In this update of on the wire we have resources available from MS Australia, the open library a cool school and much more. 1. Free Tools in the classroom - http://www.microsoft.com/australia/education/teachers/teachertools/free-tools.aspx- Applications and resources available through MS Australia. This is a good start and has links and resources for Autocollage Photosynth Moviemaker live Worth investigating - look at this PDF to - http://view.atdmt.com/action/slcepg_AUSFreeToolsGuide_9 2. Open Library - http://openlibrary.org/ - this site hosts over 1,000,000 free ebooks. This is a hugely powerful resource, source: http://openlibrary.org/images/logo_OL-lg.png accessing these can effectively save school thousands of dollars. Great stuff 3. Zooburst - http://www.zooburst.com/zb_about.php - This is a digital storytelling site that allows you to develop digital storybooks in 3D. The basic account is free and allows you to develop upto 10 books of 10pages each , the premium account has a fuller feature set, is Ad free and obviously a cost. Pricing and sign up here - http://www.zooburst.com/zb_pricing.php 4. Think Global Schools - http://thinkglobalschool.org/ - this is an interesting concept. I met some of the students at the flatclassroom project in Beijing. The catch line for the school is 12 countries in 12 trimesters. This is an exciting system. The students luerally travel around the world spending a trimester in a different country and school. They are developing outstanding global citizens. A great concept and one I will watch with interest. 5. Digizens - http://www.digizen.org/ This is a useful resource for digital citizenship materials and resources. Well constructed and planned this should be on your reading list. and finally from National Geographic this cool zoomable image made up of 7000 human figures - Zoom in and zoom out it is very cool - http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/03/age-of-man/face-zoom-interactive

One of my recent posts prompted this reply from Simon and I would like to respond to it. The posts in this series are challenging the use of filters and internet blocking in schools and questioning the reasoning behind it. The second post provides a solution to this. Simons responce is below: "While you’re at it, why not allow them to have sexual relations as soon as they’re biologically inclined. Encourage them to make a conscious decision or choice, it’ll make them responsible, ethical, moral citizens. Don’t remove the choice from them - what message does that send? Allow them the opportunity to have sex with each other, or their teachers, monitor it, and then deal with the issue AFTER it’s occurred. Similarly, let’s allow children to drive motor vehicles as soon as they can reach the pedals, drink alcohol, own firearms, get married, vote…" I find this comment a little surprizing and too be honest, melodramatic. The whole concept being proposed is actually safe and appropriate use of the resources, its about developing a moral and ethical approach and behaviours. You don’t develop this by removing choice. Banning and blocking does not develop an ethical and moral approach. It is a bandage you stick over a gapping wound. It make it someone elses problem and does not address the issue. You talk of sexual relationships as if the school saying you shall not do this is actually going to stop it. Of course a school takes a stand on such activities, of course they say its unacceptable, inappropriate and often illegal, but the school must also explain why. If we want to make a real impact on the students we must go beyond blocking, banning or setting rules and develop a deep and philisophical understanding of rationale, ethical and moral issues. To do this we must be open and transparent, we must provide choice, where appropriate. If you explain clearly the rationale behind rules or guidelines and then the student must make a deliberate decision to behave in a certain way. Accompanying this must be monitoring that allows the school to easily check those who have diverged from the standards the school sets. The country we live in sets the framework of laws that we must follow, as a school there are some absolutes that must be applied, for example there is no case for pornography being acceptable at school, this is a legal, ethical and moral stance. There are restrictions that governments set that must be followed as well. However, school do go considerably further than this, schools set regulations, rule etc for a wide range of reasons - often these rules are set with out suitable explanation - often to they are TTWWADII - "thats the way we always do it". These rules and regulations need, in fact, must be challenged. Our students on their cellphones can access websites, this does not go through the school system, they bypass any filtering we may put in place and our only way of effectively dealing with this is to instill suitable and appropriate behaviours. Most of our students have internet access at home, we as holistic educators want them to behave appropriately everywhere not just at school - we have no control over their use of the internet at home - but we can influence their behaviour by developing a suitable moral and ethical approach. In the second part of the post you will not that this is also an age dependent process, that younger students have not reached a suitable level of maturation to be able to deal with the decisions and to balance the demands of the now and the concequences of the future so these processes are applied with this in mind. As the students progresses through their schooling the level of restriction is lowered progressively and the level of self responcibility increased. As educators we need to prepare our students for the next stage of their learning journey whether this is employment, the next school or higher education. We are failing in this role if the student leaving us does not know how to act appropriately in an environment with out restricts, just expectations and where the concequences are some much great that at school.

This video was shared with me through twitter, its simple, straight forward and quite useful. It doesn’t show a wizzy new future, but it does put somethings into perspective. A little bit anyway. It does raise a few questions. How many people are still using overhead projectors as the cutting edge of technology? How many people are still using powerpoint and smartboards as presentations tools? If we look at Bernajean Porter’s levels of technology use are they Integrating - learning about technology Augmentative - learning with technology transformative - learning through technology - doing things you could not do with out technology

Friday I was working with the eWrapper ICT  PD Cluster down in Waiuku. The focus for the the principals and elearning staff was Digital Citizenship. It was a fun day and productive. One of the issues we see all the time in primary, is students are asked to sign acceptable use agreements, along with their parents. The agreements are not written in any way shape or form for the students, many of which in year 1 struggle to write their own name, let alone read the complexity of an acceptable use agreement. The purpose of these agreements is, I believe, purely to add a layer of protection for the school, as its irrelevant and meaningless to the students. (if you think I am kidding do a search for "acceptable use agreements" and elementary or primary school) So I though I would take some of the concepts in the acceptable use documents and then mould them into a form that the students atleast would understand when its read to them. Here is my attempt and I would appreciate feedback: Junior School Computer Guidelines The school provides computers and the internet for you to learn. All use of computers, printers, cell phones and the internet at school is only for your learning. Students should not play games without specific teacher permission. If students accidentally see material that is rude, nasty, mean, dangerous or inappropriate, they must click on the HOME button immediately and tell their teacher. Students will not download movies, videos or games. This is stealing. Looking after themselves online. - Students will not put any personal information about themselves on the internet. They won’t post photos or videos about themselves or share information like their address, phone numbers, hobbies or daily activities. Looking after other people. - Students will not share any personal information about other people over the internet. They won’t post other peoples photos, videos or share information. When they write anything they will asks "how would I feel if somebody said that about me?". If it is mean or nasty don’t say it. They will look after themselves and other people by telling their teachers or parents about people who are being mean or bullying. Students will acknowledge all material taken from websites and include web addressees in their work.

Many, if not most schools have a policy where students of all ages are expected to sign an acceptable use agreement. Students from year 1 upwards are required to sign these agreements. The language used in the agreements is very rarely suitable for the younger students and they struggle to understand them, let alone read them or sign the document. The problem with this is in my opinion two fold. First the students are so young that they are unable to comprehend what they are signing. The concepts that are detailed in the acceptable use agreements are beyond the experiences of the students. The students are essentially told to sign the agreement, and do not understand what they are signing. So what is the value of this? The second problem is, in my opinion, that the parents are asked to sign that they accept the rules, and are never present to supervise the actions of their children or students. Further in the absence of parents, we are the teachers are parents in locum. So it comes back to us being responsible So I have to question the value of these documents. So what is the alternative? Well, I have talked about this with several colleagues, and I think the best alternative is actually what we operate with the digital citizens, partnership. I think our agreement about acceptable use would involve all three aspects of the community, parents, teachers and students. The approach would start with a clear statement of what we, as a school can and can not do. This would include restrictions and monitoring, students education and training, and our expectations. It would also cover what we can’t do, like be watching every student every minute of the day, stop children from sneaking in and using computers or from opening multiple windows and applications and switching rapidly between them. The second part would be what we expect from the parents and what we can do to support them in this. This would outline the expectations and suggestions for home computer access and use. It would also explain the cyber-safety evenings and parent support mechanisms. The third part would cover the expectations, behaviors and outcomes from the students. It would cover the vision of the student as a digital citizen appropriate for the age of the child. The document would then be signed by all three parties not as as legal agreement, more as a memorandum of understanding, understanding that this is a learning journey. This would be a positive documents that models the partnerships that we need to develop to develop students who are ethical, moral contributors to our digital world. Thoughts?

I like this video. Its a great summary of many of the things I talk about when I am working with groups and talking about students and change. In class today I had my students work through a process where they watch the video and then when through and identified what were the key points for them. Then they pared the list down to the 2-3 most important points. Once they refined the list down they choose their most important point and had to defend their decision to the class. Their peers then supported or debates their points. Interestingly, the two key elements they brought out where the importance of play and the value of risk. isn’t it interesting that in many classes these are the two things that are scrupulously avoided. Source; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=falHoOEUFz0&sns=em

A recent BBC article has indicated that the British government is moving to give teachers search and seicure powers on students cell phones to thwart cyber bullying. While the goal is laudable it does raise more than a few questions and potential issues -http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12868879 Cyberbullying and infact any form of bullying is intolerable. We have seen too many instance where young people are tormented to the point of self harm and in extreme cases,  suicide. This measure is put in place to help deal with this, but is it going to be effective? source: http://themodline.com/main/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/iPhone.jpg The ability to search a cell phone and find evidence is critical and will make a difference. The ability to delete unacceptable material seems to me to be inconcequencial compare to finding the material and putting in place a structure and process to deal with the issue. While the bill indicate that "teachers" have the rights of search and in this case delete, I think this is something best invested and used by the management and pastoral care staff within  a school. Discovery is the start of the process rather than the solution. Why would I put the emphasis on management rather than the teacher having this "right"? Well , there are a number of reasons not the least is the importance of the relationship between the teacher and the students. Second would be the time factor and importance of this. It takes time to investigate and deal with the issues that arrise, the average teacher does not have this time. The other aspect of importance is the privacy aspect for the students. A cell phone is not just a device for talking any more, nor is it just a tool for bullying. So much of a persons life can now be stored on this ubiquitous device. Not only their messages, but emails, calendars, contacts, personal information, financial information, social images and more. It contains access to  files, account information and often banking details. To open and search through a students phone even with the best of intentions is too look through their life, to scrutinise their morals, ethics, relationships and alike. In many ways it lays bare who and what they are. Is this something that their day to day teacher needs or wants to do? Is it something that should be taken lightly or engaged on the chance of finding bullying? No. It is better that it is a processe removed from the classroom and undertaken with the degree of seriousness that this action requires. So, do I support the intention of the bill, yes, am I concerned about its implementation yes.

In this update of on the wire we will look at the IAEA, some Biology, ITGS & Mathematics resources and more 1. IAEA International Atomic Energy Agency - http://www.iaea.org/ This is an interesting site at the best of times, but in light of the tragedy unfolding in Fukushima this site provides unbiased and accurate information. The daily updated blog does not just look at the Fuushima reactor complex rather examines and documents all of the reactors. An excellent valid information source. 2. Anatomy Arcade - http://www.anatomyarcade.com/ A games based learning site for anatomy. This site is useful for Science, Biology, health, and Physical education. Worth visiting to appraise.Games for skeletal, respiratory, muscular systems and more source: http://www.anatomyarcade.com/images/AAheader.jpg 3. Super maths world http://www.supermathsworld.com/ This is a mathematics games based site that provides an engaging way of learning mathematics. 4. TeacherZone - http://teacher.tenmarks.com/ Mathematics video resources. This is a useful site that has over 1000 videos aimed at grades 3-10. Its free for teachers but does require a sign up. Also worth examining are: Mathtrain.TV - http://www.mathtrain.tv/ Brightstorm - http://www.brightstorm.com/ (also science resources) MathTV - http://www.mathtv.com/videos_by_topic 5. Here’s to the crazy ones video - I love this its inspiring - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oAB83Z1ydE&feature=player_embedded and finally for the ITGS and IT students. This infographic about the size of files and storage. Useful for terminology

As phrases go "talking to strangers" is hugely loaded. It brings connotations of child molesters, kidnappers and generally wierd and unpleasant people. We teach our students and our own children about "stranger danger" and alas many people live in fear of strangers. Given this you can image the response at a recent conference when Will Richardson said we should encourage our students to talk to strangers. But he is right we should talk to stranger. I was sent yesterday an article from Ian Jukes About Digital Footprints. This is another loaded term, the digital footprint is Dinosaur footprint in the rock. Is this how we see our digital footprint. Source: http://s0.geograph.org.uk/photos/74/49/744987_bb1f2e5b.jpg seen as this permanent and unerasable trail of actions, conversations and activities that you have on the web. It like talking to strangers is used in a negative context. But here’s the catch we should leave digital footprints. http://ascd.typepad.com/blog/2011/04/what-do-students-know-about-positive-digital-footprints.html So many of the discussions we have with our students regarding digital citizenship have a negative connotation. We shouldn’t talk to strangers, watch out for your digital footprint what you do will haunt you for ever. But actually we should be talking to strangers, we must talk to them. This is how we develop a mutual understanding of different cultures and religions, this is how we discuss the issues, events and situations beyond our four walls. We live in a world where we can be in Auckland, New Zealand one day, Sydney the next and the following week in Singapore or london. Where Moscow, Beijing, Yokohama, Abu Dhabi, Montreal and New York are only a skype call away. These are the strangers we need to talk to. How many people have seized the opportunity presented by Skype for education? Yes, there are Strange Strangers out there, and part of our digital citizenship program must be to educate students on what to do and what not to do, on what to share and what to keep private. It must not be to hide in our comfortable community, talking only to those we known, discussing only from a limited perspective and point of view the things that matter. This is living in fear. I agree with Will, we need to talk to strangers. The same can be said for Digital Footprints. We should be leaving digital footprints and making sure that these footprints source: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dMF6Awo9lPY/TPzRC54MpqI/AAAAAAAAAOE/wp6jMIPUyfw/s1600/footprints_in_the_sand_op_493x600.jpg are the ones that will only be seen positively. We need to be reflective, considered, appropriate and sensitive in what we say and do. The photos we upload, the comments we post, the blogs we share should reflect positively and appropriately on us. The footprints we leave in the sand (we its more like concrete) should be sharp and clean, not smudge, blurred and dirty. Our students should cherish their digital footprints as positive reflections of their learning and development. They are not something to be avoided, tip toeing around quiet and missable nor should they be huge stomping boot prints splattering mud. Instead they should show the journey of well placed steps traveling from one stage of learning to another.

Today I had the opportunity to wander around downtown Singapore, and one of the locations I visited was the Art Science museum, down in marina bay. The place is engaging and eye catching because of its shape. The main part of the museum isn’t up in the rounded construction, but is underground. As I was wondering through enjoying the interesting hybrids of science and art I was intrigued by the sayings and quotations they had painted on the wall. They made sense to me in the context of art and science. "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science" Albert Einstein "from wonder into wonder existence opens" lao Tzu "you see things; and you say why? But I dream things that never were; and I say why not?" George Bernard Shaw "Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination when awake?" Leonardo Da Vinci To me these spoke of creativity, risk, experimentation, vision and perhaps trust in your instincts and imagination. An interesting visit.