Skoolbo

Skoolbo is free and runs across 4 countries

Hate the name of it. Total misrepresentation of spelling, meaning , vocabulary and the site itself. Good job word of mouth works and there appears to be a pretty impressive competition going on involving the four countries where Skoolbo is established. It appears to be for younger children and focussing on literacy and numeracy.it is designed to strongly support personal learning and  opportunities for collaboration I am not sure if language means English language skills or other languages. I’ll find out. I have a plan. I can see, that even if this is designed for younger students it would benefit students learning English and really encourage them to do well quickly. It is the last week of the school year and I have my year 9s last lesson tomorrow. We have been working on 3 visual presentations for French at all different language levels and they have been enjoying it. Those who want a bit of a break tomorrow can try out Skoolbo and I’ll have a look it at it tomorrow as well. I value their opinion. I have taught them how to look at data, online sites and information and make intelligent decisions about whether they are valuable or not. They have always been very honest and genuine in their approach but are also very good at looking at options and possibilities, so they are a good class to trial apps, software and ideas with. They love collaborating and they love creating something useful together whether it’s a product or an approach. Can’t wait to hear what they think of Skoolbo!

Back to Edmettle

It’s taken a while to get my Year 9s up and running with Edmettle this year. They were attached to Twiducate which was also created by Brian Aspinall. Twiducate is the old version. Edmettle is designed to fit in with the values of the Canadian curriculum, but as it happens, it fits in nicely with ours too. With Edmettle you also have an opportunity to involve parents. I am not up to that yet because it has taken me half a year to get the students to accept Edmettle and just use it as we did Twiducate. It’s not annoying. It is a sign they really value the place where they give me online feedback and practise their French sometimes. They, are right to approach a new site with caution and prudence. I respect their judgement in that. Yesterday , though , we got back to Edmettle and they were all happy with it and typed away as they normally do, so today I can move that forward. As a teacher I value it because I can ask them questions about the work we have done, I can ask them for input for something I am trying to decide, we can discuss ideas and trouble shoot and we can practice our French when we want to . I also have the opportunity with Edmettle, as do the students, of endorsing values like  initiative, grit, organisation etc. As a teacher I have found that to be a nice thing. With a site like Edmettle each student has a voice. Each student is heard and each student can be noticed. I have a direct line of contact with all the students in my class. It is safe, it stands alone and it really makes them think of how they will say something because there is a character limit. Same for me. It trains you up for social media and it forces you to be discerning as you write. I knew they had adopted the site yesterday when more of them had put up an avatar. I can go back to this today and work on their bios and how we shall assess the next task. These students love group assessments. I created a rubric which , twice now, they have fine tuned and discussed so that we now have the perfect group assessment sheet for iPads. They own their group assessment now because they were part of developing it and their ideas were all helpful and valid. When you have access to everyone’s ideas, you have access to a broad range of ideas. Guarantees you can achieve well and Edmettle is a great tool for faciliting collaboration. I , too, needed time to get away from Twiducate because it had been so useful for creating a feedback loop for input as as well as practice for me. Time to move on!

Genes in Space – help cure cancer

2014 is unbelievable. Genes in Space is living proof we can collaborate as a planet, pool our resources and skills, work cross curriculum and find a cure for cancer. If the whole planet could do that it would be amazing and if we did that by being ourselves with our own skills and capacity to learn it would be even better. Cancer Research UK has collaborated with gamers and the gaming industry to get all the data from their cancer research into a playable form so that players can help search through the data!!! A scientist or group of scientists would take too long and so a cure would be too far away. In all this data could be the genetic flaws which create cancer. More than 200,000 people have classified almost two million cancer images. Human eyes are good and better at detecting anomalies. Read the BBC Play to Cure article. Watch the video. Download the app!! We do not need cancer.

Do you like flash cards?

I don’t really need to say a lot about Study Blue. It is extremely well designed, has a section for teachers and explains the possibilities for learning very well. If you like flash cards and your students like flash cards then this is a great site for online collaboration which makes excellent use of mobile technology as well. Teachers and students can make sets of flashcards to learn something and then share them online. To have access to a global bank of study aids is a fantastic idea.