Mentoring – online March 3, 2007
Posted by Joseph Papaleo in General, classroom.add a comment
Last year, I “met” Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach through my invovlement in the K12 Online Conference. Sheryl was one of the organisers of the conference and led an international discussion using Elluminate that I participated in. It was a thrill to have a real-time discussion with many “big names” in the education blogosphere.
Recently, Sheryl got in touch and asked me if I would like to join her class of pre-service teachers and participate as one of many “online-mentors” from around the world. I was intrigued and agreed.
Sheryl as it turns out is a lecturer/professor at The College of William and Mary and has two classes of pre-service teachers. Using tapped-In, a global, on-line classroom has been established where Sheryl and her students pose various questions or seek assistance as they develop new units of work for their subjects or teaching rounds. As a result of the questions students have posed, I have been challenged several times in the last few weeks to refocus on my own teaching style . Thinking through their questions and my practices and then reading responses from other mentors has allowed me to become a better teacher.
Anyone can see this group and request to join it.
Thank you to both Sheryl and all of her students for this great collaborative project that has truly enriched me (and it has only been going for about month) .
My State Government has banned YouTube in schools March 1, 2007
Posted by Joseph Papaleo in General, Mobile Phones, Screencast.1 comment so far
The Victorian State Government today announced that YouTube would be blocked in State Government schools. Why? (Read an article here or here)
Maybe there were too many students using it in class to look at innapropriate material instead of focussing on their work? Good guess, but no. Maybe because the extra bandwidth was too costly for the Government and they were trying to cut costs. Another reasonable assumption, but wrong again!
The reason is cyberbullying. Late last year, a group of teenage boys filmed themselves while assaulting a young girl and then making DVDs. The DVDs were distributed in the local area and it was then uploaded onto YouTube. Once this story got into the media, there were many commentators calling for the banning of YouTube in schools (as well as other technological tools).
While I am appalled at the actions of this group of boys and other cyberbullies, there is no way in the world blocking YouTube in schools will stop cyberbullying. While students are at school, bullying will continue to exist in school yards and classrooms, with and without the use of technology.
Naturally, other independent schools will follow suit (if they haven’t done so already) and block YouTube. What concerns me is that YouTube can, be a useful tool. I am currently playing with vodcasts for use by my Year 12 Further Maths class. I have started creating short videos on how they should be using their graphics calculator to solve various problems. YouTube (or podomatic or mogopop or other similar services) would have been an ideal way to distribute these helpful vodcasts. I also plan to use some YouTube videos I’ve found as part of some of my class projects (I’ll post an entry about these one day soon). But now with this ban, many schools will not be able to find crative ways to use YouTube.
So I now have to ask. How will my State Government stop students using YouTube out of school hours? Will they get ISPs to blacklist YouTube? Will they also ban all mobile phones at school and at home to prevent those nasty SMS bully tactics? Maybe they’ll even ask Telstra to close down its phone lines between 8:00 and 10:pm every day to prevent a student bullying another student by phone.
Sorry Steve Bracks (Victorian Premier) and Jacinta Allan (Education minister). You have got this one wrong!
BTW, YouTube removed the video from their site within a very short time, but there would still be many copies of that DVD circulating about. Maybe we should destroy all DVD players too!
On holidays January 20, 2007
Posted by Joseph Papaleo in General.add a comment
I haven’t blogged for quite some time as I have enjoyed time away with my family or working on a house renovation. I will get back to blogging about Computers and 21st Century Eduk8n in the near future.
Blogtagged January 1, 2007
Posted by Joseph Papaleo in Colleagues, General, Paul Harrington, Tom Barrett, blogs.3 comments
I’ve had a complete break from blogging after finishing work for the year. To my surprise, I’ve been blogtagged – twice! By Paul Harrington and Tom Barrett. Thanks!
OK – 5 things about me
- I “worked” as a volunteer for 7 years with an organization called Camp Challenge – later renamed Challenge Cancer Support Network many years ago. It was a support group for kids and their siblings with Cancer or hematological diseases. Lost many friends, but made one great friend. My wife Christine. We first met while she was a “camper” and then she returned a few years later as a leader. Many years later, we started going out and what do you know, we got married.
- We have 4 children – Jeremy 9, Claire 8, Olivia 4 and Zoe 2. Each is unique and I love them all very much.
- For Olivia’s birth, Christine went into a very quick labour. Realising we were not going to get to the hospital in time, I called the ambulance. While on the phone, Christine’s waters broke and I ended up “catching” Olivia in the bathroom. We have a recording of the phone conversation of Olivia’s birth which I’ll play at her 21st Birthday.
- I am highly allergic to Nuts and Sesame Seeds. My allergies started with walnuts and Sesame Seeds when I was about 8 years old and as I got older, I became allergic to other nuts. Of course, back then, no-one had any idea and so I continued to eat nuts that I wasn’t allergic to. But then I became allergic to them. Most people allergic to nuts are allergic to peanuts, but I’m not. But to be on the safe side, I’ve been told not to eat them anymore. Oh, how I long to eat Crunchy Nut Breakfast cereal again (remember me Tom next time you indulge!) I now carry an epipen (adrenaline) in case of accidental ingestation – my throat may swell, causing my airway to block – don’t really want to think about it at all.
- I love painting walls. Give me a room to paint during the holidays and I’m happy. I actually find it therapeutic – a chance to slow down, a chance to think, time to reflect on life, listen to the radio, etc. The satisfaciton when the job is done is great. And these holidays (we have our 6 weeks off now), I hope to get as much of our renovations done as possible on our newly acquired home.
5 people to tag -
- Mario Papaleo (my brother who is new to blogging, so it will give him some time to practice.
- Gary Chapman (Work colleague)
- Paul Kelly (Work colleague)
- Rosa Ochoa (I just discovered her blog – an Australian teacher)
- SoulCradler (I just discovered her blog – a new Australian teacher)
Podomatic Badge November 10, 2006
Posted by Joseph Papaleo in General.add a comment
Badge from podOmatic – links to my podcast site.
New features November 10, 2006
Posted by Joseph Papaleo in General.add a comment
Talkr feedI’ve just linked the talkr feature to my blog, but there is an internal Server Error – hopefully fixed soon. NB -Error now fixed
I’ve also added clustr maps – waiting for a graph to be generated tomorrow. Hopefully that will work fine.
Added some podomatic features, but not quite right either. Maybe I need help with links and I should stop blaming the computer/server!!! NB I needed a little help with the links and Chris from podOmatic put me straight. Thanks Chris. As usual, it is the user, not the computer.
Podcast test November 10, 2006
Posted by Joseph Papaleo in General.add a comment
Just testing to see if I can embed a podcast I created recently
Click here to get your own player.
New Background November 6, 2006
Posted by Joseph Papaleo in General, Personal.add a comment
I’ve been trying to change my background settings for some time and I think I’ve found one that I actually like – Regulus, developed by Ben Gillbanks at Binary Moon. It is adaptable like Fauna which allows for the image, colour, number of columns, etc to be altered. I was happy with the supplied image (can choose from about 5 or upload your own). Thanks Ben.
So, what has Jules Verne got to do with my blog? November 1, 2006
Posted by Joseph Papaleo in General, Google Earth, Janine Lim, Tom Barrett, Video Conference, k12online, k12online06.comments closed
Jules Verne wrote the book “Around the World in 80 Days” around 1872. Just a few years earlier, he and many others of his time were captivated by technological breakthroughs. These breakthroughs were related to transportation – the Suez Canal opening and the linking of train lines across the US and also in the sub-continent. And what did this technology breakthrough lead to? The rapid circumnavigation of the globe, hence his book.
So, what does this have to do with my blog I hear you ask. Well, in recent times, we too have had various technological breakthroughs that have led to people like me being captivated by the potential in our classrooms. What are these breakthroughs? The advancement of ISDN and now Broadband, the compression of audio and video files are just some. Coupled together, they allow us educators to take our class anywhere we like. I have written before about the possibility of Videoconferencing. And in the last few weeks, I have put together a presenation for the k12onlineconference and it is all about the uses of videoconferencing in the classroom. So, sometime today, my presentation “Around the World in 80 Minutes” will go live at the conference site with tips and where to find resources and the possibilites of videoconferencing, as well as tips on Google Earth. I must also note that I have referenced the work of: Tom Barrett; Janine Lim; ReefEd and National Space Center, UK
Thank you to these people for their blogs which I have been reading with interest for some time or for the services they have provided to me.
k12onlineconference “Elluminate” session October 29, 2006
Posted by Joseph Papaleo in General, Video Conference, k12online06.1 comment so far
I just participated in an international conversation with about 30 – 40 people using Elluminate. Messages were passed by voice, text, whiteboard and even video. I actually “met” some people who I had heard about or read their blog. Catching up with other people I haven’t corresponded with for some time as well. It started at 1:00am local time and finished a little over an hour later at 3:20am (Daylight saving kicked in).
An interesting conversation was held about many topics and it was great to see that the apathy I experience here in Melbourne about Web2.0 technology seems to be the same all over the world. There seem to be just a few interested teachers and we need to bring many others along for the journey. Much like Jules Verne in Paris in 1870.
More about that in my next blog entry …
Off to bed right now. Good night.
