Recently I discovered a wonderful group on Flickr called “Great Quotes about Learning and Change”. It’s a great collection of photos matched with quotes from leading educators from around the world. Many of the names are from my Twitter network, some I have met and some I follow online.
I’ve attached one of my favourites, a quote from Chris Lehman, Principal from the SLA.
“We should use the technology to create whole new schools. Technology needs to be like oxygen – ubiquitous, necessary and invisible”
Recently I used a set of cards called Sometimes Magic Happens when… with teachers at my college to open up dialogue
Sometimes Magic Happens when...
about the different needs of learners. It was in fact the beginning of a workshop about Inquiry Learning. Each teacher picked up a card with its own unique saying, and spoke about why they chose the card. Each teacher took turns whilst others listened.
I see these quotes as being a great discussion starter with staff in a similar way as the Magic cards. A great way to begin the new year, and prepare for the Ultranet.
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.
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.
In a couple of weeks time it will be one whole year since we (WMR Ultranet Coaches) organised and held the NOW Online Conference. It was a great event and we had some wonderful presenters talking about three main themes – CREATE, COLLABORATE and COMMUNICATE.
NOW 2008
These themes are still strong ones that are being explored in schools and educational forums. Earlier this evening I was looking through recent tweets on Twitter and came across one from klbeasley and it made me think back to these three themes.
The three Cs
So what has happened over the last 12 months? How have we moved on and helped our students become creators of new knowledge, communicate their ideas and understandings, and collaborate with others at school and beyond school?
Even though I am no longer an Ultranet Coach, I have seen and heard of some gains within my region, although still feel that there are many competing priorities for schools that often it is difficult to make the big gains.
Now that I am working within one school I have been able to watch some of these themes being explored by our teachers. Like other schools, we too have had many priorities, one of which is starting everything from scratch. Being a greenfields school there was a lot to establish – curriculum, policies, vision, uniform, and so on. However, I am pleased that with time and the right understanding of how ICT can be used to leverage learning, we are moving forward.
Our 5/6s have just recently made links with an International School in Bangkok, whilst our Year 7 have just recently live blogged with Anne Mirtschin’s Year 7s at Hawkesdale P-12. We are hopeful these links will be developed over the next term.
We are still learning and still experimenting with these themes and technologies but it is happening
Earlier this year I wrote a couple of posts about developing a PLN (Professional Learning Network), and just last week I presented at the VITTA Conference about ‘The Power of the online PLN’. It was very much a reflection of how I had developed my own network over the year as a direct result of me needing to learn more about new technologies and online tools for learning, for my role as an Ultranet Coach.
The talk I gave highlighted four key tools that got me connected -
Now I am moving into a new role, that of Assistant Principal for a new college (currently undergoing a name change) with a focus on ICT and Student Learning for the 21st Century. With this in mind I am planning on developing learning programs that exploit networking tools and new technologies.
Our students are widely connected in their own lives and would benefit from having similar networks cultivated for their learning to become richer and more meaningful.
Only last week a colleague, Stony River, sent me a link to a great video called “The Networked Student”. I think it is great video that will help me promote this style of learning to my staff, students and parents.
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.
