Educating the Dragon

I think David needs no other introduction as he is to the blogeshere what Kylie and Madonna are to the entertainment industry.

 Well he is here in
New Zealand and Chrissy and I spoke to him like a couple of groupies. She shook his hand and swore blind she’d never wash it again. But that’s just her, I never said anything like that at all.  

Before I begin about David’s presentation I’d like to share a quote with you.

“Youtube is a nice little place to look.”

Mary McCloud

(in her opening address to day 3 of the conference referring to.)

An understatement perhaps but here is the link to what she was referring.

David….

Of landmark-project fame and 2cents worth

He spoke of way we have to look at education. Notes on the conference

Some key questions;

What do they need to learn in this 21Century- probably not what we learnt in the 60’s, 70’s 80’s and 90’s.

 The change makers in this digital world are those who can tell a compelling story. Youth today are not investing in technology but in the story presented by that technology, whether it be a xbox game or TV. Its the story it tells that counts. Book review The flight of the creative classIf you want to write your own book 

“Teaching the way children they are” - This is truely the Just in Time generation, they learn what they need to know. That means we need to give them purpose for learning. They no longer accept that they need to learn it ‘just in case’ they might need it. So what will that do to the curriculum. Its still in draft form at the moment. But is it already out of date?He reasons, few of which I can read in my scribbled notes if i managed to get them down at all, that the goal post have changed, the purpose needs to be refocused. What are the purposes of communcation, what are the skills required? Employing information- Using it, manipulating it, it is now a commodity to be linked, copied and RSS’d to.Expressing truth- web 2.0 is all about responsibility, collaboration, and honesty on a global scale.It is essential that youth learn to tell a compelling story. Through writing, sure. But the posibilites of images, video, podcast, vodcast, blog, wiki, …. and so it goes on. We’re talking MULTI multimedia. Yet we continue to atand as gatekeepers to the house knowledge, dishing it out in bite sized chunks not realising the wall around the house no longer exists and children are not taking bite sizes anymore but gigabyte sizes. Perhaps the first role of the teacher is to prepare the youth of today to be gatekeepers for themselves. There are a whole lot of new questions out there. Where are the answers?The future is no secure anymore. It is a future of opportunit and posibility that parents today can barely glimpse at.It made me think… My classroom still has walls. i need to identify with my class, find out what they know, where they are coming from technologically. I don’t want to cut the tenticles off but give them the skills to become critical thinkers. Perhaps more than ever it needs to taught.

Chrissy you were great. The video worked. The ideas flew. Everyone, well most thought the idea of weather data collection a good idea for an intergrated curriculum. Good on you. Hope people get involved through the wikis and blog sites.

People came for a variety of reasons; some interested in the weather station oters in the cross curricular links. What is most important was that you delivered.

Well done.

A quick thank you for Gary from Sitech who shouted us meal tonight to celebrate. You are a true gentleman, thank you for believing in a couple of teachers from Hawkes Bay.

Skyping Talk& Write. Well it went okay. People smiled at me at the end. I’m relieved.

Interesting to think that most people had heard of Skype but few of Talk&Write. The audience appeared interested and engaged. Genuinely wanting to find out about it. I hope that I plugged the wiki and collaborative aspect of it. Because without those people enthusing about it the skyping in schools is very limited. You obviously need teachers willing to push the envelope in Web 2.0. Chrissywas a legend. She made all the right noises and encouraged some to really have a go.

If I were doing it better I think we need a bigger space, it was quite hot and cramped with two data projectors going and 28 people in the room. My biggest concern is that we need some enthusiasm and momentum to initiate projects around the country.   

Oliver Alexander spoke about ‘Trends in technology- Aligning how students live and learn.’ 

Four main points he raised;

1. Globalisation – The power now invested in the individual to collaborate with the world. That education needs to reflect that. He gave examples of Digital stories, Skyping, freeze frame video for skill development. It made me think about how many homes in New Zealand (and globally) are ‘online’ and how powerful it would be to utilise that in school through blogs, wikis, my space, second life in order to enrich and engage students 24/7
2. Collaboration- Oliver gave an example of Maths tutoring through Skype. US students have maths tutors in India. A quote he held up read “New Paradigms are challenging our understanding of what it is to be intelligent”. It just made me think that if that quote is true then it is equally true to say: read “New Paradigms are challenging our understanding of education.”
3. Curriculum by Design - The thought was that flexibility and  multiple pathways to learning are central, along with Inquiry learning, to some proper learning management systems. Again this got me thinking about the whole technology as a tool and not a course issue. I think I am coming down strongly against computer suites. They encourage staff to view technology as a course and although you could argue that having the whole class on machines and working collaboratively, the default function under such circumstances is to have learning intentions around the package. A digital classroom is the answer to this with integrated technologies around a central interactive whiteboard, digital cameras, scanners, internet access, webcams, audio, microphones.
4. Leadership- he was saying that a leader needs to be someone passionate about digital learning and blended learning. Someone needs to be right in there at the planning phase supporting the whole process with ideas about resources and applications and packages and software that can facilitate children in their own learning.

There is one thing that has come across in the keynote last night, and it was reflected in my presentation today and others that I saw. That is the need to stand up and be counted. We may not be members of the Net generation or even Generation Y but we still need to stand up and be counted. As individuals and as professionals. The world is changing and we need to change with it. It’s a great big technological juggernaught - you either get on board or get out of the way.

So let’s do it. Let’s not be afraid of failure. Better to try and fail and move on than not move at all. This is the time when leadership is measured on the size of your voice, your global voice, peer-to-peer networking. Breaking the cultural barriers on a global scale. Let’s experiment with Skyping Australia, Peru, Canada, or the States. The kids are gonna learn a heap, and you know what - us teachers may learn a thing or two along the way.

Youth today are right now, multi-taskers, they already know how word and power point and excel and blah blah work. They don’t need a course on how to use this or that package, not like me. They need time, opportunity and purpose. They pick up the skills they need ‘Just in Time’.