Thursday, June 18, 2015

Test Post

Tēnā tātou katoa

Welcome to week 8 of term 1
After this week, there are 3 weeks left of the term!
In this weeks e-learning snippets selection we have;
  • chrome apps to enhance reading
  • students management systems - 2 varying stories
  • iPad apps to students to share their learning
  • school vision
  • Universal Design for Learning
  • managing safe use at home
I hope there is something of interest for you in here...

1. 4 powerful chrome apps to enhance your reading experience
Here some very good Chrome apps to help you enhance your online reading experience. The extensions we curated for you today allow you to create a comfortable reading environment where you can enjoy your reading with no distractions and no eye strain. Using these apps will enable you to eliminate  ads and flash animations from your page, browse multi-page articles in one, seamless view, disable surrounding webpage noise and clutter and many more.  Check out the list below and share with us what you think of it.
1- Readability

“Readability is a web and mobile app that zaps clutter and saves web articles in a comfortable reading view. The official Readability extension for Chrome provides a better way to read online, turning any web page into a comfortable reading view right in your web browser.”
2- Clearly

“With one click, Clearly makes blog posts and articles clean and easy to read. Clearly eliminates all distractions from your online reading experience, and even allows you to browse multi-page articles in one, seamless view.”
3- Read Mode

“Just click on the glasses icon in the address bar, the current page will turn into a nice-to-read black on white page allowing you to read without forcing your eyes. Ads and Flash animations are also removed while on read-mode. Click the icon again and everything will go back to normal.”
4- Easy Reader

“EasyReader can customize and improve the readability of long web articles
Make any article or part of a website more readable!’



Posted: May 29th: VLN online community
2.(a) Student Management Systems

Hamish Hislop added a new discussion post to the group Student Management Systems:

Title: e-Learning: Leadership
I taught in an Area school and we used Kamar. It was really good for the secondary school but average for the junior school. At that time it was hosted on our school servers and was not accessible outside of the school environement. I know there are work arounds for this and changes might have been made with KAMAR. I am currently teaching in a year 1-6 primary using ETAP. This is great. It is hosted online and really simple to use. I dont know how a secondary school would get on with it, especially with NZQA links ect. I like the fact I can get access to our SMS from home, out of school on EOTC trips or wherever I needed it. Tech support is available to everyone promptly from within ETAP and the training provided has been first class. I would recommend ETAP but if it will not support NZQA then another online SMS will be the way to go.
View and reply in the discussion topic:
http://www.vln.school.nz/discussion/view/929416


2.(b) Student Management Systems
  • Hamish McLean added a new discussion post to the group Student Management Systems:

    Title: e-Learning: Leadership
    Nat standards are reported in that same three documents that we have.
    This is what our DP and Marama team leader have put together.  (Y7/8)  
    This is an example of Math report.  So the student and teacher sit down and have a 15/20 min conference.  The teacher writes down the students points, while the student also has the doc open on their chromebook.  The student can then add or edit as they see fit.

    Its very early stages, and next year I imagine it will be different too... tweaked.. 



3. 5 great apps students can use to demonstrate their learning
Below are some of the best iPad apps students can use to demonstrate their learning across different subjects. Apple has recently released Apps in the Classroom series featuring the apps listed below (except Book Creator)  in separate visually explained guides for teachers to use with their students. All of these guides are available for free download with iBooks in Mac or iPad or with iTunes on your computer.
1- iBooks Author

“Use iBooks Author to create stunning iBooks textbooks, cookbooks, history books, picture books, and more for iPad and Mac. Start with one of the Apple-designed templates that feature a wide variety of page layouts. Add your own text and images with drag-and-drop ease. Use Multi-Touch widgets to include interactive photo galleries, movies, Keynote presentations, 3D objects, and more. Preview your book on your iPad or Mac at any time. Then submit your finished work to the iBooks Store in a few simple steps. And before you know it, you’re a published author.”
Download : iBooks Author Guide
2- Puppet Pals HD

“Create your own unique shows with animation and audio in real time!Simply pick out your actors and backdrops, drag them on to the stage, and tap record. Your movements and audio will be recorded in real time for playback later.”
Download : Puppet Pals HD Guide
3- Explain Everything

“Explain Everything is an easy-to-use design, screencasting, and interactive whiteboard tool that lets you annotate, animate, narrate, import, and export almost anything to and from almost anywhere. Create slides, draw in any color, add shapes, add text, and use a laser pointer. Rotate, move, scale, copy, paste, clone, and lock any object added to the stage.”
Download : Explain Everything Guide
4- Stop Motion Studio

“Create beautiful stop motion animated movies anywhere instantly on your device. Everything you need is right at your fingertips. No computer needed. It's simple to use, deceptively powerful and insanely fun to play with. Create fantastic movies your friends will enjoy or share it with the world on YouTube, Facebook and other sites. Cool themes, titles and sound effects are easy to add, too.”
Download : Stop Motion Guide
5- Book Creator

“Book Creator is the simple way to make your own beautiful ebooks, right on your iPad. With over 10 million ebooks created so far, Book Creator is ideal for making all kinds of books, including children's picture books, photo books, journals, textbooks and more.”



Posted: May 31st: VLN online community
4. Leadership - school vision
In reading some of these posts I am a little embarrassed to say that I have no idea what my school’s ICT vision is. We are in our first year of  a BYOD programme and aside from a short consultation with HODs about how BYOD could be used in their departments I am not sure if any other consultation was undergone.

We have a general criteria for compulsory devices to meet:



This is probably why we have teachers confused as to what the school’s baseline expectations on ICT use and BYOD integration in lessons is. I am lucky to be in a department with some incredibly capable and forward thinking teachers so our department’s baseline is more than others but this should be consistent across the school. Resourcing the Professional Learning around BYOD use has taken a hit due to the PL needed on the other initiatives being established this year.

So where should ICT sit in the prioritising of the different areas (curriculum, pastoral, professional learning etc) of schools? Or is it something that should underpin how we operate in all the different areas?

My school has all the opportunities available to them such as dedicated teachers, engaged students and whanau, Wellington Loop with its sharing capabilities and some teachers who are  passionate about VLN classrooms. We are resourcing “widely and wisely” when it comes to actual hardware and software but the people resourcing seeming thin. We are not shifting the staff’s current practices to support the emerging expectations of our student and community population now and in the future.



Posted: June 2nd: VLN online community
5. Universal Design for Learning
Title: e-Learning: Teaching
We have been trying to give our students more choice about what they learn and how they present their learning. We also try and represent what we are teaching in different ways.

We have been sharing the UDL principles with the students and have been asking them for feedback on our teaching. It has been great to get children to explain what has/ has not been working for them. This has enabled us to change aspects of our teaching according to the needs of the learners.

We use iPads and chromebooks at school. Children can choose technology to assist them and are using a variety of different applications for different purposes. Sometimes, there is not enough technology so we have started BYOD in our senior classrooms. The use of GAFE (Google Apps for Education) alongside the Hapara dashboardhas also lifted the learning ceiling. the use of Hapara has enabled us to monitor everything that the children do with their Google Accounts.

Students are able to share their learning with teachers, parents and other students. This has led to a more collaborative approach to learning, giving feedback, working on the same documents etc. Google Apps is a student-centered tool and is shifting the classroom toward a more student-centered environment.


Posted: June 1st: VLN online community
6. Advice to parents around managing safe use at home

New discussion post: Chromebooks - advice to parents around managing safe use at homeHamish McLean added a new discussion post to the group Chromebooks - advice to parents around managing safe use at home:

Title: Chromebook/Chrome User Group
Hi Doug,
Here is a slide to speak to for the first 20 mins...  to be honest it scares parents!  But important that they know there is no footprint, as that can be washed away.  Its a tattoo!
This next one is the one thats specifically for parents.
View and reply in the discussion topic:
http://www.vln.school.nz/discussion/view/929577


Enjoy your week
Ngā mihi

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Some questions

May I go to the toilet?

Ka haere au ki  te wharepaku?

Yes, you can go to the toilet.

Āe ka haere koe ki te wharepaku.

Have you (all) got a question?

He pātai tā koutou?

Do you (all) have  questions?

He pātai ā koutou?

I have a question(s)?

He pātai tāku(āku)?

Kiwaha

Auē taukiri e

Oh gosh, oh dear.

Taihoa ake nei

Hold your horse.

Kekē ana te haere

Like a rocket

E hika e, wī!

Gee, is that right?!

Kia tau!

Relax, settle petal.

Commands for the classroom 2


Open the door

Huakina te kuaha

Close the door

Katia te kuaha

Grab (fetch) a book

Tīkina te pukapuka

Bring the book here

Mauria mai te pukapuka

Give out the papers

Tohaina ngā pepa

Put the books back

Whakahokia ngā pukapuka

Commands for the Classroom 1

Line up

Whakarārangi mai

Line up outside

Whakarārangi mai ki waho

Stand in a circle

E tū ki te porohita

Quieten down

Hoihoi/turituri/maniori!

Come sit on the mat

Haere mai ki te whāriki!

Give out the papers

Tohatoha i ngā pepa

Give the paper to him/her/name

Hoatu ngā pepa ki a ia/ingoa

Give/pass me the book

Homai te pukapuka