Posts Tagged "Support"
Switched On and Connected…
I am a Geek… I don’t hide it… I like my Sci-Fi, I like my computer games, I like my online community and I hate to say it but I have more virtual friends than I do real friends. I like being switched on and connected.
As a mother I am raising 3 Geeks – my children also like Sci-Fi, computer games and being switched on and connected. This morning as I switched on and read my email one of my online communities had a survey about Social Media which included a video about how to prepare your Tween for Technology.
Now I don’t agree with everything Mia Freedman says however for the first time in a long time I felt that someone was giving SOME good advice about online communities and Social Media. Everywhere else you look the solution for Teens and Tweens is to block Twitter, Facebook and anything else that the kids are using. Lets face it. Our Schools all seem to block Social Media. But maybe we need to rethink Social Media. I know that I get most of my information from Twitter. I couldn’t live without my Twitter feed helping me to sift through sites, articles and information. And If I need something that is usually the first place I head to find what I want. So why are we stopping students from accessing a legitimate source of information. Crowd sourcing is becoming more a part of life – how else do we sift through the millions of google responses to our search query. So why are we not teaching them how to use it correctly and safely?
Recently I read an article titled What Schools are Really Blocking When They Block Social Media where S. Craig Watkins discussed the issue of schools and social media. I have to agree with him if someone told me that I have to switch off and stop communicating with my virtual networks I think I would be lost and lonely. My learning wouldn’t stop as I have a natural curiosity about the world and would find other ways to find the information but for our students when all they have ever known is the Internet and being switched on and connected I think it would stop them from investigating.
Mr Watkins went on to outline …
By blocking social media schools are also blocking the opportunity:
1) to teach students about the inventive and powerful ways communities around the world are using social media
2) for students and teachers to experience the educational potential of social media together
3) for students to distribute their work with the larger world
4) for students to reimagine their creative and civic identities in the age of networked media
I think that we need to embrace Social Media in schools, we need to teach students how to use it to find information, to connect with experts and to encourage students to learn for themselves. We also need to teach them how to stay safe and to verify the information that they find.
Related articles
- What Schools are Really Blocking When They Block Social Media (dmlcentral.net)
- Twitter – my virtual staffroom (maggiehosmcgrane.com)
Change is inevitable…
Term 1 finished last Friday. And boy what a huge term it was. I have looked back at the last 10 weeks and I really cannot believe how much we squeezed into the term.
- SharePoint 2010
- Office 2010
- Digital Profile Cards
- New Departments
- New Timetable Structure
- Large Amount of New Staff
Not to mention all the new things that happen year in year out by being a teacher – new classes, new students, new timetables…
As part of our review of the term staff all commented that there was just too much change this term and this year and that had made the term more exhausting than “normal”.
Looking over it there was a lot of change however at the end of the term I think it was all necessary change. Change is hard at the best of times… And a lot of change means that people are more resistant to the change…
My biggest project this term has been digitising all the Profile Cards. We had some staff who used pen and paper to fill the cards out right through to staff who were using mail merge to link Excel and Word together to make results entry easy. The whole point of digitising the profile cards was to allow for longitudinal tracking and a permanent record in the school data base of how students are going at any point in time. My biggest challenge with the digital profile cards has been the staff who used pen and paper previously as pen and paper work for them. One staff member proclaimed that I can see where the students are at any point in time. I challenged back that what if another staff member needed to see the results. The response “They can walk over to my filing cabinnet and take a look!” It is this staff member who has had the biggest break through. After all the kicking and screaming that they didn’t need digital profile cards on the last day of the term came to me to ask if there was a time next term we could meet so that he could recreate his profile card to better suit the new system of recording student results.
We all hate change but at the end of the day it is inevitable… Lets face it life would be boring if it was always the same!
Windows 7 Tip – Easy Projector Setup
After discovering this tip I wished I’d known it years ago. Plug in your projector or monitor then hit the windows key + P. So simple it’s scary!!!
Read MoreBasic ICT Skills – Doesn't Everyone Have Them?
I had the opportunity yesterday to assist at a PD session on the use of Word, PowerPoint, and Audacity. Things that I’m sure a majority of teachers take advantage of everyday sometimes to the detriment of learning. Now this was a session for those who felt they had a beginner level. I was surprised. I have been spoilt working at a school with a high level of technology. Now I know that not all schools offer the PD that is required to keep up to date with the latest technology but surely at least everyone can use Word and PowerPoint. I was proved wrong yesterday. And was wondering if this was a major mistake of those of us in education – the assumption that everyone can use Word and PowerPoint. Do we ever really teach our staff or students for that matter the correct way to use these tools?
Basic skills such as inserting WordArt, Pictures, Symbols or manipulating these to display the way you want them to. Adding transitions and sounds to slides to make them viewable without the teacher. Just using these basic skills to make nicely displayed worksheets with lots of colour or using PowerPoint to create flashcards.
Perhaps our failure to our students is not making sure that our teachers have the basic ICT skills to create the resources which keep them engaged in learning.
Read MoreWindows 7 Tip – Finding Programs
Simple enough – you just simply type it in – this was created more to show people the end result rather than the process.
Read MoreTo Share or Not To Share? Is it really a question?
- Image by 姒儿喵喵 via Flickr
I have been teaching for 6 years plus my 7 years of study (yes I know I took my time!) and during this time I have created many resources. During my second year of uni as I stayed up late one evening trying to find a better way to teach an economic concept as every uni student does I turned to Mr Google. I was struggling and I figured that many teachers before me had taught this concept I should be able to find something. Did I find it? You guessed it I found nothing.
Why as teachers do we constantly reinvent the wheel? Why when we all teach from similar syllabi’s and courses do we not share our resources? How much time would we save?
Ever since my evening with Mr Google I have openly shared my resources figuring that what goes round must come round and the resources will eventually be shared back with me. It has taken 10 years for something to return. When I first started teaching in the classroom other teachers didn’t understand why I was sharing my hard work. Why was I making them look better by doing all the work? My response was quite simply we are all teaching the same skills and content why are we wasting precious time creating the same resources? Slowly my colleagues have come around.
Over the last few years with the take off of PLNs through platforms like Facebook and Twitter the sharing has become prolific. You find something useful you share it. So why are some educators still too scared to share?
In the age of social networking and content creation (Web 2.0) there is no question. Everything we create as educators should be shared no matter how small or insignificant we think it is.
The answer is To Share.
Windows 7 Tip – Changing Backgrounds
This is a really simple thing that most of us know how do to – my reasoning behind putting this video together was I found this cool little option which allows you to have your background change on a regular basis.
Enjoy!
Read MoreWindows 7 Tips
As we rolled out Windows 7 this year I found staff needed support to find some of their favourite settings. As staff and students were being issued with the operating system at different times the easiest way to offer PD was to put together “Cheet Sheets” and some YouTube Videos. So not to overload everyone I’ve done them as short one minute videos (most of the time!!) that could be watched on Monday Mornings over the first cuppa of the day.
Check them out on my YouTube Channel
Though I’m sure that I’m missing some key tips please feel free to let me know.
Read MoreJoin the Group
