NextGenTeachers

Download Academic Aesthetic 132 Video
My latest show is a call for would-be podcasters to start podcasting. Now. (And don’t forget to send me some audio or video comments!)

Important Announcement!
Today, March 30, has been declared 'Stop Cyberbullying Day'. I believe the initiative has come from Andy Carvin in conjunction with a number of concerned cybercitizens and was in response to the disgraceful treatment prominent blogger, Kathy Sierra, has had to put up with recently.

This is a great initiative and I invite you to support it by spreading the word and sharing your resources with the rest of us. Andy has started Stop Cyberbullying: "A social network to discuss cyberbullying, identifying resources and solutions to address this epidemic of online cruelty." It is a great place to interact with other concerned online dwellers and to participate in discussions and share resources to do with cyberbullying.

Vicki Davis has a creative post today called B:-( Stop Cyberbullying bit by bit where she lists a number of action points that we could all consider doing.

I would like to share my own online resources for cyberbullying as I have recently put these together and mentioned them in another blog post. However, being Stop Cyberbullying Day, I have revisited these.

First of all I have a Cyberbullying Presentation all set to go if you need something to show students or teachers or parents.
I also have a collection of information and resources that I have roughly divided into suitable for parents, students and teachers.

I would also like to highlight the work of Parry Aftab of wiredsaftey.org (who kindly responded to my earlier blog post). I have used Parry's videos in the presentation, but since creating it she has been able to upload even more and they are all available on YouTube.

Parry's profile information on her YouTube account details the work she is doing, the dedication with which she approaches this. The wiredsafety group invite people to volunteer and be part of the team who make a difference. This includes teenagers, who have formed a group called 'teenangels' who receive special training to help fight cyberbullying.

"Parry is one of the leading experts in cyberlaw and Internet safety and security in the world. Her Internet safety charity, WiredSafety.org, is comprised of thousands of unpaid volunteers, including Parry herself. They help Internet users with anything that goes wrong online and help teach safe, private and responsible interactive technology work. They deal with predators, cyberbullying, harassment and stalking, hate, piracy, privacy and misinformation and hype. Her educational videos and animations are available to share and use."

Parry Aftab's Cyberbullying: the video Part 1
This video was uploaded on March 22 to YouTube and runs for 4 min 28 sec
It is a 'must watch' video as it details what cyberbullying is, the different types of cyberbullies found and gives details of the network Parry has set up to help victims.




Scott McLeod has provided some cyberbullying badges that you may use, such as this one.

So, spread the word, pull together your resources and open up discussions in your school and working environment. Join forces to stamp out bullying and the new digital form of bullying 'cyberbullying'.

Technorati Tags: stopcyberbullying safetyonline andycarvin vickidavis scottmcleod parryaftab cyberbullying

Download Academic Aesthetic 131 Video
In this video I talk about note passing and multitasking.

I wish to share this poem with you by Taylor Mali called 'What Teachers Make'. I first heard this last weekend at the ECIS IT conference when keynote speaker, Seth Ruef, recited it with permission.

The poem plucks at a heart string and takes me back 30 years to when I first started at University in Australia with the vague notion of perhaps becoming a history/politics teacher but with the hope that my musical career would take off instead and save me from a life of boredom. Needless to say you can guess the outcome ;-). I now continue to have music in my life as well as a rich career as an educator who also 'makes a difference' in the lives of the future decision makers in the world.

Enjoy the poem. There is a YouTube version I have embedded here as well.



Technorati Tags: taylormali

In order to create a truly exciting and enticing story for their 1001 Flat World Tales projects, many of our students are choosing to include alternate endings, in the style of the Choose Your Own Adventure books from the 80’s.

When we started explaining how to create links between pages, and how they can create as many pages as they want, they realized that they can incorporate reader choice (in this case, the alien king) into their narrative (in an attempt to ensure their survival).

Some are doing multi-faceted stories with many different story paths; others just have two or three alternate endings; still others have created totally interactive stories. Feel free to check out all of their stories (but please keep in mind that they are still in progress).

Slowly, but surely they are also starting to incorporate visual media into their stories as well. We are hoping we will have some time to allow them to narrate their whole story, add visuals and actually vidcast their tale.

The best part is that all of the students, regardless of their English language or technical skills, are excited, enthusiastic and engaged every lesson.

Image: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f0/Cave_of_time.jpg/190px-Cave_of_time.jpg

Our sixth grade IT students had a very exciting day today:

Not only was it the first day of a new quarter, (the first day of IT for this year), but they also got to meet a group of Year 7 students in New Zealand (and their fantastic teacher) without even leaving the classroom!

Thanks to our lovely new iMacs (with iSight built in), and Skype, we were able to video conference with our new partner class in NZ this morning.

For many of our students this was the first time they had ever participated in a video conference - and certainly the first time they have ever done so as part of a school project.

This group will be collaborating together to create a multimedia presentation - here in KL we will be using iMovie, the students in NZ will be using Movie Maker. Part of their responsibility will be to teach each other how to use the software they are learning about. I love the idea that students in an all Mac school can learn how to use Movie Maker, and vice versa!

Throughout the project we will be communicating via our blogs, our wiki, e-mail, Skype, and any other other method we can find! We will be keeping track of our conversations on the wiki, and, after we return from break, will link all of our blogs to the wikispace to open a more direct line of communication for the students.

When I was sharing this story with my colleagues at lunch, one teacher described her first international project when she was teaching French in Canada. She set up a pen pal class with students in France - they would write a set of letters, wait about 2 months, and then get a set of letters back from the class in France.

In comparison, today was the first day that our students heard about the project, minutes later they had joined the wikispace set up for the project, brainstormed questions to ask their new friends, and got to meet them - all within 1 class period!

My colleague at lunch said it perfectly: It is amazing to think about the speed of communication today. What used to take months, now takes minutes. How lucky our students are!

Image 1: http://www.danieljmalone.com/images/1/news/technology/2006/07/skype-logo.jpg
Image 2: http://www.podpodpost.com/photos/ist2_557799_air_mail_envelope.jpg

The International Teen Life project we’ve been working on for the last few months has recently gotten a little press. I love that the students’ work is making it into the news, but what I love even more is their comments on Mr. R’s post about the article:

• When I had finished reading that article, it really started to realize how signifigant our work that we are doing is and how we wouldn’t have been able to do it with out all the help of our teachers. You, and all the other teachers involved with this project have been great in getting my and my fellow students started on this project. Learning like this beats normal school work any day. Ask any kid involed in this project and you will get the same answer. This project makes learning fun and more mind expanding in many ways! - Darren

• Have you ever thought about the impact that the internet and computers have on our learning abilities and like that second last quote is very interesting in my opinion. My thoughts on that are that it is very true our ideas and our writings about many different things go further when it is sitting on the internet instead of the teachers desk it is know there for all to read. And you do get wonderful things that you never expected. - Elaine

• I think that this ITL Project is really wonderful. I find it amazing how we made it this far in this project because we are working together, as a team, and we are located in different places all over the world. Also, I think that this project is important because if/when we finish this project, it will blow everybody out of the water. Maybe if we accomplish our goal of the ITL Project, other classrooms will do the same thing or something else similar to that, allowing for the classroom to grow, their voices would be heard, and other opportunities would be limitless. - Derek

• Being publicly noticed for the work we are doing is truly a wonderful feeling. The Teen Life Project is such a great experience, and to add to this great exxperience, we are being encouraged by the media for the work we are doing! People will start taking our example and start interacting with other countries. Education itself has taken a giant leap, and we are a part of the transition because of the project we have started to do. I would like to say how proud I am to be part of this project, and this method we have started to use — how to communicate with different perspectives relating to the same purpose. - Sai

Download Academic Aesthetic 130 Video
Here’s my latest rambling, where I talk about the definition of art and how it relates to education. …Ok, you got me - this is a response to Dave LaMorte. I also make a plug for the Artchive.

I am trying to find out how many courses are being taught predominantly in Second Life. For this paper, I am defining course as a class that lasts for at least one collegiate semester, is taught by at least a Master’s level instructor, and counts for some sort of degree-seeking college credit. This naturally rules out anything dealing with the SL scripting language, and the like. Boy is this ever hard to come across! Any ideas? I’ve sent emails to the SLED list, so far to no avail. I am trying to locate someone at Linden Labs to help, with no success. I have seen the Sim Teach list of Universities and Organizations but not all of them actually teach in SL, seems like more of an advertising and marketing venture to me. So I find myself at a loss. Pathfinder…wherefore art thou? Tags:christophercraft, linden labs, second life secondlife

Download Academic Aesthetic 129 Video
My latest video in all it’s lack of glory! (Wait, what?) And here’s the poll…