The Virtual Staffroom Podcast

Kathleen McClaskey and Barbara Bray take a special interest in personalised learning, differentiated instruction and the whole concept of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). In this episode we dig into many of these concepts to learn more, including the sharing of some useful apps for personalised learning. Originally published January 20, 2012 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/virtual-staffroom/message

Like most teachers, Brett Moller, Bruce Fuda, Ashley Proud and Carolyn Foote all have to deal with the realities of filters and blocks on their school Internet connection, although they all experience this reality in slightly different ways.. In this episode we talk about web filters, the need to keep kids safe online and try to balance the argument with good old fashioned some common sense. Originally published January 13, 2012 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/virtual-staffroom/message

Michael Graffin is a young relief teacher from near Perth, Western Australia who has never had his own classroom but has still managed to discover the joys of working across the Internet on global projects. In this episode, Michael is joined by one of his collaboration partners Theresa Allen from Chicago, and also Lisa Parisi from New York, as we discuss the wonders of learning using online collaborative projects. Originally published January 13, 2012 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/virtual-staffroom/message

John Warnken is a good guy. He's 58 years old, lives in Florida and is not officially a teacher. However, John has been voluntarily working with students from all over the world to help them improve their English and broaden their view of the world. He's now on a mission to help other seniors do the same. Using the power of Skype, John has spent the last 4 years Skyping into classrooms all over the world working with kids that want to talk with a native English speaker. It's a short podcast, but a great story. Originally published April 15, 2011 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/virtual-staffroom/message

Deon Scanlon, Andrew Churches, Allanah King and Amanda Marrinan are leading Australian and New Zealand educators who use iPads, iPods (and even iPhones) in their work with kids. In this episode we share 48 of our favourite and most useful iOS apps… some fun, some silly, some educational, some serious; but all amazing! Originally published April 5, 2011 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/virtual-staffroom/message

Helen Otway is an assistant principal and Ultranet Coach in Victoria, Australia. She is passionate about ICT, professional development and developing a school culture of continual learning. In this episode we talk about a range of topics including sharing to build  school culture, learning through failure, and developing a more thoughtful approach to teaching and learning through reflective practice. Originally published April 3, 2011 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/virtual-staffroom/message

Apple's iDevices are gaining lots of traction in the education sphere lately, and with good reason. They have many of the characteristics of an almost perfect learning device, so it's no wonder so many schools around the world are trying to work out how they might best fit into the learning process. Rob Newberry, Tyler Sherwood and Brett Moller all work in schools that are exploring ways that the iPad, iPhone and iPad touch can be leveraged for greater learning. Originally published February 22, 2011 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/virtual-staffroom/message

Tim Kong, John Pearce, Britt Gow and Leigh Zeitz get together to chat about science education, but we soon get carried away talking about some of the bigger, broader issues of teaching in general. In the end, we cover a whole lot of different stuff.  This was another podcast organised over Twitter at short notice. Originally published January 21, 2011 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/virtual-staffroom/message

When it comes to blogging with students, Linda Yollis and Kathleen Morris know what they're talking about. In this episode they share some of their wisdom about getting very young students to blog effectively. Some great tips and advice on blogging.  Both Linda and Kathleen had their blogs nominated for the 2010 Edublog Awards, and Linda was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award. If you're looking for great advice about student blogging, this is the place! Originally published January 21, 2011 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/virtual-staffroom/message

Melinda Alford is a teacher who cares about design. From the design of her classroom, to the design of her school, to the design of the work she expects from her students, design plays an important role in the things she does.  In this episode we talk to Melinda about her classroom, her school, her city and a bunch of other things. Originally published December 10, 2010 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/virtual-staffroom/message

In this episode I get to have a fun chat with three highly connected educators about the value that being connected brings to them. Chrissy Hellier is a New Zealander working in Bangkok; Amanda Marrinan teaches in Brisbane Australia; and Paul Wood works in Dallas, Texas. Originally published December 4, 2010 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/virtual-staffroom/message

Mark Osborne from Albany Senior High School in NZ joins us to talk about the way his school leverages the power of Open Source software, cloud computing and hosted servers. We are also joined by Australian teachers Roland Gesthuizen and Peter Ruwoldt. Originally published August 20, 2010 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/virtual-staffroom/message

After rustling these guys up on Twitter at short notice, Rob Newberry, David Wees, Linda Pilkington, Britt Gow and Suzie Vesper join us to talk about copyright, iPads and iPods, and pretty much anything else on their minds! Originally published July 10, 2010 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/virtual-staffroom/message

During the recent Australian ITSC Conferences run by Apple Australia, Chris Betcher gave the keynote address called This is Not Amazing.  This podcast is a recording of that keynote. Originally recorded May 30, 2010 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/virtual-staffroom/message

Be Very Afraid is the brainchild of Professor Stephen Heppell, a gathering that brings together students from all over the UK to showcase some incredible ICT related projects. In this episode we hear some Stephen's personal insights about BVA. Originally published February 24, 2010 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/virtual-staffroom/message

Pamela Livingston, Leslie Wison and Ben Jones know an awful lot about implementing successful 1-1 computing rollouts.  In this episode we dig into the core ideas behind a successful 1-1 implementation. Originally published January 20, 2010 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/virtual-staffroom/message

In this episode as we speak with Rob Newberry, James Hollis, Danny Nicholson, Martin Levins and Stuart Walsh, five experienced and opinionated IWB users and try to explore some of the bigger, deeper questions behind the use of IWB technology. Originally published November 2, 2009 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/virtual-staffroom/message

This episode is a roundup of thoughts, ideas and impressions from delegates at the recent IWBNet Leading a Digital School Conference on Australia's Gold Coast. Originally published September 7, 2009 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/virtual-staffroom/message

Bill Kerr and Peter Ruwoldt teach in South Australia and have been using Scratch extensively with their students for quite a while. Peter was very involved in Scratch Day, an annual event to promote Scratch, and he shares some of his insights about this. Originally published July 15, 2009 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/virtual-staffroom/message

Jarrod Robinson, Ben Jones and Shane Roberts are not ones for sticking with the status quo. Our conversation explores some very cool tools being used for integrating technology with PE, such as Bluetooth broadcasting, QR codes and the Wii Remote. Originally published May 18, 2009 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/virtual-staffroom/message