Inner Western Region eLearning

The US Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) have launched PBS LearningMedia (pbslearningmedia.org), a free service for all teachers, students and families. This appears to be very much like Scootle. In addition to a rich public media library, PBS LearningMedia has content contributed from other publicly funded organizations, including the US National Archives, the Library of Congress and NPR, as well as content funded by NASA, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the US Department of Education, to deliver thousands of resources for use in the classroom.

Beginning today, teachers and students have access to more than 14,000 research-based instructional resources – including videos, interactives, images, audio files, mobile apps, lesson plans, and worksheets. Combining dynamic and engaging instructional content with professional development support, PBS LearningMedia empowers educators to create media-rich curriculum lessons that meet the needs of 21st century learners (their words!!).

Connect.ed, released by ACMA (the Australian Communications and Media Authority), is a free online professional development program designed to train teachers on how to protect students from potential online dangers.

The Connect.ed program covers: cyberbullying, sexting, excessive internet use, mobile use, e-security and managing your digital reputation and digital profiling. More information, including registration details, can be found here.

The NMC Horizon Report: 2011 K-12 Edition examines emerging technologies for their potential impact on and use in teaching, learning, and creative expression within the environment of K-12 education. It introduces six emerging technologies or practices that are likely to enter mainstream use in the educational community within three adoption horizons over the next one to five years. This year it identifies cloud computing and mobiles as near-term horizon technologies likely to enter mainstream education within the next twelve months. The report can be downloaded from here.

The May edition of ‘Tech & Learning’, an US online magazine for educators, is available here. Lots of product reviews and articles including iPads and displays v projectors.

Please consider subscribing to the magazine and the regular email newsletter. Although this is a US-based publication there is lots of content of interest to Australian teachers.

This guide is presented by Sue Waters on her blog ‘The Edublogger’. It is also available as a pdf download from her site…a comprehensive and easy to follow guide to using Skype at home or in the classroom.

Better late than never!!  The April edition of ‘Tech & Learning’, an US online magazine for educators, is available here. Lots of product reviews and articles including Open Source software, assistive technologies and social networking. 

Please consider subscribing to the magazine and the regular email newsletter. Although this is a US-based publication there is lots of content of interest to Australian teachers.

Another offering from ISTE’s SIGDE…You can access the report  “The New 3E’s of Education: Enabled, Engaged, Empowered – How Today’s Students are Leveraging Emerging Technologies for Learning” as well as the podcast and  PowerPoint Presentation from the briefing on the website http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup/speakup_congress.html. 

 About Project Tomorrow & Speak Up

Speak Up is a national initiative of Project Tomorrow, the US’s leading education nonprofit organization dedicated to the empowerment of student voices in education. The Speak Up National Research Project annually polls K-12 students, parents and educators about the role of technology for learning in and out of school and represents the largest collection of authentic, unfiltered stakeholder voice on digital learning.   Since 2003, over 2.2 million K-12 students, parents, teachers, librarians, principals, technology leaders and district administrators have shared their views and ideas through Speak Up. 

Does anybody do this sort of research in Australia? If you are aware of any, please let me know!

Hello again…back on board from a wonderful Easter break in the US. This from ISTE’s SIGDE group…the presentation from Pew Internet explores nine commonly held assumptions about how teens and young adults use technology. By applying nationally representative data (US), they unpack fact from fiction. Do teens really send that many text messages a day? Is Twitter the next big thing among young adults? Are landlines obsolete?

Using data from surveys and focus groups from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, they examine the changes in technology use among young people, and look at why it is important that we understand these trends.

Teachers who use Microsoft products (and isn’t that all of us…even regular Apple users) should subscribe to ‘Teacher Tools’, a regular e-newsletter. The latest edition has items about a number of Microsoft peoducts and events. Interested teachers can subscribe by clicking on the logo.

WiredSafety.org is a US charity and the largest and oldest online safety, education, and help group in the world. Originating in 1995 as a group of volunteers rating websites, it now provides one-to-one help, extensive information, and education to cyberspace users of all ages on a myriad of Internet and interactive technology safety issues. These services are offered through a worldwide organization comprised entirely of volunteers who administer specialized websites and programs.

http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/ is one of the websites they provide as a resource to combat online bullying…it includes a downloadable game called ‘Alex Wonder: Kid Cyberdetective’ which is a terrific resource for educating students on what cyberbullying is and strategies to combat cyberbullying.