Briefing the Principals

I've been asked to present to a group of local small school principals regarding computers in schools and staff training.

I've put together a package that I feel provides a framework for understanding the issues surrounding "21st century skills".

To get things started I though I'd shake it up first. Four months old but good, and only 2 minutes. That ought to turn the discussion to getting these skills out to our kids.


So how do we get there?
Nets: the next generation: This is an excellent refinement of digital world skills including the important realm of citizenship skills (which is often overlooked in the discussion). Nets the next generation is presented in an easy to read, checklist style.

Leadership in an Online World: This document from the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth affairs, (MCEETYA) provides a framework which will enable leaders to plan for and support change. Australia and New Zealand are committed to this. Greg Whitby referenced a similar document in his recent post at blueyonder

School 2.0 map: get a free one here. School 2.0 is a brainstorming tool designed to help schools, districts and communities develop a common education vision for the future and to explore how that vision can be supported by technology.












This inevitably leads to the question: "This is all well and good, but how do I prepare my staff?"
That's easy... The Intel Teach program is excellent here, though some might say that excellent is understating things a bit.

"It is an exemplary professional development opportunity for educators committed to creating learner-centered, technology-enabled curriculum and instruction for the 21st century."

- ISTE* Seal of Alignment Report on
Intel® Teach Essentials Course, Version 10

Intel teach is a global program, and is being implemented in over 50 countries, but for examples of how it's working here in NSW (Australia) check out some examples of intel teach in NSW

Hopefully my presentation will encourage some schools (just one would be enough) to make a change.

So that's it. What have I left out? What do I need to leave out? As always, comments and tips are most welcome.

Reconstruction of Learning Experiences

As a smart, clever, literate educator reading this blog, you, like me, are actively trying to reconstruct the learning experiences of students to equip them for a digital, flat future. Why else would you read this?

I heard something this week that disturbed me, and will probably disturb you as well.

A teacher had taken some seven year old computers out of 15 months of storage ("too old for the network, need to be thrown out"...said the tech guy). So rather than throw them out, the teacher (with permission) reformatted them, installed some freeware/open source programs suited to the subject being taught, put them into a cluster in the back corner of the room and put the students to productive work.

Sure they weren't on the network, and there was no Internet. If the students wanted to save work, then it had to be to a usb flash memory drive. But they were productive! They were engaged. The students loved it, the teacher loved it, the other faculty staff found the idea so interesting that some of them took old computers out of storage and did similar things.

It lasted almost one week. Old structures and mechanisms don't take lightly to change. The machines were taken back, and were made ready to go into a lab. (Strangely they were now good enough for the task.)

So whilst some of us move forward, and engage the kids with whatever means (support, technology, funding) are at our disposal, it appears that some teachers still face a mentality that wants to put control back into the domain of the "keeper of the keys" (or the digital Taliban if you will).

It's almost as if there are forces at work to actively stop the sort of engagement that Greg Whitby (winner of the bulletin smart 100 award) talks about.

From Greg:

we're not saying every child needs only a computer to learn: come in, open up it's laptop time … They still need time with real people, to learn gross motor skills, and to use a pen and pencil, and to read, or to sit in a corner with a book or outside under a tree, and interact with teachers, as a socialising agent.

"But they need time to work in cyberspace. The traditional response has been to put technology into a computer lab, but it clearly doesn't meet their needs, because then you are deconstructing their learning experience, and it's artificial."

Greg Blogs at BlueYonder and will be speaking at the NSW Computer Education Group annual conference on July 1st and 2nd

Teaching in Todays Classroom

Greg Whitby will be presenting at the New South Wales Computer Education Group (NSWCEG) at Newcastle on Monday 2nd of July.

In this video he talks about "today's school" rather than the 21st century school. The primary aim of todays school is to aid learning outcomes.
This happens through a process or concept of learning anywhere, anytime, anyplace.
This can only occur when staff are liberated from current working conditions. Conditions which Greg says "enslave" and "de-skill" teachers.

Would be interesting to hear a Teacher's Federation response to this.

Learning outcomes versus working conditions for teachers. Makes for a lively discussion.
Greg has an excellent presentation here. Its a pdf file in the form of some slides.

Click To Play