The Hub

Creative Commons Pictures

2011-07-29T10:38:00.004+10:00

Want to find free pictures on the web quickly and easily, then give Wylio a go.

Creative Commons

2011-07-28T14:25:00.005+10:00

Want to download and share digital content legally?

Creative Commons Kiwi from CreativeCommons AotearoaNZ on Vimeo.

The idea of universal access to research, education, and culture is made possible by the Internet, but our legal and social systems don’t always allow that idea to be realized. Copyright was created long before the emergence of the Internet, and can make it hard to legally perform actions we take for granted on the network: copy, paste, edit source, and post to the Web. The default setting of copyright law requires all of these actions to have explicit permission, granted in advance, whether you’re an artist, teacher, scientist, librarian, policymaker, or just a regular user. To achieve the vision of universal access, someone needed to provide a free, public, and standardized infrastructure that creates a balance between the reality of the Internet and the reality of copyright laws. That someone is Creative Commons.

Who's Talking About you?

2011-07-28T10:33:00.004+10:00

Want to know who's talking about you? Social Mention is a social media search and analysis platform that aggregates user generated content from across the web into a single stream of information. It allows you to easily track and measure what people are saying about you across the web's social media landscape in real-time. Social Mention monitors 100+ social media sites, including Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, YouTube, Digg and Google.

Your Digital Footprint

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

The internet is a great place for sharing stuff, but remember that what you share with your friends could be seen by other people that you don’t know. They may also be able to look at it for years to come. Once it’s online, it could be there forever. So think before you post.

Tips

Keep your personal details private. Use an appropriate handle or username instead of your real name. If you are unsure, don’t give out your name, address, phone number or any other personal details over the internet.
Don’t share your username or password with anyone.
Think before you hit send or post. Once something is posted, it can be online forever.
Don't post anything you don't want others to know—or that you wouldn’t say to them face to face. Respect your friends too—that ‘funny’ photo of them at a party might not be so funny for them, and they might not be very happy if you post it up for everyone in the world to see. Treat others as you would like to be treated.
Remember that private images and videos you send to friends or post on a social networking site may be easily passed on to others and uploaded to public sites. This can include pictures that may only be intended for your close friends or your boyfriend/girlfriend. Once they’re up, it’s almost impossible to remove them completely.
Respect other people’s content and be aware that if you post or share their content it might breach copyright laws. For example, a photo that your friend took is their property, not yours. You can only post it online if you have their permission.
Read the terms and conditions of any photo or content sharing sites. Some sites require you to license the material to the site, which might mean that you lose control over your content.

© Commonwealth of Australia© Copyright Commonwealth of Australia 2009

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Check out the © Copyright Commonwealth of Australia 2009 © Copyright Commonwealth of Australia 2009

Online Safety

2011-07-26T10:47:00.001+10:00

For information on enjoying the online world safely visit cyber(smart:) There is information for children, teenagers, parents and educators.

Twenty-First Century Learners

2011-07-26T09:31:00.011+10:00

Yesterday I attended "Information Landscapes for 21C Learners: Developing Inquiry Through Web 2.0 and Student Engagement", a seminar presented by Dr. Joyce Valenza. It was at the beautiful Dockside Convention Centre in Cockle Bay and the walk down from Central was lovely as usual. I was greeted by a vista of boats in Darling Harbour as the Sydney International Boat Show was on. The presentation that Joyce gave was inspiring, intimidating and overwhelming. All these marvelous ideas that she puts into practice! The tools and ideas flowed all day. I don't think that she sleeps. If I can put 1% of her ideas into practice I'll have achieved something.

Her 10 Big things for TLs are:

1. Acacadmic digital footprints

2. Creative Commons

3. Fair Use

4. Research

5. Content Curation

6. Keeping up with searching

7. GIGO - Garbage in, garbage out!

8. What is a primary source?

9. Creativity

10. Communication and collaboration

I needed a break from it all at lunch time to clear my head, so walked up into town to visit my favourite store :-) Dymocks. I do realise that I was attending a seminar about digital resources and Web 2.0 but I love paper too. I love the feel of a good book in my hands, the texture of the paper and the physical experience holding and reading a book.

The seminar was worthwhile... it has stimulated me into trying a few new things and, indeed, resurrecting my blog. Onwards and upwards...

How "Peep Culture" is Changing Our Lives

2009-09-24T10:27:00.004+10:00

Social critic Hal Niedzviecki explored the implications of blogging, social networks, and even reality TV, in The Peep Diaries.

We have entered the age of "Peep culture": a tell-all, show-all, know-all digital phenomenon that is dramatically altering notions of privacy, individuality, security and even humanity. Peep culture is Reality TV, YouTube, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, over-the-counter spy gear, blogs, chat rooms, amateur porn, surveillance technology, Dr. Phil, Borat, cellphone photos of your drunk friend making out with her ex-boyfriend, and more. In the age of Peep, core values and rights we once took for granted are rapidly being renegotiated, often without our even noticing.

With hilarious, exasperated acuity, social critic Hal Niedzviecki dives into Peep, starting his own blog, joining every social network that will have him, monitoring the movements of his wife, hiring private detective websites to investigate his father, spying on his neighbors, and trying out for Reality TV. Hal holds a Facebook party for his 800 online friends – only one shows up! – and goes drinking with a group of middle class empty nesters whose new hobby is posting their amateur porn to the 'Net. Part travelogue, part diary, part meditation and social history, The Peep Diaries explores a rapidly emerging digital phenomenon that is radically changing not just the entertainment landscape, but also the firmaments of our culture and society.

The Peep Diaries introduces the arrival of the Peep culture age and explores its implications on entertainment, society, sex, politics, and everyday life. Mixing first-rate reporting with sociological observations culled from the latest research, this book captures the shift from pop to peep and the way technology is turning gossip into documentary and peeping toms into entertainment journalists. Packed with stranger-than-fiction true-life characters and scenarios, The Peep Diaries reflects the aspirations and confusions of the growing number of people willing to trade the details of their private lives for catharsis, attention, and notoriety.

Read Chapter One.

Read Hal's blog, watch the trailer for the new documentary, Peep Me, and share your own Peep experiences at www.thepeepdiaries.com!

The Winner is....

2009-06-24T13:46:00.003+10:00

On Thursday 18 June at a gala dinner held at the State Library of New South Wales. Tim Winton was announced as the 2009 Miles Franklin Literary Award winner for his novel Breath.

It is twenty-five years ago when Tim won his first Miles Franklin Literary Award for Shallows. This year's win means that he is the only writer ever to have won four times in his own right.

Education Review

2009-05-22T11:38:00.003+10:00

Access the online edition of Education Review - Australia's National Education Publication for FREE.

Also look for the Education Review Technology Guide.

NSW Premier's Literary Awards

2009-05-22T11:09:00.002+10:00

The NSW Premier’s Literary Awards honour both new and familiar writers, and the novels, poems, biographies, histories, plays and screenplays that have delighted readers of all ages since 1979.

The winners of the 2009 NSW Premier's Literary Awards and Translation Prize are:

Special Award ($20,000)
The Special Award is awarded either to a work not covered by the existing categories, or in recognition of a writer’s achievements. This year the judges nominated Ms Katharine Brisbane AM for her service to Australian literature and theatre.

People's Choice Award for fiction
Steve Toltz, A Fraction of the Whole, Penguin Group (Australia)

2008 Book of the Year Award (additional $10,000)
Nam Le, The Boat, Penguin Group (Australia)
Read the judges' comments here

Christina Stead Prize for fiction ($40,000)
Joan London, The Good Parents, Random House Australia Pty Ltd (Vintage)

Douglas Stewart Prize for non-fiction ($40,000)
Chloe Hooper, The Tall Man: death and life on Palm Island, Penguin Group (Australia)

Patricia Wrightson Prize for children's literature ($30,000)
Ursula Dubosarsky & Tohby Riddle (illus), The Word Spy, Penguin Group (Australia)

Ethel Turner Prize for young people's literature ($30,000)
Michelle Cooper, A Brief History of Montmaray, Random House Australia Pty Ltd

Kenneth Slessor Prize for poetry ($30,000)
L K Holt, Man Wolf Man, John Leonard Press

Script Writing Award ($30,000)
Louis Nowra, Rachel Perkins & Beck Cole, First Australians, Blackfella Films, SBS

Play Award ($30,000)
Daniel Keene, The Serpent’s Teeth, Sydney Theatre Company, Currency Press Pty Ltd

The Biennial NSW Premier’s Translation Prize and PEN Trophy ($30,000)
David Colmer for his translations from the Dutch.

Community Relations Commission Award ($15,000, sponsored by the CRC)
Eric Richards, Destination Australia: migration to Australia since 1901, University of New South Wales Press Ltd

Gleebooks Prize for critical writing ($10,000, sponsored by Gleebooks)
David Love, Unfinished Business: Paul Keating’s interrupted revolution, Scribe Publications Pty Ltd

UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing ($5,000, sponsored by UTS)
Nam Le, The Boat, Penguin Group (Australia)

The Slap wins Commonwealth Writers' Prize

2009-05-22T10:42:00.005+10:00

Christos Tsiolkas has won the Overall Best Book Award for The Slap (watch The First Tuesday Book Club on ABC TV review the book here) in the Commonwealth Writers' Prize (CWP), announced on Saturday at the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival. The Best First Book Award went to Pakistani author Mohammed Hanif for A Case of Exploding Mangoes.

The Governor-General of New Zealand, Hon Sir Anand Satyanand, presented the prizes, worth £10,000 (AU$20,025) and £5,000 (AU$10,012) respectively. Chair of the judging panel the Hon Justice Nicholas Hasluck called The Slap a ‘controversial and daring novel'.

Read more here....

A Case for Books!

2009-05-18T09:25:00.002+10:00

I cannot imagine being curled up with a good computer screen.

"Younger generations are now more likely to have seen a movie version of Pride And Prejudice than they are to have read the book. Some people even describe themselves as Jane Austen fans without having opened any of her books. We're in danger of Keira Knightley being responsible for preserving one of the greatest literary legacies."

Read the rest of this thought provoking article at the Sydney Morning Herald site.

Miles Franklin Literary Award

2009-03-24T09:40:00.006+11:00

The Miles Franklin Literary Award, our first and most prestigious literary award, was established in 1954 with a bequest from the author Miles Franklin. She was concerned to see Australian literature flourish and knew first hand the struggles most authors have in Australia.

The Miles Franklin Literary Award celebrates Australian character and creativity and nurtures the continuing life of literature about Australia. It is awarded for the novel of the year which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phase.

The Longlist

The ten novels selected for the Miles Franklin Literary Award 2009 longlist are:

Novel	Author
Addition	Toni Jordan
A Fraction of the Whole	Steve Toltz
Breath	Tim Winton
fugitive blue	Claire Thomas
Ice	Louis Nowra
one foot wrong	Sofie Laguna
The Devil's Eye	Ian Townsend
The Pages	Murray Bail
The Slap	Christos Tsiolkas
Wanting	Richard Flanagan

The shortlist will be announced on the 16th April and the winner will be announced on the 18th June.

Orange Prize for Fiction

2009-03-24T09:01:00.005+11:00

The Orange Prize for Fiction longlist was announced on March 18, 2009.

The Orange Prize for Fiction is awarded to the woman who, in the opinion of the judges, has written the best, eligible full-length novel in English.

The prize is open to any full length novel, written in English by a woman of any nationality, provided that the novel is published for the first time in the United Kingdom between 1 April of the year before the prize is awarded and 31 March of the year in which the prize is awarded.

Orange Prize for Fiction 2009 Longlist

Debra Adelaide The Household Guide to Dying
Gaynor Arnold Girl in a Blue Dress
Lissa Evans Their Finest Hour and a Half
Bernardine Evaristo Blonde Roots
Ellen Feldman Scottsboro
Laura Fish Strange Music
V.V. Ganeshananthan Love Marriage
Allegra Goodman Intuition
Samantha Harvey The Wilderness
Samantha Hunt The Invention of Everything Else
Michelle de Kretser The Lost Dog
Deirdre Madden Molly Fox’s Birthday
Toni Morrison A Mercy
Gina Ochsner The Russian Dreambook of Colour and Flight
Marilynne Robinson Home
Preeta Samarasan Evening is the Whole Day
Kamila Shamsie Burnt Shadows
Curtis Sittenfeld American Wife
Miriam Toews The Flying Troutmans
Ann Weisgarber The Personal History of Rachel DuPree

Connect HSC English Students to Amazing Online Resources

2009-02-19T10:45:00.003+11:00

The State Library of NSW has developed a free online guide to assist HSC English teachers and students with their studies.

Simple to use and accessible 24/7, the HSC English Guide connects NSW users to valuable reference books, articles, websites, online databases and catalogues - sourced and verified by library experts.

The Guide assists students to find information and articles on set texts and areas of study such as Belonging. There are also handy writing resources and tips on language and style.

Find out more by viewing the online HSC English Guide (listed under Research Guides) at the Library's website - www.sl.nsw.gov.au.

Share this amazing resource with your students!

In Honour of the Bushfire Victims

2009-02-18T14:10:00.002+11:00

Did You Miss the Halloween Celebrations in the Library?

2008-11-07T14:23:00.002+11:00

drug info @ your library

2008-10-27T11:40:00.003+11:00

drug info @ your library is a great resource for HSC students.

It provides information on:

alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs
drug and alcohol effects
mental health and drug and alcohol use
how to talk to others about drug use
where to go for help

The website, www.druginfo.sl.nsw.gov.au, is a gateway to fact sheets and detailed information from drug and alcohol organisations, government departments and youth organisations.

In the For Students & Teachers page of the website there are links to statistics, reports and a specific section for PDHPE students. This page also contains useful links for the subject Society and Culture. Students can look at A-Z drugs and For Young People pages for more information.

Free Study Notes

2008-09-09T11:21:00.003+10:00

CliffNotes provides homework help and free study guides on the web. Check it out soon!!

Web 2.0 - The Machine is Us/ing Us

2008-09-03T13:16:00.002+10:00

Whether you love it or hate it, it is us and we are it - Web 2.0. Welcome to the future.

Animation Made Easy

2008-08-07T12:07:00.004+10:00

"From inspiration to animation, create and share animations in mere minutes!"

Go! Animate.

Kids Prefer Reading Online

2008-07-28T14:41:00.000+10:00

The unending debate over whether or not reading on the Internet is “really” reading gets played out once again in this New York Times piece titled “Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?” It’s the story of a “typical” family where the kids are online some six hours a day reading and writing at FanFiction.net among other places.

Read the whole thing. All in all, it’s a pretty interesting back and forth between old readers and young, and the bottom line is that it’s obvious that’s it’s something we need to be thinking of as we think about reading curricula and pedagogy.

del.icio.us

2008-06-27T10:06:00.000+10:00

I have used del.icio.us for a while. It is a social bookmarking site where you can keep all your bookmarks in one place, share them with family, friends and colleagues and check out what other people are bookmarking.

I have set up an account for the library that I use to help our users. Feel free to visit Emmaus Library’s bookmarks on del.icio.us. I have tagged sites about studying, the HSC, literary awards and the web. There is a link to it from our school library homepage, which you can access via Emmaus Online. The students also have access to this.

In the future, if you want me to locate Internet sites for year group assignments I will put these on del.icio.us.

Miles Franklin Literary Awards

2008-06-20T09:42:00.000+10:00

The winner of the 2008 Miles Franklin Literary Award is Steven Caroll for 'The Time We Have Taken'. The short list was as follows:

*The Fern Tattoo*	David Brooks	University of Queensland Press
*The Time We Have Taken*	Steven Carroll	Fourth Estate (HarperCollins Publishers)
*Love Without Hope*	Rodney Hall	Picador (Pan Macmillan Australia)
*Sorry*	Gail Jones	Vintage (Random House Australia)
*Landscape of Farewell*	Alex Miller	Allen & Unwin

If you want some quality Australian literature to read over the holidays, mayybe read the winner or one of his competitors.

The How 2 of Web 2.0

2008-06-12T11:01:00.000+10:00

After I attended the "Blogs, Wikis and other Web Tools' seminar I enrolled in The How 2 of Web 2.0 online learning program, which started this week. Unlike a traditional inservice or training it is all done online and is proving to be both interesting and fun. Check out the original Learning 2.0 blog. Maybe it will inspire you to start learning.

I am also extremely interested in passing my learning on to you. Is anyone interested in learning about blogging or getting their class involved? Maybe your students need to journal their learning - a blog would be a perfect tool for them.

Jane's E-Learning Pick of the Day

2008-06-06T08:58:00.000+10:00

Jane's E-Learning Pick of the Day is a worthwhile blog to visit regularly. It has a daily item of e-learning interest. Each item is short, precise and details a great resource. Visit it soon.

Share Your Thoughts

2008-05-30T11:22:00.000+10:00

Feel free to comment on the information that you find here on The Hub. Simply click on the 'comments' link at the bottom of the relevant entry. Share with us what you thought about the post or how you may incorporate it into your classroom and teaching. Blogging should be interactive and collaborative.

Hope to hear from you soon :-)

Microsoft Innovative Teachers Awards

2008-05-29T14:05:00.000+10:00

Have you been using ICT in innovative ways to inspire your students? If so the Microsoft Innovative Teachers Award is your chance to receive rewards and to be recognised for your contribution to teaching and learning.

Enter now!

Hot New Titles!!

2008-05-29T10:52:00.000+10:00

We rarely buy Teacher Reference, but I feel that the TR collection is in desperate need of updating! These two titles should inspire you to start incorporating Web 2.0 into your classrooms. Borrow one of these today.

"Classroom Blogging" by David F. Warlick is a teacher's guide to Web 2.0 tools taht are shaping a new information landscape. Weblogs are about reading and writing. Literacy is about reading and writing. Blogging equals literacy. How rarely does an aspect of how we live and work plug so perfectly into how we teach and learn? Reading this book will give teachers important clues not only in how to become a blogger and to make their students bloggers, but also how this new avenue of expression is revolutionizing the information environment that we live in.

"Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and other powerful tools for classrooms" by Will Richardson is an easy-to-read guide to Web 2.0 tools. This book will move teachers to think differently about technology's potential for strengthening students' critical thinking, writing, reflection, and interactive learning. The book demystifies words like "blog," "wiki," and "aggregator", making classroom technology an easily accessible component of classroom research, writing, and learning.

This guide demonstrates how Web tools can generate exciting new learning formats, and explains how to apply these tools in the classroom to engage all students in a new world of synchronous information feeds and interactive learning. With detailed, simple explanations, definitions and how-to's, critical information on Internet safety, and helpful links, this exciting book opens an immense toolbox, with specific teaching applications for:

Web logs, the most widely adopted tool of the read/write Web
Wikis, a collaborative Webspace for sharing published content
Rich Site Summary (RSS), feeding specific content into the classroom
Aggregators, collecting content generated via the RSS feed
Social bookmarking, archiving specific Web addresses
Online photo galleries

Blogging

2008-05-19T14:01:00.000+10:00

If you haven't already seen it, this video from the Commoncraft Show explains how blogging emerged and how blogging now fits into our daily life of friends, family, work and news. Blogging is a form of communication that has permeated many aspects of our lives and changed the way we communicate.

MIT OpenCourseWare

2008-05-19T13:39:00.000+10:00

MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) is a web-based publication of virtually all MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) course content. OCW is open and available to the world and is a permanent MIT activity.

What is MIT OpenCourseWare?
MIT OpenCourseWare is a free publication of MIT course materials that reflects almost all the undergraduate and graduate subjects taught at MIT.

OCW is not an MIT education.
OCW does not grant degrees or certificates.
OCW does not provide access to MIT faculty.
Materials may not reflect entire content of the course.

This resource could provide you with a fantastic source of information for those students who need extending and for yourselves as teachers and learners. There is course material in the areas of engineering, sciences, humanities, the arts, health and more.

17 Tips for a Creative, Life-Long Learning Journey

2008-05-16T09:31:00.000+10:00

Download this wonderful little interactive book , 17 Tips for a Creative, Life-Long Journey, from Fablevision for a refreshing, simple guide to teaching and learning.

Fablevision is a company that produces CD-ROMs, websites, books and films that inspire and teach. They are advocates of the wonderful classroom and their mission is to help all learners discover their potential. Check out their other free educational resources - all aiming to inspire and encourage.

Visuwords Online Graphical Dictionary

2008-05-15T11:35:00.000+10:00

We all know that a lot of our students are visual learners. Check out Visuwords, a free resource for all web users. It is a dictionary and thesaurus and great for students, teachers and writers. Look up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts. Produce diagrams reminiscent of a neural net. Learn how words associate.

Enter words into the search box to look them up or double-click a node to expand the tree. Click and drag the background to pan around and use the mouse wheel to zoom. Hover over nodes to see the definition and click and drag individual nodes to move them around to help clarify connections.

Share this resource with students. They'll love it!

Skype

2008-05-14T10:17:00.000+10:00

Interested in free calls or video calls? Try using Skype - free software from the web that allows you to make Skype-to-Skype calls or video calls. All you need to do is download the software and have a headset or built-in microphone for calls or a webcam for video calls. This could be a great option for cross-campus classes, video conferences or simply keeping in touch with family and friends who live a distance from you.

Learning to Change, Changing to Learn

2008-05-14T09:55:00.000+10:00

How times have changed! What can we do to equip our students to cope in a technology-based world? A lot of our students could end up in jobs that don't exist yet.

The Horizon Report

2008-05-13T11:28:00.000+10:00

The New Media Consortium (NMC) is an international not-for-profit consortium of over 260 learning-focused organizations dedicated to the exploration and use of new media and new technologies. NMC member institutions are found in almost every state in the United States, across Canada, and in Europe, Asia and Australia. Among the membership are an elite list of the most highly regarded colleges and universities in the world, as well as a growing list of innovative museums, research centers, foundations, and forward-thinking companies.

As the centerpiece of NMC's Emerging Technologies Initiative, the Horizon Project charts the landscape of emerging technologies for teaching, learning and creative expression and produces the NMC’s annual Horizon Report. Download the 2008 Horizon Report and read about emerging technologies and critical challenges that are facing education and learning organisations in the near future.

Our Poor Printer

2008-05-13T11:05:00.002+10:00

I know that sometimes you have problems with the staffroom printer, and that you need to send print jobs to the library. Please remember that all the students in LT1 and the library also print to the library printer. It may be wise to not send confidential items to our printer as it is readily accessible to students and we cannot monitor the printer all the time (nor do I see that as our job). Also, if you need multiple copies USE THE PHOTOCOPIER. It is much cheaper and does not tie-up the printer for others.

Watch the World

2008-05-13T10:48:00.000+10:00

Have you heard of Second Life? It's is a 3-D virtual world created by its residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by millions of residents from around the globe. It has been used by some Australian schools and educational organisations to teach students and host online conferences. To get an idea of the creativity and wonders involved, see "Watch the World" to see the possibilities.

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Making URLs Tiny

2008-05-12T14:45:00.000+10:00

Do you hate giving students shockingly long URLs to websites? By entering a URL in the text field on TinyURL, the website will create a short URL that is simple to give to students, will not break in emails and never expires.

Who on our staff blogs?

2008-05-12T13:48:00.000+10:00

I attended a fantastic seminar on Friday on Blogs, Wikis and other Web Tools. The keynote speaker was inspirational. Check out his book - 'Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms' by Will Richardson. He spoke eloquently about the failure of schools around the world to teach students how to really use Web 2.0. Most of our students are teaching themselves and each other. Couldn't we, as educators, do a better job if we could get a handle on the web and all it's uses? How many of you have your own blogs? Who doesn't even know what a blog is? How many of you utilise blogs in your classes? I have seen the perfect opportunity this year for students to use blogs - some of you require students to journal their learning. A blog could be a great solution - you'd be teaching them to utilise Web 2.0, teaching them new skills (and yourself) and it's far cooler than typing it up on Word and printing it out! Blogger is an easy tool to use - I now have three blogs up and running and am having a great time. Even the technophobes amongst you could manage it. Have a go - your students will love being able to blog for class.

The Wonders of picnik

2008-05-12T13:21:00.000+10:00

My thirteen year-old daughter showed me how to funk up my photos on a great website called picnik. I could never get my head around Photo Shop - far too complicated - and this web site is really easy to use, plus you don't need software. It's all on the web. All you need is a picture and away you go. Have a look at the results.