Today our region got a glimpse of the Ultranet. Being an Ultranet Coach last year, I was very keen to see what it had to offer. From what I have seen it looks like there has been a good push towards student learning and collaboration, which is great. There are many aspects to the Ultranet that were described today. Key features that have stood out for me are -
Home page – a “landing’ space that can be personalised by each student and teacher, a bit like iGoogle.
The Learning Portfolio – a place for the students to reflect on their learning journey, with examples of their achievements and work samples. Teachers can also use a portfolio to reflect on their practice and professional learning.
Collaborative spaces – where teachers can set up spaces for projects to happen with other students in the school or with other classes across the state system – a chance to learn with others beyond the four walls of the classroom.
Learner profiles – student will be able to see their own progress and learning plans and tasks. Teachers will be able to view their students’ profiles and parents will be able to access their own child’s profile over the course of their schooling in the state system. All this will be fully secured.
Web 2.0 – blogs, wikis, video conferencing, forums and instant messaging look to be part of the Ultranet too.
What I am not sure about yet -
Access to the www and possible Internet restrictions through the Ultranet.
Its ability to keep up to date with the rapid changes in technology in order to sustain interest and relevance for our students and teachers.
How global partnerships will be supported in this environment?
Ultimately, I see the goal for our schools will be to create richer learning environments for the students that allows them to be at ‘the centre’ of a connected network. I think there are exciting times ahead.
When considering learning environments that suit the needs for the 21st Century Learner I’m not sure if this is what we mean! Is it learning anytime, anywhere when everyone is listening to the same lecture in the same place? I guess these are our challenges as educators in our school settings.
We have a 1:1 laptop program for our year 7s and will have it for both the Year 7s and 8s next year. Our thinking has been around these questions -
How can we best use the tools and spaces?
How can we make learning more personalised for our students?
How can we provide opportunities for our students to be producers as well as consumers?
What makes a digital citizen?
There are other questions buzzing around our heads at the moment. We don’t have all the answers, but the discussions are invaluable to developing a common vision for learning.
Today for our weekly whole staff meeting/professional learning, we had an opportunity to share our learnings from uLearn09. This was a great way to empower our two classroom teachers who attended, and a chance for my principal and I to talk about our ‘wow’ moments.
Often professional learning opportunities can lose their impact upon the return to school. Day to day pressures can easily erode the memory of these days. As a team we spent quite a bit of time reflecting on what we had learnt and ideas that resonated with us. This was a most important for us to ensure we would keep the learning alive.
The ULearn09 Conference began with a Powhiri on the Tuesday morning. Men were seated at the front whilst women were seated behind them. Powhiri is a spiritual welcome to the land. More info here.
I’m the one in the black parka and faux fur collar, trying to keep warm!
Last week I attended the ULearn Conference in Christchurch, NZ with my principal, Jason Smallwood and two teachers, Gail and Rohan, from my college. It was our first conference together as delegates and presenters. Not bad for our first year as a college!
Initially I was going to attend on my own, having been once before in 2004 when it was co-organised with NavCon. Since 2004 I have met many new educators online through Classroom2.0, Twitter and Second Life. With a hectic year, both at work and home, I saw it as a great chance to regroup and refresh. So I submitted my presentation proposal to Sherry and Gwenny at CORE and was accepted.
From little things, big things grow
After an email to my principal with a suggestion of taking someone with me, we soon had organised our party of four Now there’s a little seed growing into something more. Registrations, flights, accommodation and sponsorship needed to be sorted. With the help of my business manager, ICTEV and my hubby we had things happening.
The conference trip was a great chance for the four of us to bond as a team and to discuss our thoughts about education from our own perspective as well as a global one. Not much time for this to happen in the school day.
We also met up with many of my Twitter friends at the Twitter dinner organised by Mel at Valentino’s, just around the corner from where we were staying. This was a great event to help my teachers and principal make connections with the wider educational community. Emails and other contacts were exchanged and overall a good time was had.
Over the course of the week we attended a range of presentations and workshops that both supported our thinking and challenged it. As a team we had varying experiences with education and the range of breakouts to choose from was excellent. My favourites were by Tony Ryan - Innovative Teachers, and Dr. Julia Atkins – Leading for Learning, Learning for Leading. I work closely with teachers at my college so these fitted with me.
On the last session of the conference we presented our workshop – “Preparing for a 1:1 Learning Environment – A pedagogical view”. As both Gail and Rohan were present it was a great chance to include them in the presentation. Gail shared her class unit on Cyber Citizenship and Rohan shared his unit on Copyright. Both fitted in beautifully with the theme on preparing the kids for 1:1 learning with laptops. The session was received well and we look forward to some visits now from regional Victoria, Sydney, Adelaide and perhaps educators from other areas.
On Monday, we are presenting a snapshot of what we have learnt to our staff, and sharing new ideas and ways of thinking within planning sessions with teams. As the Assistant Principal for ICT and Student Learning I am excited to see things already starting to take shape in both Rohan’s and Gail’s classrooms.
We will continue to share and learn together both locally and globally. Thankyou to ULearn for making our first experience a good one.
Increasingly these days, conversations about student learning, ICT and Professional Learning, have some references to social media. Whether it is about designing more engaging learning opportunities for students to connect and collaborate with other students, or for teachers to access professional learning when and where it is most convenient and purposeful, social media is on the agenda. Gary Hayes’ Social Media Count is a great visual tool depicting this rapid trend. For me it just brings home how pervasive social media is and how worthwhile it is for us, as educators, to embrace these technologies.
Last night I started a new Ning for 1:1 Learning Environments – http://1to1learningenvironments.ning.com/ There are many schools now considering going down the 1:1 laptop path, whether they are part of the netbook trial here in Victoria or doing it on their own, just as my college is.
Learning about the new machines
When we first considered the 1:1 laptop initiative for our Year 7s, there were many things to think about, from hardware and software, how the students and teachers were going to use them, storage and care, and so on. We had to work quickly as we were a brand new college starting up and we only had one term to set things up. In reality it was even less time for me as I only officially began at the school in late November, giving me 4 weeks to get things ready!
I used my PLN, Professional Learning Network, to help me find out what other schools did, their challenges and their successes. I had many educators offering support and advice, Patrick Woessner, being one of them.
I am hoping that the new 1:1 Learning Environment Ning will help educators connect with others who are either thinking of going down this road or well on their way.
A couple of posts ago I reflected on three themes – CREATE, COMMUNICATE & COLLABORATE. I like the way the Wollongong Catholic Education Office have captures this in a clean and simple presentation.
Our cat has been with us now for nearly 10 years. He is a lovely cat and full of personality. He was taken to emergency care last weekend after he came home damaged from a fight with another cat. He has used up so many of his lives and has become quite a regular visitor to the Vet. He is well again..until next time!
Whilst looking for a new photo to use for one of my avatars, i came across a way to blog from Flickr straight to my blog.
Just for fun I have decided to use a photo of my dog. He is cute, naughty, hairy but very lovable. I swear he thinks he is human, or is it that I treat him like a human (child)!!
Anyway, thought I would test this out and perhaps use it in a different way next time.
Today for our weekly whole staff meeting/professional learning, we had an opportunity to share our learnings from uLearn09. This was a great way to empower our two classroom teachers who attended, and a chance for my principal and I to talk about our ‘wow’ moments.
Now there’s a little seed growing into something more. Registrations, flights, accommodation and sponsorship needed to be sorted. With the help of my business manager, ICTEV and my hubby we had things happening.
