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Today I was given some software to play with called Crazytalk and I have fallen in love with it.  Crazytalk turns photos into talking movies with facial recognitions.  I have had a play with it and so far I am in love, the possibilities in a classroom are wonderful where photos come alive.  I have seen a heap of photostories and this leaves the, for dead.  I have attached and example for you to have a look at

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

I have attached a wordle of my delicious tags and would love other to share their word clouds.

Thanks to Jo McLeay for sharing this with me :0)

Well my first week at edsoft was wonderful.  I spent the week learning about different software applications and brushing up on my promethean and teamboard knowledge.  It is wonderful to have the opportunity to develop training packages with IWB’s that relate to effective IWB usage not just tips and tricks on how to use IWB software.  I believe that effective professional learning needs to be in the forefront of anyones mind when looking to purchase IWBs and am very excited to be in a position to provide this. 

I have been conducting my own personal professional learning lately with the assistance of jo kay and the wonderful residents of jokaydia in Second Life.  I have recently become a resident of Jokaydia in my quest to further explore and understand the fantastic potential of 3d virtual worlds in education.  Personally I have been reflecting what an amazing learning experience Second Life has been for me over the last two weeks.  As an educator who has done the rounds of the ict festivals and conferences where blogs, wikis and social bookmarking have been the flavour of the year it is great to be inspired about the potential 3d virtual worlds have to offer. 

I have rented a space “Interactively Utopia” where I hope to further explore building and learning in second life.  I am being helped along in second life in my learning journey by an amazing group of educators such as Al Upton, HeyJudeJenns, Dean Groom, and Sapphire .  I thought twitter was a great network (and still is) but the personal support I am finding in Second Life is just amazing. 

I encourage everyone to come and visit me (Dewi Kittaj) in Second Life at my new home which you can find at http://slurl.com/secondlife/jokaydia%20II/196/141/25 and I look forward to sharing many tales of my learning journey through my blog.  I would also love to hear how others are using second life in education.. 

Here is a photo of my second me

Hi All,

As a few readers of my blog might be aware I have started a new job this week.  My new position is at Edsoft working as an Interactive Whiteboard Specialist across Australia.   I am extremely excited about the opportunities this position brings.  I really believe we need to make a shift when schools are purchasing IWB’s.  The push needs to move from “what tricks can the board do?” to “what professional learning is provided with my IWB?” and “who from and how much support will I get ?”  I am hoping to make that change that I wanted when I was purchasing IWB’s at my previous schools.

Anyway enough about my new job, to support teachers who have or want Interactive Whiteboards I have created a group on diigo called Interactive Whiteboard Pedagogy.  It is my hope that we can build this group to be a place for rich discussion and support for all interactive whiteboard users.

I have started a discussion on the group website regarding the different changes and stages of IWB practice that are occurring in schools.  I would love group members to add their views on what practices are currently occurring in schools.

I look forward to  collaborating with fellow IWB users and enthusiasts

Hi All,

As promised here is my presentation and resources for my coaching plans.  The main points from the presentation was that coaching is a  partnership where teacher and coach discuss, observe and reflect on specific aspects of teaching practice whereby it:
?Reaffirming strengths in teaching
?Models good practice
?Provides opportunity for professional learning
?Promoting the exchange of good ideas and resources
?Shares the demands of the job
?A confidential process

I am very keen to hear how other schools are using coaches to improve classroom instruction.

Resources:

Coaching Presentation ICTEV 2008

Coaching Action Plan Example

Coaching Reflection Pro Forma