy; she eventually became one of the early website designers.

"Basic"ally
So even though almost nobody had computers in their homes when I was a kid, I had one around from about 9 years of age. Mind you, they were a little different then. I even managed the odd program myself - basic was pretty much that - basic. Mum'd buy little books full of basic programs and we'd tinker away...

Skilled Migrant
But I'm getting off track. I guess the point I'm trying to make...well actually I'm not sure of the point I'm trying to make.
But apparently there's a new breed of people coming up through the educational ranks. They're called the 'digital natives'. They're called that because they have grown up with technology. They could type before they could write, they have spent up to 6 hours a day watching a screen since they were tiny, they are wired up in so many ways (phones, iPods, PS2s, xboxes etc etc). And because their before-school experiences to ours (the digital immigrants), they are probably going about their learning in different ways too.

But I'm not really doing the concept justice. Marc Prensky explains it pretty well:

Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants

Have a read and see what you think. He has a website if you want to go further (there are actually whole communities out there devoted to digital natives. If you're interested, start at MarcPrensky and go from there (there are also a couple of Facebook groups).

And what about wikis?

I'm sure everyone knows wikipedia, but have you ever edited it?
I have - it's a strangely exciting feeling! (OK so I'm sad and have absolutely no life!)
Wikis are also very easy to create and another potential tool for the classroom.

I thinking about what would be some good ways to use wikis in the classroom. What about interactive glossaries, where kids added words they'd found on the internet and included definitions etc.
Or what about a place to put mistakes found in the media and online?
Or perhaps a group-created story or a written history of the suburb?

Limitless potential - once you get the hang of it!

What's blog got to do, got to do with it?

Blogging. For those of us who are - shall we say - unfamiliar, there's a whole world of it out there. There are currently around 100 million blogs out there (http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21013), with another 100 million now abandoned into the ether (including, I'm sure at least one that I started a couple of years ago!).
So obviously we're not going to go out there and read all of them, but it is possible to find a blog (or two) that have something to do with our interests.
And that's where teaching comes in. There are lots of educational themed blogs out there, but we can go a little further. Teachers are starting to use them with their students, with lots of opportunities available for online collaboration and discussion.

Check out these examples:
http://marykreul.teacherhosting.com/blog/
http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=1337

Mr. Sumner's page is pretty cool:
http://mrsumner.edublogs.org/

This one's Australian:
http://mrpbps.learnerblogs.org/


Food for thought.

Me blogging? No way!

So we're learning all about blogging and wikis and what-not and I thought well hey, if I have to blog, perhaps I can make it helpful to someone!
So the intention is to dump everything I learn here, so you, dear reader, can find all the bits in one convenient location.
Stay tuned..