Catch the Wave

Today is the final day of the Learning@School Conference. Everything has been great! Rotorua has to be one of the prettiest cities in New Zealand. The town centre and the Government Gardens (where the main venue is) both have beautiful trees and gardens. I’ll post some photos later today. My motel unit is close to the city centre, the gardens and Lake Rotorua (no view though) , and it has the dubious honour of having the most ferocious shower I’ve ever encountered! … in Rotorua even showering is an extreme sport!

At L@S, it’s always exciting to catch up with the friends I’ve made in the ICT PD programme over the eight years I’ve been involved. During this conference, I’ve noticed that teachers’ ‘learner behaviour’ is changing. Teachers are taking a more active part by questioning, discussing and collaborating. Many will no longer just sit and listen. I believe this confidence and interactivity comes from the professional development they’re receiving and the learning communities (both real and virtual) that they belong to. And its a good thing!

The keynote speakers and workshops I’ve attended have all been interesting in their own way and I’m looking forward to my first ‘unconference’ experience this morning. Go to this Wikipedia page to find out about an unconference
Here is a list of the L@S unconference topics. I’ll let you know what happens!

The L@S Conference is on in Rotorua from 24 – 26 February. It is attended by teachers from schools who are, or have been involved in ICT professional development clusters. This is nearly every school in New Zealand. I’ve been going to this conference every year since 2002 and I always really enjoy it. The number of delegates has increased each year and will be 1200 this year. One of the reasons I enjoy it is because I feel a real sense of belonging. It’s nice to be together with people who do a similar job. And of course the keynote speakers and the choice of workshops are excellent.

There are 7 breakouts. I’m presenting 2 workshops ‘A Key to Brain Power – Developing Habits of Mind in the Classroom’ (Breakout 2) and ‘Developing a Thinking Toolbox’ (Breakout 4)

The workshops I’m attending are:
Breakout 1:Getting Tricky with Wikis (Lenva Shearing)
Breakout 3: Digital Pedagogies (Tony Ryan)
Breakout 5: Learning to Question to Wonder to Learn (Jamie McKenzie)
Breakout 6: Inspiring creative, energetic and enterprising students (Gina Revill & Anne-Marie Kite)
Breakout 7: Umajin in the Classroom (Nat Free & Russell Brebner)

Learning@School Conference website

This is a very engaging way of teaching your students (or your own children) multiplication facts … and you might even enjoy playing it yourself!
To escape from the castle dungeon your avatar must explore rooms and corridors, find hidden doors and overcome monsters. And knowing multiplication facts is the key to success! To get playing, download the software programme from the Big Brainz website. The 2 – 12 times game is free, however you can purchase the full version. The website has a video tutorial telling you everything you need to know. Trust me, this game will be an instant hit with your kids!

Schools are interesting places – and I should know. During the last 7 years I’ve worked in twenty one of them in my job as an ICT Facilitator. At the moment I’m writing feedback/feedforward reports for the six schools I’m currently working with and this has led to a great deal of thinking. (It’s also made me look for a diversion – like writing a blog post!)

Perhaps the most successful schools are those where the leadership knows that their school is a business. Their product is the promotion of and achievement in 21st century teaching and learning. They know that the success of their business depends on having a dynamic vision, good planning and clear organisation. They know to employ the right people. They manage the finances well, budgeting the right amounts in the right areas. They develop a good team spirit making the employees feel skilled and valued. These leaders are aware of the need to ‘move with the times’ and continually research and seek advice to keep the business relevant and up-to date. They know that new learning is the key to future success. However, being a continual learner can be a difficult thing to master, even for leaders in education.

I read an interesting article on the Dominion Post website today. With the subtitle ‘Scientists say tech savvy are set to take over’, its about the way the Internet is altering our brains and the way we think. “Gary Small, a neuroscientist at UCLA in California who specialises in brain function, has found through studies that Internet searching and text messaging has made brains more adept at filtering information and making snap decisions.” He argues that “the people who will come out on top in the next generation will be those with a mixture of technological and social skills.” What are your thoughts about the article and what are the messages here for 21st century educators?

Recently I attended the uLearn Education Conference in Christchurch, which is a very beautiful city in the South Island of New Zealand. I took this photo from my hotel window.

The theme of the conference was 21st century technologies and how they allow us to voice our opinion, to make a difference, to connect, collaborate, network and learn. ‘The opportunities go far beyond the simple ability to publish to the web, far beyond the simple use of tools. They revolve around connecting, forming groups, creating personal classrooms and networks.’ (Will Richardson)

Here’s something to have fun with! I made this poster online using ‘Wordle’ www.wordle.net The number of times you write a word dictates its size in relation to the other words – however the word will only appear once.

To save it as a .jpg I took a screen shot (using the PRTSC key), pasted it into Photo Filtre and then cropped and saved it. Make sure you change the file type to .jpg

Sandy and her Year 5 and 6 students at Ohope Beach School have made this Habits of Mind Poster on a display board in their classroom. This is next to the mat for handy reference and reminders. Its a great way for students to learn about the Habits of Mind and how they weave together to form a set of successful learning and living behaviours.
Do you like this idea? Use it yourself!

Zoho Creator is one of the ‘Zoho Work Online’ applications and it really is fantastic! It’s an online data base and form creator and is so useful for easy data collection. If you need to collect any sort of information from your principals and teachers, why not walk the talk by using the Internet and online resources to do this? Zoho Creator has many uses and the extra bonus is that teachers are developing ICT confidence and skills at the same time.

Recently, in preparation for a cluster trip to Palmerston North, I added a trip registration form to the eBest ICT cluster website for the teachers who were going to add their details. I alerted the ICT Lead Teachers to this form by email. The first photo shows the form and the second is a part of the spreadsheet of collected data. I then exported it into Excel. It worked perfectly and saved me a lot of time. And no, I didn’t lose anything! Click on the graphics for a bigger view.

Zoho Creator is easy to use and free. (It has been so far!) You simply drag and drop the fields you require from the selection (see below) and add your questions or choices. The result looks really professional and has many uses for principals, teachers and students. Try it out.

I’ve been travelling around a bit lately.  First came the Nelson ICTPD Conference, then last week I spent 2 days in Palmerston North with 22 school leaders from the eBest ICT Cluster.  Today I was in Tauranga at the Bay of Plenty ICT Clusters home group meeting.   In fact the last six years has been like this for me – lots of meetings, conferences and workshops.  Lots of professional development and learning.  Lots of new ideas and skills.  Change has been constant, necessary and stimulating.  Why do some teachers resist it?   There are times I’ve gone from student (with the Internet as my teacher), to teacher in a matter of days.   Perhaps other ICT Facilitators can relate to this.

ICT Clusters have had an impact on New Zealand education.  They can take a lot (if not all) of the credit for the education renaissance that has has happened during the last six years.  And in true Kiwi style, while we all have a vision and goals, there is no ‘how to ‘, ‘what to’, or ‘when to’ blueprint provided.  And yet we make a real difference – talking to a teacher who hasn’t been in an ICT cluster will prove that.