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Category Archives: From the Coal Face


From the Coal Face - Skype in the Classroom #2

November 25, 2009 – 1:54 pm

#1 Skype in the Classroom appeared a week ago - my apologies - I meant to write the follow up post almost immediately.
Skyping authors seems to be a strategy a number of teachers have tried and reported great success with. Margo Pickworth, Teacher Librarian at the Shore Preparatory School in North Sydney reports that sessions […]

By Kerrie Smith | Also posted in Educationau, teaching and learning, web conferencing, skype | Comments (7)

From the Coal Face: Skype in the Classroom#1

November 19, 2009 – 7:30 am

Skype is listed at number 11 on the top 100 tools for Learning in 2009. This is actually a small drop from where it was listed in 2008 and 2007. While it is frequently used in the general community, it still has to “take off” in educational settings.
The 2009 Horizon Report: K-12 edition lists […]

By Kerrie Smith | Also posted in Educationau, online conference, online technologies, skype | Comments (4)

From the Coal Face - iPod Touch 2

October 30, 2009 – 1:26 pm

Last week I wrote about iPods in education in Australia with a number of examples of how teachers are using them.

As Lorraine Cairns from Dookie Primary School in Victoria says, the key factor is the way students engage with the technology. Here is what Lorraine sent to me:

I have 6 iPod touches in a class […]

By Kerrie Smith | Also posted in Educationau, mobile technologies | Comments (1)

From the Coal Face: iPod Touch in the Classroom

October 23, 2009 – 12:00 pm

Today’s post features a number of Australian schools using iPods and iPod Touches in the classroom.
Tania Hunt, ICT Coordinator at Baden Powell College, Derrimut Heath (Victoria), describes how her school has been using iPod Touches with literacy and numeracy groups and for problem solving. Prep-6 classes have used them on a weekly roster. The tub […]

By Kerrie Smith | Also posted in Educationau | Comments (8)

From the Coal Face - A Stand Against Poverty

October 16, 2009 – 8:00 am

Today’s Coal Face comes from here at Education.au, just to let you know there are real people here.
Today we are joining the Stand Against Poverty, so here are some of the “real workers” at Education.au (with me in the white hair on the right).

Hear and see us take the pledge on Flickr.

For me education is […]

By Kerrie Smith | Also posted in Educationau | Comments (0)

From the Coal Face - Land Yachts 2009

October 9, 2009 – 8:30 am

Information today comes from Margaret Lloyd, Senior lecturer in ICT at Queensland University of Technology.
Margaret writes
Following our terrific success in the last two years with the Oz-teachers’ project – Land Yachts – we are sailing again…

At the close of last year’s project, one teacher wrote:
Once again thanks to you and your enthusiasm! We did […]

By Kerrie Smith | Also posted in Educationau, teaching and learning | Comments (0)

From the Coal Face - hands on those laptops

October 2, 2009 – 9:00 am

This week’s input to From the Coal Face comes from Ruth Buchanan, Teacher Librarian at Colo High School, New South Wales.
I’ve met Ruth “virtually” through the OZTL listserv, a great email distribution list that supports teacher librarians throughout Australia.
Ruth writes
We distributed our federally-funded, state-administered Year 9 laptops last week. Arising from a discussion with a […]

By Kerrie Smith | Also posted in Educationau, digital education revolution | Comments (0)

From the Coal Face - Laptop Rollout

September 25, 2009 – 8:00 am

Today’s post comes from De La Salle College in Southern Sydney, and was supplied by Jeff Palmer, the eLearning Co-ordinator.
De La Salle College Revesby Heights is part of the Southern Region of Sydney CEO schools. The Southern Region comprises 14 secondary schools. Some schools rolled out their laptops in October 2008 because they were funded […]

By Kerrie Smith | Also posted in Educationau, digital education revolution, eLearning | Comments (0)

From the Coal Face - gaming 4 learning

September 18, 2009 – 9:00 am

Preston Girls’ Secondary College teacher librarian Judith Way was recently selected to trial gaming in schools.
Judith explains:
In term 2, 2009 (April-June) selected schools in the Australian state of Victoria are trialling videogames as learning tools. The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development’s Knowledge Bank: Next Generation team are currently leading action research with […]

By Kerrie Smith | Also posted in Educationau, virtual environments | Comments (1)

From the Coal Face - Social web tools in Universities

September 16, 2009 – 9:27 am

A look at how social web tools are being used in university classrooms.

Using the web to teach isn’t new, but there’s a trend towards using social web tools like Twitter and YouTube in university classrooms.
This is just one of an amazing array of videos available from UNSWTV, the University of New South Wales Online […]

By Kerrie Smith | Also posted in Educationau, tertiary education, twitter | Comments (0)