It is the Saturday of a long weekend here in Oz so I am in more relaxed mode and have been sitting reading the newspaper in the sun. I read with real interest about Obama’s speech in Cairo, which I had missed and, of course, cranked up the mac and went to Youtube to have a look!
As I watched this excepetional man speak I became aware of just how much deeper my involvement and learning about this significant event are because of my access to the visual media. To watch and hear and “be in the crowd at Cairo” is a far greater experience and deepens my understanding of the events Obama talked about. He was talking to the world. I sensed myself “sitting beside” people with much more at stake e.g. people huddled in refugee camps in Palestine. It was quite an experience!
It reaffirms for me the dawning understanding that the world has changed and the way I learn has changed. So we must change the way we teach in our schools!! (I have worked in a couple of institutions this week where the “battles” around freedom and access are still being keenly fought, I was a little tired from this but have been lifted by watching a truly 21st Century leader!)
Sitting in a meeting which is quite worthwhile, but a bit of a curate’s egg, like most human interactions. I have had internet access up to now but it just dropped out and I’m legless!! It is interesting to monitor my reactions (cf. Mia’s reflections on her holiday). I am a bit lost!! I feel annoyed at the top as I now am just “in this room” and at the mercy of the presenter. I already know a lot about what she is discussing (that’s is not to say that it is not useful for all of us in some way). I am aware that I like to be “connected” not simply to be distracted but to really enhance what is going on in the room but perhaps my main feeling is that I simply have to postpone many of the things I could do until I get back online. My issue is about my time! I honestly don’t think my multitasking takes away from my contribution to this group – I’m not integral to the meeting, just a participant.
My answer?? I have dropped into Word and am writing this as a post for my blog –but I’ll have to upload it LATER!!!
“The world is fast dividing into two types of people. First, there are those who fear that even typing the word “MasterCard” into an email will result in their bank accounts being emptied by Nigerian scammers.
Then there are those who breathe the digital environment like oxygen - who have never been inside a bank branch, who will chat with friends without talking and who will cheerfully buy from, sell to and make payments to people they have never met, regardless of the country in which they live.” (Where do you fit???)
Mia Freedman in her blog and column, in her inimitable way, really puts it to those of us who can’t live without our technology ….. how long since you had a real holiday!! Worth a read!!
I think this is a good one to show teachers around collaboration possibilities and the changes in Society.
It is over now (I could hear the bell go!) and in some ways was quite inconsequential like lots of human interactions. It was just as if I was in the room for their meeting. It put me in touch with their wikis and even the program for the weekend conference they were preparing for. Certainly interesting, somewhat surreal and much cheaper than flying to Japan!!
Brian and I chatted for about five minutes on Skype afterwards. This gave me a good chance to connect with him a little more and understand the details of their rather big Professional Development weekend. They used membership of a Ning as a way of enabling people to book in for workshops for the weekend. A good idea we might try!
Sitting at home with a dose of the flu and being subsequently chair-ridden has given me a chance to scour my web sources quite a bit and reflect on the changes in my own learning yet again!! Things have changed (I know that) but I keep seeking some pattern which will help me understand just what is happening to me and of course all of us (even if we don’t know it!!).
As I have reflected before people who challenge me recognise the importance of having a PLE (Personal Learning Environment)(e.g. Mark Treadwell). We (Sydney CEO) are moving towards more of this (e.g. One of our wikis - it is still private but apply and you’ll be let in!!) and finding the process interesting - it is certainly a great addition to our LMS which has been too slow for years and frustrated effective colaboration. It is certainly connecting us. Stephen Downes (see previous post) is one of the people I find who really thinks about what is happening (he has a philosophical background and it shows, you may need to acquire the taste if this isn’t you … I like it!). Stephen gave an interesting talk in Canada last Thursday it is well worth the listen and watch! (Remember he is an acquired taste!!).
This gives me a segue into my own “stream of learning” from my chair this week. I always start in Google Reader and a post from Rampantred caught my eye and led me to Susan Boyle (as the SMH said today “If you haven’t heard of this you must be living with Osama (that’s Bin Laden not Barack!) my contribution towards the viral phenomenon!). Not sure where I “caught it from” but discovered that Mark Pesce did a keynote at the ACE Digital Fair at Geelong Grammar also last Thursday which I listened to also. Pesce is always worth listening to so I did, reflecting on the saving of $500 or so in conference fees but also sharing the feelings of Kim Cofino and others on the value of attending conferences. Don’t get me wrong, I love catching up with people and meeting new people and find all this very valuable - it is ONE of the ways we learn (just a part of our PLE as Downes would say!).
Other snippets:
reflecting on the two different presentations of the talks.
Pesce was a video, Downes Sildeshare with accompanying Odeo audio ( I think I liked the control I had over Downes better, my interaction seemed to involve me more).
had great fun (eventually!! iTunes is soooo picky) getting a full Hollywood movie onto my wife’s iPhone - please don’t ask “Why?” this is the holidays and I’m sick!!
Downes and George Seimens are running their “Connectivism” course again later this year, I might do it!
Still sniffing around in Twitter trying to make up my mind!!
Just used the work phone to take photos at Byron, surprisingly good, certainly much easier to document a time and place.
A final quote from Seimens:
It’s a great time to be in education. And an even better time to be in the educational technology field. The fuzzy, ambiguous, emerging, and confusing world of technology and learning is more clearly defined than it was only ten years ago. This is largely due to the many different voices exploring and considering trends influencing institutions of learning.
Only my second post for the year but as I am on holidays at Byron Bay for the Blues Festival which starts on Thursday I have a little time to reflect and thought I might write a little here. I’m actually writing this offline and will wander down to the Internet Shop shortly to load it up.
Having time and being offline is good for me, I think! A few thoughts ….
Les, 3 years old, was watching a movie on the laptop the other day when he got up to get a drink. From my perspective he seemed to “bump” something on the keyboard and concerned I jumped up lest there be some issue. He looked at me and said: “I just paused it Pop!” Pause/3yo/me not needed/must be 21st Century!!
Stephen Downes, whom I have read, with interest, for a number of years was in Sydney last week for a couple of things. I only found out at the last minute via Twitter (it is growing on me..)and although I couldn’t get to any of his formal presentations turned up for a meal with Stephen and others one night. Somewhat surreal feeling…I didn’t know anyone except Stephen and we had never met…we had quite an enjoyable time(at least I did!!) and I couldn’t help reflecting on what is possible. A subtext was, however, for all our connectedness - the right hand often doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. So much is possible but we can often stay within a pretty small pond - perhaps we all need to consider how we can be truly open to the many, many ideas of others.
We have all been having fun with Elaine’s new iPhone this week as there is no other online here. I like to think that I am not a gadget guy but it is one cool tool! (Les likes the “Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round” App. - so do I!) However we were amazed at just how pathetic is the 3G coverage (Optus) along the North Coast. Calls are fine but the 3G is really weak and intermittent. Another reason we all live in Sydney!! Talk about the digital divide.
Final word .. last Tuesday Sydney CEO held a “Showcase” of projects around integrating ICT into learning. On show were teachers (dare I say ordinary ones) who from a variety of perspectives and subjects areas across K-12. It was great! It pointed out just how great the need is to “show” people what others have done. We seem to learn by connecting…… We are looking at ways to expand on this and really help teachers connect and share - not the easiest thing to do when you are an over-busy teacher.
This is crazy - I haven’t written anything here for ages!! Lots have been happening but at least I am back!!
I am here because I have been thinking and reading a lot and my focus at the moment is to attempt to build a PLC (professional Learning Community) among the eLearning Co-Ordinators who have been recently appointed within or schools. I have just about given up on creating a viable PC with my colleagues so am trying to sharpen my thinking around the essential ingredients People like Kim Cofino have helped me get a little clearer. So many people like Mark Treadwell and the ISTE standards just see this as part of the way to go.
“Teachers must become comfortable as co-learners with their students and with colleagues around the world. Today it is less about staying ahead and more about moving ahead as members of dynamic learning communities. The digital-age teaching professional must demonstrate a vision of technology infusion and develop the technology skills of others. These are the hallmarks of the new education leader.”
—Don Knezek, ISTE CEO, 2008
Initially I am going to encourage everyone to run a blog (hence my return!!) and I’ll set up a wiki and maybe use a video to communicate with the m! They will probably think that i am a w****r but who cares!! Lets give it a go.
I have been doing a lot of reading (Julia Aitken, Jamie McKenzie and Mark Treadwell for three) as I try to get my head around just what is the best way to respond to the needs of schools as we attempt to respond to today’s learners and today’s (or should that be tomorrow’s?) issues. At this point this will probably be something of a ramble but it might help me to move along a bit.
“We have a long way to go…the steamroller is coming, and we can hear it now. We were way ahead of it before, but now it’s closing in on us…This change is way bigger than all of us. Technology is going to change it. This will happen. The change will happen.” George Lucas
Some of the things rolling around inside my head:
It must come from the values out. We have to work out why we have school and what it’s purpose is and move out from there.
this has to happen at the school level (leadership!?) it can’t be pushed “down”
nothing will happen unless teachers become “lifelong learners” themselves and this means belonging to a professional learning community (I share these with people I don’t actually work with, hardly any with those I actually work with!)
“online” meetings
Skypelike stuff
the importance of an online Learning Environment (OLE) - myinternet for us - {we have to find something better!}
bandwidth is crucial
enquiry based learning has to be better understood and used
classroom structures and patterns
basic skills and confidence
how to use my laptop
a good way to do something in class
knowing what is available
sharing best practice
genuine assessment and feedback is essential for learning.
Just recently I bought a new computer with a TV card and a decent video card, which I connected to my lounge room TV (via cables under the floor, it doesn’t dominated the lounge room at all). This is, as you can read in lots of places, one of the new frontiers!! “Harnessing your vast media library” blah, blah, blah.
I have been very aware that it has changed in lots of ways how I/we view and use our media “stuff”. We have watched many more slideshows of the family photos and videos etc as we can all share them on the family TV (proudly still a CRT but I am weakening) while sitting on the comfortable chairs and talking with each other. We have also watched “streamed broadcast TV programs” which we missed and forgot to record - I almost said “taped”- as well as the usual downloads. But today was just a little different …….
I was reading Alan Ramsay in today’s SMH (one of my favourite print columnists) in a typical piece on great leaders and their ability with words as he reflected on the current reaction to Barak Obama. Alan quoted extensively from a speech the “unknown” Obama made at the Democratic Convention in 2004 as a keynote for John Kerry. I read the quotes, which were 80% of the article, with great interest and Alan’s reflections on Australian leaders.
THEN … I simply browsed to Youtube and, sitting in the same chair, watched it, on my TV while I was reading the paper in the same chair!!
It really made me think about accessing sources, literacy and the part played by both types of media in my experience and understanding (besides feeling really cool)!
As I often say these days: “I’m not really sure exactly what is happening in this world in which I live but, deep down, I just know it is different in a way that is fundamental”
I visited CBHS Liverpool (Matt Wells is the guy running the ICT things there) and Patrician Brothers’, Fairfield (James McFarland here) today because I wanted to get a feel for how the rollout was going on the ground. Both these schools have chosen macs; both used the CEO image and the kids have Adm rights; neither school has (yet) a macserv in place so the laptops simply authenticate to the wireless and if the kids need the server they map a drive to their server home.
At Liverpool the kids don’t have their external HDD just yet and are backing up to the server while at Fairfield they are using the HDD.
There have been only very minor issues and things are working really well. The wireless seems to be coping fine and everyone is smiling!! The internet is very much another thing ….(c’mon Kevin!)
In the classrooms the first thing that strikes you (both are boys schools) is the engagement. There is no “mucking up” - I’m not saying they are angels but all the eyes are headed in essentially the one place!! I know the purists will sneer at this demanding much more in the way of engagement that this and I agree, but anyone who has taught lots of Year 9 boys will notice this straight away and that is a HUUUUUGE plus!
Comments from the kids include: “It is great, I can type faster than I can write and all my stuff is in the one place”, “It is great being able to search for stuff right here and now and not have to wait to go to the lab”, “I’ve got most of my textbooks on this now so my bag is lighter”, “They are pretty cool!”.
My initial observation (not meant as a criticism just a reality) was that there is not very much multimedia stuff showing. A lot of what kids had stored in subject files was text (although don’t underestimate the value of neatly arranged text in a boy’s work!!). Several groups were working from a question on the board and writing a response. Keynote was about as flashy as it got, but we all know the PD is our challenge for the next few years! Both schools had enabled iChat and, while the kids knew it could be fun, it wasn’t a huge problem and in fact was being excellently used at Liverpool for communication between teachers, kids and the “helpdesk” (aka Matt!).
Liverpool teachers were having a “mac” (as in Macintosh not McDonalds) breakfast when I arrived. A user group sharing tips and ideas on Garageband this week. The enthusiasm and committment was great to see.
I left both schools very encouraged although not completely surprised as I have often seen the commitment and enthusiasm of our teachers for improvements before this. I was however very, very aware of the huge PD task that lies ahead of us all as we move realistically towards being 21st Century teachers. Perhaps we need to borrow Barack Obama’s challenge to the USA “Yes we can! Yes we can!”
