ICTeD Services

Students as eLearning Leaders Project 2012 - Leadership in a Digital World Module

Attribution http://blog.rozee.pk/2010/05/12/effective-team-leader/ & http://icon-king.com

Great meeting today about the continuation of the DEECD WMR Hobson's Bay Network Students as eLearning Leaders continuing for Grade 5 students in 2011.

These were my ideas below, which were  thrown into the mix. The final outline when completed, will really build on the successes of 2011.

 Download my presentation to the project team. Download HB Students as eLL

 

 

Intermediate eLearning PD in 40 minutes - What can you do in a lunchtime?

I blogged earlier this year on some lunchtime sessions I ran with new staff [e.g. see blogposts 20.02.2011 & 28.03.2011]. Sessions went well  covering these topics and with these list of resources which are on the school's intranet. These were part of the school's induction program and aimed at the basic level.

1. Moodle in 40 minutes
    •     Flyer PDF document
    •     Moodle Users Guide v.2 PDF document
    •     Moodle Guide for Dummies PDF document

2. MacBook Basics in 40 minutes
    •     Flyer PDF document
    •    Click below to see Mark's blogpost on this topic.
    •     Understanding your MacBook in 40 minutes file

3. How to use the ICT room with your class in 40 minutes
    •     Flyer PDF document
    •     Using the ICT Room with your class - session notes PDF document

4. Edumail Basics in 40 minutes
    •     Flyer PDF document
    •     eduMail Basics Session Notes PDF document

5. Ultranet Basics in 40 minutes
    •    Flyer PDF document
    •    Complex 7 Password What is a Complex 7 Password?
    •    See other school based resources on Moodle> eLearning Courses and Resources > Ultranet
    •    Ultranet Resources on the school Intranet
    •     Release One Resources - School login and password required file
    •     Release One PLT Training Resources - School login and password required file
    •     Release Two Resources - School login and password required file

6. Presentation for Masters of Teaching Students
    •     DEECD Acceptable Usage of ICT Systems PDF document
    •     ICT / eLearning for Teacher Candidates PDF document

7. Caring for your notebook in 40 minutes
    •     Flyer PDF document
    •     Session Notes file

8. Acceptable usage of DEECD ICT Resources in 40 minutes
    •     Flyer PDF document
    •     DEECD Acceptable Usage of ICT Resources Policy

9. Evaluation Survey [Survey Monkey]
    •    If you attended any of these sessions please complete this survey by April 27.2011

So what for this term? Well here is the outline looking at topics of for Term 2.

Intermediate eLearning PD in 40 minutes

1. Understanding Your MacBook Better 1  in 40 Minutes [Bring your notebook to this session] 3/5/2011
• What's the Finder for?
• What's in the Apple Menu?
• Attaching projector to laptop. Monitor Resoultions
• What is standard about Macintosh applications?
• What are preferences?
• System Preferences

2. Windows Basics in 40 Minutes [Bring your notebook to this session] 10/5/2011
• "Same, same, but different."
• The start menu & shortcuts
• Where are the applications and the my documents?
• Why is right clicking so important?
• What about viruses and security?
• What's on the eduSTAR image?

3. Edumail - What are the Changes in 40 Minutes?  [Bring your notebook to this session] 17/5/2011
• What's changed with web access?
• What's changed with Entourage?
• Address Books & Global Address
• Calendars and Invites
• Removing mail from server
• Setting up Folders
• What's coming [Outlook]?

4. Understanding Your MacBook Better 2  in 40 Minutes [Bring your notebook to this session] 24/5/2011
• Address Book
• Open Source Software
• Security [logins, AV software etc]
• Customising your MacBook
• Notebook Passwords and other Users
• The Utilities folder

5. Improving Your Web Browsing  in 40 Minutes [Bring your notebook to this session] 31/5/2011
• Is Safari the best?
• What about Firefox or Camino or Opera?
• Bookmarking [Toolbars and Menus]
• Social Bookmarking
• Tabs and Windows
• Downloading files
• Customising your Browser

6. Troubleshooting your MacBook  in 40 Minutes [Bring your notebook to this session] 07/6/2011
•  Power Issues
•  The Beach Ball of Death
•  Force Quit and Force Restart
•  Time Machine
•  Software Updates
•  Office Updates

Again, will report on these sessions later.

Open Source Resources for Schools

I downloaded both these pdfs below last week, [from @kattekrab on Twitter].

They come from Open Source Victoria. http://www.osv.org.au/

They are really handy for all educators. They are released under Creative Commons

Free Software for Schools.Catalog of Open Source Software for Education
Catalog of Open Source Software for Education
Open Source Victoria

Download Education_FOSS_catalog

Free Software for Schools. A catalogue of open source computer programs for teaching and learning
A catalogue of open source computer programs for teaching and learning
Compiled by Con Zymaris, Revised by Bryant Patten
Open Source Victoria

Download Free-Software-for-Schools

Software Freedom Day- Melbourne 18.09.2010

 I spent a great day yesterday at the State Library of Victoria for Melbourne's part in Software Freedom Day. The SLV is a truly great institution providing free information for Melbournians since the 1850's. How appropriate that there was a Software Freedom Day event there!
I went to a workshop on Open Office: The Basics with Wen Lin. He went through the basics of Open Office Writer, using some great tutorials from http://www.tutorialsforopenoffice.org/. These tutorials are really well designed and will use them in the future. I wish I had them last year!

The keynote was Senator Kate Lundy talking on Government 2.0, drawing links with Open Source. The three tenets of Open Government being the Democratisation of Data, Citizen-centric Services and Collaboration. See the video on here website for more of her more detailed views on this. http://www.katelundy.com.au/

 

Vimeo link to this video is http://vimeo.com/14443694

 
 Well done Donna and the rest of the organisers, a great event!

MacSchoolsNet Meeting #49 The DEECD eduSTAR 10.6 image for Mac [My Edited Presentation]

What is the eduSTAR image for Mac? [Adapted from the eduSTAR website]

• Client Image 

10.6 images that is customised to cater for Victorian school environments. The aim of creating this image is to provide schools with a consistent ICT environment across schools, on Teacher notebooks, Student notebooks or netbooks and school owned computers in the classroom. 

This image provides an excellent core by providing an extensive set of applications that align directly with the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS). Schools can use this as a base, and extend onto it by adding school owned applications. This reduces the time required by Specialist Technicians to produce a new reliable school image, and a level of consistency across schools that benefits Teachers, Students and Specialist Technicians. 

The eduSTAR Apple OSX 10.6 Image is pre-installed as standard on: 

• DEECD Apple Notebooks supplied in the Notebooks for Teachers and Principals Program (NTPP). 

• Apple MacBooks purchased through DEECD Hardware Panel 

• Can be downloaded by DEECD TSSP technicians 

What are the eduSTAR websites? 

• https://edugate.eduweb.vic.gov.au/Services/IT/ ITServices/eduSTAR/Pages/default.aspx [DEECD Login and password needed]

• https://edugate.eduweb.vic.gov.au/Services/IT/ ITServices/eduSTAR/Pages/WebcastsandTraining.aspx [DEECD Login and password needed]

What is on the DEECD Mac eduSTAR image 10.6? 

 

eduSTAR image for Mac 

Advantages - [As I them see]

• Useful in schools when there is limited Mac technical support 

• Exposes teachers and students to some great Free and Open Source Software [FOSS]

• Is a creditable starting point for schools to add to a Mac image.

• Shows continuing improvement of DEECD OSX images.

• Is a generic image for 1600 schools and all DEECD students & teachers

• Illustrates DEECD support for OSX

• You can purchase eduSTAR imaged MacBooks & iMacs from DEECD Panel Suppliers 

• The Dock items tries to emulate the Windows Common Navigation Platform 

Disadvantages - [As I them see]

• Only a 10.6.SOE. Schools often have a variety of Mac operating systems and Intel & PPC [so obviously, only useful for recently purchased Macs] However, hopefully there will be continuing eduSTAR images for Mac, so overtime there should be to a number of images for Mac OS.

• By the nature of things takes a long time to install initially you need to i. install 10.6, ii. then iLife ’09, iii. then the eduSTAR image.

• I had some issues cloning this image to other computers, admittedly the school is having issues with Net Restore [school issue nor a DEECD one!]. Couldn't clone from an external drive, which had a variety of Mac OS images on it - apparently the cause of that problem!. Could clone by using Carbon Copy Cloner and a firewire cable.

• The eduSTAR Mac 10.6 SOE image locks down the computer with a Local Admin account which only DEECD TSSP’s have the password, so you would have to ask them for it. [If you set up an Admin account in step i above, it will be replaced by the Local Admin account in step iii]. 

Other Resources: 

http://ictedservices.typepad.com/icted_services/2009/07/opensource-software-for-the-mac-in-the-primary-elementary-schoolclassroom.html 

http://ictedservices.typepad.com/icted_services/2010/06/whatsburning-in-elearning-2-open-the-door-to-open-source.html

If you do any good things with FOSS in your school, please let me know so we can build up some online resources 

Reflection

• Great to have David Terrens from DEECD ITD to talk about the background of the image in detail

• As it was a small group more of the discussion was about the future of MacSchoolsNet and how the next meeting #50 will be both a celebration an evaluation and a plotting of future directions

Moodle for Teachers - Online Course [M4T-3]

I just received my Moodle for Teachers: Intermediate [M4T-3] Certificate  for the four week online course I completed earlier this year [32 hours all up]. Thanks Nellie, Jenni and the rest of the crew! This course [ and many others was run by ITALL - Integrating Technology for Active Life-long Learning]. It was blended learning using Moodle for asynchronous content and WiZiQ for synchronous web conferencing.

See these websites below and follow IT4ALL & WiZiQ on Twitter & Facebook

IT4ALL Courses http://www.integrating-technology.org/
IT4ALL Global Exchange http://www.integrating-technology.com/
IT4ALL Ning http://integrating-technology.ning.com/
WiZiQ http://www.wiziq.com/

Why did I do this course?
• We had just built a Moodle server at the primary school where I teach and I really wanted to explore the pedagogy of online learning. Each week of the course had readings, tasks, web conferences and discussion forums.

Why would I recommend this to others?
• Absolutely! Great dialogue and collaboration with educators from all over the world [ although this can mean completing webinars in the early hours of the morning if you in Australia!]

What did I produce?
A seven week Moodle course for my school colleagues, as part of the introduction of Moodle at my school. It is a conbination of pedagogical readings and practical tasks using Moodle.If you are interested in looking at my Moodle course, leave a comment below and I will give you guest access to it.

The next Moodle for Teachers Intermediate Course [M4T-I] starts soon [see the website listed above]. There are also Beginners and Advanced Moodle Courses. However, is you miss this one there are new courses happening all the time
All upcoming workshops have a one time registration fee US$39 to cover costs and keep IT4ALL running! However, those who cannot afford the registration fee, can apply for a scholarship.

The course outline for Moodle for Teachers [Intermediate] Course is below

Goal
The goal of the M4T-Intermediate workshop is to help educators ensure the quality of online learning through systematic instructional design of online and blended online courses (BOL) and instructor training on online pedagogies.
Description
This intensive, four-week-long workshop is designed to engage you in theoretical and practical aspects of online learning and teaching with a Learning Management System called Moodle. By successfully completing the program you will be ready to teach blended online learning (BOL) or blended learning (BL) courses using Moodle. In the workshop, you will be introduced to online learning pedagogies and best practices. Moodle course development tools will be demonstrated, reviewed and practiced. As online learners, you will learn to understand online learning from the student's perspective so you can prepare your future courses with the learner in mind.
Workshop Context
You will collaborate in teams to design or redesign a course on your chosen topic. You will add content and resources, explore web 2.0 technologies, integrate synchronous and asynchronous learning activities into your course and develop assessments for online learning. You will also be encouraged to reflect on the process of developing your course and to share your learning experiences with your peers.
Workload & Format
M4T requires participants to be active at least 8 hours a week on theoretical and practical aspects of online learning (individually and in teams). 
M4T will include asynchronous (via the Moodle) and synchronous (via WiZiQ) components. 
Workshop Layout
This 4-week facilitated workshop will cover the following topics:
    •    Week 1: Connect, Communicate & Collaborate
    •    Week 2: Moodle Course Design
    •    Week 3: Moodle Course Development
    •    Week 4: Moodle Course Facilitation & Assessment
Expected Learning Outcomes
By the end of the workshop learners should be able to:
    •    Use Moodle editing tools
    •    Use communication tools to communicate with team members
    •    Use collaboration tools to collaborate and create team documents
    •    Design and develop a Moodle course in conjunction with team members based on a constructivist     pedagogy
    •    Integrate web 2.0 technologies into their Moodle course
    •    Add Moodle resources to their course
    •    Add Moodle activities to their course

    •    Critically reflect on their own and others work and provide constructive feedback for course improvement

Have a go at it! it is a great opportunity!

What's Burning in eLearning? Session 2 “Open the Door to Open Source”

 

I had a great session on Elluminate last night with Russ Blackie, Project Officer from the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development [DEECD] eLearning Branch.

The big questions in “Open the Door to Open Source” were

• What is Open Source Software [FOSS] and why do schools, teachers and students need to embrace it?
• Why is the DEECD eduSTAR image a great learning tool?

Structure of the session
What is Open Source Software [FOSS]?
What is the eduSTAR image?
What are the benefits of using FOSS in schools?
Let’s look at some FOSS featured in recent issues of SHINE.
Can we establish an Open Source in Schools sharing community?

Discussion with Russ and participants covered the following

What’s Open Source Software [FOSS]?
•Usually free [i.e. no cost].
•Usually does a great job [but without “bells and whistles”].
•It is about sharing.
•Others can develop it further.
•It has a community and is supported by other users.

What’s the eduSTAR image?
•DEECD Licenced software [Microsoft, Kahootz etc].
•Open Source 
•Windows only
•Can be installed on all school owned / leased computers.
[Refer to the Handout available in Elluminate session recording - see below.]

Who can use the eduSTAR image?

Can schools and teachers modify the eduSTAR image?

What about an eduSTAR image for the DEECD Macintosh users?

Why use Open Source Software?
Good for your budget.
It’s “warm and fuzzy”.
Students can download it freely on their home computers.
It addresses issues of student equity and access.

Looking at some featured FOSS [as reviewed in SHINE].
FreeMind
Audacity
Debut Video Capture
Virtual Dub
VLC Media Player
Format Factory

Establishing an Open Source in Schools Sharing Community.
• Examples / case  studies of teachers using FOSS for planning, teaching, student assessment & evaluation.
• Examples of student work using FOSS

What's next?
• View resources related to this session and the link to the recording.• Add your opinions to the discussion board on The Educators Guide to Innovation Ning.
http://guidetoinnovation.ning.com/forum/topics/whats-burning-in-elearning-the

And after that?
• Share any classroom ideas, resources on Open Source Software with others.
• Either email to me or post on the Ning.
http://guidetoinnovation.ning.com/forum/topics/whats-burning-in-elearning-the

Missed the session?
Recording Link: [For optimum success here copy and paste this link into your browser [ Firefox works well]. rather than clicking on the link. You should be asked for your name and an email address to access the recording]

https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/jwsdetect/playback.jnlp?psid=2010-06-15.2312.D.5C20E6231450C367259EDD48B06F0E.vcr&sid=2007026

Open Source Software for the Mac in the Primary / Elementary School Classroom

This is a bit of a spin off from my presentations at Victorian Information Technology Teachers Association’s Open Source day [see my blogposts 12.06.2009, 22.04.2004, 22.03.2009 & 15.03.2009]. Deb and I usually run an annual hands on session on freeware and / or opensource software at a MacSchoolsNet meeting. Members that come along get to have sandpit time with some of these apps. Since working for VITTA I have had a bit of time to explore Open Source applications and I have been very impressed. Even though the meeting is not until Thursday 3rd of September, I’ve got the presentation ready now. If you are interested you can download a .pdf of the presentation made with Open Office Impress.

Download Open Source-Mac

My other Open Source resources are at http://www.ictedservices.com/Open_Source_Software.html

See also this great site [not mine] http://www.opensourcemac.org/

[ **** As with any software recommendations in my blog and websites, what I write about, is my opinion only and I take no responsibility for anything going wrong with your computer, server, network etc.. Please read the conditions and product disclosures and EULA for each application. Always exercise care and caution!]

Open for Education: Open Source Software in Schools

Presented at the Victorian Information Technology Teachers Association [VITTA] Open For Education day at Forest Hill College last Wednesday. [See my previous blogposts tagged Open source]. It was a great day, despite being very cold and down on expected numbers of participants. Running professional development at a time when teachers are heavily into the assessment and reporting cycle can always be problematic.
However, this meant that we combined some sessions so that we had panels of co-presenters in the sessions. As a presenter this was great as we could instill a greater range of experience and debate into sessions.
My updated resources for Open Office and Open Office are online at:
http://www.ictedservices.com/Open_Source_Software.html
http://www.ictedservices.com/OpenOffice3.html
http://www.ictedservices.com/Open_for_Education_Day.html

What I found out from the day. If you present at a conference and don't learn something yourself, then something is wrong! So here are the seven things I got out of the day.

1. Inkscape is  great open source graphic software.
Inkscape is an Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X, using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format.
Inkscape supports many advanced SVG features (markers, clones, alpha blending, etc.) and great care is taken in designing a streamlined interface. It is very easy to edit nodes, perform complex path operations, trace bitmaps and much more. We also aim to maintain a thriving user and developer community by using open, community-oriented development.
Inkscape is now for Mac as well as Windows and Linux.

2. Open Office is an application that needs to be installed on every school computer and is something I need to learn much more about my self.

3. There is a great site called the Periodic Table of Visualization Methods
http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html
See also
http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/001662.php

4. Usable image files. I found out about
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
and
http://www.openclipart.org/cchost/

5. Inkscape screencasts I need to check out http://screencasters.heathenx.org/

6. There is a great wiki which I need to read http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/

7. When looking at ICT implementation in a school three key concepts to remember are
1. Acquisition - Who is responsible for teaching the students ICT skills?
2. Application -  Who is responsible for giving students an authentic way of using those ICT skills?
3. Assessment - Who is responsible for assessing students in ICT?

Like every conference always a lot more to explore!

[As with any software recommendations in my blog and websites, what I write about, is my opinion only and I take no responsibility for anything going wrong with your computer, server, network etc.. Please read the conditions and product disclosures and EULA for each application. Always exercise care and caution!]

Teaching OpenOffice 3 in the Primary / Elementary School Classroom

I’ve just started to use Open Office, the open source desktop publishing suite in a primary / elementary school.

The curriculum platform of the school I work is Macintosh and while Microsoft Office is available for teacher and student use under a government school statewide licencing scheme, I still wanted to investigate alternative desktop publishing software that I could  explicitly teach to students.

This was for two reasons,

Firstly I wanted an alternative so that any students that did not have access
to MS Office at home could use this alternative for free.
Secondly, I was looking for software that  was easy to use for junior school students. Previously, I have used AppleWorks with these students, however, with Apple discontinuing the development of this software a few years ago I went searching. Apple’s Pages from the iWork Suite, while a very good alternative for MS Publisher, didn’t meet my requirements. However, my initial experiences with OpenOffice 3. [OSX  Intel version] has been more than satisfactory. Its simple, clean looks and free!
So far I’ve used it to teach basic word processing skills to 7-8 year olds. Here are some simple tutorials I have started to develop. [QuickTime required- Don't have Quicktime? Click here]

Tutorial One: Introduction to Making a Text Document Download Open_Office_1-desktop
Tutorial Two: Modifying Text 1 Download Open_Office_2-desktop
Tutorial Three: Modifying Text 2 Download Open_Office_3-desktop
Tutorial Four: Modifying Text 3 & Modifying Backgrounds Download Open_Office_4-desktop
Tutorial Five: Saving Your Document as an Open Office Document Download Open_Office_5-desktop
Tutorial Six: Using Menu Blinds & Saving as a Word Document Download Open_Office_6-desktop
Tutorial Seven: Inserting a Hyperlink Download Open_Office_7-desktop

More to follow on Open Office Presentations, Databases, Spreadsheets and Drawing.