Here is an interesting article courtesy of Best Colleges Online . Com
“To us, virtual high schools sound like something from The Jetsons, but instead of existing in a world with robot maids and flying cars, they’re here today, and they are really cool. These online schools offer incredible opportunities to homeschoolers, dropouts returning to high school, students with busy schedules, and others who just enjoy the freedom, flexibility, and opportunity provided by virtual learning. We’ve discovered 10 really impressive virtual high schools, including tuition-free and even 3D virtual world schools, that we hope you’ll check out”.
Read more at: Best Colleges Online . Com
Thanks to Tim Handorf for this article. If you have an interestig article or news item that you would like featured on Digital Learning World then drop me a line at cliver@digitallearningworld.com
A warm welcome back from your Easter/New Year holidays. It’s time once again to look ahead at upcoming opportunities for conferences, collaboration and professional networking.
Here are some upcoming conferences from now until the summer:
NAACE Primary ICT Subject Leaders
Naace Enhanced Award course for Primary ICT Leaders will begin on 8 May 2012.
An extended course over two terms delivered through a blended learning approach including online meetings, moderated online discussions,email contact with the course tutor, online self-study, reading and completion of directed tasks.
‘UNITY IN DIVERSITY’ 2012 COBIS Annual Conference
Saturday, 12th May – Monday 14th May, 2012
Park Plaza Victoria, London SW1V 1EQ
ISTE 2012
ISTE 2012 – San Diego Convention Center – June 24th – 27th
Cambridge International Education Conference
A Teaching conference for Teaching Professionals
Cambridge UK – July 16th – 17th
IADIS ELearning Conference
Lisbon, Portugal – 17th – 20th July 2012
International Primary Curriculum Summer School
International School of The Hague,
Den Haag, The Netherlands
23rd-25th July 2012
Check out the AACE World Conference schedule at: http://aace.org/conf/
If you have any conferences, events or opportunities for professional networking that you would like to promote then please let me know 
cliver@digitallearningworld.com
OK, I know it’s been a while since I looked at categories 1 & 2 but better late than never!
You can refresh your memory by reviewing previous categories here:
The third in this series of looking at the categories of Blooms Digital Taxonomy – that of applying.
As Blooms Digital Taxonomy states:
‘Before you can analyse a concept or fact you must apply it’ – Students must be able to interpret, summarise and explain specific information.
The Key Verbs associated with applying are:
Again this list is not exhaustive and there are probably many more emerging applications that could be included. If you have a favourite that you would like to share then please add a comment.
Next time: Category 4 – Analysing
Self Review Framework for the ICT Mark/ITEM
Part two of my review of the NAACE ICT Mark and ITEM looks at the Self-review framework (SRF), which provides a structured method to review your school’s use of ICT and its impact on school improvement. The SRF is free to use and is linked to national standards for ICT and will help you to:
- Understand what “good” use of ICT looks like
- Benchmark your progress against other schools
- Identify your strengths
- Create an action plan for improvement
You can sign into the BECTA SRF site at: https://selfreview.becta.org.uk/
The SRF is divided into six elements, which are designed to both support and challenge your school, and you can work through each element at your own pace (* provided courtesy of BECTA).
1. Leadership and management
- Develop and communicate a shared vision for ICT
- Plan a sustainable ICT strategy
- Develop an effective information management strategy
2. Planning
- Plan for the development of pupils’ ICT capability
- Plan the use of ICT to support the curriculum and respond to new technologies
- Ensure pupils’ ICT experiences are progressive, coherent, balanced and consistent
- Identify and evaluate the impact of ICT on learning and teaching
3. Learning
- Plan the use of ICT to enhance learning and teaching
- Meet pupils’ expectations for the use of ICT
- Consider the impact of ICT on learning
4. Assessment of ICT capability
- Assess ICT capability of pupils’ to support their learning
- Use assessment evidence and data in planning learning and teaching across the whole curriculum
- Assess the learning in specific subjects when ICT has been used
5. Professional development
- Identify and address the ICT training needs of your school and individual staff
- Provide quality support and training activities for all staff in the use of ICT sharing effective practice
- Review, monitor and evaluate professional development as an integral part of the development of your school
6. Resources
- Ensure learning and teaching environments use ICT effectively and in line with strategic needs
- Purchase, deploy and review appropriate ICT resources that reflect your school improvement strategy
- Manage technical support effectively for the benefit of pupils and staff
Once your school has reached a certain level on the SRF you can then move forward and apply for the ICT Mark/ITEM.
The ICT Mark and ITEM
The ICT Mark is an accreditation for schools that have reached nationally agreed levels within the self-review framework. Schools accredited with the ICT Mark standard are demonstrating that they are committed to using technology to improve their overall effectiveness and efficiency.
The continued development of the ICT Mark by NAACE, supported by the Department for Education is supporting schools to raise standards by using the Self-review Framework. Celebrate putting technology at the heart of learning in your school by working towards the ICT Mark.
The International Technology in Education Mark (ITEM) is an Internationally recognised accreditation based on the ICT Mark and ISTE NETS. Accredited by NAACE, which is a UK based ISTE affiliate, ITEM provides the framework for International schools to self-review their technology provision throughout all areas of the school from administration and management to curriculum technology integration.
The Benefits of the ICT Mark/ITEM
The ICT Mark/ITEM can help your school to demonstrate the effective use of technology throughout a range of initiatives and as ICT reaches deeply into the core of all school activities the ICT Mark/ITEM can provide widespread benefits across many aspects of school life.
Applying for ICT Mark/ITEM assessment and achieving accreditation can offer your school a number of benefits*:
- Provides an opportunity to celebrate success
- Verifies your own self-review judgements
- Recognises whole school improvement
- Provides an opportunity to be seen as centre of excellence
- Tells suppliers that you are an informed customer
- Provides you with credibility for hosting visits and providing services
- Provides an opportunity for learners to celebrate their use of ICT
- Gives parents confidence that technology is being used effectively
- Informs parents that you offer better communication to families and homes
- Informs other schools and organisations that you are a potential partner for extending opportunities for learning through technology
- Raises public recognition of good practice in the use of ICT
- Strengthens your bids for involvement in new initiatives
- Recognises your commitment to self-review and evaluation
- Recognises your commitment and hard work
- Includes promotional material and guidance on how to use the ICT Mark to promote your school.
* Benefits listed courtesy of NAACE
As you can see the working towards the ICT Mark/ITEM can benefit your school in many ways.
My next post will look at The Self Review Framework for the ICT Mark/ITEM.
The International Middle Years Curriculum (IMYC) is now gathering momentum as a real opportunity to improve learning and increase engagement of middle school students.
Schools from across the globe are already implementing the IMYC with great success and there is now an opportunity for South East Asian schools to find out more about the IMYC. A free 2-hour ‘Introduction to the IMYC’ information session is scheduled at the upcoming International Primary Curriculum (IPC) South East Asia Summer School at SJI International Elementary School, Singapore, on Friday 9th March 2012.
The ‘Introduction to the IMYC’ information session is for anyone interested in learning about the IMYC and how the IMYC can improve learning and engagement for middle school students.
What will you learn from attending the IMYC information session?
- Some of the background issues in helping 11-14 year-olds learn
- IMYC philosophy and beliefs – the big picture
- Definitions of learning that underpin the IMYC
- The component parts of the IMYC
- Some of the implementation issues in the IMYC
- Why the IMYC has been designed in the way that it has
- Compare your current provision middle school provision with the IMYC
Places for this complimentary session are limited – so hurry and book your place
Email Laura Phillips on laura@greatlearning.com
Whilst creating a ‘Technology Integration’ unit for the Laos University teachers teacher training course I included the blooms Digital Taxonomy Pyramid by Samantha Penney. (click on the image to visit the ‘live’ pyramid)
Not only was this a great way of introducing some new Web 2.0 tools to the university teachers but it also got them thinking about how to use them to ‘get their students thinking’ – in other words to use tools to promote higher order thinking skills.
The pyramid also provides a lot of direct links to some very useful web 2.0 tools.
Just thought I’d share this with you.
Clive R.
Global debate for high school students! Topic: Fighting Racism. Excellent opportunity for international collaboration, not to mention all kinds of geeky-cool technology!
Elimination rounds will be done via VoiceThread, finals will take place in a 3D virtual world!
Registration deadline is Feb. 29th!
http://www.eracismproject.org/
Unity is a revolutionary FREE games/app development tool. Jibe is an affordable multiplayer project kit from ReactionGrid.
Now your students can create their own single/multiplayer 3D games/apps, including Android and Apple with the appropriate license(s)! The e-book is FREE:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/81798024/Jibe-Unity-School-Quick-Start-Guide
If you live in China, Scribd is blocked by The Great Firewall, so get it from SlideShare:
http://www.slideshare.net/davidwdeeds/jibeunity-school-quick-start-guide
Wow! I apologize. It’s been a while since I last posted.
The end of 2011 got crazy…or perhaps I should say crazIER. 
Presented at TechEx 2011 in Bangkok in October…posted about that. Then came the Beijing Learning Summit in November. Global Education Collaborative in December. Otavan Opisto (academy in Finland) in January. Conspicuous lack of posts about these conferences.
But you can see my blog for the slides: http://www.indeeds.com.
In the midst of all that, I conducted a brief but fruitful job search. As of July, I’ll be the Educational Technology Coordinator for Colegios Peterson in Mexico City (http://www.peterson.edu.mx). More on that later.
I’m about to take off for the Flat Classroom Workshop, part of ASB (American School of Bombay) Unplugged. I’ll be talking about, of course, using 3D virtual worlds in international schools. Second Life, OpenSimulator, Quest Atlantis, Minecraft and previews of Alice and Jibe/Unity! See the website:
http://www.asbunplugged.org/flat-classroom.htm
There still might be time to sign up as a virtual participant!
I’m scrambling to get ready, so I’ll post again after I’m back.
Moodle 2 Online Course for Teachers as Course Creators and Class Administrators.
A practical ‘hands on’ Moodle based course that features a Moodle ‘sandbox’ for course creation and development.
Learn individually online or as a group workshop.
Take a look at:
http://www.open4ed.com/moodle/login/index.php
Username: openlearning
Password: Open4Ed! (case sensitive)
Note that this is a temporary login account for review and does not give you access to the sandbox.
As we all get settled into the New Year routine it’s time to look ahead at upcoming opportunities for collaboration and professional networking – Where did January go to?
Here are a few not to be missed happenings:
ISTEC (International Schools Technology Exchange Committee)
This is a ‘free’ opportunity for ICT Teachers/Technicians/IT Directors to get together to share ideas and keep up to date with the latest developments in the world of IT as it affects learning and teaching today.
Bromsgrove International school, Bangkok, Thailand (Wiki)
Friday 10th February 2012 (10:00-15:00)
Twitter Hashtag: #istecbromsgrove
21st Century Learning Conference – Hong Kong
The 21st Century Learning @ Hong Kong conference brings educators from within and beyond the region together to interact with ideas and experiences designed to make them better prepared, informed and enthused to be able to bring out the best in the digital native learners they influence.
StuCon2012 - A student-led technology conference
At HKIS in Hong Kong
Dates: March 16-17, 2012
Flatclassroom Digiteen Project
A global hands-on project for middle and early high school students, (typically Grade 6-9)
Twitter: @digiteen
Global Conference on Technology, Innovation, Media & Education
Online – February 7-9, 2012
IPC South East Asia Summer School
SJI International Elementary School, Singapore
7th – 9th March 2012
If you have any conferences, events or opportunities for professional networking that you would like to promote then please let me know cliver@digitallearningworld.com
NAACE have developed a draft for a new KS3 ICT Curriculum, which was written by Naace Board of Management members Allison Allen and Paul Heinrich.
http://www.naace.co.uk/ks3ictcurriculum
They are now seeking feedback from NAACE members and there will be a dedicated session on Friday 9 March 2012 at the Naace Conference to consider further developments. Email aga.kelly@naace.co.uk
Well, it’s nice to be back home in Phuket after two assignments working away in Vientiane, Laos followed by Christmas and the New Year in the UK.
Hopefully, I can now start to post more regularly with news and views on technology and ICT developments in education.
I have just updated my LinkedIn account to reflect my recent experiences in consultancy for teacher training and e-learning (Moodle) development and will also draw upon some of these experiences to post here. I also need to start tweeting more regularly!
Santa bought me a new Macbook Pro i7 for Christmas – so no excuses now
Best wishes to all,
Clive R.
Ni hao again from Changchun, China! The City Where Internet Access Isn’t Taken Seriously.
This blog post is actually an assignment for my Flat Classroom Certified Teacher Program, specifically for Module #2, “Connect and Reflect.”
http://fcpteacher.flatclassroomproject.org/
To quote from the above website:
“The Flat Classroom® Certified Teacher course aims to train educators to be able to manage a global collaborative project built upon best practices of student collaboration and co-creation as modeled in the Flat Classroom® projects including: Flat Classroom® , Eracism, NetGenEd, Horizon, and Digiteen™ projects. It also aims to provide an opportunity for those interested in managing a Flat Classroom® Project in the future as part of the lead teacher program beginning in March 2011 to develop skills and experience with all facets of the project. Certified Flat Classroom® teachers will become leaders in global collaboration within their schools and internationally and will be sought as partners by those planning global collaboration because of their proven competencies in the technology, technopersonal skills, and best practices of effective global collaborative projects. Those who earn this designation will have proven their competency through this rigorous course.”
If you’re interested in taking the next Flat Classroom Certified Teacher course, you can apply online via http://tinyurl.com/flatclassteachercert or just ask questions via fcp@flatclassroom.org.
OK, now for my tirade. Hey, what’s the point of writing blog posts if you can’t rant and rave every once in a while? Oh, excuse me…in International Baccalaureate terms, ranting and raving is known as REFLECTING. So that’s what I’m doing, reflecting. We’re in the middle of a week-long holiday here in China. I, of course, had all sorts of plans for WORKING and getting caught up on lesson plans, presentations, etc. Saturday night my (well, I should say “our”…everyone in the apartment building) Internet access goes out. Think someone from China Unicom, the huge phone company and ISP, can send someone over to fix it? Nope. The folks at the supermarkets are working…the folks at the gym are working…I would be working all day, if I had Internet access. Here it is Tuesday and I’m at school, just so I can connect.
Now I realize that in the Grand Scheme of Things this doesn’t seem like a terrible problem. But I am “connecting and reflecting,” after all. And what I’m thinking about is how much of a hassle it’s been here in Changchun to maintain steady Internet access. Between work and home, it seems I’m always fussing and fighting with someone, trying in vain to convince various people that I need the Internet to do my job. It’s not China-wide. I’ve talked with people in Beijing and Shanghai, e.g., and they tell me that the importance of 24X7 Internet access is understood. Not so up here in Changchun. And this is one of the reasons why I need to move on.
I’m curious…is Internet access taken seriously in your city/country? How is it that it’s 2011 and there are still lots of folks who don’t get it??
Need to get not just class stuff ready, but to finish preparing for TechEx 2011 in Bangkok! I’ll be leaving in just one week!
http://www.patana.ac.th/TechEx2011/Presentations.asp
I’ll be giving TWO…not one, but TWO…presentations: “Using 3D Virtual Worlds in International Schools” and a follow-up, hands-on session. This is going to be FANTASTIC…computer teachers, teachers of whatever all those other subjects are, technicians, administrators…from all over Asia and the world…together for two days of SHEER GEEKINESS!
That’s a lot of abbreviations in one title.
ISTE = International Society for Technology in Education
VEJ = Virtual Education Journal
Check it out…it’s available online:
http://www.virtualeducationjournal.com/
The story on how international schools are teaching together in Second Life and OpenSimulator is on pages 40-44.
And…don’t forget TechEx(change) 2011…October 13-14 in Bangkok!
Check out this presentations list:
http://www.patana.ac.th/TechEx2011/Presentations.asp
I’m giving not one but TWO presentations: “Using 3D Virtual Worlds in International Schools” plus a hands-on session!
Hope to see you there!
Welcome back everyone,
As you may have noticed I haven’t posted many articles lately as I have been busy working away in Vientiane, Laos.
I have been fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to be involved in the great Strengthening Higher Education Project (SHEP) in Laos.
As part of a team, I have been working for the Laos MOE to develop Laos Teacher Training Professional Development (LTTPD) – Essentially a 12 module competency based training course for the Laos University teachers.
The course is now complete and currently being translated in Laos by our counterparts at the National University of Laos (NUOL). There is still some work to do creating an online version using Moodle 2.0.
I return to Laos this week for another month and will assist in the training of the ‘master trainers’. Some training will take place at NUOL and we will then have three weeks out at Van Vieng to train teachers from Luang Prabang and Champasak universities.
I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience in Laos, learning much in the process – I believe that we have created something quite unique that will considerably strengthen higher education in Laos.
Where to next?
…haha …. I wish I knew. I have no doubt that there will be further in Laos but at present I am on the lookout for further consultancy opportunities – Let me know if you think I can help!
P.S. Many thanks to David Deeds for his excellent posts to my blog during my ‘dormant period’ – If anyone else woulod like to contribute then you are more than welcome.
Folks! My colleague Alex Makosz and I WOWED THE CROWD at the AACE ED-MEDIA Conference in Lisbon! Lots of interest in 3D virtual worlds. We are considerably closer to getting the proverbial ball rolling regarding a K-12 OpenSim grid. Details later. You can get the slides from http://www.indeeds.com or http://www.makosz.org. Keep spreading the word about the free OpenSim e-book. Use Tweet, Facebook, LinkedIn or all three! Thanks!
http://www.hypergridbusiness.com/2011/06/educator-pens-opensim-guide/
Next edtech conference: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education’s (AACE) ED-MEDIA in Lisbon, Portugal:
Co-teacher Alex Makosz and I will present our paper: “Using 3D Virtual Worlds — OpenSimulator, Quest Atlantis — to Teach International School Students Computer Science and Human Values.”
Can’t seem to embed the slides here. No worries. You can get them from SlideShare or from my blog, inDeeds!
Then…on July 30th…I’ll be giving an inworld (Second Life) presentation everyone can attend. My presentation will be just one in a series, entitled “Global Virtual Meeting for Gifted Education in Second Life.” You can get the slides from SlideShare or again, via my blog, inDeeds!
Bavaria Center for Gifted and Talented Children Site
See you ’round the grids after July 10th or so!
They said it couldn’t get done…they said it wouldn’t get done…it [darn] near didn’t get done! Yet here it is, the “OpenSimulator: School Quick Start Guide,” a “one stop shop” for teachers wanting to get their schools started with 3D virtual worlds. It includes an overview, step-by-step setup directions and even sample lesson plans for OpenSimulator (aka OpenSim). Covers Second Life too!
For a couple of years now, I’ve been talking with a wide range of people…the geeks at ReactionGrid…fellow instructors at international and other schools…colleagues met via conferences and meetings, in Real and Second Life…about what’s holding 3D virtual worlds back in education. The consensus was that OpenSimulator, still not quite at Version 1.0 stage, is still too difficult for teachers to work with…some kind of tutorial was needed. Earlier this year, this e-book started off as an online course but that deal fell through…I was distraught for about 15 minutes…until I realized that with some (substantial!) rewriting, we would finally have the guide that’s been needed. Changchun American International School Directors Daniel and Irene Chou, along with Principal Mary Pazsit, agreed that our organization would generously give the e-book free to schools around the world. And so here we are.
Co-teacher Alex Makosz and I will make the big announcement re: the e-book at the upcoming AACE ED-MEDIA Conference in Lisbon. The title of our paper is: “Using 3D Virtual Worlds — OpenSimulator, Quest Atlantis — To Teach International School Students,” the PPTX for which you can get via SlideShare now, or wait until we’ve embedded the slides in this and other blogs. We’ll be directing people to get the e-book from Changchun American International School’s nifty new website, which isn’t ready yet, so wait a week to peek!
You can get your copy from Scribd. If you live in China, Scrib is blocked by The Great Firewall, so you can get it from Join Us in 3D Education!, Alex’s site, or from InDeeds, my blog. Alex has all kinds of interesting resources listed on his site.
Be sure to get the free ReactionGrid .OAR, generously donated by Kyle/Robin Gomboy and Chris Hart.
If you post the .PDF on your website, blog, wiki or ning, we ask that you include the Creative Commons license text in your HTML.
Help us spread the word! Tell teachers, administrators…everybody you think would be interested…about this e-book. Maybe the easiest way to do this would be to share the link to Maria Korolov’s Hypergrid Business ezine story. Be sure to tweet, share on Facebook, etc. Thanks!
