Miss Signal's insight

I was reading this very clever person's blog this evening and I noticed something you guys might enjoy... and it kinda sounds like you guys anyway :-)

"Class discussions based on what the kids wanted our class to look like brought on more and more gusto as they threw themselves whole heartedly into what they felt was an interesting classroom. This saw CDs being brought in, plants and other items that reflect my students and their interests. This has allowed for our gardeners in the class to take on board their interests. Same with the artists, the designers and so on…"
- Miss Signal

Forests of Life

Forests of Life is a NZ website dedicated to the collaborative learning of students teachers and scientists in relation to forests and the issue of sustainability.
Check it out...

Its a small world afterall! - globalisation

Term Four collaborative project with M3. Discovering what globalisation is all about and how it affects us...
Also, check out their Kenyan project - very cool to actually make a difference.
:-)
Maybe My Teehan's class might join us, and perhaps the Teaching Sagittarian's new class in Bangkok could be involved? Anyone else keen?
Let's change the world a little bit at a time!

We will work together using blogs and wikis, Edmodo for microblogging and much more

And don't worry Mudpies - we will work out how to mummify chickens in relation to this, i promise!!!

Check out the Movie - The Corporation - and how it got some students interested.

Ideas for Voicethread

A class in Napier wants to skype us and use Voicethread [remember the thing we saw in class with the small boy who shared his monster pictures and where people left comments about them? That was Voicethread]. Their teacher, Chrissy Hellyer, [who is a Sagittarian and they are the best kind of person] and I thought maybe a photography competition might be fun. But perhaps you might come up with other ideas that tickle your fancy.
Let us know here...

:-)

ideas for ICT integration please

Hey educators, parents, Room5ians, kids from other schools - how can we use mobile phones, pda's, digital and video cameras, interwritepads, and so forth, meaningfully in class? how do we deal with the costs? does anyone use p.d.a. phones or use mobiles for remote learning, sending info to a class blog or anything? i'm imagining using a powerful mobile phone to video something off site, like at an art gallery or museum, add narration and send it to this blog for class use. how do we do that?

ideas please.

Does anyone want to do joint class projects with us?

[Are you still out there Pitt Island school???]

question for educators [no doubt some of my students will read this and comment anyway]

do you believe the students should have access to the "real world" of the net, with guidance, advice, cyber safety education, monitoring by school IT administrator, etc, or should they be restricted from genuine net access and genuine collaborative social software and interaction because of the possibility of access to inappropriate content?
I ask because I am trying to achieve genuine interactive learning and there are pressures to restrict my class's access to the internet to avoid any possibility of "something going wrong".
essentially, my 10-12 year old GATE [gifted and talented education] students can learn online with greater richness and possibilities of interaction and feedback, or they can be restricted to a contained environment.
What do you think? In this case, a contract is signed by all students and if that is breached then they lose their rights to net access.
i sincerely hope some of our "readers" will begin to contribute to enable us to justify our current blogging format.