My WHS unit is completed with a few students finishing off assessment items over the holidays. On the whole the materials I compiled for the unit worked really well. There was plenty of material there and far more assessment items than required to gain competency so I have assessed it holistically.

The discussion with Toby went well. It is difficult to have a discussion with an expert and continue that discussion for very long as the time it takes to get back to the posts is time consuming. I liked the teleconference much better for two way conversation because the guest had a specific timeframe, so did students to find the answers they needed. Whereas the discussion forum took so much time to login, wordprocess, read through answers and reply. This type of forum has its place however when time is at a premium and internet access is slow, I would prefer to use the teleconference.

I have basically finished the ICTPL advances except for uploading a zip file to blackboard. It has been a life consuming process. The exe 1.4 template works well in firefox however the css has some problems in IE when using images. The images seem to crash into the navigation div and then the page slips so that was annoying and disappointing. I checked discussions forums but people just either deleted their images or made them smaller which does not really solve the problem with the css. I decided to modify another of the styles where that problem didn’t occur. I believe it has it’s place but there are still some bugs to iron out for me to use it over dreamweaver. For those without any skills it is effective.

It is holidays and I am planning to have a break away from the computer. Two whole weeks. Whoohoo!

I have so many things on the go at the moment.

• ICT Pedagogical Licence advanced
• Facilitator for the CIC course
• WHS unit for year 11’s
• Joomla website for school
• Staff PD
• Smart Classroom Mentor
• Junior business class
• Trying to stay healthy and unstressed

My priority at the moment is to ensure my WHS unit continues to go as planned. Although we started really well, the last two weeks we are back to our technical access issues with blackboard again. In the past 3wks (10days), half of those days my students could not access blackboard successfully. Our morning tea download speed, while most students were outside eating, was down to 95kps. Unbelievable!

Although I have factored this problem into my learning design by duplicating all content on the school server, the communication tools in blackboard (wikis, blogs, discussions, chats) are often inaccessible to all but one or two. This creates tension among the students. They are really enjoying the course but draw the line at watching a white page load for 7 minutes! All I can do is sympathize and ask them to use the learning materials on the server while they wait for blackboard to load. However sometimes this just times out which has them frustrated.

The lesson by lesson design would work perfectly in the real world, however because of the communication tools access problem, students have had to jump around the lessons to keep working. When we have access to blackboard, I have had students go back and catch up on items they have missed. To get around some of the problems I have had them enter their content in a word.doc ready to paste online when the time arises. This will mean that some of their entries will be on the same day however a wider time frame. It will be necessary for them to include a date for earlier entries in that case.

The training room activities are very slow to load. It seems no more than 2 students can access the tests at the one time. I have been told that the new upgrade to Blackboard over the holidays is causing many of these problems however our school has had them before. Hopefully we will have days when students can get onto them and complete all activities on the one day. I will need to extend the time frame for completion. We may start a new unit while finishing off the old.

I have yet to set a time for our teleconference with Candace. I am waiting on an email for her reply. I have a chat lined up with Toby, our computer programmer next week. This week I plan for students to work in small groups on a WHS problem in the chat room. Their initial chat was awkward for them. Colleagues have told me this is quite normal and will improve with practice and familiarity.

The CIC course is very time consuming however I am enjoying it immensely and learning so much. I am working with a very experienced facilitator who is very organized and teaching me the practical skills of online facilitation. It is much harder than you would imagine. Dealing with fellow teachers requires a lot of tact. I have run 2 teleconferences in the mornings which are great in one way as I am fresh and keen however the other morning I awoke at 2am and could not get back to sleep. I tossed and turned and worried that I would sleep through my alarm. The conference went really well and I made so much more sense of the indicators than I did when I was doing my licence. There are many tools in Blackboard I have just started to learn about. The finer points can be very tricky.

The ICT Pedagogical licence advanced community is full of very busy people. I am amazed at all the work some people take on over and above their normal class workload. This can include an array of extracurricular activities involving students to PD of staff. Some schools have great support ICT networks within their school. I am really is amazed. The course is also very time consuming. I am on track with everything. The template I made in exe 1.4 is excellent. It is making the process extremely simple. There is no programming for me to do, just content to add. I have all the pages pre-made with headers so I can cut and paste paragraphs of information from the blackboard course to the html.

I am plugging along with the school Joomla website. Joomla takes time to master. Yes it is just another CMS but they all have their idiosyncrasies. It takes so long to do things. Very difficult concept for others to understand just how long it takes to first find the content, edit it and add it to the webpage to look good. Very slow tedious work. At least I have the front page looking good. Easily 30hours went into that. Design hours just seem to add up and then of course the thought process doesn’t count either.

The staff PD is coming along slowly. I am waiting for an opportunity to speak to all staff at a Thursday afternoon staff meeting. Hopefully then we can timetable some afternoons for small groups to work on suggested topics. I am upkeeping the blackboard site with current information regarding the licence process. I would really like to see more staff using it on a regular basis to access discussions. I would like to see this move more quickly.

My work as a Smart Classroom Mentor has been defined. I am to develop content on two webpages. However before that happens I need to become familiar with all that is available through the Learning Place and that takes time. This task is impossible to do at school. It is far too slow and frustrating. If I do work at school I just find myself coming home to complete things I cannot do at school. The internet is far too slow. If I am to master what is available, I need to be able to maximize my time online. That means working at home on exetel. The only way I can cope.

I will be taking a new junior business class. Just found out on Wednesday. The content is a little undefined. Possibly similar to last years class. I will take over the class from the teacher who took my classes while I was ill. That is sad for her because I can only imagine she has spent time preparing for this role and has work materials organized and prepared. Anyway I cannot do anything about that.

Healthwise I am feeling ok. I still tire easily. When I don’t sleep well I pay for it. My hip is going along ok at the moment but I want to increase my exercise to get back to some state of fitness. It was really nice this weekend to have a change in the weather. Spring is just around the corner. At last. This year I want to enjoy it.

Today my year 11’s began the WHS unit I designed for FET8621 Creating Educational Web Environments (USQ Masters in Education.) This was my first lesson in B3 with the new computers. They need codecs on them for the wmv videos to play. Always a problem. I will change the format tonight.

There is a little hold up with enrolling everyone in the Learning Place. New term, lots of traffic. No problem as I have the course loaded onto the school network. The course is quite heavy with all the videos and flash movies. They needed to download the mp3 and play so all was good. The 60mins video could not be viewed. Not too sure if it is a codec or it is blocked on the network. Murray could not help. Will ask Nigel tomorrow if he is there or Wally may be able to help. Tomorrow we will work on without the LP. Students can write there review in word and then copy when it is up and running. Jim Farmer helped out a bit with logons so that is working out as well.

I have been working on the exe 1.4 stylesheet for the portfolio. I have spoken to staff and many are keen to start thinking about their portfolio. While I am there they can begin planning and I can help them along the way. They all liked the portfolio template. It will be really useful for those who have little understanding of webdesign. I am more impressed with this opensource software the more I use it. It makes producing html documents a breeze. A well designed stylesheet can give pages a professional feel. I am quite stoked. Monika and Carmel have been reviewing it and giving me feedback.

I looked at the Advanced Licence today. I am happy with most of it. Because of my illness and prolonged absence, I have missed gathering vital evidence from some of my classes last year. I am ok for 2 items for my portfolio, however the 3rd will be a little scratchy. I will need to go back and see what is still in students folders, if there is any backup around in the resource centre from last year or if some of my students still have things on their computers. As I have only 1 line at the moment and we are working on the WHS site, of have very few opportunities to work through another unit. Somewhere, someone in year 10 from last year must have some evidence left.

I received a reply from Monika regarding the 3 item for the portfolio. She feels the advanced portfolio is moderated from an holistic approach and that if my two units are big enough then my PD work with teachers will complement those for the third item. I feel somewhat more at ease now.

Quite some time has gone by since my last post. All students are doing the final touches to their portfolio for the webquest. It has been a really successful unit of work however has taken a little longer to complete than expected. We had numerous interruptions during term through absence due to other subject excursions and network problems. My health problems compounded the problems as I was not at school for two weeks and substitute teachers could not overcome the network problems so days were wasted.

It has been disappointing we have not been able to take full advantage of the Learning Place. The connection became so slow to use the blogs as I had planned became a burden as the login time took too long. It was far quicker for students to make a list on a word document and check off as they went along. Time became precious, especialy when students were continually disconnected after a few minutes.

To overcome not being able to use LP I copied the webquest onto the server so students could access all files at school from the student drive which was far easier. Maybe when the new MOE gets connected things will perform better. The LP still allows students access from home or work and the email features are excellent. This time we did not use the submission box. Email attachments were used for drafts or just working with individual students as they finished tasks became my preferred method. I am fortunate to have a small class. Often I can work with a few students who have similar problems.

When I look at all the work the students have produced I am impressed with the diversity as a class. Some tasks such as writing cover letters for the job application still needed a lot of assistance. Even after providing examples some students did not quite “get it”. However that was to be expected. When it comes to writing a cover letter myself, I still find it hard.

I would like to get my orange card which would then give me a better understanding of how things work and practical skills to be able to solve network problems when Nigel is not there. Murray is on leave for two weeks which has made things even more difficult. He understands the network better than anyone, knows the passwords to the administrator network, has keys to cupboards and rooms, so while he has been away things just don’t get fixed. For example the students cannot access the ftp. addresses to upload their e-portfolios. This will need to be done when we return from vacation.

It has been a few weeks since I have made a post. Lots of things have happened. The webquest has been going really well. I have opted for students to use word to write their daily plan. Logging into LP has taken too long and then logging in again at the end of the day can be impossible. It seems when the whole class tries at once it just hangs there.

Otherwise things are progressing well. Students are being very creative. It has been good to revise aspects of programs we haven’t used for awhile. Especially Microsoft Access and mailmerge. It is not hard just a process to go through.

I have finished my pedagogical licence and handed it in. That took some doing. Other things that have been at the forefront of my life have been a trip to hospital for a minor operation and a illness called Bell’s Palsy. So I have been pretty miffed. Last Friday I withdrew from the “Computers in Education” course at USQ. There was no way I could recover from this operation and virus to complete the first assignment. From what I have read I need rest to get over Bell’s Palsy which can hang on for some time. It has affected my left eyelid which is drooping and very difficult for me to read.

I have a week off work. I can keep in contact with my students via emails and the announcements in LP so all is not lost. At present I just want to be well again. I hate being sick.

We are still having network problems. Our technician comes today so hopefully all will be under control this afternoon.

The students are working well. There is only one group that is lagging a bit, which is what I expected. I will need a more proactive approach with them. I have given some space for them to work things out however one student’s absence has made it difficult.

The students are using the blog tool. I am finding because it is taking sooooo long to log onto the server and bring up LP they are becoming annoyed with this process. One computer took 10mins to log on which is unacceptable. I notice the planning is short however is useful and serving the purpose. The reflection at the end is again a time factor problem with LP.

It is interesting how difficult the logo has been for them. I know how hard coming up with a logo was for Venture Buddies. We combined several ideas to finally come upon one we all liked.

I have been so busy working on my ICT Pedagogical Licence. It has been a far bigger undertaking than I originally thought and the frustrating thing is for two of the projects they have finished and the work I am doing is just duplicating data. At least I see a positive with the alternate pathway credit so all is not lost. I am waiting for people to write their letters of support so I can finish those pages.

I went to Meringandan School to help Debbie Usher with her portfolio. She is using publisher to create the e-portfolio. I am pleased I followed her message on the discussion board and helped her out. She was having problems with the hyper links in Publisher (as you do!) and this was frustrating for her. I helped her with her folder structure and renaming documents. I didn’t want that to be a problem like it was for me last year. I solved the problem for her however it is still a little tricky and she is still having problems. If I pop in again and check out what she is doing. It is so easy to get it wrong- don’t I know.

I am just so busy. This week I have been answering questions for two teacher awards. I am submitting Lorikeet Lodge Webquest into the Microsoft Innovative Teacher awards in the hope that there may be some prize money to further my studies. There is a Smart Classrooms award as well that is coming up however it is judged on the written proposal only and a word limit. I am so not good at those. There are 20 x $5000 prize money awards to be used by the school to benefit my professional development. I would like to be able to buy a site licence for a good web editor program, photo program and animation program.

This week the ICT committee met for the first time. Some key people were absent. There are a group of teachers who are interested in “all things ICT” so that is great. Knowing the parameters of ICT in the school for me is the first thing. Where the money comes from, how is it budgeted, where do grants come from etc etc. I have no idea when I am going to find the time to look at these things. Step by step…

Uni started this week. I have kept up with the discussion posts and read the initial publications and made comments. I think I will use the early hours before school to focus on uni when my head is clear. I need to finish this ICT Pedagogical licence and then focus on my studies. I have so much to think about at the moment. It is little wonder many teachers are reluctant to use ICTs as the professional development side of things is life consuming.

I need new glasses or at least new lenses. Mine are so scratched things are blurry.

Nothing!

I am so glad I didn’t write my blog last night. My computers were having a bad hair day and I went home very flat. LP was soo slow. We seemed to have to wait so long to load the pages. Who can say why? Maybe computers get cold.

Today was better. The kids are starting to get into writing their blogs. Yesterday they were deep in creative thought. A 70min lesson doesn’t go too far when you spend time designing. Some kids are really loving it. Janene said she was enjoying this so much she couldn’t wait to get to school. It’s the “funnest thing” she’s ever done. That made my day. The blogs are really interesting. Writing down a plan is proving useful for them. Then they have to reflect. I notice in their reflections today that they are evaluating how much they have done. Also some teams are giving each other praise which is working so well. They are a great teaching tool for this activity especially. I really enjoy adding comments to their blogs too although of course it takes up so much time.

I have been working on my portfolio. The first item is complete and the second is 60% complete. It takes so much time too. I am not having too much time for anything. Shelley sent me a “Smart Classroom” nomination form that she is going to send away for a competition. There is a nomination form for me to fill out that looks like it will take most of the weekend to do. More writing. I wish I was better at writing.

Friday didn’t quite go as planned. I was sick and needed to stay home from school. Most annoying. It did not fit into my plan especially with the Year 12 Webquest I really want to keep up the momentum. So I got together the program and emailed it through to the school. I also posted an announcement for the students in LP. As well I sent an individual email to everyone giving direction where I wanted them to go next. I had placed another comment in the wiki area for them to add their views. I only had two students contribute which was a little disappointing. My notes for the substitute teacher (if of course they received them) clearly stated that all students were to log onto the LP and contribute to the wiki. I will find out tomorrow what happened. Hopefully they were still working toward their goal.

Yesterday I worked away at my ICT Pedagogical Licence. I now have Portfolio Item 1 completed with all attachments working. I am nearly to the stage of uploading to the web just to look at how it presents. It takes so long especially since I am programming my own webpage. Maybe that was not a good idea however I am using the skills I learned in web production and learning more as I do it which is an opportunity in itself for professional development. I have the shell made for Item 2 and Item 3 however finding the right words and writing it succinctly is not my strong point. Some people can write things up so easily but not me.

I think I will take the dogs for a walk. I need to get a life away from my laptop

Today I introduced Lorikeet Lodge webquest to my students for the first time. They were full of commendations for my web production skills knowing how hard it was to create and how long it took me. Some were looking at the source code wondering how they could use ideas in their own web pages. It is so great sharing with these kids. Coding web pages certainly gets you hooked. Some of the kids would love to use Fireworks. They loved how I made the heading and the front page. I need some software programs in the school!!!!

Four students couldn’t access the course on the Learning Place. I knew that would happen. One cannot remember her password. I contacted the Learning Place so I hope it is amended quickly. I have also requested a generic user account so they all can log on when they have individual access problems.

Before we started I gave out the students spreadsheets with their individual course unit codes so they all understood where they were as far as attaining competencies and which units they needed to cover to complete the certificate courses. Then I I explained how the term would unfold with the integrated group project. They seemed really excited. These kids are such great kids.

I am introducing a group prize and individual prize. I talked to the deputy principal to talk that through and get the ok. Kids thought that was cool. (Haven’t decided what it is yet. Prize money seems the best idea) Very quickly some had their groups together. I knew that would happen however my two boys are a little stunned and are yet to clarify their thoughts. It didn’t help that one of the boys didn’t have access.

The class started the contributions to the wiki. I have 5 responses which was good considering 4 couldn’t get onto LP. I got some really good feedback from the girls. These girls are going to enter the workforce with some great skills. I will add to the comments. I want them to think about how to overcome the problems when we work in a group. Hopefully by Friday (next lesson) they will all have access and everyone can contribute.

I have decided to open up the blog area in LP. I thought they can log on and create their work plan for the day and 5 mins before the lesson ends they can reflect on how productive they have been. I haven’t quite figured it out how it looks and works yet but that will happen. Can’t be tool hard.

I had problems with the students not being able to download swf and wmv files. So they cannot see the movie I made about Lamington nor can they access the quiz. I have talked to Murray in the library and he will give them access tomorrow. So that will pan out. However there is no way the students will be allowed to configure Microsoft Outlook. Doesn’t matter. They can find the information, take screen shots and work through the help files. That will satisfy the competencies needed.

All up I am happy with how things have gone. They all understand that the amount of effort they put into their portfolios will benefit them when they look for work next year. I think it is going to come too fast for them all. It is so great to see how far they have come since the beginning of last year. In fact how far we have all come. It is amazing what you can learn when you share your ICT skills. Everyone has received the benefit and no one feels threatened.

Some of the girls returned from Structured Work Placement with glowing reports from their employers. Others with traineeships or weekend work did not participate which was a shame. As it was during the holidays some had other commitments. Janene had “the best” time. So did Katie and Katrina. I have yet to find out all the news. Today was so rushed.

I am pretty stoked with how it all went. Now to keep up the momentum.