Ulearn08 Inquiry Learning with ICT Integration

This is for the teachers at Ulearn, kids... but you are most welcome to leave relevant comments.

"...compared to that, we (bloggers) are just a cult.
I think that what we are doing is extraordinarily important. We are drilling through barriers that insist on keeping things the same. But the barriers persist. Too many schools still can’t view blog pages, podcasts, or other social sites. Most teachers have no time built into their work schedules to participate in these conversations. Way too many children do not have access to the technology they need to become in any way acquainted with today’s information landscape. The concepts of Web 2.0 remain couched in tech-speak that is either to esoteric for many to understand or it down-right turns people off."
http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/


But back to me - I find blogging to be incredibly valuable as a tool that provides my yr 7 GATE students with a forum for their discussions, an outlet for their passions, ideas and creativity. Within the online forum it provides the students get to feel their work and ideas are important, valued, interesting and worth sharing.

By not making it private and "secure" students are able to experience the thrill of making new friends, sharing thoughts and questions with an exciting and fresh audience. We now have friends all around the world who add interest and vitality to our blogging world. Our Clustermap has registered nearly 8000 hits worldwide since March this year.
[See example: Mr Teehan and his class in New Jersey - blogging, skype]

In our inquiry unit we used our personal blogs to compile information and images which were relevant to our study.
[See Mudpies, Kittymilo, Snowgirl, Hamiltron, Roo, Rosiegal, etc. for examples]

The HCC communications manager, Agent S, as she is known to us, was delighted by our use of ICTs and became our very own mobile blogging agent during the Hamilton400 street races.

As we took field trips and attended City Expos as exhibitors, we noticed we have a graffiti problem. We met Constable Craig and competed in an anti-graffiti poster competition.

We met the directors of the city museums and libraries and discussed ways in which we coudl become more involved in creation of 21st century spaces and exhibitions.

Digital story telling - MARVIN

Interwoven threads...
Kids use Blogger, and Glogster to create and share content. They embed polls, hyperlinks, mobile blogging images and text. They debate, argue, support, affirm, question, share, create, enjoy and work things out.
Why stop them? If you are not an expert, it doesn't matter.
Remember what Prensky told us - they are the Digital Natives...let them play :-)

Room5ian Blogging Tips:
How to get a Clustermap in your blog
How to mobile blog

Food Debate

In class today a stunning debate was raised about the quality of food available and whether or not it is worth us discussing it. Some people thought it was important to debate food quality because we cared for the general health of our society. Others thought that you can't blame fastfood companies for the behaviour of its customers - i.e. choosing to eat an imbalanced diet or creating litter. So, what do you think? Do we have a responsibility as informed members of society to spread knowledge? Or should we keep our opinions to ourselves and let individuals make their own choices , even if it leads to poor health. At what point does it become a group issue how individuals behave?
Can you relate this kind of reasoning to other issues in society? When do the rights of the majority mean we should interfere with personal choices? In what ways does the government make choices for us for the benefit of others? Do teachers do it? Do families do it?
Well done for thinking, justifying and expressing opinions.

The MechBoy Initiative

Mech Boy has inspired me to post an assignment for you:

List here in the comments a person you think has been the most influential in terms of advancing human knowledge and technology. Please also say what they are noteworthy for and why you think it is so important. Justify your opinion.

More tasks later - let's see who we come up with first...

Here's a little help from a person on the net...
http://www.dlmark.net/hundred.htm

The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History
Revised and Updated for the Nineties
by Michael H. Hart

Mr. Hart's very interesting book contains biographies of all the following people, ranked in order from most influential to less influential, along with the author's reasons for so ranking them. The book is available at most bookstores and libraries.

The links will take you to a site on the Web about the person named
(not to a chapter in the book).

• Muhammad • Isaac Newton • Jesus Christ • Buddha • Confucius • St. Paul • Ts'ai Lun • Johann Gutenberg • Christopher Columbus • Albert Einstein • Louis Pasteur • Galileo Galilei • Aristotle • Euclid • Moses • Charles Darwin • Shih Huang Ti • Augustus Caesar • Nicolaus Copernicus • Antoine Laurent Lavoisier • Constantine the Great • James Watt • Michael Faraday • James Clerk Maxwell • Martin Luther • George Washington • Karl Marx • Orville and Wilbur Wright • Genghis Kahn • Adam Smith • Edward de Vere • John Dalton • Alexander the Great • Napoleon Bonaparte • Thomas Edison • Antony van Leeuwenhoek • William T.G. Morton • Guglielmo Marconi • Adolf Hitler • Plato • Oliver Cromwell • Alexander Graham Bell • Alexander Fleming • John Locke • Ludwig van Beethoven • Werner Heisenberg • Louis Daguerre • Simon Bolivar • Rene Descartes • Michelangelo • Pope Urban II • 'Umar ibn al-Khattab • Asoka • St. Augustine • William Harvey • Ernest Rutherford • John Calvin • Gregor Mendel • Max Planck • Joseph Lister • Nikolaus August Otto • Francisco Pizarro • Hernando Cortes • Thomas Jefferson • Queen Isabella I • Joseph Stalin • Julius Caesar • William the Conqueror • Sigmund Freud • Edward Jenner • Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen • Johann Sebastian Bach • Lao Tzu • Voltaire • Johannes Kepler • Enrico Fermi • Leonhard Euler • Jean-Jacques Rousseau • Nicoli Machiavelli • Thomas Malthus • John F. Kennedy • Gregory Pincus • Mani • Lenin • Sui Wen Ti • Vasco da Gama • Cyrus the Great • Peter the Great • Mao Zedong • Francis Bacon • Henry Ford • Mencius • Zoroaster • Queen Elizabeth I • Mikhail Gorbachev • Menes • Charlemagne • Homer • Justinian I • Mahavira •

Runner-ups:

• St. Thomas Aquinas • Archimedes • Charles Babbage • Cheops • Marie Curie • Benjamin Franklin • Mohandas Gandhi • Abraham Lincoln • Ferdinand Magellan • Leonardo da Vinci •

Biographies and other information about many of these people and their works may be found at Access Foundation's Encyclopedia Britannica's Great Books site.

V8's - good, bad or undecided?

What's your opinion? I'm interested in informed opinions only. Not just repeated prejudices or vague ideas about what might be true. Find out the facts by reading all the different articles, policies, strategies, etc in class. Ask people. Interview People. Analyze the information then decide for yourself what you think is a fair position to take. Be prepared to justify your opinion.
And thank you for being so wonderful.

cultural perceptions

With one of our most important days of th eyear comign up - WAITANGI DAY - I find myself reflecting upon the nature of Maoridom, the state of our nation, our cultural values and so forth.

What do you think about Waitangi Day? What does it mean to you?

What do you picture in your head when someone brings up Maaori [two a's to show the long vowel sound] culture?

No doubt there will be many haka, wero, etc on show at various events around the country this week, but is that the only important expression of Maori culture we could be experiencing?

Read this article for some interesting opinions.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10490483

Theologian Dr Jenny Te Paa has been critical of what she sees as male aggression - "staunchness" - becoming celebrated in Maori culture, as evidenced by the haka.
Other features such as kindness, gentleness, hospitality and integrity did not get nearly the same attention as the haka or taki, she said.
"The question is, how do we want to be for ourselves first and foremost? Dr Te Paa said.
"We're not alone in this world and I think it does matter how we behave and how we perceive ourselves and therefore how other people will see us."

I would like us to think about this significant day. No doubt some of you have been bored by studying it year in, year out. Some of you may have extreme opinions based on what you have heard adults saying. Some of you may simply not care and resist engaging in a discussion about our history. I believe it is important and would like to find a way to bring the subject alive for you without making it tedious.

Any ideas?

Here are some facts...

The signing of the Treaty
The Treaty of Waitangi was first signed at Waitangi on 6 February 1840. It represented an agreement between the British Crown and over 500 Māori chiefs of New Zealand.
There are a number of reasons why a treaty was seen to be needed. These included the increasing lawlessness of traders and settlers necessitating some form of governance, and the interest of other countries such as France and America in colonising New Zealand. The Crown recognised New Zealand as an independent nation after the signing of the Declaration of Independence (1835); consequently, any issues regarding governance needed the formal agreement of Māori.
This agreement took the form of the Treaty.

http://www.tki.org.nz/r/hot_topics/waitangi_e.php

More info about our history here:

http://www.enzed.com/hist.html

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.