Collection of New and some not so New ICT ideas

Veronica and I attended a PD yesterday 'ICT Ideas for English Classroom'. Though the PD was meant for English but the ideas can easily be applied to various domains for enhancing student engagement. The presenter's google site has all the links and information. The site is a mix of some old and new ideas.
https://sites.google.com/site/ictandenglish
So let's start sifting and apply what we can to engage our students. During the PD my mind was constantly coming back to the enthusiastic staff of Sunbury College, who are already using latest ICT to engage students.
Please share through comments if you use any of these ideas work successfully in your classroom.

Another Google Search Tip

When you search using Google, have you ever noticed the option “more search tools”?

I suggest that you click on this option and look at some of them.

For example, I have searched for “Ned Kelly” and then selected Reading Level. Google sorts the results into one of three reading levels. Here is the result:

Select the Basic level and Google filters forward the Basic level articles.

How does Google do it? Well they actually asked teachers! Teachers were asked to rate a wide range of texts from which Google developed a statistical model which is applied to text scanned on the internet. This may still not produce results which are fully reliable but it will help produce results better suited to, say, lower end readers.

Why don’t you try one of the other search options – for example – try Location and filter results using this method – gets rid of all those annoying American sites!

Enjoy!

News Articles for KIDS!!!

Hello All,

Please see the link below for articles written about current world events. These articles have been rewritten using easier words. My student teacher, Tim, has used these in my literacy class and they have been very successful. I wouldn't recommend for the senior years but it is good for junior years and for students who may be struggling in your class and require a differentiated learning plan.

http://teachkidsnews.com/

Enjoy!!!

LS.

Animoto

Animoto is a very easy to use presentation tool. To use with your class you need to register as a teacher and you will be given an education code which students enter when they register.


If you want your students' Animotos to be sent to you you need to make a dummy email account, use gmail, and students use that email when they register, otherwise have students email you their finished Animoto or have them download.


Animoto promotes ethical use of images and sound and provides a library of both to select. You can put in still pictures or video.

Better Internet Search Techniques

Google Time Line

Google Time Line is a great way to refine searches.

It is really simple to use and very powerful.

Here is how it works:

1. Search for something – e.g. "Ned Kelly" – a search of Ned Kelly produces over 3 million results.

2. Now scroll down on the left hand side and look for “Timeline” – if you can’t see it select the option “more search tools”. It should always be there though.

3. Selecting "Timeline" places a time line at the top of your search results. Google is filtering the results and grouping them into dates.

4. Select a decade and Google will “zoom” in on that decade.

5. Select another period on the timeline and Google will zoom further. It will keep filtering as you zoom.

6. How could you use this?

Well it could be a really effective way of:

· discovering detail about an event in a person’s life

· breaking students up to look at:

o the life of a person

o a war, social or political campaign

o developments in science such as Astronomy

o volcanic activity

· The list is really only limited by your imagination.

7. Enjoy.

Creative Writing Games

Discovered couple of good writing games to encourage creative writing and for better vocabulary. So I'll be posting these discoveries every week. Keep us updated whether you tried these in your class and how it worked.
Folding Story : This one is an oldy but can be done with a tech twist to engage the kids.
a) One student writes two sentences on a piece of paper. The sentences must be separated by a space.
b) They fold the paper over so the first sentence is covered - only the second sentence can be seen.
c) They then pass it onto the next student who continues to story on.
d) The second student folds the paper as the first student did, and then passes it on.
Read the story aloud at the end to see how much sense it makes.

Tech Tip: A fun way of doing this activity is to using a Web 2.0 tool. Students will need to create a free and quick account to log onto this online version. After this, you can collaborate as a class on a folding story and have fun with the end result. The tool can be found here: http://foldingstory.com/
Good for encouraging juniors for writing tasks and collaborative learning.

Some NEW ideas for class!!!

Evening all,

Gurpreet and I have been going through some electronic resources from an E5 professional development (attended by GK). These are all designed to engage students with their learning.

Have a look through the following and see if they would be useful in your class!

Discovery Box

http://discoverybox.e2bn.org/

This can be used to create character profiles in English.

It could also be used well in humanities to organise information for a specific topic.

You can upload videos, pictures, text, links to web resources etc...

Screen Toaster


www.screentoaster.com

This tool allows you to record anything that is on your screen. It enables you to add a voice recording to anything on your screen. EG: You may want to add a voice narration to a powerpoint presentation. This would be useful to anyone who would like a narration to any presentation. I think it would be great for LOTE!!!

That's all from me for now. Have a go and leave us a comment expressing your thoughts regarding the web 2.0 apps.

ICT in our school!!!

So, in our PLT we are focusing on improving how we, as teachers, use ICT to educate our students. The purpose of this blog is to provide a forum for collegiate discussions in our school.

What would like you all to do is leave one comment detailing how you have used ICT in your classroom this week. Please post any links to any web resources that you may have used.