At L@S, it’s always exciting to catch up with the friends I’ve made in the ICT PD programme over the eight years I’ve been involved. During this conference, I’ve noticed that teachers’ ‘learner behaviour’ is changing. Teachers are taking a more active part by questioning, discussing and collaborating. Many will no longer just sit and listen. I believe this confidence and interactivity comes from the professional development they’re receiving and the learning communities (both real and virtual) that they belong to. And its a good thing!

The keynote speakers and workshops I’ve attended have all been interesting in their own way and I’m looking forward to my first ‘unconference’ experience this morning. Go to this Wikipedia page to find out about an unconference
Here is a list of the L@S unconference topics. I’ll let you know what happens!

There are 7 breakouts. I’m presenting 2 workshops ‘A Key to Brain Power – Developing Habits of Mind in the Classroom’ (Breakout 2) and ‘Developing a Thinking Toolbox’ (Breakout 4)

The workshops I’m attending are:
Breakout 1:Getting Tricky with Wikis (Lenva Shearing)
Breakout 3: Digital Pedagogies (Tony Ryan)
Breakout 5: Learning to Question to Wonder to Learn (Jamie McKenzie)
Breakout 6: Inspiring creative, energetic and enterprising students (Gina Revill & Anne-Marie Kite)
Breakout 7: Umajin in the Classroom (Nat Free & Russell Brebner)

Learning@School Conference website

Elements of good photography

• Varying the angle – taking photos from up high, down low, through something

• Having elements of people, line, colour and light
• The thirds rule. The viewers eyes are drawn to where lines intersect, so the main subject(s) of the photo should be on one of these spots – (not in the middle!)

• Using the Macro Function for close-up focus

Student Activity

Take photos which show elements of:

• Line

• Colour

• People

• Light

• Looking up

• Looking down

• Looking through (frame the shot)

• Macro function (close up of something)

• Make a folder in My Pictures

• Download your photos

• Share with the class as a slide show explaining the elements in your photos

• Using your new photography skills, take photos to support learning or to record class events

Make a PowerPoint or Photo Story compilation of your students’ best photos and share it at school assembly

A “flagship” Unicef report, The State of the World’s Children, rates New Zealand’s 15 to 24-year-olds among the best-connected with cellphones and the internet.

There were 94 cellphone owners and 79 internet users per 100 Kiwis aged between 15 and 24, the report said.

DIGITAL WORLD: Sinomi Hood, 15, left, Brooke, 14, and Sam Fairs, 16, all of Christchurch, each carry their own cellphones, iPods and MP3 players. A ‘flagship’ Unicef report, The State of the World’s Children, rates New Zealand’s 15 to 24-year-olds among the best-connected with cellphones and the internet.

Read the full news article on the Stuff Website

Recently I rediscovered the photo software ‘Picasa’. I’d had version 2 on my old laptop,but hadn’t got around to downloading it onto my new laptop. Then one of the teachers I work with wanted a programme to make a collage of photos and I suggested Picasa. Once we’d downloaded it, I discovered that Picasa 3 is a real improvement on the old version. It has a lot of choices for collaging photos and also makes neat photo stories similar to Photo Story 3. These can be then be uploaded to youtube – directly from PIcasa. Then all you have to do is copy the embedding code and paste into your blog. That makes it pretty easy. The collage I made is of classic cars which were parked outside my apartment building a couple of Saturdays ago.

Perhaps the most successful schools are those where the leadership knows that their school is a business. Their product is the promotion of and achievement in 21st century teaching and learning. They know that the success of their business depends on having a dynamic vision, good planning and clear organisation. They know to employ the right people. They manage the finances well, budgeting the right amounts in the right areas. They develop a good team spirit making the employees feel skilled and valued. These leaders are aware of the need to ‘move with the times’ and continually research and seek advice to keep the business relevant and up-to date. They know that new learning is the key to future success. However, being a continual learner can be a difficult thing to master, even for leaders in education.

The theme of the conference was 21st century technologies and how they allow us to voice our opinion, to make a difference, to connect, collaborate, network and learn. ‘The opportunities go far beyond the simple ability to publish to the web, far beyond the simple use of tools. They revolve around connecting, forming groups, creating personal classrooms and networks.’ (Will Richardson)

Recently I’ve made several freeware discoveries. Teachers I work with needed a programme which would compress photos in bulk. ‘Jpeg 4 Email ‘ does this and it’s really easy to use. You just need to set the size you want, make multi-selections and drag the photos into the Jpeg for email window. You can then save the compressed photos into a new folder. It’s really useful for adding photos to a blog as well.

The second goodie is ‘Switch’, which converts sound files (e.g. .wma) to MP3. You can also multi-select.

Another discovery is the ‘vidtoMP3 website‘ which will save just the music from a video as an MP3. I know you’ll find a use for that one!

I also added the chroma key to Windows Movie maker so I can make blue screen movies. Follow the steps on this wikiHow page I think it’s better to use a green screen though because lots of people wear blue clothes. I ended up with an armless person in my underwater movie because she was wearing a long sleeved blue top!

ICT Clusters have had an impact on New Zealand education.  They can take a lot (if not all) of the credit for the education renaissance that has has happened during the last six years.  And in true Kiwi style, while we all have a vision and goals, there is no ‘how to ‘, ‘what to’, or ‘when to’ blueprint provided.  And yet we make a real difference – talking to a teacher who hasn’t been in an ICT cluster will prove that.