October 2009 is New Zealand Book Month!

Stop by the wonderful pages on New Zealand History Online, includes lots of interesting links through to stories and features celebrating New Zealand Book Month and why Kiwis love books.

Did you know the first school journal was published in May 1907, "New Zealand schoolchildren were able to read a school book published in their own country for the first time!"
( NZHistory)

Attribution:Image: 'What could I read tonight?'

Some other links you might find useful and fun to explore:

Picture Books, Comics and Graphic Novels A selection of some of the best picture books, comic strips and graphic novels currently available for children aged 10-14.
From Billy Boyd's - The Literacy Adviser Blog (The Arrival by Shaun Tan is delightful).

The "Rare Book Room" site has been constructed as an educational site intended to allow the visitor to examine and read some of the great books of the world.

Inside Google Books is a blog with tips and updates for using Google's book search

ReadPrint Free online books library for students, teachers, and the classic enthusiast.

Wikibooks is a Wikimedia community for creating a free library of educational textbooks that anyone can edit. Wikibooks began on July 10, 2003; since then Wikibooks has grown to include over 38,020 pages in a multitude of textbooks created by volunteers.

Web 2.0 and Emerging Learning Technologies This book is a collaborative effort of students from universities in mainland China, Taiwan, Malaysia, and the United States all collaborating during the fall of 2007 on a book titled “Web 2.0 and Emerging Learning Technologies”

Literary Tweets 100+ of the Best Authors on Twitter

Breathing E-Learning Into The Draft Literacy Progressions

On Friday, over 20 people packed tightly into a room at School Support Services, Tauranga. The goal of the day was reasonably bold but achievable in light of the huge amount of expertise in the group. In short, we spent the day breathing some e-learning into the draft literacy progressions. The end result was an online resource that teachers could use at all levels to support literacy in their school.
We kick started the day by creating a profile of a literate person in the 21st century.




This following clip and reading on "What's so different about multiliteracies?" helped to stimulate our thinking.



What followed was a sharing fest. as everyone collaborated to expand their repertoire of strategies, processes and ideas for using ICT to support literacy programmes. Good old –fashioned sticky notes were then used to match ideas with parts of the draft literacy progressions. We then split into three groups to synthesise the ideas and create an online resource.
Check the resources out for yourself: http://elearningbop.wikispaces.com/Literacy+Progressions+and+ICT Please join the wiki if you wish to contribute to this resource.



Feedback from those involved in the day was overwhelming positive with participants being particularly grateful for the opportunity to create a practical resource that could be used straight away.

To learn more about this group and how to be involved please visit my blog: http://rocky11.blogspot.com/ or the groups wiki:
http://elearningbop.wikispaces.com/

20 Free ICT Resources for the English Classroom

Attribution:Image: 'Wisdom - Seeds of Light'

The Internet is full of free online ICT resources that can be used in English classrooms. These resources are a great way for educators to engage students, increase productivity, and promote learning. Here is a list of 20 free ICT resources to try out with your English class:

Vyew - Vyew is a free online collaboration and web conferencing tool that can be used to share and connect with students, parents, and colleagues. This site tool allows users to present, collaborate, and review information in a real-time setting.

Mikogo - Mikogo features easy-to-use desktop sharing that is a great for assisting and connecting with students, parents, and colleagues.

Wetpaint - Wetpaint offers a free way to create collaborative educational websites. Wetpaint sites can contain forums, blogs, wikis, and social networks.

Yugma - This free web conferencing tools allows you to share your desktop with up to 20 attendees. Yugma is the perfect place for connecting with students online, conferencing with parents, and holding colleague meetings.

Thinkature - Thinkature is an online virtual workspace that allows users to collaborate through instant messaging. This web app offers educators a meeting room, whiteboard, and collaborative environment for adding Internet content, drawing, chatting, and creating cards.

Stixy - This beta site makes it easy to upload and share notes, photos, documents, and lists. Once files are uploaded, users simply invite others in the group to view and edit files online.

Project2Manage - Project2Manage is a free online project manager that allows you to set reminders, post messages, assign tasks, upload files, and collaborate. This application is a great tool to keep your classroom organized and connected online.

DimDim - DimDim offers a free way for English classrooms to connect online. This easy web conferencing app allows you to share live presentations, web pages, and whiteboards.

WriteWith - This web app features group collaboration on writing projects. Through this site, students and educators can upload documents, share tasks, assign tasks, chat, and track actions.

Moodle - Educators looking to move their English classroom online should check out Moodle. This online course management system provides the tools for creating Internet courses and educational websites.

Yuuguu - Yuuguu allows instant screen sharing for web conferencing, remote support, and real-time collaboration. A free account gives users access to five-participant screen sharing.

Bookgoo - This easy-to-use web app allows users to highlight and annotate documents as they would a piece of paper. To use this web app, simply upload your content, edit, and share the finished files privately with others.

ooVoo - ooVoo makes it easy to connect with students, colleagues, and parents using video calls. With this site, educators can also send one-minute video messages, chat six ways, and send up to 5MB files at a time.

WiZiQ - This application allows educators and students to collaborate through virtual classrooms, online tests, and educational content.

Edmodo - Edmodo is a microblogging site created specifically for K-12 classrooms. With this site, educators can share timelines, assignments, grades, files, notifications, calendars, and more.

Postica - The virtual sticky notes provided by Postica offer an easy way to create and share notes, assignments, and files online. This web app can also be used with Twitter and iGoogle.

Phonevite - Phonevite is a popular, award-winning community broadcasting system that can send messages via the phone or social media. With this system, educators can send task reminders, emergency alerts, cancellations, and messages to students.

Wridea - This free web app provides a way to organize, manage, and store ideas to share. Wridea is a great way for students and teachers to brainstorm in a collaborative group.

SimplyBox - SimplyBox is a free content networking web app that offers tools for capturing and collaborating on content in web pages. Captured information can be organized into neat little boxes. The boxes can then be shared with students and colleagues for visual collaboration.

ReviewBasics - This free web allows users to upload documents, images, and videos that can be viewed by a specific group for commenting, annotating, and marking. This is a perfect way to collaborate on assignments, projects, and notes.

Guest post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes for OnlineCollege.org, site that provides accredited online college information.

Library Week 10th -16th August, 2009

Attribution: Image: 'Kawakawa Memorial Library'

"Library Week is a week-long celebration of libraries and librarianship in New Zealand taking place in libraries all across the country."

Share what you love about your library on the official website

Library links you might find useful, please add any recommendations you have in the comments below...

• Any Questions: a free online reference service where librarians directly, and in real time, help New Zealand school students locate quality online information.
• National Library of New Zealand: Digital Collections
• Interviews with New Zealand Authors: Christchurch City Library
• DigitalNZ - Find share and use New Zealand's digital content
  
• International Children's Digital Library
• 100 Best Blogs for School Librarians
• Free online books library for students, teachers, and the classic enthusiast.
• The Rare Book Room: examine and read some of the great books of the world.

Literary Tweets: 100+ of the Best Authors on Twitter

It has been nearly two years since I first posted about Twitter on ICTinEnglish. It is proving to be a valuable tool to connect me with my personal learning network and it has been interesting following the impact this micro-blogging tool has had on education, global communication and social networking.

All the while though I try to keep in mind audience and how many are actually participating. While one report has found New Zealanders rank number 6 in the world for twitter use in relation to population size this is still only a little over 3% of our total population!

Still a great way to connect with others of similar interest so here's another one for the ICT in English audience: Literary Tweets: 100+ of the Best Authors on Twitter a listing of more than 100 authors active on Twitter compiled by Mashable.com

Exploring team blogging and warnings from the surgeon general!

The ICTinEnglish blog evolved a couple of years ago in response to the increased interest in Web 2.0 and blogging through the ICTinEnglish forum.

The purpose of this blog is to explore team blogging and the possibilities for learning and teaching in New Zealand schools. A number of authors have added value to the blog over time, contributing posts, sharing ideas and experiences about learning through ICT and highlighting projects of interest.

Team blogging can be a useful option if you want to collaborate and share with others online or if you are new to blogging and want to explore options before considering setting up your own. Also if you have questions, add a comment to the blog or post to the list serv as there is a forever growing community of support through the network.

Some recommendations that have come through my RSS and Twitter in the past month...

Free online library for students, teachers, and the classic enthusiast. WARNING — The surgeon general reports that having these many free books at your disposal can be highly addictive.

The "Rare Book Room" site has been constructed as an educational site intended to allow the visitor to examine and read some of the great books of the world.

Educational videos for students available online that have been previewed and catcgorised under English, Sciences and Maths.

Wordle according to Jen Wagner!

Wordle is a nifty wee web tool for creating word clouds that has grown in popularity in the past year. Lots of possibilities for creative use in the classroom as shared here by Jen Wagner.
Follow Jen Wagner on twitter.

Wordle Ideas

View more OpenOffice presentations from JenniferW.