Suzie Vesper visits Shelly Park School

Yesterday we had a visit from Suzie Vesper and Belinda Johnston.  It was great spending time discussing our school's progress towards completing the Final Milestone Report at the end of 2010 which marks the completion of the Eastnet Cluster we have been involved in for the last 3 years.  We re-visited the Contract Goals and discussed where next in terms of gathering evidence to support the statements we will make against each Goal for the Report and also sustainability for the rest of 2010 and beyond.

It was very interesting to me that this week in the middle and junior schools Kathy Pittaway and I are doing work which is contributing towards achieving one of the Goals which is as follows -

National Goal: Increase the school community's understanding of the education contribution of eLearning;
Cluster Goal: Parents will attend information evenings and workshops to develop an understanding of our eLearning community;
Success Indicators: Parents access and contribute to online learning environments eg KnowledgeNET, UltraNet, wikis, blogs and e-Portfolios.

The middle school are involved in online Homework related to their current inquirt about Water Conservation this week.  The task is to undertake a survey, created in Google Forms, and embedded into their Pod KnowledgeNET page then the following week to complete a Poll where they will self-assess their work using the traffic lights system.  Kathy and I plan to interview some children and ask them about how they felt about doing their Homework this way.  Then we can use this along with screenshots of the gathered data and the childrens' responses to this as evidence for the Milestone Report.

In the junior school yesterday I organised a feedback session for the Pod 1 and 2 Digikidz to share their learning with their parents and also to provide the parents with an opportunity to ask questions about the process.  The children recorded their parents' ideas using the easi-speak microphones and we will upload these, along with the photos they took using the digital cameras, into voicethread next week as a revision exercise.  The feedback was overwhelmingly positive and the parents reported the following:



The second Goal I was very interested in was:

Cluster Goal: Parents will be aware of the value of cybersafety protocols and its implications.
Success Indicators: Increased awareness of eLearning issues and cybersafety requirements.

I am interested in this at the moment because of my upcoming session with the BOT and skype conversation with Suzanne Barr about the possibility of participating in the Super Clubs Plus pilot in Years 4, 5 and 6.

Digital Citizenship and Cybersafety

Just joined this wiki http://ictpd-digital-citizenship-and-cybersafety.wikispaces.com/ .  I am very excited to be participating in a cybersafety and digital citizenship project as this has been something I have been interested in for a while.  I have looked into Super Clubs Plus and am keen to see what else I can investigate to increase my knowledge and understanding of this very important aspect of eLearning.

When I visited the wiki I watched a couple of youtube clips, the first of which I was familiar with having shared this with the staff at our school last week during a staff meeting. 



The other one, however, I had not seen and was very interested in.


The idea of myself as a Digital Immigrant speaking digital as a 2nd language versus my children as digital 1st language learners worries me, however, I was slightly reassured after watching the clip when Jukes said that the mind can re-wire and you can learn new things!  There's hope for me yet.  Jukes recommends reading: Steven Johnson's book 'Everything bad is good for you' - which, according to Jukes, says children playing sophisticated online games learn to take risks, deal with failure, become motivated and confident and have high expectations of themselves. He then goes on to recommend 'A Whole New Mind' by Daniel Pink. I am now adding another blog to my list of subscriptions in Google Reader http://www.committedsardine.com/blog.cfm .
I also was interested in the Educational Origami Wiki which had further information and Patrick Woessner's Presentations wiki on digital citizenship which I will have to spend some time exploring.

Measuring the iPad's Potential!

I have been Googling and musing over the possibilities offered by the iPad in Education.  I have been seriously been considering buying a MacBook for myself as I need a new laptop.  Now I have been introduced to the iPad I think I will need one of those too.  This wouldn't be a purchase only for myself but one which my children could enjoy!  I wonder though whether I will be able to buy just one and they can share?  Hopefully if I let them alternate between working with me on the MacBook and using the iPad there will be minimal arguing over who's turn it is.  Immediately I see that the iPad has so much potential for independent use.  I wouldn't be comfortable letting my four year olds loose on my laptop but the iPad is a different story.  It is so easy and intuitive to use with the touch screen.  They can read books and foster their confidence by recording themselves reading familiar stories.  The animations included with the stories hold my attention so they will certainly be appealing to children.

 

It would be very exciting to be a teacher in a classroom where children has access to motivating tools for learning - IWBs, laptops, iPods, iPads offer so many possibilities.  For a job like that, where can I apply?  But more importantly it would be thrilling to be a learner in a classroom with access to an exciting teacher with the tools to support learning for today's digital natives!  For a school like that, where can I enrol my children?

I enjoyed reading Bridget McCrea's article 'Measuring the iPad's Potential for Education' in the Journal, Transforming Education through Technology online.

Dangerously Irrelevant

I have just spent the past twenty minutes reading and watching video clips on the Dangerously Irrelevant blog and have a mixed response to what I have seen and heard.

After watching the clip below and reading some of the comments about how Secondary School and University age students feel about Education today I am disappointed that some feel their needs are not being met but, at the same time, not surprised as this is the same message I have received numerous times in different ways over the past few years. However, I agree that Education is not changing for all!





The idea that children may become the employers of their teachers does not seem that far fetched to me!

Certainly I have first hand knowledge of Pt England School in Auckland doing something very similar. The Year 6 class needed a new teacher and they made a video stating what they were looking for - someone who was willing to learn to incorporate ICTs into their teaching and the teacher didn't need to be an expert because the children would help! The teacher just had to give them the opportunity. The teacher who was hired responded to their video using photobooth demonstrating understanding of their needs. And isn't this what we ask of the children we are teaching, that they are willing to try? Don't we ask them to learn every day?

As an individual I know how quickly I have adapted to my touch screen mobile phone and how frequently I use the camera and video to capture moments. I check emails or use the internet which I couldn't do with my previous model nokia. Personally I think this is certainly some of the problem schools face - not having enough or updated equipment or technical support to incorporate digital technologies consistently. Or even within the school not having equitable access for all children and teachers. In my classroom in 2009 I had an IWB with ceiling mounted data projector, 4 PCs, 1 laptop, 1 digital camera, 5 headphones, teacher's HP laptop with inbuilt webcam, access to a shared noise cancelling microphone, access to a shared digiscope and access to a shared flip video. This allowed me to make full use of these technologies and both plan specifically and take the initiative and connect with outside events/situations bringing the world into the classroom and satisfying the digital natives. Last Term I was released from the classroom to support others with integrating eLearning into their classroom programmes. Some of the main challenges with this have been: having no space of my own to work in, classes having inequitable access to reliable equipment and personally having no equipment of my own. So whenever I need to teach something I have to locate every bit of digital equipment required and set it up. This is absolutely achievable but it adds another layer of challenge to the experience and is time consuming. I am passionate about eLearning in Education and am willing to do whatever is needed to make the best use of ICTs, however, I strongly believe to get others on board these issues need to be addressed. It's not necessarily the case that teachers aren't willing to change but rather they, like the children they teach, need to be given their next learning steps and be supported to achieve these!