1:1 in Practice at Sinarmas World Academy

My iBook Adventures

2012-01-26T07:39:00.005+07:00

Today I went back to school very excited to show my iBook on my iPad. This book is in Indonesian my second language. My first job was to get my language proof-read by my Indonesian colleagues. I wanted to make sure that my Indonesian was not too formal and therefore suitable for children as my book is a children’s story.

Then I tried using iTunes Producer to create the .itmsp iBook package. I am still a little confused as Indonesian is not on the list of languages. Does that mean that there are no books in the iBookstore in Indonesian?

There are only 14 languages in the drop-down list. When I tried to type over the option to add Indonesian. It continued to fail when I uploaded the package to iTunes Connect. Consequently I have had to put my book language as English even though I have written it in Indonesian.

I hope that I can create a series of books for children written in Indonesian. I need Apple to add Indonesian language to their list of languages.

A word of advice ...

I neglected to read the fine print and had to resize both my cover art image and my screenshot images for my book.

For the Cover art:

Cover art should be at least 600 pixels along the larger axis and must be a TIFF, JPEG, or PNG file in RGB Color mode. For an average trade paperback, this could be 400 x 600 minimum size.

For the screenshots:

Screenshots should be a clear picture and be a 1024 x 768, 1024 x 748, 768 x 1024, or 768 x 1004 pixel
JPEG or PNG file with the appropriate file extensions (.jpg, .jpeg, and .png) in RGB Color mode.

Once I had done this I had only one other error - language. I tried to type in Indonesian but it is not one of the language options from the drop down list. In the end I put English.

Needless to say the upload was successful. Now I am wondering what happens next. I have gone into the settings and made it available to the world.

iBooks Author - First Impressions

2012-01-22T11:32:00.005+07:00

I downloaded iBooks Author as soon as it was released. I have been writing books in the classroom for a number of years but I have never properly published them. My books are always about the current learning. Mostly they tell the story of the current inquiry.

You can read here about the Publishing Group that I am working on at my school.

Originally I wrote books with Microsoft Publisher. This worked well enough as these books were just for printing off on a colour photocopier. I was able to master the double sided printing (short edge binding as I prefer landscape not portrait). I was able to then take the printed pages and cover to a local binder and get them made up into hard cover books.

Then I moved to an Apple school so I used Pages, Keynote and Comic Life to make my books. I am an Elementary teacher so I prefer Keynote as I use large photos and very little text. The Keynote file can be easily exported as a PDF and then the book can be printed via Preview.

I was easily able to sync these PDF books to my iPad. I have also worked with creating ePubs in Pages. I must admit I got a little frustrated with this as I had little control over the layout. I believe that layout is the most important part in an Elementary school book. I tend to keep a certain layout in my books and with ePub the pictures need to be Inline which limits the overall look.

Now for iBooks Author ...
I am impressed - hands down! It's like Apple knew what I needed. iBooks Author is a combination of Keynote and Pages. You can also easily copy/paste from Comic Life as well.

Most importantly you get TOTAL control over the layout.

I love using the widgets. I have tried the Interactive picture widget and the 3D image widget with a lot of success! Here is a screen capture from my first book. This one is in Indonesian. My children are helping me to write it. I hope to finish soon and even try to send it to the iBookstore. Who knows - maybe I'll get to actually publish this one?

Going to ADE Global Institute in Cork, Ireland.

2012-01-22T11:22:00.006+07:00

I must admit that I am thrilled to be chosen to attend the Apple Distinguished Educators Global Institute in Cork Ireland. I submitted my application not daring to dream that I would be selected.

I remember when I got the email last week - I was so nervous to click it open ....

It is quite a thrill to one of the 200 ADEs chosen from across the world that will join this institute. I can't wait to go and meet up with innovative teachers who love to use technology like I do. I am one of only 2 people to go from Indonesia.

I hope to learn more about:

Publishing books for iPad - a current project that I am chasing at my school
Running an Apple Training Centre - my school will launch it's training centre next month
Challenge-Based Learning - I do a lot of this and would love to hear about how others are running it in their classes

Completing the Bamboo House Designs

2011-12-16T21:44:00.002+07:00

Today the students completed their community house designs. They also completed individual assessments on the geometry found in the building models.

I asked the students to label their model houses with all the geometry terms that they could find. Here are the students discussing in their groups about what geometry can be found in their houses.

Here the groups are consulting their Maths reference books to check the names of the geometry terms found in their model house.

We have a total of seven house designs in the class. As a summative assessment, the students were interviewed by Ms Agnes to find out their individual understanding of the geometry terms in their house models.

To wrap up this inquiry, Ms Jane used the iPad app A+ Measuring Finger. We booked out seven of the school iPads. It was the first time that 5MJ had used them. Ms Jane asked the students to write a reflection about using the iPad app and how that has made a connection to our central idea for this geometry inquiry, “Geometric tools and methods can be used to solve problems relating to shape and space”.

The app was very useful as many groups found out that some of the angles in their house were not what they thought that they were.

After the students had finished their reflections, they posted them to their blogs and included the screen shots of their house models from the iPads. Ms Jane was very impressed with the reflection that Keaton wrote. She has sent his reflection to a new educational website about apps called Appitic.com Ms Jane was very excited to get a direct reply from that website saying that they thought that Keaton’s reflection was wonderful and they have published it on their site. Click here to read Keaton’s Reflection Online Congratulations Keaton!

"Grade 5 Student Reflection about Using the iPad A+ Measuring Finger App (by Keaton)

Today 5MJ finished building our model houses and we printed some labels that said things like acute angle, triangle, rectangle and all those sort of geometric names. Ms Jane found an app on the IPad called A+ Measuring Finger. We used it to measure our houses that we made. We went to the protractor section of the app and used it to take a picture of the house and then we drew the angles over that picture to measure them. It told us how many degrees it is.

There was a problem because we made this house with our hands so some of the angles that we thought were right angles were about 85 or 95 degrees. This means that those are not a true right angle. After that we found out that we have to take the picture straight otherwise when you try to draw the angle it will not be as accurate. We had to find four to five different kinds of angles such as acute, right, obtuse, straight and reflex. This app really helped us because now we know what angles are in our house and if they should be there or not.

We are now wondering when builders are building houses how do they measure the angle on the house that they are building. Do they have to carry a huge protractor to measure the house? When we were building the houses we had trouble keeping them straight and stable. I think that builders must have an easier way because they use metal in the middle and it is going straight up. Building with chopsticks it is hard to make it stay straight. Sometimes the way you put the elastic bands on is wrong and it pushes the chopstick to go at an angle that you don’t want it to be.

If we were using the app on the IPad during the building of our models, we would be able to make it straighter. We could measure it and then adjust it as we are doing the building. If our building bent in the wrong places it would fall down or the roof would fall through. The only reason we are trying to build a house is because it is part of our Maths inquiry. Our central idea is “Geometric tools and methods can be used to solve problems relating to shape and space”. Actually the main reason we are building a house is because we are hoping to build a 5×4 meter community house for the people at the Serpong landfill. Using geometric tools to build a house can help when you want to make the columns or the walls straight and so that you know what the angle of the roof is. Then you can work out how long the roof is and how many roof tiles or iron roofing you will need."

Here is the video that Ms Jane took of her lesson. Please watch it to learn about how we used the iPad app to measure the angles.

Going Further With Bamboo

2011-12-15T21:33:00.000+07:00

Did you know that bamboo can grow between 3 and 10 centimeters a day! (Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo)

Today in class 5MJ learned about how the Green School in Bali was built using traditional methods. Here is a club house made by the Grade 7 and 8 students from the Green School. We looked at how they use many bamboo lengths to add strength to the structure.

We finished off our Community house designs. Here are some photos of the students building them.

Shereen compared her house with Marcello’s house. She tried using the Green School technique and added more bamboo for her columns. Shereen's house is very stable, but Marcelo used struts (to make a strong triangle shape between the roof joins to the columns) to add stability. This is more cost effective.

Traditional Architects

2011-12-13T21:26:00.001+07:00

Did you know that in Bali, traditionally buildings were designed by making a miniature version? When I first visited the Green School in Bali, I met with John Hardy the owner. He told me that the huge buildings in the middle of the campus were made the traditional way. These buildings are made entirely out of bamboo. The buildings were designed by making a miniature version first. This is similar to how 5MJ is making a model of the Community Building for the Serpong Landfill.

You can see the real one being built in the background. At the Green School, the Grade 7 and 8 students are making their own clubhouse. You can see the photos on a Slideshare that I embedded just before this post. Notice the construction of the roof. The bamboo has to be close together to make sure that the grass on the roof can be tied down and made waterproof!!

Designing a Community Building for the Serpong Landfill

2011-12-12T21:17:00.000+07:00

5MJ have begun putting into action their intent to build a community building for the Serpong Landfill. They are starting to create a design for a community building. First the students talked about the building and what it could be used for. The class decided that they could probably raise about 3 million rupiah by holding some market days.

Next the class worked with Ms Agnes to measure the two traditional buildings in the SWA playground.

In class the students sat in the shared area to try to decide how big the building needs to be. We decided that 4 meters by 5 meters could fit about 20 people comfortably and possibly come under our budget of 3 million rupiah. But we don’t know for sure …

Now that we have the dimensions, the students created a detailed drawing for homework. In the meantime we have started working on the design in Sketch Up. We have been really using our geometry skills. In Sketch Up we learned about components, using the protractor, measure the sides accurately, rotation, alignment, axis and units.

After thinking about it. Ms Jane decided that Google Sketch Up wasn’t working because the students didn’t understand the concept of form. The students needed to work in 3D. Sketch Up is working in virtual and the students really needed to understand 3D by touching and seeing it in front of them. We needed to try to build it …

Today in class we started making structures using bamboo chopsticks. Ms Jane bought a lot of chopsticks so that we could learn about the form. Together with a partner, we began making the structure.

It was fun and very challenging! All the students have written a blog post about what they did and what they learned.

Installing a Liter of Light at the Serpong Landfill

2011-12-10T21:13:00.000+07:00

On the second visit to the Landfill, the Liter of Light group installed 2 Liter of Lights in two houses. The students in this group also surveyed the houses at the Landfill to find out how many more houses wanted the lights installed.

Here is the video showing what happened ...

The Project Presentations

2011-12-09T20:57:00.000+07:00

On Friday the 2nd of December, the class presented their three projects to parents and teachers.

The awareness campaigns had many benefits:

1. Share the students’ knowledge and understanding

2. Help synthesize ideas for their project, and give it direction

3. Announce their intentions to a wider audience

4. Affirm a commitment to help the landfill community

The class had spent the major part of three days getting their awareness campaign together including slogans, a logo design and a central question. Each team spoke to the audience for about 6 minutes, using keynotes, slideshows and iMovies to aid their presentations. Each member of the team prepared their own speech.

After the talks, each team had project boards to talk about and they spent time explaining everything to their visitors. These project boards showed photos, copies of emails, instructions, reflections, ideas for improvements in the Landfill etc. It was impressive to see how well the students could demonstrate what they had gained from their inquiries – a testament to real-life learning!

Each group in turn outlined their plans for possible solutions. In some cases action had already taken place and this gave an opportunity to tell about the outcome of that action.

Second Visit to the Serpong Landfill

2011-12-05T15:48:00.001+07:00

This afternoon we went back to the local landfill area. The students were now firmly divided into three “camps” – the water group, the shelter group and the liter of light group. Each group had been working hard in class time to prepare further questions and to find out as much helpful background information as they could, much of it related to mathematics. For example, the shelter group actually measured out the dimensions of an average shelter in the piazza, and they planned to build a scale model although they haven’t decided which materials they will use. The water group measured out a distance and carried water backwards and forwards to see how far they could carry their water. The liter of light team looked at costings for tiles and special cement. Maths, maths, maths!

Here’s the field trip schedule:

meet the RT (head man)
divide into groups to ask questions, each with a teacher supervisor
measure, count, calculate
share food and drinks, and give out the laminated Comic Life posters

The liter of light group and the water group prepare their questions. Giuseppe has the trundle wheel to measure the distance that the water is carried.

Mr Rick tried to carry the 30 liters of water up the slippery slope. It was hard work!

Here you can see Mr Rick talking to the RT about the water problems that face this community.

The shelter group ask a lot of questions about what the buildings are made of.

Below you can see one of the water bottles in the roof. We needed a sunnier day to see how well the light will work under the best conditions. But so far, so good! Take a look at the photo - it was still very bright considering how cloudy it was!

Below is the bottle embedded in the roof of the house.

Liter of Light Prototype

2011-11-30T15:33:00.000+07:00

The Liter of Light group have been working on a Prototype. Here is the video telling the story so far …

The Liter of Light has a fan page on Facebook. Ms Jane was able to share our video with the group by sending them a message. Grade 5 are not encouraged to use Facebook as you must be over 13 to use it. Ms Jane made a screen capture of the message written by Illac Diaz on the Liter of Light FB page about our Grade 5 Liter of Light project.

Here is the first post on the Liter of Light Fan Page

Illac Diaz has been encouraging our class to keep going with this project. Here is the post that he made about our first light installation at the Serpong Landfill Community. 5MJ students are being called 'Ambassadors of Light'.

Measuring an Accurate Circle

2011-11-21T15:24:00.001+07:00

When the Solar Bulb group of students wanted to mount a coke bottle into a rigid piece of cardboard, they came up against a problem that they tried hard to solve by themselves. How can you make the hole the right size if you have a bottle and you cannot measure the it’s diameter. The idea they came up with to solve the problem was after much discussion…but was it accurate!

It looks simple to embed a coke bottle into a sheet of plastic ... but how do you measure the circle accurately?

Does the diameter equal half of the circumference?

How can you work it out? Is there a Mathematical formula that can help you?

Below are the calculations that Grade 5 came up with.

What we wanted to find out was - Does a = 2b? a is the circumference and b is the diameter.

Liter of Light

2011-11-18T15:18:00.001+07:00

5MJ looked at this TEDx talk by Illac Diaz from the Philippines. He is the founder of the Light of Light group which is responsible for installing 200.000 lights in slum areas in the Philippines. 5MJ are very interested in learning about this as a possible solution for the people at the Serpong Landfill.

Singing at the Landfill Community

2011-11-17T14:57:00.001+07:00

Ms Marion made a video about our first visit to the Landfill in Serpong. The students were given the task to get to know the children there by asking simple questions such as "What class are you in?", or "What time do you make up?".

The students from SWA were surprised to find out that many children don't go to school and some children have to wake up at 2am in the morning to collect water as they don't have running water in their house. It made us realize that many children have to live without basic rights such as access to clean water and the right to have an education.

After returning to SWA the students looked at some of the issues facing these children. They decided which issues they were interested in and began to inquiry into possible solutions for these problems.

The 3 issues that the class decided on were:

Lighting: the houses were very dark in the middle of the day. What could be a low-cost solution?
Water: the houses had no running water. The well was far from the houses and was very poluted. What solutions are there to help this situation?
Housing: the houses were very small and looked unsafe. What can be done to help this?

Observations at the Landfill Site

2011-11-16T14:11:00.000+07:00

On Wednesday 5MJ went to visit the Landfill site otherwise known as TPA Serpong. They made many observations and are currently doing some real life problem solving activities to see what solutions are needed to improve the quality of life for the residents there.

Here are some photos and the initial observations by 5MJ. The class has broken into three groups based on the student observations.

Those groups are:

Water – there is no running water in these houses. The children have to carry water to use in the kitchen. How could this problem be addressed? What is needed to have running water in each kitchen? Is it possible?

Shelter – these houses look very unstable. How could they be improved so that they are safer to live in? Why do these houses look temporary. Do they own or rent this land?

Light – the Liter of Light is a project in the Phillipines. It is a project where you place a used liter Coca cola bottle in the ceiling of a house to act as a skylight during the day. (Click here to see the website Liter of Light) We went inside some of these houses and it was very dark despite it being very sunny outside. How could we install some Liter of Lights in these houses? Ms Jane has been in contact with the head of this project in the Phillipines and he is keen to help us. How could the students of 5MJ start a Liter of Light project in Indonesia. What needs to be organized? How can we get sponsorship?

Jangan Menyerah

2011-11-15T14:04:00.000+07:00

5MJ decided to go further with learning about how resources are unevenly distributed in the world. The teachers arranged a visit to the local landfill community. This community is only 15 minutes drive from school. There are 40 families who live on the landfill amongst the rubbish. The class has been learning to sing a pop song in Indonesian which is all about trying your best no matter what the circumstances. It is a lovely song which fits well with the class as we are currently striving to complete some personal goals. We hope that it will inspire the children that live at the Landfill community.

Here are the words and a video of the teachers singing the song.

F G Am
Tak ada manusia
F G Am
Yang terlahir sempurna
F G Am
Jangan kau sesali
F G C
Segala yang telah terjadi

F G Am
Kita pasti pernah
F G Am
Dapatkan cobaan yang berat
F G Am
Seakan hidup ini
F G C
Tak ada artinya lagi

F G Am
Syukuri apa yang ada
F G C
Hidup adalah anugerah
F G Am
Tetap jalani hidup ini
F G C
Melakukan yang terbaik

[intro] F G Am
F G C

Jangan menyerah…jangan menyerah jangan menyerah ….aaaaaa
jangan menyerah jangan menyerah jangan menyerah aaaaaa

[intro] F G Am
F G C

F G Am
Syukuri apa yang ada
F G C
Hidup adalah anugerah
F G Am
Tetap jalani hidup ini
F G C
Melakukan yang terbaik
F G Am
Tuhan pasti kan menunjukkan
F G C
Kebesaran dan kuasanya
F G Am
Bagi hambanya yang sabar
F G C
Dan tak kenal Putus asa
jangan menyerah….menyerah …..
Jangan menyerah…jangan menyerah jangan menyerah ….aaaaaa

Our Class eBook

2011-11-14T13:47:00.000+07:00

Today we put the finishing touches on our eBook.

Here is a photo of our class editors Shereen and Keaton working on compiling all of the student work into the book. Every student in the class wrote a chapter for this book. Shereen and Keaton asked the class to email their finished work in Pages so that they could put it all together. These two students then collated all the work and made it into the finished book. Initially we wanted to make an ePub format but we had trouble controlling the layout as we had a lot of pictures to include in the book. This book is all about our class inquiry into rice. Most of the content for this book has come from primary resources. We used only a few references from the Internet.

We agreed to make it into a PDF so that the students could have greater control over the layout. Take a look at the finished work here via Issu.

Open publication - Free publishing - More grade 5

How Did People Measure Rice Fields in the Past?

2011-11-10T13:39:00.000+07:00

Today we discussed how rice fields used to be measured. Ms Jane’s husband told her that in the Batak villages in North Sumatra the rice fields would be measured in depa.

One depa is the distance between your wrist and your elbow.

You measure by using string (raffia) and winding the string around your arm.
Cupak is used to measure the volume of rice. One cupak is one half coconut full of rice.

Did you know that your foot is approximately the length between your wrist and your elbow?

SWA Soccer Field and a Rice Farm – Which is bigger?

2011-11-08T13:04:00.000+07:00

Today we sorted out our Math problem for measuring the SWA soccer field.

We had a small competition to see which group got the closest measurement to the actual size.

The size of the SWA soccer field is 4,000 m²

Group 3 (Shereen, Gabi, Zubin and Rifqi) had the closest answer which was 3,969 m²

What we realized was that the average size of a Javanese rice farm in Indonesia is smaller than the school soccer field. The average rice farm is 3,333 m². Most of the Grade 5 students thought that the rice farm would be much bigger. It was a shock for us to realize this. We now know that the rice farms that we can see are often several rice farms joined together so therefore have more than one owner. It is now not surprising to us that the farmer will only make 9 million rupiah per year based on getting two harvests in a calendar year. This is not enough to live on as this gives the farmer less than US$100 per month to feed their family.

Take a look at our video to see how we measured the school soccer field. It was not work but a lot of fun!!

Visualizing the Size of a Rice Farm in Indonesia

2011-11-07T12:49:00.001+07:00

This is the SWA soccer field. Is it bigger than the average Javanese rice farm?

Here are some students ready to measure the school soccer field.

Today 5MJ had the task to measure the area of the soccer field at SWA. The students have been learning about area. This is a part of our inquiry into the size of a rice farm in Indonesia. We have learned that the size of an average Javanese rice farm is 3,333 square meters. The purpose of measuring the soccer field is so that the students can compare the size. They cannot image how big 3,333 square meters is, so once we know the size of our soccer field we can see if the rice farm is bigger or smaller.

We got our information about the size of rice farms in Java from detik.com.

This morning each student made a drawing of the soccer field and put a drawing of how big they thought an Indonesian rice farm would be next to it.

Shereen makes her prediction. She thinks that the average Javanese rice farm is much bigger than the school soccer field. Look at her prediction drawing on the mini white board. She then captured this with her Photobooth and uploaded it to her blog. Read Shereen's post.

An Inquiry into Rice Plants in the Classroom

2011-11-04T12:46:00.000+07:00

Here is the video taken during the rice plant inquiry in the classroom.

A Deeper Inquiry Into Rice

2011-11-03T11:36:00.003+07:00

As promised, today Ms Jane brought in some rice plants for 5MJ to look at. She brought red rice, white rice and rice seeds for planting. The students were very interested to look at the plants and to continue their inquiry into how rice is grown and distributed.

Each student wrote a blog post about the rice. Some students were so excited they decided to make a poster about the rice. Other students made a video to show the grain of rice inside the husk.

We chatted about many things throughout this lesson.

Ms Jane brought in 3 kinds of rice

5MJ takes a closer look at the rice plants

They were excited to try to open up the rice to find the seed.

Rifqi takes a look and finds to rice grain inside.

Here is the rice grain for the red rice.

We watched a news clip that Ms Agnes found from Indosiar TV about rotten rice. Some people have no choice but to eat Nasi Aking which is rice from a rubbish bin that has been thrown away. This rice is dried out and cooked again. It is eaten with shredded coconut to make it taste better.

Here is the Indosiar video clip about Nasi Aking.

Student blogging in action ...

Many students made posters and movies which they captured with their Photo Booth on their Macbooks. This was a spontaneous reaction as they were intent on capturing their personal learning.

How Much Land Does a Rice Farmer Have in Indonesia?

2011-10-31T11:26:00.000+07:00

Today we researched about how much land does a rice farmer have in Indonesia. We found the answer on Detik.com

"Di Pulau Jawa, rata-rata petani hanya memiliki 0,3 hektar sawah. Seandainya satu hektar sawah bisa menghasilkan lima ton gabah kering giling, berarti mereka hanya mendapat 1,5 ton gabah sekali panen. Jika dalam setahun terjadi dua kali panen, mereka hanya memperoleh tiga ton setahun. Itu setara dengan Rp 9 juta per tahun, atau kurang dari Rp 1 juta per bulan."

We copy pasted the answer into Google Translate. Here is the translation:

"In Java, the average farmer only has 0.3 hectares of rice fields. If one hectare of rice can produce five tons of dry unhulled, meaning they only get 1.5 tons of grain at harvest. If it occurs twice in a year of harvest, they only get three tons a year. That’s equivalent to Rp 9 million per year, or less than Rp 1 million per month."

The students converted the answer into square meters by making a long division using a small whiteboard.

Using iPads in Inquiry-Based Lessons

2011-10-29T07:28:00.005+07:00

Today I will present a workshop at the annual Teachers Conference for the National Plus Association of Schools in Jakarta, Indonesia. I will be videoing this workshop and I am hoping to podcast it later on. I will be using the iPads from SWA so that each participant will be getting a hands-on experience. I will post the podcast here later after I have done the workshop.

View more presentations from Jane Ross.

Life on a Limited Budget Part 2

2011-10-28T11:08:00.000+07:00

5MJ cooked fried rice. The idea came from Jessica who thought that it would be a good idea to turn all the rice that we cooked in the previous lesson into fried rice. Here is the video of that lesson. The class had a lot of problem solving to do. This was not a cooking lesson, but an inquiry into how to create a healthy meal for under Rp 14.000 or $1.60 for four people. Each student brought in an ingredient and all of these had to be priced and added together.

Student Questions About Rice

2011-10-27T10:50:00.000+07:00

Last Thursday 5MJ brainstormed some questions about rice farming in Indonesia. We have learned that Indonesia is the 3rd largest consumer of rice in the world and it is the largest importer of rice.

5MJ students wondered about rice farming ..

Each student wrote a blog post about their rice questions. Today in class we will watch a video that Ms Jane made about rice farming near Bogor. The students will also be working on finishing their information report on cooking a meal for Rp 14.000 for four people.

Carrying Water - How much can a Grade 5 student carry?

2011-10-15T10:38:00.001+07:00

My partner teacher Marion MacQueen made a great inquiry into carrying water. As a part of our inquiry into Life on a Limited Budget we have been looking at how people in the villages live in Indonesia. We have learned that there are many people who live in places that don't have clean water. The children in Grade 5 were asked to find out how much water they are able to carry.

We took our initial inquiry into carrying water a step further by actually experimenting with filling and carrying buckets. By now the class knew that you needed 2 litres a day to survive, and 25 litres a day to stay clean and healthy. What did those quantities look like? How much can be carried in a bucket?

Inquiry Into Life on a Limited Budget

2011-10-15T09:35:00.006+07:00

My class 5MJ has just started a new unit of work. The theme is Sharing the Planet and our focus is about resources and how they are not equally shared in the world. This is particularly the case in Indonesia.

This morning 5MJ were given a task to follow up their front loading done last week. In that activity the students were asked to work out how they could buy a meal for four people with Rp. 14.000. The students thought that it was impossible, so today we decided to inquire further.

FINDING OUT

The students worked in groups. They brainstormed what kinds of food they could buy and recorded the questions asked by the group as they tried to find out. Each group found that they had more questions than answers.

STUDENT INQUIRY QUESTIONS

Where can we buy the food? (Jinny)

Is 14,000 enough? (Bernhard)

How much money do we need to get us to BSD and Jakarta? (Regina)

Where can we find food that is cheap and near to BSD? (Keaton)

Where can we find food that is less than 14,00o? (Jessica)

What food can we buy with only 14,000? (Regina)

How much is a meal for a person? (Jinny)

Is bread enough for eating in one meal? (Gabi) – Can we just eat bread for this meal?

How long does the big aqua last? (Gabi)

What different foods are cheap? (Shereen)

What if the person can’t even buy the food? (Gabi)

How much is tempe? (Zubin)

What is the price of something cheap to drink? (Lisa)

How much nutritious food can the people with less money eat? (Shereen)

What kind of foods are too expensive for people who have less money? (Shereen)

Can you just live on water? (Zubin)

Each group asked their group members about which food they eat the most of every day. In each group, rice was the food that was eaten the most. We agreed that we needed to include rice in this meal that we are trying to plan.

Ms Jane shared a video that she took last night when she went to a warung (small shop) to buy rice. Ms Jane bought 3 kinds of rice, Rp. 6.200, Rp. 6.500 and Rp. 6.800.

We took at look at each of the three liters of rice that was purchased and compared them. We wondered how much does it weigh? Each student made an estimation after feeling the weight.

Many students talked about how much rice they cooked at their house and where they bought the rice.

Next we decided to COOK the rice. We had a big discussion about how to cook the rice. Jinny was the only student who knew that you had to wash the rice before cooking it. We decided to make three groups of four to work together to cook the rice. Ms Agnes had bought her rice cooker to school for us to use.

We need to find out more …. we wondered how much rice costs at a supermarket.

And then we wondered …

How is rice distributed across the world?

Our current UOI is ‘Sharing the Planet’ and our central idea is:

“It is our shared responsibility to ensure resources are more evenly distributed.”

Gabi found a great website http://irri.org which is the International Rice Research Institute. From the website we can learn about which countries consume the most rice in the world. Here is a pie chart showing which countries consume the most rice.

Image from: http://irri.org/knowledge/publications/rice-today/maps/who-eats-the-most-rice

So, back to our first inquiry …

How can we make a meal with only Rp 14.000 budget?

Jessica had a great idea! She asked, “Why don’t we make fried rice with the rice that we cooked today?” We agreed that this might be possible with our budget of Rp. 14.000. We know that one liter of rice can cost as little as Rp. 6.200.

Now the class is looking into what ingredients are in fried rice.

Some of the students said that eggs are in fried rice. Ms Jane shared a video that she took last night at an egg shop in the village. To buy the fresh eggs it costs Rp. 13.500 per kilo. I wonder how many eggs are in one kilo?

(video coming soon)

We must decide who will being which ingredient and that person must know the price of that ingredient.

Everyday Mathematics Estimation Challenge

2011-09-28T11:44:00.001+07:00

Today 5MJ took on an estimation challenge during Maths time. The students were asked to locate the Koi building at SWA using Google Earth. Then they were asked to locate Pasar Modern in BSD City. The challenge was to estimate how many kilometres are between the Koi building and Pasar Modern.

After making the first estimation, the students were asked to calculate how many steps it would take if they were to walk from the Koi building to Pasar Modern. We decided that we take two steps in a meter so if one kilometre equals 1000 meters then it will equal 2000 steps.

Here is an example made by Keaton.

Goal Setting Videos in Grade 5

2011-09-25T11:35:00.007+07:00

5MJ have been working really hard to complete their goal setting videos. The students learned about Green Screen techniques, masking, cropping, layers and fade to white transitions. In addition to this, they also learned how to better balance the soundtrack with spoken audio in iMovie. I was really pleased with their efforts. Here is an example made by Shereen.

iPads 1:1 in Kindergarten - troubleshooting

2011-05-27T14:14:00.004+07:00

Now that we are a few weeks into the iPads trial I need to catch up on my blogging ...

Initially the iPads were used in Kindergarten as an extension of the learning program. We used many Math applications such as Everyday Maths Monster Squeeze and Lobster Diver to allow students extra practice of their numeracy skills. This went fairly well but what I was keen to get happening was some student creation work where the kids made things to deepen their current learning.

Easier said than done!!

There are a lot of apps on the iTunes store, however trying to match an app with, the student's ability, needs and desired current learning outcomes is no easy feat. I have trialled a lot of Apps personally but I hadn't much experience in trying to match an app to sync in with the current learning. Many times I have found the app advanced too quickly for the level of the students - or to have too much text (not great for beginner readers) which made it less assessable.

I can see the need to create an app database at my school so that we can keep a record of what has been used and how it matched with the learning. This would normally go on the UOI planner but I think it needs to be put somewhere like a wiki so that it can be contributed to by different teachers.

Another issue this week has been with syncing. It is far better for the students to have email accounts so that screen grabs and other work can be easily transferred. I would also like to set up a Dropbox for Kindergarten in the future to make the transfer of student created work easier. Time is needed to develop these systems properly.

I wonder how other schools cope with these issues? I guess my challenge here is that the students that I am working with are very young and need to be working within a closed safe community.

More thoughts later ...

iPhone 4 in the Classroom - Just in Time Learning

2011-05-19T14:37:00.002+07:00

iPhone in the Classroom from Jane Ross on Vimeo.

I am so, so, so impressed about how the iPhone 4 has become such a handy tool to use in the classroom. Here is a film that I made about using the iPhone for filming, playback over a projector and projecting PDFs using a VGA iPod cable with a classroom projector.

Technology Integration - at its best :)

2011-05-19T14:31:00.003+07:00

Yesterday I had a really good lesson in Grade 1. The focus was about force and motion. The students were given the task to carry out a simple experiment involving two balls - one heavy and hard and one light and soft. Here is the movie that was made by three teachers documenting the learning by filming the experiments with their iPhones. Each child was ask to predict what would happen and then reflect after the experiment about the outcome.

School-Based Book Publishing Group

2011-05-18T07:39:00.009+07:00

I have started a book publishing group at school. We have currently around 15 teachers in the group. So far we have met as a group a couple of times to work out some agreements like a title page template and a proof reading system. We have already produced several books. Here is a photo of our first big book. We are fortunate to have colour photocopier machines in the school. The teachers are able to print wirelessly from their Macbooks to these photocopiers. The hard binding is done outside the school at a local photocopy centre. An A4 book costs Rp30.000 ($3.50) to bind and an A3 costs Rp60.000.

Our system is a simple one:

All work must be original which includes all photographs and written work

All books must include a Preface and a title page

All books must be proof read twice by a language teacher from the language of the book before the book goes to the printing stage

We intend to develop an eLibrary of our SWA-Published books. I am currently looking into a few options. I want the books to be embedded as well as on virtual bookshelves.

Here is a copy of our Essential Agreements:

ESSENTIAL AGREEMENTS OF SWA PUBLISHING GROUP

The number of pages must have a minimum of 15 sheets of paper. (for printing purposes due to hardback binding requirements, eBooks not limited to this)

All content must be original including text and pictures. Eg: photograph is taken by the SWA community (not downloaded from internet) children’s pictures or artwork may be scanned

Font and layout style must be consistent.

Fonts have to be easy to read.

Pictures should be clear (not too dark, not too bright, not blurry)

Parental permission need to be obtained, when the book would be published outside of the school

Language used in SWA books is according to the language guideline and is proofread by a proofreading process.

The topic can be vary in any subject or any grade level. (eg. picture book, non-fiction book)

The book should include preface

Here I am reading our first big book together with Grade 1. These kids co-wrote the book. They were very excited!!

Rethinking Technology Integration

2011-05-06T08:44:00.005+07:00

A couple of days ago I tweeted about my misgivings about being a tech integrator. Don't get me wrong - there are parts of my job that I really enjoy. I do enjoy getting to see the big picture and being involved across the school. My problem is that I have been in this position for 3 years but the last 2 years I have been doing the Integration for 100% of my time. As you all know technology changes rapidly. I have had no class of students of my own so I never get a chance to do any real deep learning with technology. I do a lot of assisting, giving ideas and supporting of other teachers but I work in fragments. Most of it is small projects and a lot of quick solutions or problem solving.

I miss having a group of students with whom I can develop their digital literacy over a long period of time. I miss real teaching where I get to decide on what to do and then make it happen. I miss that connection with the students where I can see development over a longer period of time.

I'm a creative person and I have a lot of ideas - but I then have to persuade other teachers to allow me to act on these ideas. It doesn't happen very often so I am left thinking - Why am I in this job? I have to give up and compromise which leads to a much different outcome.

So where do I go from here?

Wow Factors with iPads

2011-04-27T07:47:00.005+07:00

We have started our 1:1 iPad trial at Jakarta World Academy. Up until this time at Jakarta World Academy, I have been using my iPad with various classes and the mobile set of iPod Touches. Yesterday I got to teach with the iPads in K2. In this trial program the students were issued with an iPad each which they can take home. What I want to learn about is how we can build a system for these children to archive their work easily (probably at this stage by emailing the teacher) and to use these devices effectively in all learning areas.

Wow factors

The iPads have such a large tactile interface which make them perfect for younger learners. What I saw yesterday was a lot of interaction between learners and a lot of fast modelling. Yes the iPod Touch have that touch interface but the screen is small and you really need to hold the iPod in your hand to be able to use it successfully. This can make it hard to look on as the screen must face the user so that they can be accurate with their input. With the iPads what I saw was the child could have the iPad in from of them and the teacher was able to tap and guide without moving the device. This gave the child greater ownership as they could seamlessly have the activity modelled without having to hand the device over.

The second thing that I noticed was how easy it is to cater for differentiation. There are only 6 students in this class but each child was able to work on an activity suited to their level with complete engagement at the same time. Yes I know that this happens in the non-technology classroom - but the level on constant engagement was very intense as the children moved through the task at a pace suited to their own needs.

Yesterday we used many Maths Apps but Lobster Diver was particularly popular. Lobster Diver is a free app and can be found here Lobster Diver

ANPS - Collaboration Online

2011-04-18T12:53:00.003+07:00

I have been preparing for my next presentation which will be at the next ANPS Forum for Emerging Leaders on the 30th April. I am trying to make a more dramatic kind of presentation by using the skills that I learned at the recent ADE Institute in HCMC. I am trying to break out of my slideshow habit and engage the audience by telling a story but using visuals as a support.

As a part of my preparations for this workshop I have been interviewing the technical support at my school to find out about the current size of the Internet bandwidth and how many users that can support at the same time. We are indeed fortunate to have 8 megabit bandwidth.

One of the biggest problems that the local schools here in Indonesia face is access. Most schools still use computer labs which offer limited access for teachers other than the computer teacher. On top of this the Internet access is barely sufficient for the teachers to access let alone the students.

This issue of computer access and Internet access will be the deal breaker for most national plus schools. It is very costly often costing more than other school needs - never less it is essential.

Things can only change here if schools consider computer and Internet access as equally important as staffing. It needs to be considered as an integral part of the school and not just 'added value'.

ADE Institute Hochimin City - Thinking about Personal Branding

2011-04-11T20:35:00.006+07:00

I feel very honoured to be a member of the ADE Asia Advisory Board. There are nine of us on the board and we have been a part of the running of the Class of 2011 ADE Institute. Currently we are half way through the Institute for 2011 and I feel that I must write about the experience - even though it is not over yet.

The first day was intense. Each member of the board was asked to present their personal branding. I did not attend the Class of 2010 Institute where personal branding was introduced to the ADEs there. I have struggled to get a video made in time. I knew that if I didn't push myself to get something done - that the process to get it ready could go on for some time. As a part of the Apple Institute, all of the ADEs were given a book as a guide about personal branding. I was sent a copy and it was a helpful start but I ended up abandoning it and found it much easier to talk to my husband who knows me both as my artistic self and as my teacher self. I know that these shouldn't be separate but I don't associate the artwork that I do with my teaching practice. My husband helped me to focus on the 'now' and not so much on the past. Indeed as I sit here typing this post - I am already thinking about my version 2 video and how that will look. I already have the concept and how I can make better use of 2 minutes. Less is more ....

I am really interested in how technology can be best used in Kindergarten and younger. In fact I am interested in how it can be used with Toddlers (18 months). I have developed a way to make the iMacs in the Toddlers classroom more accessible for that age group by using programs designed for very young children (such as keyboard bangers) and by making those programs easy to click on through use of big picture icons. These young children cannot talk but they are very comfortable using computers as they are often introduced to them by their parents. My goal is to set up the computers for the teachers so that the students can use them independently. I have started to notice a pattern as these young children develop quickly and soon grow out of using the keyboard banger programs to progress onto more mouse directed games. From this the kids are introduced to creating content and so the progression continues.

And because of this ...

I would love to share what I have developed over the past year in my position as Tech Integrator for Toddlers-Gr5 at JWA and SWA.

Looks like I need to get back to Jakarta so that I can begin making PB video #2

Personal Branding - janeinjava ADE 

2011-04-06T07:56:00.003+07:00

I finally finished the first version of my personal branding video. Here it is for you all to take a look:

Mother Tongue Week

2011-02-15T13:47:00.004+07:00

Soon it will be Mother Tongue Week at school. I thought that I'd get a jump-start on things and make a story together with my youngest son in his Mother Tongue which is Indonesian. Today is a public holiday so we went to explore the river at our housing estate. My son likes to play there and catch little fish. We made a story about this. I plan to get it printed up with hard back binding.

Ikan-Ikan Kecil (Little Fish)

Google Translate App for iPhone - Seriously Cool!

2011-02-09T20:36:00.006+07:00

Wow what a fantastic app!! It was just last week that I helped the Chinese teachers at school to get a Google account so that they could use Google Docs as an aid for translation/enhanced communication during staff meetings and training sessions. At the same time I showed them Google Translate - http://translate.google.com The teachers were so excited by the prospect of using Google Docs together with Google Translate. Since that session, some of the teachers told me about how useful it has been for them to be able to use Google Docs during meetings combined with Google Translate. It has really helped them to keep up with what is being discussed.

Today via my Twitter feed @javajive informed me about the newly released Google Translate for iPhone http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/google-translate/id414706506?mt=8

I immediately downloaded it to try out. I am so impressed. The App can translate text between 57 languages and translates by speaking (not typing) for 15 languages. It will also speak 23 languages from written text.

I am thinking of all the ways this App can support language learning. How exciting!!!

Digital Stories for Inquiry

2011-02-07T11:07:00.002+07:00

Today in Grade 1 the class continued to create a digital story about the habitat at school that they have been studying. The students have been studying the Koi pond at school and the story that they are making is about about the Koi fish that live in that pond.
Here is one of the stories in progress:

Where the Koi Fish Live

iPads Apps for Jakarta World Academy

2011-01-31T10:58:00.013+07:00

We are preparing the image for our first trial use of iPads at Jakarta World Academy. I have selected a few apps from my own image to test use at the school. Here are just some from my selection. The age range for these apps are K1-Gr 1.

JWA Apps

Weebly Portfolios

2011-01-24T09:35:00.004+07:00

The Grade 4 and 5 students at SWA have been trialling the use of Weebly portfolios. Last quarter the Weebly sites were started and the expectation this quarter is for all subjects to have a page for portfolio work.

At SWA the Grade 4 and 5 students are in the 1:1 laptop program. This gives them easy access to be able to create most of their school work in a digital format. It is a natural extension to make the portfolios in digital format.

Originally the students made their portfolios in either Keynote or iWeb on the laptops. This made it difficult to access in that students had to have their laptops in order to see the portfolio. By having the work online, it has allowed parents to keep up to date with their child's work as often as they like.

What's Good About Weebly
Weebly allows the teacher to access the student websites from inside the admin controls for editing. It also allows for a class password to be used which gives extra privacy for younger users. It has an easy drag and drop interface which is simple for even the most tech-challenged to use.
I personally like that students can upload a video directly to their sites without having to host it elsewhere and embed it. Weebly is also integrated with Scribd.com so that Word or Pages documents can be directly uploaded to be embedded in the page. There are many options for photo displays with galleries or simple photo+paragraph choices. For more information - check out the video overview of the site

A Digital Story from a Kindergarten Kid - he is only 4!

2010-12-19T22:11:00.001+07:00

This wonderful story was created by a Kindergarten student. It is about playing together and includes a moral.

Walking with Dinosaurs using Green Screen with Kindergarten

2010-12-08T15:30:00.008+07:00

Today the K2 at SWA began making a project about Walking with Dinosaurs. The students in Kindergarten have been busy making 3D dinosaurs using the Spore Creature Creator. These dinosaurs can dance and move how ever the students want them to.

To take it a step further, the students were filmed dancing in front of the Green Screen in Kindergarten. This was then layered together in iMovie with the captured dinosaurs. When working with Spore you can layer photographs by choosing the plain background. With videos you need to green screen the footage with the person so that they can be inserted into the film next to the dinosaur.

Here's how to do that:

First insert the Spore dinosaur film into the iMovie timeline. Crop the video in the settings so that the dinosaur is on one side of the screen. Make sure that in the Spore program settings you have selected the highest resolution so that the film is smooth and of a good quality.

Then take the green screen footage and crop it so that the child is on the right side of the screen to leave more room for the dinosaur on the left side.

Then try playing to check that the movement matches and doesn't over lap too much. Here is my finished clip.

Ciptura School Google App Slideshow

2010-12-04T20:40:00.005+07:00

Here is the link to the slideshow on Google Docs
https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AWKVF3RvO6uGZGZkZzRmcjhfNjRyejYyd2hr&hl=en&authkey=CNOVgdIJ

StoryJumper Online Story Maker

2010-11-29T11:37:00.004+07:00

This online story maker is very easy to use. I tried uploading a story that I made using Comic Life with a class of Grade 1 students. The story was created offline and exported as .jpg files making it a simple upload. The link to view it is here The Story of Merapi

Writing Chinese Characters with a Stylus Directly on the Macbook Trackpad

2010-11-24T13:10:00.011+07:00

Today I tried out something new. I learned how to input Chinese characters by writing them on the multi-touch trackpad with a stylus.

First you will need to activate your Trackpad handwriting window. The keypress shortcut is shift-control-spacebar

You need to set your Macbook so that you can input both the simplified Pinyin and traditional characters. In your System Preferences, open the 'Language and Text' settings.

Make sure that you check the 'Chinese - Simplified' box and select Trackpad Handwriting.

You can input using your finger - or for more accuracy, you can use an iPad or iPhone stylus.

Here is an iPad stylus that I bought for about $12 at Poins Square in Jakarta.

Here is the video I took this morning showing some of SWA's Chinese language teachers playing with the stylus on the Macbook trackpad.

Creative Story iBook about Merapi - Grade 1's First Joint Work

2010-11-17T17:33:00.003+07:00

The Grade 1 students at the Jakarta World Academy have been following the recent eruptions of Mt. Merapi in Central Java. The students are very concerned about what has happened to the people living near the volcano who have lost their homes.
These Grade 1 students decided to write a story about what happened. To make the story more accessible to their age group the class teacher encouraged the class to write it in the style of a fairytale. The students were able to write a few sentences of their own each, which when put together make up the whole story.
The class has two iMacs so the students took turns to write up their story in Comic Life (a program that these young learners are already familiar with) on the computers to be later dropped into Pages to get it ready for iBook conversion.
So far each student has typed up their words and drawn a picture to accompany their part of the story. Now we are getting it into the correct sequence so that each page can be inserted into a Pages document ready for exporting as an ePub. The reason for making an iBook is that many of these children have iPads or iPod Touches at home and they want to be able to read their book on those devices. I am planning to have a small workshop when the book is ready for parents so that they can learn about how to put an ePub on the iPad and how to view it. We are also planning for our next research activity (individual student work) to be published as iBooks. I will also make a pdf version of the book for those students who don't have an iPod or iPad.

I'll keep you all posted.

Smartboard + JacksonPollock.org

2010-11-17T11:50:00.002+07:00

The Pre Kindergarten students at Sinarmas World Academy are currently working on a Unit of Inquiry all about Explorations. This is essentially learning about their world. The students have been exploring the world of Art by using different painting techniques. I came across an online site jacksonpollock.org which has a free tool that allows any user to create Jackson Pollock styled digital artwork. It is fun and simple to use. All you to is click and drag and the page will be soon filled with splashes and streaks of different colored paint.

When this tool is used with a Smartboard, the user can operate it with their fingers.

The Pre K students tried it out recently. It was a lot of fun and we were able to easily save each child's painting by making a screen capture. The students also took turns to play with a similar tool on my iPad called Random Pollock

Here is a video that I took of the lesson. One little boy really took on the whole Jackson Pollock style by jumping around and really throwing his whole body into creating the patterns on the Smartboard.

New JWA and SWA Slideshow

2010-11-12T11:07:00.001+07:00

Podcast by School Leader

2010-10-26T08:03:00.003+07:00

One of my targets is to try to get school leaders to podcast information to the community. Here is our first podcast from the Dept Principal for ES about Collaborative Planning. This was edited using the new iMovie 11.

SWA Channel is now on the iTunes Store

2010-10-21T19:31:00.002+07:00

Take a look at SWA Channel on the iTunes store.
http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/swa-channel/id399346930

A True 21st Century School - The Future is Here!

2010-10-18T10:33:00.001+07:00

Ena's Digestion Video - Insight Stats

2010-10-16T23:28:00.012+07:00

I run the You Tube channel for SWA. I usually upload to this channel at least twice a month - sometimes more frequently. Imagine my surprise when I clicked on Ena's Digestion video to see that it has had over 12700 hits!

Insight in You Tube
In a previous blog post, I described the Insight stats information which is available inside every You Tube channel account. You can read about my previous blog post here 'Insight in You Tube is Fascinating'.

Ena's Grade 5 Digestion video was posted on the school You Tube channel 11 months ago. It has since become 'hot' in the attention section of the Insight stats. I have screen captured that data below:

In the past 7 days alone - it has been viewed 994 times.

I can also check which countries are watching this video the most. In this case - the US.

I can also see the 'hot spots' in the video itself.
"The ups-and-downs of viewership at each moment in your video, compared to videos of similar length. The higher the graph, the hotter your video: fewer viewers are leaving your video and they may also be rewinding to watch that point in the video again. Audience attention is an overall measure of your video's ability to retain its audience."

An interesting point here: When Ena starts her picture in picture video explanation, the meter goes up - showing that it is her own talking added to this Magic Schoolbus video that is engaging the audience. How cool is all that? What a fantastic 'Insight' You Tube gives its channel owners! Continually I am inspired by the fantastic tools online such as this that enable ordinary teachers like myself to share good practice with the wider community.

ANPS Teachers Conference Presentation

2010-10-13T22:53:00.001+07:00

This is my presentation for this Saturday at ANPS Teachers Conference at Tiara Bangsa School in Jakarta.

Teaching With Technology No Longer Belongs in a Lab

View more presentations from Jane Ross.

ANPS - Sharing Good Practice Google Slideshow

2010-10-11T14:24:00.006+07:00

I am presenting a couple of workshops at the ANPS Teachers Conference this Saturday. I will be using Google Docs Slideshow as a part of my workshop. I wish to make the presentation interactive and will use this instead of the usual big pieces of paper and markers.

Click on this link to access this shared Slideshow:
ANPS Sharing Good Practice Google Doc Slideshow

Smartboard - making it more mobile

2010-10-01T10:33:00.003+07:00

At JWA there is one Smartboard that needs to be shared between different classes. One of the challenges of using a Smartboard in different classes is setting the correct angle for the projector. If a mobile projector on a table is used, the person using the Smartboard will encounter difficulty. They will be between the projector and the board and therefore will block the light. To solve this problem, a throw projector can be used. We have just had a throw projector installed at JWA and here are the photos.

Sinarmas World Academy Open Day

2010-09-30T14:18:00.007+07:00

We are having an Open Day tomorrow, 1st October
Take a look at our school Profile:

SWA Profile 2010-2011

Simply Box

2010-09-25T18:37:00.004+07:00

I have been looking for a solution to share bookmarks of online games with young children that is more visual that just a list or web addresses. I used to create a web page with labels and icons that were hyperlink enabled. This is very time consuming. I have just started using Simply Box.

Simply Box acts as a Firefox add on. It lives in your toolbar. All you do is whenever you see a game (or web page) that you want to add, you click the button 'Box it' and then draw a box over the area of the screen that you would like to have as the thumbnail hyperlink.

When you have created the capture, you simply drag it to one of your containers at the bottom of your screen and it has been captured. When you are satisfied with your collection, you can share it with others. They will see a page of click-able icons that you have made. This is fantastic for young learners as they respond more to images rather than text.

Click here to see an example Simply Box

Watch this video. I love that you can use this in collaboration with others.

iPads - publishing to iBooks via Pages

2010-09-23T11:40:00.008+07:00

I recently attended Learning 2.010 in Shanghai. During the conference I was fortunate to attend an Apple workshop on iPads. What I found most interesting was learning how to export a Pages document and then syncing it with iBooks. Pages is an easy publisher to use that can accommodate multimedia such as music and videos. This makes it a much more flexible tool for students wishing to present information in a more dynamic way. In order to get this to work you need to have the latest version of Pages which is 4.0.4

You will also need to latest version of iBooks for iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch. This is iTunes 10

You can create your multimedia book in Pages and then click 'Export'
Don't forget to deselect 'Use first page as book cover image' unless you have created a front cover.

Next you need to locate that file and drag it to iBooks in your iTunes.

Then all you do is sync your iPad/iPod Touch/iPhone and you're done!

Google Docs

2010-08-19T14:01:00.003+07:00

Click here to see planner one

Talking to Your Macbook - and Getting it to Reply!!

2010-08-19T08:20:00.010+07:00

One thing that I always like to do when introducing the Mac to new users is teach them to talk to their Mac. It doesn't matter how young or old the students are, EVERYONE loves this feature.

Step 1 - Open System Preferences

Step 2 - Choose Speech

Step 3 - Select (a) 'Speakable Items' and see (b) a Bubble pop up.

Step 4 - Callibrate your microphone

Step 5 - Say each 'Speakable Item'. Check that the meter stays in the green zone.

Step 6 - Check what key is the 'Listening key' and press that down the whole time whilst you speak clearly towards your Mac. Try asking 'What time is it?'
You should hear a 'whit' sound and your Mac should answer you.

You can teach your Mac to do many things by just asking it. If you want to know what you can ask, click on the bottom of the floating bubble to open the speech commands window.

This is really fun to do. Try it now!!

The Tablet Project

2010-08-17T20:44:00.005+07:00

This academic year SWA is taking a bold step. All the students in grades 9-11 (11 is currently the highest grade) will be asked to purchase a tablet with stylus. This is so that we can truly become paperless. We are actively seeking out eBook versions of all the textbooks used and building our membership to online libraries.
We are a Mac school so we have decided to use Wacom Bamboo tablets which are reasonably priced and work well with Macs.
We already have quite a range of software on the school laptop image that support the use of tablets. We use Skitch, Notebook for Smartboard, Artrage and Sketchup. Notebook has quite a few tools that can be quite useful beyond the usual writing tools. One in particular is the screen recording function where diagrams can be recorded as they are drawn which can help students to be able to reproduce them individually.
Tomorrow I'll have my first meeting/training with the teachers in the Tablet pilot group. Looking forward to it. What I need to do is MAKE myself use the tablet to create something in Sketchup. That should improve my fluency with the tool.

Pangeran Katak - The Frog Prince in Indonesian

2010-06-08T09:22:00.003+07:00

This story was made by a Grade 2 student during Indonesian language time. The characters were hand drawn and captured with a digital camera. The frog was made using Spore Creature Creator. The story was completed using Keynote with voice overs and animation. This is the level that Grade 2 children can get to given support and plenty of access to technology. We run a mobile lab of Macbooks for Grade 1-3 students at Sinarmas World Academy.

Digital Storytelling in Grade 2

2010-06-08T09:13:00.004+07:00

The Grade 2 students have their end of year class party today. They will present their digital stories to their parents.
Each story was written by a student, then the characters were hand-drawn on paper, photographed, then saved as a gif. These pictures were then put into Keynote and each student made their story with 'move' animation and voice overs. Here is a finished example:

Press Reader for iPad

2010-06-07T08:25:00.004+07:00

I came across this brilliant app for iPad called Pressreader

Pressreader is a fantastic app that allows you to download the print version of newspapers from all over the world. You can get current and back issues. Papers are in full colour and in HD. Double tap zooms on text making it easy to read. Drag your finger around the paper to view all parts of the page. The app is fast and responsive.
This is a FREE app. You get a full version trial for 7 days. After the trial is over you can subscribe to the service and enable the reader to download newspapers of your choice from all over the world. Currently there are over 1400 newspapers to choose from. The app includes a built in emailing option allowing you to email articles. It also has a voice reader that reads the articles to you with a very realistic voice that has intonation. It sounds quite human!! There is also a search feature that can be used to search for keywords in articles or headings.

My Top 10 iPad Apps for Kindergarten

2010-06-03T09:22:00.014+07:00

I have been looking into what apps I will put on the image for iPads at the Jakarta World Academy. Here is a list of my Top 10 Apps:

1. Drawing Pad - drawing, stickers, stamps and more! The finished pictures can be saved on the iPad or emailed to parents.

2. Clicky Sticky - Make wonderful pictures with moving stickers and sound effects. It actually creates pictures but students could make their own live puppet shows (as the stickers move and make noise) and then email the finished picture to their parents.

3.My First Words (accepts Chinese characters) Make your own flash cards with voice over.

4. Elias Farms - tap to hear the sounds, swipe to move around the farm. (FREE)

5. Virtuoso Piano - play a double keyboard on your iPad - great sound!! (FREE)

6. Shape Builder - a puzzle app that includes sounds and animation (FREE version is great!)

7. Toy Story - a fantastic 3D digital book that includes animations, activities and games. Parents can even record themselves reading for their child to listen to over and over again. (FREE)

8. I Close My Eyes - a beautiful 3D digital story with voice, sound effects and animation. I have used this with classes as an introduction to digital storytelling.

9. iReading Stories Collection - English and Chinese. This wonderful collection of stories includes versions in English and in Chinese within the app. Children can tap on the pictures for extra sound effects. (FREE version includes one story)

10. Feed Me Mandarin Chinese - Feed the cute monster whatever he is asking for in Chinese. (FREE)

First Words App

2010-06-02T19:51:00.011+07:00

Today I tried out the First Words app for iPad. I am really excited about using it in our 1:1 iPad program at the new sister school of Sinarmas World Academy where I am currently the Tech Integrator.
What's so cool about First Words?
Flash cards have been long used by educators to introduce new vocabulary to students. The iPad with it's large colorful screen makes it all the more enticing.

My son is 4 years old and is currently in Pre Kindergarten. He is learning to speak English (his mother tongue is Indonesian) and as well as this he is learning Mandarin Chinese. This app allows the user to make custom cards. The free version even allows you to edit the pre existing cards to make your own voice over or change the picture entirely from any picture in your iPad photo library. My son John was so excited to be able to put photos of animals he like and record himself saying the name of each animal. We then tried working in Chinese and found that after you configure the International keyboard settings that you can type in Pinyin.
John also was able to include photos of his family and friends. He is so happy to use this app and hear his voice saying the name of each photo loudly and clearly.

This app is a must buy for early childhood educators and parents alike.

IPad - my initial thoughts

2010-05-31T13:10:00.006+07:00

Our plan at Jakarta World Academy and Sinarmas World Academy is to use iPads 1:1 with the students. I managed to get one on the weekend and have had a chance to test it out on my children. I have an 11 year old son, an 8 year old daughter and my youngest son is 4. All of my kids loved trying out my new iPad, but it was my 4 year old that took to it the most.

My plan is this:

* At JWA we will use iPads 1:1. Firstly I will image the iPads with Apps that connect with the current unit of learning. I will arrange for the wallpaper to be a photo of the student in uniform at school taken of that child engaged in some learning. We could also arrange to get Jakarta World Academy sleeves made to store the iPads in.

* I would identify apps that encourage creativity that connect with the learning. For example if the focus was on Sea Creatures, I would put Clicky Sticky on the image so that the students can make scenes and even act out stories using the different stickers. I would also include fish apps and virtual ocean apps.

* I would load songs that connect with those stories onto the iPod feature and make it into a Sea Creature playlist.

* Classroom activities can be filmed and loaded onto the iPad for viewing at home with the parents. Videos of teachers using flash cards for key vocabulary could also be included.

* Sets of Flashcards could also be loaded onto the iPad in the Image library as an event. Perhaps using the First Words app as it allows sound recordings to be made.

* I would make sure that there is a drawing app so that students can draw different sea creatures.

* Keynote app could be used to create student digital portfolios with scanned paper based work and photos of 3D work.

iPad - a first look and trial with Pre K Student

2010-05-31T08:41:00.004+07:00

On the weekend I got an iPad and tried it out with my youngest son who is four. This has confirmed for me that this tool is totally suited to this age group.

JWA - Jakarta World Academy

2010-05-04T09:24:00.003+07:00

iPads at JWA
With the opening of SWA two years ago, it has quickly become a leading school in the use of IT in education. It is the first Laptop program school in Indonesia and has set a standard for 21st century learning that leading schools such as JIS are now getting ready to follow.
But it can be difficult to imagine what that can look like in classrooms for 2-6 year olds. Recent developments in technology in the last few year have greatly changed what is possible – and brought new and highly exciting learning possibilities for even our youngest children.
Years ago IT in kindergarten classes meant electronic matching games, or an animated story book but today young children get to create pictures and video themselves to create their own stories.
Adding to the possibilities of having interactive whiteboards and class sets of computers, the iPod, over the past year, has quietly revolutionized the way we use technology in the early years. Young children have short attention spans, but it is amazing to see how focused they are interacting with iPods. But the true power ahead is with the iPad. At JWA, students will
be encouraged to have their own iPad so that class ebooks, videos, songs and educational
applications can be loaded onto student iPads and refreshed each month with the digital resources for each new classroom learning focus. This will keep the learning going on at home and in the car, and can be shared with mom and dad. Watch out for more iPad news
in coming editions of ‘Dragon Tales’.

Read more about JWA here:
Dragon Tales-May 3

IQ Bar aka Genius Bar at SWA

2010-04-28T14:23:00.007+07:00

This morning I had the honor of being the guest speaker at the K12 Online Echo. I had previously published my 'Living History - Authentic Learning Empowered By Digital Technology' presentation last December via the K12 Online Conference

This morning my video was live streamed and then I was asked a series of questions by those people who joined the chat via Skype. One of the many questions asked was about the technology set up at my school. I mentioned that we have a Genius Bar modeled after the ones that can be found in Apple Stores around the world. This school-based concept was developed by my CEO John McBryde.

The IQ Bar concept is the same as the Apple Genius Bar model with the only difference is that this facility in located in the school. There is always an IT technician available at the desk and students, teachers or parents are able to drop in for assistance with their technology needs. As well as this, teachers can iChat across the school campus and request assistance remotely. I have had student laptops fixed remotely by chatting and explaining the problem. The assistance is made possible by using Apple Remote Desktop.

Sinarmas World Academy IQ Bar

Classroom Behaviors in Chinese Intermediate Lessons

2010-04-28T12:02:00.004+07:00

We had some fun in Chinese lessons today using Skitch and the laptop webcams. Skitch is a great little app that allows the user to take photos and mark them up with hand written notes. Take a look

Pre Kindergarten makes a Chicken Life Cycle

2010-04-27T15:26:00.005+07:00

Today in Pre Kindergarten we made our first UOI task with the iMacs. We used the software Comic Life and took some images from Sparklebox.co.uk

I thought that perhaps it would be difficult to get such young children (these kids are 3 and 4 years old) to create something by following a procedure on the computer. Again and again the ability of the 'Digital Native' never ceases to amaze me. These kids were easily able to drag and drop the images into Comic Life and re-size them and rotate them to make a life cycle. One student even changed the background colour and font inside the program without any help from the teachers.

Wow, at this rate we will begin publishing our own story books. Stay tuned ...
Here are two examples of the student work produced in the lesson today. As I explained in my previous post, the students have been learning about life cycles and have read many storybooks and even held live chickens that a parent brought to the classroom.

Pre Kindergarten

2010-04-26T20:46:00.004+07:00

The Pre Kindergarten class have been using the iPod Touches on a regular basis now over the past few months. The class teachers now agree that it is time for the students to begin creating their own work on the class iMacs. Up until this point the children have mostly played mini games and created some simple 'digital art' by using Tux Paint.
To start things off we will use Comic Life so that the students can create chicken life cycles by dragging and dropping clipart images onto a page. By loading the clipart images into Comic Life itself, these 3 year old students will be able to use the program independently. This is linking in with the current class work about the life cycle of a chicken and follows a hands on activity in which the children got to observe and touch a real baby chicken.
This is the plan for tomorrow's lesson so I will update after it has happened.

Grade 1 - Wrapping up this UOI

2010-04-26T20:37:00.004+07:00

Today the Grade 1 students worked in groups making presentations about their learning throughout this unit on Animal Life Cycles. They put all their work into a Keynote and will present it to the parent audience in the form of a television news report.
The kids are using Google SketchUp to talk about their trip to the zoo with the animals that they created themselves using Spore Creature Creator. They have learned to capture a movie of their animal and embed it into the Keynote presentation. The SketchUp will be linked to be opened so that one student can navigate within the 3D environment whilst their partner explains about the virtual zoo. As well as this they will share their animal reports that they each made about their chosen animal.

Digital Stories for the iPad - Character Update

2010-04-13T08:40:00.003+07:00

The Grade 6 have been busy creating their digital characters using Spore Creature Creator. They had some fun putting themselves into the picture this morning but using Photobooth and overlaying the Spore creature in Keynote. A screen grab was made and then uploaded to the school LMS Studywiz for sharing. I put them all into a Slideshow at www.slide.com to show you here.

iPad Digital Stories - the Main Character

2010-04-06T09:35:00.004+07:00

Today the Grade 6 students started creating their main character for their iPad story using the Spore Creature Creator (free version). The advantage of using Spore Creature Creator is that you can easily create in 3D and then make screen captures (with no background) which can be layered over other pictures.

The students made their characters with Spore Creature Creator and captured them with a transparent background.

The students next used Photobooth to take a photo of themselves and dragged that photo into Keynote. The character picture was added on top and a screen capture was made of the completed composition.

Here is an example of a character created by one of the students during class this morning.

Skitch - Why I love it

2010-03-31T15:48:00.003+07:00

Hi there,
You you ever wanted to draw on photos and share them?
Have you ever wanted to use your Wacom Bamboo tablet to draw on a PDF easily?
Do you like to share pictures via Twitter?
Do you have Chinese or another language in your school that has a script and you want to be able to write with the characters on either photos or pdfs?

Today I found Skitch by Plasq online. It is a free program that you can download. Get it here SKITCH

I have been looking into how my school can become more paperless. We use Studywiz and it drives us to become more digital. Now with a tablet or even just the Macbook track pad - kids can write digitally on pdfs and send them back to the teacher. Imagine the possibilities ... Maths, Science, note taking directly onto pdf textbooks ... making comments on photos ... typing pinyin on pictures in Chinese lessons - wow ... there are so many possibilities.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Spore Creature Creator

2010-03-31T15:41:00.005+07:00

To make the characters for your digital story ... you can use Spore Creature Creator. I made this bird today by using the program.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Watch this great tutorial from You Tube

Digital Stories for the iPad - Part Three

2010-03-31T15:38:00.001+07:00

Part Three

Problem -- The challenge your character must face and overcome
Without a problem, your story would be dull. When you give your main character a problem to solve, your story comes alive. Be sure to make it a big enough problem.

Important tip:
Use the magic of conflict. Conflict means someone or something tries to stop your character from solving the problem. The more times your hero tries and fails, the better.

Ask yourself these questions:
• What is your main character's problem?
• Is it a big enough problem that it will take a whole story to solve it?
• How does your main character try and fail to solve her or his problem?

Write about your story problem - make a screen capture and upload it to the Story Problem Gallery in Studywiz. Comment on 5 different students work.

Next ... Spore Creature Creator - Advanced Tutorial

Digital Stories for the iPad - Part Two

2010-03-31T15:31:00.002+07:00

Like every good thing that is based in technology, without quality content ... well you basically have nothing but dazzle. Whenever I begin a project with a class I always focus hard on the content first. That's why in order to make a digital story ... we will focus on the story writing just as much as the digital part. Here is part two of Digital Stories for the iPad ...

Setting -- Where your story takes place
Every story needs to take place somewhere. Your story's setting can have either a big or little impact on the story.

Ask yourself these questions:
• Where does your story take place -- on the moon, in Hawaii, inside your dad's nose, or someplace completely different?
• When does your story take place: past, present or future?
• How much does your setting affect your main character's problem?

Answer these questions be replying to the discussion thread in Studywiz in the Technology section of Gr 6 Curriculum.

Digital Stories for the iPad - Part One

2010-03-29T09:31:00.005+07:00

Today in Grade 6 we started our digital story making for the soon to be released iPad. The students are writing a children's story about either animals or insects - or both! To start things rolling we went to the school library to look at traditional picture book stories. I gave the instructions to the students via our school LMS which is Studywiz. Here are the instructions for the lesson today:

Task 1
Find 3 picture books in the library and read them. Choose the one that you think would suit to make into an eBook. (this is for ideas only - do not copy the story)

Task 2
Your Own Main Character -- The animal or insect your story is about

Every story starts with a main character. For this story it can be any animal or insect you want it to be. One suggestion: try choosing a main character you like to draw.
Start by asking yourself some questions:
• Who is your main character?
• What does he, she or it like/dislike?
• What is your character's personality?
• What does your character look like?

Task 3
Draw a character web. Put your main character's name in the circle in the middle, and all of his or her characteristics in different circles connecting to the character circle.
Use Inspiration to make your character web.
Upload your character web to Studywiz in the Character Web gallery to share.

Here is one example of a Character Web created by a student in the lesson this morning.

My eBook - Movie Making for Kids

2010-03-25T19:21:00.001+07:00

I made this eBook using this site http://myebook.com
It has been viewed 35000 times!!

The Ingenuity of 10 yr Olds

2010-03-05T14:34:00.005+07:00

Today, I learned of a 'do it yourself' invisible folder for your Mac. A Grade 5 student here from Sinarmas World Academy was working on his school laptop and I noticed that he had several invisible folders on his desktop. I asked him about them and he told me that he had made his own version of Camouflage which can be downloaded from Apple.com

Here's what the invisible folder looks like:

It looks like my desktop is empty. But actually I have an invisible folder there. You can click Tab to see it or swipe the mouse over.

See what I mean? Pretty cool huh!

To make this invisible folder, all you do it create a 3 X 3cm square in Photoshop or Pixelmator and make the background transparent by using the magic wand.

Then you export the file as a .gif and drop it into Img2icns software to create a folder out of it.

There you go .... your own invisible folder for secret documents.

Thanks to Riam Tambunan from Grade 5 for this cool technology tip.

SWA Radio's First Broadcast

2010-03-01T14:54:00.002+07:00

Today we launched our school's online radio - SWA Radio. We had our first broadcast at 7.30am this morning. It went well with 49 listeners online. We were able to track our listeners through Nice Cast which is the radio software that we use to broadcast.

SWA Radio Soft Launching next Monday

2010-02-24T10:23:00.003+07:00

Movement - A Follow Up Lesson in Keynote

2010-02-17T10:29:00.000+07:00

Movement in Grade 1 - Making a simple animation

2010-02-10T11:42:00.002+07:00

The Grade 1 students this morning used Keynote in their UOI lesson to further explore the concept of movement. Here is an example Keynote made by one of the students.

iPod Touch - Mobile Technology

2010-02-06T08:13:00.005+07:00

I recently read with interest the new Horizon Report 2010
One of the two technologies to watch are mobile technologies. My school is based on the use of mobile technology. We are a laptop school Gr 4 - 12 with a fully wifi campus. As well as this we are currently launching the use of the LMS Studywiz. The best part of using mobile technology is that it is always on hand - ready for that 'just in time' teaching moment. In a 1:1 program, the students can look anything up online as needed. In an inquiry-based learning program, this is so valuable.

We have also just started using a set of iPod Touches across the school. In Grade 3 recently we used an App called Step Trak Lite
Here are some photos of this inquiry. The students were learning about energy and as a front loading activity, used Step Trak Lite to count their steps from one location on the school campus to another via the wifi.

iPod Touch in Pre Kindergarten

2010-01-22T13:04:00.003+07:00

This was the first time that these 3&4 yr olds had ever tried using the set of school iPod Touches. The kids were very quick to learn how to switch it on and access the App. Within a few minutes I had all 12 iPods being used independently. The kids maintained concentration for a full 45 minutes. It was awesome!!! The App that we used was Puzzle Shape Builder Lite which is a free App.

Weaving in Sumatra

2010-01-12T07:55:00.003+07:00

I have been learning (or trying to learn) the complex art of making Ulos which is a traditional woven cloth from Toba, North Sumatra. The type of Ulos is called Ragi Hotan. It has over 2000 warps across and is about 2M long.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2009-12-17T09:08:00.005+07:00

Hi All,
I am off on a holiday as this is the last day of school for this year. I am having a 'low tech' break which will be back to basics. I am going with my family to Lake Toba in North Sumatra to spend 3 weeks at my husband's village, Balige.

We will live in a traditional house and my plan is to ride a bike to the next village each day where I will learn to weave Ulos - the traditional cloth of the area.

To wish you all seasons greetings, I have embedded the player for our school's Radio Station. Please listen to Priska from Grade 10 sing 'O Holy Night' which I recorded live in the SWA Theater. Her voice reminds me of KD Lang. Incredible to know that she has only been singing on stage for the past year.

Subscribe Free for future posts Add this player to my Page

Band Concert Video

2009-12-16T11:06:00.002+07:00

This was one of the videos shown at the SWA Theater during the band concert yesterday. It was made by Grade 8.

Who Am I? Beliefs

2009-12-14T10:20:00.005+07:00

In Grade 1 the students are making mini presentations about their beliefs. This is one example by Kayla. She is taking a photo of herself using the webcam to put into her Keynote.

The Grade 1 students are easily able to make multimedia presentations independently. All of this work is currently being collated and put into a digital portfolio. The teacher will burn each student portfolio to DVD to be sent home for the parents to see.

We decided to save the keynotes as a Quicktime movie so that parents can view them on a Windows computer as well.

8th Finalist SWA Idol 2009 - Lim Heui Jin

2009-12-07T07:59:00.001+07:00

7th Finalist SWA Idol 2009 - Sean Lin

2009-12-07T07:58:00.000+07:00

6th Finalist SWA Idol 2009 - Asykar

2009-12-07T07:57:00.002+07:00