Knowing What’s Out There – Scootle

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Scootle has often been described as a ‘One Stop Shop for Teachers’. Recent developments now link to the Australian Curriculum, search for resources linked to content descriptions and creating Learning Paths.

For those who are new to Scootle – Scootle provides access to more than 8,000 digital curriculum resources from The Le@rning Federation. Teachers can find interactive learning objects, images, audio files and movie clips via browse, search and filter technology. Scootle allows the creation of learning paths – collections of learning content interwoven with teacher comments and descriptions that can be made available to students either online or offline. These learning paths can be shared with colleagues.
Ref The Le@rning Federation is managed by Education Services Australia on behalf of the Ministerial Council for Education, Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs (MCEECDYA). Copyright Scootlescootle logo

In this post I will link examples of a Learning Paths and Resources.

Scootle provides the user with a unique search facility that provides an easy way of linking online resources to a learning path. A whole learning path can be created, edited and shared within Scootle or alternatively, specific resources can be linked to your online space. See below for an example of each.

Whole Learning Path – Sustainability (Building Knowledge – Inquiry)
Direct Link to a resource – Number Trains

Scootle News Update – May 2011

Engagement Factor: Student Ownership – Planning and Creating Simple Animations

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Last week, some of our students took the challenge and created a simple clay animation that aimed to promote ‘Clean Up Australia Day’. The students planned, filmed and narrated a simple story that featured Dr Suess’ Lorax visiting our school. We used Microsoft Movie Maker to combine many still photographs and some video to send a message. This video was then entered in a recent competition initiated by Clean Up Australia.

The process in allowing students to take charge of their learning is always very interesting to watch. As a teacher , I feel that it’s all about letting go and facilitating the process rather than taking over. Of course, I had many ideas, ranging from Chroma Key animation to animating the characters in Kahootz, however this time I thought it was better to let the children map their own way using given materials and a Design Brief outlining the objective.

You can always learn so much from watching keen, enthusiastic students who were intent on bringing their characters to life and working cooperatively and collaboratively to produce the end result. I also learnt that given the right conditions, our students can freely express their ideas and use their imagination and thinking skills to solve problems in an uncomplicated way. As a group they were able to organise themselves fairly and worked with other groups to produce the end result. (This activity was actually a collaboration between our Techno Team, Environmental Team and a class of Year Four students).

In the end our little animation, I feel, was somewhat overshadowed by a process that was worth it’s weight in gold in terms of students directing and owning their learning.

Looking at this from a students point of view –  they have told me that they cant wait to create another movie – to make it bigger and better!

What do you think?

Planning for Inquiry: Using a Collaborative Mindmap

ffabri Classroom Applications, Planning, Professional Reading , ,

When planning, do you need the ‘Big Picture’ of the plan or would you prefer to see the ‘Building Blocks’ set up in a logically planned sequence? Or do you prefer both?
A collaborative mind-map can provide something for everyone. Mind-maps and Graphic Organisers allow us to plan in a way that is essentially wholistic however our planning can be broken down to a more specific level if the need be.
In planning for our Inquiry units recently, our teachers were asked to plan for the use of Contemporary Tools so that links and connections with the Inquiry could be made. We used a mind mapping resource called Mindomo to highlight aspects of our Inquiry that promoted ‘Powerful Learning and Teaching’ to engage, support and enable our students to learn in a way that would make the most out of their inquiry. Below is an example of the planner that our Prep teachers used for their focus:

The Planner allows the user to follow the main topics to a point where multimedia resources can be accessed. One of the most important features of a collaborative mind-map is the ability to communicate with other team members. A mind-map like this can be created and shared with a team and specific aspects of the mind-map can be commented up and edited by other members (if editing rights are shared). Emoticons and ratings can be used to evaluate links and a notes section facilitates presentation.
All up, the functionality of a collaborative mind-map is something that teachers should not ignore. In aiming for effective planning in inquiry, our teachers have found a resource that is functional, available 24/7, documents planning, provides resources and essentially allows each team member to have a voice. Most importantly it allows the user to see the ‘Big Picture’ and the ‘Building Blocks’ in a contemporary way.

The resource referred to in this post is Mindomo

Engagement Factor: Robotics in Everyday Learning & Teaching

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‘Within 20 minutes our Year 5 students had learnt how to program a robot and were then kept busy creating their own program that the robot would follow!’
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Robotics Fun

It never fails to amaze me as to how many children can suddenly become ‘model learners’ when there is a toy involved. In this case the toy is a robot and whilst technically not a toy as such, it does provide us with a glimpse of a future that is suddenly becoming more reliant on artificial intelligence and robotic technology
Ref: The Age: Humans become ‘pets’ in rise of the machines: Apple co-founder

We are only at the start of our journey with Robotics at my school. Students and teachers are now busy planning how to effectively use the robots in the classroom – not just creating robots but looking at other ways in which a robot can help us in our everyday learning and teaching. I am hoping it wont be too long at our school when a robot will be used to assist in, for example, the development of mathematical concepts. Basic programming will go a long way towards this, however wouldn’t it be great to see for example, a robot demonstrate what a metre is, show angles or perform a set procedure based on thinking and problem solving. Wouldn’t it be great to see children reading and creating a program to control a robot as part of their learning in literacy. Finally, I can’t wait to see our Year Five Students create a ‘Mars Rover type robot’ that is designed to test an environment as part of their Natural Disasters Inquiry unit in a few weeks time. Stayed Tuned – I’ll keeep you posted.

For more information on robotics in the classroom – Classroom Robotics

Cybercitizenship: Sharing the Ownership

ffabri cybersafety, Reflections

In many schools, the approach to cybersafety and cybercitizenship generally focuses on an Agreement which often takes the shape and form of an Acceptable Use Policy, User Code of Conduct or a set of Guidelines For Internet Use. The common thread with this approach is a signed agreement to a list of rules which are often discussed by students and teachers at the beginning of the year and referred to on a ‘needs’ basis. Basically, these Agreements are usually stored away and taken out when, or if, an issue arises. If an issue should arise, it’s usually someone ‘with expertise’ or a member of the school’s leadership team that has to deal with it (hopefully with the classroom teacher).
User Code 2

In reflection to this approach it is compelling to think about what is this approach is really saying about Cybercitizenship and safe, responsible behaviours? One has to ask ‘Is online behaviour determined by a set of rules that are discussed only at the beginning of the year’. ‘Can these rules be seen as another set of rules that the adult world is imposing on young people. Do these rules extend to beyond school and how do these rules really keep me and others safe?. We only have to read our newspapers to gain insight into how young people interpret these questions.

In raising these issues at my own school, we found that positive cybercitizenship is very closely aligned to the existing values and safe behaviours that we constantly promote in other areas. The only difference was that technology is involved.

User Code of Conduct
As a staff we agreed that we needed to use our Policy, our User Agreements and Guidelines in a way in which would engage our students at all levels and allow them to approach cybercitizenship as part of a life long learning process. It was agreed that the students have a ‘voice’ in this process. A Classroom Vision / Mission Statement created by the students and led by teacher was seen as a good way of achieving this.

Our approach was to not to ‘reinvent the wheel’. In using our Student User Code of Conduct as a basis for a Classroom Vision on Cybersafety, each class group was able to discuss, plan and prepare a statement which was relevant to them and to the school. Online resources were used to explore and research specific areas of cybersafety and integrated into other learning areas as part of this process. It was important to note that the level of student discussion gave teachers an interesting insight into the online habits and behaviours of students ranging from Prep to Year 6. In displaying the Cybersafety Statement in the Classroom (poster) and on Classroom Online Spaces, the students and their parents could see the level of importance that cybercitizenship has in our ‘everyday’ use of digital technology.

Sample Process

Reviewing Our Approach to Cybersafety in the Classroom

View more presentations from Frank Fabri

It’s still early days yet with this process and our evaluation has indicated the need to revisit the class statement on a regular basis to remind, update and reinforce the behaviours that positive cybercitizenship entails. It’s encouraging to see how students and teachers have linked online resources / student presentations to their Cybersafety Statements so as to ensure any follow up with any issues or concerns at home. However, the most pleasing aspect of this process has been the ‘awareness raising’ of our school community of something that may have otherwise remained filed away in the classroom cupboard.

Some samples

Engagement Factor: Digital Microscopes

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Recently our teachers were let loose with a digital microscope. Our focus was ‘Engagement’ (Using Contemporary Tools). The goal was to create a ‘Guess What?’ and then present it in a way that would inspire our students to create their own.
Have a look at what they come up with. Can you guess?


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Self Publishing with YUDU

Powerpoint slides focussing on labelling info saved as a PDF and then uploaded as a Yudu presentation.

Coming up soon – Our Year One students are going to become Junior Science Investigators’ – Their mission: Explore the ‘Unseen World’ around them with the digital microscopes.

Here’s the microscope that we are using

dino light