Our Priorities

Our PLG have decided on our priorities for what we want to achieve this year:
1. Develop an understanding of the relationship between Google Apps, Google Accounts, Blogger and how they work.
2. Develop a set of guidelines for working on blogs / Google Apps
3. Establish blogs within classrooms as a way of giving students authentic audiences for their writing
4. Explore the use of Web 2.0 as tools for developing student tutorials
5. Explore the use of Google Docs as a collaborative tool for learning

Marvin as a tutorial tool

At the bottom of this blog is an example of how the Marvin programme can be used. The programme was developed in the Northern Territory and has been backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, making it free to schools. TIS has a network licence and it will be available for all teachers to try in the classroom. I think the programme has real potential as a tool for students building tutorials and instructional texts. The avatar feature is fantastic in instances where there are issues around student images being recorded. The example at the bottom of this page took about 5 minutes to put together. The programme is very user friendly, I highly recommend you give it a go!

Welcome!

Welcome to the blog of the Tawa Intermediate School Web 2.0 & Google Apps ICT Professional Learning Group. We are a group of teachers exploring ideas such as how Web 2.0 tools can be used in the classroom for promoting learning, using blogs to provide authentic audiences for writing, and using Google Docs as a collaborative learning tool. We will be using this blog as a forum for sharing ideas and reflecting on learning experiences.