Hour of Code December 2016 – Let’s run an event!

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I received this in my email and thoroughly support its intent. One question I had was “When is the hour of code” – thinking it was a little like “Earth Hour” with specific date. I include the detail and encourage you to conduct your hour of code. The support material contained in the links below are quality resources and easy to follow.

When is the Hour of Code for 2016? For us in Darwin we will hold an online event on Friday the 9th of December 2016 and we would like to see schools in the NT do the same! Click the read more link below for information on how to sign up and run your own event. We will have volunteers to assist either in person or online. NT folk can contact me for more localised information. This information will also appear on our http://skills2021.educationnt.net site
Anybody can host an Hour of Code anytime, but the campaign goal is for tens of millions of students to try an Hour of Code during December 5-11 2016, in celebration of Computer Science Education Week. Is it one specific hour? No. You can do the Hour of Code anytime during this week, or anytime before or after!

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Setting the correct language in your word processor (MS Word)

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A lot of MS Word documents you will receive have their spelling defaults set to US English. With Word 2013 (and possibly even Word 2010) and beyond you can quickly change this default to Australian English.

If you see words like “magnetise” and “categorise” showing with the wiggly red line indicating that Word thinks they are misspelt…

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Mixing ATAR with life skills…

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Joe is currently at the Millgrove outdoor centre with his class and is loving being a part of Melbourne High – With over a hundred years of history (The first continuation school in Australia and Victoria’s first state secondary school) – They are leaders in a number of areas…

Interesting example… There is talk among universities that the ATAR is diminishing in relevance and a coupling of a diploma from their graduating school (like US college diploma) carries as much university entrance weight as the ATAR. The Melbourne High Diploma is not awarded for simply completing 4 years of 9 -12, There are genuine achievement standards that must be met in order to be awarded this certificate.

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15 online learning sites (14 free) with great courses

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I was asked today about access to online professional development. I realised I hadn’t refreshed my learnshifting blog entry on this for a while and thought it was time to do so…

So in no particular order are 15 sites that every teacher, learner, student should check out if they have that learning feeling.

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