CMIS Evaluation Technology Focus

View a presentation on the Media and Communications in Australian Families 2007 (4MB) Once open, to bring up a new element on a page – just click somewhere on the body of that slide (not the arrow). Clicking on the arrows will take you to the next (or previous) slide.

Published on 17 December 2007 this report looks at how children use media and how parents mediate that use. It examines the use of the internet, free-to-air and subscription television, radio, mobile phones and games in the lives of Australian young people and families.

Available for download

• Full report [PDF, 3.8 Mb] 369 pages
• Overview [PDF, 248 Kb] 22 pages
• Community research [PDF, 2.6 Mb] 186 pages
• Review of research literature [PDF, 913 Kb] 154 pages
• Also available from the ACMA page in Word format

Previously published on open the door…

Britannica has made free access to the full content of Britannica Online available to registered bloggers and web publishers through Britannica WebShare. Once your free registration has been approved you can provide links to the full version of Britannica articles – users clicking on your link will be able to read the entire article but cannot read other parts of the Britannica site.

also from the Britannica WebShare site…

Britannica Widgets are here, and with them you can instantly post an entire cluster of related Encyclopaedia Britannica articles on your blog or Web site. Just follow the instructions and copy and paste the several lines of code associated with each widget as html into the appropriate place on your site. Any readers who click on a link will get the entire Britannica article on the subject, even if access to the article normally requires a subscription. Really. Try it.

Below is an example of the Britannica Greek Mythology widget embedded in a blog. A selection of widgets is available on the Britannica Assets & Widgets page with a promise of more to come.

The CMIS Encyclopaedias Online page contains links to free and subscription encyclopaedias available to schools online.

Readers interested in the impact on traditional publishing of free access to information via the internet will enjoy reading this post from Michael Arrington at TechCrunch.

There is no denying that a well constructed boolean search is the way to improve your search results.

Teaching students to use boolean search strategies has now been made easier. Boolify helps students understand their web search by visually demonstrating the logic of their search. As students add or remove the jigsaw piece qualifiers ‘and’, ‘or’ and ‘not’ the changes in their search results appear at the bottom of the search screen. This dynamic display gives continuous feedback on the effectiveness of their chosen search strategy.

A short and simple expanation of boolean search logic is available on the Boolify Help page. The Boolify page notes that ‘Search results are presented through Google’s “Safe Search STRICT” technology. However, no filtering technology is 100% secure, as this blog posting astutely points out.’

The CMIS website has more information about Search Tools and Student Safety Online.

In an earlier blog post we looked at Search Engines other than Google.

Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum has joined The Commons project on flickr releasing many historical photographs for public access. This project is designed to open archived photographic collections for the public to view and perhaps contribute knowledge about the items to enrich the collections. The Powerhouse collection comprises over 7000 glass plate negatives which provide a snapshot of life in Australia at the turn of the 20th Century.
Teachers will find this a very useful addition to classroom resources for enhancing projects with primary source information.

Teachers and students using the DET K-10 Syllabus Unit Battle Fronts [Portal Login Required] about the Vietnam War will find the Australian Screen Vietnam War collection a bonus for bringing the conflict to life.

In the Education section a special collection of clips and teachers’ notes has been developed through the auspices of Curriculum Corporation and The Learning Federation. These are designed to allow students and teachers to take full advantage of the materials on the site. The clips have been selected for educational merit and any considered potentially controversial carry cautions. The Australian Screen website is packed with an amazing collection of downloadable film MP4 film clips for use in the classroom.

Clever use of a TAG Cloud makes keyword searching a breeze.

Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try! Dr Seuss

The Value Adding Quest is a competition run by WA Technology and Enterprise Learning Area professional associations. It is open to all WA students. There are prizes for students and schools and special prizes for first time teachers to encourage them to enter their students’ work. All students involved with the Quest receive a Certificate of Participation.

The Quest provides the opportunity for students to create technologies that solve problems and address real issues in a sustainable way . It is an innovative, authentic, relevant and practical way to stimulate students and for teachers to learn more about the Technology and Enterprise Learning Area.

For more information visit the VAQ website or download the VAQ 2008 brochure.

CLOSING DATE THURSDAY 11TH SEPTEMBER 2008

Design and Technology teachers will find links to useful curriculum related resources on the CMIS Technology and Enterprise page.

DET teachers can access K – 10 Syllabus Resources for the Technology and Enterprise Learning Area via the Portal Logon