July 17th, 2010 — Uncategorized
The Digital Education Research Network (
DERN) is a network of researchers looking for research evidence of good teaching and learning using technologies. I saw one of its prinicpal researchers,
Gerry White, present in Perth last year and enjoyed his insights into the current trends and future directions for technology in the classroom. His
blog on the DERN site looks like it will be worth following with the latest post looking at some research into commonly held beliefs about technology which are proven to be myths, at least in the US.
The 5 myths in summary are:
- New teachers and/or those with greater access to technology are more likely to use it in the classroom
- Only high achieving students benefit from using technology
- As students are already comfortable using technology, it is not important whether teachers do or not
- Teachers and adminstrators have shared understandings of 21st century skills
- Graduates feel well prepared to integrate technology effectively
Go here for the full report
July 15th, 2010 — Uncategorized
As we are using the
ISTE framework as a guidling resource in our technology integration plans I thought this post from
Jenny Luca who attended the
ISTE conference in Denver was worth sharing.
Some interesting points from Jenny’s reflections:
- 17000 attendees - that’s a big conference!
- Lots of discussion about iPad as an educational tool with advantages like battery life countered by flaws like not being able to edit google docs
- razzle dazzle at the conference – bands playing to introduce keynote speakers
- digital literacy a focus of many sessions – The art of crap detection 101 being a highlight
- Microsoft guide to digital literacy ‘critical thinking in the classroom’
- something about twitter hashtags which I don’t really get
Jenny’s poster presentation on ning can be found here.
June 15th, 2010 — Uncategorized
A thought provoking essay written by futurist
Mark Pesce. The essay builds a compelling picture of the influence that mobile technology and social networking is having on the way young people learn. The two paragraphs below resonated with me.
You must engage. But we can not hand you a teenager and ask you to suddenly engage with them. That simply won’t work. Building the bond takes time; it’s a labour of love and an exercise in trust-building. The best mentors and teachers know this and practice it within their classrooms. But the classroom is suddenly everywhere. The network has swept in, swept through, and blown down the classroom walls. Educators and students are immersed in an ‘educational field’, something like a magnetic field, where amazing educational resources lie at tip of fingers, at the end of our hands. We may worry about the accuracy of Wikipedia, but no one argues about its impact. Anyone who has seen iTunes University, or downloaded an educational podcast knows about this ‘educational field’. Education is freely available. That is not in short supply. What is in short supply – and always has been – is that moment of human contact, the connection which produces the transfer of insight, of skills, and understanding that won’t come from any webpage, however brilliant, or any podcast, however well-produced.
And on the newly monikered Australian Curriculum, his thoughts echo those of our esteemed leader, Rob.
We’re very lucky, because just at this moment in time, the Commonwealth has gifted us with the best reason we’re ever likely to receive – the National Curriculum. Now that every student, everywhere across Australia, is meant to be covering the same materials, we have every reason to connect together – student to student, teacher to teacher, school to school, state to state. The National Curriculum is thought of as a mandate, but it’s really the architecture of a network. It describes how we all should connect together around a body of knowledge. If we know that we should be teaching calculus or Mandarin or the Eureka Stockade rebellion, we have an opportunity to connect together, pool our knowledge and our ignorance, and work together. We can use our hyperconnectivity to hyperempower our ability to work toward understanding.
Go
here to read the essay in full
May 27th, 2010 — Uncategorized
Fifteen country reports on ICT in education (2009/2010 series) are now published on Insight. The reports are drafted based on the information provided by Ministries of Education through an annual questionnaire. This initiative is one of the major activities undertaken by European Schoolnet to gather and analyse information on ICT in education for Ministries of Education across Europe. The main aim of the reports is to foster the active information exchange between Ministries on ICT in education-related topics of common interest.
The 2009/2010 edition outlines five key areas:
1. The education context
2. ICT policies
3. ICT in the curriculum
4. Digital learning resources
5. Teacher education for ICT
Click here for more
May 27th, 2010 — Uncategorized
Came across this site which cleverly displays links to research, comments, web 2.0 tools, conference information and useful edtech lists.
Includes ISTE’s top ten picks for 2010.
http://www.educationeye.org.uk/
May 18th, 2010 — Uncategorized
This taken from the Microsoft Teacher Tools
blog
As a general rule, I don’t talk about devices in this blog unless there is real educational relevance. While the Digital Education Revolution is top of mind in most schools, the question about what is the most pedagogically powerful piece of technology is quite interesting.
Is it the Laptop? The answer is, not quite. Over 20 years of research clearly show laptops can greatly improve student learning when implemented well (see www.aalf.org for all the research). But is there anything better than a laptop?
New research says there is. And it’s quite a bit better. Adding pen (stylus) input makes a huge positive difference to student learning. Adding multi-touch improves things again. In other words, the most pedagogically powerful technology tool is the new Tablet PCs we are seeing popping up in Australia.
Professor Gordon Sanson, the Director of eEducation Centre at Monash University goes into a deep explanation of why(click here to watch the video). Here’s a clip of Joe Tront from Virginia Tech presenting another view of why at the Tablet PC in Education Conference (click here).
Why is it so much better than a laptop? It’s not just because they’re a lot more fun. One of the major reasons is because of all the additional ways you can interact with the device, that assist the brain in making connections, and which allow you can do a whole lot more. The Expanding Learning Horizons Conference run by Computelec is probably the best 1-to-1 conference in Australia and is a showcase of powerful tablet based learning. This is not news to the schools that attend this conference.
Click here to read more
August 22nd, 2009 — Uncategorized
The Expanding Learning Horizons conference held in Lorne Victoria each year is the longest running event of its kind in Australia. The conference brings together teachers and school leaders to share new initiatives in educational technology. This was my second time and the impact on both occasions has been profound due to the inspiring array of presentations, opportunity to discuss ideas and strategies for improving ICT integration and the sublime setting – Lorne is a beautiful place to spend a few days!
The highlights from this year’s conference included:
- Opening keynote given by Andrew Douch, recipuent of the Microsoft prize for world’s most innovative teacher using technology
- Equally inspiring keynote delivered by Travis Smith focusing on effective methods for teacher professional learning
- Discussions with various presenters on the use of school portals and LMS
- Amazing presentation by Mark Liddell on the use of web 2.0 technologies in Mathematics
- Getting a tattoo and enjoying an evening on the dance floor at the gala dinner
As a result of the conference and subsequent debrief back at school, the technology task group of which I am a member is now working on a new vision and strategic plan for ICT teaching and learning. I also have lots of new tools to try with my class including: Animoto, Inkseine and podcasting
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July 29th, 2009 — Uncategorized
EPICT is an initiative for the professional development of teachers in ICT which came out of Denmark. Our school is currently involved in a pilot program. The key aspects of this model include: a focus on up-skilling through pedagogy, working in teams and the development of reusable examples of teaching with ICT.
Participants reflect on their current integration of technology and work through professional readings and exercises before collaborating on the production of an assignment. The assignment must be authentic, that is one the teacher will actually use in the classroom, and include the rationale for integrating technology, a detailed lesson plan describing the student activities and ideally would be submitted with examples of the student response to the lesson(s). It is essential that the participants provide evidence of the reflective process with details of how they decided on the particular applications utilised as well as the pedagogical considerations such as the need for differentiation and catering for different learning styles.
In the short time I have been involved in the program I have found it to be professionally engaging and rewarding. I have already learned a lot about integrating technology more effectively and I am confident that this will become a model for professional learning at our school.
Here is a prezi which I used to present to teachers introducing them to the idea of EPICT.
http://prezi.com/134642/
July 20th, 2009 — Uncategorized
The Victorian government site eLearning and ICT must be an especially useful resource for Victorian teachers who have access to the multitude of links, online resources and planning templates. However, one resource available without a teacher login is the planning matrix and associated template detailing the five essential elements of elearning. This would prove a very useful tool for schools who are reviewing or developing a strategic plan for ICT.
- eLearning Leadership: establishing the vision and supporting the implementation and change management
- Learning, Teaching, Assessment and Reporting: improving and extending learning opportunities through integration
- ICT Professional Learning: how do schools plan, implement and evaluate effective professional learning so that teachers can improve ICT skill set
- Learning Places and Spaces: the design and maintenance of IT resources and infrastructure as well as learning spaces
- Learning Communities: extending learning beyond schools into the local and global communities
The matrix allows schools to evaluate their current position on a continuum in each of these areas and then make strategic plans for improving ICT integration.
July 19th, 2009 — Uncategorized
To effectively support teachers and students integrate new technologies, you must be an effective user of technology yourself. This is stating the obvious but it is, nonetheless, an important point to make when developing a strategic plan for ICT integration. Simply put, by becoming an ICT learner along with staff and students, school leaders have a better chance of changing the culture of their school. Communicating a clear vision for ICT and collaboratively evolving that vision into action, as well as ensuring that the change process is supported by professional learning opportunities for staff are other key considerations outlined in this BECTA paper on strategic leadership of ICT in schools.
Just as teachers lead their students by demonstrating, modelling and learning, school leaders hoping to improve the integration of ICT in their school need to demonstrate, model and learn. For example, if I want students to recognise the benefits of managing and presenting data using technology then, as their teacher, I need to be proficient at using Excel. It follows, if I want the teachers to develop their skills developing online resources or virtual classrooms, then I need to become knowledgeable and proficient at doing this myself.
Leaders are learners, a critical inclusion in a school’s strategic plan for ICT integration.
