2002 ICT News and
Ideas
Last updated 13/12/2002
DEET Initiatives
- eLearning Planning Guide
- Staff Purchase of Notebooks
Annual Computer Census
Schools
need to complete their Annual Computer Census as at February 28 2002
by Friday March 8. Details of previous School census will be found at
www.eduweb.vic.gov.au/computercensus which is accessed by the schools
official Edumail account. Instructions emailed to Principals mid
February.
New ISPs
DEET has moved away from its policy of preferred ISPs for Internet
access. Following the revision of charges from Telstra, schools
should be aware of the significant increases in charges. These
increases could drastically alter ICT Budgets for Internet access.
Schools connected to Telstra (EduNet) may stay at the new rate on a
monthly basis. They should shop around as their are significant
differences between the charges and options for access ( e.g. yearly
access, number of email addresses, download costs, filtering and
etc.). Details from ISPs are currently arriving in schools by Email
and postal mail such as:
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Telstra (EduNet)
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GSAT
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AAPT
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Netspace
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Bright Sparks
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My
Internet (EduNet 's supplier of SINA) have just recently communicated
their intention to provide their software and act as the ISP directly
to schools from July 2002 at a signicicantly reduced rate. At this
stage Telstra will still be the provider of the VicOne ISP
service.
eLearning Planning Guide
- This eLearning Planning Guide will supersede the Learning
Technologies Guide and will ensure that schools have the necessary
information to create their plan at their finger tips.
- The eLearning Planning Guide is a web-based resource
(http://www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/lt/pguide/index.htm)
for school leadership teams and other key school personnel, who
are expanding and consolidating the use of eLearning within their
school and updating their 3-year eLearning (Learning Technologies)
Plan.
- The Guide contains conceptual and background information,
hints and tips for tasks in the planning process - as well as
support items including case study examples, sample documents and
links to other useful information.
- The content of the Guide is divided into 5 sections, which
take you through the process of developing an eLearning vision and
strategies, preparing the budget and eLearning Plan - obtaining
approval of the Plan and carrying out ongoing reviews.
- The Guide includes downloadable word documents and templates,
which can be used to produce your valuable working document.
- The final draft will be provided to schools in early
2002.
ICT Initiatives Funding Relief - Bridging the Digital
Divide
As announced by Minister for Education, the Hon Mary Delahunty,
there will be some joy from current State Budget to support schools
in the upgrade and maintenance of ICT hardware - Bridging the Digital
Divide. Schools should have details with their indicative IT
Grant
- New
computers delivered free to schools in Term 1 2002. Tender won by
ACER.
- Networking assistance delivered over next 3 years by ITD
- Continuing IT Grants - schools must use these as
designated
Notebooks
- Next
round of Notebooks need to be allocated by March 8 2002
- New Tender sees IBM replace ACER. Apple Notebooks should be
available in Term 1 2002.
- Second notebook for teachers - teachers can buy (lump sum);
leasing available from IBM and salary packaging is still with ATO
because of the FBT implications. Details should be in schools in
early Term 1 2002
- Follow this link about Notebooks for extra assistance.
- http://www.horshamps.vic.edu.au/notebook.htm
EdChannel
Education Channel Follow the link on our home page to browse this
fantastic resource - http://www.education.vic.gov.au
SOFNet
- Educational television programs via satellite to schools
- All Government and Catholic schools have access
- Includes access to Discovery, National Geographic, CNN and
Weather21 through partnership with Austar to country secondary
colleges
- Negotiating for country primary schools
EduConf and NetMeeting
- Installation of USB Camera - $110
- Camera can be used for still and video capture
- MS NetMeeting Configuration (once only)
- Headphones - $15
http://www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/lt/telemat/index.htm
EduMail
Outlook - EduMail and EduLibrary video. A school copy of how to
use Outlook and EduMail and EduLibrary should be in your school. This
goes for 12 minutes and is worth watching by everyone.
EduMail Please check this at least a couple of times a week. There
is a DEET campaign within the Region and across the state to increase
use of EduMail. Check it daily is a great idea
VicOne Upgrades
Schools can apply for an upgrade from 64K to 512K for the
additional cost of only $3557. Normally this would be the cost of
upgrading to only 128K. It is a recognition that as both the
Administration and Curriculum networks share the same ISDN line that
it cannot cope with the demands of CASES 21 and particularly HRMS
which can take up to 2/3 of 64K bandwidth.
Note
well that the 512K upgrade will not be available in the Wimmera until
the end of 2001 when AAPT completes its broadband rollout - maximum
currently 128K. Schools should be notified Term 4 2001.
EduNet (My Internet)
Help, FAQs, Manuals and support for EduNet service is available at
http://www.edunethelp.vic.schools.au
EduNet's current plan is to upgrade during the Term holidays - a
few features at a time. See Education Times or My Internet web site
for details of training sessions in your area. http://www.myinternet.com.au/2002_activities/
My Internet
My Internet New Features gives more choices and a new pop out menu
style.Check out:
- My Mail - formally Dingo Mail web mail
- Calendar feature
- Internet Projects
- Opportunity to alter color schemes and add or delete
features
- Noticeboards
- We use 3 Noticeboards
- School - staff information
- Student - student information
- Learning Technologies - updates and information specific
to ICT
See the My Internet site at http://www.myinternet.com.au
for
Training site for My Internet at http://www.training.myinternet.com.au/index.html
Hardware
HP Printers
- Tender available through Computelec. Excellent prices
Software
- Virus
scanners - Norton replace McAfee from Term 4 2001
- Microsoft
products now available through Ipex (New Tender) - $8 - $18
- Software Rolling Fund - ordered through EdSoft - pay
upfront
Other Retailers
Some of our recent good purchases
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Application
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Suitable
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Comments
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Application
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Application
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Comments
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JumpStart Kindergarten
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JumpStart Grade One
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Smart Start Italian
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Kid Pix Studio Deluxe 3
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Websters History of Australia
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HyperStudio 4
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Excellent
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First Fleet Journey
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TextEase
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Goldfields
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Math's Circus
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Excellent
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Math's Made Easy 1
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Phonics Alive #3
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Cloze Wizard
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Excellent
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Let's Go Shopping
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Excellent
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PM Storybooks Red and Orange
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Maths Goes Mental
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Excellent
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Crossword Wizard
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Excellent
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Maths Wizard
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Australian Teachers Workshop
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Kidspiration
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Excellent
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Collaborative Projects
Some of my favorite Collaborative Project Sites
Projects.PDF
Global Classroom Project
- Valuable Victorian teacher designed web site of collaborative
projects for schools.
- Select projects by CSFII level, KLA, involvement or topic to
find them
- Several excellent GC Projects developed in CHW
- Funding is available each December for developing projects
normally in $1000 - $3000 range - use for time release, software,
attending PD, materials required
Assessment and Reports
What are schools using?
- Word,. including mail merge
- FileMaker Pro
- Locally created programs - using Visual Basic, C+++, etc.
- Report Wizard
- MarkBook
File Maker Pro
A really useful database application for creating student profiles
in Early and Middle Years as well as whole school Report Formats.
Australian Teachers Workshop
Excellent program that uses FileMaker Pro to create teacher
classroom resources
ICT and Professional Development
- Note that the fantastic PD programs Computing Across the
Primary Curriculum (CAPC) and Learning with the Internet (LWTI)
are no longer being offered by DEET. Online information is still
available. Hopefully something new will come to the fore.
- Check the WimmeraNet PD calendar. Learning with the Internet
CD and some Self Paced Learning CDs all at the library.
- Numerous books in the teacher reference section of the library
and a range of publications I have created and collected -> see
Ian C Several staff at this school have excellent skills. Check
people in your unit
- Information and Communication Technologies in Education
Victoria (formerly CEGV) - http://www.ictev.vic.edu.au
- Victoian Information Technology Teachers Association (VITTA) -
http://www.vitta.cc.au.com/
- ASET - Australian Society for Educational Technology -
http://www.global-ed.com/aset2002
- Tammy's Technology Tips for Teachers (US) http://www.essdack.org/tips/index.html
Professional Development issues and SchoolKiT Pedera
- Pedera Online delivers SchoolKiT's Professional Development
training directly to teachers and in the familiar paradigm of the
class or study group.
- Pedera courses are primarily short workshops that teachers can
complete within hours or days. They are designed to accommodate a
teacher's heavy schedule and the time they can set aside.
- Pedera allows administrators of schools to maintain their own
users. SchoolKiT publishes flexible class schedules, accepts user
registrations for classes and runs and manages those classes.
Administrators can track the activity of their staff, course
completion rates and user satisfaction.
http://pedera.schoolkit.com/skpd/default.asp
Class Ideas
Digital Portfolios
Each student has their own individual folder on the Curriculum
Network Server. When Students logon they have access to the S drive
which has folders for Year level, Class Group and individual students
- they contain student files, photos and some work samples
CSFII Ideas
- Can't think of anything else to do besides word processing. I
have attempted to collate some ideas for you to use in your
classroom with your children.
- See ICT support including 6 of the Best and ICT Scope and
Sequence or try the Leading Idea Bank on SOFWeb
- See ICT activities on curriculum@work CD
Great learning with SchoolKiT and MS Office
- SchoolKiT is K-12 learning activity software that helps
educators integrate technology and curriculum. The curriculum
based activities are all designed by Australian teachers and
provide step by step instructions about how to use the appropriate
MS Office product with plenty of extension activities.
- SchoolKiT ENACTZ activities present powerful learning
experiences, and are designed so that good teachers, whether they
are technology experts or not, can pick them up and implement them
quickly and easily in their own classrooms. http://enactz.schoolkit.com/
- Now on the Victorian Rolling Fund, the 'Microsoft Office
add-on for education' is a demonstration copy for you to take home
to try out SchoolKiT.
- You can visit the website http://www.schoolkit.com/Corporate/
for more information and download 20 free activities
Headsets
- Combination microphone and earphones. $15 through State
Supply
Classroom Organisation
- Stick rigidly to your timetable. 30 minutes every week with
some occasional extra time is better than an hour once a
month
- Plan to have 1-2 hours free each day where you have time for
catching up kids or doing a different activity.
- Select 3-4 programs that you know well
- e.g. MS Office or Claris Office, Kid Pix Studio Deluxe,
Encarta, TextEase, HyperStudio, email/WWW and plan the majority of
your class programs around those.
Information and Communication Technologies Taskgroup
- At Horsham 298 we created this key reference group to provide
support and input into Information and Communication Technologies
at Horsham Primary School.
- I believe that being a member of this group is a great benefit
to members and the resultant work of major significance to Horsham
298.
Our 2002 priorities
- Development of a shared vision with all stakeholders to
develop a shared ownership of eLearning Plan
- Audit of what we have (current status) - networking, hardware,
software, staff and student skills, PD,
- Revision of eLearning Plan including AUP (Acceptable Use
Policy)General aim that all students (more particularly Year 2 -
6) can create multimedia presentations using various software
- Broaden use of ICT across KLAs particularly Science, Arts,
Mathematics and Health and Physical Education - revision of KLA
ideas, Scope and Sequence and software database
- School PD for all staff in ICT - note 40 hours mandatory with
notebooks
- PD for reluctant staff
- ICT teacher support for ICT leaders
- Expand use of digital portfolios on curriculum
serverEvaluation of student skills
- Upgrade ISDN link
- Video conferencing - across school
- Further develop school Intranet for publication of student
work and staff PD
- RAS developed for staff
- Quality peripherals - including LaserJet printers
- access@schools program at 298 including increased community
usage of ICT facilities
What's Coming Up
Budgets spending to be finalised. Don't forget to order disks,
printer cartridges, paper and other consumables to get you through
until end of year.
Information and Communication Technologies and Students
- We need to recognise that we are working with a new media
- Projects need to accommodate needs of teachers who are unsure
of expectations and students who feel more comfortable in digital
environment
- Many Projects work on Big Bang Theory - Launch It + Announce
It = Success will follow
Student Mindset - according to Frand
- Computers are not technology
- The Internet is better than TV
- Reality is no longer real
- Doing is more important than knowing
- Experimentation (Nintendo:- trial and error) is preferable to
Logic
- Multitasking is a way of life
- Typing is preferable to handwriting
- Staying connected is essential
- There is zero tolerance for delays
- The lines between consumer and creator are blurring
Where to from Here - Recent Video Conference with Paul Doherty
- former Manager of IT Branch
- Paul made the general statement that we have made enormous
changes in the development and delivery of IT in schools but
likened it to a football match in that we were coming up to the
all important premiership or 3rd quarter.
- We have developed a large infrastructure, provided extensive
opportunities for teacher PD and now it was important that we
create the widespread curriculum content using ICT
