English - media studies

Interactive, multimedia lessons guide you through the media in the world today from newspapers and TV to the internet.

Test your knowledge of media studies in the specially-designed exercises that form part of each lesson. Specialist terms are explained in a glossary and the lessons are summarised in handy, printable revision sheets.

Visit the site

tags:
media, education

Creating to learn - has technology fulfilled its promise in our classrooms?

Creating to Learn:Has technology fulfilled its promise in your classroom? by Jacqueline Keane

“Anyone? … Anyone?”

I'm sure all of us have experienced something like that scene with Ferris Bueller's teacher-staring out at a collage of blank faces, hoping for a student to show some interest, some spark of understanding, or (should we dare even think it?) some insight.

As Ferris's teacher used old-fashioned “talk and chalk” at the front of his classroom, his students drifted farther and farther away. No wonder Ferris wanted to take a day off. We all laugh at this scene, but we need to ask ourselves: What are we doing so differently now?

Read on …

Tags:communication, teaching

Resources for families

Visit the families pages for information on parenting, food and nutrition, books and reading, and homework help

Tags:family, parenting, homework

The Academic search engine from Microsoft

The Academic Search Engine From Microsoft: Windows Live Academic

A new, Microsoft-based, online search engine focused on academic subjects is now live.

Called Windows Live Academic, it currently indexes content related to computer science, physics, electrical engineering, and related topics (with more than 6 million records from approximately 4300 journals and 2000 conferences) providing direct access to peer reviewed journal articles contained in academic and scientific online portals.

More subjects will be added in the near future

. Read more ….

Tags:education, search, communication

State omits minorities' test scores

States are helping public schools escape potential penalties by skirting the No Child Left Behind law's requirement that students of all races must show annual academic progress.

With the federal government's permission, schools aren't counting the test scores of nearly 2 million students when they report progress by racial groups, an Associated Press computer analysis found.

Minorities — who historically haven't fared as well as whites in testing — make up the vast majority of students whose scores are being excluded, AP found. And the numbers have been rising.

Read on …

Tags:
education, testing

Better grades - thank a librarian

The following article appeared in the Toronto Sun, Friday, April 7th,2006.

Libraries tied to student achievement

Study makes case for training, funding

"...first Canadian study linking school libraries to student achievement indicates that better libraries improve student testscores and add to kids' reading enjoyment.

The Ontario School Library Association says the research, released yesterday, is the evidence it needs to make a case for more trained school librarians and better-stocked shelves.

"There's such a clear link between libraries and student achievement. I don't know how the minister (of education) can ignore it," said association president Michael Rosettis.

The study by Queen's University professor Don Klinger was based on provincial test scores and attitudinal information collected by the province's Education Quality and Accountability Office. That information was married with data on the state of elementary school libraries gathered by the provincial parent group, People for Education.

Klinger's study of 800 elementary schools and about 50,000 students showed that schools without trained teacher-librarians were more likely to score lower on grades 3 and 6 reading tests. Schools with teacher-librarians had proportionally more students who scored the highest levels on Grade 6 tests.

The study found the biggest difference teacher-librarians made appeared to be in how much students enjoyed reading, said Klinger. The research showed that the presence of a teacher-librarian accounted for a small shift in students' attitude to reading.

It was a tiny variable, but given that researchers haven't been able to identify most of the factors affecting student achievement, it is significant, he said. "If all school libraries were adequately staffed and sufficiently funded, just imagine the impact on student achievement," said Rosettis, a teacher-librarian at St. Augustine Catholic High School in Markham. Teacher-librarians are qualified teachers who've taken more courses to become librarians.

They focus on integrating information technology with the curriculum, and work with teachers to design research units. The $40,000 study was funded by the Ontario School Library Association, but conducted independently, Rosettis said. U.S. studies have shown a link between student achievement and well-staffed, well-stocked school libraries.

The librarians and People for Education say the Ontario government has made small steps to stem a 20-year decline in school libraries with a $17 million book grant last year and another $15 million last month.

Rosettis said he hopes new education minister Sandra Pupatello will find the study compelling enough to consider designating dedicated funds to teacher-librarians and books.

School boards get one librarian for every 769 students, but many schools don't have that many students and even when they do get a library allocation, some principals spend the money on other staffing and specialty teachers in physical education or music.

People for Education research shows that only 54 per cent of Ontario elementary schools had a full- or part-time teacher-librarian last year, compared with 80 per cent in 1997-'98.

At Church Street Public School, full-time teacher-librarian Nancy Woodruff said she works with other teachers, looking for alternative curriculum materials to suit student needs, including those who haven't yet learned English and others with learning disabilities. "These children will have to know how libraries function to the end of their school days," she said, but every year she wonders if the school will be able to keep her in the library position. Principal Judy Gillis said she gets between $6,000 to $7,000 a year to stock the library but it's a struggle with so many competing priorities.

Pupatello was not available for comment yesterday.

Tags: library, education

Promoting poetry

Lots of creative and inexpensive suggestions for making poetry a more important part of school life during April and throughout the year

. Poets.org

Tags:education, poetry

“Anti-racism education for Australian schools” – includes lesson plans and teaching ideas. Resource section, interactive student games

Thinking Out Loud

Tags:racism, education

The Art room

Like art rooms in schools everywhere, this virtual art room is meant to be a "special" place.

Within its "walls," kids are offered opportunities to create, to discover, to imagine, to invent, to learn, and to make their thoughts become things.

In short, the @rt room is a place for kids to explore their inner and outer worlds

. Visit the art room

Tags:education,art

Reactive colours for autism

The Reactive Colours research team, based at Cardiff School of Art and Design, is developing experiential software called ReActivities, to promote relaxation, encourage spontaneous play and support learning for children on the autistic spectrum

Tags:
autism
education

Term 2 book rap - "Worst best friends"

Just wanting to let you know that the Term 2 rap Worst best friends for Stage 2 will be available from May 15th on our website at http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au/schoollibraries/teaching/raps/index.htm

Rap information: Worst best friends by Max Dann. Stage 2. A multimedia unit based on books and films from the television series by the author. This is a cross KLA unit including English and PDHPE which explores issues about friendship, trust and loyalty. Students will share ideas about what friends are like, how they act, things they do and share with friends.

The rap may be used alongside the COGs unit Stage 2: Understanding each other that focuses on exploring different cultures, customs, viewpoints and types of relationships in order to better understand each other.

Resources available from Australian Children's Television Foundation (ACTF). The Rap will be live for viewing and registering (no cost) week of 15 May 2006.

Rap starts 22 May 2006.

Tags:

education

children’s books

Cool free add-on to NASA's World wind

From resource shelf:

World Wind is a free, open source, 3D interactive geographic application (maps and imagery of Earth) that we've linked to on the blog several times and Gary also posted about on the SEW Blog a year ago.

The first version of the app launched in mid-2004. The program was first developed by NASA's Learning Technologies. World Wind has its own wiki, WorldWindCentral, loaded with tons of info (knowledge base), cool places found using the imagery, user tips, and more. A user forum is also available.

World Wind Moon now offers 3-D interactive imagery of the Moon. It's also worth knowing that many add-ons for WorldWind are available. This page has a good overview of how they work. A list is available here and even more comprehensive list here. Add-ons include:+ Access to MSN's Virtual Earth (Live Local) imagery+ Access to Great Lakes Data+ Access to Imagery of Venus+ NASCAR Tracks+ National Parks+ Near Real Time Satellite Tracker

Tags:

education

geography

Australian Flexible Learning Framework - Indigenous access

Applications are now open for funding from the 2005-2006 Australian Flexible Learning Framework (Framework) to contribute to improving employment futures for Indigenous people with limited access to mainstream training options by advancing skills through e-learning.

In 2006, The Framework's Indigenous Engagement Project aims to bring together committed Indigenous individuals and organisations to further strengthen the role of Indigenous people and communities in shaping vocational and technical education.

Successful projects must demonstrate the potential to increase the uptake and delivery of e-learning through the establishment of partnerships between Indigenous communities/organisations and registered training organisations (RTOs).

Visit the website

Tags:
education

Personal change

Visit my Pivotal Personal Management pages for tips, ideas, articles and courses.

Subjects available are:

Motivation

Health and wellbeing

Workplace success

Leadership

Your business success

Email management

Take control of your Paper

MarketingMeetings

Creativity and Innovation

Being organised

Goal setting

See you there!

Tags:

personal improvement

Online video game training for teachers

The Game Institute and Muzzy Lane Software Introduce Online Video Game Training for Teachers

Helping educators get the most from video games in the classroom.

As more schools embrace the educational promise of videogames, teachers are demanding a new kind of education: Courses that help them use interactive technology effectively in the classroom.Today, the Game Institute and Muzzy Lane Software announce a new online education series that will do just that. The new professional development series called "Using Games in Education" is a hands-on training program delivered over the Internet.

Tags:

education

games in education

Powerpoint Templates

PowerPoint Templates for Teachers from Vicki Blackwell.

Also includes links to PowerPoint presentations for teachers and other template sites.

Tags:

powerpoint
education>
teachers

Group work 'raises attainment'

Pupils are more focused on their work, make more progress and behave better if they work in groups, research suggests. A one-year project by the Institute of Education at London University found group work led to improvements in maths, reading and science

. Read on …

Tags:

education

New Information Literacy website

This website has been designed and developed by information professionals from key UK organisations actively involved in the field of information literacy. The site will support practitioners by providing news, case studies, examples of best practice and freely available toolkits. Our aim is to provide a practical resource that information professionals regularly visit to discover the latest developments in information literacy.

tags:

information literacy

Pivotal Communication

All aspects of communication on the Pivotal communication blog - writing, books and reading, public speaking, email and much more .
Tag:
communication

ThinkQuest Library

The ThinkQuest Library provides innovative learning resources for students of all ages on a wide range of educational topics.

Featuring over 5,500 websites, the library is created by students from around the world as part of the competition.

Tags:
education