[Year 12 IPM] Re: OT Kahootz, 7-10 IT and Has VELS got it WRONG?

Wed Jun 22 22:35:22 EST 2005

Hello all
After reading about some of your forays into Kahootz I decided to check it out tonight - there are tutorials and examples on the website www kahootz.com.au.(teacher resources link)  (Sorry Greg) I think I will give it a go with my new year 8's next semester (only 2.5 weeks away!)

Meanwhile I have finally got Moodle to work - I had to beg our intranet administrator (a library technician) to allow me to create my own courses - before yesterday all I could do was edit my profile and post to a forum!! I have created courses for each subject I teach, also for each year level and the House system, and have uploaded lots of resources etc. As Big Kev would say "I'm excited" ! I can't wait for a few others to catch on.

A BIG worry if Info Tech is integrated and not a stand alone subject - we have to email our reports to the edumail address of the person who prints them out and late last week another staff member was telling me she was overjoyed that she had finished her reports the night before, but still hadn't emailed them because she had problems logging onto edumail when she got to school that morning. I asked her why hadn't she emailed them from home using her private ISP and she said "but they have to be sent to edumail so I can only do that from school can't I?" And to think these people might be teaching IT as part of their SOSE or English allotment in the near future!!!! To me this is totally scary. And I believe that these non IT teachers would find it scary too - and certainly not approach the teaching of ICT with anywhere near the enthusiasm of the IT teachers who live, breath and eat their subject for dinner! 

I find it totally unbelievable, that considering ICT is an area that is expanding exponentially, that VELS does not make ICT at least as important as either English or Maths. Even we as a group are constantly having to update our knowledge - how many of us had even heard of blogs, wikis, moodle etc say two years ago? Surely to be adequately prepared for the future our students need a more extensive grounding in ICT. Australian companies are subcontracting programming to Indian companies because of a shortage of skills and the rate of pay here, and the Indian companies are subsubcontracting the same work out to Chinese companies. And the reason these countries can do this programming? - because they began massive ICT education campaigns when they realised that it was the way of the future and one way to improve their economies. So more Aussie dollars go offshore. We will be left in the wilderness if our students are not given these skills.

Enough griping!

Have a wonderful wonderful holiday everyone, thank you for all your emails - one of my favourite (relaxing) parts of the day is getting home and reading through everything that comes to me via the edulists.

Cheers
Ros Meadows
TONS
Bentleigh SC 
9579 1044
meadows.roslyn.m at edumail.vic.gov.au

________________________________

From: ipm-bounces at edulists.com.au on behalf of Marshall, Graham F
Sent: Wed 22/06/2005 7:23 PM
To: Year 12 Information Technology Processing and Management Teachers'Mailing List
Subject: RE: [Year 12 IPM] Re: OT Kahootz and 7-10 IT

Greg,

Used your training material before and it was fantastic. Any help with Kahootz will be great.

My year 8/9/10 are enjoying the program.

Regards,

Graham Marshall - Bayswater SC

________________________________

From: ipm-bounces at edulists.com.au on behalf of Greg Bowden
Sent: Wed 6/22/2005 12:15 PM
To: Year 12 Information Technology Processing and Management Teachers'Mailing List
Cc: Year 7 - 10 Information Technology Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: [Year 12 IPM] Re: OT Kahootz and 7-10 IT

<?fontfamily><?param Arial>Hello everyoneFurther the discussion a couple of weeks ago about the structure of IT in the 7-10 curriculum. I'm wondering what schools are doing with Kahootz. It seems to me to be a program that lends itself to being taught in a stand alone IT class then used by other KLAs once students know how to use it properly. I can't see KLAs at my school providing much class time for the learning of Kahootz. I've just started teaching Kahootz to a year 8 IT class and I am hoping at the end of the unit one of the other teachers of the class will set a project using Kahootz. I must confess to also having a personal interest in Kahootz. I've developed a teaching unit for it and I am trying to decide whether it is worth the time and effort to send a flyer to schools (not much use if not many schools have started to use it). So any feedback on your opinions of Kahootz and its use would be helpful (e-mail me off the list if you prefer). If you would like to have a look at some sample pages of the Kahootz unit they can be viewed at <?color><?param 0000,0000,FFFD>www.gct.com.au<?/color> - then follow the Kahootz link.Greg BowdenICT ManagerNorth Geelong SC<?/fontfamily> Important - This email and any attachments may be confidential. If received in error, please contact us and delete all copies. Before opening or using attachments check them for viruses and defects. Regardless of any loss, damage or consequence, whether caused by the negligence of the sender or not, resulting directly or indirectly from the use of any attached files our liability is limited to resupplying any affected attachments. Any representations or opinions expressed are those of the individual sender, and not necessarily those of the Department of Education & Training.

Important - 
This email and any attachments may be confidential. If received in error, please contact us and delete all copies. Before opening or using attachments check them for viruses and defects. Regardless of any loss, damage or consequence, whether caused by the negligence of the sender or not, resulting directly or indirectly from the use of any attached files our liability is limited to resupplying any affected attachments. Any representations or opinions expressed are those of the individual sender, and not necessarily those of the Department of Education & Training.
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