School News Archive

Conficker Worm Targets Microsoft Windows Systems

(Tuesday 31st March 2009)
The US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) has released a free tool to check your (Windows) computer for the presence of the Conficker worm, which is thought to be ready for activation on April 1.

School tests could fail students

(Friday 27th March 2009)
A former head of the NSW Board of Studies, Gordon Stanley, has warned Australian education authorities against following the lead of the UK and US in overtesting students, and discusses the impact of the resulting school league tables and the practice of teachers teaching to the tests. (SMH)

Wii Classroom

(Friday 27th March 2009)
Blake Curran is a Melbourne teacher (Year 1) who has found some really neat applications for Nintendo Wii technology in his classroom. See also: Educause's 7 Things You Should Know About Wii.

Pupils to study Twitter and blogs in primary schools shake-up

(Friday 27th March 2009)
An overhaul of the UK primary school curriculum may require children to master Twitter and Wikipedia and give teachers far more freedom to determine lesson content. (The Guardian - UK)

Fake Stephen Conroy's 'fake' sacking

(Thursday 26th March 2009)
If you have been following this fascinating cyberspace story, you will be interested to hear that Fake Stephen Conroy, Leslie Nassar, says he has been sacked by Telstra over the satirical posts he made on his personal blog and Twitter account. However, Telstra seems to be denying this. (SMH). See also Telstra discussions.

Apple Innovations Group

(Thursday 26th March 2009)
An online meeting point for educators interested in using Apple technologies to enrich learning activities in their classrooms. Join to check out the resources provided, and browse the experiences of other educators like yourself.

Changes to FoI bring a new era of disclosure

(Wednesday 25th March 2009)
Under new federal FoI legislation, public servants will lose their right to deny access to documents simply because release "could result in embarrassment" or loss of confidence in the Government, could lead to confusion, misunderstanding or unnecessary debate or because the document was written by a senior public servant. See also: Champion to tear down walls of secrecy. (Matthew Moore - SMH)

Democracy should be the freedom to know

(Wednesday 25th March 2009)
There is a growing acceptance that fundamental to democracy is the right of the people to know: whether a government's deeds match its words, what information it holds about them, and the information that underlies debate and informs decision-making. (Extract from John Falkner's speech - SMH)

Correct use of the humble apostrophe

(Wednesday 25th March 2009)
Want to really stir up a hornet's nest with lovers of the English language? Then start up a discussion about the use and misuse of the apostrophe, or even suggest that its use should be discontinued! See also: How apostrophes can get you arrested (Rosemary Gillespie).

Another fad?

(Monday 23rd March 2009)
"I hate giving advice to young people, but when I was your age we'd make a good fad last at least six months. We got a whole year of fun out of totem tennis. We spun 10 months out of the yo-yo. Even speed reading lasted four months - which is pretty remarkable when you consider how quickly we got through the manual." Richard Glover discusses the latest e-fads such as Twitter (SMH)

Hide the Blogger Navigation Bar

(Monday 23rd March 2009)
Do you use Google's Blogger for your school's news site, or your class news page? You can edit your Blogger template so that the blue navigation bar is not displayed at the top of the page.

Score 97 in HSC and we'll give you $3000

(Monday 23rd March 2009)
A private school in Sydney is rewarding students with cash bonuses for performing well in the Higher School Certificate. (SMH)

Internet Explorer 8

(Friday 20th March 2009)
Microsoft have released a new version of their web browser. IE8 is claimed to be faster and more secure, with some new features such as Accelerator, Web Slices, etc.

iPod Touch Project

(Friday 20th March 2009)
Jenny Ashby (Epson PS, Vic) implemented the wonderful ICT Chase project, using new technologies to support the school's PDHPE programs. Jenny's new project focuses on the use of the iPod Touch to support classroom learning activities.

Fake Stephen Conroy lashes out at Telstra

(Friday 20th March 2009)
What influence should large corporations have on their employees' personal (online) lives? Telstra's attempts to cover up the fact that it tried to silence Fake Stephen Conroy (on Twitter) have backfired spectacularly. (SMH). For some background info, see also Connection more trick than tweet, and Telstra man behind Fake Stephen Conroy. (SMH).

Facebook-lite, nothing but a venue for twits

(Thursday 19th March 2009)
"Great - thousands of glorified text messages an hour from the twittering classes. Why on earth people think the rest of the world gives a damn about their two cents' worth (or 140 characters of text) is beyond me." (Dany Alarab - SMH Letters)

Calculating the Carbon Footprint of a Packet of Crisps

(Thursday 19th March 2009)
Some interesting considerations for students in a variety of KLAs .... Walker crisps in the UK was the first company to undertake a detailed study of the carbon footprint of it's products, and found it was producing more carbon than crisps. Read also some related discussion at the Ethical Consumer and the Carbon Counted sites.

Middle East Mapping Activity

(Wednesday 18th March 2009)
We all digest news and information about Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Egypt, Palestine, and a variety of other countries in the Middle East every day. But can you (or your students) identify the location of these countries on a map?

iAntiVirus (Mac)

(Monday 16th March 2009)
Fast and transparent anti-virus software for Mac OS X 10.5, creating only a minimal impact on the performance of the operating system. Fully functional free version. Other anti-virus software for Mac and PC at Wazza's AntiVirus Software page.

World Wide Web turns 20

(Monday 16th March 2009)
The creation of "the web" by British computer software guru Tim Berners-Lee and other scientists at the European particle physics laboratory (CERN) paved the way for the internet explosion which has changed the daily lives of those in the connected world. (AAP-SMH)

Principals to lose control over school purse strings

(Friday 13th March 2009)
From next year, principals in NSW public schools will need to invoice all school purchases through the NSW DET. The deputy chairman of the Public Schools Principals Forum, Brian Chudleigh, has written to the NSW Minister for Education, with concerns that the new process will prevent principals from shopping around and securing the best deal for their school. (SMH)

Mt Terry PS News

(Friday 13th March 2009)
A great example of a school news page. The news entries on this page are regularly updated using browser-editing technologies, with feeds published for RSS subscriptions. (Site created by QuikDesign).

'No evidence' on running shoe safety

(Thursday 12th March 2009)
Some worthwhile discussion, and maybe some practical data-gathering exercises, for students in various KLAs - "Scientists at the University of Newcastle wanted to find independent studies on the safety of sneakers that have cushioned heels and other features to prevent the ankle rolling in." (The Australian)

History of the Royal Observatory

(Wednesday 11th March 2009)
The Royal Observatory, home of GMT and the Prime Meridian line, is one of the most important historic scientific sites in the world. It was founded by Charles II in 1675 and is the official starting point for each new day, year and millennium.

Connection more trick than tweet

(Monday 9th March 2009)
Some interesting discussion about our elected representatives' use of social networks, such as Twitter, to sell their message. Is it really them Twittering though? (SMH - Annabel Crabb)

Google Search Tips

(Friday 6th March 2009)
For most Google searches, simply typing what you want to find does the job. If you want to refine your search, however, these suggestions from the Google gurus may be useful.

Whirlpool

(Friday 6th March 2009)
All the latest news and discussion relating to the provision of broadband services in Australia. Includes an ISP discussion forum and broadband plan finder.

FormulatePro (Mac)

(Wednesday 4th March 2009)
Free software from the Google people enables the overlay of text and graphics on PDF documents. Great for the completion of forms in PDF format. Other related Mac and Win PDF editing utilities at Wazza's PDF software links.

Beyond Cut-and-Paste

(Monday 2nd March 2009)
Students should conduct research on questions of import - questions that require they make answers rather than find them. Yet we continue to assign topical research that encourages students to rehash other people's ideas and thinking. Learn more at Jamie McKenzie's Australian workshops during May and June 2009.

Evaluating Web Sites

(Monday 2nd March 2009)
Acknowledging that there is no single body or organisation that ensures the quality of information available on the web, the Western Australian DET has provided links to these discussion sites in an effort to assist students and teachers to acquire critical evaluation skills that can be applied when undertaking online research.