Elluminate+-+online+classrooms

Since last week I have been doing the Elluminate Masterclass series PD online. This has involved learning how to run the Elluminate program so that I can hold my own classes/PDs in an online setting. Elluminate truly breaks down distances as anyone from anywhere can be in your "room", as long as they have an internet connection.

Another great thing about this program is that you can record all of your sessions and revisit them later. The Knowledge Bank Online website [] has a collection of past Elluminate sessions which you can view. You must download the Elluminate program first to view these recordings.

These are the links to my Masterclass sessions so far: Session 1: click **[|here]** Session 2: click [|**here**] Session 3: click [|**here**]


 * Here are some worthwhile PD sessions to watch from the [|Knowledge Bank] website:**

Andrew Douch is the ICT Innovations Leader at Wanganui Park Secondary College and an Intel Master Trainer. In 2008 Andrew was named Australia’s most innovative teacher at the Asia Pacific Innovative Teachers Forum for his use of Podcasting, iPods, discussion boards, websites and instant messaging, and in 2007 he was named the Microsoft Victorian Innovative Teacher of the Year. Andrew is passionate in his assertion that great teachers need not be “tech-savvy”. They are novel, innovative and willing to take risks. “What we need in the 21st Century is not teachers with computer skills, but teachers with minds open to change, teachers with new ideas. The technical know-how comes second to the ideas that make it necessary.” Andrew is a practising classroom teacher with 17 years experience teaching secondary science. []

Virtual classrooms in a Web 2.0 World. This session offers Victorian educators a chance to learn about and participate in a virtual classroom, and to talk to Web 2.0 educators about what they’re doing. [|Web 2.0 Forward Motion]: this workshop archive also includes a [|webcast] and blog entry by [|Alex Hayes] on access for students to networked learning technologies. Alex - who was unable to join the workshop on the day because of firewall blocks notes that: ”It’s not firewalls we are facing…..just humans frightened to broaden their own frame of reference.” The workshop is part of a program of online learning and professional development events organised around an online meeting space in Elluminate Live - a collaborative virtual conferencing facility.[]
 * What is a virtual classroom and what benefits does it offer to teachers?
 * How can online tools be used in the Web 2.0 classroom?
 * How to get started and how to get the best out of the virtual classroom tools.