edna.edu.au

Scratch

Scratch is everything they said it would be and I love it. In about an hour I created about 10 different animations including a flying bird, throwing a basketball and two butterflies having a conversation.

Classroom uses:

• Talking and listening - explaining what your characters will do, how you will make things move etc
• Storyboard and creating narratives
• Demonstrating science activities and concepts
• Creating simple demonstrations
• Making or playing games eg Archery Champion
  

Challenges:

• The biggest challenge is working out some of the fiddly maths bits like how far an object should travel on the x&y
  

The resources are on the Macquarie ICT wiki. You can also learn more at the Learn Scratch website.

Tags: tips teachingideas ideas free software ict macquarie scratch
Posted at 10:12AM Jan 22, 2009 by Concetta Gotlieb  | 

Consequences lesson using GoAnimate

I made this animation using GoAnimate in about 20 minutes.  It's a fun, simple way to provide an alternative method of communicating ideas.   This should work in pretty nicely with our learning to accept consequences for actions unit.

Things to remember:

• The screen demo on the mainpage is good and give a good overview of features and how to use them and it has pretty exciting music
  
• If you want to add movement to an object you need to do it before you move it to the character
• There are some slightly undesirable actions but I think this can be managed through a quick laugh and letting the kids know it's not appropriate for the work we are doing at the moment
  

Tags: literacy teachingideas showme socialskills fun interesting technology tips
Posted at 02:40PM Oct 10, 2008 by Concetta Gotlieb  | 

Screen Readers = More Than Meets The Eye

Why it's important?

Ever since listening to Tim Noonan's talk at a conference a little while ago I have been on a journey of learning about accessibility.  I used to think of accessibility as a way to allow blind folk or people with disabilities to access our content.  Now I think of accessibility as providing alternative options for accessing information for everyone.

This blog post at iHeni alerted me to Glenda Watson Hyatt a blogger with cerebal palsy.  Watching her Youtube video I thought I too have been to a conference, too shy to say anything, feeling alone in a room of thousands.  For me as a participant in learning it made me feel better to know I was not the only one. 

Anyway it got me thinking about the advantages of improving accessibility

• It opens up the doors to more people from diverse backgrounds to connect with others from diverse backgrounds - this can only be good for learning and socialising
• It gives everyone more options for how they want to communicate and connect with the world.  If I'm a very good listener but a hopeless reader I can work with my strengths.  If I would prefer to listen to a webpage as a I work on an assignment or lesson plan I can.

Curriculum integration

• This term I'll be showing the kids how to use the screen reader. Which for my kids will potentially be a lifeskill that will enable them to engage with the world for their whole lives.
  
• Using a screen reader for web-based research.  Discussing what they have listened to.
• Using the screen reader as part of the audio track in movies that we make.  They can be shy.
  
• Writing text and having it played back to them.

How to do it

Apple accessibility features - select text to have it read to you on Mac

If you don't use a screen reader but have trouble reading text on your computer screen, you can have your Mac read the text you select. To turn Text to Speech on, open System Preferences, click Speech, then open the Text to Speech pane. You can even set up a keyboard shortcut to initiate Speech.

Tip: Tick the box marked 'speak selected text when the key is pressed'.  Then select 'Set Key' and choose a key to use.

Microsoft

• Accessibility features - Using Narrator
  
• Dictate text using e-Speaking

What are the challenges?

For me one of the big challenges is that by opening up opportunities for success in one area you may be taking away success in another area.  For example by giving students the opportunity to have a web page read to them instead of reading it themselves they may find that it is easier to intepret the text when listening to it but on the other hand they aren't getting the practice of intepreting written text.

Post your ideas in the comments.

Tags: resource research screenreader teachingideas accessibility literacy showme
Posted at 12:33PM Sep 30, 2008 by Concetta Gotlieb  |  Comments[2]

Literacy Resources: Audio Books

After listening to Tim Noonan speak at a conference I became aware of the importance of accessability when designing websites.  I'm beginning to think that thinking about accessibility can also help us understand how to design learning activities that are suitable for learners with a diverse range of needs.  I work at a school for children with emotional disturbances and intellectual disabilities, it seems like a good idea to use technology to make learning easier for them.

Mp3 Powered Literacy

In our class we have kids with very different literacy abilities some can read and write pretty well, some are still at a basic level.  They are all able to think and respond verbally though.  So I have uploaded stories from the Libri-vox collection onto an mp3 player.  Libri-vox is a collection of books that are in the public domain that have been recorded by volunteers.  At this stage we have used Alice in Wonderland but I want to look through and find more books.  The player cost $30, copying the files are as easy as copying files to a usb drive. You can also purchase audiobooks, available as instant downloads from the iTunes or The Audio Bookstore.

Using this method some students complete a written comprehension and other students listen to a story and then answer questions orally.  For me it seems like a great idea, it still allows creativity, critical thinking and a different type of focus than for example watching a movie.  For students of all levels I think this kind of interaction with text can provide a way to scaffold deeper thinking about writing and a way to read above your usual level.  I recently listened to Stephen Hawkings The Universe In A Nutshell, I love reading but I would never read a book like this in the conventional way, listening to the audiobook was a really mind expanding experience.

How would you use audio books in the classroom?  What books would you recommend?

Tags: allgrades literacy library resources librivox teachingideas links
Posted at 09:53PM Sep 24, 2008 by Concetta Gotlieb  | 

Stage 1: Length video

It means something to me to publish my work and I think it means something to students to do the same.  I think half the struggle is finding the right level of work to introduce new technology.  I think for the first project the content should be a straight forward description or procedural task - something factual.  This is easier to describe visually than narrative.  This length activity is perfect because the very nature of the concept leads itself to visual representation and everyone can have a go.  It also gives the students an opportunity to practice talking and listening.  They love hearing themselves on the video.  By having the students do all the photography, uploading and typing of sentences themselves (or as much as they are able) they get to follow directions and learn technology skills at the same time. My process for designing this type of lesson:

• Introduction - finding objects that are longer
  
• Depending on the kids maybe complete a worksheet with examples
• Finding your object that is (longer/shorter/the same as) a pencil (or other choosen object)
• Taking the picture of the object
• Uploading the picture
• Typing your sentence
• Record yourself saying the sentence

Tags: showme teachingideas technology numeracy
Posted at 06:46PM Sep 03, 2008 by Concetta Gotlieb  | 

Year 4: Starting A School Wiki

Helping kids understand wikis and why they should use one is pretty challenging.  Wikis are different to ordinary websites for the following reasons:

• They allow you to invite as many people as you like to edit them
  
• The process for editing a page is very simple (you don't need to know html)
• You can have discussions (even arguements) about the content you are posting
• Everyone can see what changes are made in the history section

Companies and software producers often use wiki's for recording reference materials such as help manuals and howto's.  For our class it seemed like a good starting point to create a wiki for our school howto's.  Each child was responsible for researching and writing one article on how to do something at the school.

I found the following resources useful for teaching about wiki's.

• What is wikipedia?
• Why do people use discussions in wikipedia?
  
• How to write a wiki article?  Wikihow has some great tips for example, make sure you search for your topic first.
  

We also went over some guidelines to follow when writing in a wiki or writing instructions.  Basically a review of the type of things you cover when teaching procedures for example, write in short clear sentences, and use topic headings to help your reader locate the information they are looking for.

We also used a loose who, what, where, when, how structure for the writing the articles.  For example if you are writing about using the library then the name of the librarian, the location of the library etc are pretty important.

Finally we put a selection of resources as a reference on the blog so the students can refer to them as they go.  You can see the post here.

Please add your resources to this list.  Also please provide any other teaching tips.

Tags: showme wiki teachingideas writing howto year4
Posted at 06:22PM Aug 20, 2008 by Concetta Gotlieb  | 

A Different Reward

I have been in and out of classrooms like a maniac this week.  As part of my kit when I go into classrooms I have a little toy electric keyboard.  The kids love making up a little tune on it.  From Kindy to Year 3 it gets them settled in an instant.

Here is a little sample.

Tags: music teachingideas audio showm
Posted at 09:02PM Aug 18, 2008 by Concetta Gotlieb  |