April 2008 Issue

Submitted by ThomasPaula on Wed, 30/04/2008 - 14:39.

Welcome to our first INSITE edition for 2008. A chance to catch up on all the news from the QSITE ChapterNews, upcoming conferences and all the QSITE projects happening in Queensland.

Articles

Insite Logo

QSITE AGM 2008

Submitted by ThomasPaula on Wed, 30/04/2008 - 10:59.

QSITE AGM

The 2008 QSITE Annual General Meeting was held on Friday 29 February 2008, 7:00pm Anglican Church Grammar School
Oaklands Parade, East Brisbane.

Agenda Items

- The 2008 QSITE AGM Agenda
- Confirmation of State Office Holders
- Launch of the new QSITE website
- Announcement of the 2007 QSITE Award Winners
- Special motion to incorporate into the Rules (constitution) the new class of members - Corporate

The Keynote address was delivered by

Dr Margaret Lloyd
Senior Lecturer in the School of Maths, Science and Technology Education,
Queensland University of Technology:

"What's happening with IT in the Senior Phase of Learning?"

Extract... Each state and territory in Australia offers specialist IT studies in the senior secondary curriculum. Since the start of the millenium, however, numbers in these subjects have been falling and the gender disparity has been increasing.

Message from our past president Sel Kerens

Submitted by ThomasPaula on Wed, 30/04/2008 - 11:05.

Message From Sel Kerens – QSITE Past President

Hi all
I wish the QSITE Board a successful and prosperous year - I feel the organisation is in more than capable hands and the future's looking great.
As you know, I'm stepping back for a spell after being on the QSITE Board 10 years or more to give more time to family, start new study and finish a personal project or two.
I'm happy to be a 'friend' to the Board and help out with things at times, QSITE Advocacy group, Advanced Licence
Thanks to QSITE for the rewards of being involved - I'll always be an advocate as you know....

Cheers
Sel

QSITE Awards

Submitted by ThomasPaula on Wed, 30/04/2008 - 10:52.

2007 Award Winners

Congratulations go to Dr Marg Lloyd for QSITE Outstanding Leader of the Year, Graeme Hutchinson for QSITE Educator of the Year for 2007 and Richard Kelly Emerging Leader of the Year.
They have all made amazing contributions to ICT development and you can read their fabulous bios in the Autumn edition of QUICK.

QSITE State Conference - Toowoomba July 2008

Submitted by ThomasPaula on Wed, 30/04/2008 - 11:11.

QSITE State Conference 2008:

"Bridging the Great Divide"

Fairholme College, TOOWOOMBA

3rd, 4th and 5th July 2008

This conference provides a forum for educators in schools, Universities, TAFE colleges, professional associations and industry to present ideas and exchange information on the integration, development and applications on all topics related to computer education and exploiting the use of ICT’s throughout the curriculum.

Check out the papers and presentations that will be part of this great event

Chapter News

Submitted by ThomasPaula on Wed, 30/04/2008 - 11:08.

Innovative Middle Years Ideas group in Townsville Chapter.

To support and assist the many schools who are introducing a Middle Years program QSITE Townsville has decided to expand and “rebadge” the group to the
“ICT Leaders Network” to include members working in the lower secondary
(middle years). The principles remain the same – leaders supporting
leaders, teachers supporting teachers. Each term a host school will
“showcase” an aspect of ICT Teaching and Learning, with a strong
emphasis on pedagogy.

Mackay Chapter makes Meetings a Learning Experience

Mackay chapter incorporates their meetings with a chance to learn some new skills. Come along and enjoy the company of fellow QSITE members dedicated to lifelong learning!

14th May – (Tentative) Using BroadLearn
Early Learning software workshop (3:30 to
4:30 followed by meeting)

Professional Development Sessions
6th June – Full Day IWB with free software

FNQ Chapter are playing games and having fun!

The folks up in FNQ had a rewarding workshop in the Tablelands with twenty people attending
3 workshops – Gamemaker, Powerpoint Animations, Smart Classrooms Professional Development Framework Information Sessions.
Watch out for the next workshop on May 17th – Cairns '
Gamemaker and Using Blackboard in the Learning Place'

Pupil Free Day on July 08 is QSITE sponsored ICT day for FNQ Regional Professional Association Network Day held at
Brothers’ Leagues Club

Rockhampton Chapter is on a Quest in Term 2

Interactive whiteboards are all the go in Rockhampton after a huge attendance their PD workshop for IWB at Parkhurst State School.1Rex Boggs has set up an IWB users support group which plans to have regular PD.
Check out their Term 2 plans to de-mystify laptop workshops and Webquests on their new website

Robots visit the Outback Chapter
The May workshops will be featuring some visiting robots and their skilful operators to run a workshop.The Angie Moffat memorial scholarship announcement should be announced shortly.

Wide Bay Chapter is Broadening their horizons!

They are currently discussing a joint strategic proposal for ongoing ICT professional development opportunities between University of Southern Queensland (FraserCoast) and QSITE Wide Bay.

Many opportunities for attending some PD in the Wide Bay area include:-

QSITE WB ICT Half-day Collaboration Sessions, 14th July, Hervey Bay.

· IPT Specialist Teachers Network, Sept, Maryborough (to dovetail into
QSA Panel Training Day)

· Smart Classrooms Professional Development Framework - ICT
Certificate Workshop, date(s) TBA
Sunshine Coast Chapter

Did you miss the April School Holiday Workshops? ...then you missed Gamemaking in the Classroom (Scratch & Game Maker), Inclusive Education, Cool Tools and classroom application, Cut It Out, Podcasting-Can you hear me?

Make sure you check out their website so you don't miss any more of these exciting events

All roads lead to Towoomba ... QSITE Conference June holidays.

Don't forget to lodge your applications to attend the exciting QSITE Conference 2008 in beautiful Towoomba. See the website for all the details
of this not to be missed event!

Bob hits Brisvegas Chapter!

Bob Rogers cast his magic charm over Brisvegas with his MyWorld workshop in Term 1 . Hot off the press is the Term 2 workshop on Improving Learning Outcomes with the Use of IWBs at Churchie on May 29 4pm.

Our New QSITE Website Launched

Submitted by ThomasPaula on Wed, 30/04/2008 - 11:02.

QSITE's web presence moved to a whole new level with the launch of an exciting new site at the AGM on 29 February 2008. The new site follows the work by the QSITE board in 2007 on a new QSITE image and branding and brings a web 2.0 look, feel, and functionality to the website. Congratulations to Amanda Rablin and all the QSITE team for their amazing energy and hard work in bringing this dream into reality!

QSITE members will enjoy the ability to:

* Participate in a rich social network with their peers in ICT in Education
* Manage their own profile within the QSITE network
* Add colleagues as friends
* Add comments to site content
* Add and tag relevant content
* Keep their own blogs and comment on others
* Subscribe to online newsletters
* Join organic groups of people with similar interests, questions and ambitions
* Create and contribute to wikis
* View videos and listen to audio (downloadable as podcasts) of QSITE PD and events

The launch of the site will be the release of the public content (does not require login) to replace the previous website (which will be stored as an archive). Members will be notified about how to set up their usernames and passwords coming weeks.

During 2008 development on the site will continue with the goal to include the ability to renew and pay membership fees online, join and participate in online events, register for conferences and submit and view papers.

If you have feedback and suggestions for the website development group please email Amanda Rablin - arablin@bne.catholic.edu.au

Queensland School's Web Challenge

Submitted by ThomasPaula on Wed, 30/04/2008 - 11:14.

The Queensland Schools Web Challenge for 2008 is up and running!

Why not be involved and win great prizes!

QSITE is once again hosting the Queensland Schools Web Challenge which is annual website competition for studentsThe theme for 2008 is ’Regional Australia’

Entries are due on Friday 5 September 2008.

The Queensland Schools Web Challenge is an exciting opportunity for students to:
Interact with local communities
Explore the Internet as a tool for communication and research
Participate in the design and publishing of a web page or web site
... and win prizes.
Students are to choose their own interpretation of the theme, form a team and create a website!
The categories for teams for 2008 are:
Junior Category (Years 5 – 8)
Middle Secondary (Years 9 - 10)
Open Category (Years 11 – 12, QUT*)

* The competition has been expanded to allow 1st year education students at QUT to participate which is an exciting challenge for Year 11 and 12 students. Please note this is a trial for 2008.
The categories have also been restructured for 2008 to provide a better balance in terms of the number of entries received in each category and the standard of entries submitted.

The categories and entries received will be reviewed during judging.

This year, a number of teachers who have experience in competing in the Web Challenge have offered to be mentors for first time participants. If you need advice or help, you can contact any of the mentors via email. The mentors for 2008 are:

Justin Graham (Fraser Coast Anglican College): jgraham@fcac.qld.edu.au
Heather Burn (Moreton Bay College): burnh@mbc.qld.edu.au
Nathan Hutchings (Forest Lake College): nhutchings@flc.qld.edu.au
Janet Sawbridge (MacGregor State School): jsawb1@eq.edu.au

These email addresses are also listed on the website.

For further information, see http://www.qsite.edu.au/webchallenge08 , or contact Kym Coleman K.Coleman@iggs.qld.edu.au.

QUICK Autumn 2008

Submitted by ThomasPaula on Wed, 30/04/2008 - 10:56.

This exciting edition is completed and you should receive your copy in the mail this week. Includes articles on "QSITE in Second Life", "Tapping into the Anatomy of the Brain for Better Learning" and many more We are still not receiving many articles and encourage all members to contribute and of course it would be great to have more regional representation in each edition.