Educating the Dragon

Ever since I got sniggers at my first relieving job in New Zealand as I left the school I have had an interest in the work of David Hill . It appears to me that he is quite a prolific writer. Currently, I am working my way through "The Sleeper Wakes". Many of his works touch on many of NZs key moments in history or the potential disasters that lie beneath this fair and beautiful land. Whether it is one or the other I have to say that he does provide something of a bridge between the two world of Junior fiction and ’study’ literature. I was wondering, if anyone knows whether the novels of this author would be available in one huge, (updated covers) set. Something for me to get my boy that will stand the test of time – I have a decade to locate it so no rush.

In short, I guess, I’m sharing that these novels are well worth a read. Well worth a study. The trick is to do this in such a way as to ’switch the kids onto literature’.

Answers on a postcard to the usual address.

Related links:

David Hill’s visit

Sadly I will not be able to attend a breakfast meeting this year. The bloggers cafe will be the place to meet, bright and early. Alternatively, on the Wednesday night there is a ‘discount tab’ for those who visit the Sitech stand and present their card that looks like the picture below. So come along and say hi. Perhaps the only way that we’ll recognise one another is if we wear our black square avatar masks!

We were talking about nouns with my senior writing group today; common nouns, proper nouns and pronouns – what they are and when would we use them.

So just for the last 10 minutes I thought I’d set them a challenge for proper nouns – I wrote up the following categories:

people

city

month

important day

country

region

Then one of them called out, "Hey, Mr Evans we could do civilisations." Never one to turn down self direction and general enthusiasm, I wrote it up.

When the group reached "civilisations" they blew me way, here is the list they came out with, off the tops of their collective heads: Ancient Greeks, Egyptians, Romans, Norse ("Rub out Viking Mr Evans, they’re the same thing"), Aztecs, Chinese, Mongols, Spartans, Persians and Atlantians.

That is quite a collection for a "special needs’ writing group so I asked how did they know so many.

One said " I used to be into the Egyptians, went to the library all the time. Go loads of books and videos and stuff."

Another answered "Some of those are in Age of Empires too."

The conversation followed:

" Hey, can we do a civilisations thing in this group?" they ask.

"Sure, why not." I say.

"Yeah" says one. "We could write a book about different characters and creatures and legends and cities and stuff, eh? Mr Evans."

There is the motivation right there. I’m looking forward to gettting their computers networked next week, then I talk about wikipedia and google searchesand all that sort of stuff. I love it when I stumble cross a button like that… Switching the kids on.

The impact of Education Technology on Student achievement by John Schacter (1998) feels a very long time ago in Web2.0 circles but in Education 1998 was but yesterday.
The writing, which reviews other writings draws some encouraging conclusions. For instance the power of technology to motivate students, encouraging them to learn more in less time. “Bravo!”
According one paper being considered Students in technology-rich environments experience positive effects on achievement in all major subjects. And despite the perceived bent toward ‘technology being for boys” there is no gender gap with regard o the use of technology. However the level and impact of the educational technology is influenced by specific student population, software design and application, the role played by the educator and level (presumably year level) of the students with access to the technology.
What struck me as most obvious and most encouraging was that students (in technology-rich classrooms)made larges gains when the teacher had been supported with professional development training. As I said obvious.

Eighth graders who used simulation software and higher order thinking showed maximum gains of up to 15 weeks above their grade level. Couple that with 4th and 8th graders performing worse in national tests after using drill and practise software leads me to conclude that the use of computers in the classroom is most beneficial in the teaching of concepts and analysis rather that hose things taught by rote.

“One of the enduring difficulties about technology and education is that a lot of people think about the technology first and the education later.”

Dr Martha Stone Wiske (1994)

co-director of the Educational Technology Center at the Harvard Graduate School of Education