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.
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.
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.
This year has been a wonderful experience for me. I have worked as an Ultranet Coach for the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development within the Western Metropolitan Region. Within this role I have worked with 28 schools and leadership teams, as well as a range a teachers who have participated in the ICT Peer Coaching Training that I have facilitated.
The work has been varied over the year but on a clear goal to support schools in using the Ultranet, an online learning environment that will be released over the next two years.
Some of the work has involved -
building awareness around the Ultranet initiative
introducing schools to the ePotential Survey and Resource
helping leadership teams unpack the data from the survey
guiding eLearning Planning
developing tailor made professional learning for schools
organising school visits for leadership teams to see best practice
planning and facilitating a region based ICT Peer Coaching Program
running hands on workshops on Web 2.0
running hands on workshops with Macs
leading curriculum planning with ICT in schools
embedding ICT across the school and curriculum
planning and running an online conference
presenting at conferences
I feel I have made a difference to these schools – some in slight ways and others as huge turn-around in the attitudes and mindsets of how ICT can be embedded in learning.
I have loved my job and enjoyed meeting so many teachers and leaders in the region. This is the last week that I am in this role and will be moving on to a new role as an Assistant Principal in a brand new school.
Today I have experienced a talk by Liz Murphy from LMGM about using the Internet for communication, collaboration and real life learning, as part of the ACEC2008.
Using video conferencing tools like Elluminate and Centra you can begin to incorporate many real life experiences. Simply by having a laptop, webcam, headset and a wireless card you can bring the real life situation to the classroom.
Normally the way I have used video conferencing is by setting up a virtual space or classroom where there is either one speaker or a few speakers to present or share their content and ideas. An example of this is our own NOW Online Conference scheduled for early October.
However, Liz explained how a teacher or an outside expert can present information that is within the context of the topic and create an online learning environment that is rich and real. In other words being on the ground where the action happens and then streaming back into the classroom. Liz has many examples on her website.
Global events can be captured by having presenters from any area of the world, collaborating on shared topics. The picture below is from Liz’s website demonstrating the locations of the presenters for her collaborative project for the International Year of the Dolphin
Working in this capacity allows for immediacy between experts and participants. Questions are asked and answered and ultimately learning is not just from the experts but also through the conversation and collaboration. The video conference media can be edited and archived for future reference.
Since 2000 I have been dabbling in the use of digital portfolios with my primary school aged students. Back in 2000, the teachers at my school experimented with dubbing school events, such as excursions and special days, onto video tapes. Wow, was that an effort! Video recorders, banked on top of each other in order to save time. Argh!
We then started to redefine the purpose of the digital portfolios and develop some thinking about how to implement them. We wanted them to be a vehicle to not only showcase student digital work, but a place for students to reflect on their new understandings and challenges.
These were some of the important considerations. We wanted them to be -
With each of these headings we brainstormed some of the possibilities for adding to the digital portfolio. What I found really interesting, and so did the students, was that the same topic/activity could be grouped under different headings. For example, a claymation about ‘Acid Rain’ could be added to the Creative Me, Organised Me or Investigative Me. Therefore, the students needed to justify why they were adding it to a particular section. Now that was powerful! Students would say things like -
‘Well, I had look up the information and find out things.” Investigative Me
“I had to make sure I was organised and on time.” Organised Me
The digital portfolios were are big part of the ongoing learning for the students, and built into the weekly planning by teachers. The students took great pride in their portfolios and were burned to CD for them to take home.
I wonder now how the Web 2.0 will impact on the purpose and implementation of the digital or e-portfolio?
Dare I admit this in my blog? I think I am addicted to Twitter!
A day doesn’t go by without checking my Twitter updates. I haven’t quite put my finger on why it is so addictive. What possesses me to log on each morning to see what are people are doing, reading, saying or thinking? And why do I feel compelled to answer in 140 characters or less the question – What are you doing? Do people really care?
Trend 1 – New Publishing Revolution – I can create content through micro-blogging and make links to other content.
Trend 2 – A Tidal Wave of Information – There is so much to learn from the Twitter community. You can always find new tools, find out about a project or some interesting research. You can even call on the Twittersphere for advice – see Jess McCulloch’s post.
Trend 3 – Everything is Becoming Participative – Twitter allows for opinions, reflections and comments. Dialogue can be generated out of a link to a news story or a video.
Trend 4 – The New Pro-Sumers - I can consume, produce and digest.
Trend 5 – The Age of the Collaborator – I can find new ideas and great experiences shared via Twitter. I can work on shared understandings and collaborate to create new knowledge – all through a tweet.
Trend 6 – An Explosion of Innovation – Many new ideas, projects have come about from communicating globally with other like minded, or not so like-minded people.
Trend 7 – The World Gets even Flatter and Faster – Twitter is anytime, anywhere! I can connect globally 24/7. Twitter does not close for the day.
Trend 8 – Social Learning Moves Towards Centre Stage – Much of my learning about Web2.0 most definitely has come through social online interaction. Twitter has been my ‘hallway’ for learning. It is that quick chat, the touch base with a colleague, the overhearing of the a little gem that for me, is the most addictive thing about Twitter.
Trend 9 – The Long Tail – The more I learn about Web2.0 on Twitter the more I want to learn. I have a passion to learn and am active in my pursuit.
Trend 10 – Social Networking Really Opens Up the Party – and wow what a party it’s been so far.
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.
