This document provides information and examples for using Ultranet spaces, wikis, and blogs in educational settings. It discusses: 1) The different types of Ultranet spaces like home spaces, express spaces, collaborative learning spaces, and design spaces and examples of how they can be used. 2) What wikis and blogs are and examples of how they can be used in classrooms for projects, organizing events, and publishing information. 3) Tips for getting started with wikis and blogs in the classroom, including starting small, seeking help from experienced teachers, and targeting tech-savvy student moderators.

1. Macedon NetworkLoddon Mallee Region

2. Purpose Ultranet Symbols Usage of the spaces Wikis and Blogs Definition Examples of where used Translate to staff

3. Home This is your landing page. It is a me space. No one else can see this

4. Use for Learning Contacts Notices – teachers/ communities and spaces you belong to Notice Viewer (for students) displays notices in pictorial format with a text summary for all the communities and spaces the student belongs to Moderator Requests informs you if any students have requested you to become a Moderator of a space that they have set up within the Ultranet

5. Express Space My personal space Only those I invite can see this space It is a WE Space

8. maintain a professional Portfolio

10. Use for Small group tasks: create a wiki that poses an inquiry question, such as ‘Do we need to conserve water in our community?’. students respond to the question through comments on the page. Add resources you want students to use; Whole class project: Create a unit on China pose questions and including supporting information such as images, videos, message boards and hyperlinks to other internet resources. Add a blog to promote reflection, asking students to reflect and comment on a podcast or a video. Cross-class project: Studying a Book. Studentsand teachers discuss and share ideas about characters, themes or the plot. Students are invited to collaborate and contribute designs for alternate book covers, rewriting blurbs, or writing character references; Plan an excursion or camp: create a space where an excursion to the museum is jointly planned by all involved Prepare a list of class norms: safeand responsible behaviours when participating in online communities like the Collaborative Learning Space.

11. Design Space A space for professional collaboration and learning. This is a WE SPACE

12. Use for Professional learning team to communicate and collaborate around aspects of shared work. For instance, what we mean by high-quality instruction; Teachers in a learning area or year level team to collaboratively develop, plan and document curriculum. within a school or across schools Less experienced teacher(s) to be coached by another teacher Teachers in small or remote schools to collaborate and share curriculum materials with teachers across Victoria Principals in a network to collaborate and share professional dialogue and resources Curriculum/literacy/numeracy coordinators across a network to collaborate and share Teachers involved in a Bastow program, network or regional professional learning activity to communicate between and after sessions Teachers to share and moderate pieces of student work.

13. Community Space A space for educational communities to communicate and collaborate. This is a WE SPACE

14. Use for

15. Wikis & Blogs Blog a diary or news column type of page display, normally with a comments section for readers' opinion. Wiki a collaborative website where all members contributes

16. What’s a wiki? How can they be used in the classroom?

17. Some ideas for using them in the classroom Class information wiki: Let parents and students know what your class is up to, put in a calendar. Upload newsletters and circulars in case they get 'lost' in someone's bag. Whole class projects: Students make X-number of pages relating to a research topic and link to their classmates' work. Group projects: 3, 4, 5 + students can collaborate on reports, presentations etc without that classic excuse "James is away sick and he has all of the work!“ Organising a Fete, Or any other major event: All members of the committee can work on the planning. Curriculum planning: Link to resources, upload worksheets and lesson plans.

18. Some ideas for using them in the classroom (cont.) Subject Wiki: Information for students, homework, assignments, a calendar. No more "I didn't know what to do for homework." or "I lost the rubric“ Organising a sporting tournament: Dates, fixtures, contact details Pen Pals: Write to people anywhere! Or collaborate with classes in Australia and/or China on an international project Collaborative story writing: Students can work together on stories. Subject revision: Students contribute to revision guides

20. Promotes "real-world" collaboration skills

21. Pools strengths of many

22. Assessable, easy to track

23. Online collaborative writing produces higher quality writing than face-to-face collaboration (Passig and Schwartz, 2007 cited in Orech, 2007)

24. Security/safety issues

25. Labour for moderator

26. Combating "Copy and paste"

27. Potential inequitable work distribution by contributors(list modified from Orech, 2007)

28. What’s a blog?

29. Some ideas for using blogs in the classroom Autobiographical writing: Students can use the blog as a journal or diary of day-to-day life Book journaling: Students write their thoughts or respond with comments to the teacher’s or other students’ posts about a book. Science reports: Students journal the investigation process Class blog run by teacher: Informing students of important events eg homework, excursions, what to bring to school. Students can comment for clarification.

30. Some ideas for using blogs in the classroom Art impressions: Students comment on works of art Creative writing: Students write posts as prose or poetry and constructively critique one another’s work. Digital portfolio: Students can record a body of work by uploading documents and images Tracking a student’s thinking as they complete any assignment

31. Tips for getting started with Blogs and Wikis Start small with your own wiki or blog about anything. Use it for planning or for letting family overseas know what you are up to or just make it weird Seek help from colleagues who have tried it Target the tech-heads with maturity in your class to be moderators Read educator blogs Global Teacher

32. Blogs and wikis from Macedon Ranges schools ...to keep our school community up to date with what's going on. A blog is a type of website, maintained by our class teachers with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are displayed in reverse-chronological order and the school community is able to leave a reply to entries.

33. You have experts in your class already.u have experts in your class already.