[Yr7-10it] Twittering

Sat Jun 27 10:31:43 EST 2009

Hello Claire and everyone,
I also teach in a small country school (prep to year 12 ) in Victoria. They 
have small social networks, limited year level numbers, no exposure to other 
cultures etc. However, being able to use these resources has meant that we 
can connect, communicate and create with a broad range of classes within 
Australia and in many countries of the world. The resources that I use are 
free - skype (for video or webconferencing) wikis, blogs, nings, virtual 
classroom software (eg elluminate, discoverE), voicethreads etc.
Classes like yours would be the ones to possibly gain the biggest benefits 
from being able to connect online. What is your internet access like?
Let me know if you would like more info.
Anne Mirtschin
Hawkesdale p12 College (http://hawkesdale.globalstudent.org.au)

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Claire Adams" <claire.e.adams at gmail.com>
To: "Year 7 - 10 Information Technology Teachers' Mailing List" 
<yr7-10it at edulists.com.au>
Sent: Friday, June 26, 2009 5:05 PM
Subject: Re: [Yr7-10it] Twittering

> My students don't know what twitter, irc, or forums are.
> They don't even think to look up help (F1 is unheard of!).
> Most country kids (esp. here on the EP) have heard of MSN, but that
> doesn't mean they even use that regularly.
> In my experience some interactive device (maybe wiki, or IRC channel)
> might get used by city kids, or
> kids who live in more densely populated areas, but it would be a waste
> of resources over here.
>
> Claire Adams
> Cummins Area School
> Eyre Peninsula
> South Australia
>
> On Tue, Jun 23, 2009 at 1:35 PM, Roland Gesthuizen<rgesthuizen at gmail.com> 
> wrote:
>> (* hand over mouth *) OK you lot .. toss in your 2 cents worth.
>>
>> Regards Roland
>>
>> 2009/6/23 Dr Paul Chandler <paul.chandler at une.edu.au>
>>>
>>> Roland and others,
>>>
>>> I hope you haven't put the moz on other responses to my question, Roland
>>> :-)
>>>
>>> I'm presently engaged in observing classes using Kahootz, for which 
>>> there
>>> is no existing (student-accessible) forum or similar system.
>>>
>>> What we are observing is that students are thriving on the immediacy of
>>> getting help. For instance "how do I make it seem that this character is
>>> morphing to another ... oh, I can show you how to do that" There is help
>>> being spread across schools ("how can I show rain"), but it is
>>> teacher-mediated and word of mouth (but very efficient when it works).
>>>
>>> I think help forms are terrific. The rapidity in which I've received
>>> assistance for products like vlc and PGV is astounding, but these are 
>>> very
>>> large and very active communities, where the principal developers devote
>>> huge numbers of hours to answer questions. This is not likely to be the
>>> case with Kahootz.
>>>
>>> You're not going to get extended responses in a medium like twitter. But
>>> interactions such as "Can u mk rain?" "yeah - check http://somerain" are
>>> possible, and probably very helpful.
>>>
>>> So, notwithstanding Roland's informed comments about forums and Yahoo
>>> answers, I think my question still remains: I'm wondering if anyone as
>>> thought of - or implemented - the use of Twitter (or some twitter-like
>>> technology) as a "help system" for students?
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>>
>>> > Twitter is a bit different from a forum to ask for help .. it is an 
>>> > odd
>>> > mix
>>> > of micro-blogging and chat. I have a small, friendly gathering of
>>> > educators
>>> > on my Twitter rgesethuizen identity but not as many as I can tap into
>>> > via
>>> > these forums. No students although I expect they have moved beyond
>>> > micro-blogging to communicating in fewer syllables with words like 
>>> > hmm,
>>> > shh,
>>> > ahh, grr, hah, ugg, huh, yeh etc.
>>> >
>>> > Perhaps if students were looking to share questions they would use 
>>> > Yahoo
>>> > Answers. Last year I was surprised to spot my VCE students skim this 
>>> > for
>>> > answers until I found out that one was handing out IT advice and 
>>> > trying
>>> > to
>>> > gain more 'points' than somebody else! She was doing a swell job of
>>> > answering basic questions by doing some snap research and typing up
>>> > short
>>> > answers. Apparently they got the most points if the questioner voted 
>>> > her
>>> > answer as the best. Worth studying although I should warn that I now
>>> > recognise that like other similar engines, some of the questions
>>> > discussed
>>> > cover adult concepts.
>>> >
>>> > Regards Roland
>>> >
>>> > 2009/6/22 Dr Paul Chandler <paul.chandler at une.edu.au>
>>> >
>>> >> Hi folks,
>>> >>
>>> >> I'm wondering if anyone as thought of - or implemented - the use of
>>> >> Twitter (or some twitter-like technology) as a "help system" for
>>> >> students?
>>> >>
>>> >> We all know that kids talk with one another and 'get help' on various
>>> >> aspects of computing when they are working in the classroom ... is 
>>> >> this
>>> >> the logical extension?
>>> >>
>>> >> Thoughts?
>>> >>
>>> >> --
>>> >> Dr Paul Chandler
>>> >> Research Fellow
>>> >> 'Multimedia grammatical design and authoring pedagogy' (Kahootz)
>>> >> project,
>>> >> School of Education, University of New England
>>> >>
>>> >> located at Australian Children's Television Foundation
>>> >> 145 Smith Street, Fitzroy, Melbourne, 3065
>>> >> e-mail: paul.chandler at une.edu.au
>>> >> Ph: 0400 198 187
>>> >> Fax: (03) 9419 0660
>>> >> Skype: paul.d.chandler
>>> >>
>>> >> _______________________________________________
>>> >> http://www.edulists.com.au - FAQ, resources, subscribe, unsubscribe
>>> >> Year 7 - 10 IT Mailing List kindly supported by
>>> >> http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au - Victorian Curriculum and Assessment
>>> >> Authority
>>> >> and
>>> >> http://www.vitta.org.au - VITTA Victorian Information Technology
>>> >> Teachers
>>> >> Association Inc
>>> >>
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > --
>>> > Roland Gesthuizen - ICT Coordinator - Westall Secondary College
>>> > http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au
>>> >
>>> > "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can
>>> > change
>>> > the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has." --Margaret Mead
>>> >
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Dr Paul Chandler
>>> Research Fellow
>>> 'Multimedia grammatical design and authoring pedagogy' (Kahootz) 
>>> project,
>>> School of Education, University of New England
>>>
>>> located at Australian Children's Television Foundation
>>> 145 Smith Street, Fitzroy, Melbourne, 3065
>>> e-mail: paul.chandler at une.edu.au
>>> Ph: 0400 198 187
>>> Fax: (03) 9419 0660
>>> Skype: paul.d.chandler
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> http://www.edulists.com.au - FAQ, resources, subscribe, unsubscribe
>>> Year 7 - 10 IT Mailing List kindly supported by
>>> http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au - Victorian Curriculum and Assessment 
>>> Authority
>>> and
>>> http://www.vitta.org.au - VITTA Victorian Information Technology 
>>> Teachers
>>> Association Inc
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Roland Gesthuizen - ICT Coordinator - Westall Secondary College
>> http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au
>>
>> "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can 
>> change
>> the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has." --Margaret Mead
>> _______________________________________________
>> http://www.edulists.com.au - FAQ, resources, subscribe, unsubscribe
>> Year 7 - 10 IT Mailing List kindly supported by
>> http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au - Victorian Curriculum and Assessment 
>> Authority
>> and
>> http://www.vitta.org.au - VITTA Victorian Information Technology Teachers
>> Association Inc
>
> _______________________________________________
> http://www.edulists.com.au - FAQ, resources, subscribe, unsubscribe
> Year 7 - 10 IT Mailing List kindly supported by
> http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au - Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority 
> and
> http://www.vitta.org.au  - VITTA Victorian Information Technology Teachers 
> Association Inc 