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!

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

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.

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)

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

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.

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.