Monday 22 February 2010

Online Safety - Ethical Behaviour

My teacher made me do it. An interesting piece by Miguel Guhlin on teacher awareness of Terms of Service and age eligibility requirements of social media tools

This is a reference in Miguel's post giving a more legal perspective.

The 2010 State of K-12 Cyberethics, Cybersafety and Cybersecurity Curriculum in the U.S. Survey

Internet safety: Whose job to teach kids about it?

Bullying: Declining or just moving online?

Digital citizenship and innovation - an interesting wiki under development

10 internet safety tips for parents

Facebook, privacy and cyberbullying

Don't forget to check the links in my previous two posts on this topic.


Monday 15 February 2010

Student Learning in a Digital World - Online Safety

In NSW, public high schools, support for the Digital Education Revolution continues. The recently available "Principals' Digital Education Revolution Checklist", contains a section with this title and leads into " Student Induction: Digital Citizenship"

Step 1 - p4
Is to ensure a clear understanding of and agreement to adhere to relevant DET policies including Online Communication Services:Acceptable Usage for School Students Policy and the Laptop User Charter. Specifically, students should be directed to the sections on: acceptable usage, privacy and confidentiality and copyright. A strong message is sent about a range of breaches and the consequences of breaching the Charter. The issues of privacy and the sharing of personal data and pictures of others without permission should also be discussed.

A range of "cybersafety" sites are referenced for further reading. p5 They should enable an interesting series of sessions to be developed for both staff and students.

Effective Teaching using Online Resources and Services

http://blog.learningtoday.com/blog/bid/25774/5-Questions-for-Planning-Successful-Web-Based-Activities/

http://blog.learningtoday.com/blog/bid/25777/3-types-of-web-based-instructional-activites-w-examples/

The problems of changing teaching (custom and) practice.

UK article: Education secretary warning to incompetent teachers.

Sunday 14 February 2010

Leading Digital Learning Revolutions - Clarify the Focus (2)


In leading a high school into 2010, my priorities would initially focus on:
  • SC/HSC teaching, assessment and reporting - getting the best results
  • Literacy and numeracy learning - effective, agreed teaching practice for shared responsibility
  • Syllabus and program review schedules - refining and updating practice for DER
  • Personalising learning to meet diverse student needs
  • Involving parents in student learning - especially in the context of DER
This is just a quick brainstorm and the post is a work in progress ... in the meantime, check out this post

In the USA: Nation's superintendents to take back the reigns of educational leadership

About the kids: Tech-savvy 'iGeneration' kids multi-task, connect

A useful post on IWB: It's not about the board.

My First post on this topic

Saturday 13 February 2010

Student Safety Online - Must respond ... not just nice to respond (2)

Zip it, Block it, Flag it an interesting post from December 2009, by Steve Wheeler about some UK initiatives

Another post inspired by Safer Internet Day 2010, from the BBC:
When the tech becomes unfriendly

Safer Internet Day in German. There is French site too.

The Importance of thinking before you post

A reference in a @darcy1968 post to a review by readwriteweb of Europe's Golden Rules for keeping Safe on Social Networks. These rules were a Safer Internet Day 2010 response.

Advice on dealing with dangerous websites from BullyingUK and this one about being safe on social networking sites.

UK Council of Child Internet Saftety (UKCCIS) has useful resources and reference to latest campaign: Click Clever Click Safe.

How can I teach ... internet safety from @tasteach

A work in progress ... so much interest lately and it's about time. Read Part 3.

Leading Digital Learning Revolutions: Job Description Needed (2)

Nation's superintendents to take back the reigns of educational leadership

A work in progress ... in the meantime, check out this post.

First post on this topic


Digital Tools and Laptops for Learning - Global Buzz (13)

Continuing the buzz ...

1:1: Educators add individual computers and internet access to classroom

Calgary Public Schools can soon "tweet" in class using iphones, laptops.

Revisiting a ning group about the Victorian experience of 1:1 Learning Environments.

A new equation for maths students, an article about using laptops and other tools to improve results.

Laptops for Learning - NSW Experiences 2010

More as we roll ...

Forbes High roll out

Google makes YouTube safer

There has been a great flurry of interest in this development. All teachers should be interested in how to make sure that school-based browsing is a sfe form encountering objectionable content as possible.

Here are some of the posts and articles.

YouTube Help provides us with Getting Started: Safety Mode and writes:
"Safety Mode gives users the option to choose not to see mature content that they may find find offensive, even though it's not against our Community Guidelines. When you opt in to Safety Mode mode, videos with mature content or that have been age restricted will not show up in video search, related videos, playlists, shows and movies. While no filter is 100% accurate, we use community flagging, hide objectionable comments and porn image detection to identify and hide inappropriate content. Safety Mode on YouTube does not remove content from the site but rather keeps it off the page for users who opt in."

Safety mode demo video

CBSNEWS discusses the new parental controls.

Listen to Online Mom talking about Safety Mode.

Motivation to learn - Whose job is that?

Adult or child? Teacher or student"

This post has made me reflect on this question, in the context of motivating teachers to adapt, expand or bluntly put, change their practice.

Larry Ferlazzo wrote: I've never motivated a student.

I have been gathering information on the "brain and learning" in a previous post.

Work in progress ...

Tuesday 9 February 2010

Student Safety Online - Must respond ... not just nice to respond (1)

Lots of interest worldwide in Safer Schools Day 2010.

Safer Internet Day 2010

From Ireland, an article about Irish teens online

Check out this Kentucky safe schools organisation website. The Pledge against cyber bullying is interesting, as is the matching cyber bullying website.

Visit wisekids UK and a post that refers to the Wise Kids conference on Young People in a Digital World

Online Safety: the sensible and the bizarre
a post by John Connell about a UK experience.

Australian Federal government pilot increase cybersafety in schools. This includes a link to the National Safe Schools Framework.

Online safety push for 5 year old
more about the UK experience.

YouTube safety mode, hot off the press is covered in a later post.

Effective (re)search - What is the Latest?

Web Filtering - News and Views (1)

A topic that arouses high emotions and passionate, polarised opinions ...

Here is a selection of posts relevant to this topic, that I have collected over the last months.

Ewan McIintosh on Glow, Scotland, VLE and school filtering

Larry Magid writes on filtering for parents, recommending rarely for teens.

In a perfect world ... a teacher posts about a blocked website.

Web 2.0 and filtering

Filtering internet content for kids

Internet filtering as a form of soft censorship

Copyright, filtering issues for the 21st century.


I will continue to collate articles and post on this topic.

Sunday 7 February 2010

Still stuck on SlideShare - Where to now?

Work in progress ...

I plan to map the new features that should attract even more educators and users of social media to SlideShare.

I think I might set up a new group to save to...

I want to create some shows this year, a noble goal, but we will see ...

My enthusiasm about SlideShare, which almost matches my keenness for google tools, figured in many of my very first posts. My first major reflection post 2007-2009.

Social learning - the story so far ...

About my Slidespace, my uploads and my groups.

... and I am not alone, Angela Maiers Chalk Talk post on her use of @SlideShare and that of other well-known educators.

Just wait a minute ... reflection on the language weuse

Just wait a minute, is the language we use helping our cause. I have written on this topic previously. Breaking old habits is easier said than done.

Speaking about education reform. More useful terms could be: rethinking, reframing or what about simply variations of the word "change".

Angela Maiers has her thoughts on this topic too: Nurturing New Ideas: Turning "Yeah, but" into "Yes, how?"

Let's all abandon the notion that school teachers might teach "social media".

Digital Tools and Laptops for Learning - Global Buzz (12)

Seventh graders in Richfield Springs now have laptops to take home, a story from New York.

Some schools rethink bans on cell phones
This MSNBC article references activities in a few American states.

Another opinion piece on laptop learning: The Truth about 1:1 Laptop Programs

Student response systems still attract interest in the field.

Jury still out on EVSC laptop computer program

Finneytown students enjoy being test subjects.

An alternative view: Ban cell phones in school

Wesley Fryer writes: Teaching more content with an IWB is not transformational

My School: Achievement, Excellence, Closing the Gaps ... (3)

Now comes the thinking and talking about the what, who where, when and how of improvement.

Longer school hours for disadvantaged children

Funding to improve students literacy and numeracy

My January Learning 2010 - Reflection on Productivity

During January 2010, I produced 75 posts.

The flurry of literary and digital activity actually began when I started holidays on 18 December. First I finished a couple of "draft" posts that I had in the pipeline for a couple of months. Too busy to get it together.

My January posts consisted of :
  1. Blog This! links to useful articles and posts.
  2. Various reflections - mine and others.
  3. Thoughts on effective teaching and professional learning
  4. The language we use and words I would like to avoid
  5. Several series of posts:
  • DERNSW- laptops for learning and "i" devices,
  • My School - improving achievement at home and around the world
  • IWB and related technology
I was pleased with what I achieved and will make a review of each month's learning a feature of my work.

PBS Frontline Digital Nation - BBC Virtual Revolution - Lots of Buzz

Both productio have created some global buzz on Twitter. I will collate any follow-up commentary and posts.

BBC production The Virtual Revolution. How 20 years of the web has reshaped our lives.

PBS Frontline digital_nation

Henry Jenkins has written briefly.

Thursday 4 February 2010

Digital Learning - What are the Essentials?

Web 2.0 in the primary classroom

Helping children find what they need on the internet

Expert authors and advocates for information and technology literacy, Michael B. Eisenberg, Doug Johnson, and Robert E. Berkowitz announce their revised Information, Communications, and Technology (ICT) curriculum for K-12 education. The document, updated to reflect current technology, demonstrates how technology literacy skills fit within an information literacy skills context. Find the download on this page.

Educon 2.2 - Now What Are You Going To Do?
A post on school leaders moving from talk to action after an inspirational conference.

Two New School Policies: Cell Phones, iPods Okay In Classroom for one Colorado High School.


Back to basics in this wiki work: What do I use a wiki or a blog?
Should Schools Block Social Networking Sites

Tuesday 2 February 2010

Digital Tools and Laptops for Learning - Global Buzz (11)

Down and dirty ... no neat links yet ...

http://blogs.itbusiness.ca/2010/02/one-laptop-per-student-a-pre-requisite-to-a-21st-century-public-education

http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2010/02/03/02customlearning.h03.html

http://www.slideshare.net/ajmccarthynz/evaluating-the-effectiveness-of-laptops-in-the-classroom

More about Iowa 1:1, Wesley Fryer writes and podcasts the detail.

1:1 learning: laptop programs that work

Setting table for learning

Israel’s Time To Know Aims To Revolutionize The Classroom

Some schools rethink bans on cell phones

Laptops in the classroom - getting feedback by Tami Brass.

Monday 1 February 2010

Teachers or Teaching? Both Matter.

The flesh and blood person in the classroom is important. Effective teaching practice must be endorsed and delivered by this person.

That is what matters and makes a difference.

Technology, it's about the teachers not the tools.

Why certain teachers do jump out of the technology pot.

Focus on the facts. A post on the need for teacher reflection and change.

You mean the teacher still matters a post by Jeff Utecht.

Baffled educators: free and failing.

A blog post reference, by @gregwhitby to the now much tweeted article " What makes a great teacher?