CMIS Evaluation Technology Focus

Cyberbullying has become more high profile in the community in the last few years as technology such as mobile phones and the Internet become more pervasive.

Funding from the Australian Government is producing new research, such as this done locally at Edith Cowan University. How to deal with the problem of the bullying from a school perspective is under discussion with the Cyber Bullying Intervention program, also under way at ECU.

For a range of Australian and international information and research, the CMIS Cyberbullying webpage provides links to some of the major work currently underway.

We have also started a Cyberbullying list in Delicious and will add new resources as they come to our attention. If you have access to an RSS reader or make yourself an igoogle page, you can subscribe to this Delicious list and get an alert as we add new items.

Teachers and students who have read and enjoyed Jeannie Baker’s Window and its companion title Belonging will appreciate this project from the New South Wales Centre for Learning Innovation.

Through My Window is a simple and engaging email activity designed to allow students to communicate about their world through words and images. Descriptions are posted on the website and students from around the world may email their artistic interpretations back to the authors. Students may then evaluate their descriptions to see if the wording they have used has provided an accurate picture of their scenario.

In the Task Section at Step 3: Connect teachers can register with the Through my window coordinator who controls the posting of descriptions.  The activity model on the website could easily be used without registering to take part, although by registering children are given the opportunity to see their work published online (permission required).

In the Description Section examples of student work can be viewed by clicking the Stage 1 and Stage 2 buttons.  In the Archive section work from students can be seen at Stage 2 and Stage 3 including an interpretive view from another school.

Schools across Australia are invited to contribute to this on-going project and its companion project The Adventures of Ebenezer Q. Emu.

This is a creative activity in which students in the Early years of schooling use a story wizard to create an adventure using their own words, digital pictures and sound effects.Students also have the option of recording their words in English and another language. The story may be viewed on the computer and/or printed out for use in classrooms or school libraries.Completed adventures may be submitted to the website project manager for subsequent inclusion on the website.

The site includes ample planning and assessment assistance for teachers. Proformas are available for students to prepare their stories, children are encouraged to use sound files and clip art and there is a Library where completed stories are published.

Although both projects relate particularly to NSW Syllabus outcomes, the activities can be readily applied across several WA Learning Areas outcomes including English, The Arts, Technology and Enterprise, Mathematics, Languages, and Society and Environment.

In case you missed it – there are a couple of items in the August 8th Eddymail of interest to DET schools.

1. There has been a modification to school bandwidth allocations which is effective immediately. Details of the allocation formula changes can be found on the Intranet Some schools may find their allocation decreased whilst others will have increased. Generally schools will have a “per student” mb increase.
2. Improvement in Anti-virus protection for the Department’s Network should result in safer Internet browsing for DET users.

 For further information, please contact the Customer Service Centre on 9264 5555, regional callers 1800 012 828 or via email.