More than just knowing stuff!

1:1 – A pedagogical view

This year the VITTA conference was back at the Flemington Racecourse.  A beautiful venue which for me is synonymous with VITTA, so it was nice to be back.  I presented on the Tuesday on 1:1 Learning Environments – A pedagogical view.  It was a quite a good size crowd and lots of familiar faces in the audience, including Jill, Mark, Anne,and Glenn.  With so much current interest in 1:1 laptop programs, it was clear that many schools were heading down that path in 2010.  Some schools were choosing to do this, whilst were being caught up in the Digital Revolution and really felt they didn’t have a choice.

We are lucky at my college that we have made it our choice, and we offer a 1:1 Laptop Program in Years 7 and 8.  Year 8s will continue with the program from this year, whilst our 2010 intake of Year 7s will begin next year.  It is certainly an exciting time ahead, and we have learnt much in our journey.

Key for us, besides making sure the nuts and bolts of the program were right, was making sure the learning designs were well explored.  We are still moving forward in this area and believe that the technology is not just a new way of doing the “same ol’, same ol’”.

“My goal in life is to find ways in which children can use technology as a constructive medium to do things that they could not do before; to do things at a level of complexity that was not previously accessible to children”
Prof. Seymour Papert 1998

We are having our Year 7 Info night this Wednesday, so look forward to getting some feedback from our community.

Add comment November 30th, 2009

1:1 Learning Environments

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.

Visit 1:1 Learning Environments

2 comments September 25th, 2009