Virtual
Teacher Newsletter No. 104 March 12th 2005 7500th
THE
FREE ONLINE FORTNIGHTLY IT TEACHERS' NEWSLETTER
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1.
CONTENTS
1.
Welcome
2.
Mind Candy
3.
WWWinfo FILAMENTALITY
4.
New Printables - BLUE HAT WHITE HAT
5.
Technical Stuff NEW MINI MAC
6.
Web Site Focus FILAMENTALITY
7.
DE BONO
8.
Great Sites - EASTER
9. Readers' Requests/Comments
10
Next Issue
11.
Code of 'Netizens'
12.
Tips
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1.
WELCOME EVERYONE and WELCOME to the 7,500th subscriber
wcoat3ı,
yes thatıs right, there are now 7.500 subscribers to VT.
I
am getting lots and lots of feedback and loving it, so with so many
subscribers, there must still be some great ideas out there waiting to be
shared, so get to it and write in, letıs hear all 7,500 of them.
Iıve
just had the most wonderful afternoon watching a black belt Ji Do Kwan test
given by Master Oded Shrier at Rose Bay. It is amazing the mental and physical
discipline required, as well as the philosophical basis for the school. Oded is a brilliant teacher.
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2.
MIND CANDY
"Writing
is the hardest work in the world. I have been a bricklayer and a truck driver,
and I tell you -- as if you haven't been told a million times already -- that
writing is harder. Lonelier. And nobler and more enriching."
Harlan Ellison
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"Six
Hats is a simple, yet powerful tool that can be learned rapidly and used
immediately to achieve long-lasting results. Six Hats has helped our product
development group to generate ideas quickly, evaluate them efficiently, and
implement action plans effectively."
-
Laura Donahue, Nestlé
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There
is not adequate theoretical recognition
that
all which the school can do for pupils,
so
far as their minds are concerned . . .
is
to develop their ability to think.
John
Dewey (Democracy and Education. 1916)
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"If two
men agree on everything, you may be sure that one of them is doing the
thinking." - Lindon Baines Johnson
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3.
WWWinfo FILAMENTALITY SEARCH ENGINES
http://www.kn.pacbell.com/kne_search.html#fil
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4. NEW
PRINTABLES _ DE BONO
The
White Hat http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/whitehat.pdf
The
Blue Hat http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/bluehat.pdf
These
are A4 printables of these 2 hats students can colour
them
in, they can be printed on coloured paper and sent home
in
the newsletter. And if you very lucky you can find a local
plan
printer most instant printers like Kinkoıs will do it and
have
them enlarge for wall display to about A1 size, some
will
even use coloured paper for this.
The cost will be under
$10.00
and magically you will have a great big hat poster.
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5.
TECHNICAL STUFF MINI MAC
The
most affordable Mac yet at a mini price, and you donıt have to rearrange the
furniture.
1.25GHz
PowerPC G4
256MB
DDR333 SDRAM
ATI
Radeon 9200 with 32MB
DDR
video memory
40GB
Ultra ATA hard drive
Combo
drive
DVI
or VGA video output
AirPort
Extreme and Bluetooth
optional
Teacherıs
Price is $719.40 AUD
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The
new Acrobat 7 has just been released this product just gets better and better
take the tour, check it out at:-
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/main.html
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Charles
Stuart University (Bathurst) is providing free access to their
telescope
for school students across Australia during the StarFest 2005
school
astronomy week (March 10 - 18).
The
specific page from which the manual can be downloaded is:
http://www.paulfloyd.id.au/spec/2005/StarFest_2005/Educator_resources/Remote_telescope.html
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6.
WEBSITE FOCUS - Filamentality
Dear
Cathy,
LOVE
the newsletter. Finally have the
courage to contribute! This has
probably
already been discussed somewhere along the way, but it's new to me - I have
found a fantastic website where you can create your own webquest/web hunt etc
for free. Here is the link:
http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/fil/index.html
I've
been using it to set up a computer activity for my kids during literacy
groups. One group works on this
while others are working on reading, writing etc. I find it a great way to get more content knowledge across &
control where they search & the information they're searching for, while
they're practising reading (skimming, scanning, summarising etc). You can search the page for previous
hunts etc created by others and the site will host your creation for up to 12
months. It's fantastic & I
don't need any special software while at home on the weekend creating! Thanks
for the newsletter - it's inspiring!
Megan
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This
site is indeed fantastic. Almost anything you want in terms of webquest topics,
subject samplers, and scrapbooks is already available, you can also construct
your own learning activities at this site - its quick and easy. The great depth of already existing
topics is amazing and the search engine for Filamentality, Knowledge network
Explorer and Blue Webın are brilliant.
More
importantly thanks to Megan for
sending this along and sharing the great stuff with everyone at VT.
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7.
DEBONO - Six Thinking Hats
I
have embarked on a program of teacher the Six Thinking hats not a new
technique but a terrific one.
Using Six thinking Hatsı by Edward De Bono (1985, 1999 by MICA
Management Resources) as a reference as well as many online references.
Thinking
is the ultimate human resource. Thinking is a very important skill to learn.
Traditional
thinking is based on the model of the argument or adversarial thinking. Each
side takes a different position and then seeks to attack the other side.
Each side seeks to prove that the other side is wrong. This is the type of
thinking established by the Greek Gang of Three (Socrates, Plato and Aristotle)
two thousand four hundred years ago. It is an excellent form of thinking but it
is not enough. "The front left wheel of a car is excellent, but it is not
enough.
Adversarial thinking completely lacks a constructive, creative or
design element.
Edward
de Bono's Six Thinking Hats introduces a method of
'parallel
thinking'.
One
of the main problems with thinking is confusion. We try to do too much at once. Emotions, information, logic, hope and creativity all crowd
in on us. It is like juggling too
many balls.
With
'parallel thinking' everyone is thinking in parallel, in the same
direction. There is co-operative and coordinated thinking.
The
Six thinking Hats, allow us to conduct our thinking as a conductor might lead
an orchestra.
Much
of the above text is composed from exerts from:-
Six
Thinking Hats by Edward Debono - available from Amazon
Six
thinking Hats and Some activities
http://www.naturalmaths.com.au/Settings/six_hats.htm
http://www.naturalmaths.com.au/Settings/activities_2.htm
Classroom
Management and the six thinking hats - Canada
http://www.teachnet.com/how-to/manage/sixhats120800.html
Lynda
Curtin site Offers training for all ages
http://www.lyndacurtin.com/programs/school_programs/six_thinking_hats_k-12_school_%20program.asp
Six
thinking Hats Edward de Bono Site
http://www.debonogroup.com/6hats.htm
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8.
GREAT SITES
HOT
SITES
EASTER
Goto
the How Stuff works site and search for Easter', this site
offers
lots of info suitable for upper primary and High School students
http://people.howstuffworks.com/easter.htm
Make
a marshmallow Bunny at
http://www.kidsdomain.com/craft/rabbit.html
Sitting
Hen http://www.kidsdomain.com/craft/hen.html
Easter
Word Puzzles http://www.kidsdomain.com/holiday/easter/word.html
Pokemon
Easter Egg Holders - do you believe it???
The
children will love it!!!!
http://familycrafts.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dltk-kids.com%2Fpokemon%2Fmepokemon.html
Try
the Paper Bag Bunnies or the Amazing Transparent Easter
Eggs
on this Page - to a happy tune of the Easter Hat Parade
or
turn the sound off)
http://www.jeannepasero.com/easter8.html
More
Stories and Poems for Easter - including some
Christian
Easter Downloads http://craftsforkids.about.com/kids/craftsforkids/library/misc/bleassong.htm?rnk=r1&terms=Easter+Stories
Scrambled
Eggs Anyone - shockwave game You will really love this one. http://www.searsportrait.com/ShockwaveGames/loader.asp?src=scrambled%5Feggs%2Feaster%5Fintro%2Edcr&h=274&w=592&tag=4B3D6A7F80B0441F9251D0FEB3B4E0249813B1AEC8FD41DBB842AFE807558EAE
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9.
READERS COMMENTS/REQUESTS
Hi
Cathy,
My
ICT HOD would like to add to the Moodle stuff in your newsletter ;)
He
really is the brains and the technical expertise behind this Moodle
stuff. I'm the classroom 'manipulator' of the
technology.
Cheers
Andrew..
Hi,
Andrew
Jones of Heatley SC forwarded your newsletter to me tonight. I originally heard about Moodle from a
visiting teacher who recently
returned
from the UK. The software itself
was started by an Australian
and
others can read about this at www.moodle.org .
It
is a course management package but I like to think of it as a virtual
learning
environment and am encouraging teachers to embrace the concept
of
virtual community.
For
those interested in the technicalities of it, the software is
written
in PHP and requires a webserver and database to run. My choice for our pilot was Red Hat Linux 9 running an
Apache
webserver
using a mySQL database. Other combinations
are
possible.
As
Andrew said, it is a package with huge potential and a school
friendly
price - zero. I would encourage
those interested to spend some time on the Moodle website. Be prepared to lose some hours though
it is a comprehensive and versatile piece of software.
Regards,
Mark
Weste
Heatley
Secondary College
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Hi
Cathy,
I have enjoyed your newsletter for many years. Now it is time I put something back. This year I am running a Year 10 course
called Fit For Life. I am a Phys. Ed. teacher and it falls under the
umbrella. It runs for one semester and I am trying to make it as
interactive with the computer as I can.
By sheer luck I came across a website whose address is
http://goforyourlife.vic.gov.au
Please
note that there is NO www in front of it.
I have found some wonderful information on there for fitness and
nutrition. However I am sure that
there is a lot of other information available.
keep
up the good work
Anne
Munro
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Thanks
Anne Great Site
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Dear
Cathy
You
have two links to Australiaıs Cultural Network (ACN) on your links page at http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/australia.html
ACN
became the Culture and Recreation Portal (CARP) several years ago, and until
July last year anyone clicking on the old http://www.acn.net.au/articles/
link
would have been redirected to the CARP articles index page. However in July last year a graphic
refresh was undertaken and the articlesı became storiesı. A redirection was
put in place on the CARP articles index page, but not the ACN articles index
page. This means that from that
time, your link to us has not been working.
I
have now put a redirection in place to overcome this problem, but it we would
appreciate it if you would change the name to The Culture and Recreation Portal
and update the link to
<http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/stories/>http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/stories/.
Thank
you very much for including CARP (ACN) in your list of links.
Kind
regards
Jacki
Thomas
Digital
Content Section
Australian
Government Department of Communications,
Information
Technology and the Arts
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Any
ideas where the site is that lets you go from a backyard until you are up in
the galaxy and then down again?
I
had it a few years ago and lost it - very interesting
Thanks
for all your work on this great site.
Warm
regards, Kath
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Hi
Kath,
Roland
Harvey's book does just that.
My
Place in Space
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0531070301/102-9396782-2648168I'll
ask about this site in the next news letter.
Does
anyone have any ideas????
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Hi
Cathy
Firstly,
I've
been reading your excellent news letter for several months now and it's a
superb help for me here at a
Primary school in Colombia, South America where I teach.
I
thought I'd write and mention that the latest version of iMovie that comes
bundled in the new ilife 'O5 is
built to work with HD video - so no need do shell out for Final Cut Pro etc -
at least to start off with. I can't wait to work with it but the cost of HD
cameras is still prohibitively expensive at least for my school.
Best
Wishes,
Jonathan
Colegio
Colombo Britanico,
Cali,
Colombia.
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Interestingly
you can capture direct to iMovie from the camera and bypass the tape
altogether. iMovie will import direct to hard drive and in nice little already
logged clips.
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This
on-line maths dictionary is great lots of practical explanations and very
interactive. We have included it on our Intranet: http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/jeather/maths/dictionary.html
Hope
you find it useful
Cheryl
Wells
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Thanks
Cheryl itıs a corker.
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Hi
Cathy, do you know many resources that you could direct me to for a unit of
work Yr 5 level that I am developing on the topic of Pollution. Many thanks,
Jennifer
Distance
Education Centre
VIC
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Hi
Jennifer,
Goto
the directory page at VT
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/directory.html
Use
the site google search engine on the page, type in pollution.
This
will bring up a number of links to references about pollution. The series of lessons on Energy was most
relevant.
The
topic "pollution" is very broad.
I
think it is also important to present a non political view of all areas of
study including this one.
Currently
the earth should be in the grips of an ice-age - based on its current orbit -
however - since man has been busily polluting the environment for ages, we have
managed to avoid this and we are currently going through a period of global
warming. An ice age would have
been far more devastating in its impact.
Google up some references to this as well.
-------------------------------
Many thanks
Cathy for such a quick response. I have yet to investigate the websites you
have sent but they will give me a great starting point.
Jennifer
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10. NEXT ISSUE More de bono hats
so send in your great ideas particularly lesson plans.
Ciao
Cathy
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11.
Code of the 'Netizens'
This
Newsletter is not free, despite the misleading advertising
above.
The Fee is now due. Each week you must help one
colleague
on the Internet who has less knowledge than you.
Help
that person even if you have to visit their classroom or
do
a little research and get back to them. Trust me, this will
help
a lot of people get their computer classrooms running better.
OK
I'm trusting you!!!
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12.
TIPS
1.
Double click on highlighted URLS to open in browser.
2.
Send in your Questions, Questions will be published with
Answers,
send in your Answers, if you have expertise to share.
3.
Nominate a brilliant site for review and inclusion in this
newsletter.
4.
Nominate a fantastic school site for review and inclusion in
this newsletter.
5.
Make contact with other schools using fantastic programs.
6.
Prepare and innovative article for this newsletter.
7.
Tell 2 colleagues about this newsletter.
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The
opinions expressed here are purely those of the editor,
Cathy
Brown. All other small print clauses apply. Such as:
Use
at your own risk. Nothing in life is guaranteed. If it doesn't
work
for you send me an email.
Editor:
cathy brown mailto:cathy@virtualteacher.com.au
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