ejourney with technokids

Castlemaine North PS has invited us to join them and four other schools in a discussion on the above topic.  The following online tools will be used:-

1. skype:- a videoconference skype linkup for a 5 minute ‘hello’ and get to know Castlemaine Nth PS
2. etherpad for realtime online discussion/collaboration between small groups of interschool students

At the end of the skype linkup,

1. goto the Castlemaine North’s Primary School site. 
2. click on the tab “Latest Work” and locate your group
3. Find your group and click on the link to etherpad and start discussing
4. An indication of when to stop will be given by Dr Robert Sbaglia and a quick skype debrief will occur.

Etherpad is easyto use but take care. Here is the advice from Dr Sbaglia:-

1.  Students may type over each other’s writing. Make sure students have a clear line to write on.
2.  Students may temporarily lose connection to the etherpad. In this case, simply press “reconnect now” or refresh the page. No information is lost when this happens, even if everyone drops out. Students may be alarmed when half their discussion party disappears – tell them to ignore it and keep discussing.
3.  Students may not actually have a discussion, but just write what they think without reading the points others are making. Encourage them to actually read what others are writing.
4.  Every keystroke is recorded when using etherpad – students need to be aware of this, and that nothing untoward should be written on it.

A big thank you to Dr Sbaglia for this innovative use of ICT.

The netgened project is about to start. You must make sure that you have joined the following:-

1. flatclassroom wiki
2. netgened wiki
3. Grown up Digital ning
4. Find your group and make sure that you befriend them
5. I also need your email addresses in order to get you membership to the DIGGO group. Make sure that I have them before the class ends
6. Make a slide or animoto of our school and some of its likeable features to add to the ning. You may need to take some photos.

Our first SAC for the year will be to solve a problem for an organization using MS Access (a database creating software). It is important that you understand the difference between a field, record, data type, data input form, query form, data table etc.

1. Goto this link  from Free ecdl reources and describe the difference between a record and a field in your notes. Follow the pages and using the prompts and hints where necessary set up the database as required.

A busy day today for year 9/10 students. The moon has been observed for 2 or 3 weeks from Feb 12th to March 1st. The next task in the moon project  is to write an essay on our observations. Goto this etherpad page and add what you have seen, noticed or learnt over this time. What did you do over this time? – observe, look at the papers, internet etc What were the different appearances of the moon and how did they change over the three weeks or so?

Open up a document in MS Word, and start writing a 200 word essay on the observations and what you have learnt. Here is the time schedule:-

• March 19th Essay must be uploaded
• Texas Uni will create groups of ten essays on Monday, March 22. Your students will be able to log in and see one group that contains the ten essays. These essays will come from various locations (Australia, Bahamas, various states in the United States, etc.). The students will use these ten essays to create essay #2 about the global Moon patterns they see in the first essays. If you have a student who was not able to upload essay #1, he or she can log in and go to a group that will have ten sample essays. From these essays, they can reflect on the global patterns and compose essay #2.

Think about your essay. How will you introduce the topic? What can you write? How and where did the moon appear on Feb 12th through to March 1st? Did you take photos? What have you learnt? How has it changed? What official names are given to the changing appearance of the moon? etc Could you talk about the Chinese New Year which fitted in there on one of those dates?

2. In the last 15 mins you are to do the following as you will be completing the netgened project:-

As we are about to start on the netgened project, you will need to make sure that you have joined the following:-

• the flat classroom project wiki
• then join the netgened project wiki where your resultant work will be featured and stored
• the grownupdigital ning
• find your group and join the Hawkesdale P12 college group, befriend each of the members of your group and make me your friend.

The netgened project is part of the Flat Classroom Projects suite co-founded by Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis. In this project,  you, together with other global students will study and “mash up” the results of the 2010 Horizon Report from the New Media Consortium and Educause and Tapscott’s book Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World.
Students will study the current research and create wiki-reports with their student partners around the world analyzing current trends and projecting future happenings based upon this collaborative analysis.

As we are about to start on the netgened project, you will need to make sure that you have joined the following:-

• the flat classroom project wiki
• then join the netgened project wiki where your resultant work will be featured and stored
• the grownupdigital ning
• find your group and join the Hawkesdale P12 college group, befriend each of the members of your group and make me your friend.

The netgened project is part of the Flat Classroom Projects suite co-founded by Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis. In this project,  you, together with other global students will study and “mash up” the results of the 2010 Horizon Report from the New Media Consortium and Educause and Tapscott’s book Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World.
Students will study the current research and create wiki-reports with their student partners around the world analyzing current trends and projecting future happenings based upon this collaborative analysis.
This project is managed by the students who assume roles such as project manager, assistant project manager, and editors of the various wikis.

Read the Australian Business Journal article on Faceless no more – Facebook admits errors Answer the following questions in a blog post:-

1. Tell me a little about Elliott Fletcher and Trinity Bates?
2. Why is facebook involved and why is there an issue?
3. Briefly describe the approach taken by the facebook staff when the issue was brought to their attention.
4. Find three or four other online articles on these children and add the references to these as hyperlinks on your blog posts. 
5. How do you feel about this? What action could you take to ensure that it does not happen again?
6. Register for a cacoo acount. Create a diagram with at least 15 words that come to mind when you think about the facebook issues.

Some more online issues:-

Whilst away I got these messages on twitter.

1. txgal8437  you look funny on this blog http://www.hurly.ws/c7k0 6:35 AM Feb 28th
2. lkolb hi, i’m 24/female/horny… i have to get off here but message me on my windows live messenger name Frances9128love@hotmail.com  (please whatever you do, do NOT contact or use this address!)
3. sers1970: somebody wrote something about you in this blog here http://mtny.moobi/

• What advice would you give me? Write at least four dot points.
• Find out what is meant by phishing. How can you protect yourself from phishing and are either of the above tweets phish related? Which one?
• Watch this video and then take this test and see how you score!

Gateway to India

Students from the USA, China and Australia flew in a day or so before the official start of the Flat Classroom workshop. The American School of Mumbai arranged for a day of sightseeing. Our tour guide expertly led us through some of the main tourist attractions, including the following:

• The district where the academy award winning film”Slum Dog Millionaire” was made.
• A visit to a shop outlet for souvenir shopping
• A stop at the maritime museum
• A 40 minute stop at the Gateway to India from where we walked through the Taj Mahal (the hotel that had suffered bombing last year) and along the surrounding streets admiring the myriad of shops
• Lunch at a restaurant which provided a wonderful Indian buffet.
• A drive around many notable tourist destinations including the main railway station, university, library etc

By 2:30pm it was time to be back at the American School of Bombay to meet the host families and farewell the students to their care.

Observations during the day

• Incredibly busy, crazy and energetic traffic, with the constant sound of angry car horns being tooted.
• Tuk tuks everywhere, darting in and out of the path of taxis and cars
• Many people everywhere on the streets
• Piles of plastic bagged up in the slum districts for recycling
• Persistent hagglers at the Gateway to India selling anything from postcards and books on Mumbai to balloons, peacock feathered fans etc
• A bevy of taxis constantly driving around
  

  Selling peacock feathered fans

• Brightly painted truck cabins
• Stray dogs everywhere
• A bullock pulling a painted wagon

No matter how much one is prepared for a different culture and way of living, shock can still be encountered  when first entering the country . Upon alighting at the airport, we bought a prepaid taxi voucher. Entering out into the warm midnight air, people were still swarming everywhere. Taken aback we found the taxi terminal and were swamped by Indians wishing to help us find our transport.

Taken aback all taxis were old and almost depreciated out of their life span. The third taxi was ours, and our luggage was thrown up on the roof rack as the boot, complete with gas cylinder could only fit one case. Fortunately it was tied down by three able men. However, we were then asked to give tips to all of them. When money is exchanged in Australia, we tend to be given large notes and hence had no change to give. Leaving the irate helpers behind, our driver took us to our hotel.

The night streets were lined with people stil (It was 1am in the morning). The light of the taxi showed the slums and poor conditions of the area giving us an almost frightening outlook on the poverty that is Mumbai’s. The traffic was still busy with tuk tuks weaving their way in and out of the traffic maze. Our driver had to stop several times to seek help from other taxi or tuk tuk drivers as to the location of the hotel. The area we were in certainly did not look like it even had hotels in amongst the slums, but after 45 mins we were at the entrance to hotel, with kind staff helping us with our luggage and ushering us inside. An upgrade meant that we were given a 2 bedroom appartment that was quite spacious, clean and nicely furnished.

Singapore Flyer

As I write this we are sitting at Changi airport awaiting our flight to Mumbai. Although the weather has been extremely warm and humid, we have managed quite a bit of sightseeing. Our accommodation was close to Little India, which has given us a taste of India before we actually get there. The sights, sounds and smells were colourful and memorable.

What we did

• Time was spent looking around Little India, including a visit to the Hindu temple where there was much activity going on in the early morning
• Used the hop on hop off bus for Singapore Airlines (are our flight carrier, therfore only costing $6).
• Hopped off at Clark Quay for a boat ride along the river into Marina Bay, where Merlin (a statue – half lion, half fish spurts water into the ocean. It was a pleasant ride which showed the contrasts of the old and new Singapore, with old heritage buildings proudly fronting the water, and the skypscrapers hugging the skirts of the sea in the background.
• We enjoyed an evening meal in Orchard Road, the big tourist area where they flock to shop and stay.
• A ride on the Singapore Flyer – a giant ferris wheel with audio guide on what we could see – learning about fenshi and how that was used in the structure
• Caught the MRT – a fantastic public transport system – underground trains
• Went to Sentosa Island where Disneyworld is being built and where there are many theme park type tourist attractions. It is built up as a tropical paradise area with many luxurious resorts to stay at.
• Walked through China Town where Chinese New Year festivities were still in evidence with decorations etc.
• A final visit to Little India

On a boat cruise in Singapore

After a 7 hour flight, we have arrived safely in Singapore where we will spend one night on our way to Mumbai and the Flat Classroom Conference. Even in this short space of time there have been many lessons learnt, especially for those who have not travelled overseas before. Many of these experiences make us aware of global issues.

• Need to have passport in a readily accessible place.
• Immigration forms need to be filled in to both go out of a country and get into another one
• Any fluids, liquids etc under 100 ml must be placed in a sealed plastic envelope if it is part of carry on luggage
• Laptops have to be taken out of bags and placed in a crate for security scanning purposes
• Mobile phones must be switched off whilst on the plane
•  Converting money to foreign currencies requires exchange rate knowledge
• Time zone differences and calculations (in Singapore we are 3 hours behind Australia.
• Need to listen carefully to the Singaporean accents to ensure conversations are fully understood

Interesting to listen to the taxi driver’s viewpoints of Australia As we have arrived extremely early in the morning, (our flight got in at 5am) we have put our bags into storage at the hotel there has been time to use the internet before any of the shops open, inform folks back home that we have arrived safely and enjoy the fresh air, Travelling is wonderful, giving us a first hand experience of different cultures, ideas, viewpoints, religions etc that only face to face exposure can bring.