Since writing my earlier post on PBWiki they have made one major change which has prompted me to go back for a second look. PBWiki now allows you to add a whole class full of users to a wiki without the need for email addresses. This means that I can set up my class of users very quickly and walk into class armed with my list of usernames and passwords all ready for the students to get stuck into some good old collaboration, or poetry, or personal writing, or……..

This rather useful change to the wiki has prompted me to take another look at the options in PBWiki and the further I delve into the innards of the wiki the more great features I am finding. Little things like being able to create folders in which you can place pages which make navigating PBWiki a real breeze. Instead of having 50 pages listed down the side of the wiki, I can make a folder for Poetry and a folder for Science and I can give students a page in each of these folders, this is  a useful little feature for keeping everything seperate and nicely organised. Even better you can set who can edit/read each page if you want so you can have pages which students can change nestled amongst pages which only you can change.

PBWiki also allows the user to add Plugins to their page. These plugins are largely standard fare with YouTube, SlideShare, etc all making an appearance. But the one I love is the Google Gadgets. These useful little things are the same gadgets which you can add to your iGoogle page. ( Whats that you don’t have an iGoogle page… Click here to get one.) These gadgets allow you to add news feeds, horoscopes, weather, and so on and so on. You can even make it display your favourite “World of Warcraft” charactor if you are that way inclined.

So what does all this mean? Sorry WetPaint but PBWiki is the new king of the wiki’s. It’s easy to use, has lots of functionality and is set up in a way that a classroom can access it and get stuck into the good stuff quickly and easily…

So far I have visited 11 of the 23 schools which are in the Swan Hill area. It always amazes me how willing the teachers are to welcome you into their school. As with most things the schools I have visited have been at a range of levels with their skills and access to ICT hardware, but the one common thread which I find in all schools is their willingness to listen and to give new things a go. Although some teachers are wary of taking big steps with ICT, all teachers are willing to try things in bite (or maybe its byte) sized pieces and before they know it they are creating lesson using Interactive Whiteboards, wikis and all manner of other things. “Scotty” in Swan Hill is a prime example, she has gone from being a Blog “Newbie” to running multiple blogs with students from several year levels. I am certain that her blogs (DeScotty & Scotty7D) will be well worth revisiting as the year progresses and she is already making plans of better ways for her year 7 and 12 classes to access this wonderful tool, including a “Heroes” blog in the lead up to the Olympic games.

Many schools have requested assistance with the creation of Intranet and Internet sites and working with these teachers has also been great and I am looking forward to working with these teachers in the future to enhance their classrooms through the use of many other ICT tools including Interactive Whiteboards. IWB’s seem to be the hot topic in schools at the moment with many schools seeking advice and what sort of IWB they should buy and how they might best use them. I have to say that I have really enjoyed using the TeamBoard and was very very impressed with the new Mimio unit which was just great to use. One thing which teachers seem to be struggling with is ideas of how to best use IWB’s, next term I think that this will need to be something which I will focus on and have made a few tentative contacts to start up an IWB group across a few schools.

Most schools that I have visited have now done the ePotential survey and we have designed a walk through for teachers to assist them in making specific ICT goals which they might use in their P&D plans. Most schools have done very well in this survey especially when compared against the rest of the state. It would appear that ICT leadership is one weakness which needs to be addressed (Statewide) and as the year progresses I would hope to find ways to start to address this deficit as well. It has been great to see so many schools who are well equipped with regard to ICT around the area, and the Principals which I have worked with have been wonderful with regard to planning for the ICT needs in the future. Data has also played a big part in this, and I have worked with On Demand Testing, Early Years Numeracy Interviews, AIM, Online POLT, etc in several schools. Getting this stuff into an easy to use format for schools has, at times, been a real challenge and has caused more than a few headaches, but with the help of these schools leadership teams I feel that we have kicked more than a couple of goals on the data front.

I have also had a pretty steep learning curve during this term. It would seem that my time as VCE Manager at Swan Hill College had made me a little “soft” with regard to new technologies. After 7 weeks though I am pleased to say that I am a web 2.0 addict. I obviously have a Blog (Yep your reading it), a wiki (Which have plenty of resources on it including a new and improved Student At Risk Mapping Tool) and have recently arrived in the wide world of podcasts, which has been really blowing me away.

Well thats about it for Term 1 2008. Have a great Easter guys, next term is going to be a big one.

Catch Ya Later

Sartz