Last year I introduced Diigo as a means of sharing resources, and finding resources used by others. We now have most faculties with a Diigo site, and most are openly available. Here is the address of the Science site, but any search within Diigo for bcsi will bring up all the other faculties and the teaching resources that have been saved so far.

Although I am the main contributor to most sites, at least I have somewhere to put the stuff I come across …….. I’ll be pushing this hard again this year too as we move into a 1:1 program 7-12

It’s going to be an interesting year …………

Here, the authors state that in the ” prevailing paradigm efforts at improvement, as promising as they may appear, too often are co-opted, diluted, or diminished to generate any widespread effect on teaching or learning.”

Wondering why the critics single out 1:1  laptop programs for special attention, the authors suggest that “ a 1:1 laptop computer initiative is such a visible, expensive, and labor intensive effort that stands out in a forest of reforms.”

They go on to suggest 6 steps that should be followed in order to implement a successful 1:1 program. They highlight the need to reform curriculums so that cognitive skills are emphasised rather than the tools that can be used to facilitate such a change.

The six steps are logical and reasonable and could be undertaken by any school that’s serious about education reform rather than technology window dressing.

This document needs to be put in front of the decision makers in our institutions, but would they take any notice?

“This resource is not intended to be a complete course on Digital Media Literacy but serves as an introduction to encourage the learner to reflect on their current practices and stimulate discussion and questioning..”

The teacher’s notes are well worth a read, but the main and attractive interface where your student’s would start covers such things as Defining the task,  Accessing the information, Understanding and evaluating, Creating  and Communicating.

I did OK, what about you?

Resources are arranged by subject and consist of PowerPoint style presentations and questions…… but you can also search by Australian State Standards and Grade level, making it very easy for teachers to choose appropriate materials.

This is currently a beta site….. let’s hope it stays available, but I’d get there are download some of the available resources as quick as you can. Here is an example for NSW, Grade 9, Science ….

This is a useful resource from ISTE who have,

“developed this free online course to help school administrators, peer coaches, professional development providers, and other education leaders enhance their skills in identifying and supporting effective use of technology as a tool for teaching and learning.”

There is some interesting stuff in the free moodle course, such as student profiles and videos but I was particularly interested in the Essential Considerations. I’m mentally assessing my own school in terms of the 13 criteria.

How does your school measure up?

Turns out they have been using Xtranormal to write scripts and create short videos about relationships, and then having created a class, YouTube sign in, they were uploading them so that all videos were available on the same page. Xtranormal makes it dead easy to upload the completed videos and the results are great. I’m so impressed at this recognition by the teachers of the way that technology could facilitate the teaching and learning processes, and just how engaged the students were with this task. Such a cool way of discovering how the girls feel about a variety of relationship issues.

Here is an example of one of the videos, which speaks for itself

Now that the shiny new ad for the digital education revolution has hit YouTube it’s got to make a difference ……. But let’s face it, everything said here has been said over and over by anyone even remotely connected to ICT in schools during the last 10 years. We have struggled on, spending large proportions of our annual budgets because we believed everything said in the video. I just hope that the $500 netbook is as robust as the hype proposes, and that the mainenance contracts will be able to keep up with the breakages. I’ve seen, first hand what school kids do to specially toughened and purpose-designed laptops, and not until the Tablet PC have we managed to get a machine that is strong enough to withstand the continual hammer they are exposed to.

 If the netbooks fail, will the “revolution” falter ? If so, what then?

Will these students look after their free gifts better than countless private school students managed to do with their more expensive machines? If so, why? If not, then what?

I’m still waiting to hear about the PD and the learning materials that will encourage creativity and stimulate change. What should it look like? What will happen if such support is non-existent?

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That’s just a few of the many “overviews of emerging technologies and related practices that have demonstrated or may demonstrate positive learning impacts” that I happen to be living with at the moment.

They have proposed six scenarios (http://www.visionmapper.org.uk/ideas/ideas.php) that “have been developed using research from leading social scientists to provide an informed and inspirational insight into the different futures potentially facing education and learning”.

The associated workshop materials and facilitator advice and the activities (http://www.visionmapper.org.uk/activities/activities.php) make these materials perfect for staff professional learning and ongoing discussions. As they say “to help you develop your vision, challenge your assumptions and create realistic, achievable action plans”.

There is lots more on this website that you might find interesting and even if you couldn’t devote a whole heap of time to this, wouldn’t it be fun to divide up the scenarios amongst the various faculties and ask them to report on their discussions?

This could be a way of starting the conversations that are being avoided, but which are so important.

Thanks to Derek’s Blog I am now aware of VisionMapper. This is a great resource that I wish my own school would embrace as a means of moving forwards.

“Who knows what’s around the corner? These scenarios have been developed using research from leading social scientists to provide an informed and inspirational insight into the different futures potentially facing education and learning. Use them to develop sustainable plans and strategies that can cope with a wide range of future possibilities”.

The 6 scenarios are presented as ideas that come with case studies and workshop activities that assist teachers and school leaders make decisions about future directions.

I am going to send this information to my school executive in the hope of focusing our current floundering efforts.