The 2009 conference theme is Bridging the Divide.

This year’s conference begins with a pre-conference keynote by classroom teacher and international educator Kim Cofino the week of November 30, 2009. Use the CMIS vodpod collection at the right to view Maria Knee and the PR Committee’s conference video teaser.

During the  two weeks, December 7-11 and December 14-17, over fifty presentations will be posted online to the conference blog and conference Ning for participants to view, download, and discuss.

The Getting Started pages on the K-12 Online Conference wiki provide all the information you need to participate in this world-wide event.

Australian contibutors to the event include Chris Betcher – watch his conference teaser below – and view others on the K-12 Conference ning video page [This link requires you to log in to ning]

Check out the full list of presentations which are organized into four strands.

WEEK 1: December 7-11, 2009

Getting Started (13 presentations)

Leading the Change (14 presentations)

WEEK 2: December 14-17, 2009

In the Classroom (13 presentations)

Kicking It Up a Notch (14presentations)

I’m planning to participate as part of my professional learning. Stop and say hello if you see me online – janning

Read the original blog post here

The following information about Paul is taken from the
NEiTA Awardee profile document.

The flagship project for Paul and his students is Podkids Australia, the most successful school based podcast in the country. The Podkids Australia podcast provides an authentic worldwide audience for the students’ writing and has subscribers in more than 50 countries. In the podcast, Paul’s students have interviewed the Western Australian Premier, leading authors, federal ministers and famous sportspeople. The students’ work has been downloaded more than 60,000 times.

Paul’s achievements in harnessing new technologies to inspire his students have been internationally recognised. Politicians, educators and administrators from Australia and overseas have flocked to the school to observe Paul’s innovative teaching practices. Representatives from Apple Computers have even visited the small public school and, in 2006, Paul was awarded the status of Apple Distinguished Educator.

Paul gives generously of his time to contribute to the professional development of his teaching colleagues. The following Prezi, on Blogs and Wikis was delivered at the ECAWA State Conference 2009

Paul also maintains the Educating the Digital Generation wiki where you will find a wealth or resources on topics including podcasting, blogs and wikis, Scratch, 1:1 laptop programs and Race Around the World. Paul is an active twitterer.

Want to know more?

Through the Department of Education Portal Western Australian teachers are able to access Teachers have Class! the Department’s FREE online professional learning program to support teachers to integrate ICT into teaching and learning.

Teachers have Class! provides relevant and practical self paced, online, on demand or instructor-led courses focused on technology integration with best practice pedagogies.

As well as Anytime Workshops and Self-Paced Books the following Instructor-led classes are available this year:

The CMIS Podcasts in the Classroom page provides background information and support materials useful to teachers new to podcasting.

Sustainable House Day provides people with the opportunity to visit homes where owners have put sustainable living into practice.

The Australian Sustainable Schools Initiative – WA (AuSSI – WA) website provides a framework that supports schools in the development of a whole-school approach to Education for Sustainability.

DETWA teachers can access the following  TLF  Learning Object exploring energy efficient housing via the DET Portal:

• Energy Efficient House

The CMIS webpages for  Sustainable Development and  Sustainable Schools provide links to a wealth of resources to support units of work on this theme.

Pursuing this theme of the blurring of lines between the two formats here is a further example of the use of electronic/digital media to enhance and support print resources.

The latest digital offering from Scott Westerfeld’s blog: a Leviathan countdown timer.

Visit Scott Westerfeld’s website!

Note from Scott’s blog: Small warning, this is an American countdown timer, which is only accurate for North America. I’m trying to get exact dates for the Oz and UK editions, and will then make adjustments. But don’t fret, Aussies and Brits, it looks like your edition will come out the same week as the US one—maybe even earlier!

Also of note is the Simon & Schuster offer of the FREE book download of Uglies.

The Feature Article in the latest issue of Fiction Focus: The Book 2.0 – Why eBooks are eLectric! looks at how technology is changing the way people read, interact with and access information. Please use this blog’s comments function let us know about your favourite digital/web-based resources used to  supplement or extend your students’ print reading experiences.
The CMIS Resource Bank contains reviews of  Scott Westerfeld’s books.

Sites to check out include:

• Digital Booktalk

This information-rich site which was developed by Drs. Robert Kenny and Glenda Gunter at the the University of Central Florida includes video book trailers produced by both K-12 students and students of the Uniuversity. Free registration will give users access to contributors blogs and help forums. The UB Director link provides curricula and plans to help teachers implement a Booktalk project in their classroom. This site is highly recommended as a starting point for teachers beginning to explore digital booktalking.

• Reading – Active-and-Engaging

Rhonda Powling, Head of Library at Whitefriars College and Information Services and School Library Association of Victoria President has created a wiki –  which outlines her rationale for creating booktrailers, records her experiences involving students in the process and provides access to student generated content. The Storyboarding page outlines a lesson plan used to prepare students to create their own booktrailers. The assessment rubric measures student achievement against nine criteria.

• Tech & Learning blogpost: December 1st 2007

According to Mark Greary ‘making a Book Trailer is fairly simple. Just follow these steps.’ His simple explanation to creating a book trailer using Microsoft’s free Photo Story 3 leads users through a step-by-step process complete with clear screen shots and jargon-free instructions. More detailed instructions for using Photo Story 3 are available online.

Youtube provides access to online booktrailers from a variety of sources. A collection of links to booktrailers targeting Young Adult readers is available via the CMIS Evaluation del.icio.us account. Included are links to booktrailers  for the following titles reviewed in this issue of Fiction Focus:

• Graceling by Kristen Cashore
• Ranger’s Apprentice series by John Flanagan
• 3 Willows: A sisterhood grows by Ann Brashares
• The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

YouTube videos of these book trailers can also be viewed using the CMIS VodPod widget in the sidebar of this blog or by visiting the CMIS Tech Focus VodPod page.

The National Library of Australia’s Digital Collections gives users access to more than 130 000 images including books, journals, maps, music, pictures, manuscripts and oral histories.

The SBDS prototype will be a new discovery service focussed on Australia, Australians, and items found in Australian collecting institutions. It will provide a single point of access to resources currently discoverable via the Library’s multiple discovery services, and to digitised material freely available online anywhere in the world.

This prototype is an exploration of ideas and techniques aimed at making information easier to find and showing it within a useful context. This development of this prototype will be strongly influenced by user feedback.  Please give your comments and suggestions on how to improve it.

from the SBDS website.

Educators will find useful Internet Gateways on the CMIS website.

WolframAlpha was announced in March 2009 by British physicist Stephen Wolfram, and was released to the public on May 15, 2009. Unlike Google, which searches for web resources to match a query, WolframAlpha generates answers to factual queries by computing the answer from available data.

Watch Part 2 of of the video.

Related CMIS blog posts include:

• Maybe AND/OR/NOT isn’t so hard
• Seek and you shall find…a list of Search engines (other than Google!)

Take a look at the CMIS webpages on Search Tools

Useful resources to support teachers and students entering this competiton or undertaking media studies units can be found on the CMIS Media Production and Analysis page.

In June 2005 U.S. Librarian of Congress James Billington proposed establishing an Internet-based, easily accessible collection of the world’s cultural riches  to highlight the achievements of all countries and cultures.

On April  20th 2009 The World Digital Library site was launched.

from the WDL site…

The WDL makes it possible to discover, study, and enjoy cultural treasures from around the world on one site, in a variety of ways. These cultural treasures include, but are not limited to, manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, and architectural drawings.

Items on the WDL may easily be browsed by place, time, topic, type of item, and contributing institution, or can be located by an open-ended search, in several languages. Special features include interactive geographic clusters, a timeline, advanced image-viewing and interpretive capabilities. Item-level descriptions and interviews with curators about featured items provide additional information.

Educators will find listings of more digital resources suited to educational use on the CMIS Internet Gateways page and in our previous WoW Websites blog posts.

(Scroll down the page to see our earlier posts.)

Use the CMIS Resource Bank TOPIC SEARCH page to locate CMIS recommended websites. Use ‘website’ as your keyword search term and refine your search by Phase of Development, Learning Area and Outcome.