Healthy Education

This week I was fortunate to be invited as one of the keynote speakers for the Blackboards and Bandaids conference in Brisbane. The conference is attended by welfare educators and has a range of Health and well being presenters on a variety of topics.
The Mater Children’s Hospital have conducted the conference for the past four years as part of the Mater Children Hospital School program.

I was privileged to have a short tour of the school after my keynote and workshop and visited classrooms for junior, middle and senior students. Computers are a big part of their education and the classrooms look similar to those in a normal school, only smaller for less numbers. Some students are short term, however for some; their illness necessitates a long stay. In many cases classes are conducted in the wards as some children are not well enough to leave their beds.

As I passed the emergency waiting room it was sad to see so many young children waiting to be seen by doctors, with anxious parents beside them. It made me reflect how lucky many families are to have healthy children but more important, what a wonderful job this hospital based school does. It means that most children at the hospital can feel that part of their life is still normal and that they are part of a school community, which for young children who are dealing with an illness is a very important to their coping mechanism.

Spare a thought for another wonderful part of education that we don’t often get to see.

Changing classrooms in new Zealand

This week I returned to New Zealand to deliver the keynote address at the Mana-Ota-Tikei ICT Cluster conference held at Manawatu College in Foxton.

The cluster has four secondary schools who are part of a technology initiative to increase and enhance the use of technology in their schools. Allan Webb is the program co-ordinator and coaching facilitator as well as being the conference organiser for this cluster. I have to thank Allan for his hospitality on my trip as well as attention to detail to ensure the conference went well. It was a pleasure to work with him.

There was a good use of technology throughout the cluster and I found most of the teachers found the keynote full of exciting possibilities. A few may have been confronted, however as I explained during the keynote, this is a smorgasbord of technology being shown and the task at hand is to find the one that can enhance teaching and learning in their own classroom. For some, I think they found four of five things.

The day before the conference, I ran a full day workshop on podcasting and digital storytelling. It was a great group of teachers and it didn’t take long before they were all producing professional podcasts.

Attending the conference was Margaret McLeod and Angela Page from Core Education Ltd. Core is involved education research and development and are responsible for organising a lot of the professional learning programs in schools in new Zealand.

During dinner we were chatting about technology and how New Zealand often looked to the state of Victoria in Australia as the bench mark for innovation in Technology as a system.
I can see why. They have provided every teacher in state schools with a laptop for over 9 years now, which are replaced every three years, they have provided all Microsoft applications free to all schools, they have installed wireless to every classroom for teacher laptops, placed computer technicians in every school, installed a centralised administration system to all schools, and now high speed internet access to all schools. Coming soon is Ultranet, a state-wide learning management and document management system that will be provide central access, school access, teacher access, parent and student access. To assist this major implementation they have employed 50 Ultranet coaches.

But what I see missing and what New Zealand has done very well is teacher professional development in ICT. In Victoria, the ICT delivery is left to subject associations or internal training at schools. It is many years since the department ran a state conference and the few regions that run ICT conferences have optional attendance, with only the converted attending. Providing teachers and schools with resources is important, however if we don’t work with teachers to assist them with the pedagogical change that facilitates learning with new technologies, then not much will happen in the classrooms.

New Zealand has provided clusters with 3 year grants to run whole school (cluster) based professional learning using ICT as well as providing funds to employ staff to work as peer mentors and coaches in schools. Allan Webb, the conference co-ordinator works in 3 schools, rotating through each school and provide school wide support as well as one-on-one assistance. It’s the personal one-on-one where Allan sees the greatest gains. The conferences and workshops provide teachers with the vision and inspiration to use the technology, however the making it happen stuff really works because they have the follow up support with people like Allan in each cluster.

Australia might have more individual innovators because they have access to the technology, but I think New Zealand are further down the track in relation to real change in the classroom as a whole.

Having fun in Animoto - Click to find out more

How webciting!!!

ICT in Marlborough, New Zealand

ICT is alive and well in New Zealand. I have just spent two delightful days working with educators in Blenheim as part of the Marlborough Technology in Education Cluster. The cluster is made up of staff from two schools, Marlborough Girls College and Marlborough Boys College.
The two schools had a Teacher Only Day (TOD) to enhance the use of technology. What I found interesting was that many of the workshops on the PD day focused around technologies that children use in every-day life. For many teachers it was a chance to understand and try these technologies. While some of the session involved the use of Learning Objects, Inspiration and other classroom related software there was a strong focus on student technology.

One session focused on cell phones and learning how student text with cell phones, how to use calendars, upload images etc using the cell phone. Another focused on Flickr and how to put photos on line, while the use of iPods’ and how to find and download music was also a feature.
Teachers also had the chance to learn about Skype and how to communicate with family and friends using this low cost or free resource.
There was certainly a buzz around the schools, who jointly hosted sessions. Lunch was at the girls college and the opening keynote and closing drinks at the boy’s college, ensuring that there was no bias for locations.

The evening before over 40 educators turned up to a pre conference workshop that I delivered on the “World of Google” There was significant interest on how the different applications could be used in classrooms.

On the PD day, I delivered a keynote called “Webciting – What all the hype about web 2.0”. This was a chance to inform educators about the shift from web 1.0 to web 2.0 as well as share a range of new technologies being used in education. I followed this with reference to professional learning for educators and how the model is changing and then finished with some international research and of course some "wow" factor with some of the technologies of the future.
My first workshop focused on digital storytelling and it was great to see how excited many of the staff were who had not used this process before. Of particular note was the PE staff who are going to change the face of theory lessons with a whole range of multimedia. My second session was on web 2.0 tools, toonadoo, bubbl.us, freewebs, igoogle and more. Again there was a buzz in the room and at the end of the day, when all other sessions had finished, my group wanted to keep going. How webciting!

I also have to thank my hosts Sandy and Giles, who co-ordinated the conference from their respective schools. They were fantastic and the hospitality and the offers to go out of their way to look after me where greatly appreciated. From bbq dinners and take away, to chauffeuring me to and from the airport and school. Nothing was too much trouble, even though they had the weight of organising the event on their shoulders. Thank you.


So where are they headed. Certainly there was a good level of understanding of technology by teachers. There are the usual number of champions that I see in schools, however there was a far greater general ICT awareness and skill level as a whole staff, than in general.



With Sandy and Giles leading the way, I will expect to see some great educational outcomes coming from this school district.



(Photo: Blenheim District as my plane departed)

Classrooms of the Future

I was just reading an article on Schools of the Future and thought I had to have my say.

Classrooms of the future. How many forums have I been on to discuss this? We need classrooms with access to technology, flexible usage, maybe open plans, modular to allow for the unknown.
What I do see is that children will learn anywhere provided they are motivated and engaged. If we look at technology, for those children with access, learning happens 24/7. There are no classrooms to teach how to upload to Youtube, how to build the best myspace page, yet children lean. They learn through their own networks and being connected.
I think what is sometimes the issue is that we need to teach some of the key foundations in English and Mathematics and to do this we need two learning models. One which has a more open learning mode such as project work which may be based in a non traditional classroom setting, with a focus on challenging the thinking of children; however the other is still traditional in many ways as children need structure, especially around the 11 to 14 yr age group.
They need teacher guidance and need to have structure so that the basics they learn can be used in everyday life and form the basic structures for different types of learning. They need access to a teacher who has a personal interest and not in an open plan room with 100 or so other students. They have individual needs and need a strong structure in place relating to their personal learning. And while children are connected all the time, and I love technology, we have to remember there are times when learning is not done on an ipod, laptop or technology device.
Let’s build schools that allow innovation and learning to take place in many different ways, but let’s also remember we have to also teach key competencies and skills that are age appropriate each year. Schools of tomorrow should have options for learning, traditional and non traditional, however we need to try to understand what belongs in which. I still think the key is not the school of the future, but the teacher of the future.

Computers for all yr 9 ,10, 11,and 12 students in Australia

The new Federal Government in Australia have promised to provide a computer for every year 9, 10, 11 and 12 students in schools throughout Australia. This is part of a plan to make Australia the clever country and to ensure students have access to 21st century tools.
These students who are already living with 21st century technology will now have even greater access in schools. However this is not an easy process to put in place and has many barriers that need to be worked through. Almost all of these barriers are achievable but they will require a cost as the support, infrastructure and teaching and learning requirements are not a quick fix.

The idea is to be commended as we know from most technology conferences that one on one computing is seen as the best model for the use of technology. Shared computers have a place, however this is usually for collaborative work, and while we are encouraging this in schools, students still need personalised learning.
It is still unclear how the Governments model will work, however I believe it is different to the notebook programs that are in so many private schools.

Why does the notebook program work so well in private schools?

• Students have ownership of the technology
• The school controls the notebook image that is rolled out. This also ensure greater control over legal software
• Parents pay a higher premium to ensure they notebooks have extended warranties and insurance
• Schools have additional technical support resources for repairs and notebooks servicing and rollouts
  

So how will a notebook for each student in state schools and non notebook schools work?
Putting a desktop in every classroom is impossible. Classrooms are not big enough and have not been designed for this purpose, so I think this is out.
Notebooks are the only way, however my understanding is that the computers will be schools based and not for home usage. This will control much of the copyright and illegal software issues.

However the first issue will be technical support. A high school of 1,000 students with a ratio of 1 to 5 computers will current have 200 computers and one to two EFT (Equivalent Full Time) technical support people. Pluse 80 staff laptops.
With the new model, we could expect a school to have 720 computers, 1 for every yr 9, 10, 11 and 12 (approximately 650 computers) and a ratio of 1 to 5 for year 7 and 8 (70 computers) plus 80 staff laptops. This would require an additional 2 to 4 technician per school.

Perhaps a preloaded national image for every machine may be a solution, which would have to have a Novell, Windows and Lynx build as well as a negotiated national license for software. This may reduce technical support, however it may not work where schools want to customise computer images. Each state and education sector also has different requirements for student use. (e.g. Ultranet in Victoria)

Next we will have to invest in teacher professional development. While we know many teachers are using technology, not many have had classes where every student in every class has access to a notebook. This will require some pedagogical change for many teachers, and while some may have trained in how to use technology, always connected in the classroom is very different.

Infrastructure is the other cost. Internet connection and network connectivity, power for notebooks, additional costs of internet usage, additional printers etc.
We need to find a model that does not charge schools to connect or use the internet. Australia is one of the few countries where internet is not free to schools.

Additional printers may be met by school funds, however it is the hard wiring that has the greatest cost. How do we enable electricity and internet in all classes?

On a recent international study tour, I saw a system that worked extremely well in this area. It also reduced technical support needs as well. It has a high set up cost, however it did provide significant savings long term.
It involved the use of notebook lockers in schools. Students put their notebooks into these lockers each evening and at lunch time, where they were connected to electricity and the school network. A radio frequency disk on a key ring or lanyard was used by students to open their lockers.
Students would connect the notebook in their lockers to electricity overnight which would charge the notebook with enough electricity to run the first 4 hours of the day. At lunch time they would put the notebooks back into the lockers where they would be semi recharged with enough electricity to finish the last 2 hours of the day. In the evening the notebooks were connected to the network and in sleep mode, with lids closed, they could be woken up for software and virus updates, patches and images could be installed. In some cases notebooks were reimaged at night, leaving a student partition untouched which contained student work.

The locker system would detect when notebooks were in lockers and provide a report at the end of the day on any student notebooks that were not returned. These students would lose access to their notebook long term, which deterred students from not following the school policy.

This system provided a cable free school for notebooks, with all network access via wireless and electricity provided through twice daily recharges.

The costs would be high to start with as lockers, electricity, network access and security would have to be funded in the initial build, along with an extended wireless network, however the saving would be significant long term with classrooms requiring little change apart from wireless points and technical support/images/damages reduced due to the locker system and the control the school has over the technology.

Food for thought and Interesting times!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

staying safe online

This week I spent two days working with girls at an Australian school, working through issues relating to internet safety.
It is interesting to see how many students under 14 have social networking sites. About 95% with 100% using MSN messenger (windows live).
Myspace is still the most popular social networking site, followed by Bebo, however Facebook is challenging both sites when it comes to senior classes.
It is always interesting to finish my presentations and ask for questions. This week and all other weeks are met with similar responses. To begin, no one wants to ask a question, but eventually one student does. This is like opening the floodgates, and hands pop up from everywhere. The students have genuine concerns and often want to share an event that has happened to them online.
There is always someone who has a bad experience and wants to share it with others, while some students are unsure if they are being deceived and want further clarification. Often they ask, do you think this is risky, should I worry about this person I am talking to, who should I report an issue to. I usually have 1 out of every 100 students come up and ask for advice as they now recognise that someone they chat to is quite possibly an adult and they have given out all their personal information.
I have found children very good at protecting themselves online, however the hard part is to make the concerns real so that children put in place safe practices. Once children are aware and its real, they make very sensible decisions.
Let’s hope that students can educate each other within their own networks as they have the ability to reach out to far more than adults can reach.

Who do I believe? Where can I get good advice?

Who do I believe? Where can I get good advice? How often do I hear this. Just last week I had to principals and a manager from an ICT cluster asked me the very same questions.
They were after independent advice on ICT purchases and planning and could never get an answer as everyone has a vested interest in some product.

To begin with, I am often asked. Which is the best interactive whiteboard. Promethean! Smartboard! Teamboard! How can you tell which is the best. Most consultants have a lean to a particular board as they know someone or have the chance to get commission or favours for their referrals.
I guess that makes me a little different. I do know someone that sells IWB’s, however I know someone that sells every different brand. When asked recently which board I preferred, I had to refer to the current election and say I was like a swing voter. My opinion changes as new features are developed.
I think the Teamboard is a great entry level board. They are slowly developing online resources and the boards have a much lower entry price. Sales and support is very good.
Smartboard has always had an advantage for me, as it allows children to touch and feel the board. To my way of thinking, children using the interactive whiteboard is where engagement happens. As my good friend Gary Stager has often said, “I think we have moved back to the dark ages of chalk and talk. Engaged teachers at the front of the class using the IWB, while students watch on with boredom glued to their face”. I see this all too often. There are times when teachers need to demonstrate using the board, but it should not become a screen for a data projector. It’s touching the board above the use of a pen enhances this experience for children.

But I did say I was a swing voter and the new ACTIVarena from Promethean has just jumped ahead for me. Built using technology similar to the I-phone and I-touch. For me, this is where real collaboration occurs. When students can use this technology to work together, to create, to interact and share ideas. This is exciting collaboration.
The technology will keep changing and my preference will move with it. The main thing I suggest with IWB’s is to purchase them with the built on projector and boom arm. Promethean and Smartboard both supply these and they reduce shadows, movement (out of sync) and much more.

Where do we get good advice? Should we have labs, should we disperse computers, should we have laptops and trolleys, should we be a laptop program? I could argue for and against all of these concepts. Each school is different and the vision, leadership, technical support, funding models, professional development needs, staff skill level, and classroom designs will be a key factor. Too often we have principals or administrators making decisions without really being informed about the best way to use technology and how children really use technology.
With children fully immersed in technology, this is not a time for schools to be playing games with children’s education. No wonder the disconnect with technology often occurs when students arrive at school. Engaged curriculum needs engaging learning environments.