Twitterati Challenge

I am taking up the Twitterati Challenge to name my favourite Top 5 of ‘Go to’ Educators

The conditions of the challenge are posted on Mary Myatt’s bog at

http://marymyatt.com/blog/2015-05-03/the-twitterati-challenge

Here they are:

Started by by Ross (never known to nap) @TeacherToolkit – “In the spirit of social-media-educator friendships, this summer it is time to recognise your most supportive colleagues in a simple blogpost shout-out. Whatever your reason, these 5 educators should be your 5 go-to people in times of challenge and critique, or for verification and support”

There are only 3 rules.

1. You cannot knowingly include someone you work with in real life.
   2. You cannot list somebody that has already been named if you are already made aware of them being listed on#TwitteratiChallenge.
   3. You will need to copy and paste the title of this blogpost and (the rules and what to do) information into your own blog post.
   What to do?
   This what to do:
   1. Within 7 days of being nominated by somebody else, you need to identify colleagues that you rely regularly go-to for support and challenge. They have now been challenged and must act and must act as participants of the #TwitteratiChallenge.
2. If you’ve been nominated, please write your own #TwitteratiChallenge blogpost within 7 days. If you do not have your own blog, try @staffrm.
   5. The educator that is now (newly) nominated, has 7 days to compose their own #TwitteratiChallenge blogpost and identify who their top 5 go-to educators are.

So here are my choices

@cybraryman1  Jerry Cybraryman Blumengarten “I’ve got a page for that.”
Connected Educator-Speaker-Writer
Cataloging for education   #edchat moderator
Technology gives even the quietest student a global voice.
Jerry does indeed have a page of links for every educational situation.
Particularly useful are his pages about Twitter chats
http://www.cybraryman.com/ 

@gtchatmod Lisa Conrad Moderator of #gtchat
Lisa Conrad is the moderator and hostess for my favourite education chat #gtchat powered by Texas Association for Gifted &Talented.
Lisa conducts a poll to choose the topic for the chat or invites a guest expert, compiles a list of questions for the session and a collection of related links. After the chat she publishes a transcript using Storify and a blog post about the session which gives all the useful links which were shared.
http://globalgtchatpoweredbytagt.wordpress.com/

@GiftedHF Gifted Homeschoolers
Gifted Homeschoolers Forum supports families of gifted homeschoolers around the world through education, advocacy & community.
GHF not only support homeschoolers but also provide useful information about gifted and 2E student, online courses and conduct blog hops which provide great information and support.
http://giftedhomeschoolers.org/
http://giftedhomeschoolers.org/blogs/blog-hop/

@murcha Anne Mirtschin
Teacher of ICT accounting & business studies Hawkesdale P12 College. Passionate about virtual classrooms, online learning, rural education and global education
Anne connects teachers and students from all around the world by participating in global education projects, Twitter and Skype classroom connections. She also is the moderator and hostess of the Australia e-Series Tech Talk Tuesdays webinars using Blackboard Collaborate
https://murcha.wordpress.com/

@JoHart
Lecturer in VET (Lit, Num, IT) interested in all e-learning, virtual classroom lover Often delivering entirely online
Have also run e-learning projects
Jo provides great PD for teachers and everyone interested in education. She develops and presents e-learning projects and webinars which are great for building confidence and enthusiasm.
http://johart1.edublogs.org/

Thank you all for being great sources of information, support and encouragement!

OZeLIVE! – I volunteered

I volunteered to act as a moderator for the OZeLIVE! online education conference which ran from 27 February – 1 March 2015. http://australianeducators.ning.com/

Prior to signing up I was anxious that
a. maybe the presenter I was moderating for would have connection or other technical problems and I would not be able to help them
b. maybe I would have connection or other technical problems and not be able to help myself
c. maybe I would say/do something wrong
d. maybe I would forget to press the record button

1. – z. maybe etc. etc. etc. etc. (You get the picture – I was anxious!)

But I have received plenty of experience and practice in the use of Blackboard Collaborate in the Jo Hart’s Fine Focus and Serendipity sessions, Anne Mirtschin’s Tech Talk Tuesday sessions and the Thursday evening Australia eSeries sessions; so I really should not have been worried. Also there was a volunteer lounge where problems could be shared and brilliant  Australia eSeries people in there to step in and help sort out problems. Peggy George from the US and Chris Smith from Thailand also gave expert assistance and helped to solve problems as they arose.

So I really did enjoy the experience of acting as a moderator and do feel I was able to contribute enough to earn the Exhausted Volunteer Badge.

 

OZeLIVE Reflections 1 Day 2

The first OZeLIVE Conference http://australianeducators.ning.com/  was held 0n 22-23 February 2014

UNCONFERENCE SESSION

Day 2 began with a fun Unconference session hosted by Coach Carole http://www.coachcarole.net/  where we shared some favourite tools and some PechaKucha http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PechaKucha

Scoop.it http://www.scoop.it/

Feed.ly http://feedly.com/#discover

Livebinders http://www.livebinders.com/

Symbaloo https://www.symbaloo.com/

Smore https://www.smore.com/

Peggy George Smore https://www.smore.com/w0cm

Educators CPD Online Scoop.It http://www.scoop.it/t/teacher-cpd-online

Diigo https://www.diigo.com/

PechaKucha about Jo Hart Serendipity Fine Focus webinars http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtljDGZKjUE

GLobal connected learning global presentation which Reinhard invited global teacher to help him present virtually http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJnemKxYEhY

Robin Long Kids Afield – Empoweri​ng kids to explore the natural world via digital photography

http://designthinkingforeducators.com/design-thinking/

 

http://www.theeasyappcompany.com/app/easy-class-cam/

Tara Fagan and Vlad Finn Robots in the classroom

http://www.romotive.com.au/

http://www.core-ed.org/thought-leadership/ten-trends/ten-trends-2014/learning-agency

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwfC3DW9_B0&feature=c4-overview&list=UUqc_xE5JK-pl8Ok6NfP2aIw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwfC3DW9_B0

Keynote Julie Lindsay Connect and collaborate for global understanding
 A pedagogical shift

Jo Hart E-ngage and E-mpower with E-tools

Cartoons area on Shambles … tools and ideas on how to use in classroom http://www.shambles.net/pages/school/cartoons/

Go! animate 4 schools
http://goanimate4schools.com/public_index

http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/How-to-Play/Educators/

Make beliefs http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/

Here is post on creating using make beliefs comix http://eschoolblogs.org.au/students/2013/11/20/using-comics-in-your-blog/

A blog post re Make Beliefs http://spritessite.wordpress.com/2011/03/10/makebeliefs-comix/

A blog post re Toondoo http://spritessite.wordpress.com/2011/03/10/toondoo/

Symbaloo  https://www.symbaloo.com/

ELFADA http://blogs.cyoc.wa.edu.au/elfadacourse/2012/04/03/making-your-blog-truly-yours/

Student blogging challenge
http://studentchallenge.edublogs.org/2013/10/27/week-7-connections/

Tasmanian blogs http://eschoolblogs.org.au

Anne Mirtschin The networked educator

http://murcha.wordpress.com/

About.me  https://about.me/

Flavors me http://flavors.me/

Linked.In https://www.linkedin.com/

Tasteach bloghttp://tasteach.edublogs.org/

Community College Lakes Entrance http://trainingkitchenlakesentrance.blogspot.com.au/

Student bloggers http://eschoolblogs.org.au/students/

Junita Lyon http://junitalyon.acfe.vic.edu.au/

Global gtchat http://globalgtchatpoweredbytagt.wordpress.com/

Classroom 2.0 http://www.classroom20.com/

Scratch http://scratch.mit.edu/

International Dot Day http://www.thedotclub.org/dotday/

Skype in the classroom https://education.skype.com/

Student blogging challenge http://studentchallenge.edublogs.org/

Teacher blogging challenge http://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/

Keynote Chris Betcher Conversations for Change
What should we keep?
What should we throw out?
What should we change?

“A curious kid with an Internet connection can learn anything”

“Give them something to care bout

Give them the tools to enable it

Give them choices

Get out of their way and let them do it.”

Mydailycreate blogspot http://mydailycreate.blogspot.com.au/

Reform Symposium Conference (RSCON4) Part 1

For the last few days I have been attending the 4th annual Reform Symposium Conference (RSCON), a free online three-day event bringing together educators, students and innovators from around the world during October 11th – 13th in conjunction with Connected Educator Month and hosted at the Future of Education. http://www.futureofeducation.com/  
The entire conference was held online using the Blackboard Collaborate platform.

The Reform Symposium Conference is a global community initiative to transform teaching and learning. The Reform Symposium Conference is a highly inclusive and engaging event that encourages students and educators around the world to share and learn about transformative approaches to learning and teaching.

The schedule of events can be found at http://www.futureofeducation.com/page/rscon4-schedule-gmt-11-1

You can listen to recordings of all the sessions by following the links at http://www.futureofeducation.com/page/2013-rscon-recordings

Links to blog posts about RSCON4 are to found at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wETV3Qj9nIFoG7H7jp_rPiaG_ItGJF0Hk5Ro7jNKarY/edit?pli=1

And a sign up sheet to volunteer to help next time can be found at
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Al91nFSIYdjCdGxqTmxOSmVSbXpOTDZ1RnBIUW94TlE&usp=sharing#gid=0

The times for RSCON4 sessions were better suited to participants in the US and Europe but I did manage to attend several excellent presentations and will be able to listen to recordings of the presentations I missed.
Many thanks to all the organizers, presenters and moderators who gave their time to make this such a valuable conference!

Here are the some brief notes about the presentations I attended with links to some of the websites and programs that were mentioned.

Mark Barnes Tech/App Smackdown with Keynote

What is a Tech Smack Down? This is an exciting session where participants show off their favourite technology tools and apps in rapid-fire 2-minute sessions. Mark Barnes is the author of ‘The 5-Minute Teacher’, http://www.ascd.org/Publications/Books/Overview/The-Five-Minute-Teacher.aspx

Mark began the session with his rapid-fire keynote- The 5 Minute Teacher in 5 Minutes. Then anyone could participate and share their favourites.
Tools shared were

http://www.symbaloo.com/

http://www.educreations.com/

http://www.socrative.com/

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/chirp/id529469280?mt=8

http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html

Michael Graffin Working in the Global Classroom – A teacher’s journey

Session Description: Over the past few years, my global connections have transformed the way I learn, the way I teach, and the way I see the world. My global journey started in 2011, when I gave my first ever presentation at #RSCON3, and co-founded The Global Classroom Project community. And this year, it took me to the iEARN 2013 Conference in Qatar, where I shared my experiences on the world stage.

In this session, I will explore how teachers can enrich their students’ learning, broaden perspectives, and transform their teaching practice by connecting beyond their classroom walls. I’m returning to where it all began, exploring the tools, communities, and online networks which helped me connect, learn, share, and collaborate beyond my classroom walls, and helped me become the educator I am today.

 

Valerie Burton Publish your ePortfolio using Weebly

This session showed  how to create an ePortfolio for you and your students. Create an ePortfolio for your professional use and/or help students. Weebly allows you to create a class website/ePortfo​lio, publish announcements, tips and reminders for parents and students. Share your work and the work of your students by highlighting classwork, community service activities, awards and recognitions. Weebly is easy to use

http://www.weebly.com/

http://msbisonline.weebly.com/my-presentations.html

https://www.smore.com/b5x5-weebly-com-for-eportfolios

http://www.slideshare.net/vrburton/publishing-eportfolios-for-the-reform-symposium-2013-online-conference

Jo Hart  Extraordinary Learning For A Digital Age (ELFADA)

Target Audience: Those interested in delivering and evidencing literacy or any topic to remote learners using virtual classroom and Web2.0 for student engagement. Particular relevance to 14-19 y/o, &/or disengaged learners Session Description: A delivery model for remote (or f-2-f) learning that facilitates student engagement through Web2.0 An interactive session on a project funded under the Australian National Vocational E-Learning Strategy. We will share and discuss the model, resources/deliv​ery strategies, progress and outcomes. The project piloted innovative delivery of units from Australia’s Certificates of General Education for Adults (CGEA) online to regional/remote students (mostly in the 15 to 18 age range). Students developed the skills for learning in the digital age to facilitate access to future training more readily through digital media. This involved a short intensive startup for online CGEA aimed at motivating and engaging students and at developing a habit of regular study. They used a virtual classroom (BlackboardColl​aborate) as the main hub/support centre for action learning in the use of Web2.0 technologies and the development of simple media rich e-portfolios using blogs. Supplementary resources were available via a Learning Management System (LMS). Learning activities were mapped to three units at each of the three levels of the CGEA (Certificates I, II and III).

http://www.slideshare.net/JoHart1/elfada-project-presentation

https://pfp2012.wikispaces.com/file/view/CYOcconor_Institute_case_study.pdf

http://johart1.edublogs.org/
Joan Young Facilitating “Wow” Learning through Humor, Novelty, Awe and Fascination

Session Description: In this session, we will look at ways that I have used the power of humor, novelty, awe, and fascination to engage students in powerful learning experiences. We can make small tweaks in our routines and incorporate novelty, awe, and fascination so that our students will have lower stress levels and be willing to take more risks and challenges. This is not about smiley faces and being happy all the time, but more about creatively crafting the climate so that students are in the optimal state for learning. We will use real examples from the classroom and allow participants to share their own wow moments that have come about through mobilizing the power of emotions.

I loved this presentation. One of the many quotable quotes was

“It is very hard to be anxious and curious at the same time!”

http://allkidscanflourish.blogspot.com.au/

http://www.positivityratio.com/

http://www.unc.edu/peplab/research.html

http://www.radteach.com/

http://brainrules.net/

http://brainrules.net/exercise

http://www.johnratey.com/

http://www.buscaglia.com/

http://www.selfdeterminationtheory.org/

http://www.informedteachers.blogspot.com.br/

http://toddkashdan.com/

http://allkidscanflourish.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/ending-4th-grade-year-with-six-word.html

Infographics

Last week on the Fine Focus webinar we discussed infographic creation tools

http://johart1.edublogs.org/2013/02/14/edublogs-webinar-overviews-serendipity-good-bbc-sessions-infographic-tools/

An initial poll revealed that as a group our usage was low with no-one using them more than rarely.

When we explore tools during the webinars we have only a limited time to try the tools so it provides a good test for usefulness in a teaching situation. Anything that takes a long time to join and/or to pick up the basic use is not really practical for use with students. This is because if it takes too long for students to learn then learning the tech can become more significant in the “lesson” than the learning objectives.We had four tools to explore – everyone chose a tool and went away to spend 10 minutes exploring. We then shared our opinions and ideas.

Because we generally felt we needed a bit more time this week we gave ourselves some homework – to make an infographic to share at the start of the upcoming Serendipity session.

Gail Poulin had mentioned that she would like to use the infographic creator to make a wall chart which recorded the success rate of her U.S. kindergarten class in learning 25 high frequency words.
“There are 25 high frequency words that students must know by the end of K

I recheck frequently and I would like to share a visual tool to help them grab on to what it actually looks like when they are successful, both as individual learners and as a class.”
Some of us chose to work on Gail’s brief for our homework.

The four infographic creation tools we considered during the webinar were

Infogram http://infogr.am/

Easel.ly http://www.easel.ly/

Visual.ly http://visual.ly/

Piktochart http://piktochart.com/

During the session I looked at Infogram and that was the first tool I attempted to use to make the chart for Gail.

I found a PDF of the 25 High Frequency words at
http://www.u-46.org/dbs/roadmap/files/fluency/4hiFreq-kind.pdf

I inserted these words into a bar graph data chart in Infogram but until actual data is included the preview shows up as blank.
Also this graph would show how many of the students could spell the word correctly but would not tell which students were correct. A possible remedy for this would be to use the table graph option and plot student’s name directly against the word. The overall success of the class would be seen by how many ticks were shown.

However in the end I decided not to use Infogram but to revert to drawing up a wall chart using Paint and the maths manipulatives from Math Playground http://www.mathplayground.com/math_manipulatives.html

I assumed a class of 20 students and used the Percent Relationships program to turn the numbers into percentages and a bar graph and a pie chart.

Then I used MS Paint turn the 20 segment pie charts into flowers with a word in the centre and then made a wall frieze containing all 25 flowers. The students’ names can be written in the segments of the word flowers or each student can have their own colour to colour a segment of the flower as they master the word. Or a separate colour can be used for each flower and the number of segments shaded will show how many of the students have mastered the word without identifying which students.

Here are the three panels which make up the wall chart

And here is what the complete chart looks like

I was very satisfied with the resulting wall chart but feeling a bit sheepish that I had not used the Infographics program to create it.

However, when we all displayed our homework I found that I was not the only one who had used a different program.
Jo Hart had made the same chart with two different programs and placed them side by side on a slide. She asked us to write under the charts which one we preferred and why we liked the one we chose. We were unanimous in our choice of the chart on the right hand side of the screen because it was brighter, clearer, easier to read and the graphics were better. Jo then disclosed that the left hand infographic was created in Easel.ly and she made the right hand one with Power Point.

This disclosure led to general agreement that often we are able to accomplish better results using older, simpler but more familiar tools than we can with some of the newly released ones.

POST SCRIPT

I have just found out that Gail is using Fountas and Pinnell Reading High-Frequency Words: 25 Words list which I found at http://www.monroe.k12.mi.us/files/5759/F%26P%2025%20high%20frequency%20words.pdf

So here are the three panels and composite wall frieze for the Fountas and Pinnell list Note these flowers have different coloured centres so that that can be distinguished from the previous set.

Fine Focus Webinar Part 2

Jo Hart has posted on her E-verything! Blog http://johart1.edublogs.org/2012/11/15/edublogs-webinar-overviews-pt-2-de-bono-action-shoes-for-2e-students-a-serendipity-shared-tools/  an overview of the second part of my Fine Focus session ‘Which de Bono Action Shoes are best for a 2E student on Gagne’s DMGT Road?’

The session which was recorded and can still be accessed using the link https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/jwsdetect/nativeplayback.jnlp?sid=vclass&psid=2012-10-25.1520.D.4C3548A84E624FA254CD6511B7CA09.vcr

I began with a brief recap of the first session see Jo Hart’s post at http://johart1.edublogs.org/2012/10/23/webinar-overviews-edublogs-serendipity-de-bono-action-shoes-for-2e-students/

Topics covered in the recap were

• Edward de Bono’s Six Action Shoes
• Gagne’s Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent;
• the Six Action Shoes in the context of the Feetspeak Quest Map;
• a reminder of the six shoes and their relationship to the Gagne DMGT model.

The main focus of the second session was a consideration of combinations and variations in the shoes. We explored the possible combinations of two shoe types to produce modified action plans. I also shared some extra shoe types which I have added  that broaden the program possibilities including Sprite’s plaster cast that symbolizes the support that may be available through eligibility for funding!

We looked at the needs of 2E students and the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. methods of varying the program to make provisions for them and discussed them.

Fine Focus webinar

Last Friday I presented the first of two SerendipEd Fine Focus webinars ‘Which de Bono Action Shoes are best for a 2E student on Gagne’s DMGT Road?’
An overview and the recording of the presentation can be seen on Jo Hart’s E-verything blog a http://johart1.edublogs.org/2012/10/23/webinar-overviews-edublogs-serendipity-de-bono-action-shoes-for-2e-students/

In preparation the Feetspeak 2E shoes page on Gifted Resources website http://www.giftedresources.org/  has been updated to include links to the resources and websites used as references and Sprite’s Site blog has included posts on de Bono’s 6 Action shoes

Orange gumboots http://spritessite.wordpress.com/2012/09/15/orange-gumboots/
Pink slippers http://spritessite.wordpress.com/2012/09/19/pink-slippers/
Grey sneakers http://spritessite.wordpress.com/2012/09/28/grey-sneakers/
Blue formal shoes http://spritessite.wordpress.com/2012/10/02/blue-formal-shoes/
Purple riding boots http://spritessite.wordpress.com/2012/10/04/purple-riding-boots/
Brown brogues http://spritessite.wordpress.com/2012/10/07/brown-brogues/
and also
More shoes http://spritessite.wordpress.com/2012/10/12/more-shoes/

I will give the second part of the presentation this week. Details about how to join the session and find the time for your part of the world can also be found in Jo Hart’s blog post.

Clock dance

Time to do the World Time Zones Clock Dance again! On 7 October some Australian states went onto Daylight Saving Time. Now Jo Hart’s Serendipity and Fine Focus Webinars http://johart1.edublogs.org/about-edublogs-serendipityfine-focus-webinars/ will be at 10.00am Friday and #gtchat http://www.txgifted.org/gtchat sessions at 10.00am Saturday for Victoria and New South Wales. You can work out the time for your part of the world at http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html