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Archive for Digital Resource Management

IWB Resource Update : 7th Sept – 14th Sept 2009

Posted by: Adam Brice | 14 September, 2009 | 1 Comment |

In my role supporting teachers develop confidence and good pedagogy in their teaching with ICT, I aim to provide you with a weekly update of some of the gems I have found on the internet for my staff. Rather than post a page with links to a thousand items which you then have to spend time sifting through, I have created a resource of library which I have individually checked and deemed worthy of making the list. As teachers, we just don’t have the time, but by sharing, we can all help each other out.

So check back regularly for more updates, and please share any worthwhile activities you find with me for these posts.

By clicking on a link you will be taken to a preview of the activity. If you like the look of it, click on the picture of the page to be sent to the site.

under: Digital Resource Management, IWBs

Shelfari – Your Classroom’s Online Reading Journal

Posted by: Adam Brice | 18 July, 2009 | 3 Comments |

I am a lover of all things visual. The more clearly my information is presented, the easier it is for me, my students and colleagues in making sense of the world.

When trying to motivate teachers to start using technology in the classroom as a part of their everyday practice, it is vital that we make it as easy as possible. There needs to be a need, a clear purpose for introducing a new tool, that improves the way it may already have been done in the classroom. If it is not quicker, easier, and does not enhance the learning process, teachers will quite understandably avoid it.

In my last post, I highlighted the power of ‘SimplyBox’ as a way of storing and sharing resources over the Internet. Its visual nature makes it easy to quickly locate what you are looking for, rather than the hit and miss method of clicking on text links. Teachers and students love how easy it is to find the important information they want, store it and retrieve it when needed. After all, isn’t this one of the key strategies and skills we should be encouraging our students to have for their futures?

Another fantastic tool is ‘Shelfari.’ This amazing program allows you to create a virtual bookshelf of books you have read, or plan on reading. It also allows you to share the books you have read and share them with your friends. While you cannot read or download the actual book, it provides you with the opportunity to review wht you have read, keep a record of books and enter discussions about books with people from all over the world. For bloggers, it even allows you to create you own ‘shelf’ and add it to your blog – as you can see on my site here. There is even the ability to add your own books to the library.

This picture is a preview of all of the books I have added, reviewed and rated to my personal page. Imagine the power of this in the classroom? Students rating, reviewing, discussing, recommending, cataloging and searching for new books, all in a visual manner.

I am not an avid reader, but strangely enough enjoyed adding some of the books I have read, rating them, and searching for new titles I may like to read next. For the reluctant reader, I see this as a fantastic way to search for a topic I am interested in using the ‘tags’ facility, and then getting some honest reviews from other people who did and did not enjoy the book.

The biggest challenge for educators would be access to the site, depending on whether the filters at your school block it out. Check out the program, my ‘shelf’ and start exploring!

under: Digital Resource Management, Visual Literacy, Web 2.0
Tags: Library, Shelfari, SimplyBox, Visual Literacy, Web 2.0

SimplyBox – Simply Awesome!

Posted by: Adam Brice | 5 July, 2009 | 2 Comments |

Over the last weeks, my school has been fortunate enough to gain funding which we have put towards getting interactive whiteboards installed throughout the whole school. However, since the beginning of the year, we have been heavily focusing on the needs of today’s students, and how we need to be making their learning relevant to their lives, and the world they are going to inherit.

It has been pleasing to see the positive approach the staff have taken. They have been playing with the software and becoming more aware of various Web 2.0 applications to suit their classrooms. Now that we have the boards, coupled with a new learning management system ‘Studywiz’ about to be introduced, the need to have organised and visual resources to support the staff is vital to their success.

This has been a massive challenge for me for quite a while – how can I create a digital resources library that is going to make it easy for teachers to not only access, but even contribute to, without me having to spend hours creating images and hyperlinking? Photos and even videos will be linked via the learning management system, but I needed something that could gather all the web based resources and links I have collected over the years.

Bookmarking sites like Diigo are excellent, but they were still not exactly what I was after. I want a visual interface where I can see what the bookmark is, making it easy for the teachers and students to quickly acces what they need.

Enter ‘SimplyBox.’ I absolutely love everything about this program. The ability to capture a snapshot of a page, drag into my box and then share it as a webpage has answered all of my needs. By sharing the page publicly, other people can now contribute to the page as well.

I have now set up a page within Studywiz which links to the relevant ‘box’ of visual resources. When the class clicks on the link, they are then presented with a visual library of resources – it is so simple and easy to find what they are after. After all, we are more likely to rememeber a visual cue than a bunch of text, aren’t we?

So a massive pat on the back to the guys at ‘SimplyBox.’ You have created an amazing product that is practical and easy to use. It also looks like the guys are keen to keep improving the product, as demonstrated by their integration with other sites such as ‘Twitter.’

Check out the introduction, and get ready to be ‘Simply’ Amazed!

under: Digital Resource Management, E-Learning Co-ordination, Visual Literacy
Tags: SimplyBox, Studywiz, Visual Organiser

Tags, Categories & Favourites – Becoming Efficient 21s Century Educators

Posted by: Adam Brice | 16 April, 2009 | No Comment |

The recent holiday break has reminded me of a number of things – how organised I am at work and with all things digital, yet my working space at home, personal calendars, and resources are completely disorganised – much to the frustration of my wife and friends who tolerate this. The recent ‘family clean up’ of these spaces (which continues) reminded me of a number of things I have been trying to do in my new role as a technology facilitator at a primary school.

This year, I have the unique role where I am supporting teachers in the classroom to develop effective technology skills throughout the entire curriculum. These may be individual ‘tutorials’, small group or team teaching projects.

No matter which class or year level I am in, it is obvious that all teachers need to be organised. We thrive on it. Some of us will spend hours developing one lesson, while others will know where a specific pen will be at any stage in their classroom.

So why are teachers so disorganised when it comes digital resources? What impact does this have for our students?

This became one of the most important aspects to my role this year – organisation of resources. If teachers are having trouble finding or sharng their work, then it simply won’t happen. As we are focusing heavily on incorporating Interactive Whiteboards as a tool into our teaching, it has become vital that teachers need to have a common location where they can search for resources and save their own creations.

In doing this we are promoting a number of things – 21st Century technology skills, accessing more interactive and visual resources into our lessons, and promoting collaboration between the staff.

Although my role is technology, there is still plenty to learn about – as there always is. As I have been researching and reading more about the variety of tools available, I have realised that simply loading the resources into folders on a server is not adequate.

The variety of open source software available to create searchable libraries is substantial. These libraries can create visuals of your resources, allow teachers to easily search them and house them all in the one place. One of the most important skills it will promote to the teachers, and skills they should be sharing with their students is uploading resources, and ‘tagging,’ ‘categorising’ and adding ‘favourites’ for future use.

These features are key components of all types of Web 2.0 software such as blogs, flickr, YouTube, etc, and even in the last few updates of the Apple iLife software. In an age where we are bombarded with information and resources, we need to teach our students how to manage them efficiently, as well as be productive contributors.

Some of the software I have found so far that seems to cater for these needs include; Razuna, ccHost, and Huddle.

If you have any experience or knowledge in this area, I would love to hear from you.