…technology with a twist

What a beautiful word! (miss-a-nee-ism) and what does it mean? “hatred, fear or intolerance of innovation or change”

It would seem that I have been labouring under false pretences and have mislabelled so many in the field of education when I (fondly) referred to them as dinosaurs! They’re not prehistoric in their thinking at all; they are actively resisting change. Whether this resistance be fuelled by a dislike of all things related to integrating technology, a fear of getting it wrong or breaking something, or just plain irritation with the thought of the amount of new work integration will generate for them…whichever way you look at it … they are resisting change.

That’s all I am going to say. (in spite of there being so, so much I might say!!)

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This is a presentation that will challenge your thinking about what’s happening in our schools’ endeavours to bring the real world into the classroom. I particularly like what happened on the excursion to the museum…now that would be disruptive of 19th century teaching and learning! An excursion with not a single “worksheet” in sight?? Yes!!!

[slideshare id=219935&doc=disruptive-mobile-learning-bett-2008-1199649440127861-3&w=425]

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Whole School Goal: Organise and implement the Student ICT Sub-Committee by Week 6 of Term 1, with at least 2 representatives from each Stage group Gained the ‘go-ahead’ from the ICT Committee in Week 6. Now need to write up an article for the newsletter to inform parents and to invite expressions of interest from the students.

 Whole Team Goal: Write integrated Stage 4 Core assessment task for Term 2 by end of Term 1 Began this task in PD workshop with the Stage 4 team last Thursday.

Whole Person Goal: Establish use of Edublogs with 9G English by Week 4, Term 1. Publish guides/offer T&D/facilitate implementation in other St4/5 Core/English classes by Week 11, Term 1. Didn’t happen. Didn’t come close…well, we have done a lot of work using the computers rather than workbooks and the class seems to really engage with this – only one or two students out of the group whose lack of familiarity with computers made them, initially, resistant. Given their receptivity to these lessons I am keen the pursue the idea with them in Term 2.

I am pleased with having made this much progress this term. It actually looks better than I thought it would; I was thinking I hadn’t really been working towards my goals, but in actual fact I have been. Mental note: keep reminding myself to eat that elephant one bite at a time!

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…the time has come to plan for Term 2! We have a PD day booked for Thursday of this week & I need to think about what will be of greatest advantage to my group of middle school students.

With TFT’s help, Term 2 should be the launching point for our class blogging … although the trials and tribulations of Al Upton and  the miniLegends has me wondering what might happen in this state as a result.

Maybe, in the words of Midnight Oil…

The time has come
To say fairs fair…

The time has come
A facts a fact
It belongs to them
Lets give it back

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del.icio.us Tags: web 2.0

del.icio.us Tags: wikis,blogs,social bookmarking,conference,intouch with learning

Intouch with Learning

Web 2.0 for Student Centred Learning

Wikis

http://www.wikidot.com

Collaboration with others within and outside the school community. All users participate and can make refinements to the pages.

Real life audiences for 21st century learning skills.

http://mrmurphy.org/wp/ – lessons and assignments from a high school language arts teacher

Could be useful for small group work where each group has the responsibility for adding their section to the wiki.

Social Bookmarking

Useful for giving to the class when beginning to research an assignment. Students then add to the lists & key words as they work through their assignment.

http://deli.cio.us/aussieandrew

Blogs

Used as a means by which more reluctant students will individualise their learning and share/collaborate online.

http://betch.edublogs.org

Podcasts

http://www.podomatic.com/search.directory/education

http://audacity.sourceforge.net

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/

Great for sharing information with a class, presenting oral work in English, download and play in IPod.

RSS feeds

Set up RSS feeds from class blogs.

• http://classroom20.ning.com 

social networking amongst teachers

• http://www.educational-freeware.com 

freeware sites for educational use

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