ICT

I have spent my TPL time investigating how ICT might support us in personalising learning within our school. I have found that there are five main areas upon which we need to focus in order to be successful. My time has been spent completing various tasks within each of these priority areas.

=__**ICT Priorities for Personalising Learning at AVPS**__=

**1.** **The Ultranet.**
The Ultranet will be a key tool in personalising learning within our school. It will be the place in which our students set their learning goals, monitor and update them and recieve feedback from teachers and parents. It will also be where evidence of their achievments in relation to their goals is stored and built upon. Students will set and update their learning goals in a blog and maintain a portfolio in wiki form within their own Express spaces. Below are links to pages explaining the Learning Goals and Learning Portfolio sections of Ultranet.

Student learning goals: Student portfolios: https:

Given the importance of the Ultranet for our personalised future I have spent a considerable amount of my TPL time this year on Ultranet related tasks. These have included:
 * Organising staff passwords for Ultranet.
 * Planning staff PD on Ultranet.
 * Organising student passwords for Ultranet.
 * Completing and printing Parent introduction letters to send home with students.
 * Guiding students through how to use Ultranet.
 * Organising an Ultranet trial.

Staff have now all set up their new passwords and logged on to begin exploring. They have been introduced to the Express and Collaborative Learning areas of Ultranet.

As of early Term 4 2010, all Grade 5/6 students have been introduced to the Ultranet. They have created new passwords and have taken letters of introduction home for their parents to read. Most grade 5/6 students have been online to familiarise themselves with how to navigate the Ultranet and some have begun editing their profiles and adding Learning Goals. The next step for Grades 5/6 will be to begin building up their Learning Portfolios.

Students throughout the rest of the school will now be introduced to the Ultranet as soon as possible. Teachers have been given letters containing student usernames and passwords plus letters of introduction to send home for families to read. Teachers will need to be supported to make the process of introducing students to Ultranet and easy as possible. Student teachers and Grade 5/6 mentors may be utilised for this purpose.

We have also introduced the Ultranet to a select group of parents within the school. We chose the School Council members to be the first online as they are parents who are interested, available and accessible.

If your students haven't been introduced to the Ultranet already you might like to do this. You can start simple and work your way up to some of the more complicated tasks that can be completed within Ultranet. First you will need to make sure students have registered new passwords with IDAM. Ask your ICT coordinator to assist you with this. Once you have your students online you could ask students to complete their Profile. This can just be some writing about themselves, their interests, strengths, preferred learning styles etc. Next you might like to support students to add their learning goals to the Learning Goals section of their express space. You could then assist students to begin building their portfolio in the Learning Portfolio section of their Express spaces. You could also encourage students to start keeping a blog within Ultranet where they might write about their lives or other more specific topics.
 * What can I do in my classroom?**

**2. ICT resources.**
We now have Interactive Whiteboards or LCD screens in all units across the school. We have two trolleys of laptops available for students to use. We have a range of other ICT resources available within the school also including video cameras, Flip Video recorders, voice recorders and headphones. Keeping this equipment up to date and in good order is important. Much of my TPL time has been spent on maintaining our ICT resources. I have ordered products, logged repair requests and completed other tasks relating to our equipment.

Do your students have adequate access to computers? If not you could suggest purchasing a trolley of laptops which could be shared within the school. If this is economically difficult you could suggest a family laptop leasing program where families pay a fee to lease a laptop. Find out exactly what ICT resources are available within your school. Have a play with them, learn how to use them. Give your students the opportunity to explore and play with the ICT resources you have at the school. The majority of students these days are very technologically savvy and will pick up new htings very quickly.
 * What can I do in my classroom?**

**3. Technical Support.**
We currently receive one afternoon of technical support per week. We have had the same level of technical support for a number of years despite a huge increase in the amount of ICT within the school. When we visited Bentleigh West Primary School earlier in the year we noticed that they had a number of ICT support staff working at the school. They employed undergraduate students from a nearby educational institution to assist them with ICT issues. I would like to look at the possibility of arranging a similar arrangement at our school. With this in mind I sent an email to Elleni Bereded, the Community Engagement Coordinator at Victoria University, to see whether they would be interested in a partnership. Shortly after I heard back from Jane Black at VUT. She told me there woulod be the possibility to form some sort of partenership between AVPS and VUT. Their Bachelor of Business students who specialise in IT need to do 150 hours of relevant work experience and school technical support would qualify. My Principal has since contacted VUT and a loose agreement has been reached to trial placing students at AVPS in 2011.


 * What can I do in my classroom?**

If your school is struggling to keep up with the increased use of ICT in terms of maintenance or assistance with media and software why not contact your local tertiary institution to see whether they have any students available who might be able to visit your school and assist? I found the people I contacted at VUT to be very open to the idea. Hopefully it can be the type of arrangement which is beneficial to both your school and the tertiary students involved.

**4.Cybersafety.**
This is going to be a key area of the curriculum as we move towards more of a reliance on ICT within the school. Students need to be well educated to ensure they are safe online and to eliminate issues such as cyberbullying. The government website [|Cybersmart] is a useful starting point for communicating the issues to our students. The website has a range of resources organised in to three sections: Young kids, Kids and Teens. Ongoing education in this area is essential. 2/9/10: Unit 3 5/6 students completed an online cybersafety activity called Cybersmart Hero. Students had to follow a story and respond to questions and polls relating to cybersafety/bullying. Helped raise awareness about the issues involved. Forwarded the activity and instructions to all staff.

There are a number of useful resources available to teachers to support them in discussing cybersafety. The activity discussed above is a valuable and easy to run activity. Subscribe to the [|Cyberzine], an online newsletter about cybersafety delivered regularly to your email address. Teachers of Early Years classes should have a look the [|Young Kids] section of the Cybersmart website. Middle Years teachers should start with the [|Kids] section. Teachers of high-school aged students might like to check out the resources available through the [|Teens] section.
 * What can I do in my classroom?**

**5. Updated ICT policies**
It is vitally important that school policies keep pace with advances in technology. Our policies have been updated with 21st century education in mind. Click on the links below to view our ICT policies.


 * Ascot Vale Primary School ICT Student Acceptable Use Policy.[[file:AVPS ICT NEW Student Acceptable Use Policy 2010.doc]]
 * Ascot Vale Primary School Cyber Bullying Policy. [[file:CYBER BULLYING POLICY AVPS MARCH 2010.doc]]
 * Ascot Vale Primary School eLearning Plan.[[file:AVPS eLearning Plan 2 DRAFT.doc]]

**What can I do in my classroom?**
If you haven't already, read your school's ICT policies. Ask your ICT coordinator or administration where they are if you are unsure. Read the examples from our school if you need some ideas. Check to see if your classroom practise is in line with your school's ICT policies. =**How can ICT support the implementation of e5?**= > >
 * I am looking at how ICT might assist us in personalising learning within our school. Our project is focussing on two e5 domains //'engage'// and //'evaluate'//. ICT has a crucial role to play in both of these areas.
 * Within the 'engage' domain teachers are to //'stimulate interest and curiosity, promote questioning and connect learning to real world experiences'//. ICT provides a wealth of opportunities for this. Students are becoming more and more computer literate and the interactive nature of ICT can 'hook' students very effectively. With effective ICT resources students can investigate and explore according to their interests. The internet provides opportunities to make connections with people from places across the world. It enables the students and teachers to reach beyond their classroom more easily than ever before.
 * Teachers are also encouraged to determine //"challenging learning goals and making assessment and performance requirements clear. The teacher assists students to consider and identify processes that will support the achievement of the learning goals."// The Ultranet in particular will be a very useful tool for goal setting. When students access their 'Express Space' within the Ultranet they can access their 'Profile', 'Learning Portfolio' and 'Learning Goals' pages. This provides the perfect space for students to set goals, monitor and update them as well as a place to show evidence of their progress. Teachers can also set up tasks for students within Ultranet which outline the learning goals for a given learning sequence or activity. The Ultranet allows teachers to link VELS standards to Learning Items so that students can clarify expected levels of achievement.
 * Similarly, ICT provides an excellent mode for achieving the suggestions within the //'evaluate'// domain. Teachers //"integrate evidence from each phase, formally recording students against learning goals."// Teachers can easily access their students' learning goals to monitor and discuss them within the Ultranet. //"They support students to reflect on their learning processes and the impact of effort on achievement."// Again the Ultranet can be used as a place for students to reflect upon their progress and show evidence of that progress in their Learning Portfolio. Finally, the Ultranet can provide a forum for teachers to guide //"students to identify future learning goals".//
 * //Student Self Assessment// is another component of e5 which can be supported by the Ultranet. Students are given the tools with which to reflect upon their progress with their Learning Goals within their eXpress Space. This might take the form of a blog. They can also collect evidence of their progress and add it to their Learning Portfolio.