Inner Western Region eLearning

Google Search Education

scotth58 — Fri, 11 May 2012 06:21:55 +0000

For today’s students, internet literacy—knowing how to find and understand information on the web—is as essential as traditional literacy, and now web-search giant Google Inc. has launched a new site to help teach this critical skill.

Google’s Search Education site contains lesson plans designed to develop students’ web-search skills, activities to put their skills to the test, and video tutorials from Google search experts. (from eschoolnews.com)

TED Ed

scotth58 — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 00:52:24 +0000

TED, a nonprofit organization devoted to spreading big ideas through a series of conferences and a free video platform, (ie TED Talks) has continued its expansion into education by launching a brand-new TED-Ed website with tools to help teachers use video in the classroom. The new platform allows educators to customize videos with follow-up questions and assignments, TED says—an initiative that could help power the “flipped learning” model.

The site allows users to take any useful educational video, not just TED’s (eg YouTube), and easily create a customized lesson around the video. Users can distribute the lessons, publicly or privately, and track their impact on the world, a class, or an individual student.

Visit the site by clicking the image or here.

New from Edutopia

scotth58 — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 00:33:07 +0000

Edutopia’s informative newsletter is a great source of eLearning news and advice. This month’s edition includes:

A Parent’s Guide to Twitter and Education
An educator offers quick tips to help the families of school-aged kids get started, engage in dialogue with teachers, and stay abreast of education news and trends on Twitter.

Social Media Guidelines
How to create an environment that embraces the use of social networking and social media, but also teaches students how to navigate that world.

Resource Roundup: Teaching Digital Citizenship
We’ve added new resources to our collection of articles, blogs, videos, and links for teaching about internet safety, netiquette, and cyberbullying.

Edutopia is a great resource…consider joining up!

Got Game? Interactives in the Classroom

scotth58 — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 01:18:02 +0000

The PBS LearningMedia site is a US education digital media service, which, in their own words, ” is your destination for easy, instant access to thousands of classroom-ready, digital resources including videos and interactives perfect for the Interactive Whiteboard, plus audio and photos, and even in-depth lesson plans. You can search, save, and share with ease. Best of all, PBS LearningMedia™ is free for educators. Register today!” Of particular interest is a couple of interactive simulations about the human body systems which might be good for Stage 3 students, and some K-6 reading activities.

Global Education

scotth58 — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 01:07:34 +0000

The Global Education website provides teachers with resources about a range of global issues supported by case studies, country profiles and teaching activities. You can share your teaching suggestions and sign up for the monthly newsletter and RSS feeds.

Of interest in the coming weeks is Clean Up Australia Day on March 4, International Women’s Day on March 8, and Harmony Day on March 21

Digital Citizenship Resources

scotth58 — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 04:53:27 +0000

In Australia we have ACMA and CyberSmart (haven’t been to their website yet? It’s a must visit for all teachers and parents), in the US they have the Federal Trade Commission. This agency has produced a range of resources to assist parents and teachers to better inform children and themselves about issues relating to digital citizenship and cybersafety. The resources are in the public domain and so may be used without permission. Resources include:

Admongo (www.admongo.gov) an online game which teaches critical thinking skills and encourages children to apply them to advertising. Aimed at Stage 3, but could be used by younger or older students.

Living Life Online (ftc.gov/livinglifeonline) print (available as a pdf download) and online resources for digital kids, with short articles, activities and quizzes.

OnGuardOnline (onguardonline.gov) a website to assist consumers of all ages get around safely in the online world.

Net Cetera (onguardonline.gov/features/feature-0004-featured-net-cetera-toolkit) a great range of downloadable resources and links to videos.

20 Great Tips, Ideas, and Stories for Educators

scotth58 — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 00:04:45 +0000

Edutopia, one of my favourite online resources, celebrates it’s 20th anniversary this year. It’s recent newsletter links to a number of posts from blog contributers celebrating this event…20 ideas for engaging projects, 20 tips for creating safe learning environments, 20 tips for managing project-based learning are just a few examples. Subscribe to their newsletter and receive regular high-quality resources…you won’t be disappointed!

FETC Virtual Conference

scotth58 — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 05:14:37 +0000

Registration is now open for the FETC Virtual Conference on October 27, 2011. I “attended” last year and found some of the sessions really engaging.

The FETC Virtual Conference Features:

Interactive presentations from education technology leaders
A virtual networking lounge to reconnect with colleagues and
make new contacts
Technology product and service demos in the virtual exhibit hall
Free content downloads and presentations-to-go

All for no cost, and no travel! Registration gives you access to the archive, so you don’t have to sit up all night and attend the conference live…catch up on sessions in your own time.

TeachMeet – September 15

scotth58 — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 00:27:28 +0000

TeachMeet is happening again, this time at at St Ambrose Concord West on Thursday afternoon, September 15, from 4pm to 6pm. Please check the Google site for details and to register your interest. It would be great to get lots of attendees and especially some willing presenters!

Learning and Leading with Technology – June/July Edition

scotth58 — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 05:54:00 +0000

The June/July edition of ISTE’s online magazine, “Learning and Leading with Technology” is available here. Articles include “Digital Age Teaching”, “Tech Integration & Special Needs” and “Should Students Use Their Real Names on the Web?”. Remember, you can have direct access to this magazine and many of ISTE’s resources by becoming a member of ISTE.