EUfolio and Teacher Collaboration

Yesterday I attended a conference at Microsoft HQ in Dublin that was focusing on piloting the use of ePortfolios in schools across Ireland and parts of Europe. The EUfolio Project is also being piloted in Spain, Austria, Slovenia, Cyprus, Lithuania and Bulgaria. The central Objectives and Outcomes of the project are outlined on the EUfolio site as:

Project objectives:

• To deliver a systemic analysis of the current policy approaches and developments on the use of ePortfolios in education, including assessment and evaluation of students, learning planning, and professional development of teachers.
• To design potentially scalable ePortfolio models for teaching, learning and assessment use.
• To carry out transnational implementation pilots in different contexts and approaches.
• To draw valuable real-world lessons for deepening the use of ICT (specifically the portfolio approach) in teaching, learning and assessment going forward.
• To highlight the evidence for the efficacy of ePortfolio teaching and learning approaches, as well as to promote strategies of effective practice, sustainable implementation and consistent management.

Main project outcomes:

1. EUfolio Review of existing ePortfolio Policies and Practices (Report)
2. EUfolio Process Specification
3. Open Source ePortfolio Platform
4. Microsoft based ePortfolio Platform
5. Teacher CPD Resources
6. School Case Studies
7. Examplar ePortfolios
8. Trans-national peer-to-peer online network of pilot schools and teachers
9. EUfolio Policymaker’s Manual

Yesterday's event had teachers travel from all over all Ireland. Teachers were given a choice at the outset of the pilot of using either Microsoft Sharepoint or Mahara to use as their ePortfolio operating system. We spent the morning ironing out technical issues within the project so far. It was great to hear ideas from other schools about how they are using their ePortfolios already. In the afternoon a member of the Junior Cycle for Teachers team was on hand to go through a sample lesson that could be completed and/or stored on a pupil's ePortfolio once complete. We were then asked to design a similar lesson or a lesson that would follow on from the one we just completed.

 This was the real highlight of the day. There was so much creativity and so many ideas working at a table with fellow experienced teachers.With so much free software now available online I hope we are just at the start of an explosion of teacher created resources and activities. Can we please have some Croke Park hours to use for content creation? If an English Department was given 3 hours to create digital resources how many Animoto videos could they make? Could they create an entire series of Padlets on Romeo and Juliet? Make an eBook on skills for Leaving Cert Paper 1? The technology is now there to do so much. The talented teachers are certainly there! I just think we may need some help at both school and Department level in giving us the time to really ignite this new resource revolution.

Created with Padlet     http://padlet.com/wall/xpb2b2cej

Created with Padlet   http://padlet.com/wall/hjaxkyj8rn  

5th Year Robert Frost Work

Over the past few weeks, 5D have been studying the poetry of Robert Frost. At the end of our study, small groups analyzed and presented their ideas on the poems that caught their attention – concentrating on themes, imagery and other features of style. Attached is a copy of one of the presentations. This ‘Prezi’ by Paddy, Sarah and Nealon looks at Frost’s famous poem, ‘The Road Not Taken’.
(Ms C. Kelly)

   


My class also started the year with the poetry of Robert Frost. As we finished we decided to collect key quotes and poetic techniques and put them into a Quizlet revision set. Each pupil had to use a poetic term they learned during the section and link it to a moment from one of Frost's poems. Enjoy!

(Mr Evesson)

A Year of Blogging

Please find below a PowerPoint presentation of a talk I gave to a group of iNote members in Dublin West Education centre on February 25th 2013. I discussed my experience of Blogging over the past year and some software and apps that I have found helpful in the teaching of English.

Internet Links and Videos used

‘A weblog is a hierarchy of text, images, media objects and data, arranged chronologically, that can be viewed in an HTML browser.’ Source
‘A frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and Web links.’ Source
‘From “Web log.” A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is “blogging” and someone who keeps a blog is a “blogger.”‘ Source
‘A weblog is kind of a continual tour, with a human guide who you get to know. There are many guides to choose from, each develops an audience, and there’s also camaraderie and politics between the people who run weblogs, they point to each other, in all kinds of structures, graphs, loops, etc.’ Source

‘A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is “blogging” and someone who keeps a blog is a “blogger.” Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog. Postings on a blog are almost always arranged in chronological order with the most recent additions featured most prominently.’ Source

‘A blog is a website in which items are posted on a regular basis and displayed in reverse chronological order. The term blog is a shortened form of weblog or web log. Authoring a blog, maintaining a blog or adding an article to an existing blog is called “blogging”. Individual articles on a blog are called “blog posts,” “posts” or “entries”. A person who posts these entries is called a “blogger”. A blog comprises text, hypertext, images, and links (to other web pages and to video, audio and other files). Blogs use a conversational style of documentation. Often blogs focus on a particular “area of interest”, such as Washington, D.C.’s political goings-on. Some blogs discuss personal experiences.’ Source.

Wordpress.com

Step by step approach for Wordpress.com

 Video Hyperlink

Blogger

How to post on Blogger

 Video Hyperlink 

English Teacher Blogs (Ireland)

Courtesy of @evelynoconnor

http://leavingcertenglish.net

www.sccenglish.ie

http://dgsenglishdept.blogspot.com/

http://meighan.edublogs.org/

http://6thyearenglish.tumblr.com/archive

www.juliecullen.weebly.com/english-class-blog

http://www.cbcenglishdep.blogspot.com/

http://collegebookclub.weebly.com/index.html

http://newenglishirl.blogspot.com/

http://calasanctiusenglish.blogspot.ie/

http://bccnsenglish.com/about/sylvia-plath/

http://5j2012msgreville.wordpress.com/category/english-education/

www.stmarysenglish13.blogspot.ie

www.stmichaelsenglishdept.tumblr.com

 http://ienglish.ie/

http://pclm.weebly.com

 

YouTube EDU

Learn

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Create

Build a global classroom on YouTube EDU by creating educational videos then uploading them to your YouTube channel. Nominate a channel to be added to YouTube EDU through this form.

Teach

Use YouTube videos to enrich your classroom lessons. Spark a conversation. Make theoretical concepts come alive. Tap into the mind of the visual learner. See how educators like you are incorporating video into their lessons and join the YouTube Teachers community. Learn more.

 

YouTube for Schools

Access thousands of educational videos on YouTube EDU from within your school network by signing up for YouTube for Schools. Learn more.

50 Little-Known Ways Google Docs Can Help In Education

Issuu

Example

Class Magazines for World Book Day

Audacity and/or Buzzsprout

Example

Julius Caesar in One Minute

Popplet

Example

The Great Gatsby ‘Yearly Homework’

ShowMe

Example

Children of Men: Comparative Analysis

Book Creator App

Example

J.C. Revision Guide