digital storehouse

Digital Learning Objects are a part of our learning landscape now. I have been trying to integrate these into our digitial video library and resource centre. We can integrate our own videos and clips as well as the odd teaching resource into this. However we also have available to us digitial learning objects. The New Zealand ministry of education and teh austrailian le@rning federation have a partnership where they are developing and delivering various digitial learning objects through to schools. A digitial learning object is

A learning object is a resource, usually digital and web-based, that can be used and re-used to support learning. source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_object

Now what I have been doing with the clickview software is to be able to integrate the learning objects available into the system. Easy, well thats what i thought. After a few emails and links to the knowledgebase(I still perfer FAQ). we come up with this.

Importing Learning Objects from a LORAX Proxy Server
The Learning Object Manager allows librarians and ClickView administrators to connect to a ClickView Learning Object Proxy Server hosted by your regional peak educational body. Thus allowing schools to download Learning Objects provided by the Learning Federation into your ClickView Library Server.

Simple hey, right lets connect to a LORAX server, sounds like something from Dr Suess doesn't it. Well you are right there, it is a word from Dr Suess. However, I haven't managed to find out what the LORAX this refers to.

They are busy working out how to get me setup as I will be one of the first NZ customers of this.

Sounds like other things that I am trying to do with my work, why am I always the first? Where are the others on my journey.

The other part to go with this is why I want to start using them. 

I am in search for some software that may have been delivered in the past couple of years to the school from the ministry (unfortunately after an exhausted search we have been unable to find these). I am in development of a unit of work for a year 13 class in Digital Learning Objects, as well as wish to use some of the resources in the Junior ICT programmes. As part of this I also require these DVD’s and CD to be able to provide the senior students with a rationale and context behind the level 3 NCEA AS project. If you have some copies of the follow CD and DVDs, please let me know.

• The Learning Object Collection CD – containing the first 200 items of digital content developed by The Le@rning Federation (TLF).
• TLF Digital Content DVD – containing the latest collection of digital content.
• Digistories DVD – containing four digital stories about the use of this content within New Zealand schools.

Kiwi students being 'put off' computing

Kiwi students being 'put off' computing
The Dominion Post Monday, 26 May 2008

Unrealistic and vague technology achievements standards are putting school pupils off tertiary courses and careers in the information technology industry, according to a highly critical report commissioned by the Computer Society.

The society commissioned a team of high-powered academics to investigate the 18 technology achievement standards approved by the Education Ministry as part of its National Qualifications Framework. They found none of them were appropriate.

Education Ministry spokesman Mike Bodnar said the ministry had not had time to consider the report but agreed assessment standards for computer science could be improved.

The ministry was undertaking "substantial work" on the senior school curriculum though its Digital Technologies Guidelines that would provide pupils with programmes that were "clearly focused on areas of future training and interest", he said.

But the report's authors – Auckland University of Technology lecturer Gordon Grimsey and Lynfield College computer teacher Margot Phillipps – say that using those guidelines to tackle the problems it identified would be "like painting over flaking paintwork adhering to rotten timber".

Several university professors were among a team of 11 academics and Computer Society office holders who reviewed their findings.

The number of secondary school pupils achieving unit standards in physics and calculus at NQF level 3 exceeded those achieving in computer science by a factor of five-to- one, the report found.

Many achievement standards were "unachievable" by most pupils or didn't assess pupils' competence in any detail. There were also "huge gaps" in the coverage of the skills and knowledge assessed.

"We suspect there is a huge number of potential computing professionals who have already opted out of the discipline during secondary school, either because of the lack of relevant achievement standards, or because of the unpalatable offering of what they are told is relevant for a future computing career," the report says.

The Computer Society commissioned the report after becoming concerned with the suitability of the assessment of ICT pupils at secondary school level and after discussions with the Post Primary Teachers Association.

Computer science needs to be given its own curriculum, which could be aligned with the mathematics curriculum, the report says. "Without this, we see the downward trend of computer science tertiary enrolments in New Zealand continuing. As a nation, we are spurning massive opportunities that come with having highly-skilled computing professionals in our workforce – something we can ill-afford to do.

"The New Zealand curriculum document ignores ICT completely. There is no reference to ICT, IT, information technology or computing anywhere in the document."
The report noted there were few teachers with the necessary skills and knowledge to teach computer science in schools. But it said that if non-specialist teachers were to be encouraged to take these courses, "they should not be put in the position of trying to make unworkable standards work".

Education Minister Chris Carter announced last week that schools would get extra funding of $65.3 million over four years to help meet the costs of ICT.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4560782a28.html

lol @ your library

http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/teenreading/trw/trw2007/publicity.cfm

details of the lol at your library reading week

replication and pizza

One of my experiences in helping the computer science programmes grow was in the form of mentorship.
Through my teacher training I was put into three very different schools and worked with the computer science teacher in the school there. They were passionate about their subject. The would try different things with their students. In one school the teacher always wanted to do beowolf clusters with the students, so we modified the course I was to teach, the students had to put computers together, make their own network cables, install a linux distribution and then link all the systems up to create the beowulf cluster to render a 3d image. I know it might not seem much, but I still remember the students who would come in during their study period and roll the system out, plug it into the data projector and work on it while a junior class was working on another task. It showed the junior students what the seniors were working on and got them interested in taking the subject later on in their schooling.

You have to be passionate about computer science, don't worry if something doesn't work right or if you don't know how to do something. Build on these with your students, they find it great if you cannot do something and you work on it together to get the answer. It creates a team building atmosphere.

The teacher is not there always to teach, they are there to facilitate learning both for themselves and for the students.

Tell new teachers not to be worried if they don't know it all, ask the students what they want to learn, make it real world. They love working on real world problems.

Get innovate, think outside the box. There is one unit of work I do with my students, they learn networking, linux, netbasics. It's called "hacker high school", now when you say it fast it sounds like "hack a high school" they love it, and they learn so much from it, for the resources they are at www.hackerhighschool.org

Start reading blogs of other computer science teachers, I found some real cool ones on xna development in high schools, which has got me and my students playing xbox 360 in class and designing simple but fun games. We have just fund raised for a xbox 360 dancemat to make a physical game that you have to move around in for our learning support centre. It doesn't have to have the greatest graphics or sounds the students have found out, it has to have decent game play, realistic goals, and realistic attempts.

Look at other areas of the school and get involved. We have a Library of 10,000 books yet we have an average of 2.4 books per student a year borrowed, so the students designed a dynamic website using php and mysql that the students could enter a competition based on the number of books that they read and entered on the website. This has increased the junior school (aged 13-15) borrowing an average of 5 books per student. The thing is it is a start.

Don't just offer microsoft software, look at open source, I have microsoft virtual pc installed running ubuntu, they enjoy personalizing another operating system and they then can compare windows xp with linux. I even have vmware player running with mac os x. It is fantastic seeing them trying to work it out.

Mobile apps for their cellphone is next, though I am waiting for the iphone to come out in New Zealand before I start looking at what I can do with that next.

Don't just do the same thing each year, you have to move with the times. Computer Science is an ever changing area. The concepts are the same, but the applications blow your mind.

Back to basics on the net

from the digital strategy draft 2.0 document

In April 2008, NetSafe will launch a new online animation campaign highlighting the importance   of computer safety and security. Called Net Basics, it features the Jones family, who buy a new  computer and find out that online, things are ‘not always as they appear’.  

Net Basics pits three heroes – AntiVirus Authority (AVA), Anti Spyware Software (ASS) and the egotistical Software Update Programme (SUP) – against the evil Rapid Spawn, Pixelmania and Fiona in a battle for the Jones’s family computer.  

Each animation introduces a computer security concept, such as the importance of firewalls and  keeping security software up to date, and is followed by clear and concise advice on that concept.  

The new Net Basics campaign includes nine short animations and a website   (www.netbasics.org.nz) explaining home computer security in simple terms to anyone with an  internet connection.  

The project is supported by CPF funding.  

www.netsafe.org.nz 

netsafe netbasics

NetSafe breathes life in Computer Security Advice
Tuesday, 8 April 2008, 11:24 am
Press Release: Netsafe

NetSafe breathes life into Computer Security AdviceA new and engaging campaign advising New Zealanders on how to keep their PC and information secure will be launched on April 9. The NetBasics website www.netbasics.org.nz advises home computer owners on how to protect their computers [Note that many of these computers are also used to manage small businesses and community organizations. ] and the data they hold.

“With the ever increasing volume and complexity of attacks on home PCs, the need for home computer owners to understand and implement security measures is greater than ever,” says Martin Cocker, Executive Director of NetSafe. ”The arrest of Owen Walker (aka Akill) is a timely reminder that the criminal fraternity has really switched on to the ‘opportunity’ of the internet.”

Many members of New Zealand’s cybersafety and security community will gather at Auckland’s Transmission Room to witness the official unveiling of the NetBasics. A video teaser has been posted on the YouTube video sharing site (www.youtube.com -keyword search – NetBasics).

“On its own, computer security is a pretty dry subject. We needed a delivery vehicle that effectively explained the concepts and was also entertaining enough to keep the audience engaged,” says Cocker. “Animation allowed us to get creative and bring new life to this subject matter. I’m sure people will enjoy the animated episodes that introduce each security concept.”

The NetBasics was partially funded by the Digital Opportunities Community Partnership Fund. Other major contributors include InternetNZ, Westpac, the Ministry of Education, and TradeMe.

-------------------------------
I am annoyed I have only just found out about this, it came out earlier in the month when I was teaching this subject. Normally tki.org.nz is one of the first places that releases this information. ICT in education, there is even a community on it, instead I find out about it through the digital strategy 2.0 draft document (pdf), mind you this was posted on tki.org.nz.

I have requested the media pack from netsafe to be able to play with it more in my classroom, with the year 12 and year 13 students. Maybe it can form part of my study as it looks at hacker high school which I have talked about before in my blog.

I am just annoyed I found out about it now.

eLearning and email, which comes first?

What do we class as eLearning tools, we look at how students interact with the teacher through various packages like moodle, knowledgeNEt, wikis, LMS, and CMS, is it the sharing of information from teacher to student through electronic means.

As you may have figured it out I have been in development of students email at school through the use of google apps. I believe that there is a place that needs to be started at. We have ll these wonderful tools at our disposal but we still need a way to get back to the one on one, or face to face interaction with the student and the teacher. Email is the start of this, if they are not comfortable using email to talk to the teacher then the rest of the tools are going to inhibit there learning as well. Through google tools is google docs, this has a spreadsheet, word processor, presentation application all built in, students can create work online and share it through the publish facility. Is this not what we are after through our other various methods of eLearning, for students to share their work, collaborate on a project. Start small and work up.

Yesterday I went to a presentation on collaborative tools and got shown how an interactive whiteboard could help with that. A large capital investment, google apps is free and all it costs is Internet traffic. The same type of collaboration can exist through other methods. Talked about in that presentation was how they need to be supported in schools, through PD, top down approach, encouragement, resources. I look at what I am doing, this has been a very bottom driven approach, the students have been after this for a while. 

Every year we have year 9 students have that been using email within their previous school and wonder why we don't have it. Teachers question why students don't have email s that is a tool that they have developed and used within their teaching practice at other schools. Has their been a fear about how much email can hurt a school, or is it the practices/policy that need to change. The fear of technology. 

Teachers have had email for the years that I have been there. Now students will get that and hopefully elearning will start to take off.

xna development for xbox 360 dancemat

For some of them at least some of the motivation is to attract more students into their computer science programs. Springbrook High School has a video advertisement that shows students playing one of the games they have created. It is an interesting way to get students to think about taking some real computer science courses.

google apps in schools

just a few notes on developing the student email system through google apps, with the 1826 students added to the system, I have been thinking about how the helpdesk and abuse of the system will be handled. What policy will be needed to help with this. I know that we are getting our acceptable use agreement sorted, but we need something more manageable at this stage. What do the students do with abuse claims, harrassment. These are students here.

From the minister

no longer the three r’s
now the 4 c’s
Competence
Creativity
Character
Citizenship

Registered Associate Referee Course: Introduction to rugby refeering

Introduction to Rugby Refereeing.

Role of the Referee

• Whistle, Signals and Verbals
• Kick Off
• Scrum
• Lineout
• Tackle
• Ruck
• Maul
• Goal Line Area
• Open Field Play
• Advantage

Duration 2-2 ½ hours

Parents, Managers and Coaches of Junior Grade Club and School Teams. Senior School Students willing to referee Junior Grade games.

NZRU acknowledges there are insufficient Referees to cater for all grades of the game and in particular Junior Grade Rugby.

Tuesday, 29th April 6:00pm Supporters Lounge Eden Park

Tuesday, 13th May 6:00pm Supporters Lounge Eden Park

Secondary School ‘Best Practice’ Coaching Workshops

Practical workshops focusing on coaching rugby’s core skills.
The emphasis will be on skill drills and mini games.

Secondary School Grade Coaches of any level

Wednesday 14th May 3.40pm – 5.00pm Mt Albert Grammar

Wednesday 21st May 3.40pm – 5.00pm Auckland Grammar

Wednesday 28th May 3.40pm – 5.00pm Sacred Heart College

Wednesday 4th June 3.40pm – 5.00pm Kings College

Monday 9th June 6.00pm – 7.30pm Eden Park

RugbySMART

A 1 hour course concentrating on injury prevention and peak performance in Rugby Union. 

Compulsory for all coaches and assistant coaches from Under 13 level upwards 

5 May 2008 Kings College 

Presentations held at your school. Please see your Rugby Administrator in school for further details.

Coaching for Secondary School and Teenage Rugby

The course covers key aspects such as the Principles of Play, Skill Analysis and Coaching a Skill, and How to Run an Effective Training.

All Secondary School Grade Coaches from 2nd XV teams down (1st XV coaches recommended to take PORC, however are more than welcome to attend this course.)

Monday 9th June 6.00pm - 7.30pm Eden Park

Wednesday 11th June 3.30pm - 4:30pm Mt Albert Grammar School

Wednesday 18th June 3.30pm – 4.30pm Sacred Heart College

Digitial Technology Guidelines

The digitial technology framework has been renamed.

This is a PD program, to teach under the new curriculum in the computing area.

It will be a journey
3 year, 13 lead school, developing resources, put up on tki around july.
more practicioner support.

Aim at better outcomes for our young people.

Enabling the 21st Century Learner, has been redeveloped for this year

Cognition consulting is looking after the project.

Various IT Careers, is the pathway in the computing at school that leads students into a job. Try and retain students through to a IT Career.

A planning environment which enables teachers to design and deliver programmes of work for Years 11 - 13 that give content, coherence, and relevance.

Where does it sit? Year 9 and 10 option and e-Learning. The DTG (Technology learning Area, Years 11 - 13)

Encourages schools to look closely at ICT course structure within senior classes.
Is modular in approach
Sits alongside digital literacy/e-learning.
Multilevel taeching, personalising learning within individual and group sittings.
Encourages the embedding of the 5 national key competencies



 

What are IT employers looking for in both school leavers and tertiary graduates

Attitude over Aptitude
agiliitygroup

Attitude
an innate ability to learn quickly
employers will compromise on skills but not on attitude
high rate of organisational change
workplace presure
abundance of online resources
skill shortages opens up opportunities to look outside the 'norm'

Factors that are working for your right now
no sign of easing in tight labour market
huge amount of work on attraction and retention of future talent (airnz employing people to use bebo to make airnz attractive and look for jobs
'corporate predation'
technology indifference

Three things you should know
1. Importance of research, no excuses-wealth of online resources, the importance of workplace culture, visions and values(why are these important to companies like telecom, microsoft, vodafone), leverage social networking tools (linkedin.com)
2. All about ME, Team fit is everything(include sports, activies, community work, what motivates you outside your studies), grapping with Gen Y(corporates are still strugging with Gen Y , th difference in values and focus, garmmar, loyal not to the brand but to the individuals), Technology Indifference(what language, not as inportant, breth), Profiling(personality profiling, idea of areas they can work on, improve)?
3. Know what we look for
A willingness to keep learning, learn from mistakes, positive attitude to change, self starter(get ahead of the game), 'wnat' the job rather than 'need' it.

what happeneded to the 3 R's

6 c's
communication in all its forms (Literacy+)
computation(numeracy)
cooperation
computer literacy(for the masses)
creativity
critical thinking

Notes form ICT in Education

Useful secondary subjects to take for secondary students interested in studying computing and information technology at tertiary level.
These have been compiled by researching identified career outcomes of programmes offered by UniTec’s school of computing and information technology on kiwi careers and the recommended subjects
For all roles
English

Maths

any Science Subjects
Technician roles recommended more specifically that students have undertaken the following subjects at secondary level
Maths

Physics

Information Systems Technology Studies
Designer roles, i.e software designer, web designer / master) recommended mire speciifically that students have undertaken the following subjects at secondary level
Computer studies

Art

Graphic Education
Programming roles recommended more specifically that students have undertaken the following subjects at secondary level
Computer studies

Maths with Statistics and/or calculus

Game programming class curriculum

Game Programming Class Curriculum
Here is an outline of the Honors Programming II class that I'll be teaching next semester which begins next week. The curriculum that I'll be using for C# was written by Digipen and Microsoft.
Introduction to C#
C# Types & Variables
C# Input & Output
C# Expressions & Operators
C# Functions & Flow Control
C# Classes
C# Arrays
C# Structures
The curriculum that I'll be using for some of the XNA training will come from Bill Reiss and Blue Rose Games.
Introduction to XNA
Getting Started
Getting Started
First Look at the Code (Part 1)
First Look at the Code (Part 2)
2D Sprites
Sprites without Lymon
The More the Merrier
Bust a Move
Follow the Bouncing Ball
Double Trouble (Part 1)
Double Trouble (Part 2)
Improving the Bouncing Ball Class using Properties
Sprite Color
Sprite Scaling
Transparent Sprites
Using Origin with SpriteBatch.Draw (Part 1)
Using Origin with SpriteBatch.Draw (Part 2)
Sound
The Delicate Sound of Thunder
Arrays and Loops
Arrays and Loops
I'll be putting up resources for the following later.
Making a Pong Game
Creating a 2D Shooter Game
Making your own game
Deploying your game to an XBOX and the XBOX Creators Club
Resources:
C# Videos
The Art of Computer Game Design PDF book I'll be using

The week that was

I have been struggling to get myself motivated to do the robotics unit this year. Issues have been virtualisation, waiting for assessments to arrive and the unknown if students are going to attend classes. I got stuck in on Thursday getting the virtualisation done so they students can start to program there robot and start to work on the assessment. One of the big problems I had doing this was that my account on the school system fried itself. Somehow I had create a 2Gig snapshot of the drive that I was working on and it got copied to my profile, which meant that I could not log in to any computer in the school. I have to find a way to stop this from happening on students machines or I am going to have some questions to answer on why the network stopped.

Also this week I have been working on solutions for the web design class so they could start there php and mysql unit. This involved some tricky work arounds on the linux server that I have. My problem is now that it doesn't support php 5 which I need to get installed to get silverstripe going, which is one of their projects. I don't want to have to virtualise everything I do, but it is starting to look that way. I wonder if I can grab one of the new dell machines and use that as a windows server with WAMP running on it to do the work. Or do I just go out and buy a big HDD and stick it in.

I have also been working on projects for when I am away from my web design class that they can work on throughout the year, one is a business card, two is a cd cover, and three is a website. I hope they will use some CSS in the website and not get stuck in with a simple design. I might have to add that to the crietia.

I did a mountain bike ride last week in the riverhead forest region and managed to turn a 1 and a half hour ride into a three hour uphill ride. Which was great at first, but now with the sunburn and 11 missed calls from one parent we need to make sure that we can find the trails next time. On Wednesday the first fifteen played a trails game against another school. 12 -12 was the final result with one fight just after half time. All was filmed and the dvd is getting created right now so the coaches can have a look at players and weather they will make the squad. The next game is in two weeks time against a under 21 team. On tuesday will be a sevens tournament that I might go down and watch. 

Also I have yet to finish some of the work required for the online papers. i must focus on these as I have paid for them.

time management

I am starting to wonder where the time goes, I am now planning my lessons and having to incorporate calenders into my life to deal with the professional development, post graduate study and social life. To be able to create a work/life balance.

What is the best calender program to use,

iCal,
Microsoft Outlook
Google Calendar
School Lesson Planner
Diary