Tag Archive for 'Training'

Tech Crew makes an impact

Published on 8 March, 2009 in Students. 4 Comments Tags: , , .

Our High School, Wellington College, has been using a model of student involvement in ICT. This has grown out of the School’s principle of actively engaging senior students in all areas of leadership.

The Tech Crew program, started in 2006, was based on a model that our sister school, Wellington Girls College, had initiated. A handful of tech savvy students were assigned to a group of teachers to assist and train them in the use of various software, hardware, web and any other teacher related ICT’s. This proved successful in that the students, as trainers, started to feel ownership of their school’s infrastructure as well as developing the skills to mentor. Teachers were very comfortable learning from students in the know.

This year the Tech Crew program has evolved into something more substantial. Our College has just completed a 3 year Ministry of Education funded ICT Professional Development cluster. Over the three years most staff have become more ICT literate, however we desperately need to be utilising the constantly evolving web-enabled tools which have fantastic potential to help improve teacher pedagogy and student learning.

This year the Tech Crew are working closely with me to help develop and enable these tools for learning in the College. The Tech Crew consists of 14 students most of which are seniors though some juniors are involved to ensure the program is sustained. These students have a wide range of skills which are targeted towards the various projects. Some examples are:

  • Moodle Learning Management System – Our school does not yet have an official site. One of our Tech Crew members has hosted our development site on his server (based overseas). He handles the technical side while I manage the administration. Our Moodle site (rightclicklearning.co.nz) has managed to enrol over 400 students (1/4 of school) in courses in the first month. This success will see the school introduce an official school site for 2010.
  • Library Help Desk – One of our Tech Crew has organised the equipping of a help desk in our centrally located and well utilised Library. They manage it at lunchtimes and also assist with the management of Library computers. As further web-based tools are introduced into the school, the Tech Crew will be called on to assist further. This help desk gives visibility and easier access to students and staff for help if needed.
  • Online Booking System – One of our very talented Tech Crew members has been tasked by me to write a program for teachers to book computer and other College facilities over the web. It is nearly complete and will be launched in just over a week.
  • Online Help Desk – Three of the Tech Crew are developing a Moodle Course which will act as an online request and technical training site for teaching staff. This site will serve dual purposes. It will encourage teachers who have not used Moodle to experience its usefulness from a ‘student’ perspective. It will also be a central point for help requests. Teachers will be able to request “Rapid Help” from the Tech Crew via a google form – our aim is for all help requests to be answered within 24hrs. Tech Crew will respond to the requests which they feel equipped to deal with. The Google form also feeds into a spreadsheet which enables us to later analyse how the system is being used.
    There will also be blocks which provide information and support for each of the different software/hardware/other issues that teachers encounter. We are starting with MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Laptop issues, Outlook, and Room Equipment. However, this will be expanded into web based tools such as Google Docs, Gmail, Google Calendar, Mahara etc as they are rolled out.
  • MyPortfolio (Mahara ePortfolios) – Two of the Tech Crew are working alongside me to become familiar with this web tool. I am using it with two of my classes (Year 9 History and Y12 Web Design) in very different ways. I am attempting to model to other staff the possibilities. About midyear the tool will be promoted and we will have the Tech Crew expertise to support it.
  • Google Apps Education Edition – In about a months time the College will be rolling this out school wide. It will be a big change for staff and students alike. In preparation for this I and the Tech Crew have been using these Apps for communication and collaboration. We have a Tech Crew Google Calendar for planning. All communication is via Gmail and in particular we have a number of shared Google Docs. Two of the Tech Crew will also be administering the Apps site with me along with designing the site theme etc.
  • Digiweb Video Project – One of our Tech Crew members has been tasked with exploring how we can digitalize and share with the students/teachers all College owned video. This is a large project which he is undertaking but a very important one as, like many institutions, we need to find better ways to manage these valuable resources.
So as you can see, by involving these tech savvy students in assisting staff and our College wide shift to web applications we are able to achieve:
  1. Technical and Application support for staff and students
  2. Support for me by having a willing and capable team supporting the various projects
  3. Tech Crew students gaining valuable leadership experience and being extended in their own ICT skills
I hope this post proves useful to you. I will be writing more about the above projects from time to time.

Collaboration Webs and Mobile Tools

Published on 15 October, 2008 in Cloud Computing, Cool Tools, Laptop Classrooms, blended learning and ePortfolios. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Classmate PC

Well I have just about recovered from the U-Learn 08 Conference held in Christchurch last week. It is the largest eLearning conference for teachers in the country. The conference more than anything confirmed my belief that we are headed rapidly towards a combination of Collaboration Webs and Mobile tools which will take over our teaching. This year’s Horizon Report confirms that these will be adopted within 1-3 years.

For this reason I will be helping to implement a project at my school to facilitate a shift to the use of Mobile Tools and Connected Learning in the classroom. Currently teachers need to jostle over the limited computer room resources, similar to most schools as we know. We will be dedicating one classroom of laptops to allow 5-6 teachers from a range of subjects and Year levels to have online access on demand. The teachers will become a collaborative team with ongoing professional development in the use of online tools to implement student centred learning. The focus of this project is on developing the staff so that they can become team leaders the following year when we purchase a number of sets of cheap mini laptops such as the Classmate PC (as shown above).

Already there is strong interest in participation in the project. I see it as just one project among many where rapid growth can occur by exploring and modelling what is possible.

Clearly the expectation is that Mobile Phones will become the web tool of choice for most teenagers and possibly adults too. However, until the more web-capable iPhone & T-Mobile become more affordable then we see the use of the mini PC as an affordable choice to help prepare our staff and students for what lies ahead.

Here is a link to my presentation to Department Heads which was use to promote discussion of our “Collaboration Webs Project”:

Implementing Moodle in a High School

Published on 6 October, 2008 in Laptop Classrooms, Moodle and blended learning. 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

It is my belief that the implementation of an interactive Learning Management System such as Moodle is best accomplished using a ground up rather than top down model.

The following two videos show what Belmont City College in Perth, Western Australia accomplished within a short space of time. After 10 months over 50% of teaching staff were using Moodle. The videos (part 1 & 2) step through the process of the schools implementation of Moodle and also demonstrate what is possible for teachers, students and administrators with the Moodle LMS.

This is a great presentation which I thoroughly recommend:

 

How to get started with Moodle

Published on 28 September, 2008 in Moodle and blended learning. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

If you or your school have decided to start using the Moodle LMS then this post may be of some use to you.

Self Hosting or Managed Hosting?

Although Moodle is a free open source Learning Management System downloadable from Moodle.org, it does require some ongoing technical support if you are wanting to go down the Self Hosting track. Even hosting it on a cheap overseas site such as GoDaddy.com or Bluehost.com can incur problems down the track, particularly if your site attracts a lot of traffic such as multiple users logging on and multiple daily emails. Even if your school hosts the site then you will need to be have some good technical assistance.

One option for self hosting is to contract a Moodle specialist such as Catalyst who can set up the site to your specifications. They can then monitor and manage from off-site. This could initially be the safest self-hosting track

Managed hosting is easier but more expensive. Companies such as Catalyst or HRDNZ are both Moodle specialists and would be the way to go. Just be aware that with managed hosting there may be limitations on the number of add-ons that you can install. I chose the managed hosting solution with my classes as my school chose to use Microsoft SharePoint (Ughhh!) and I wanted something more interactive etc (see my earlier post “Why Choose Moodle” for more on this). Managed hosting initially allowed me to gain confidence with Moodle as a learning tool without worrying about technical issues.

Training

  1. HRDNZ earlier this year started a 12 week MoodleBites Course. One important aspect of this is that you take on the role of a student – it is important to see Moodle from the users point of view as you are constructing your course. MoodleBites also gives you training and tips on the many tools that you can incorporate into your online course. You can also interact with other “students” and ask questions in the discussion forums.
  2. Northtec has been running a course called CeLDD (Certificate in Elearning Design & Development) for the last 2 years.
    This course is approximately 12 months but is more comprehensive than MoodleBites. It discusses wider eLearning issues and pedagogy and there are some tasks to complete – it is well worth looking at.
  3. Moodle School is a great website to become more familiar with Moodle. They have free short courses and links to a great range of resources.
  4. Julian Ridden of NSW Australia runs Moodle Playpen which showcases latest moodle developments within a Moodle site. He also has a great Moodle Blog.
  5. Finally, there is an annual conference in New Zealand called Moodle Moot. This year it is in Napier in the second week of these October holidays.
Well hopefully that gives you a few pointers from someone who has been moodling along for 2 years now…