WendyFLE2010

Happy Holidays everyone

wmacpherson — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 11:42:22 +0000

I won’t be able to make it to the online session tomorrow, Wednesday as I’ll be attending the last meeting of the ACEC2010 Conference organising committee. We’re looking forward to a fabulous conference at the Melbourne Conference Centre from Wednesday 7th – Friday 9th April. Check out the conference website. I’m looking forward to hearing Adam Elliot, Gary Stager and Sylvia Martinez speak.

Hope skype works from the wifi in McDonalds Ted! Happy Easter everyone

Podcasting

wmacpherson — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 09:54:10 +0000

Podcasting Resources

This is an old post but with a bit of a tidy up I think it fits the bill for next week’s focus.

The Victorian Education Department has a number of really great resources available to support teachers beginning to use podcasts. These can be found at the DEECD site FUSE formerly the Education Channel.

One of the teachers featured on this site is Andrew Douch from Wanganui Park Secondary College. Andrew won the Microsoft Educator of the Year award in 2007 for his work in integrating podcasting into his VCE Biology classes. Check out his Biology Podcasts

Andrew speaks about how he began to use podcasts in this video. (Teachers in the Victorian Government System can log in and view the Wanganui Park Video. Non DEECD Users try this link)

Podcasts for Professional Learning

My twice daily 70 minute train ride gives me time to listen to my ipod and catch up on new ideas (Radio National) or episodes of old favourites. (Hamish and Andy) I have heard some really interesting programs on Radio National and it’s great to know that I can download these programs as podcasts and share them with colleagues. One of my favourites is One Laptop Per Child, Nicholas Negroponte.

Wendy’s FLE Blog

wmacpherson — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 09:44:57 +0000

Hello everyone, my apologies for being so tardy setting up my blog. I’ve decided, like Gillian to reuse an old blog so I’m busy revisiting, revamping and revising outdated posts.

Getting back into Cyberspace March 25th 2010

About half way through last year I started an exciting new job in the Education Department Central Office. I am working in the Ultranet Project Team and we are about 6 weeks away from going live across Victoria. Needless to say the pace at work has picked up a little.

‘The Ultranet is a student centred electronic learning environment that supports high quality learning and teaching, connects students, teachers and parents and enables efficient knowledge transfer. It will establish a schools environment for the future that improves the educational outcomes of all Victorians’. I guess you could say the Ultranet is a Flexible Learning Environment for Victorian Government Schools

One of the great things about my job is that I get to work with and support the 70 Ultranet Coaches who are leading the network implementation of the Ultranet. I am managing a closed Ning for coaches and have access to some fabulous resources which they share.

This video was posted on our Ning recently and it struck a chord with me. I am interested in constructivist learning theories and a short interview with Seymour Papert was too good to pass up. Keep in mind that this interviewtook place in 1998. Have we moved any closer to achieving Seymour Papert’s vision?

Seymour Papert on Generation YES and Kid Power from Gary Stager on Vimeo.

Another place I like to find interesting resources is on Twitter (wendymacpherson) These two online spaces have provided me with wonderful links to follow and lots of stimulating discussions. If only there were more hours in the day

One of the great resources I found on Twitter is Nine Great Reasons Why Teachers Should Twitter. I must agree with Melanie McBride that using Twitter is ‘a matter of finding the right people to follow’ Those of you who aren’t familiar with Twitter should check out this video.

“Following smart people on Twitter is like a mental shot of expresso”