Image by Mark Brannan http://www.flickr.com/photos/23403402@N00/1197947341/

It’s been a humbling experience to be invited to Jakarta International School as a consultant for their Technology Learning Institute PD.  This is the second time JIS has conducted this kind of PD for their faculty – but this time, if teachers wanted to attend, they returned 3 days early from their Summer Break.  And quite a few of them did!

For the past 3 days, they have been taking part in technology PD sessions run by their incredibly talented team of team integrators/librarian/techie staff faculty members from across the Elementary, Middle and High schools.  From Moodle to iWorks to iLife to Blogs to Online Tools to PresentationZen – the attendees have had a plethora of sessions to choose from.  A flexible, adaptable schedule with time-out sessions added to process or work on something new, added up to a low stress (although overwhelming at times for those new to technology) fun-filled three days of learning.  It was an absolute pleasure and honour to have been a part of this experience and special thanks must go to Lindy B (who asked JIS to bring me in, because she’d been reading my blog!)

Special thanks too, to my awesome PLN who helped me with ideas for a couple of my sessions – your input, as always, is the reason twitter remains one of my favourite places for learning new things!

Over the next few posts, I’ll be sharing links/presentations etc that I used with JIS.

Here’s the first:  Ten Online Tools to Kick Start the Year

Click here to view the embedded video.

One tweet to my PLN about it & one response is all it takes to get a project rolling ……..

Uploaded with Skitch!

Skype enables us to experience such great learning opportunities and it was a lot of fun connecting people across the world. On top of that, we also got some answers & tips to some questions that we have about the Writer’s Workshop model. ISB is not as far along in their workshop model journey as Chets Creek Elementary, so it was great to hear questions that Chets Creek Elementary teachers had for Ruth Ayres.

Here’s the video Melanie created of all our questions and Ruth’s answers for us. I’m sure that you’ll get something out of it, especially if your school uses the Writer’s Workshop model.

A Conversation with Ruth Ayres from Melanie Holtsman on Vimeo.

Image Attribution: kk+ http://www.flickr.com/photos/49503002894@N01/492908390/

New colleagues to our school have been there a week already.  Returning colleagues began on Wednesday.   On Monday I had the afternoon to give some TLC one on one to new colleagues as they began working in their new environment.  I liked this opportunity for two specific reasons.

1. It gave me a chance to meet colleagues 1:1 – (build relationships)
2. Needs are individual and personal when you’re new to the country and the school – meeting with someone 1:1 is as personal and individual as we can get! (meeting learning needs)

There are 11 new teachers just in our Elementary School, all with varying levels of technology skills.  What I loved most of from this afternoon, as I wandered zoomed around to their classrooms, was everyone’s willingness to share with me, honestly, exactly where they felt they were skill wise,  what they wanted to focus on the most and what I could do for them right now that would help them the most!

Loving this job already!

And if you’re still not convinced then you need to watch this TEDxDenverEd video where his enthusiasm and passion just resonates throughout his talk! Brian – you rock!  My 5th graders (who have now moved on to 6th Grade) will be stoked to see their High Hopes comments mentioned in your TEDxDenverEd talk.  Thanks for inspiring us all and thanks for including us in your learning!!

Today my friend, the lovely Mrs Durff asked me if I would skype into her class of Korean middle school students attending the Global Vision Christian School Pre-camp located in Eumseong, Chungcheongbuk-do, South Korea. to learn English during their summer break.

Unfortunately only one student was brave enough to come up to the webcam and ask me question.  So rather than have them trying to think up a question, I decided to ask them some questions instead.  From the safety of their seats, many students answered my simple questions.  It was a fun way to spend 20 minutes of my summer break helping them learn during their summer break!

Thanks for asking me Durff – the pleasure was all mine!

In one of the sessions, it became very clear that a lot of parents are afraid. Afraid of privacy on the internet, afraid of managing their child’s activity on the internet, afraid of things they’re not even sure about and can’t really explain. Whilst some are afraid, they realise that the internet is not going to go away and those fears need to be addressed, conversations need to be had, and information needs to be sought.

So when Jeff Utecht shared with our Grade 5 team an article he came across regarding our children and the use of social media, it seemed like the perfect catalyst to start the information/conversation ball rolling.  Whilst the rules of having a facebook account are “you must be 13 years of age or over”, the reality is more than half of our Grade 5 students already have a facebook account and are using facebook to a certain degree. We certainly do not encourage the use the facebook in Grade 5 but it would be remiss of us to blindly stick our heads in the sand and pretend that some of our students aren’t using it.

Below is an extract from the article. (click this link for the full article) I’ve shared it on our classroom blog for the parents of my students.  It is very informative, has simple but very effective tips for parents and it’s well worth taking the time to read the entire article.

Who are your kids friending on Facebook? What are they really texting to their classmates? How much online time is too much?

Too often, parents who are misinformed about the social web (willfully or otherwise) will shut their kids out of it completely, only to find they are logging in anyway. If you’re not taking an active role in your child’s online life, you may be missing important opportunities to ensure they are on the path toward “digital citizenship,” and protected from inappropriate content and people.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/courosa/4446157327

image attribution: teachingsagittarian

…….. my fabulous friend and colleague, Kim Cofino, will no longer be the 21st Century Literacy Specialist (Elementary School) and Technology Facilitator (Middle School), – she’s leaving the country at the end of the school year and moving to Japan to take up a new technology position in Middle School at YIS (FYI, YIS, you’re incredibly lucky!!)  and Jeff Utecht (bless his heart he’ll still be around for me to yell for when the going gets tough) will no longer be the ES Technology Facilitator – next school year, he’s moving up to the High School to be their Technology Facilitator.
It will just be me in Elementary School.

You sense my dilemma don’t you?  These are some pretty big footprints to follow!!

So, wonderful PLN – here’s where you come in.  Help a girl get some much needed sleep will you please??

Classroom Teachers/Educators
What do you most want out of your Technology Learning Coach/Facilitator/Integrator (or whatever else your school calls it)?

What do you not want?

Tech Facilitators/Integrators/Coaches
What’s your best piece of advice for me?
What are the do’s and don’ts of this kind of position?

Principals/Admin/Management
What do you want from your Tech Learning Coach/Facilitator/Integrator?

All suggestions, tips, ideas and advice welcome and gratefully received – thanking you in advance!

Sure enough – at 7.15am Bangkok, Thailand time, and 1.15pm, New Zealand time, she did just that- skyped me in so that I could join in the dance too.  It was brilliant – almost like being there.  I was able listen to Wes’s Keynote until Allanah’s battery finally died.  I wish I could have been there in personal to reconnect with old friends, make new friends, and learn new things from incredibly talented people.  Watch the video!

I originally used jing to capture the screen on my laptop (‘cos that’s all I had), then discovered that it saves as .swf. Drat – not editable (without the Pro version – funny that?).  So here’s the master genius work around I used:

Step 1:  Grab Jeff Utecht on his way out the door – (‘cos he has ScreenFlow)
Step 2:  Replay .swf on his laptop and re-capture using ScreenFlow – saves as a .mov, edit as you go
Step 3:  Import into iMovie – add titles and credits
Step 4:  Play real “Dancing with Matt” video on YouTube to capture the soundtrack using Audio Hijack Pro
Step 5:  Import audio into iMovie – adjust sound levels
Step 6:  Upload to teachingsagittarian’s YouTube channel

Did I mention that I love my mac laptop?

As I reflect on our involvement in this project, I wonder what this has done for my students.  At first I thought that it really didn’t bother my students one way or another that we were connecting with so many different classrooms around the world.  But then, their excitement hardly ever shows – unusual I know, but seriously true.  I worry about that because they’re only 5th graders – what’s happened to their natural “wonderment and awe?”

However, my mother taught me really well – not to judge a book by it’s cover – so I decided if I was truly going to reflect on using this tool in the classroom, I ought to ask those that have the biggest stakehold – my students.

Here’s the questions I asked them and a sample of their replies.  You be judge of the value of using a tool like skype in the classroom with your students.

How do you feel stopping for 5-10 minutes, to skype with a class in other country?

Yes, we should keep on making connection around the world, because it helps us understand about different parts of the world and their cultures, but mainly because it’s fun.

Skyping with another class in another country for 5-10 minutes is great because you learn about their school, their way of life, their beliefs, and their culture. I have learned many different things about the topics in the previous sentence.

I like the idea of taking 5-10 minutes off to skype because it is a fast and easy way to communicate and learn about the other place we are skyping in a short time.

Do you learn anything when we talk to other students from around the world?

Yes!
what the weathers like
what the other kids in that school play in recess
and other unfamilliar subjects we don’t do.

I learn about other people’s lives and it’s fun to compare them to mine.

I have learned about other countrys, culture, about them, and the location that they are in

Do you use Skype at home to connect with family/friends?

I’ve never connected on skype with my friends in America but I connect with my family in America except the skype that we do is we call them with our computer and it calls their real phone not their computer so that means that we can’t use a camera so that’s how it is different.

At home I Skype with my Grandparents in the USA, and my parents have other contacts in their Skype “phonebook.”

I use skype a lot at home because i skype my dad a lot when ever he leaves the country and i really like to skpe my friends.

I don’t use Skype at home.

No

What have you learned about communicating with others using Skype in classroom?

I have learned that on Skype calls you have to speak loudly and clearly, so the person on the other end of the line can hear you and understand you.

I learned that communicating with other people around the world can be very easy and simple.

Should we continue to make connections with other classrooms around the world?  Why? / Why not?

Also i really think that this helps people in our class to because you finally get a chance to say things about yourself and were you live to other people around the world.

I think that we should continue making connections with other schools because you will get to meet more people and learn more about the place that they are at.

I think we should keep skyping with other classrooms around the world because you learn about other people’s experiences and daily lives. Afterwards, you can compare and contrast them with your experiences and life.

I think we should keep doing skype calls but a thing we could do to make it better is if the calls had a bit more purpose because right now we arent getting anything really meaningful about the country we skype with.

I was thinking this was pretty honest and valuable feedback.  My class are relatively well-connected with family and friends that live around the world – being International families means they need to, they like the fast and simple stuff, they enjoy learning about students just like them and comparing themselves and they like meeting new people.

My take-away ……. Keep using skype to make connections and have conversations around the world – keep it short – skyping is fun but it needs a purpose.  Even in Grade 5 students are looking for the purpose in whatever it is they being asked to do.

Image Attribution: 'Skype Phone' www.flickr.com/photos/23456072@N00/41676755