Here is what I wanted to say…

I want to begin by thanking Jenny, who works in the next class and is the polar opposite of me, being ultra-organised. I must have driven her crazy with my last minute questions.

I wanted to thank Martin Genet, Principal, firstly for employing me in the first place and secondly for giving me the IWB which has led to so many developments in my professional life, most of which can be tracked through my blog archive.

I was somewhat disappointed with Amazon.com whose tracking system failed to deliver David Warlick’s book, Redefining Literacy for the 21^st century, a book I was gifting to the school.
I wanted to emphasise that it was not that I couldn’t deliver the curriculum in the ‘Peterhead Way’ it was more to the point that I didn’t want to. I believe that there are elements within the ‘Peterhead Way’ that are right for the 21^st century, for the community in which we serve yet there is an element within that philosophy that is resistant to change. I realise that change needs to incremental within any institution but I felt saddened to think that individuals who wish see the school community grow are not given the flexibility to try things out. As I identified in my recent podcast there is no excuse more burying our heads in the sand and ignoring implications of technology on the education system we are providing for the next generation.

My heart goes out to my principal, a true visionary and leader who is handcuffed to staff who are pillars of the school. I wish in some ways that I could have stayed, the school and the wider Flaxmere community is on the cusp of a wave of change…. I wonder if they will paddle hard and catch the wave or allow it to flow beneath them and allow the tide to drift them further into the ocean.

I am nervous of the future. Not having a job and relying on relief teaching, but I guess that change is good. You have to embrace it. As Steven Carden says: “Without hope driving our aspirations we become captive to whatever is happening in the present.”

It finally happened, in little old
Flaxmere, New Zealand. The Kid’s Conference.

Kimi Ora, Flaxmere Primary,
Iron Gate and Peterhead came together to showcase what they have been doing with ICT over the past couple of months. We had groups of children demonstrating how Google SketchUp, Art Rage and PowerPoint worked, we had some working with a green screen and my kids showed off their Talk and Write work with Taradale Intermediate School.

What a buzz, kids sharing with kids, teaching each other and enthusing about the possibilities of these applications and tools.

Sitech were on hand to add their input into proceedings and provided additional hardware so thanks for that Kevin.

But it was the kid presenters who really made the day. I was so proud of them all. There enthusiasm for it all practically brought tears to my eyes.

Just a thought from the day, part of a discussion I had with team members down there.

We were talking about how important it is that ALL levels of education jump on board with the new move to Web 2.0 otherwise I’ll enthuse my 7 year olds and get them thinking about broader contexts and incorporating technology use in their work but then they have a further 11 years of School 1.0 to have all that drained from them. Fortunately that is not happening in Flaxmere as the whole Cluster is part of the Sitech Champion Schools Programme, dedicated to teacher PD in the area of technology, so as teachers across the year levels become up-skilled our kids will continue to have those technology opportunities in their learning. (for other pictures from the conference click here)

I sense they are quite privileged in that regard. Are other areas in
New Zealand/ around the globe experiencing what we are in Flaxmere?

I was culling my folder entitled “Web discussions” where I store past posts and bits and pieces I’ve cut and pasted for use later on. I came across the words included in me second video presentation; I think I got them off Durff’s Blog, if it wasn’t from there it was someone similarly thoughtful, observant and insightful, but it sounds like Durff to me. Anyway here it is entitled: “School 1.0 v School 2.0 “On your marks…””

Teaching Sagittarian will laugh at me as I still am unable to embed my own videos and Miguel of Around the Corner will no doubt roll his eyes at me as, yes, I used PhotoStory3 yet again. I’m not sure this presentation is going to give Vicki Davies the ‘chills’ like last time, but them I feel this is more of a Die Hard 2 moment rather then a Godfather II. What do you think?

Download: School 1.0 v School 2.0 “On your marks…”

Teaching Sagittarian check this out, I DID IT! (Thanks to the new embed feature for WordPress on TeacherTube )

Here I am on my holidays. A chance, finally to catch up with Wes Fryer’s podcast142 on the speed of creativity website. The one I listened to last night rang true with me as Roger C. Schank spoke about his view of education. All the notes, wikis, blogs, presentation material etc are all available here from on the Speed of Creativity website so I won’t bother re-linking them all to here as they are 2 clicks away.

I wanted instead, to dwell on the concept he was dealing with in terms of creating valuable learning scenarios and not wasting time with the ‘just in case’ teaching that is so prevalent in our education system today.

David Warlick, when he was here for the Learning@schools conference talked about the fact that in New Zealand so much freedom is given over to New Zealand schools and not dictated from the ‘district’ or governmental level that the move towards School2.0, Classroom2.0 and Library2.0 stands a good chance of implementation in NZ schools. I think he was referring to where the purse strings are held. Which is true. However, if I were to share this podcast with staff and colleagues I am sure that there would be much puffing of cheeks and shaking of heads. A fear of unknown sits within our schools…. Even if the principal is progressive and forward thinking there are still those at the senior or middle management level had would vocal in their advocating for status quo.

Roger gave the quote from John Adams “There are two types of education, one will teach how to make a living the other will teach us how to live. “

I happen to agree. What I am most pleased about is that Roger does not leave us high a dry, with the idea that what we are doing is archaic but offers thoughts and suggestions as to how the curriculum for the 21^st Century should look. He stated:

“Writing

Speaking

Reasoning

Getting along with others

Making and executing a plan

Understanding what tools are available to you

Making use of known principles.”

 These are the core competencies. Regardless of whether you are teaching social studies, Science, or electrical engineering, those competencies above are the skills you will need.

So back to the
New Zealand way…. Like John Adams said we need to teach children how to earn a living and how to live, but then it’s very easy to ignore
Adams’ logical approach to education: Him being:

1. So far away
2. American
3. Dead.

But do any of those three reasons make him wrong?

Just copied this off David Warlick’s site.(sorry David, if I could ping it I would)

From Three Bullet Dave, I would suggest:

• Economy — It’s global, constantly changing, and it increasingly relies on rich information skills.
• Our Customers — They are tech savvy, effective collaborators, who are accustomed to a rich, interactive, and dynamic information experience.  They know how to play the information.  They need to learn how to work the information.
• Our Schools — The very nature of information has changed.  It is networked, digital, and overwhelming, and it can’t be contained in any folder, book, bookshelf, library, or school.  How can we redesign schools (reinvent education) to address and harness this new shape of information?

It just got me thinking that the issues my school face are bigger than my school board- They are faced by educators and policy makers on a global scale

1. Let’s assume that all our kids are hot-wired like so many of the kids today are. They are having to ‘power-down’ as the cliché goes when they have to come to school. Their 1000 decisions a minute has turned into 3 per hour. Not good. Are we challenging their thinking? No Are we directing their learning to engage in the digital economy or simply to sit on the fringe, on the dole watch sky sports and playing Halo4. why can’t our kids be ones designing the game, creating that alternate universe? With our sit down, listen up, follow the rules attitude we setting them up to be fruit pickers Watties packers, mashers or mincers. What happened to shooting for the stars and landing on the moon? Lets take a long hard look at these kids futures. The jobs that many of them could potentially get have not even been created. The kids in my class will retire in 2065. Its gonna be whole different world out there then.
2. Ok take lets take a different tack. Let’s assume they are not wired. Some of these kids don’t get access to breakfast at home let alone internet. If they don’t know stuff about the possibilities we can view it in two different lights. Firstly we could say “Hey let’s give them a basic education cover the 3 R’s tick the boxes and move them out Boy’s /Girl’s High let them worry about the future. Or we could say, if these kids are going to get any step up, assistance, helping hand, its going to be from us, the school. We have a primary responsibility for preparing these kids for a their future. Its not a future that we can see right now, not like back in the day, when  I could look at my dad going to work and see my life.  Theirs is future of possibility and wonderment, if they are prepared for it.

So many kids want out. They see the rugby players and the netballers and the movie stars and they think that’s the route to a brighter future. They don’t see the couple of geeks having sold Youtube for $1.65 billion US.

I was born in 1975, graduated in 1993. Back then the world was full of boomers- The boom went from 1945 through to 1968. That’s children being born. By the time I graduated all the jobs were gone. Even the teaching profession had a glut of staff. I remember going for several interviews where they had 65 job applicants per place. I was a baby bust- Tail end of the boom. All the jobs are take.

Well let’s go on 30 years the Net-Generation peaked in 1991.  Since then the birth rate globally has fluctuated. Our kids today could well be looking for a job in the Net-Bust era. What’s going to be the impact on them? Few jobs. They are a going to have to work smarter AND harder to beat those Net Generation kids with years of experience under their belts.

Whichever is the scenario 1 or 2 for our kids we have to act. How we go about it will look very different depending on those children’s access to the Net. The Net is opening up a whole world of possibilities out their, gaming and chat rooms is only the beginning. What are we going to do about it?

These figures are correct to the best of my ability. If you know better please comment.

• Flaxmere ICT conference will be held on the 1 Nov so put it in your diary now. Not sure yet as to how it will run, and the breadth of the audience (geographically now) so if you want to come leave a comment and I’ll find out more.
• Flaxmere is having a kids conference, where the children will have opportunity to share some of the things they have been doing this year with the interactive whiteboards, skype, wikis, blogs, digital movie making, etc etc. Not sure who the keynote speakers will be for that, but again you’ll know when I know.

Well done Russell, if it were your idea, the kids conference is genius because at the end of the day its all about what they are learning and their educational journey. Good on you.

I bet David Warlick or Vicki Davies would think this is a great idea. I wonder where in the world something like a ‘kids ICT conference’ has happened and what it looked like.

Listen to this cast here

School 2.0 is the really the implementation of Web 2.0 within the classroom and school community. Its taking a serious look at technology teaching and gearing to what is happening now. Gone are the days of the formal technology lesson. As Don Tapscott discusses in his book ‘technology is only technology to those born before its invention’. Today’s young people don’t need to learn technology they simply need meaningful context in which to apply it.

Global information is available at the push of a few keys. In fact you don’t even have to push any keys at all, some smart programmer has come up with a way of the relevant feeds coming to you. I’m looking forward to watching a video of David Warlick’s presentation on RSS/Aggravators.

I’m still catching up with some as Chrissy, just the other day taught me how Google reader works. And I’m loving it. All my favourite bloggers are writing direct to me now. Well that’s what it feels like. I even got an invite to a live podcast thanks to coolcatteacher and my Google Reader. 

Still lots to learn. I’m hoping to set up my flikr account soon and I already have one for audio but I’d be blowed if I can remember the name of the site, let alone the password I created at the time. Hey Ho.

Chrissy and I had meeting tonight. We skyped each other because we were trying to get our talk and write wiki up and running. So we had that page open to as we discussed how to embed RSS feeds into our Wiki. It was the session I missed at Learning@schools with David Warlick so I was a little non-plussed. But as I added and made amendments to one part of the site chrissy was on another and then we discussed our changes as we went along. I managed to capture some of that conversation but homelife encroaches. Help required to upload .wav…anyone

Skyping on Vimeo

Thanks Rachel for your assistance. if I’ve stuffed it up… let me know.

I digress….

“…there is a dirct relationship between family income and access to computers and the Net. This correlation also exists between the higher- and lower-income schools… our research shows that the digital divide is actually widening, not disappearing. As the new technology trickles into poorer neighbourhoods and schools, the better of children are leapfrogging others- getting not only better access, but a wider range of services, faster access, ther best technology, and, most importantly, increasing motivation, skills and knowledge. This not only exacerbates the fluency gap but also the gap in different economic classes’ capacity to learn and have successful lives. Have-not become know-nots and do-nots.”

David spoke of his schooling and how 80% ish of his class went to work in the mill to do repetitive work, closely supervised. It got me thinking about what are we preparing our students for, are we assuming, and grooming them accordingly, they will be working at Watties. Yes these are Net Gen kids but to be honest, because of their socio-economic position are we not in danger of ‘writing them off’ in a “Look at their dad to see their future” sort of way.

Funding is different for decile 1 schools, and rightly so. But I ask the question, is it enough? If we are hoping against hope for these kids to be ‘successful’, whatever that looks like in the future, we’d better be supporting them in their learning Web 2.0. For whatever their future holds, straight up, it’ll be measured in gigabytes.

Those key competencies are great, and they have their place, just like the subjects, but there is a whole lot of digital literacy et al. out there that needs to be grasped and utilised if these kids are to be Life-long learners.