Friday 29th August 2014 Google and Microsoft have recently become very aggressive with pricing for their Drive and OneDrive file storage services, undercutting Dropbox, the longtime leader in the online file storage domain. Apple also recently announced similar pricing to Google and MS for their soon-to-be-released integrated iCloud Drive service. After much speculation Dropbox has finally responded, rationalising its pricing plans to offer just 2 options: Free – … Read More
3/4C with Miss Bell
Thursday 28th August 2014 3/4C at Caves Beach PS are now online. Click on the What we are learning menu to explore their activities in Literacy, Maths, Creative Arts and Science. Drop by and say ‘Hi’ with a comment on 3/4c’s blog >>>
iOS apps for Google Docs, Sheets – and now Slides
Wednesday 27th August 2014 Google have announced the launch of their Slides app for iOS, along with updates to their Docs and Sheets apps. It is now possible to work on any file, on any device, at any time. The iOS apps save edits locally, syncing when you next have WiFi network access. Read more about the new apps at the Google Blog … Read More
School bells (and announcements) on an iPod
Tuesday 26th August 2014 This might be worth checking out for your school – an iOS app that can use your school’s existing PA system to: Schedule bells (hourly, daily, weekly) that are fully customisable (time of day, etc); Select from a library of school bell sounds; Add your own music selection directly from iTunes; Select different themes / music … Read More
Escaping Education’s Death Valley
Monday 25th August 2014 Sir Ken Robinson outlines 3 principles crucial for the human mind to flourish – and how current education culture works against them. In an entertaining presentation Sir Ken considers some options to escape the educational “death valley” we now face, and discusses (without a slideshow!) how to nurture our youngest generations with a climate of possibility….
Goodbye Powerpoint – Education conferences
Friday 22nd August 2014 No one moves. A room full of people have traveled long distances to this conference of superintendents, and no one wants to ask the person speaking before them a question. Some people are probably afraid to ask a question because they weren’t paying attention; at least a few attendees have spent the morning on their phones, checking … Read More
National Science Week
Thursday 21st August 2014 Has your school been involved in 2014 Australian National Science Week activities? Shows, talks, festivals and more! There are still plenty of local and online activities in which you can participate with your class this week. (Just a pity that it clashes with Book Week!) Learn more at the National Science Week website >>>
Port Kembla PS – Student Showcase
Wednesday 20th August 2014 Visit the classes at Port Kembla Public School in NSW…. Class activities, performances at local schools, and excursions, are all documented on these class pages. Visit the PKPS Showcase >>> (Powered by Weebly)
Skaffl – 1:1 iPad classroom workflow
Tuesday 19th August 2014 Skaffl allows teachers to distribute and collect assignments electronically from students using iPads. Skaffl is free until the end of the year. With Skaffl….Teachers can:– Create activities for students to complete;– Plan ahead and save activities for distribution when you need them;– Collect student work;– Annotate and grade student assignments. Students can:– Receive their assignments and keep track of … Read More
NAPLAN test too confusing for students
Monday 18th August 2014 The NAPLAN writing test was so hard this year that students’ marks have slipped across the country and in NSW there has been a “substantial increase” in the number of students who will receive zero because the question was too confusing. The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), which runs NAPLAN, is investigating problems with … Read More
3C at Broulee PS
Friday 15th August 2014 What has been happening in class 3C at Broulee PS this week? How about baking pikelets and then cutting them into fractions! Check out 3C’s class blog – hosted at Weebly >>>
Firefox YouTube Video Downloader
Thursday 14th August 2014 Ever had a lesson prepared, needed to display a YouTube video, and right at the crucial moment you discover that the Internet is down? Fear no more! Use the Firefox YouTube Video Downloader to save the video as an MP4 file so it is ready to go, right when you need it. Install the Video Downloader Firefox … Read More
Google launches Classroom
Wednesday 13th August 2014 Google yesterday officially launched Google Classroom. Classroom is now available for schools using Google Apps for Education – though I expect that there will be a ‘rollout period’ over the next month or so. Google have added a number of new features to Classroom, following feedback from the trial that has been underway since May. No doubt … Read More
BYOD at East Hills Girls THS
Tuesday 12th August 2014 All students in Years 7 – 9 at East Hills Girls Technology High School now use their own iPads across all Faculties in the school. The teachers in each Faculty have contributed to an iBook, outlining ideas for integrating the iPad within their Faculty’s curriculum activities. To access the iBook you will need to enrol in the school’s related iTunes U course….. … Read More
Google Drive updates for teachers
Monday 11th August 2014 Over that past few weeks Google have announced a number of updates to Drive. Many of these updates are significant for K-12 teachers. These updates include new ‘Suggested Edits’ in Google Docs, editing Microsoft Word docs in their native format, and a number of new features in Google Slides. Check out a summary of the new ‘teacher features’ … Read More
One second on the Internet
Friday 8th August 2014 From it’s first public ‘release’ in the early 90s, ‘the Internet’ has grown from a geeky hangout for super-nerds to an essential part of the average person’s everyday life. With this widespread adoption around the globe, have you ever wondered what happens in just a single second, every second, on the Internet? Find out >>>
What is meta data?
Thursday 7th August 2014 With all the discussion today about Government plans to legislate for ISPs to store your online ‘meta data’ for two years, should you be worried? What is metadata? Should you be concerned that it’s going to be retained for law-enforcement purposes if legislation is passed in Parliament? Is it true it can be accessed now without a warrant? … Read More
Schoolyard bullies – result of aggressive parenting and teaching
Thursday 7th August 2014 Aggressive parenting and teaching is turning children into schoolyard bullies, a parenting researcher will warn a national bullying conference today. “Bullies learn to be bullies from the role models of their parents, from inconsistent boundaries and from not enough love.” Read the full story in the SMH >>>
Is your email address portable?
Wednesday 6th August 2014 If you use Dropbox, Tripit, Skype, PayPal, eBay, Facebook, Edmodo, WordPress, etc, etc, or bank online, or pay your phone, road-toll, ISP, or other regular bills online, you need an e-mail address. And if you want to preserve some long-term sanity, this address needs to be a constant. In particular, if you use an e-mail address provided by … Read More
Stop Motion in the Classroom
Tuesday 5th August 2014 Stephanie Castle, an Australian teacher, has posted some ideas about using Stop Motion Studio on iPads with her high school students. Stop Motion Studio is available in the App Store >>>
School Web Sites
Monday 4th August 2014 A school web site is often the first contact that a prospective enrolment’s parent may have with your school. Your school web site can also become a place for sharing resources and information with the school community. What does your school’s web site say about your school? Does your school’s site convey a sense of a … Read More