ICT in distance education

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/technology-allows-vce-students-to-take-education-on-the-road-20111113-1ndun.html

I read this article in the Age on Monday and I thought it brought up some interesting ideas about ICT in education. My brother and sister did home schooling for a year in year 9, and while the enjoyed it (and felt like they learnt more than they would have in mainstream school) they found it quite isolating as they didn't have anyone else to talk to. As well as Skype, which is mentioned in this article, I think it would be useful to have wikis and discussion boards to allow distance education students to connect to work collaboratively and to discuss ideas.

Beauty Queens book trailer

Here is a lesson I planned for an English class using youtube clips and book trailers. Book trailers are a fantastic way to engage students with reading. They are designed like a movie trailer would be, and are a great way for students to decide what to read next. Student could also make their own, which would make a nice alternative to writing a text response.

Students were going to be reading 'Beauty Queens' by Libba Bray, which is a satirical book about the beauty industry whcih parodies Lord of the Flies. As an introduction to the survival genre, the students watch film/book trailers for Lord of the Flies, Lost and Beauty Queens then complete a Venn diagram to compare themes, characters, common plots, clichés. After discussing these features as a class, the students write a plan for a survival short story including character profiles, plot summary and setting.

Lost -
Lord of the flies -
Beauty queens -