OLAF Unit 1 SOLE HARRINGTON PARK PUBLIC SCHOOL by kristy hawkins on Prezi Box of Tricks - Xtranormal Posted by José Picardo on November 1, 2009 Technology is like electricity: it’s pervasive, it’s everywhere… it’s useful. We ignore it at our peril. We wouldn’t expect our pupils to read by candlelight or to write on wax tablets. Equally, we should be encouraging them to use the tools they have available, the tools with which they are familiar if we are to ensure they remain engaged and motivated. Xtranormal is a text-to-movie website which allows you and your students to create short films with your own scripts using very clever text-to speech technology. Although some of my colleagues and I had used Xtranormal before as a starter in a lesson to introduce a topic and reinforce vocabulary, this time I decided to let my students do the work and produce their own scripts and films in Spanish as a means to elicit creative writing, which would then be assessed for quality of language. Setting the scene Close up Script editing Post production Premiere What do you think? José Picardo
Learner agency » CORE Education Explanation The concept of agency has been central to educational thinking and practice for centuries. The idea that education is the process through which learners become capable of independent thought which, in turn, forms the basis for autonomous action, has had a profound impact on modern educational theory and practice. One way of thinking of learner agency is when learners have “the power to act”. Agency is when learning involves the activity and the initiative of the learner, more than the inputs that are transmitted to the learner from the teacher, from the curriculum, the resources and so forth. In the past our schools have catered mostly for groups of learners, for classes of kids, with a one size fits all approach. There’s been a lot of talk in the past about learner-centric approaches to education and personalisation, and these are aspects of what we might mean by learner agency, but the concept goes deeper than this. Second, agency is interdependent. Implications
Voki Get your brand new Wikispaces Classroom now and do "back to school" in style. guest Join | Help | Sign In teachweb2 Home guest| Join | Help | Sign In Turn off "Getting Started" Loading... Students need different skills for a changing world The Japanese want their kids to be better problem solvers. In Finland, they're encouraging expression. In the classrooms of Singapore, children are being taught critical and inventive thinking. Across the world, many countries are pouring resources into pinpointing the skills, behaviours and new knowledge young people need to successfully navigate life and work in the 21st century. Governments of all types and flavours are recognising that while obtaining and retaining knowledge remains fundamental, it is but one of many capabilities young people need to survive and thrive. To flourish in the workforce of the 21st century, they will also need to be able to solve problems. Many of these competencies were also needed in the past, but their status has increased considerably. While this curriculum reform is under way across the world, different countries are prioritising different skills, depending on their particular geopolitical circumstances, social constructs and workforce needs.
Box of Tricks - Using Voki Posted by José Picardo on September 11, 2010 Voki, the avatar creating website that has proved so popular amongst language teachers, is being relaunched this term. I am very fortunate to be involved in this relaunch as a Voki Ambassador, one of a dozen or so educators around the world who are collaborating with Voki in New York to ensure a renewed focus on Education. So what can we expect? Voki allows teachers and students to create speaking avatars in a fun, stimulating and engaging way. As far as teaching languages is concerned, I have found throughout the years that using Voki helps my students improve their oral proficiency in the target language and that it’s often the shy one at the end of the classroom who comes up with the most impressive piece of spoken language. The new Voki for Education is being officially relaunched to better cater for teachers and students. Will Voki remain free? Yes, the idea is that Voki will always remain free.
The Victorian schools that have caught the attention of Finland The Hands on Learning cafe is among 10 Victorian innovations that have caught the attention of Finnish not-for-profit HundrED. While policy makers and politicians from around the world often look to Finland to improve their schools, the organisation has been studying what's happening in Victorian classrooms. Last year, HundrED which receives funding from the Finnish government, chose the "education state" as its first location for a new project that identifies innovations and then shares them with the world. It has spent the past 10 months weighing up the state’s best education initiatives and will now publish guidelines to help other schools implement similar ideas. Other Victorian projects on the list include; A parent-run alternative school in picturesque bushland in Hurstbridge called the Learning Co-Operative School.The Luminaria Education Model, which aims to prepare children for a future world. There has been movement amongst the states heavy hitting schools since last year.
Box of Tricks Using Voki and a blog Posted by José Picardo on June 25, 2008 I have recently been looking into motivating pupils, boys in particular, to speak in the target language and I have been studying the use of Voki and my subject blog as the means to achieve this objective. Having laid out the rationale for the use of Web 2.0 for this purpose in a previous post, I would like to explain exactly what I did in these three lessons and how I planned them. I was very careful to introduce the idea of using Voki to my pupils so that they would be immediately engaged and enthused by the prospect of using it. From this moment on, I deliberately tried to become a facilitator or a collaborator: a senior partner who would mentor them through the process of acquainting themselves with the new application and with the creation of their own Spanish-speaking avatar. Lesson 1 Lesson 1 focused on revising the appropriate vocabulary and grammatical structures using an interactive whiteboard and introducing Voki to my pupils by: Lesson 2
The 5Cs – Learning – San Carlos School District A core element of SCSD’s Strategic Plan is a focus on the skills and conceptual tools that are critical for 21st Century learners, including the 5Cs: Critical Thinking & Problem Solving, Communication, Collaboration, Citizenship (global and local) and Creativity & Innovation. The 5Cs embody mindsets that are critical for our students to successfully participate in the contemporary and evolving workforce. The goal is to incorporate the 5Cs into all learning experiences within the district, across grade levels, subject, and other school experiences. Some of the elements of the 5Cs include: To learn more about 21st Century Learning Skills visit the Partnership for 21st Century Learning Skills.
Benefits of Blogs in Education « blogging about blogging This is the author-version of article published as: Duffy, Peter and Bruns, Axel (2006) The Use of Blogs, Wikis and RSS in Education: A Conversation of Possibilities. In Proceedings Online Learning and Teaching Conference 2006, pages pp. 31-38, Brisbane. Accessed from This article looks at three newer technologies: blogs, wikis and RSS feeds. For each, they explore what the technology is, its benefits to education and the uses of this technology in education. I did find it interesting that this is the third article that groups blogs, wikis and RSS feeds together. Potential benefits as identified by learning specialists Fernette and Brock Eide and cited by Will Richardson (2006) in Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful webtools for classrooms include the following: Also provides examples of the uses of blogs in education. Like this: Like Loading...