Your PD FOR 2018 G Suite Updates Cyber Safety NewsLetter Piece Spotlight iPad App TecHie Brekkie
News, updates, lesson ideas & resources ready to use tomorrow .️
Chromebooks: what's next?
2018 / June / Issue 1
For Australian & New Zealand primary school leaders of: ICT eLearning Digital Technologies️
Introduce Coding through literacy
Features
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From the EditorS A big welcome to the first issue of ICT EDU magazine! The aim of this publication is simple....save you time and empower you to be a better leader of technology in your school. We are both primary school teachers who have taught our own classrooms as well as held positions of leadership in ICT & Digital Technologies. Time is precious and there is so much new info, initiatives, ideas, tools, curriculum and more to try and keep up with. We plan to publish this magazine regularly (termly, maybe more) to give each of you an easy way to keep abreast of what's relevant to Australian primary school ICT and Digital Technology leaders. We welcome all your feedback, comments or suggestions! This magazine is useless if it doesn't satisfy a need! Cheers and happy reading, Marty & Tser Lin
As well as their annual conference (been and gone for 2018), a great way to keep up to date with new ideas and tools is to tune in to the YouTube webshow. Each month, Eleni (host) has a group of guest presenters who have a few minutes each to demo and discuss a teaching idea/tool. You can watch it live or check out any of the past episodes on their YouTube channel.
Two day conferences starring G Suite for Education but also sessions focusing on STEM, digital citizenship and more. The beauty of these summits is that there is always plenty of choice, allowing you to customise your experience based on your own interests and ability. Highly recommend that you get a “gang” together from your school so that it’s not just you as the lone ranger driving tech integration. As they’re on the holidays, you should have no dramas convincing your Principal to pay up for multiple attendees! Check out all the info and dates for 2018 in Melbourne, Sydney, Mildura, Tasmania, Rockhampton, Townsville and Adelaide.
UpCOMING PD
July 26 & 27 in Melbourne- by Digital Learning and Teaching Victoria. It's a 2 day conference, but very conveniently offers single day tickets as well if you can’t get there both days. Exciting keynotes, particularly Linda Liukas (author of Hello Ruby) and the always engaging Chris Harte (https://www.unstucklearning.design/).
If I Were A Wizard Written by leading Queensland teacher Paul Hamilton and superbly illustrated by Simon Howe, we follow Hazel (a mouse) as she shares her dreams of becoming a wizard. The first part of the book is the story itself which could be used for a whole range of literacy foci just as any traditional picture story book would. The second half of the book revisits certain encounters Hazel has and draws out the coding concepts: repeats and loops, sequence and order, algorithms, variables, conditionals, functions, debugging and patterns. If we want our students to see coding concepts as so much more than Scratch or Beebots, then this book makes those “text to self” and “text to world” links seamlessly. As many teachers I work with find some of these concepts challenging, the book also serves as a perfect teacher PD. Why not run a staff meeting where you unpack the book and help your teachers demystify the language of computational thinking? Accompanying the book is super useful website (www.wizardcodingbook.com) with a whole range of resources, from printable posters to lesson plans and even an AR app. If I Were a Wizard is available on Amazon (hardcover $24)
teach literacy, teach coding A big welcome to the first issue of ICT Edu magazine! The aim of this publication is simple....save you time and empower you to be a better leader of technology in your school. We are both primary school teachers who have taught our own classroom as well as positions of leadership in ICT & Digital technologies .
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One challenge with the new digital technologies curriculum is supporting teachers to introduce the concepts and find meaningful ways to integrate the content so that it doesn’t become a “stand alone” subject. How many times have you heard… “where am I going to find time to teach digital technologies?” Do we teach literacy everyday? Well here are two must have books for your school to seamlessly introduce coding concepts whilst being immersed in quality literature.
Two other titles by Linda Liukas
Hello Ruby: Adventures in Coding Written by inspiring Finnish programmer Linda Liukas, the reader spends a day exploring and discovering with Ruby (a young girl). Colourful and eye catching illustrations help stimulate the imagination as Ruby encounters penguins, foxes, snow leopards and robots along her journey. Hello Ruby, like ‘If I Were a Wizard’, has a story component that can be read as part of a class literacy block which is then accompanied by 22 exercises that unpack the coding concepts. These fun exercises can be turned into whole class activities, small group rotations and of course, linked to other curriculum areas. Concepts such as sequencing (literacy), pair programming (oral language), sorting data with Venn diagrams (inquiry) as well as the mathematics links (pattern recognition, numbers, algorithms). Hello Ruby also has many additional resources on their website to help support teachers- http://www.helloruby.com/teach NB. the author Linda Liukas is keynoting in Melbourne at the Digicon 2018, see our PD Corner for details. Hello Ruby books are available online from Booktopia (softcover $14.25)
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2018
the future of Chromebooks A big welcome to the first issue of ICT Edu magazine! The aim of this publication is simple....save you time and empower you to be a better leader of technology in your school. We are both primary school teachers who have taught our own classroom as well as positions of leadership in ICT & Digital technologies .
2011
Samsung Series 5
In 7 short years, an internet hungry device has transformed and revolutionised student learning across the globe. From a cost perspective, Chromebooks have been rolled out en masse to many schools meaning one thing - accessibility for all. This combined with an effortless ecosystem makes this a dream machine for teachers, students and the school’s Technology Leader. #byetechnican In almost every primary school you will find the unbeatable Acer C730e (or something similar). A device that just works and can withstand student use #medalplease . A pioneer, a game changer in student learning whilst teaching basic tech skills and collaboration. The standard choice for 1:1 programs. Most of the learning tasks I’ve seen performed on the C730e have been a good combination of Substitution and Modification (SAMR model) with the exception of being able to collaborate. Take a minute to reflect on how your school uses Chromebooks for learning. Are you really enhancing and transforming learning with technology? What could you do differently or more of? So where to next? A new generation of Chromebooks are now available and wow, are they feature packed. Equipped with touch screens, convertible modes (tent, tablet, clam shell), a handy stylus, a world facing camera and the ability to access the Google Play store (so you can download apps). This will yet again transform learning! Having one of these Chromebooks is like having an all in one pocket rocket. Imagine being able to take a photo of your learning, annotate it with a stylus, share your notes with friends and teachers, screencast your understandings and present them all from one device. Imagine how these new features coupled with a rich learning experience can transform student learning. Chromebooks featured on the Google Stand @ EduTECH Acer Spin 11 Asus Flip C213NA Lenovo 500e Check out the full review of the Acer Spin 11 in the next issue of ICT Edu magazine.
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Acer Spin 11
It’s been a big couple of months for some useful updates in the world of G Suite. Not all are relevant or useful for schools, but here’s the pick of them.. Reserve 5 minutes at next staff meeting to show and demo the changes, staff will love them (& you!) Gmail Facelift In order to see the changes you must first enable it in the G Suite Admin console and then have individual users enable via their inbox settings (see below). So what features are in the new Gmail? Inline action buttons - hover over an email to get the archive, delete, mark as unread & SNOOZE Snoozing allows you to tell an email to go away and come back when you tell it to...love this feature! Gmail will now “nudge” you if you haven’t replied to an email. Google Keep and Calendar are now easily accessible within your inbox without leaving Gmail (on the right of messages) Plus a few more changes...read them all HERE
G Suite Updates
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Duplicate New Google Sites There's no debating that New Sites is a huge upgrade from Classic Sites but up until now there was no ability to "make a copy" of a Site. Finally, this feature is now available thanks to "Duplicate Site". Use this feature like a template. Create a basic site you want other staff or students to use and then share the original with them and have them "duplicate the site" so that they have their own.
You can now add check boxes in sheets! Teachers love checklists! Now we can use Google Sheets to easily do all those checklists we used to do on paper or in those red books. Show your staff conditional formatting in combination with check boxes to blow their minds...and get them using Sheets for their data collection.
Better way to comment in Slides Collaboration is a big reason we love Docs & Slides and commenting allows for both teacher and peer feedback. Previously in Slides if you left a comment it was attached to a whole text box rather than the specific word/phrase you chose to highlight. No longer! Check out the GIF here for a detailed explanation. Create a class Slideshow where each student has a slide to write an engaging "Story Starter". Then invite students to use commenting to highlight and identify specific features (use of adverbs, adjectives, metaphors etc.) of classmates' writing.
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Featured iPad App
Text
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Often forgotten and overshadowed by other apps, Notes on the iPad is an extremely powerful and noteworthy tool. What makes it powerful? Voice type stories, narratives, check spelling of words by voice typing The iPad can speak written text (enable in Accessibility settings) - Great for a "read to" Scan notes Write and share notes with collaborators Draw or scribble notes Add images and video Share your notes to other apps such as Google Keep, Drive and email Lock your notes - Great for recording personal information about meetings and students Be organised with checklists and tables
Leader profile
Name: Benjamin Lannen School: Holy Spirit Community School Job Title: eLearning Leader and Grade 5/6 Teacher Years teaching: 7 Success you’re most proud of: Nathan Jones Award Winner 2017 *check out the video --> Challenges in your role: Time, I wish there was more of it but I appreciate the many tools I use that makes certain tasks more efficient for teaching and learning. Love teaching with Google Apps and Hapara Dashboard. Favourite tool/app/website/resource of 2018: I have a tech crush on Hapara Dashboard but recently have loved using WeVideo and lately Adobe Spark and Adobe Character Animator.
Techie Brekkie
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Cyber Safety Newsletter Piece
Techie Brekkies...what are they? "Put on a nice breakfast and invite teachers to come and learn short bites of information they can begin using in the classroom the same day." "The Techie Brekkie has become a popular way for ICT, Learning Technologies or whatever you want to call it to claw back some professional learning time from the heavy after school meeting schedule which is mainly dominated by literacy and numeracy" (Ed Galaxy). Each issue we will include a ready made slideshow you can use to run your own Techie Brekkie. Open it, customise the date and time and you're ready to go! Print out slide 1 on A3 paper and stick it in the staffroom or in the toilets as marketing!
CLICK HERE & make a copy
Schools have an important role in supporting parents in navigating the digital world. Whilst we teach cyber safety to our students, sometimes it is overlooked how uninformed some parents can be. One way to support your parent body is to share cyber safety info through the school newsletter. Each edition we will include an article that you can include in your own school's newsletter- just copy and paste and you're away. This week the focus is on Instagram, an app that far too many primary school students are using. The article highlights the minimum age requirements as well as some of the new features.
Coming in future issues: Connecting your classroom globally...how and why Broadcasting live on YouTube Latest and greatest Chromebook reviews (what you should buy next!) Makey Makeys, Spheros, Ozobots...which is best for your school? Ideas for ICT goal setting with your staff How to setup a school radio station #flipgridfever ...what's all the fuss about? Seesaw- the pros and cons AND MUCH MORE!
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Martin McGauran martin@ictedu.com.au www.ictedu.com.au
Tser Lin Hetherton mail@tserlin.com www.tserlin.com
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