Author: Michael Chalk

"Workrave" – a welcome interruption

Michael ChalkLeave a commenttechnology

i’ve just been interrupted at work again!! .. by a terrific little app called “Workrave”, which lets me know when i’ve been sitting Staring at the Screen for Too Long. After installing the program, you decide how often you want to take breaks, whether you want micro-breaks or just regular ones .. and what’s your time limit for the whole day. You can skip or postpone if you’re really busy, or you can sit back and do the recommended exercises for good office health. Honestly i prefer to be interrupted Read More …

e-mentors set to soar

Michael Chalk1 Commentace, e-learning, innovation, professional development

Amazing work from the network of Victorian ACE e-mentors. Each (ACE) region across Victoria has one (or 2) mentors to support teachers and organisations learning to develop their plans for e-learning at strategy and classroom levels. On Friday there were demonstrations of “all things google” – how to chat with gmail, how to synch your google calendar, use the reader for following student blog feeds .. set up groups and sites, use the gmail app for your domain. (Coach Carole, Michael Gwyther, Sarah Phillips) .. and a session on gadgets Read More …

Huge list of places to find learning materials

Michael ChalkLeave a commente-learning, how to

Over at PRACE we’re setting up flexible delivery for ICT (information technology) and VET (vocational education & training). (Wrote about this before here, in an attempt to find someone who had the answer already.) But who wants to invent the wheel.. we want to use existing learning materials. Where do we start? So i compiled a big list of places to start searching for learning materials, including: Tied firmly to training packages, the Flexible learning toolboxes, from the Australian Flexible Learning Framework .. or the flexible learning toolbox “repository” (where Read More …

ESL teacher uses "Online Banking" resource

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, adult literacy, classroom, e-learning

Inspiring adventures from Dale Pobega of Duke St community centre in Sunshine Victoria, who has recently started using blogger to engage and educate his English as a second language (ESL) students. Great to see Dale using the tremendous resource “Online Banking“. This resource came out of Olympic Adult Education about 6 years ago, and remains one of the best online resources for adult numeracy. There’s a few broken elements on the site (eg the bulletin board no longer exists, and the sim bank doesn’t work).. but much of it works Read More …

Colleagues diving into web2 with gusto (flickr)

Michael Chalk2 Commentsace, e-learning, how to, professional development

Imagine my delight when Jane the wonderful VCAL co-ordinator at Preston Reservoir Adult Community Education (PRACE) said she wanted to try out flickr for building a slideshow on our website!! 1) Jane had already chosen the photos to go online, and copied them into a folder on her desktop. We used a free image editor called XNview to re-size and optimise for the web. XNview is great because you can do the whole folder in one “batch process”. .. (More details about xnview over on my wiki page .. including Read More …

Ways to publish "flip-style" magazines

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, e-learning

Ann H, one of the amazing ACE e-learning practitioners on the research circles adventure, wrote that she had had some progress with blogs and wikis in her classroom. But the learners weren’t so happy with the look of a wiki, they wanted something more like a print-style magazine. A couple of ideas emerged for someone wanting the “look and feel” of a magazine. 1) the visual book (“MyEbook“)that Dale looked at a few weeks back 2) a site called Issuu gets good reviews: example showing optical illusions. (That second review Read More …

3 free worksheet generators for the classroom

Michael ChalkLeave a commentadult literacy, classroom

i admit, when i was teaching adult literacy last year, sometimes project work was too much work, and we resorted to literacy worksheets. People responded well, because they felt it matched their needs for less complex, more focussed activities. So i relied on a few websites to do the production for me. i’d take the current theme’s vocabulary list, and build up a collection of worksheets. Students can then choose which ones to do. Here are the main sites i would use: Worksheet Genius – on this site you can Read More …

Has twitter jumped the shark?

Michael ChalkLeave a commentprofessional development

The comical folk at current.com have done another twitter satire. It’s funny. Disclaimer: i admit, i have been following some celebrities. Yes i am a twit. (aka miczl) My big issue with Twitter is this: Get A Room. .. if you’re having a private conversation, get off the public airways. Use Skype or messenger. Have a proper conversation. Stop leaving notes in the middle of the road for everyone else to trip over. But that is not how twitter works, so i will just get off my high horse right Read More …

Screencast [and budget] for fun

Michael ChalkLeave a commentclassroom, e-learning, how to

Part of the new PRACE flexible delivery project is about showing information technology teachers how to set up a screencast in their classroom. Because there are a few different products on offer, i thought it would be useful to trial some of them up front. Last year, we looked at Jing, as Lisa from Moreland showed her MYOB students some new skills. (Part 1, part 2.) This time around, the buzz is on Screencastle. Recording is straightforward and fast. You set the size of your screen grab and go. It’s Read More …