AGQTP / ISV Day 5 Celebration

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Welcome to our Showcase Day

Over the year I have really enjoyed working with the participants in ISV’s AGQTP project on Leveraging Web 2.0 Tools for Authentic Learning.

Agenda

  1. Gather Sites
  2. Reflection
  3. Showcase Presentations
  4. Next Steps in Professional Learning
  5. Feedback
  6. ClassBubbles?
  7. AGQTP Review

1. Collect your Sites

Send me an email (tom@ozline.com) including a link and brief description so that we can create a Hotlist of your fantastic sites.

2. Reflection on Your “Learning Journey”

While I gather and post the Hotlist to your sites, please take this time to reflect on your learning related to this series. At the beginning of Day 1, I asked you to post your goals for the workshop. Let’s take this opportunity to reflect on these and where this year’s journey has taken you.  You might also like to review our original Stixy brainstorm after viewing previous participants’ sites.  You could include any of these or other aspects to focus on:

  • the workshop experience,
  • Web 2.0 and pedagogies,
  • insights gained from all of us ISV support people,
  • working with colleagues here or back at school
  • the challenges and opportunities of implementing change

Write your reflection in your favourite writing software, then Post it as a Comment here.

3. Showcase

Preparations

First we will take a little time to prepare our sites / presentations.  Depending on what you’ve got, you may need or want to prepare a little overview / teacher’s guide.  This could be an “About” page on your blog or a quick presentation or video. Based on your feedback, we will set group expectations.

Presentations

Each school team will share their work including a discussion and feedback.

Brendan Vanderkley and Marion Nott

  • A link to the “public page” of my Year 10 Psych class on Edmodo (contains posts and responses within the private feed that have individually been marked public), showing some of the things we’ve done over the semester.
  • Edmodo – a secure social learning site/platform that incorporates many Web 2.0 teaching tools in one place.
  • A blog Marion and I have used throughout the year for sharing what we learn at your workshops with a Web 2.0 team back at school (and the wider school community)
  • PowerStudy – a fledgling class portal I’ve only just begun to work with with my classes – and which will develop over this term – on the theme of “the use and abuse of power”.
  • A stixy I used in my psych class to introduce a new unit/topic
  • “Free Technology for Teachers”: a teacher info / PD resource for teachers that covers lots of great Web 2.0 tools

Phillip Lodge

Janene Williames

Allister Rouse and Jackson Bates

Tim Hartwich and Gary Harding – Victory Lutheran College

Luke Skehan and Catherine Bellair

Lisa Field and Janet

4. Next Steps for your Professional Learning

A big part of today is gathering things together.  Besides reflecting on your learning and “packaging” your project as we’ve done, we also want to plan for the next steps in your professional learning, by reviewing what you still want to learn and do related to authentic learning with advanced ICTs.

References

Grab a Badge

You can now officially “badge” your sites so that others know you are indeed a “Cutting Edge-ucator.”  Copy the text below and paste it into your sidebar Text widget or anywhere on a page or post.

<a href="https://ozline.com/strategies/edge-ucators/">
<img src="https://ozline.com/graphics/edge-ucators-badge.png" /></a>

5. Feedback

Please complete this feedback form so that I can improve for next year.

6. ClassBubbles?

If we have time, I’d like to share a new leaning activity tool called  ClassBubbles.  An example is online here for Next Era Ed  (use key “nexteraed”) and log-in with your own details.

7. AGQTP Review

18 thoughts on “AGQTP / ISV Day 5 Celebration”

  1. We started the year with a road block. We were not able to use WordPress due to school policy concerns regarding the use of Web2.0 tools. It was not possible to use WordPress locally on the server at school.

    Then began the process of developing our own in house blog. Although initially sceptical we now have a fully operational blog called Helicon Space. This allows staff to set up portals and blogging spaces for their classes and share them with other staff or classes. It is also possible to set up portals for any group of users who exist in our data bases.

    This has got around the issue of registering permissions with outside tools such as WordPress. It is easy for staff to use and the feed back has been positive.

    The blog was trialled in term 2 to work through the bugs. In term 3 more staff started to use it. During term 3 our Director of teaching learning also used it to trial with senior management staff in planning meetings as a way to record discussions and share ideas.

    We are communicating this tool as a collaboration tool. We do have a learning management system (LMS) but it is rigid in its permissions and collaboration was difficult.

    During term 3 our year 9’s went to City week and our blog was a great way for the students and staff to share what they did. It was used for the Science, Art, Geography, History and English groups. My role in this was to assist staff to set up their portals and think about how to use them.

    In my own Science class I used the blog to set up a Yr 10 genetics issues task. I set up blogs in my portal for each group to share and debate their ideas. Even though they had to produce an individual report I thought students would benefit from investigating the issues collaboratively. The blog provides a way to share collaboratively and give feed back to students in a formative way.

    The blog has now been rolled out to the wider staff for use. The blog has been used at Staff day presentations as a way get staff input on various items. This was a way to familiarise staff with the tool and model the way in which it can be used. The strategic education plan is on the log and staff are being asked to input what they do that reflects the various parts of the strategic education plan.

    Helicon space has developed beyond a basic blog and give staff the ability to collaborate easily share ideas, files , links etc. The library staff can also link into class blogs to provide resources. Instead of using NetVibes the teacher librarian develops a Libguide which can be linked to the blog. This is a free open source product used by universities. (https://libguides.com/community.php?m=i&ref=libguides.com )

    In the paces of a year we have gone from using a basic discussion board on our LMS to developing a blog tool that can be used in every part of the school in classes, for school trips, sporting groups, staff groups……….

    I will be running workshops on how to uses the blog in teaching using the great ideas an resources I gained form Tom March.

    Reply

  2. The workshop experience
    The workshop has been very practical and has given us lots of opportunity to explore new tools. The structure of the 5 workshops has been very accessible. The environment is very pleasant, as is the food! The atmosphere within the classroom has been excellent. Tom has been extremely helpful and very knowledgeable.

    Web 2.0 and pedagogies
    The wide variety of tools is fantastic and there are so many different ways they can be used in the classroom. We only wish we had the same amount of time at school to explore these tools with our staff, so that they can see how powerful and easy to use. By attending this workshop, it has given us the knowledge to not only share tool, but also give staff reasons for their use, rather than them being used just for the sake of it.

    Insights gained from all of us ISV support people
    Has been so valuable!

    Working with colleagues here or back at school
    Having the time to work together whilst here as been fantastic. We don’t ever get the time to do this when back at school as we don’t have any frees together. We are very time poor at school, particularly with time to meet and share with the other staff we work with so that has been a challenge. We have lots of ideas, knowledge and skill and are wanting to share this, but we haven’t been able to as yet.

    The challenges and opportunities of implementing change
    The 3 main challenges we have are staff, Blue Reef (sites being blocked) and time. If we can look at ways of being able to work with these challenges then we will be able to make lots of change!

    Reply

  3. the workshop experience,

    I have found the workshop experience to be surprisingly good! I initially thought that I would be very familiar with everything covered, such as blogging, RSS and social bookmarking, but Tom went in to such detail with it and uncovered some very innovative uses for the technology that could be directly applied to the classroom.

    Web 2.0 and pedagogies,

    While none of the technologies discussed have been particularly new to me, the focus on using these in pedagogically authentic ways has been inspiring. Basing all of this on sound teaching practice has been great and I think if more teachers understood the reason behind taking these approaches with any technology or resources (including pen and paper!) then they would be incredibly good teachers.

    working with colleagues here or back at school

    Working with colleagues back at school on the web 2.0 project has been a partial success. Some teachers have really taken to the ideas presented to them. In particular, our Lit teacher has jumped way ahead of me in establishing great class portals, while I’m still plodding along with my own blog. Others have been less successful in implementing their blogs, but in the process we have learned what kinds of help and support they need to succeed, so I’m confident that we’ll be able to engage a larger group of teachers with these tools towards the end of term 4 in preparation for next year.

    the challenges and opportunities of implementing change

    The challenges we have found are the two obvious ones: time and accessibility. While we have a lot of computers around the school, teachers have found that the technology can be unreliable due to several infrastructural issues, and as such this has put many off. Also, teachers have found it difficult to find the time necessary to develop their blogs, and those that have have admitted to spending many hours on it ‘off the clock’. I would see this as a big obstacle for the majority of teachers.

    I have also been recording my thoughts about the process periodically at my other blog. The relevant posts are tagged AGQTP: AGQTP Reflections

    Thanks for everything, Tom! This has been a great series.

    Reply

    • Hi Jackson – that’s a great reflection you’ve made on your blog regarding WebQuests – so thorough and thoughtful. Fantastic. Please stay in touch and sharing the things you know and learn along the way.

      Reply

  4. The workshops have been an engaging and invaluable experience. The sheer number of web 2.0 technologies can be daunting at times and finding the best ones to use in individual circumstances can take time. It seems that many of the skills and tools we have examined (Look2Learn, webquests, portals etc) have very strong applications particularly in the learning areas of English, Science and Humanities. Rich conceptual topics and ideas lend themselves very well to these pedagogies, particularly at the lower secondary/middle school area, where the nature of the curriculum allows deep and thorough investigation.

    At times I’ve struggled a little in trying to apply the pedagogy to my VCE PE class for a number of reasons. The nature of the course and the time constraint means that it is very much content driven. As the assessment and exam is the ultimate goal, there is a necessity to ensure that all examinable content is covered in sufficient detail. I haven’t got the luxury of ‘letting the students loose’ in so far as I would like. I have however, been using edmodo with students to communicate, discuss, monitor homework and post suitable videos, websites and other multimedia applicable to the content. Next year, I’m considering changing platforms and using wordpress to achieve the same results, although I must admit the security and ‘submission of work’ features of edmodo are a nice addition to a traditional ‘blog’.

    Working with ISV has been a valuable experience. Tom’s own blogs and logical page designs have made navigation easy. Coby’s visits to our school have been excellent and the staff she has worked with have appreciated her insight and support. One thing I have noted though, is that for our group (enthused, relatively tech-savvy etc) to find some of the tools and implementation challenging (even with the support of Tom and Coby), suggests that the ‘battle’ with staff in our own schools is going to be a difficult and time-consuming process! But…we have to start somewhere!

    Working with colleagues at school has been a mixed success. We have tried to protect time to meet, but have not been able to do so regularly enough. As a result, some of the staff have not embraced the pedagogy or found ways to use it in their own areas. Some though, with Coby’s assistance, have learnt new skills and are well on the way creating engaging web2.0 classrooms. We still face resistance from some teachers (most notably maths!) who find little purpose in a class ‘blog’, look2learn or other collaborative and rich methods.

    Convincing traditional staff that today’s students are different and do learn/engage in a very different way is difficult. Many refuse to accept this and insist that students simply need more discipline and that the old way is the best way.

    The challenge of technology and usable spaces also remains for us. We do not have a 1-to-1 school and have made no commitment to do so. Access to reliable computers can be difficult at times and continues to cause some angst among staff. It is difficult to take staff on the journey when they are met with these hurdles every day. Is 1-to-1 the answer? I’m not so sure, but a more reliable and usable system at our school is needed. We are working towards it, but are not there yet.

    The opportunities of change though are immense. The conversation has been started at school about how we can better design our ‘expansion’ buildings and create better learning spaces for the digital age. We are fortunate to be a growing school where we can make decisions and changes now in this regard.

    I see the implementation of web2.0 technology and blogs as being essential in the modern teaching profession, and that it will even ‘lighten the load’ for many teachers. The ability to track, store, monitor and communicate with students in a paper-less environment is wonderful, not to mention the ease with which student work can be collected and demonstrated to parents, other teachers and so on without leaving your desk! To be able to use technology that students are already largely familiar with and using to engage them is a very positive step forward.

    Whilst the opportunity here is great, the challenge still remains to ensure that the change is implemented appropriately. Security and privacy are essential and it’s important that staff implementing these new strategies understand this and have the skills to be able to manage it. It also means that task design needs to be authentic and rich enough to engage students at different levels and encourage them to think, rather than merely copy and paste regurgitated information from websites. The skills of critical thinking and evaluation of information remain just as important as creativity, regardless of the pedagogy.

    Overall, this has been a valuable learning experience. I look forward to seeing the work from others to find more engaging and interesting ways to implement change in my own practice and that of my colleagues!

    Reply

    • It’s interesting that you are having trouble with the Maths teachers, as I am one and can still find ways of using it. In fact I did a look to learn activitity in my Maths classroom just on Monday. It was an amazing way to introduce the Statistics unit of work.

      Reply

  5. The challenges of implementing change in the school mainly relate to showing staff the value of the tool. Staff need to see that the use of the WEB 2.0 tool will be authentic and provide an opportunity for learning that does not already exist. It also has to be time efficient and easy to use. When staff see students engage more enthusiastically when using the tools this provides a motivation to try new Web 2.0 tools.
    Staff need be confident that their tools will work in the school when they need them. So if the network is not robust or errors occur this can be a big impediment to change. Errors did occur but staff were generally accepting of the fact that we were in the early stages of trying something new.

    The best thing about trying something new was that staff spread the word themselves and this was the best form of publicity to encourage other staff to try the blogging.

    Reply

  6. I’ve always had an interest in IT, technology and Web 2.0 but began to use it in a practical sense in the classroom about a year ago. This is when during third term holidays I first saw the clip “Did you Know/Shift Happens 2.0” which inspired me to engage in further exploration and research, carrying out reading from the Horizon Project, “Grown Up Digital”, etc. As part of this research and interest I happened across Edmodo, a Facebook-like secure social learning space for classes.

    I began using it in my own classes and encouraged colleagues to take advantage of it also, espousing all the advantages and benefits of integrating Web 2.0 tools into what we do in the classroom. On an individual teacher basis, our school began to see the value of this and other Web 2.0 sites in the classroom, and we applied to participate in this year’s AGQTP project.

    Along with Marion Nott, our school English Head, I sought interest from other staff in participating in the project. Our intention was to assemble a dedicated group of 12 teachers from a variety of faculties and year levels, to learn together and then pass on their experience and knowledge within their faculties. What we found was great interest in the project, and as we held after-school workshops to share what we were learning from Tom, other staff not strictly part of our core project group often attended also.

    Marion and I have greatly appreciated and benefitted from Tom’s knowledge, leadership and instruction over the course of our five full-day workshops. We particularly valued Tom’s emphasis on pedagogical underpinnings and applications, and his emphasis on each tool being a means to an end to facilitate enhanced learning. The biggest challenge for us has been taking what we’ve learned and been inspired by over each full day, and attempting to share it in a number of brief after-school workshops.

    We identified immediately that within our core group of highly motivated and inspired participants there was a great variation in competence, familiarity and confidence with Web 2.0 technology. As we began to move beyond the concept of establishing a smart online space to more specific tools and sites for educational use, it was clear that the best way forward with our group was to split into two smaller groups and allow our participants to nominate the group that suited them best. One group would focus solely on our choice of online class space, Edmodo, and gaining familiarity and confidence with its use. The second group would extend beyond this to incorporate other tools such as Stixy, Netvibes, Tag Galaxy, class portals and more traditional blogs, etc.

    We had chosen Edmodo as our starting point as opposed to a traditional blog site as Edmodo already had a reasonable foothold in our school, as a result of some voluntary workshops I conducted with staff late last year. Marion and I also liked that for our first foray with classes into Web 2.0 tools, Edmodo is predominantly a private or closed space. It is engineered with student safety and teacher oversight as key features. Cyber-bullying was another concern that Edmodo minimized by the nature of how it operates. Further, there was the fact that it appeals to students in its architecture and Facebook-like feel and look. The team at Edmodo are very committed to constant innovation and improvement of the site’s features and also to keeping it free, which was very appealing. We felt that Edmodo as a single site provided a lot of functionality for teachers and students in one place, with a smaller learning curve than a swag of various sites. It reduced the need for students and teachers to have numerous logins and passwords for different sites.
    Our project group of 12 participants have so far explored most of the tools Tom has covered in his workshops, though in some cases in a little less depth due to time constraints. Each participant has identified a class or unit of work where they can see value and potential for integration of Web 2.0 tools as a part of curriculum delivery and classroom activity.

    Our specialist technology consultant provided as part of the AGQTP project, Coby Beatson, has visited our team onsite and worked with them in their two groups to help them plan and prepare the implementation of their individual teaching projects in their selected classes. The class application stage of our project is unfolding in this term, as we’ve allowed time over the last three terms for staff to gain confidence and familiarity with each tool. However each member has a clear focus and a project that will be implemented during this term.

    Coby Beatson has two remaining visits over this term, where our projects will be “tweaked” and enhanced in-process and we’ll also be engaging in sharing our experiences and outcomes during and after all projects are completed.
    A key commitment on the part of all our participants is to share their knowledge, experience and inspiration with colleagues within their faculties and year levels and to act as “agents of change” to assist and inspire other teachers at school to integrate and use Web 2.0 technologies to enhance learning also.

    Participation in the AGQTP Web 2.0 program has provided Marion and myself many great opportunities to learn about a variety of relevant and educational Web 2.0 tools. It has also helped us both to reflect on their value for supporting effective pedagogy in the 21st century context. We wish that every colleague could have attended our five days of workshops with Tom.

    The road forward is to see out the completion of each team member’s individual Web 2.0 teaching project, and reflect on the year’s journey. We hope to see a strong flow-on effect as a result of each participant taking their experiences and new knowledge and sharing it with their colleagues, particularly in the medium-term over 2012. We hope that the use of Web 2.0 tools, where it enhances pedagogy and student learning, becomes a part of the teaching culture at our school.

    Personally, I’m keen to explore the use of more traditional and public blog spaces with my classes. I’d also like to get students involved in podcasting and vodcasting, which I haven’t done to date. I have begun a “class portal” project with one class and look forward to seeing our site develop as successive classes contribute to and develop its content. I’d like to encourage more student ownership of our core online space, as currently it’s most often predominantly a tool for teacher dissemination of materials, resources and information.

    Involvement in the AGQTP Web 2.0 program has been exciting, interesting and wonderful learning experience, which we hope will have a real impact on our whole school culture and approach to teaching and learning.

    Reply

    • I saw edmodo the other day – how useful to be able to speak to the students in a forum almost identical to the way in which they communicate with each other. I “like” the post system – the info goes to the students, rather than relying on them to access the class portal.

      Reply

  7. Well here we are at the end of the Web2.o Technologies journey for 2010.
    My initial goal written right back in April went something like this….
    ‘Looking to find different web 2.0 technologies that can be used in the classrooms, how they ‘work’ and ultimately how they can be used in the classroom by teachers.’
    Back then I was really coming into this experience with the ‘typical PD’ mindset… give me some ideas, a toolkit if you like, of different web2.0 technologies that I could take back and share with others. However, I soon came to realise that this was not going to be the case!
    As a result it has been really challenging, mainly due to the fact that I don’t have a class to go back and trial some of these things with. Therefore, to some degree I feel was the wrong person to send along as I haven’t got as much out of it as other teachers would have.
    Workshops- I have really enjoyed these, especially the way Tom has given us the opportunity to really experiment with the different areas of blogging, class portals and webquests. It wasn’t simply here it is, this is how it works… then you leave and al is forgotten. However, the biggest challenge for me has been finding relevant ideas to use so the sessions were meaningful to me.
    I have really enjoyed the opportunity to listen to others’ journeys, challenges and so on. To hear that you and your challenges are not just local, but others have the same challenges.
    The biggest thing I have got from the workshops is that we need to move the students through a pyramid of ‘thinking skills’, rather than simply creating a great webquest and jumping to there. Students need to have a set of thinking skills and strategies built up over time to enable them to not only cope but really enhance the learning experience. To some degree I believe this is the reason why some many of my attempts at using webquests has failed and miserably!
    Therefore the biggest thing I have taken away has been the Look to Learn prompts. I have started using these with Staff and encouraging them to use them with the students, even if only once a week. The next challenge is finding the appropriate prompts to use! This has worked to some degree. Some of the challenges I have presented staff have generated some very interesting discussions and some have even taken the strategy and used in their classroom.
    Working with Colleagues- This has been a bit challenging. I believe this has been the case as they too came with the same mentality as I did… give me some strategies to try in the classroom. Therefore, when we introduced the idea of ‘blogs’ you came across the normal challenges… ‘Great, but where will I get the time to do it’; ‘how is this relevant to my class/subject’; ‘I can do this with a PowerPoint’; ‘how can we do this when there aren’t enough computers’; and the list goes on and on…
    As a result, I have gone ‘backwards’ and really focussing on building up thinking skills. In the Junior School (my ‘area’) we have begun looking at our Integrated Units and looking that we are utilising the inquiry process and then building in appropriate thinking strategies. This has been challenging as some are very much locked into a content driven means of teaching.
    Coby has been fantastic here when working with the three JS teachers in the project. She has been able to move the focus away from technology to teaching and getting the teachers to look at how they can enhance student thinking skills through the use of technology. This has brought about a huge change in one of the teachers, who has now gone from a ‘blocker’ (of sorts) to a real motivator. It has seen her confidence grow and she is now formulating her own activities, which is then providing stimulus for the other teachers in her area.
    One big plus has been the use of blogs by a teacher outside the project group. The most pleasing part is this teacher has really been ‘apprehensive’ about the use of technology in her classroom, outside allowing students to use it to research. She really wanted a way of getting the students to share recipes and build up a resource utilising technology. We sat down and came up with a plan of what she wanted and worked with her to develop the blog. While still in its infancy and well short on really challenging students’ thinking, it is a first step and from here we can work to develop the blog more fully.
    We also decided we would create a staff blog. Initially we were hoping to provide a simple means by which we could show the whole staff how a blog could be used. We started by getting the staff to post PL reports which others could then read and post replies to. While slow in its take up (but then we couldn’t get staff to complete ‘written’ reports either), some staff are using it and others avoiding it.
    While challenges still exist, I look forward to the future. The challenge is keeping the momentum moving forward once the project is over!!

    Reply

    • Hi Gary,
      This is a great reflection. The level of detail and thinking really indicate learning and gained insights. Our visions of what we hope to achieve and how we think things will go almost always turn out differently and learning is the result. You have started at an advanced level and progressed from there.
      Well done and good luck.
      Tom —

      Reply

  8. My site is http://www.philliplodge.wordpress.com This has a small amount of info for projects and some homework sheets for Yr 6 students. The most developed was a very simple looking one on our country projects.

    Publishing

    WordPress: I made the web site, and listed key requirements for some projects. Unfortunately I often get caught on the wrong side of the learning hump. Link to other staff member’s site.

    Stixy: 2nd most popular place for students to store all work, documents,calendars

    Google: We use this as the main forum for email, calendars, documents, shared douments for class, community groups and staff collaboration.

    Major problem, students have been asked their age, Yr 6 are 11 or 12 year olds, and the site now shuts down the kids access.

    Mathematics, English, Geography and History

    Gapminder: is this essential for all teachers to examine? Is this was the best web source of students and adults generating higher order inquiry questions and thinking? Students were required to investigate the History of their country they were researching, considering life expectancy and income over the last 200 years. They were required to identify interesting periods of dramatic change, develop questions and find out what happened. Examples, why did life expectancy change so substantially, income plummet or grow, in certain years, ie what happened in China in 1959, France 1987, USA 2009, why did Australian life expectancies grow so sharply form 1870 to 1930.

    CIA fact book: comparisons between Australian facts and the facts of their country.

    Maths: 80% ofYr 6 maths curriculum, use of Mathletics and Maths 300 . Perfect for P-10 Maths. Mentor son Maths Methods: Khan Academy Videos and Mathsonline. Maths is so much easier to lern this way.

    iPads

    Have had 3 weeks with an iPad. It is a game changer device, so much comes together so easily. Big effort to learn how to use it. Some apps change what children can learn, many make it more efficient.

    Reply

  9. I have used a number of Web 2.0 technologies in the classroom for a number of years, however, this series of workshops has given me ideas and ways to use them more effectively. Knowing more of the pedagogy behind using the internet and making web based activities will allow me to use these activites more effectively. I have been able to think through what I want the students to achieve and the skills I want them to learn, this has made me rethink how I present activities to students and how I support students while they complete activities. I was even encouraged to put together a WebQuest! This was something I have been avoiding as my previous experiences were that WebQuests were more about Googling and reading comprehension than actual learning.
    The workshops have been fantastic – not only have I learnt about Look2Learn, Class Portals etc, but there has been time to set up and use these things. When I have returned to school, I have been able to show other teachers what I have been learning. This has created interest among other teachers and given them a sample of what they can do and aim for. Teachers who have not been involved in the workshops have already created and used blogs.
    This project has provided impetus for the school to develop an IT plan for the future and has forced it to consider where the school is going. Currently we don’t have wireless and are restricted to only a couple of computer labs. Through this project, we have put together a plan for installing wireles and introducing some form of one-to-one technology in the classroom. We have also put together a plan to provide relevant PD which allows teachers to decide how they want to use Web 2.0 technologies in the classroom and gives them the skills to do this.

    Reply

  10. Luke says:
    April 6, 2011 at 9:40 am
    I’m with Catherine in school and spirit. We have staff who are wary of new technology and I’m hoping to help them use Web 2.0 as easily as they’d use whiteboards (smartboards just in this year)

    Luke Says on October 12, 2011
    This has been a fantastic experience, and wonderful PD. For me, this PD opened up the pedagogical possibilities of the Web 2.0 world. The Edge-ucators Way approach ticks all the boxes for teachers of varied eLiteracies, providing manageable and meaningful applications.

    While not directly covered in the PD, this course has inspired our school to consider the role 1 to 1 / mobile technology will play in the education of our students.
    We are excited by the prospect of using a device, such as an iPad, as, in what has become a school catch-cry, the ultimate resource. We see a time in the not too distant future where all text books will be digitalised (surely pdfs of text books will be replaced by online books).
    We are also impressed by the fact that, to prepare students for the real world, they should be taught how to use the tools they will need – a Youtube clip from Eltham College demonstrates this effectively: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPVJNIH0MiQ

    Underwriting the application of new technology is a renewed appreciation for the role of the teacher and school and the nature of education. This PD was really concerned with a pedagogical approach to the use of technology in education, and this is what separated it from other techno PD I have done. Tom managed to provide the overall pedagogical values and specific skills – well done.

    Reply

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