Sunday, June 1, 2008

Notes from the Digital Education Revolution – 02/06/08

Realising the Possibilities: Managing the Realities
http://www.digitaleducationrevolution.gov.au/

Sheila Wilson DEEWR
Gillian Crack

The Commonwealth Government Objectives: - Long term productivity growth - Economic Growth - Social Inclusion

Partnerships – COAG - AICTEC – Teaching for the Digital Age Advisor Group - State and Territory Education Authorities

Five Key Policy elements:National Secondary School Computer Fund – Objective: to improve the provision of computers in schools where the computer to student ratio is 1:8 or worse to a target ration of 1:2, $1.1 billion program over five years (2008-2012), $100 million to be distributed by June 2008, Announcement of successful schools in June 08, $10 million over three years to develop support mechanisms for schools in the deployment of ICT provided through the Fund
Fibre Connections to Schools Initiative – Contribute to broadband connections with speeds of up to 100 megabits, Australian schools can become technology rich learning environments, underpinned by sustainable access to speed broadband infrastructure, acquired on the basis of affordably allocation be used to its maximum.Online Curriculum content – Investing $32.6 millions over the next 2 years – access to digital content by teachers and students, ICT infrastructure integrated effectively in schoolsProfessional development for teachers in ICT Web portals for parents participation – Aid parent participation in their children’s education.Better Practice Guide: ICT in Schools

Mark Pesce - Get off my Lawn
YouTube, Podcasting, Wikipedia and BitTorrent were non-existent 4 years ago.

Is the Web 2.0 ‘perfectly normal’ and how do we keep up with it all?
How Technology is transforming our imagination – the Playful World” by Mark Pesce – looked at the toys which parents are buying their toys – the Furby, the PS2, & lego.

Constructivism: children learn through continuous interactions with the world.

Personal, Portable, Pedestrian – Mobile Phones in Japanese Life” edited by Mizuko Ito, Daisuke Okabe and Misa Matsuda

Co-presence – the need by young people to stay connected via their mobile phones and MySpace constantly.

You twist the web 2.0 dial one way and you get the Cronulla Riots - you twist the web 2.0 dial the other way and you get Wikipedia.

The current education structure is based on the needs of the industrial age – the need to be timely and orderly was required and the school system modeled this – but the workplace has moved into the knowledge era and the school system does not reflect the need for flexibility and input

Hyper-connected technology – mobile phones, DSs & PS2s – how do we use its popularity to improve our current education systems?

The computer is a window to the world and a whole new way of learning, connecting and collaboration. The classroom is the disruption. The ‘media’ is still portraying hyper-connected technology as the ‘evil’ of our society. People are afraid, as change is happening so quickly, they don’t know how to deal with it. So how do we nurture the change which required for our learners to develop the 21st skills which they require?

We’re all hyper-connecting together through web 2.0 tools like Twitter.

The street finds its own use of things. Once the internet became popular, it only took a very short period of time for people to work out its potential as a social networking tool, as a hyper-connectivity tool.

We are all the change agents – we need to share what we know and what we learn with each other – we need to share what works and what doesn’t – we need to connect with each others – using all the technologies we have at hand. Knowledge sharing is so important and vital to the Digital Education Revolution.

Hidden Secret to education - How do you teach children to focus in a hyper-connected society? We don’t – we need to harness it and use it to our advantage.

Giving a child a laptop, is like giving a child a ‘loaded gun’ – it can be extremely dangerous if they are now shown how to use it effectively – as they create their digital identity. The use of ICT needs to be an explicit function in education. This requires the educators to become the students and learn their own mastery of using ICT.

Sharing is the key to successfully helping educators embrace and effectively using technology

What is already happening locally
Connected, interactive learner-centred learning – Catholic Education in SA
Curriculum Teaching and Learning
A contemporary approach to leaner centred learning

Social learning - the common good – strong sense of collaboration and personalization of education + Learning in an online world strategy = Learner centred learning

Learner Centred: the perspective that couples: a focus on individual learners with a focus on learning – best available knowledge about learning most effective teaching practices.

Know the learner: a focus on individual learners – their heredity, experiences, perspectives, backgrounds, talents, interests, capacities and needs

Challenge: to build rich profiles of student learning, progress, achievement and needs, how do we efficiently manage large volumes of data?

Diverse Repertoires of Practice: differentiated curriculum, personal learning plans, self directed learning, active and interactive, constructive, experiential, collaborative, inclusive and engaging

How can we efficiently and consistently organise curriculum, teaching and learning in ways that enhance collaboration, customization, personalization and differentiation of learning opportunities for all learners.

The CESA Pilot Learning Tool – teachers use the learning tool to document all aspects of offline and online learning in which each student participates. Based on a cyclic approach to teaching – based on Action research / inquiry learning.

Where am I going? How am I going? Where to next?

The Digital Education Revolution and DECS – Ross Treadwell, Assistant Director, Learning Technologies
Treadwell.Ross@saugov.sa.gov.au
http://www.decs.sa.gov.au/learningtechnologies/pages/learningtechnologies

What’s happening? –
Infrastructure – standard infrastructure architecture (SIA Project), EduConnect, KidSmart – IBM, Interactive Whiteboards (Investing in our Schools), Education Works –
Need to look at what are we doing – using technology allows us to look improving what we do and doing things differently
Content and services – The Learning Federation, Digital Learning Bank (DLB), Video Conferencing, Virtual Classroom Works, Microsoft Licensing, Apple Licensing
Professional learning – EdCap, ICT Coaches, e-Teachers, Modular Programs, Masterclasses, Microsoft Partners in Learning
Research – DECS Research Sites, Total Cost of Ownership (CO), Value of Investment (VOI), Bandwidth – SabreNet, Scholaris – Learning Gateway; Oracle L360, Intel – Classmate, Subnotebook devices

E-Strategy Framework – vision and leadership, professional learning, teaching and learning, administration, resources – ICT Strategic Plan 2008-2011

UK 2020 Vision – Report of the Teaching and Learning in 2020

Our education system is being negligent by not providing learning in how to use the internet safely.

Local Schools – What does the effective use of technology look like in the classroom?
Sharing Innovations @ Aberfoyle Park High School
Michael Cowling

Examples of engaging students with ICT:
Podcasting year 9 student’s poetry – writing the poetry – record the poem – transferable to student mobile phones via mobile phones using Bluetooth – in the classroom.

Using podcasting with language students.

Engaging students by getting them to write a response to ‘Should boxing be banned?’ by writing a comic strip.

Using ‘flash’ to create a story or making ‘CSI’ crime investigation mobile phone movies to teach the principles of Science.

ICT is embedded into every class, and students do not go to a special room to access computers.

ICT Mentor T& D Innovations – teacher attitudes to IT, 0.4 Contract – 0.2 teaching, 0.2 mentoring staff – work alongside subject teachers in their classrooms for about 6 months – then available in a ‘consultancy’ role.

Use student energy with teacher expertise. Value how teachers work and learn. Provide onsite PD. The ethos of the school, and the school culture is very important.

Aberfoyle Park High School allow students to use their mobile phones if it's related to their learning - well respected by students

What ongoing support for teacher is there?
Sheila Wilson - DEEWR

Australian Government Quality Teacher Program (AGQTP) – in 2009
AICTEC – Teaching for the Digital Age Advisory Group
State & Territories Education Depts

Summing Up and Sending On
Mark Pesce and Gerry White

Ensuring a work life balance for teachers developing their ICT skills to be effective 21st educators is so important. The need to develop a distribution of burden is evident – creating collaborative work environments / spaces can help spread the burden.

Young people don’t use emails – they use Social Networking sites and Instant Messaging.

Where do mobile phones sit in the Digital Education Revolution?

Eyre Peninsula Sports Academy utilizing technology to offer local education across a conglomerate of schools – a collaborative approach to offer this education to a wide spread school base.

The Federal Government doesn’t have the ‘power’ to tell the States/Territories how to manage the professional development of their teaching staff. It’s the responsibility of the State/Territory Educational Authorities to maximize the funding being provided by the Federal Government.

2 comments:

Sarah Stewart said...

Hi Alison, just having a look around the symposium web site. We're starting to look at eportfolios now. I wondered if I could organise a skype call with you at some time to get your opinion on eportfolios. cheers Sarah

Unknown said...

You must also consider the OurSchool shcool intranet. You can see more about it here: http://www.ourschool.com.au