Jane Nicholls, Chrissy Hellier, Allanah King and Simon Evans are leading educators from New Zealand who live and breathe collaborative technologies. In this episode I get to chat with them about topics as diverse as podcasting, Skype, Twitter and Second Life, and have a lot of fun in the process. Simon had a bit of trouble with Skype and only managed to make a couple of cameo appearances, but the rest of us had a great chat as we flitted from topic to topic. Although these Kiwis know how to have a laugh, there is still plenty of educational wisdom in this podcast.

• Appleby Podcasts - Allanah’s class podcasting
• Skype - For internet telephony, if you can make it work
• Twitter - For building community, once you finally “get it”
• Second Life - A place to do the caramel dance and land naked in fires

Also, you might like to check out the blogs of Allanah, Chrissy, Jane and Simon.

Not much else to add about this one, but I think you’ll like it. Don’t forget to leave a comment!

 Episode 20: The Kiwi Connection: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this episode of Virtual Staffroom, podcaster and teacher Chris Betcher gets interviewed by Texan librarian Carolyn Foote. Carolyn and Chris discuss a range of issues including different techniques for recording podcasts, dealing with the restrictions of policies and filters, the use of Skype as a powerful tool for cross-cultural learning, and pretty much anything else that came to mind!

Carolyn asked if we could record this chat for a librarian’s research project she was working on about the use of Skype for educational purposes, and we agreed to have the chat and release it on the Virtual Staffroom as well.

• Skype - Free VOIP Internet telephony
• Audacity - Free and Open Source multitrack audio recorder
• GarageBand - Apple’s amazing multitrack audio and podcast editor
• Levelator - Make your recordings sound their very best
• Operator11 - Multi camera video shoots
• Women of Web 2.0 - An excellent educational webcasting project
• iSight - Apple’s built-in webcam tool
• The Plague of Plagiarism - Chris’s blog post about plagiarism
• The Economist - Article about debating mentioned by Carolyn

Thanks to Carolyn for suggesting this chat and helping us to have such a fun (and hopefully useful) conversation.

Leave us a comment!

 Episode 19: Beyond the Filters: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Anne Wade is research project manager at Montreal’s Concordia University, and her focus is on a project known as ePearl - the Electronic Portfolio Encouraging Active Reflective Learning. ePearl is a web-based tool that enables students to gather, present and reflect upon their class work, creating a trail of digital assets that follows them through their school life.

In this episode Anne presents an overview of the system and gives some insight into the background of this project.

Links from this episode…

• ePearl Overview - for an explanation of what the system does
• ePortfolio Information - More background on ePortfolios
• CSLP/CEAP - the homepage for the project
• Demo site - Go have a look for yourself

Login details for the demo site as follows:

Student environment:
Early elementary - Level 1 : Usernames: student1a, student1b, student1c
Late elementary - Level 2: Usernames: student2a, student2b, student2c
Secondary - Level 3: Usernames: student3a, student3b, student3c

Teacher environment:
Level1: Usernames: teacher1a, teacher1b, teacher1c
Level 2: Usernames:teacher2a, teacher2b, teacher2c
Level3: Usernames:teacher3a, teacher3b, teacher3c

Password is always - 123

Enjoy.

 Episode 18: The Learning Trail: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

A small school in country Australia might seem an unusual place to find students learning to speak Chinese, but not for Jess McCulloch’s students. Jess is an extremely enthusiastic Chinese language teacher who is turning to technology to help engage and excite her students about the language. In this episode Jess talks about some of the cool tools she is using, and planning to use, in her classroom.

Jess is also looking to set up her website as a place for language teachers to be able to network and connect, so if you are a language teacher (or know one) take a look over at www.technolote.com.

Some links from this episode…

• Technolote.com - Jess’s main website
• TechnoChinese - The class blogs for Jess’s classes
• So Damn Hard! - Great article about learning Chinese
• ChinesePod - Learn how to say all sorts of useful things!
• Skype - Free communication tool for connecting classrooms
• Langwitches - Silvia Tolisano’s site for language teaching
• Voicethread - Digital storytelling for Web 2.0
• Rudd at APEC - Kevin Rudd’s address to the Chinese delegates at APEC

Comments welcome, in any language, in the comment box below.

Technorati Tags: lote, technolote, virtualstaffroom

 Episode 17: I Like Chinese: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The K12 Online Conference is a unique and innovative approach to professional development for educators. Started in 2006, the conference offers an amazing array of downloadable presentations on a wide range of topics. In this episode we talk with some of the conveners of the K12 Online Conference, Darren Kuropatwa, Lani Ritter-Hall and Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach. Along with Wes Fryer who unfortunately couldn’t join us for this recording, we discuss the history and philosophy of the event and the incredible opportunity it presents to educators for the 2007 conference.

At the time of recording, the pre-conference keynote by David Warlick has been released, and the official launch of the main conference is only days away… hopefully this podcast will encourage you to go check it out a little more and to take part. (Of course, the presentations will be archived for future access so you can visit them at any time, but it will be great to take part in as it unfolds.)

Thanks also go to Simon O’Carroll, Kim Cofino, Graham Wegner and Carolyn Foote for their insights into what they got out of last year’s event.

Some links for this episode…

• www.k12onlineconference.org - The main conference blog
• The Schedule of Events - See what’s coming up
• Where do I start? - A guide for first time attendees
• Preconference Keynote - from David Warlick

Blogs of contributors to this episode…

• Darren Kuropatwa
• Lani Ritter-Hall
• Sheryl Nussbaum Beach
• Wes Fryer
• David Warlick
• Simon O’Carroll
• Kim Cofino
• Graham Wegner
• Carolyn Foote

I really hope you get inspired to take part in the conference after hearing this!

PS: Virtual Staffroom just turned 1 year old! Happy Birthday VSR!

Technorati Tags: k12online07, k12onlinevsr, virtualstaffroom, k12online

 Episode 16: Global Conversations: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This episode comes to you directly from the Fourth National Interactive Whiteboard Conference held at Emmanuel College on the Gold Coast. Organised by IWBnet, the conference assembled a great team of presenters to share a huge variety of ideas, techniques, tips and advice on using IWBs with their colleagues. In this podcast we wander around the conference doing on-the-spot interviews with delegates, as well as bringing you part of a Skype videoconference session with Ben Hazzard from the SmartBoard Lesson podcast.

Links from this show…

• IWB.net.au - The organisers of the event
• Emmanuel College - the school that hosted the event
• Commander - The major sponsor for the event
• PDtoGo - Ben and Joan’s Smartboard Lesson Podcast

Enjoy! A big shoutout to everyone I met at the conference who was so friendly and encouraging to me about the podcast too… it was great to meet some listeners!

Technorati Tags: iwbnet, iwb, virtualstaffroom

 Episode 15: Whiteboards Everywhere!: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

As a leading teacher-librarian, Barbara Braxton knows about information literacy. In this episode, we talk with Barbara about the information process, the concept of literacy in the 21st century, the art of developing”thick questions”, and how to create tasks that minimise the need to plagiarise in the first place. Barbara is well respected amongst the Australian online teaching community and she has some great insights into how we get kids to use information. Oh, and a couple of political viewpoints as well….

Links mentioned in the podcast…

• Evaluating Internet-based resources - An article by David Warlick
• Jimmy Wales on Ted Talks - The insiders story on Wikipedia
• Velcro crop under challenge - If it’s on the Internet it must be true, right?
• From Now On - Great resources from Jamie Mackenzie
• Questioning.org - More great Mackenzie stuff
• The Quizzard of Oz - Barbara’s pet quiz project

Thanks to Barbara for making the time to chat to me on one of her fleeting visits back to Canberra. As always, listeners’ comments are welcome below.

Technorati Tags: literacy, virtualstaffroom

 Episode 14: Questions are the Answer: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Edublogs is a well-respected free educational blogging service started two years ago by James Farmer. Since then, the service has grown in leaps and bounds, and now hosts nearly 100,000 individual blogs for teachers and students. In this episode we talk to James about the Edublogs service, where it grew from and where it’s going, and some great ideas for classroom blogging. It’s been an amazingly valuable and versatile service for the educational blogging community, and Edublogs offers one of the most cutting edge free blogging services on the Web.

I’d been trying to arrange this interview with James for a while, and coincidentally we just happened to record this on Edublogs’ second birthday. Happy Birthday Edublogs and thanks for sharing the love James!

Links from this show…

• Edublogs - The main Edublogs site
  
• WPMUDEV - Another of James’ WP projects
  
• Wordpress - The official Wordpress website
  
• IncSub - James’ personal blog

As always, we welcome your comments. Heck, you ought to at least wish Edublogs a happy birthday!

PS. I also tried some new techniques for getting the filesize of these podcasts down a bit, and this 27 minute episode comes in at a slim 11Mb. I think the quality is still pretty reasonable, but please drop me a comment and let me know what you think.

 Episode 13: Happy Birthday Edublogs!: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Adrian Bruce is an innovative Australian teacher who freely gives away his reading games, maths games, quizzes, posters, etc, over the Internet as a way of helping other teachers. After five years of giving his stuff away online, Adrian’s website now gets over half a  million page views every month as it distributes his work to students all over the world.

A past winner of the Microsoft Innovative Teacher Award, Adrian is continually trying new things, playing with new software and thinking of new ways to integrate ICTs into his work. In this episode we get some insights into the mind of a truly creative and generous teacher.

Some links from this show…

• www.adrianbruce.com - Adrian’s Website
• Teacher Toolbox - Adrian’s Blog
• Project Starfish - An award winning class project
• Class Blogmeister - David Warlick’s blog engine
• Shannon’s Blog - As mentioned in the show
• Podomatic - For making podcasts easily
• Audacity - For working with sound
• Paint.net - Paint, reinvented

Go visit his website! It’s great!

PS: Adrian’s Blog, Teacher Toolbox, is currently coming third in the Best Educational Blog section of the Bloggers Choice Awards. Go check it out… and maybe even give him your vote!

 Episode 12: Use It Till It Breaks: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The Flat Planet Project is a remarkable wiki project run by Simon O’Carroll from Ontario, Canada, and Neil D’Aguair from Surrey, UK. These two teachers of Religious Education met via the blogosphere and together came up with a simple yet incredibly effective research project for their students with topics such as climate change, vegetarianism, air pollution and endangered species. In the process, they took the students much further than they ever expected. In this episode we talk to Simon and Neil about the behind-the-scenes of the Flat Planet Project.

Using the free Wikispaces service, their students worked collaboratively across the Atlantic to create an incredibly impressive joint project. Along the way, both teachers and students got far more out of the project than they expected.

Some links we mentioned in the episode…

• The Flat Planet Project - Simon O’Carroll and Neil D’Aguiar
• Flat Classroom Project - Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay
• Wiki While you Work - Mark Wagner
• Free Wikispaces for Educators
• Simon Says - Simon’s Blog
• Intellectual Bohemian - Neil’s Blog

Enjoy.

 Episode 11: Taking it Further: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this episode we talk with Rob Ruberry and Jason Hando, two Australian teachers that have a good deal of experience with such Open Source tools as Joomla, Mambo and Moodle. We discuss how these tools could fit into your school and about the pros and cons of Open Source software generally.

Open Source software holds some interesting possibilities for education. With some amazing products around that are generally completely free to use, it’s no wonder that more and more schools are starting to look seriously at GNU/GPL Open Source as a viable alternative to the common proprietary software model.

Some links to the tools, people and ideas mentioned in this episode…

• Joomla!
• Mambo
• Moodle
• John “Mad Dog” Hall
• The Free Software Foundation
• What is “Free Software”?

 Episode 10: Open Minded: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Our guests in this episode are Bruce Fuda and Mark Harriott from Stromlo High School in the Australian Capital Territory. Unlike other jurisidictions in Australia, the ACT School system does not have a traditional syllabus structure - instead, it requires schools to develop their own curriculum based on a framework derived from the national curriculum statements and profiles. In 2006/07, that framework has been reviewed and schools now face the challenge of implementing the new framework over the next 12 months.

As well as redeveloping its curriculum, Stromlo High has recently restructured itself to be a Year 6 - 10 school. And because the school already has a strong use of technology it has also been targeted as an IT-focused school where the use of ICT in learning and teaching is just a normal part of the way the school works.

Some links regarding this episode…

• The new curriculum framework for ACT schools, Phase 1 (pdf)
• The new curriculum framework for ACT schools, Phase 2 (pdf)
• Towards 2020, a funding plan for ACT schools
• ACT DET Learning Technologies Plan 2004-2006 (pdf)

If you have any thoughts or suggestions to offer Bruce and Mark, please drop a line in the comments section below, or email Bruce directly. I’m sure he would love to hear your thoughts about the school and its future.

 Episode 9: Changing Focus: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Flat Classrooms are about removing the boundaries of geography and time, and enabling students to work with other students wherever they might be in the world. In this episode we talk with Janet Barnstable from Oak Park, Illinois and Sharon Peters from Montreal, Quebec. Both Janet and Sharon are leading proponents of collaborative online learning projects, getting their students to work on projects with kids in other countries by leveraging the power of the Internet. The term Flat Classrooms derives from Thomas Friedman’s book “The World is Flat”.

Some links relevant to this episode…

• Percy Julian Middle School
• Lower Canada College
• Sharon’s Blog
• Thomas Friedman - The World is Flat
• Thomas Friedman talking at MIT (Video)
• Time Magazine - How to Bring our Schools out of the 20th Century
• Global Virtual Classroom
• Thinkquest
• Global Dreamers
• Cyberteen E-zine
• Cyber Dictionary Project
• CUSeeMe Video Conferencing
• Skype IP Telephony
• Oz Teachers Travel Buddy Project

As always, your feedback is more than welcome! If you have any tips or additional links that might be useful for collaborative projects please share them by dropping a link in the comments below.

 Episode 8: Flat Classrooms: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this episode we explore the issues that arise when a school starts thinking about moving to a one-to-one computing model using laptop computers, an area in which Australia has been somewhat of a pioneer. We talk with Paul McMahon, an Australian educator living in Hong Kong, about the sorts of planning and background issues involved in transitioning a school from a fairly traditional learning environment to one in which students are given laptops as learning tools.

• All Saints’ College Perth
• Learning Solutions, Hong Kong
• Computelec
• The One Laptop Per Child Project

Have a safe and happy Christmas and New Year!

 Episode 7: Getting One to One: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Luc Zwartjes is a geography teacher from Belgium who has developed a deep interest in the use of GIS (Geographic Information Systems) and GPS (Global Positioning Systems) with his students. Luc’s work with his students using GIS is a fabulous example of a passionate teacher working with students on real-world problems using sophisticated technology to create engaging tasks.

As well as an excellent overview of the potential of GIS in the classroom, Luc offers some subtle yet profound insights into the role of technology, the teacher, and the student in a 21st century classroom… providing a bird’s eye view of both education and the planet.

Links relevant to this episiode:

• ESRI - GISsoftware
• The Eduspace project
• Eduspace Article written by Luc for the IGU conference in Brisbane (1.5Mb PDF)
• Google Earth
• GE Pro qualifications for schools to apply for 2 free Google Earth Pro licenses (PDF)

Some useful books for learning more about GIS

• Exploring the Dynamic Earth (with worked-out projects for use with ArcView 3.2x)
• Mapping Global cities
• Mapping our world
• GIS for everyone

As always, comments are welcome. Please pass this podcast on to any geography teachers you might know. If they won’t listen to a podcast, burn them a CD… but they ought to hear this episode!

 Episode 6: A Bird's Eye View: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download