Presenting at conferences

While this is not high on my agenda of things to do, I am going to find myself doing this later on this year. I will be attending the Ulearn09 conference to speak about Tablet's and learning. Here is my intial idea for the summary of the presentation:

Tablets, tablets everywhere and now what to do with them?

Do you know what a tablet is? Or more importantly what can you do with one? This will be an informative session which introduces two teachers using tablet PC’s in their Year 6 classrooms. Come on a journey with them to discover what a tablet can do for a teacher and student. See what examples of work have been created and pick up ideas to use back in your own classroom. OneNote, ArtRage and handwriting technology will be explored. The children will be also be giving their feedback on what it is like to have a tablet to use.

My niece.....not scared of technology

I had a great weekend in Rotorua.  When we were in Warehouse Stationery I couldn't help but take this picture of my niece.  She is a true child that has grown up in a digital world not knowing life without the Internet, mobile phones and computers.  So I watched with interest as she sat at one of the digital photo computers clicking, experimenting and just fiddling around with the software.  There was no fear!

Digital Natives.....What digital natives?????

After observing my children interacting online and with the Tablets that I am currently using in my classroom I am wondering when I am going to see the Digital Native come out in them.  I am more of a digital native than them at the moment.  They are not naturally drawn to technology, they are quite content on using books and don't seem too concerned with wanting to use their tablets.  My question is .... Are digital natives only digital natives if they are playing computer games or talking on a mobile phone for the purpose of saying in touch with friends and entertainment because at the moment I am not convinced that the younger generation are techno savie.

Leadership

Currently I am beginning my paper 'Issues and perspectives of Educational Leadership'. At first glance, I have no idea about the readings but as I begin to think more about the paper things are beginning to click. It makes me think about technology and leadership. Are there enough leaders in schools who know enough about technology to encourage its correct use? Are they making the right decisions?

The paper suggests that Leadership does not come in a package nor can it be learnt as a skill. But my question is then: How do you get it?

Life without the mobile

After an excellent weekend away I wondered to myself driving back from Auckland. What would we do without a mobile phone? Throughout the entire weekend I was constantly organising to meet people using my mobile. I wonder whether I would still have those friends if mobiles didn't exist or in fact, I would have never met them in the first place. On Saturday night as I was eating dinner at a very nice restaurant I cast my eye at the table to see 6 mobile phones sitting at the dinner table. Bareing in mind that there were only 4 people sitting at the table I can help wondering whether having a mobile phone is all its cracked up to be. Being contactable any time, any where. I don't think I could live without one, but has society become mobile dependent and would I get mobile phone withdrawals if something happened to mine?

University

I have decided after much deliberation to continue on with my Master of Education with two papers this year. The first one I have decided to do is about Education Leadership. I am interested in this area of education. How do you develop a successful team of people that are creative, innovative and dynamic? People who can take risks and explore new possibilities? Hopefully being able to look at the issues and ideas behind Educational Leadership may lead me to acquire some of this knowledge.

The second paper is Educational Research. I have been told..... if you are going to do a thesis then you have to do a Research Methods paper. "OH" I said in reply!!!!

What have I got myself into...................at least I only have myself to blame :0)

Bring it on I say..........

Thank goodness I have Internet again!!!!

Its amazing how much you rely on the Internet and a school network to communicate with other staff members. The School has suffered from a virus which has infected the Network for the past week or so. This meant that no communication via email or access to the Internet.

I now understand why people were fitter 10-15 years ago. If you had a message for someone, you had to go and find them to deliver it to them. I must have wandered around the school more times in the past week than all last year, because I have to physically locate the person I needed. Was it a bad thing? I am not sure. But I am sure glad it is all back up and running!!!

Interactive Whiteboard GONE!!!!

As the beginning of the year is fast approaching I sat at my desk looking at my Interactive Whiteboard being carried out of the door of my classroom in preparation for the Toshiba tablets that will hopefully replace them. There were feelings of regret, the Interactive Whiteboard allowed me to teach in a very different way, not necessarily better, just different. I hope that these tablet will enhance this knowledge further. Have I done the right thing? I hope so........only time will tell

Something to think about.....

Toolishness is Foolishness

I am contemplating the idea of gadgets.  One of the main purposes for technical gadgets is to make life easier (Or so the advertisements say).  The gadgets that come to mind are the iphone, PDA's, ipod touch, and laptops.  I wonder whether too many gadgets are a good thing or a bad thing.  

Me being the complete gadget king I would say that you can never have enough gadgets.  But reflecting on what I have purchased over the years I have probably been through about 4 MP3 players, 3 different laptops, 5 phones and numerous other toys which I thought would enhance my life in some way.  Unfortunately looking back, it kind of hasn't happened :)

So I am thinking from an educational perspective, what happens???? Is toolishness, foolishness? Do you need to try the tools before you know whether they are going to do the job or not?  Will kids make do with the tools that they already have?  Will the tools be nothing more than gadgets with no educational worth?  And will gadgets last the test of time?

Things in plain English

Have you ever wanted things to be explained in plain English.  Things like Wiki's, Blogs, Twitter and RSS. Well I have found a fantastic website which does that.  It's a bit like the online version of 'Microsoft Word for Dummies'.  

The site is called: http://www.commoncraft.com/

Blog about the Toshiba Laptop trial

http://toshibatabletsin6tb.blogspot.com/

Toshiba tablets

Well, some exciting news!!!! Southwell entered a competition to win 60 Toshiba laptops for two years to see whether they have any educational worth. We were lucky enough to win the competition and now we have the opportunity to work with Toshiba and The University of Waikato to do action research into what educational benefits a tablet laptop can provide. There are exciting times ahead.

When I went to the Toshiba training day there was an interesting presenter who made the comment about innovative practice. Leaders must "Back the runners to run" what an excellent concept. The presenter was from Frankston High School in Melbourne and he showed practical examples of how to use these machines effectively.

http://www.fhs.vic.edu.au/

What out soon for my Blog dedicated to my reflections on how these tablets will be used in the classroom.

Toshiba training

As the end of the year rushes to a close I have had the opportunity to take a day out of the classroom to attend some Toshiba laptop training.  With a huge mission up to Auckland last night it's nearly time to take the ferry from Half Moon Bay into the city.

What's a Toshiba tablet laptop you may ask?  Well I have had the opportunity to play with one for a while.  It has a rotating screen, it has handwriting recognition software which turns handwriting into typed text and it is incredibly light.  What else can it do?  I am not sure.  I will let you know though :o).

Last full week of school

Well I am now officially in my last week of school.  The children are still working really hard to finish off our Bloom's activities about 'Leadership'.  I am impressed with how focused they are and so keen to get things finished.  

We have currently been rehearsing for a play called 'Bugsy'  it's set in the 1920's and 30's.  We had our final rehearsal today.  It went okay.  We have organized the music so it runs from a laptop backstage.  The boy who is running it is doing a fantastic job.  Who knew that sound could be so easy!!!! NOT :o)

Well wish us luck tomorrow.  The first of two performances.  We will rock it for sure 

Unconference at Southwell School

Well I went to my first official Unconference.  I thought it was fantastic.  Basically it is a group of people that come together to talk about a topic.  You talk to who you like, when you like and about what you like.  You leave when you want to, and fill the gaps in your knowledge.  

Company was good, food was good, venue was fantastic.  There weren't as many people as I would have liked but still an interesting collection of ideas. 

google UNCONFERENCE some good definitions.

Mini laptops

Interface magazine has published an article about mini laptops for individual computer access. I wonder how this will pan out long term in schools. It could go one of two ways in my opinion.

The first way - schools will jump on board with little long term thought about the implications of such machines. Will the children want to use them, what will happen when they break, who will be responsible to buy them and what will the long term benefits be? Are they going to be a novelty for a while and then a big white elephant like the OHP (Overhead projector)

However, success will lie in the hands of the teacher who uses the technology. They need to be educated about what it means for every child to have access to a laptop. They also need to understand how to integrate these laptops into everyday teaching and learning. Hopefully they will be more than publishing machines where Word is over used and web 2.0 applications are under utilized.





http://www.nz-interface.co.nz/articles.cfm?c_id=13&id=44

Just my sense of humour!!!

iPod touch

Well, I have weakened and brought an iPod touch. My initial opinion is that....it is fantastic. There are lots of features I didn't realize it had. You can download applications for it and the best thing is that they could possibly have some sort of educational value. There is a whole section on educational applications that I browsed through, there are brain developing games to file management. Apart from that it is going to make my life a lot more organized. Thank goodness LOL

As long as you are connected to WiFi you are fine. An iphone without the phone. Perfect I say.

Google Docs

I have decided to experiment with setting up all of my children in my class on Google docs so they can publish their narrative stories and invite other students and myself to edit them and make suggestions. It is very interesting because I have had an email from a parent showing concern over their child having a gmail account as everything can be done via their joint email and they see no reason why their child would need one.

I am worried about this, I believe that cloud computing will be the way of the future and if parents are stopping their children from even experiencing these things then these children are going to be disadvantaged in the future. The Internet can be a scary place but with educated kids this can be limited. Its not about educating the children, its also about educating parents that still want education to be the chalk and talk of 20-30 years ago.