PEJATEN IT MEMO by Mark Petch

EDMODO

petch_mark — 2014-01-16 07:25:22 UTC

There is an expectation that all teachers will use Edmodo as part of their teaching/learning/communicating process. Remember that parents (especially of junior students) often access Edmodo to keep track of student activity and homework. You must therefore give some thought to both the content and the PR aspects of this.

If Edmodo is giving you problems or is otherwise problematic don't hesitate to get some assistance and some advice. Students will use it routinely if you create the expectation

A general work saving tip: Post work as assignments not as notes as this activates the "turned in" function that allows you to track work submission at a glance.

Attached for your interest and convenience is a PowerPoint about aspects of how Edmodo works.

Other support materials including PowerPoints are available.

POLICIES - IT USE - USERS GUIDE

petch_mark — 2014-01-16 07:25:49 UTC

The school has well developed policies regarding IT use in the school. A copy is attached. The day to day use of ICTs can be challenging of course because phones, tablets, PCs, laptops etc can be good or bad depending on the user. Accordingly what works is an approach of judging whether actions by a student are adding to or detracting from the atmosphere of study prevailing in the room. At the same time we expect senior students to set a high example at all times for younger students to follow. My advice to teachers is to completely avoid debates about "rules" and what is ok in the 21st Century and stick to the two expectations identified above. They are very difficult for students to oppose and lead down a path to responsible decision making rather than warnings and punishments that just don't work.

Notwithstanding all of the above you are perfectly entitled to set rules for your classroom provided they don't contradict general school expectations. It is important to remember that the AIS is a private school and a commercial enterprise. We need to be sensitive to perception issues generated by visitors seeing students misusing technology as they walk around on tour or by word of mouth coming from student's telling stories at the family dinner table about what they saw..... A classic example is the old 'listening to music helps me study". Sometimes true and sometimes not but the bottom line is that headphones are a bad look when parents come around. Then again how can students listen to Youtube tutorials without headphones? The end of the story is that students must never set the "default" conditions for the class. Everything must come as an explicit and learning oriented directive from the teacher with an expiry date attached.

ACCESSING THE IT LAB

petch_mark — 2014-01-16 07:26:06 UTC

We are currently trying to think our way through the best way to set out a booking sheet for the 10 day cycle. As soon as we have it figured I'll make the document available. In the mean time the general news is that the back room is always bookable while the front room is occasionally bookable. Once I know my class sizes I'll get into the occasionally demanding issue of sharing the space with other groups.

Students sent to the lab need to be supervised either directly or sent with a note for a specific task. My general view is that students should print at recess or lunchtime. anything else is symptomatic of disorganization. If students need ideas or other support with a task I'm happy to help.

For your interest, attached is my current understanding of my timetable and therefore when the front room is available.

Please always remember that I'm happy to partner up with teachers on activities or allot time in IT lessons to get work done for other subjects.

LIBRARY DEVELOPMENT

petch_mark — 2014-01-16 07:27:01 UTC

We don't have a library any more , we have a RESOURCE CENTRE. The second focus of the Technology Action Group is to develop that resource centre as a driver of curriculum and also as a pro-active partner for IB students as they engage with inquiry based and issues based learning activities. to some extent this is about resources but its mainly about systems and processes and staffing. Various initiatives are in the works to develop this. initially you will notice some physical changes to the library space. Later, you will see the development and promotion of on-line resources and the provision of stream able content.

In the short term , you will hear about OVERDRIVE. Overdrive is a web based library service very widely used by large public libraries and major schools. there will be one library for the whole organization and students will be able to download books to any device for a borrowing period. Students and teachers will need to download an app to their pc or device.Overdrive is essentially a front end for book publishers so the scope for buying is extensive. Here is the link if you want to take a look

http://www.overdrive.com/

TABLETS

petch_mark — 2014-01-16 07:30:34 UTC

Last year, an IPAD program was introduced in Primary and those students will be trickling into Year 7 this year. While the secondary school doesn't have any formal programs or expectations regarding tablets we clearly need to develop our skills and ability to deliver content AND as importantly, allow students to use tablet based apps and methodologies to deliver work.

When we say tablets of course we mean anything with a touch screen. Android, Apple and Windows * are all used by students and we need to cover that.

Building skills , knowledge and resources will be a major goal for the Technology Action Group this year. To give this process a format, I have created a wiki called

http://teachingwithdevices.wikispaces.com/

My long term objective is to create something that is used across all the campuses with contributions coming in from all active users.

SOCIAL NETWORKING POLICY

petch_mark — 2014-01-17 02:19:24 UTC

Social networking as a tool for learning has suffered under the weight of concerns about online bullying. Those concerns have unfortunately proved to be real on a number of occasions. Interestingly though the best social networking police have proved to be the students themselves. Social networking policy that encourages students to make appropriate and responsible choices is at the centre of practice. A copy of a policy proposal is attached. I hope to see it ratified in the near future.

A couple of key points.

Social networking links between teachers and current students are PROHIBITED. The reasons for this are to do with issues of public perception and the scope "friending" affords for inappropriate comments and interactions. Edmodo provides sufficient opportunity for online communication.

Most social networking in school time in not concerned with Facebook. Most inappropriate social networking these days is on Skype and involves class to class video communication. Chat programs come second. The bulk of communication is on smart phones though serious skypers prefer laptops

NEW TOYS AND A COUPLE OF CHANGES

petch_mark — 2014-01-17 04:10:55 UTC

At the end of 2013 we purchased an IMAC computer to create an Apple pathway for creative arts. The thought was that we needed to anticipate IB and general higher level requirements in the areas of digital graphics, digital music and movie making. I wanted top conserve that machine for a "studio" environment and am yet tio figure out the best place for it. We also purchased a mac-mini to give some apple resourcing tom the lab as well as some IPADS. The broad goal is to stimulate new teaching and learning approaches and to build up a reservoir of skills and knowledge in the school.

In a sense these tools are there for any teacher who shows the energy and initiative to create needs within their syllabus. The best case scenario is where teachers loudly complain that they can't run their programs because we don't have the equipment they need.

I DRIVE

petch_mark — 2014-01-17 04:31:54 UTC

I Drive had become a bit of a maze over time and it was causing problems because of duplications and ambiguities. In addition, current material was mixed up with archival material. Accordingly it was decided to look at a clean up and a revision. The new design is designed to mirror workflow rather than topics per se. For example, the "Daily Operations" folder should contain everything that relates to the daily operation of the school and once inside that master folder you should be able to find related material by searching or by clicking. I will wait a few days before moving any contents around. When the change takes place I will simply drag and drop existing materials into the most appropriate folders. It will be then down to the folder managers to edit the contents, transferring any older or redundant documents to the ARCHIVE folders provided.

Here is a graphic of the new layout. Is anything negotiable? Yes - good ideas are always welcome but in the end decisions about how things are organized below the top level depends on the folder manager.