Read&Write with Google Docs-a useful Chrome extension for students

What I love about using Google Chrome as a browser is the way it makes browsing so efficient and easy.  There are so many very useful free Chrome extensions that you can add to your browser to have everything you need right at your finger tips. I installed a useful Chrome extension today called ‘Read&Write with Google Docs’. This is really designed for students, but I want to explore it and discover all its benefits.

What does Read&Write with Google Docs do?

This extension can only be used when Google Docs is actually open. It then becomes very useful because it can read the Google document to the students. Imagine how useful this could be to with dyslexia, learning disabilities, struggling readers, and English as a second language Learners.  I can also see a great use for this in a writing assignment when the student wants to review a piece of writing and hear what it sounds like.  However there are a number of other really useful features to this extension:

Features
- Text To Speech with Dual Synchronized Highlighting.

- Talking Dictionary

- Picture Dictionary

- Vocabulary Tool

- Study Skills tools to capture highlights

A video from the creators of Read&Write for Google Docs

The creators of this extension have made a video that explains the extension and elaborates on all its amazing features.  Here it is:

Access Read&Write for Google Docs at the Chrome Web store 
You can access this extension on the Google Chrome web store here: http://goo.gl/JNc3o

Free Virtual School Chemistry Resources for you

WE have an update from Frederic and Malik two of the international speakers at our SchoolNet Conference in July this year. They run the Virtual School in the UK 

"Dear teacher friends in South Africa,

We hope you are all doing great and, after having talked at length about #OER (Open Educational Resources) at the SchoolNet conference a couple of weeks ago we now want to start sharing with you the work that we are doing ourselves.

Some of you may not know yet what we are trying to achieve with our OER project 'The Virtual School' - we want to create 3600 free videos for secondary education in Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Maths, English and ICT literacy within the next 2-3 years. We have already created 300 videos accesible totally free here: http://www.youtube.com/user/virtualschooluk/videos

Currently and during the next two months, with our talented young design team [watch them introduce themselves here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZId1Jmwpz4] we are working on the chemistry curriculum, and we have a growing playlist of videos here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?feature=edit_ok&list=PLW0gavSzhMlReKGMVfUt6YuNQsO0bqSMV. The other subjects will follow thereafter.

We are hoping that you can all share the chemistry playlist, which will be growing by over 150 videos in the next few months, with the teachers at your science department and at the science departments at fellow schools. 

It would also be fantastic if you could give us feedback on these videos, be it via email or with comments under the YouTube videos.

For those of you who want to download the videos for offline use you can use a download tool like Keepvid: http://keepvid.com/ [you can watch a tutorial here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35myFjW_axY].

All the very best from London from Malik, myself and our team,

Freddy"

Gleanings from ISTE #2: Microsoft at ISTE 2013

It was such a great experience to visit ISTE in San Antonio this June. Microsoft was one of the Level 1 sponsors so I thought I would write a post especially about their generosity to teachers at ISTE 2013

The BIGGEST thing about Microsoft at ISTE was their extreme generosity in giving out 10,000 Surface tablets (or was it 11,000) to the registered attendees. Can you imagine the excitement about this as the Surface is said to be a tablet AND a laptop – something really new! A great thing about the Surface tablet is that Office 2013 RT is freely available on it. Of course Microsoft wasn't just dishing these out randomly to anyone that asked for one - a lot of thought had been put into it, prearrangements had to be made,  and there were conditions attached. 

1) The tablets were for the school that the attendee represented and this had to be pre-arranged before ISTE via a letter signed by the principal of the school.

2) The recipients had to be prepared to be involved in the Windows in the Classroom Experience Project whereby they discussed and contributed their classroom activities and lesson plans on how to use Windows in the Classroom  on the Partners in Learning Network, and showed the teachers at their schools what was available on the Partners in Learning network. The recipients would also join the Microsoft in Education newsletter and receive additional training resources.

In my mind I can see the Partners in Learning Network becoming an exceptional resource for teachers around the world with great technology integration activities of every type freely available. It is REALLY worth joining that network. 

During ISTE participants were invited to hands-on demonstrations and training in Microsoft’s Learning Lounge in Exhibit Hall D Room 1A during exhibit hall hours.  Those who were offered Surface tables were also pointed to the support offered. They could visit the Surface web site to download the Surface RT User Guide, register your Surface, and find support.)

I unfortunately didn't get to join one of the hands-on experiences on shows how to use Windows 8, Microsoft Office, and Windows Phone to enhance teaching and learning but I constantly took a walk to see what was happening in the Microsoft Lounge. I could see that it was interactive, experiential, and fun and there was a great, excited buzz. 

Looking around – the new Surface	Volunteers helping with setup
Videos dotted around explaining Windows 8	People gathered in groups looking at their new Surface machines

Why don't you join the Partners in Learning Network today if you haven't already done so? You'll be amazed at the magnitude of the free resources, the ideas, the discussions, and the great network of educators from around the world that you can collaborate with. 

Webinar recording ‘Spice up your classroom with Games’ (17/07/2013)

Yesterday we were very fortunate to have a wonderful guest presenter, Arjana Blazik from Croatia speaking on our SchoolNet/Microsoft  webinar on ‘Spice up your classroom with games’.  

Arjana is well-known in many different international circles. I met her at the world finals on the Microsoft Innovative Teacher competition in Cape Town in 2010 where she represented Croatia with her winning project entitled Greetings from the World. After that I met Arjana again at the inaugural Partners in Learning Institute in Seattle in July 2011. Since then Arjana along with Bart Versvijel from Belgium have been involved in running four online Internationl Teachmeets as well as a number of online activities for the European SchoolNet’s e-twinning project. You can read Arjana’s blog ath ttp://traveloteacher.blogspot.com/ Arjana has been featured on Anthony Salcito, Vice-President of Microsoft’s blog, Daily Edventures as a global Education Hero – read about her here:ttp://dailyedventures.com/index.php/2012/06/28/arjana-blazic/. Arjana has a great interest in games in education and was privileged to attend a European workshop run by Ollie Bray from Scotland (who is known as THE games in education person). 

The presentation, website links and the recording link
Here is the presentation link:
  


Here is the link to the various sites that Arjana referred to:
http://instablogg.com/joj1DOv

Here is the recording link from Adobe Connect: (33 mins)
http://meet78641452.adobeconnect.com/p3wrmova9gu/
(sound problem in one or two places)

SchoolNet Conference 2013: Resources from the Virtual School

At the recent SchoolNet Conference our two UK International presenters, Frédéric Kastner from The Virtual School in the UK and Malik Wilson, a media professional, gave a couple of presentations on OER (Open Education Resources) that were very popular, and not everyone could get into their sessions. They have kindly created resources for all the teachers who could not attend their session and have sent us the links to pass on. They have created the video tutorial on how to create your own resources. They have also captured the speech in video form and have created an update video on their time in South Africa. They hope that we find these videos useful in creating our own resources for our learners all over South Africa.

Create your own educational videos workshop tutorial:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87SZjsHvqSo&feature=youtu.be
(Look at the description for a step-by-step process with links to where you can download the software.)

The Virtual School South Africa Update:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKgEcJvPWuU

Here is the full 25-minute speech:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKr8DJ0FxE8

Please follow their blog for more information on OER that we'll be updating all of the time.http://thevirtualschool.wordpress.com/

Thank you for forwarding these links to us Frédéric and Malik!

Gleanings from ISTE 2013 #1: What exactly is ISTE?

Submitted by Fiona Beal
Recently I had the great privilege of attending my very frst ISTE Technology in Education Conference in San Antonio Texas. It is said to be the biggest EdTech conference in the world!.  In South Africa a big conference numbers around 600, so to be thrust into the midst of a conference of 20,000 delegates inclusive of exhibitors, with well over 700 sessions and 150 additional workshops on technology trends, tools, and much, much more WAS quite overwhelming at times but always exhiliarating!  I thank SchoolNet for contributing to this trip and for giving me time off to attend. It was four days of professional development par excellence!  

This is the first in a series of posts on what I learned at ISTE.  In this post I will express some of the wonder I felt at being at such a large conference. In the next post I’ll write a reflection on this unforgettable experience.

Where was ISTE held?
This year the Conference was held in the beautiful city of San Antonio in Texas. It is the 7th largest city in the United States, but it has a country feel with a river winding its way through the city, birds chirping happily in the trees as one walks along the roads, and exquisite flowers in full bloom everywhere. (My hotel was a ten minute walk from the conference centre.) The conference itself took place in the most enormous Conference centre I have EVER seen with a river running through the middle of it. Everything is bigger and better in Texas it seems.


I was sure glad to see these ‘Ask Me’ volunteers dotted around the Conference halls. I think they worked pretty hard directing everyone to the multitude of venues.


The ISTE App

I loved the idea of an ISTE App to download on one’s tablet prior to the conference taking place. This had everything one needed to know on it including a conference planner. One thing that I found quite fascinating is that there were no rooms with computers in them at the conference. EVERYONE had their own device. One could book for three free BYOD sessions and any of the paid sessions. I avoided the paid sessions with the exchange rate between rand and dollar being so AWFUL but there were hundreds of free sessions of every kind to attend.

Types of sessions
The organisation at ISTE was quite unbelievably amazing!  As a delegate from Africa you can imagine how awestruck I felt most of the time. Such a choice of sessions! These were some of the the unbelievable options:

Three keynote sessions BYOD workshops either paid or free Special focus group sessions Poster sessions Start up pitches for new companies Global collaboration spoltlights Unconference on the day preceding ISTE Corporate spotlights Aspire sessions Sessions Learning  Technology Playgrounds

Bloggers cafe sessions Events of all kinds Parties at night Food centres Research papers Gatherings Photo and QR code walks Panel discussions Bookstore of Iste books. ExhibitorsStudents show cases

Actually there were many more opportunities than this…too many to mention! Basically one had to mark off a list of choices on the conference planner and make one’s choices before the conference started in order to stay on top of things.

Photo walk
I loved the photo walk on the first day where we explored the river walk area with a tour guide and pooled all our photos. This was such a highlight.


Keynote Speakers
The three keynote sessions were such a highlight. One hard to start queing an hour or two before to get a seat inside the 6000-seater auditorium.  There were also viewing rooms allocated in different places.

The opening keynote was from Jane McGonical on the gamification of education. Wow, this session was SO thought provoking. Jane McGonical quoted an enormous body of research showing how students learn from games in education and why. I’ll do a report back in another post.

The ten positive emotions that gamers feel

Steve Johnson was the keynote speaker on the second day of the conference on ‘Where do good ideas come from?’. This session was very enlightening. He explored the concept of where and how good ideas originate. Drawing on examples from both inside and outside of education, he identified real-life learning environments that operate as incubators of creativity. He showed how innovative learners solve problems by borrowing ideas from multiple fields of thought, and how both educators and students leverage peer networks to mobilize as agents of change. Basically we learn from others and build on shared knowledge. 

The enormously popular Adam Bellow, creator of Educlipper, gave the closing keynote where he invited us to change the world.’You’re Invited to Change the World.’ Adam showcased stories of inspiration from classrooms around the world and invited us to challenge ourselves to make a difference in our schools with creativity and kindness.Adam wore his Google glasses throughout his presentation!

All three keynote speakers influenced my thinking enormously.  All three have published books. 


Conference house band
The conference had a house band for the keynotes – an awesome band of students from some of the local high schools called ‘The Dara Niemi Band’. I just LOVED their music and their talent!   (And I bought their CD)

The band in action

Signing CDs

This is them singing one of their original songs. 



Publishing with ISTE
Teachers can publish their technology passions in hard cover with ISTE! I think this is an amazing feature of ISTE.  There were all kinds of books written by teachers available at the ISTE book store – I was really tempted to buy some of them.


Bloggers’ Cafe
This was SUCH a popular spot at ISTE where folk could sit and chat, and meet friends and blog etc. Sue Waters from Educblogs organised regular blogger speakers at the Cafe.

Special Interest focus groups
These were plentiful. I joined quite a few, my number 1 being the Digital Storytelling group and no 2 being the Literacy group. We joined these well before the conference and started receiving emails of events and happenings that would take place at ISTE. As you went around looking at the offerings of the different Special Focus groups and at the Expo, you collected ribbons to add to your name tag – there was a prize for the most ribbons at the end of the Conference – sponsorship to ISTE 2014!

Learning Sessions
What a choice! You had to know what you wanted so as to rush there and get a seat. Sometimes there were lon.n.n.g queues. These are just a couple of examples of some I attended.


Networking
Of course this was a highlight of note! There were so many ‘big names’ at the Conference that it felt great to put names to faces to virtual names. On the Monday night I met up with some of the Microsoft Partners in Learning Institute group for supper, and later I met up with the Google Certified Teachers group….it was marvelous reconnecting with friends from all over the world. I loved attending the Ignite sessions where teachers were given five minutes and 20 slides to talk about something. Imagine how excited I was when one of the teachers from New York spoke about her global collaboration projects and mentioned how Karen de Stadler from Cape Town’s rhino project had captured the hearts of her students and had developed a life of its own right there in New York! Here are some of the friends I reconnected with:

Wernad and Nina Adams from St Cyprians, Cape Town who now live in Denver	Friends from the Partners in Learning Institute in Seattle in July 2011
Microsoft Innovative Teacher friends from the USA	Google Certified Teacher friends from the Google Teacher Academy in New York  in 2012

Boat trip along the River Walk
I was lucky enough to be allocated one of the 40 seats in Powerful Learning Practise’s boat trip along the river walk on the Tuesday evening. It was just SO beautiful - another one of the highlights of the trip. 


What an INCREDIBLE experience ISTE 2013 was. It was definitely worth the 2 days of tiring multi-stop air travel each way that it took to get there and back!  I’ll be writing a number of posts about this experience in the next couple of weeks, especially highlighting the amazing things I learned in some of the sessions.