Lesson 1

Lesson 1 -It Pays to Get Familiar

Firstly and most importantly you need to get familiar with your computer. You need to bond with it and get to know what makes it tick, so that you can understand it that little bit better.

This includes knowing whether your computer is feeling at its best or not. Is it fully charged and ready to go for the day or are its batteries low and it's running out of energy.



When the computer is on, this symbol will be illuminated green.

Next to that you will see an orange battery light, this indicates that your machine is not fully charged. The battery changes to green when the computer is fully charged.

To find out exactly how much charge there is left in your battery you need to hover your mouse over the battery icon at the bottom of the screen (when the charger is not plugged in.) This will tell you what percentage of power you have remaining. 100% = about 3hrs.

You will see a flashing green light at the right side of your machine (next to your charger plug in point)to indicate your machine is charging. The green light will stop flashing once your machine is fully charged. When your battery goes below 30% the battery icon will change to white and the battery symbol will start to flash. When you hear the low beeps you only have about 5mins of battery life left so you really do need to plug your machine in and let it charge.

After a short time of no use your machine will go into standby mode ie it is still on but the screen has shut down to save energy. At this point the power control will start to flash green to indicate that your machine is still on. Pressing the on button once will power up your machine fully again.

To change the power down options i.e time before your machine goes into standby mode you need to go to the control panel,from the start menu, select power option properties and set the turn off and standby times for when your machine is plugged in and running on batteries.

Next you need to make sure your computer is feeling safe and secure.
If you click on the Windows security centre settings shield on the icon bar(could be any colour from green to red depending on how safe your computer is feeling)it will tell you whether the Firewall is on and Virus protection is up to date. Make sure the windows firewall is on and use the recommendation options (arrow button in white circle) to ensure your Virus Protection is up to date.

Clicking on the AVG Anti- Virus icon at the bottom of the screen will give you the option to update your anti virus when needed. One important point here thou - before student's anti virus update will work at school - students need to have logged in to the internet - just because the wireless light is on - doesn't mean you are connected to the internet. If you are not using the wireless/internet the system will drop you off after about 20mins (it seems - I will need to check the exact time with Dave) so if you haven't used the internet for a while you will need to reestablish the connection.

If you haven`t installed the AVG anti virus yet follow the walk through Dave sent you, which he has placed on Moodle-Yr7-Computers-Netbooks. If you have students with their own laptops they need to install this too (the program is in the Netbook section of Moodle as well).

Make sure you also have automatic updates on too then your computer will be feeling looked after and kept up to date. This will automatically update Virus Protection/ Windows when you are connected to the internet. You can check for updates by clicking the windows security setting icon at the bottom of the screen too.

If you've done all this your computer should be in the zone and performing to the best of it's potential. The time should automatically update the next time it updates but you can set the clock now if you wish by hovering over the time icon at the bottom of the screen.

And last but not least you want to know if your machine is feeling sociable and wanting to collaborate with others.

The wifi antennas on the control panel should be green to indicate the wireless is on. If not press fn f1 to turn it on or your machine won't be ready to connect to the internet. Pay special attention to whether the wifi antenna is on or not as this will stop the constant complaining from children and dare I say it teachers when they say they can't connect to the internet.



As mentioned above just because you can see the wifi control on the icon bar doesn't mean you are connected to the internet. After the wifi/internet has timed out you will need to reestablish the connection. To do this you need to right click the wireless icon, disable it first, then double click the wireless connection and reestablish the connection again.

If that doesn't work and anything else goes wrong to that matter use the old and trusted method - TURN THE COMPUTER OFF AND TURN IT BACK ON AGAIN - It solves a multitude of problems and saves a lot of teacher time if you can get the kids into this habit.

That should be enough to get you started and familiar with your machine but if you need to know what any of the other controls/icons or function keys mean don't hesitate to leave a comment here for a prompt reply.

I`ve put the full reference manual on Moodle too under Yr7-Computers- Netbooks. The kids can access this too - so don't worry if I'm talking double dutch - they'll work it out.

Next - Lesson 2 - We all Need Time to Play

Lessons Learned from the Web2:0 World, of 1:1 Computing (Introduction)

Wow! I can't believe it, it's been nearly two months since I did my last post. Well it is summer over here you know- I was enjoying myself too much to be thinking about blogging. But now I suppose it's back to work, and oh yes the syndicate set of Classmates have arrived YIPPEE. With that in mind I've decided over the next couple of weeks, I'm going to be writing a few (well quite a few) blog entries, reflecting on the lessons I learned, from my lone journey into the Web2:0 World, of 1:1 Computing last year. These lessons will be for my colleagues in year 7, who are going to be joining me on the netbook journey this year. By reflecting on the successful and not so successful parts of last year I hope to be able to offer some valuable insight and useful advise to my team mates, which will hopefully make their journey this year that little bit easier. Please join us on our journey into the Web2:0 World, of 1:1 Computing and share your lessons learned.

Like all good journeys we will be starting at the beginning, the beginning of the ACOT's technology adoption cycle, that is, 'getting to know our new computers'. I envisage that we will progress slowly through the initial stages, as we grapple with changing our pedagogy as well as our delivery methods, discussing such issues as 21st century literacies, deep learning and digital safety along the way. While we fear not from starting at the beginning;

'The initial stages are natural and perhaps even required...'

Our challenge is t0 ensure that we do not just duplicate our present, outdated, exam driven, 19th century pedagogies online.

We have to take the challenge, to think deeply about what we are teaching and question WHY, then make a commitment to change, however hard it may initially appear.

'...the key is, educational constituents should NOT BE SATISFIED to simply see traditional learning tasks and teaching styles be digitized. Wes Fryer from Moving at the Speed of Creativity

We have to do better.
We have to aim higher.
We have to change our pedagogy.

Lesson 1-Next-It Pays to Get Familiar.

Southwell Wins Toshiba Contract

Southwell school won the Toshiba tablet contract, which means that we are the envied recipients of 60 Toshiba tablets, worth a whopping $270.000, $4,500 each. Some very lucky children are going to get a big surprise when they return to school next year. And no it won't be my class. The tablets are going to the year six syndicate, our year 7's (the whole syndicate (150 of them)) will be using netbooks again next year. The majority of which will be the 30Gb, Classmate, Windows version. That is if they are taking the option to purchase via the school, but in reality they may bring any make/model of notebook/subPC to school plus mobile device of their desire.

Toshiba are carrying out a 2 year research project with the University of Waikato, looking at the effectiveness of the tablet in education. You bet guys for $4,500 it had better be successful! As you can imagine I'll be doing my own research $4,500 tablet v's $700 netbook. Definitely a David and Goliath battle in the making. I can just imagine my commentary now, small town, country boy slays rich, fat, old man. However I'm going to be really good and not jump to any ill informed opinions. Price, size and weight aside, conceptually tablet/touch screen technology has a lot to offer education and I'm intrigued to see how this technology fits with the world of web 2.0.

Apparently the next generation of both the EeePC and Classmate are set to come with tablet technology - so if you are keen to see how the research goes keep an eye on my good friend and Year 6, colleague's blogs - toshibatabletsin6tb and Life = Risk

Let the battle begin, hey TB.

Cluster = Unconference

Southwell held it's first Cluster Unconference last night. Even though we are now at the end of our cluster contract, it is important to keep the professional development going and an unconference is a great way to do this. While it was a small gathering, it was still a successful night with good PD, drinks and a lovely meal to end the day. Thanks everyone for organising this.

If you didn't get the chance to go, for what ever reason (family commitments/writing reports/just too busy) I recommend you take the opportunity next time, as there is ICT PD for everyone, whatever your level of ICT is - You just have to be open to it.

Altogether we had five round tables.

Table 1 - Heath Sawyer - Gordonton School - Blogs, wikis and eportfolios

Table 2 - Gill Hammonds - National facilitator primary - ICT PD - Sharing Classroom Best practice

Table 3 - Dave Winter - Southwell School - our cluster facilitator -Gaming

Table 4 - Jo Wilson - Southwell School - our school lead teacher - Managing Change

Table 5 -Barbara Reid - ICT Facilitator -Web2 tools

I spent most of my night racking Barbara's mind for new web2.0 tools and sharing a couple of my own new to her. Talking to Barbara made me realise that I'd actually been kidding myself with regards to what web2.0 tools I could live without due to having restricted access on my linux, firefox browser based class set of Eee PC's this year.

I kind of accepted this, this year namely because we didn't have fast enough internet access anyway, web2.0 programs just weren't their yet and I did have a few I could use. But now we've got the fast internet pipe (100 Mb national, 10Mb burstable international with no data cap) and web 2.0 programs have become so much more sophisticated over the last year or so I think I'm just going to find it too frustrating having the restrictions on my licence.

Which is why I have to announce that my love affair with my Eee PC is officially over.
The Eee PC was and will always be my first love but it's time to grow up and move on.

In two weeks times I'm going to pack away my class set of Eee PC's and move on to - dare I say it a class/syndicate set of ____________.

Well for that you'll have to wait and see, but for now here are a selection of web2 sites we discussed last night, some old, some new but all highly recommended if you haven't used them yet.

flowgram - interactive presentation software
blabberize - talking pictures
mywebspiration - visual thinking tool (it really is just like inspiration)
exploretree - online library of thinking maps
sumopaint - image editor (bitmap and vector drawing program with layers - reminds me of macromedia - fireworks)
scribl - shareable online whiteboard

Elgg - Best use of ICT in Teaching

Well as you know PW won the Interface magazines 'Best use of ICT in Teaching' category with his use of Elgg for his learning goals. Well you may ask what is so special about that? Elgg is our schools private social network, a number of us use it for a whole range of different purposes (learning logs, eportfolios and group work). Well what Pete did that made his application special was;

1) he took a main stream technology (a social network) gave students ownership of it and then used it in the classroom to aide learning - teaching how to use the technology safely and ethically,
2) he focused on teaching the key competencies,
3) he incorporated student and peer assessment for learning

Combining these together to give deep and meaningful learning for students.
Very important skill sets that need developing for the 21st century learner which is why Elgg is such a powerful tool for our school.

Elgg gives our students the opportunity to learn social networking skills in a safe, secure environment. Unfortunately 'Yes' that is a 'private social network' I give no apologise for that' we are a Full Primary School not an Intermediate or High School. We have students in our care from 5 to 13 who all have access to Elgg and it is important that we teach them the correct etiquette of social networking before we unleash them on the world. Our parents for one wouldn't be impressed if we didn't.

That doesn't however mean that it is a 'closed' system we can invite experts from the outside to join our network and contribute to our students learning. Our first expert Rae Clayton (an advisor working for enviro schools) was added last month. Rae liaises with our environmental committee and classes involved in developing our enviro garden via the environmental committees community blog. It would be nice if we could add more experts to the system and in in particularly I for one think it would be wonderful if we could encourage our old boys and girls to join Elgg. That is one network of experts we could really tap into. Just ask if you know of an expert who you would like to be added - it would be great to build the community.

Elgg allows both students and teachers to build their own learning communities and every community then has access to its own homepage, wiki, blog, file sharing area etc (just like Ning). Initially this can just be your own personal space or present class community but ideally as students take more responsibility for there own learning it can be used by students to direct their own learning and develop their own communities of learning.

Elgg gives our students access to an eportfolio area which can be used as a modern eportfolio both of and for learning. Students can keep a learning log enabling them to reflect on all aspects of their work. They can add files, documents, photographs, movies. They can upload and link to web2 artifacts they have created via glogster, voicethread, animoto etc and share these with their friends, communities and networks. Students and teachers are able to reflect and comment on all stages of their learning.

And most importantly they can do it.

Note I say "they can' here" i.e "students can" because this is the difference between Elgg and Moodle. Students do it not the teachers. No longer is it the domain of the teacher to upload all the work as it was in the web1 world. Students learn a 21st century transferable skill.

Not that there is anything wrong with Moodle - Moodle is a great course management system. Elgg is a great social network.

Yes it is a bit quirky to use and difficult for some of us (teachers) to initially get our heads around (they do say you have to get stuck in the midddle of it be in it to really understand it). Well the kids sure do, we as teachers just need to dare to incorporate it into our learning programs and trust the students to do the rest.

At present we are still running Elgg Classic, next year we will be upgrading to the new Elgg version 1 or whatever the new version will be then. Hopefully this won't be as quirky and a little easier to use.

But until then just remember if you want to start using Elgg all you have to do is click Elgg from the front page of our Moodle site, type in your Moodle password and away you go. (Oh sorry just Southwell people only).

Congratulations Pete

Well it's official Pete Walch (Southwell School, Hamilton) won the Interface Award ' Best use of ICT in Teaching' for his use of Elgg so I can say a big WELL DONE PETE - You deserve it - It's nice to see someone recognised for all the hard work and effort they put into teaching.

Unfortunately we didn't win the 'Best Teacher Blog' category' but then again we were so surprised to be even selected, that was amazing in its self. Congratulations to Marnie Thomas (Meadowbank School, Auckland) who did win the category and the runners up Erin Freeman (Rangiora Borough School, Christchurch) and Jamin Lietze (Bethlehem College, Tauranga).

Well done to Interface Magazine too for hosting the competition (another great idea from a great magazine), the selected 5 finalists in each category and everyone else who entered the competition. If you didn't win this time or didn't even enter there is always next year. So keep up the good work and start that blog now if you don't already have one. You never know next time it could be you.

Downloading Videos from the Web

I've just downloaded some dance ideas from youtube, to use for our performing arts routine, later on this term. I uploaded the files to moodle, using the 'upload a file or website' option, so that they are quicker to access when at school. You might want to do this too instead of having to wait ages for the clips to download.

I used TechCrunch a web2 program that is really easy to use. You just paste in the URL of the youtube video you want to convert, press 'getvideo' then 'download link' and it downloads the file to your desktop for you. The only quirk is that you need to remember to rename the file with the .flv extension so that the media plugin in moodle can recognise the file.

Another web2 option you could use is Zamzar which supports conversion of files from links on the internet (URLs) as well as from your computer and converts them to a range of different formats for you. Zamzar sends the file to your email once it has converted it for you.

Zamzar supports the download and conversion of videos from a range of popular video sharing websites but unfortunately it doesn't download jumpcut movies. I can find a downloadable .exe option which I can put on my computer, but I'd rather not do that, as it doesn't fit with my philosophy of keeping things as simple as possible, for both me and the kids. So if anyone knows of a web2 option that I can use to download and convert jumpcut movies to .flv format, it would be greatly appreciated, if you could send me the link.

Here's hoping

26/11/09 - Tech crunch not working - Just used this video2mp3- now just got to use audacity to merge Metallica/Crocodile Rock and Thunderstruck - ACDC - will be an interesting performing arts