Copy a presentation file from iPad to laptop

Michael ChalkLeave a commenthow to, Uncategorized

Faye, one of the amazing teachers at PRACE, got her students to make slide presentations using Keynote on the iPads. The students showed their presentations on the big screen with Airplay,  and then sent their files to Faye via Airdrop.  Then we wondered how to get all those presentation files from Faye’s iPad to her laptop. One way to do this is to share the Keynote file with google drive.. you can then get to the files on your laptop or desktop, at drive.google.com in the web browser. This is Read More …

Great session at RNH – many iPad questions!!

Michael Chalk1 CommentUncategorized

We had a terrific session down at the Reservoir Neighbourhood House the other week (21 April). Four teachers, 4 iPads, 1 windows laptop and one projector. Here are the questions & topics we started with. So many questions, some still unanswered. PD register on the google drive, and other forms People were having trouble with the PD register, but we found out that Peter has put iPad-friendly link on the intranet. Thanks Peter!! * The TV and the iPad  Yes, we do need the appleTV to broadcast to the TV. We’re Read More …

Pairing remote control with classroom television

Michael ChalkLeave a commenthow to, Uncategorized

Recently teachers at PRACE have relied more and more on the big classroom televisions to broadcast what’s on their iPad or laptop screen. Unfortunately we’ve had a weird situation at Spring St where the remote control for the TV doesn’t work. Last week I visited Jan down at the new campus, and this was one of the issues arising. So we called Fraser and discovered the solution.  Here’s what you need to do if this happens to you: Find the small USB dongle marked “RF” – attached to a cable – hanging Read More …

What’s the deal with copyright photos?

Michael ChalkLeave a commentUncategorized

..or: “learning to love the Creative Commons license“. Photos can be so useful in class – images get people talking and writing, and can help to find common ground quickly. These days, teachers are expected to reference and cite every image, especially if used in an assessment task. However, photos on the internet are copyright the photographer – unless otherwise marked. Probably. To use an image legally, you either need to get permission from the photographer or author (if “All Rights Reserved”), or find an image that is licensed under Read More …

Skills teachers need for working with technology and people

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, professional development

Teachers in Adult Community Education (ACE) aka LearnLocal, are often delivering language and literacy programs to people with not much prior education. What do you think are the most important skills for teachers working in the LearnLocal sector, or who are teaching adults in general? (Please add your thoughts via the comment section below.) There are articles online suggesting that teachers these days need a huge range of skills with technology, on top of their already enormous and well-documented matrix of educational abilities.  I have been trying to build up a list that Read More …

Compile student work into a booklet they can take away

Michael ChalkLeave a commentUncategorized

Pages from Carmela’s students’ Recipe Book Create a book from the students’ work.  Here’s a good story for the end of the year. Carmela just came into the office and showed us all the booklet she’s compiled from her students’ writing and multimedia work. Carmela’s students wrote up their recipes and took photos when they made each dish. Carmela then compiled the recipes and photos into a publication that students could take away with them at the end of the year.  The technology they’ve used includes:  Microsoft word,  digital camera,  Read More …

Students and teachers embrace the new iPad experiment

Michael ChalkLeave a commentUncategorized

This year has been full of technological excitement at PRACE, as teachers and students have embraced the new iPad gadgets. VCAL students began the experiment, being the most likely to explore new things. They are now sharing files via a combination of google drive and showbie, submitting their work via airdrop, and more. Teachers broadcast polls and surveys straight to the big screen wirelessly, and any student can also share their work with others via the big screen. Thanks to the heart-warming success of the initial iPad explorations in the Read More …

Notes from August sessions

Michael ChalkLeave a commentUncategorized

Plenty of great discussion at our recent group session on 29 August.  We covered a lot of ground in this session: talking about the potential of using tablets in the classroom different ways to store passwords what to do with the teacher resource wiki the network drive for students is UP an idea of using google+ communities to connect different groups of students Tablets How to choose (android vs iPad vs microsoft). Criteria could include, for example: battery life, apps, fitzroy readers (available on iOs only). What could we do Read More …

Digital storytelling – can it be useful for ESL classes?

Michael ChalkLeave a commentUncategorized

Had a great session (back in June) with Betty and Ourania. We compared 2 different tools for creating a digital story: powerpoint vs movie maker*. Essentially the process is the same for both: create your idea and a short script collect photos and audio files (media) import your media into the program editing area (stage?) add effects or animation, tweak the timing, add credits etc export the movie In favour of powerpoint:  teachers and students are more likely to already know the program you can add text to the screen Read More …

Let’s make the teacher wiki even more useful..

Michael ChalkLeave a commentUncategorized

At the group session on 04 July’14, we talked about ways to re-work the staff wiki. Teachers at Lalor have put PLENTY of effort into sharing ideas and resources, and these resources are all shared under teacher names. However, when we look for useful ideas & activities, we’re more likely to search by theme, certificate module or language skill.So we thought, let’s try collecting resources by theme, and see if that could be more useful. We decided to start with just one theme, and thought that FOOD would be the best Read More …

Writings Reclaimed

Michael ChalkLeave a commenttechnology

I decided to bring posts to this blog from other projects, such as: Digital Learning at PRACE Digital Learning at Lalor Living and Learning ACFE Learn Local Communities of Practice the North-West e-mentor projects from ACFE Learn Local iPad for Seniors at PRACE the 23 Things project from ACFE, CAE and PRACE.   Having written nearly all the text in those places, i wanted gather it all together. It was relatively easy to export from Blogger, and then import into WordPress here. Unfortunately, now i’ve discovered several roadblocks, namely: the Read More …

Mark Hopkins’ story translated into many languages

Michael ChalkLeave a commentadult literacy

You remember Mark Hopkins, the adult learner from PRACE who told his story so well, not only in our publication, but also on the SBS Insight tv program last year? Well, some of the stories from this Resilience collection have been translated into other languages for the EPALE* site, and the first story to be translated was Mark’s. *EPALE: Electronic Platform for Adult Learning in Europe. https://goo.gl/XqROOX

Adult Learners in Conversation – “A Fuller Sense of Self”

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, adult literacy, community

Last night Tricia Bowen spoke about her experience of reconnecting with the adult learners who have shared their stories in this volume. I talked about how great it was to join with Tricia and Lynne in the whole creative and collaborative process of editing. Then Lynne Matheson invited us to launch the video into the world, so we all made rocket-launching sounds, and the champagne flowed. * It was such a good experience filming and editing these stories with Tricia. I would love to hear any feedback, especially related to Read More …

Reading between the Lines – SBS Insight focus on Adult Literacy

Michael ChalkLeave a commentadult literacy

If you think Australia is a highly literate nation, watch this recent episode of Insight from SBS. This powerful and moving episode features Mark Hopkins one of the students from PRACE. I spoke with Mark as part of the “Stories of Resilience” project, and it’s really heartening to hear his voice in this national forum. All these adult learners show real courage and vulnerability, as they describe their experience for people who have no idea of the extent of this hidden problem. Over 40% of Australians experience some level of difficulty Read More …

Dark Side of the Comment Section

Michael ChalkLeave a commentcommunity, technology

If you’re involved with any kind of online facilitation, you may appreciate this article from The Guardian. They’ve done some research into the comment section, finding that much more abuse is directed at female writers than male. (Also, for web designers, some really good layout effects, especially the way they’ve integrated the graphs and the “how would you moderate this comment” bits.) There’s a whole series around this research, articles interviewing people who have experienced the maelstrom of massive online shaming and bullying.. and articles on ideas for making things Read More …

PageTurners has a new online shop

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, adult literacy, community

Just sent out the latest PageTurners newsletter, letting people know that the new shopping-cart style website is up and running!! It’s taken me much time this year to get the site all updated and e-commercey, so i’m very happy that we’ve finally launched. Woot. You can read the newsletter here. Take a look at the site, tell us what you think. Oh, we need a feedback form don’t we. If you’re not subscribed to the PageTurners email list, you can join via the website.

iPad apps especially for Seniors??

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, technology

I wondered if there are any iPad apps that would be especially useful for people over 55, so i searched the web for  “best apps for ipad for seniors“. Sure enough, there are many many lists: “16 helpful apps for seniors”, “27 bet iPad and iPhone apps for senior citizens”. But are any of them useful.. and how many of these apps are FREE..? Well, some of them are designed to help people by improving things like: Visual accessibility: Silver Surf is a web browser with “large navigation buttons, dynamic text Read More …

Some help files for blogger

Michael ChalkLeave a commenthow to

Here’s a basic intro that Michael made – for low level students really (link: pdf stored in google drive). GCF LearnFree don’t have an intro to blogger, but they do have a great section talking about blogs in general, and an intro to Tumblr instead. Tumblr is much more visual than blogger, which can be text-heavy. Google themselves have a fairly decent help section. Grovo has a few videos showing the basics, including this overview. But they’re a commercial mob, and they’ll want you to pay for more. What good Read More …

Skills you may need (blogging)

Michael ChalkLeave a commenthow to

What are the the basics of blogging? make new blog, with title & web address (URL) hopefully at a time when google is not policing your IP address make new post  add & format text add images make links save draft / publish get people interested in reading your blog post knowledge you may need Ideas for engaging learners with online activities.  Ideas for adapting your already brilliant teaching and learning knowledge into online spaces.  On writing for the web  keep it as visual as possible  make your text very Read More …