'Learning Everywhere'

As I synthesise some of my thinking (and hyper-linking) from the last three days of the Learning@School09 conference the three keynotes from Andy Hargreaves, Pam Hook and Wes Fryer have provided both an anchor point and many springboards for my learning.

If our students “are messages we send into the future”, how do we best prepare them to succeed in a future that is increasingly unknown? Within the context of his book written with Dennis Shirley, The Fourth Way, Andy focused on the importance of investing in people and community to better develop more creative and inventive individuals, better prepared for the changing global economy. Stories from both industry (Nokia) and education (Tower Hamlets) demonstrated the improved outcomes and possibilities that can be achieved as a result of communities “connecting to the best they have been” while investing in people, through building stronger schools with increased community engagement and support for each other.

A focus on collective responsibility and communities setting high standards for achievement, in contrast to individual accountability, has proven to have a greater impact on student learning. These examples reflect the concept of Ako in Ka Hikitia and also Pam’s questioning of where and how learning takes place… “learning at school verses learning everywhere”. ICT enables students to “bypass teachers altogether” and we were reminded again about the evidence that class sizes and ICTs alone have little impact on student achievement. What makes the difference is quality teaching – what happens when we change our practice based on the evidence? ...and how can we utilise the technology and online environments to support learners more effectively as demonstrated by Wes in the final keynote? (see conference blog).

As a result of the conference keynotes (and the many conversations with others attendees in between) my thinking has predominantly been anchored by the importance of the collective responsibility for student learning. Amongst the many, many springboards the following stand out for further exploration and thinking:

Read - Visable Learning (Hattie) and The Fourth Way (Hargreaves and Shirley)
If you have access to EBSCO a preview by the authors can be downloaded from Educational Leadership, Oct 2008, Vol. 66 Issue 2, p56-61

Explore - Hooked-on-Thinking Pam and Julie’s wiki

Participate – The e-Learning Research Network online discussion Hattie and ICT Implications

Stumbled on the following video while writing this post. How is this a metaphor for the history of education?




learningatschool

A Portal to Learning@School

Last year I created a public portal to the uLearn08 conference in my aggregator, Netvibes. This was useful as I was quickly able to scan updates from the numerous conference feeds including blog posts, tweets, photos etc. Also able to share these with virtual attendees and others who could not be there in the flesh with some interesting consequences (see Reflections and Connections post).


I have created a portal for the Learning@School 09 Conference in Rotorua next week to keep track of the various conference channels and 'back chat'. I have previously blogged about the value of using an aggregator to manage online learning and maybe a conference portal could also be useful if you can't make the conference and want to personalise the conference channels you follow.

Looking forward to seeing my virtual learning network face-2-face and also collaborating with Rochelle Jensen to facilitate a few breakouts. Rocky and I are very excited to be working together over the next couple of years and will be utilising the Software for Learning wiki to learn more about how teachers are utilising e-learning to support student learning.

See you all next week,
Hei konā

tags technorati : learningatschool

Learning@School 2008

Participating in the Learning@SchoolConference, as always, is an inspiring start to the year for the ICT PD Cluster network. Our cluster had a busy start on Wednesday presenting in the first 3 breakouts. Jennie, Margaret and I shared our programme of professional learning and some of the strategies and recommendations for promoting teacher learning. Helen Rennie-Younger from Northcote Primary presented to a captivated audience of Year 0/1 teachers and Leanne and Stephen from Sunnybrae Normal explored how they have developed a vision for the use of ICTs to connect with their wider school community. Annie from Northcote Intyermediate also presented on Thursday, strategies for personalising learning through the development of their school LMS over the last 2 years. A great effort,well done everyone

As we enter our third year of the programme the increased focus on opportunities to process new understandings and challenge our existing perspectives and beliefs are essential. As a learning community these have included teachers presenting in their schools, at our cluster shares and at a national level. The planning and preparation involved also provide valuable opportunities for reflection and exploration of the impact of our teaching on student learning. I would encourage teachers to consider presenting. While it may be a little daunting at first, with the support of your Principals, lead teachers and facilitators it is a worthwhile strategy for promoting teacher learning and a great way to connect with other teachers attending the conference. We have set up a page on our cluster wiki with links, resources and copies of the individual presentations available for download.
I also attended a presentation of ‘Marvin’ the 3D animation programme that is now available for schools. I have posted on ICTinEnglish as I have been reflecting on its potential to support literacy learning across the curriculum.















Suzie asked me what was my conference highlight…it still has to be catching up with everyone again…and of course the spectacular efforts of all the presenters…you are stars!

More photos on Flickr

tags technorati : learningatschool

Learning@School

A team of 12 from our cluster attended the conference this year in Rotorua. Jennie and Stephen from Sunnybrae and Annie from Northcote Intermediate also presented. Feedback was excellent... well done...it can be pretty scary presenting! You will be able to find out more and read some of their reflections when Milestone 5 is ready next week. All participants will be feeding back to their schools as well, however if you are interested in some of the reflections from other schools please contact them, they have lots to share. I have set up a wiki for reflections and comment.

A highlight for me was listening to the video cast of Sir Ken Robinson, author of Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative. "In this talk, he makes an entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it". This is well worth a listen and can be viewed directly from the web or downloaded. I have posted my favourite links from the conference on del.icio.us
plus links to support my presentation for Learning Objects




No laughing now but Deborah and I were immortalised by the infamous cartoonist, Malcolm Evans. I asked to be drawn with my Mac...but Toshiba were paying! If you send me yours Deb I'll post it too...no pressure ;-)