Day 1 – ISV 5 Day Series

Welcome! Here begins a great opportunity for us: 5 days spread across the year to develop deep and sophisticated ICT and pedagogy insights and skills.  In other words, fun! Here’s a set of handouts that mirrors the links below and adds a bit of detail.

The main purpose of today is to set up an easy but powerful online space.  This will be the launch pad for everything else we do.  Think of it as your digital file cabinet, your grab bag of Web 2 tricks, your online classroom.
To begin, let’s see that others have done along these lines.

Activity 1: First Impressions

Skim through some of the links below.  Pause when one catches your attention.  Look more closely.  Consider how you could use something like it for your self and your students.  After about 15 minutes, we’ll brainstorm what we’ve seen and thought.

Examples from 2010/2011

• Stephen & Vin – How We Express Ourselves and Sharing the Planet
• Helen & Libby – The Titanic
• Ruth – HealthyMeHealthyou
• Rachael L: Culture and Diversity (Asia) Grade 1/2
• Chris – Info from the Portable
• Ali G – China Blog
• Asian Literacy @ L.P.S.
• Japanese Culture – A resource for students at St Anthony’s Primary School
• Anna W – Wild’s Epic Nihongo Blog! – what it can become with ongoing use!
• Elmar: Midl2011
• Pete B: MrPetedb
• Lydia: Grade5lsblog
• Mathew: Earthquakes & Tsunamis 4/5
• Helen C: Prep / 1 Blog
• Christen J: Our Space (2009)

Brainstorming First Impressions (using Stixy) (AGQTP Group)

Activity 2: Creating Your Smart Online Space

• Get a WordPress Blog
• Change the theme
• Make a Post
• Embed YouTube (remember &rel=0)
• Try TubeChop.com
• Get Firefox for extensions like the video downloader?
• Embed all kinds of media in WordPress (maps, images, documents or polls?)
• A practice post with embeds

Fine-tuning your Blog

• Comment Settings
• Siderbar widgets
• Various How-to Videos from WordPress
• Add as a link to your Sidebar (video) or Add a link (page)

Pause for Reflection

From the Dashboard or your blog, go to “Pages” and edit the “About” page.  Use this to reflection on how you think you might use your blog in a range of ways for yourself, your students and colleagues.

Activity 3: Look to Learn : : Learn to Look

• Look to Learn – overview
• Look to Learn Web site
• Look to Learn Sample Prompts
• Thinking Routines overview
• Thinking Routines from the Visible Thinking team at Harvard
• Article on Making Thinking Visible by David Perkins

Online Samples

• 1984
• Miniature Earth
• VisionShift: Whose Future?
• “I Can”
• Nuclear Giving
• There’s Data in them ther Kids (cartoon)
• The Global Rich List (interactive site)

Activity 4 – Web 2 Tools

• Download the Web 2 Tools Overview handout
• Explore the Tools Panel
• Copy and Paste the Tools Panel into a page for your site
• Choose from different Web 2 icons
• Create a menu for navigation

Pause for Reflection #2

Now that you have explored Look to Learn activities and a range of Web 2.0 tools, return to the Dashboard or your blog and edit your “About” page reflection.  Add your further insights gained from the last sessions and what strikes you as useful tools and strategies. Specifically, describe how you think you could use what you’ve learned today.

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