Backyard

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!”

Keith Kruger Keynote from CoSN

Talking on the Macro level

Research from around the World.

Some of it is pretty damming! More recent study (e.g. Becta 2007) indicates there are difference with specific support.

Cisco study suggested that we promised too much for technology. Educator/Student Disconnect. Schools are becocming less representative of the world outside.

Lots of evidence that technology has not had a great impact on learning. He used a business model where it did look as if the money may have been wasted. The reality of how people actually work or  what they did at work was what had changed.

He thinks we are later than business we need to think about transformative practices in education

We have to have vision and Leadership

We have to rethink pedagogy.

We have to think about what schools are  for and only when we change this will we see transformation via technology.

He then spoke about the USA ed structure and presidential race …

Last point:  How to Engage Educational Leaders?

Link

First Session:

Liz Murphy

First part really dull and patronising, just a travalogue!!  Last part challenged me a lot more. The idea that it really is easy to bring these things together. The concept that she has gone out and found business and used her teachers skills to produce stuff was a real challenge to teachers who just wait for their cheques!!

Web 1.0  Push        Web 2.0  Share       Web 3.0  Live

Second Session:

Margaret Cox , University of London

Looking at developments in IT and what the learning and educational ideas around them were. Her thesis is that we can learn from what happened if we learn and remember the educational uses that the iCT was used for.

Spoke about the actual engagement of students (sometime as low as 10%) in technologies that the teacher was really keen on.

Study of Web 2.0 technologies for Key Stages 3 & 4 in and  out of school(this year)

Opening session was by Mitch Resnick MIT MediaLab on Creative Learning. Spoke about kindergarten approach to creativity and its importance for llifelong learning/ Seymour Pappert. Have been involved in developing Lego but wanted to take the learning to kids who might not be turned on by Lego.

He spoke about Scratch onlinelearning website ability to share programs and experiences. Seemed to be great social networking among the kids. Great quote re lego stuff: “It is great grammar but there  is no literature” Need to share and learn from best practice.

Sitting in Paul Newhouse’s session on Portable Computing in Schools (I’ll say something about the Opening session later)

• done quite a bit a research at WA school in Geraldton. John Willcock School
• NISS framework developed after a number of years of looking at systems
• macbooks rolled out around 2004
• kneejerk political decision

• he outlined some of the planning (including a new Principal and an ICT Curriculum AP)

• starting point
• lots of negatives
• teachers were weak
• low socio kids
• etc.

2005-2006 Start of a Transformation

• teachers had moved a long way, in real terms, in just one year
• the stuff worked!
• by the end of the year the teachers were actively using them

• increase in use by students at school 1-2 hours per day
• Not a single computer stolen or lost

Lots of evidence for improved use of ICT in curriculum. Lots of evidence of improved teacher “behaviour” e.g collaborative preparation and planning

After lunch:  Connecting teachers in remote Oz.

Surprise that there has been so little video conferencing sessions.

Schools “remote”  or “very remote”. Problem connecting up various states videoconferencing equipment sos they could talk to each other.

Back with Paul Newhouse (Edith Cowan Uni WA) This time on Digital Forms of Assessment. He’s an interesting bloke. He would really be worth getting over to do some assessment of our DER laptop project in the future.

Looking at:(For the HSC equivalent in WA)

• Electronic Portfolio
• Performance/Simulated Tasks exam
• Production exam
• Recorded interview

How do we capture student pereformance?

Marking using standard-reference and comparative pairs.

2007 report available

Learning from Richard Kimble

Project e-scape(2004-2007)

I’m sitting at Terrigal listening to Marco Torres presenting to the Inner West APs at their conference.

The refreshing outlook he has to “taking it outside the classroom” and the challenge to make our stuff relevant to the kids. Marco challenges with a broad sweep and it is easy to dismiss him as unrealistic but he speaks the truth. It is always great to be challenged by a breath of fresh air with some passion in it!

It is good for our people to have the  chance to think about this stuff. It is great that it is on their agenda!

The first round of the DER (Digital Education Revolution) has hit our schools today and is likely to occupy a lot of our attention over the next couple of years. While it is wonderful to see so much money flowing into Education (at last!) there are lots and lots of issues. See Graeme Philipson SMH for a non-schoolie comment.

Our system (Sydney CEO) is opting for the initial round to be used to provide laptops for all the kids in Year 9 (to take home ideally) and is already committed to providing funding to help schools install the infrastructure to put a managed wireless system in place to cater for the increased load.

No doubt I’ll come back to this issue pretty often in the future. Right now I just want to clarify my thinking about just what is required and/or can happen as I am bound to be caught up in a number of discussions soon.

• schools fell into this round of funding if their overall computer/student ratio was less than 1:8 in Year 9-12.
• This first round is expected to lift these school into the 1:2 range so the implication is that they will have to buy machines of some kind.

The issues are all covered in the Q&A on the Govt page .

Some questions:

• staffing to support the presence of the laptops in the school?
• do you have to buy new stuff? can you save money by buying good ex-lease e.g.

I was given David Nettlebeck’s book recently. Some of the strategies really seemed excellent applications of technology to real teaching. I am recording them here mainly for myself so that I can come back to them easily.

Among the ideas were:

• Using Mindmapping in a variety of subjects. Lots of good simple examples.
• Using “Callout” in Word to assist close reading of texts and to easily ascertain if kids understood stuff (even easy to mark!!)
  • • also used “Comments”
    • Inserting the text into a table
    • Responding with inserted graphics
    • Callout boxes sized to reflect themark value of the answer.
    • annotation of cartoons seeking understanding.
• Useful “Powerpoint” tips
• Word Organizational Charts to sequence ideas (even Maslow tyoes!)