Summer holidays are great, but sometimes all that time off can be a little boring. To alleviate the boredom, students and teachers might want to consider a tech-based summer project. Such a project can be a fun, independent way to learn some new skills, as well as to give something back to the community. Some ideas are presented below. I’ve shared these ideas with my students, and around half a dozen have shown interested in trying one out. Your ability to complete the task may depend on how easy it is to buy second hand equipment where you live (very easy in Hong Kong), or whether you have the money/interest to buy new components.

• Buy and prep a secondhand laptop to donate on holiday (lots of people around the world don’t have access to computers)
• Build a Hackintosh computer out of cheap, second hand components.
• Root a old Android phone.
• Learn to program for the web.
• Work at a charity fixing old computers.
• Build a website (online shop? Minecraft cheat site?)
• Give computer lessons to those less skilled/fortunate than yourselves.
• Contribute to an open source project.
• Make a movie

On the non-tech side, those of you who want to help others whilst on overseas holiday might want to look at this site: http://www.stuffyourrucksack.com.

Let me know if you are a students or teacher interested in doing such a project, and I’ll try and help you get started.

Credits: thumbnail image by Nick-K (Nikos Koutoulas) on Flickr

I am an ICT teacher. I run ICT at my school. I am seconded to another school to help them with their ICT development. I have a computer science degree. I used to work in ICT. I blog, I tweet, I tag, iPad (sometimes). I develop a free school management platform (Gibbon). I encourage my students to use ICT to make them better students. I help my colleagues to use ICT to make them better teachers. I simply enjoy the experience of using a computer.

But for all of that, I do not count myself as a nerd. I lead a full life as a husband, father, son and teacher. I think a lot, I write a little too. I have great friends. I am a man of varied interests. I do yoga, I hike, I play golf, I love music, I read (paper) books, I play ultimate frisbee. I love rollerblading really long distances. I’m a landlubber who aspires to surf. I jump off waterfalls and occasionally cliffs. I love hot weather and warm ale. I would like to believe I am an inspiring, caring and interesting teacher.

Yet, for all the range in my life, I suspect that most of my colleagues and students see me as a “computer guy”. I am sure some of them suspect that I have a “knack” for using computers, perhaps even a little magic in my finger tips. But the truth is I have simply spent time accumulating a range of skills, understandings and interests.

How then can I convince others that they too can be empowered by technology? That the barriers to becoming a tech savy, innovative teacher really aren’t that high? That they can create, share, lead and help others. What are the key skills and attitudes I need to pass on in order to inspire others to be and do better with technology?

Sadly, I do not yet have the answers to these questions, but at least I have asked them. Hopefully, with time, the answers will come.

Thanks to: all the amazing teachers I am encountering on Twitter, who are making me think, do and change. Special thanks to @intrepidteacher for this video, which really got me thinking:

This unit starts with assumption that students are better at ICT than teachers, and that the teachers at your school need help. Students work individually but collaboratively to learn about various aspects of the Mac (both hardware and software). This information is then used to populate a pre-structured wiki, essentially creating an online manual for others to use. At the end of the unit, students need to work with a partner to line up a two-on-one session where they help a teacher to improve their ICT skills by using the wiki. I recently ran this unit simultaneously with 60 11-12 year old Y7 students, and they adapted to the collaborative nature of the wiki fantastically. At the end of the unit, when they had all taught their teachers, I received excellent feedback on their performance from my colleagues. It also got them really thinking and talking about the computers they use every day, and what they can do with them.

The material below should be all that you need to deliver this unit at your school:

• Unit Outline
• Class Completion Record
• Lesson 01 Presentation
• Teaching Session Feedback
• Student Mark Sheet

This is a great poem that sums up the important relationships that exist between parent and teacher, home and school. I saw it on a classroom wall in Sydney today, and it really made me stop and think about the way I teach and how I might be able to involve parents in their children’s education. At current, as a casual teacher, there is not much I can do in this regard, however once I start permanent teaching it will be at the top of my agenda.  The thumbnail image chosen for this piece (Piles of Salt by Luca Galuzzi) ties nicely into a theme I keep coming back to: that we are all seperate but neither isolated nor independent (both from our environment and in relation to each other).

I dreamed I stood in a studio
And watched two sculptors there,
The clay they used was a young child’s mind
And they fashioned it with care.One was a teacher; the tools being used
Were books and music and art,
One a parent with a guiding hand
And a gentle, loving heart.

Day after day the teacher toiled
With touch that was deft and sure,
While the parent laboured just as hard
And polished and smoothed it o’er.

When at last their task was done
They were proud of what they had wrought,
For the things they had moulded into the child
Could neither be sold nor bought.

And both agreed they would have failed
If they had worked alone;
For behind the parent stood the school
And behind the teacher, the home.

David Bowen

Recently I have been fielding questions from pre-service teachers regarding setting up their own website to support teaching and learning. I usually point people to a wiki (www.wikispaces.com ) or blog (www.onsugar.com ) service as a starting point, and show them how to integrate content from other sites and services. The video below aims to answer such questions in a thorough, easy-to-follow manner, so that teachers can help themselves.

Prior to watching the video it is worth noting that it deals with the creation of a wiki , but that the same principles can be applied to a blog. Many people are unclear on the distinctions between these two types of website: in general, a wiki is a relatively unstructured site that can be easily contributed to by a number of users, whereas a blog is a chronoligcal journal maintained by a single users. If you wish to develop a site that you alone run and others read, then a blog may be a better choice. However, if you want to invite other teachers or students to collaborate, a wiki may be a better option. Some sites, such as this one, blend elements of the two, and there are other structures which, for simplicity’s sake, we will not consider here. Your choice now determines what you can and cannot do with your site in the future, so it is worth considering.

As part of a previous position I held at the Sha Tin College (part of the English School’s Foundation in Hong Kong) I developed and delivered a year-long CPD course to help teachers develop their ICT skills. The aim was to produce a challenging course that forced teachers to confront ICT in numerous ways, thus building confidence and competence. As it was all created under a Creative Commons license, it is available for anyone to use!

Introduction

A comprehensive ICT training course for teachers looking for a solid foundation and enhanced confidence. A maximum of 23 contact hours spread over an academic year, with the option of lunch time or after school learning.

The program leads to a Level 1 Certification, via assessment, and covers hardware and software basics, classroom technology, office software, Internet use and basic graphics.

Designed and run specifically for Sha Tin College. More information will be emailed to SC Teaching Staff.

Details

For more details view the Course Outline.

Materials

For self-lead learning, the materials are provided below. You might want to start and end by clicking on the mind map summary below:

Course Content

This page refers to a CPD workshop I ran at the “Beginner’s Teachers Forum” at the University of Western Sydney School of Education.

Information for participants: through this workshop I hope to balance hands-on exercises, suggestions, theory and values, with the aim of helping you to better incorporate ICT into your classroom practice. Listed below you will find all of the resources that we will use in this session.

Feel free to leave feedback or questions in the comments section below,

Activities

• Go to Activity 1
• Download Activity 2

Today’s Presentation

Please feel free to view, edit, share and remix this work, according to the Creative Commons licence details specified on the last page.I will put up PowerPoint 2003 and OpenOffice versions soon.

• MS PowerPower 2007 vesion
• MS PowerPower 2003 vesion

I have been considering ways to motivate students, when it comes time to get into this classroom. I made the following video with the thought that it might be used as a primer in a discussion of what the students’ role is in the classroom. In short, it is a teacher’s request to students to be thirsty for knowledge, to ask questions, to search for answers.

http://www.teachers.tv/

Featuring a large collection of videos, this is a great site for teachers looking for visual stimulation.