In terms of the professional learning that I have taken on, I have found that the Internet is one of the best places to start. I have used Google Reader to subscribe to a range of different educational blogs. Some of these have included Global Teacher, Chalkface, Ed Tech Crew, Teaching in the big wired world, just to name a few.  I check this fairly regularly and love reading about different ideas that other teachers or technology specialists have tried out in their classrooms. I have also found listening to a range of Podcasts has enabled me to hear about some great tools that can be used in my own classroom.

Through some of these basic tools I am exposed to something new in the technology world. I always try and think of the possibility that it has to offer to the students in terms of engaging them and enabling them to become a better learner.

The ideas don’t always come to me straight away. However I can see that it may have the potential to be a powerful learning tool. Delicious has been the tool that I have used to keep a track of these links, rather than building on my messy list of favourites.

My Delicious links can be found at: http://delicious.com/baralli

As an introduction to the possibilities of Audacity I decided that I needed to build up my own confidence when using this tool. To do this I attended a professional development session held by Darrel Branson. This was a great opportunity for me to sit down and have a play.  Some very good resources have been included on a moodle course and are a great place to get started. 

The link provided has some helpful resources: http://need2learn.net/course/view.php?id=137.

After learning some of the basics required to create recordings, I decided that I would use an all time favourite picture story book, ‘The Waterhole’ by Graeme Base to create my first official recording and incorporate sound effects.

To introduce Audacity to my class I first played them the recording that I had created. The students loved listening to the recording and couldn’t believe all of the different sounds that the animals made. The students were definitely excited about the possibilities of what they could create by simply using effects and incorporating sounds.

Before setting the students a challenge, the first issue that I knew I would be up against was setting the sound recording levels and making sure that the sound card was working. I used the Interactive Whiteboard to initially show the students how to change these settings. I also provided students with the information required to change these settings if they required it for another session. This did take some time and after showing the whole class, some Netbooks continued to make things difficult. This was time consuming but we persevered and sorted out the issues. 

I initially asked students to work in pairs and create a dictionary outlining the different functions of the program. The students did this willingly and were able to explain the functions when we met back as a whole class.

I then modelled some aspects that students hadn’t discovered themselves. Some of these things included importing audio. We used www.soungle.com to find different sound effects. I also showed the students how to save as a MP3 recording.

Since showing students some of the basics of Audacity, we have been able to create interviews, create readers’ theatre poetry and develop recordings of factual information for our Inquiry learning. 

Even though it is an audio recording I have found that students have quickly learnt that planning is essential to create a good recording and when a script is used it sounds much more effective. Planning surely does pay off! Sometimes this is hard for students to see. 

So all round, even though Audacity doesn’t always work the best on the Netbooks (remember to save regularly) it does allow for some creativity to shine through!

We had used ‘voicethread’ in term 1 to create a presentation. This meant that students were familiar with how the website operated. However, students had made comments under my login, meaning that they didn’t have to worry about logging in.

Whilst students were working on the voicethread I noticed quite a few students writing down their comments on paper. When I asked them the reason behind writing it down students said it acted as a script for making a recording or using webcam.

After completing the ‘voicethread’ and viewing it as a whole class on the interactive whiteboard I asked students for their opinion about using this tool.

Comments included:

-Every single student had the opportunity to present their thoughts and have it viewed by other classroom members and the teacher.

-Students weren’t restricted to just writing down their thoughts as they had the ability to record and use webcam. Students liked having different options.

- One student believed that he thought his peers would listen to the ‘voicethread’. This technology made it more engaging and you didn’t have to worry about putting your hand up and not getting the ability to share your ideas.

This is the link to the voicethread that was created http://voicethread.com/share/392731/.

This website is ideal for testing students on a range of mathematics areas. I have found this site helpful to gain data prior to teaching a mathematics topic. At the completion of teaching an area of mathematics I then use this tool again to assess students on any new learning that they have taken on.

Ultimatel, a cool tool that is easy to use and helps to show the development in student learning.

It certainly had a been a very long wait as every day I was being asked, ‘When do I get my computer Miss Ralli?’ I think I was being asked this question about fifty times a day.

As the netbooks were being handed out, students had the biggest smiles on their faces. Many said it felt like Christmas day to them and one student even said he had the shakes!

Initially with the laptops I gave students  ‘digital sandpit’ time. Students were capable to turn on the devices and jumped straight on to investigate. Students weren’t sitting back waiting for direction, they were very willing to play with this new device. The very first thing most students did was begin to personalise their netbook ranging from screen savers, backgrounds and mouse icons. If students were unsure how to do something they would ask their classmates and they then became the teacher. Wandering around the room students were working on a range of different programs. The students were also able to access the Internet.

With all of the students I showed them how to add our unit wiki http://ranfurly56.wikispaces.com/  to their favourites. Tomorrow I will see if any of them know how to set it as their homepage when they open Internet Explorer and get someone to explain to the rest of the class.

Unfortunately grade five students in my class don’t have access to their own netbook. However today while using the netbooks many grade six students were willing to partner up with a grade five and I am lucky to have access to six computers in my classroom. With only eleven grade 5 students access to a computer is really quite good.

All students took their netbooks home and I even had some students asking if they could do homework on them tonight, I think that is a good thing.

Otherwise today was pretty smooth sailing, so all round a positive start with netbooks in room ten @ Ranfurly. Can’t wait to work on them tomorrow!