The Australian Paralympic committee website has an excellent photo gallery and information on Australian Paralympians.  Wikipedia also has a good section, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Summer_Paralympics with lots of facts and figures i.e. emblems, themes, events, etc.

Why not have your students send a hero message to one of our Australian athletes? Go to http://hero.telstra.com/paralympics/. Students can write the message to an individual athlete or to a whole team. Simply click on the “Send an online message” button. Students need to enter a name and email address – you could set up a gmail address for your class i.e. 3GWPS@gmail.com. The message should contain a maximum of 160 characters. It could be drafted and edited on a wordprocessor prior to sending and then copied and pasted into the Message area.

If you want to get creative, students can also send a video message. Video file has a maximum size of 5 Mb. File types accepted are .avi, .mpg, .mov and 3gp. These short videos could be recorded on a digital camera and saved to be uploaded. Students could combine dance, drama and music or use computer graphics to create a short animation.

Messages, both text and video are shown in a gallery on the Hero site.

The online media album can hold essentially any type of media (images, documents and videos) and allows people to make comments in different ways – using voice, text, audio or video. They can even be exported to an Archival Movie for offline use on a DVD or video-enabled MP3 player.

Comments: as seen in the little thumbnails down the left and right side of the example. Simple voice recording within your web browser allows students or viewers to add their voice. All you need is a microphone! Comments can also be written or recorded on video.

Doodles: the Doodler is a way of annotating the presentation. It captures drawing as an animation and synchronises it to the voice or text commentary. See the red circle drawn around “name” in the example.

Identities for easy classroom management: to leave a comment, you need an identity and be logged in. One class account can have multiple identities so  a number of students can easily switch identities on-the-fly without having to sign-out.

Sharing your VoiceThread

It is totally safe for your students. You can set the access privileges – from completely private to completely open and variations in between.

Moderation: comment moderation puts the teacher in charge of the conversation. Only the comments that are deemed appropriate are exhibited on the screen.

A family picture was the inspiration for VoiceThread. One of the program’s creators was looking at the photo and thought it would be really great to hear each person commenting on the picture. They would all have different stories. This thought was a spark for the creation of the Web 2.0 tool. It is an extremely easy online application that allows you to create multimedia using your own photos, video clips, audio, etc… and then allows others to comment with text or audio in a way that will play along with your presentation.

It has been enthusiastically used by many teachers all over the world as a simple way for individuals and groups to work together on a presentation and storytelling. Visit VoiceThread to see more great examples!

The use of ICT tools such as word processing, graphics packages, database and spreadsheet applications, has often been proposed as evidence of technology uptake and integration into learning and teaching. While many worthwhile uses have been made of these tools, their integration has largely been as an optional ‘add-on’ to an unchanging traditional teaching environment (Bottino, 2003). In contrast, I recommend educators take advantage of the potential of new technologies, including Web 2.0 tools and provide a variety of multimodal ICT project-based learning activities to enhance children’s learning. There are many benefits associated with this approach. Students have a high level of engagement while they are actively designing and making multimedia presentations for real audiences. Teachers report that not only are students gaining a greater depth of understanding of curriculum areas but their collaborative, communication and problem-solving skills are also being developed. Research also testifies that students display increases in mental effort and involvement, interest, planning, collaboration and individualisation (Lehrer et al, 1994). The acquisition of ICT skills and confidence, independence and risk-taking when using technology were also a valued consequence.

New media, Web 2.0 tools and software have many beneficial impacts in the classroom. Key aspects of this kind of learning is not so much the technology itself but the interaction of the learner with the technology (Gros, 2003). Using ICT has tremendous potential for reaching, motivating and fully involving learners. Any teacher who has used ICT project-based learning strategies should be able to attest to the power of a project topic to capture a student’s energies and enthusiasm for exploring knowledge (Richards, 2005). Project-based activities encourage collaborative talk around the computer screen. Students also freely and easily share resources and skills. Multimedia projects can encourage students to be better learners as they are getting immediate feedback as they work through their project and reflective evaluation from peers and audience when they have completed their product.

The most successful classroom projects involve the interweaving of learning, student engagement and presentation. Teachers provide a framework for students to scaffold their learning by balancing support and the explicit teaching that needs to occur. The result is not only improved learning outcomes but your students will learn to use these emerging technologies and communicate effectively in ways that are visual, dynamic and interactive.

As a member, you will receive access to Olympic resources including the Olympic Fact Zone, a Certificate of Membership, a monthly newsletter and a BK Medallion to award to a student who has demonstrated the a.s.p.i.r.e. values. Once you have registered, you can also access over 200 Olympic themed, cross-curriculum resources including lesson plans and games. The resources are structured around Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences and Bloom’s Thinking Taxonomy and emphasise the a.s.p.i.r.e. values, literacy and numeracy skills, the use of information and communication technologies, active lifestyles and links with the community. This online, values-based program complements the Federal Government’s National Framework for Values Education in Australian Schools.

The website also has an amazing range of information about Australia’s involvement in the Olympics. There is a database of athletes which covers every past Australian Olympian and their results.  You can view information about all Olympic champions plus a detailed profile of our 50 finest athletes. Facts about record breakers, Aussie Team Trivia, past Summer and Winter games as well as pictures and details about Beijing 2008.

In Australian schools, Olympic Day will be celebrated on Friday June 20, 2008. Olympic Day celebrates the Olympic Games through sport, education and culture. Across the globe, millions of schools celebrate the day by participating in Olympic education and activities. A resource kit for primary educators is available to download from the aspire site.

The official site of the 2008 Australian Olympic team is found at www.olympics.com.au. It also contains a huge range of resources useful for teachers and students.

The official Beijing Olympics site is at http://en.beijing2008.cn . Links from here include all related Olympics information and pictures, as well as the Olympic Education link which contains some moving stories of human determination and spirit. For example, John Akhwari, the greatest last place finish ever: After Akhwari crossed the finish line, a reporter asked him why he had not retired from the race, since he had no chance of winning. He seemed confused by the question. Finally, he answered: “My country did not send me to Mexico City to start the race. They sent me to finish.”

Further information is available at the International Olympic Committee’s education site at http://www.olympic.org/uk/passion/studies/index_uk.asp . Apart from vast collection of Olympics information and archives, this site also has an excellent library of multimedia i.e. audio and video footage from previous Olympics.

From the MANSW site, a free 48 page Olympic Maths workbook “In the Running for the Olympics”. Excellent for Year 6 / Year 7 Mathematics classes in preparation for Beijing 2008.  To receive the workbook send an email to chemas@chemas.com  giving teacher name and school mailing address.

Lastly, the AFSSSE Australia-China project (http://www.afssse.asn.au/afssse_res/index.htm ) has produced four units in the Social Sciences area.

· read and record their own stories to accompany PhotoStory or PowerPoint slideshow,

· record and produce a ‘radio show’ or podcast,

· record singing, choirs, music groups and musical instruments,

· record sounds e.g. sounds in the playground, classroom, in nature,

· generate special sound effects,

· create a narration for a multimedia slideshow,

· edit a recorded interview,

· cut, copy, splice and mix sounds together,

· experiment with sounds and sound waves,

· change the speed or pitch of a recording, and

· edit MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files.

Download at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/ It also has a range of professional features, which include:

· built-in effects processing,

· mixing of tracks, and

· recording overdubs while playing previously recorded tracks.

Audacity can record live audio through a microphone, line input or other source. It has Level meters which can monitor volume levels before, during and after recording. You can import sound files, edit them and combine them with other files or new recordings. Export your recordings in several common file formats e.g. wav, mp3. These can be used to accompany PowerPoint presentations, PhotoStory movies or used in video production. Editing is easy with Cut, Copy, Paste and Delete. You can edit and mix an unlimited number of tracks. Fade the volume up or down smoothly with the Envelope tool. It also has a range of built-in effects e.g. Echo, Phaser and Reverse. Sample rates and formats are converted using high-quality resampling and dithering.

All you need is to download the software, access a microphone and away you go!

The mission of the International Children’s Digital Library (ICDL) Foundation is to “excite and inspire the world’s children to become members of the global community – children who understand the value of tolerance and respect for diverse cultures, languages and ideas — by making the best in children’s literature available online.” Website address is http://www.childrenslibrary.org/index.shtml

The site provides free access to over 1300 books from more than 42 countries in 11 different languages. Amongst the collection are picture books, scanned old books from library archives and stories which capture the essence of different lives and cultures. Books are read online through your computer. You can search for books in an easy to use graphical environment. This allows you to find books via age brackets, content categories, genres and other sorting filters like true books, picture books and short stories. You can also do advanced searches by title, author or keyword.

Each year the language specialists at the International Youth Library in Germany, select newly published books from around the world that they consider to be especially noteworthy. This White Raven label is given to books that deserve worldwide attention because of their universal themes and/or exceptional and often innovative artistic and literary style and design. Many are available on ICDL. An example is Taming the taniwha by Tim Tipene and illustrated by Henry Campbell. This vibrant colourful book tells a story about a boy who overcomes being bullied at school. Young readers can join the ICDL and write reviews on the books which are then published on the website. For instance, 10 year old Max from Germany reviewed the Kenyan book, The Alien by Anthony Mwangi. His review included: “To me the most important thing in the story was when Pakko got the bad animals and humans together and said that they should be good.”

There are currently 215 books written or translated into English but don’t let that limit you! Do you have students who speak a different language at home? Do you have members of your school community who can read another language? What about integrating into Visual Arts? Is your class studying another country in HSIE? Books from other countries can be searched for by spinning an interactive globe. What about projecting the book on your SMARTBoard and reading with the whole class!

To help you educate your students as well as brief parents on the benefits and dangers of the internet, you might have a look at the NetAlert website (www.netalert.gov.au/home.html). NetAlert is the Australian Government’s online safety program. It offers information on the issues, risks and dangers associated with using the internet, and advice on how to minimise risks, avoid problems and use the internet safely and responsibly.

The teacher’s guide (available at www.netalert.gov.au/advice.html ) provides information about teaching safe and responsible use of the internet in Australian schools. It suggests strategies teachers can use to minimise risks, with practical advice on how to provide your students with knowledge and skills to use the internet. Developed specifically for teachers, school librarians and leaders in primary and secondary schools, this guide is based on the view that students need to be educated about safe and responsible use of the internet, given the widespread use of the internet and internet-enabled devices by students in schools and at home.

The guide:

· provides an overview of some of the teaching and learning benefits of accessing the internet;

· describes the kinds of risks that young people may face when using the internet;

· explores issues relating to particular technologies and highlights the resources available to schools;

· advises how to establish a whole-school approach to internet safety;

· gives advice about developing links between schools and external environments;and

· provides information about where internet safety teaching fits within the curriculum.

A terrific hands-on activity for students is found at CyberQuoll (www.cyberquoll.com.au/hub.htm ) which can be used on one computer in front of the whole class or by students individually or in pairs. Not enough computers? .. why not set it for homework and then have a follow-up discussion in class. Netalert also provides wonderful advice to parents and is well worth communicating their web address to the parent community.

Many teachers integrate PowerPoint into their curriculum, especially in English (Talking and Listening), Science and HSIE. Examples include students using PowerPoint for a visual support to an oral presentation or a means to present a research project. These are both excellent uses of the software but what about using it for more creative cross-KLA projects?

PowerPoint can add a new dimension to Writing while accommodating all age levels as well as range of abilities and learning styles. Students can use the software to publish their writing, whether it be a narrative, a personal recount or a procedure. Text can be typed in to consecutive slides, formatted appropriately and spellchecked. This provides the opportunity for developing effective proofing and editing skills as well as a range of publishing options. Additional writing skills like storyboarding can also be targeted.

PowerPoint also offers easy-to-learn features which allow students to enhance their writing. For instance, they can illustrate, record their own voice reading the text, animate the pictures and add page turning buttons.

Bernie describes why WebQuests are not just internet Treasure Hunts or research projects … The key idea that distinguishes WebQuests from other Web-based experiences is this: a WebQuest is built around an engaging task that elicits higher order thinking of some kind. It’s about doing something with information. The thinking can be creative or critical, and involve problem solving, judgment, analysis or synthesis. The task is more than simply answering questions or regurgitating what’s on the screen. The benefit to using WebQuests is that it puts more responsibility on the learners themselves. Usually, a WebQuest includes the following:

Introduction: an engaging first statement that draws the reader in while setting the stage for the WebQuest – includes the central question around which the WebQuest revolves.

Task: a description of the end result of the students’ work; the culminating performance or product that drives all the activities of the lesson.

Process: describes step-by-step how the learners will accomplish the task. Includes online (and offline) resources, role descriptions (if any), and guidance on individual steps in the process.

Evaluation: a rubric or other means to evaluate the final task.

Conclusion: final statement that may include reflections on the lesson or extensions of the content for further exploration.

With today’s Web 2.0 tools, a WebQuest can easily be set up on the internet, include multimedia and hyperlinks and be an exciting, engaging activity for students across the curriculum. It can form the basis for a COGs unit, a G&T activity in Literacy and Numeracy or a group activity in any KLA. 

Bibliography

Linda Starr – Education World

WebQuests in wikipedia 

Prof. D Moursund, of Oregon University’s College of Education writes: In recent years, a number of educators and educational researchers have come to realize that games can be an important component of both informal and formal education. Crossword puzzles build skills in vocabulary, reasoning, spelling, and word attack. As Kerry Jones explains, correctly deciphering a crossword requires exact spelling, which for students may mean practising spelling words and dictionary skills.  Other important skills required for completing these puzzles include making inferences, evaluating choices and drawing conclusions. Puzzle solving is a much more active type of learning, and will engage students with the material more than passive types of review techniques do. Crossword puzzles also have the advantage of appealing to different learning styles. 

As technology, and in particular, Web 2.0 tools, improve and multiply, educators need to monitor the free resources available and utilize the growing number of powerful, motivating and engaging games and interactive activities on offer.

References 

Introduction to Using Games in Education: A Guide for Teachers and Parents; Dave Moursund

Teaching with Crossword Puzzles; Kerry Jones www.vocabulary.co.il.

Websites to try -

Puzzlemaker: create crosswords and word puzzles using your own word lists puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/CrissCrossSetupForm.asp  

Vocabulary Can Be Fun: range of crosswords under themes. Also has 2 levels of difficulty. www.vocabulary.co.il/games2/crosswords/index.php

Online Sudoku: complete online or print out. www.puzzlechoice.com/pc/Sudoku_Puzzlex.html

Chinese Tangrams: complete online. www.apples4theteacher.com/chinese-tangrams.html