Oz NZ Educators Live Blogging Meeting

The ePlanks Podcast - on a cyberwave near you!

This is a cross-post with technoLOTEapril 21 001

The ePlanks podcast is up and running! We have 4 episodes all ready to go for your listening pleasure. ePlanks is a project that I am working on with Anne Mirtschin. We are trying to lay the ePlanks of the virtual classroom and a Web 2.0 school. We’ve been a bit busy lately with my little iPod and it’s voice recorder -which has become my favourite piece of technology lately!

Episode 1 - We talk to Virginia as she begins her journey as a blogger. We ask her what she thinks of the whole Web 2.0 thing. She’s feeling a bit left behind, but that’s ok - never fear, Jess and Anne are here!

Episode 2 - We found Sandy Phillips from the Victorian Department of Education’s Education Channel and so we sat her down and asked her how Global Teacher got started, which is the blogging campus we have set up many of our students and teachers with for their blogs.

Episode 3 - We (myself, Anne and our greatly treasured librarian, Faye) had a little chat amongst ourselves in the car about blogging as we drove back to Hawkesdale from Melbourne. melbtohdalemap2

We chatted about how we started, some fears and just jumping in and trying it.

Episode 4 - As part of our ePlanks project, Anne and I decided to go and visit Coburg Senior High School, who are not just talking the talk of a 21st century school, but also walking the walk. You will have to listen in for more details of this pretty amazing school.

We are planning many more episodes for ePlanks, so keep an ear open - we are on the cyberwaves!

Click on the player here to listen to our episodes, go straight to our podomatic site, or you can subscribe through iTunes.

Laying the ePlanks of a Web 2.0 School

This is a cross-post with technoLOTE

eplankssmall Anne Mirtschin and I were lucky enough to this year be granted Teacher Professional Leave to develop a project we have called ‘ePlanks - Laying the Foundations of a Web 2.0 School.’ Our aim with this project is to get as many staff using various Web 2.0 tools (such as blogs, wikis, podcasts, social networks and social bookmarking sites) as possible to extend their teaching in a way that suits them.

We have outlined several stages that we think would be important when encouraging staff to jump into the Web 2.0 world. Our eplanks are:

Plank 1 - Understanding what the Web 2.0 World is / means and why you would use it
Plank 2 - CyberSafety
Plank 3 - Digital Media and Copyright
Plank 4 - Creating Your Own Online Space / Creating Online Student Spaces - Blogs and Wikis
Plank 5 - Adding Your Voice / Adding Student Voices- Podcasting
Plank 6 - Joining Networks and Making Connections
Plank 7 - No Walls on this Classroom - mLearning

Plank 8 - Keeping the Learning Going - Web 2.0 PD for Busy Teachers

You can find more details about these steps on the ePlanks wiki.

As part of this project we went to see Will Richardson speak at the SLAV conference on Monday 12th May. Will is a world-renowned leader in the field of Web 2.0 in schools and it was great to hear him speak. The main message I took away from his session was that Web 2.0 is not about the tools, it is about the powerful connections that can be made with those tools. These connections then lead to really powerful learning experiences for our students. These connections can make it possible for you to bring someone into your classroom who knows more about what you are trying to teach than you do - whoever they are and whatever age they are. Comments left on a blog can lead to further conversation and the discovery of more information about what you are trying to teach for example.

Here are the points Anne noted from what Will Richardson said:

  • Students have so many different ways of connecting and learning outside school
  • The more we block (online websites), the less safe we leave our kids
  • We can be so ’scared’ that we do not allow them to do anything.
  • Schools need to prepare students to be ‘googled’ and ‘googled well’
  • Social networking is not all bad. It can be extremely positive. Meg Cabot is a good role model for a fine example of use of myspace.
  • Clarence Fisher does not moderate but teaches students what to do in particular contexts.
  • Students need to learn on demand - they will not be trained or retrained once out in the workforce but they will need to do it independently
  • It is important that we teach students how to use and create hypertexted environments.
  • Students need to build connections to links and need to be  ‘findable’ in order to collaborate
  • Connection is the real power - it gives an authentic audience. Students need to connect with people in many different ways.
  • Need to change personal learning practise and prepare them for the future.
  • Teachers are more important than ever before -
  • Students need teachers as
  • role models
  • for guidance
  • support
  • wisdom
  • their personal experience

    These are all really important points for us to remember as we progress with our project. I especially like that it has been pointed out that teachers are more important than ever before. Hopefully this will motivate some teachers to take a few more risks and at least get up to their knees in the river/ocean that is the world of Web 2.0.

    Look out for plenty more posts about laying the ePlanks - and the ePlanks podcast!

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    • Bumping Into People

    Hello world! After a forced break from writing here (too much stuff going on, I will refrain from boring you with it) I am finally feeling as though I have a little bit of not-so-rushed time to sit and contribute. For my first return post I have a face to face meeting to share with you!

    Last Monday I went to the SLAV (School Libraries Association of Victoria) Web 2.0 Conference and had the pleasure of hearing Will Richardson speak. He spoke so very well and was inspiring, and it was just great to see him in person after seeing his name in so many places and reading his blog from time to time. I recorded his session with my iPod voice recorder, but I’m not sure how it will go as a podcast as it’s a bit quiet. I’ll get to that and let you know.

    The highlight of the day, though, was meeting some fellow Aussie educators with whom I have been in contact with in the edublogosphere for a while now! I’ve been reading Jo McLeay’s blog for ages and we’ve had several chats online over Twitter or Skype. It was fabulous meeting Jo. She came up to me and gave me a great big hug - it was like meeting an old friend even though we’ve never met before! Here we are:

    DSC03057

    I was actually saying something to my esteemed colleague Anne at the time. I don’t normally make a habit of smiling like that! :-)

    I also met John Pearce who runs Salty Solutions Consultancy, and blogs over at My Other Blog. He’s also part of the Oz/NZ Educators network. Here is a quick snap of me, John and Anne.

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    John and Gary Bass (who I met at the conference and recognised as a teacher from my school years ago!) have just written a book about Web 2.0 tools called  Technology Toolkit - An Introduction to Web 2.0. Here’s Jo and John checking out Jo’s chapter in it!

    DSC03055

    So the best part of my day by far was meeting these people and a couple of others. It really felt like we (myself and Anne) were meeting up with old friends, as we have been in touch with these people for a while now as part of our personal learning networks, which are made up of our blogs, our wikis, our Twitter conversations, our social bookmarking which all facilitates our passion for learning and sharing!

    Testing Windows Live Writer

    I’ve just downloaded Windows Live Writer, so I thought I’d test it out here. I really should be heading to bed - it’s very late! I’m heading off to see Will Richardson speak tomorrow, and very much looking forward to it of course. I’m also going to meet a couple of people from my PLN in person.

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