Great Website!

Working backwards...

I was given the link of storybird.com to look at. It is a fantastic website to help students become inspired when writing narratives. With this tool (and teachers can sign up a class!), students start with the pictures, provided by the website, and create their own storybook. I had a go: read my story "The Lost Fairy". You can even read stories created by others. Great site to visit!

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In other news...

My uni lecturer places numerous resources and readings on our class forum. The reading "UNESCO evaluation shows student achievement increases by combining professional learning, compelling interactive digital content and technology in the classroom" by Dell (the computing company) identifies a study in Brazil that demonstrated how technology assisted student performance in schools. It is a short reading that has some valuable points. 

Food for thought:

The funny thing is that this video is probably already outdated!

One student from my uni course brought The Horizon Report to our attention. This is a great eye-opener for K-12 teachers. It basically lists the future of education in terms of technology. Some future directions for the classroom include:

• Cloud computing: this is basically (in as simple terms as possible) a virtual environment for storing files. Most cloud applications allow the manipulation of data in some way, such as editing. It is a cost effective solution for data storage for schools. (Some cloud applications are listed and I might have a look at them later...)
• Mobiles: what potential do mobile phones have in the classroom? Imagine a classroom where every student comes to school with a mobile device of some description (iPad, SMARTphone, Notebook) and uses that device to access the school network and Internet. The school would not need to purchase the latest state-of-the-art computing equipment for students to use and students would probably respect an item that is their own than an item belonging to the school. Something to ponder...
• Game-based learning: why can't we use computer games to teach a concept. Why not use role playing games to teach students what conditions were like for a convict on the First Fleet, or how to manage a small business using a virtual business program?

There are a lot more, but these are the ones that 'jumped' out at me. Enjoy the read!