Jen’s Blog

How unrealistic would it be to hear a student in your class say this comment? Even more unrealistic if they were actually serious! Well, it seems this is the trend that is beginning within the NSWDET particularly in public schools.

Mum brought home her copy of “Side by Side” the newspaper for NSW Public Schools and I’ve noticed a quite surprising trend that a lot of the articles are looking at the use of digital media in the classroom. Surprising, but encouraging! It appears that there is a push for better use of technology.

I’ve also been reflecting on Emma’s great post, Webtools for learning Kath Cassidy, where Emma reminds us that the only restrictions on using ICT in the classroom is our own inhibitions and fears. She encourages teachers to take on a risk-taking approach. I think many teachers would find this daunting and not know where to begin. However, it appears that the department has caught onto this and is now giving teachers access to great resources!

One of the new initiatives mentioned in Side by Side are the new program “Connected Classrooms”. Doherty the writer of this article states that this new program is “the biggest education transformation in decades…” (Issue 15, Feb 2008). The project aims to “build a collaborative learning community where we share best practise and great ideas and materials among our schoools and we store and access that material on our own network” (Doherty, 2008).

By 2011 all 2,200 public schools in NSW will have at least one connected classroom. This will enable students to take virtual excursions anywhere in the world (even universe), speak to experts in real time, communicate with peers anywhere in the state and have classes via video conferencing.

Another resource recently available to teachers is called “Skoool”. This is a joint initiative between the DET and Intel. Skoool is a group of Australian web-based resources where students can learn through an online stimulus. Students can learn to resuscitate humans, create shapes and explore gravity and the solar system plus much more! These resources are primarily maths and science resources.

These resources can be accessed at the TaLe website (www.tale.edu.au) although the site requires you have a DET login. To view examples of the Skoool resource look here.

It seems children will be able to virtually go to America any day of the week in our classrooms in the near future!

Image Source: http://jayderagon.com/blog/

I’ve just read Cassie’s thoughtful post, Aquiram’s thoughts explored. She summarises some of the points in the post and particularly raises the point of teachers using technology to finalise papers and provide opportunities for plagarism.

I remember back in primary school how easy it was to plagarise off the internet. I think the mentality is “why reword it when it sounds good already”, or even “I have no idea how to reword it”. This is a struggle many kids go through, but it is a necessary skill to learn. I like how Aquiram states that teachers need to structure lessons online so that students can’t plagarise and learn how to reword and summarise things!

(Image source: http://www.cartoonstock.com/lowres/aba0039l.jpg)