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Andrew Douch
Wanganui Park Secondary College, Shepparton, Victoria
Andrew Douch created a virtual classroom where students and teachers share information,
lessons and projects. Students are using the forum to publish oral and visual presentations
they?ve created with various technologies, while teachers are setting up discussion
groups, forums and quizzes on MSN®. A Microsoft® Office SharePoint® site enables
content to be automatically distributed to students? mobile devices, inboxes and
a public forum.
Andrew runs professional development on weekly basis to help colleagues use technology
and as a result 80 percent of teachers at the school are using Office SharePoint
sites with their classes and 20 percent are using podcasts.
"We?re seeing a 10 percent improvement in student achievement in VCEA exams as a
result of using these new approaches. Students are much more engaged. Podcasting
removes barriers between groups, for example, gender, social, year and school groups.
This is truly innovative, because it redefines the idea of ?classroom? There are
more than 2000 students across the world that are joining in in the podcasts, and
they often respond by sending in emails and their own content for the podcasts."
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Andrew Lord
Spence Primary School, Aberfoyle Primary School Campus, South Australia
How do you help students transform personal experiences into shared stories? Andrew
Lord introduced digital media to help young students express themselves, build self-esteem
and learn new skills. The students are using blogging and online resources to produce
multimedia texts incorporating Web pages, video and audio.
“By tightly incorporating new technologies into the classroom, I’ve
engaged students in richer tasks that promote independent thought, problem solving
and critical thinking,” says Andrew. “For example, they produced a CD
of their own dance music, recorded an opera and created an intranet postcard service.
They even made a film about school bullying – all using Microsoft-based technologies.”
Because the students’ work is easily viewed online, parents are more engaged
in their children’s learning and have a greater understanding of school directions
and priorities so they can offer support.
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Jennifer Lobb
Anula Primary School, Northern Territory
Jennifer Lobb developed an online community where Year 4 and 5 students and their
parents can participate in lessons from anywhere. Using Janison Toolbox, a component-based
learning management system, students built a collaborative Web site where they can
store book reviews, stories and wikis.
Accessible from school or home, this learning space enables students to interact
safely with others around the world using a range of technologies. And it means
students with disabilities or long-term absences can stay in touch with classmates
and keep up with their studies.
Jennifer encourages students to involve their families so they can support their
children through learning. Jennifer comments: "Students started out working alone,
but they quickly began collaborating. Before long they would complete assignments
or projects at home with their parents, then show me their joint achievements the
following day."
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Marie Leech & Heather Wessling
Kurwongbah State School, Petrie, Queensland
It?s not easy to achieve a sustainable community when untamed critters with bad
attitudes are out to spoil it. Learning how to solve these problems and more while
playing the Xbox 360? game Viva Piñata? helped Marie Leech and Heather Wessling?s
year 6 and 7 students understand critical relationships within ecosystems. As they
played, they achieved Science outcomes and developed skills in other subjects, including
English, Mathematics and Art.
Viva Piñata provides a fantastical digital environment to which students must lure
wild cybercreatures called piñatas. It?s up to each student to choose the piñatas
they want to attract, care for them and maintain a sustainable community. They can
spend resources, for example, chocolate coins, to adjust their ecosystems to suit
their favourite piñatas.
The game offered a valuable learning experience for teachers and students alike.
Heather says, ?We found our role shifted from teacher to facilitator of learning
experiences.? Students were so enthusiastic that Marie and Heather decided to produce
a chatroom devoted to the game. Marie says, ?Students can discuss Viva Piñata online
and participate in blogs and forums to share tips and tricks."
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Pat McMahon
Diamond Valley College, Diamond Creek, Victoria
For many students, there's nothing more exciting than building something. For Pat
McMahon's students, it's robots - and technology skills.
Students start by recording their ideas and developing designs using Microsoft®
Visual Basic® and CAD. They then construct their own programmable microcontrollers
using various self-diagnostic tools and tutorials. Projects range from light-and-tune
models to infrared-controlled LEDs, tanks, hexapods and robots. Some can read and
display temperature, sense colour, test fabric for sun-smart qualities, run servo
motors and even control pneumatic devices. The students use a variety of tools to
complement their design work, including Windows Media® Player and Microsoft® Office
PowerPoint®.
Pat McMahon comments: ?Technology enables students to understand and digitally record
their experiences. They also learn from constructing, testing, programming and diagnosing
faults. I?ve found that students are highly motivated to complete their designs
and then proudly share them with others.?
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Robin McKean and Raelene Beecher
St Hilda?s Anglican School for Girls, Mosman Park, Western Australia
At St Hilda?s, Year 5 students are journeying around the world without leaving the
school grounds. Using GPS coordinates and Microsoft-based PDAs, Robin McKean and
Raelene Beecher designed a virtual journey so that students could visit and compare
different communities. At every step of the way, they?re developing mapping and
other skills as they collate and analyse all the data, both virtual and real.
It all started with Antarctica. Robin McKean explains: "Using Microsoft® Office,
Microsoft® Photo Story and third party applications we simulated a trip to Antarctica.
Students used PDAs and headphones to locate and investigate land forms, species
and food webs ? and of course uncover environmental issues. They roamed around using
the PDAs to find the next clue ? a little like ?The Amazing Race?."
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Roxanne Steenbergen and Wendy Fletcher
Claremont and Lenah Valley Primary Schools, Hobart, Tasmania
Although Roxanne Steenbergen and Wendy Fletcher teach in schools that are 12 kilometres
apart, their students are learning about chemistry in the same classroom.
Cool Chemistry is a virtual classroom with content developed using Microsoft technologies.
It provides hands-on activities so Grade 4 and 5 students can investigate chemistry
concepts. As they discover chemistry, they can share ideas, results and reports
online. And with a practising chemist on hand, they can get answers to their curliest
questions. They used Microsoft® Photo Story and Microsoft® Office PowerPoint® to
communicate their findings to their school communities.
Roxanne says: "Primary school students don?t often have an opportunity to study
chemistry, and we wanted them to experience it as a fun, exciting subject from the
start. Motivation and excitement was high as children saw and heard what those in
the other school were doing. They could see if experiments turned out the same way
in different hands and ask the chemist why it happened."
At the end of the class students work in teams to construct an alien, a genetically
engineered creature or a city of the future, then present their creation to the
class. That proved fatal for the edible alien, a sentient being in the form of a
cake. By the end of the class it was no more.
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Tim Gorrod
Buladelah Central School, NSW
Tim Gorrod inspires Year 7 and 8 students to build technology skills and collaborate
online by asking them to produce a claymation short film.
The project spans all key learning areas. Tim explains: "Students do scripting and
storyboards. They compose original music, design and construct sets and produce
clay figures for the stop-frame animation. Also quite a lot of calculation is involved
in timing the animation. So students develop many skills across all their subjects
and have fun at the same time."
The students use Microsoft technologies to make their films and communicate and
collaborate using a Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Web portal. And when they?re finished,
they upload their films to the portal and viewers rate them. Top-rated movies are
screened at a gala night where family and friends are invited to tread the red carpet
with the school?s budding filmmakers.
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Todd George
Port Lincoln High School, South Australia
Todd George Port Lincoln High School, South Australia In the remote Eyre Peninsula,
44 students spread across 42,995 square kilometres are using webcams to get a fresh
perspective on learning. Todd George and Peter Tokarski introduced videoconferencing
to help them stay in touch and develop personal skills, community and school relationships,
and educational and career opportunities through sport.
Todd has found videoconferencing a very effective way to engage isolated or disinclined
students and connect them to learning. At Port Lincoln it has boosted indigenous
attendance, as students who do well often go on to attend other classes. Teachers
benefit too, with weekly videoconferencing greatly enhancing collaboration.
Todd says: "One disengaged Year 11 student was the only senior secondary student
enrolled in his school and he stayed on because this program was offered. Now he
is an engaged student, passing all subjects, with an apprenticeship on the horizon
and an Australian Football Scholarship."
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