National Standards

A new government and "new" ideas. Yes, we have just seen the draft standards and to be honest, I think the team from the Ministry of Education has done a pretty good job. The standards are closely linked to what most of us already use and they have included material (in maths and writing) to clearly show what each Level means. A pretty good source of information for teachers.

My problem is however not with standards, it is with the collection of "data" from schools. We have come a long way in New Zealand to develop a cooperative model with schools sharing best practice and helping each other. I am pretty sure that most of my colleagues will fight back if any system is imposed that threatens that. If the government needs information to direct policy, we have the wonderful National Education Monitoring Project (NEMP) that provides a quality overview of how our students are doing. There is no need for collecting data on standards.

I will stay positive (for the moment) and trust that the government will keep their word. We will not go down the track of the UK and USA on this one!

Technorati Tags: Education ICT NZ

Not my usual colour!

Soccer (sorry football) is not the sport that usually excites me. Yes, I'm a rugby boy and my colour is black. I do however have a soft spot (a very big one- he he he) for the boys in Oranje (orange). After 20 year we just might be champions again. I was in Amsterdam 20 year ago when we won the EURO Cup - will I ever forget it!

iTouch Learning

I've read this on the blog of Jane Knight and thought it was worth sharing:

I have recently been investigating the use of the iPod Touch for learning and performance support purposes.

The iPod Touch is the little brother (or sister!) of the iPhone; it has pretty much all the same functionality except for its mobile phone capability. 

It is therefore much more than just an iPod/MP3 player.  You can watch (MPEG-4) videos on it, and it also has on board a range of Internet applications (e.g. Safari browser, mail reader, YouTube player and Google Maps reader).  You can connect to the Internet wherever there is WiFi connectivity.

The multi-touch interface lets you control everything with just two fingers; and there is also a touch-screen QWERTY keyboard when you need it.  The accelerometer detects  when you rotate it from portrait to landscape and adjusts the contents accordingly.  Just like any other iPod you can synchronise your audio files with iTunes, but with the Touch you can also sync your email accounts, bookmarks, contacts and so on.

I consider the iPod Touch to be a very useful mobile learning device. 

I've also been putting together a list of the top web apps and optmised sites for the iPod Touch for learning and performance support purposes, as well as collecting tips to get the most out of it as well as other resources about its use.  I've added a new section to the Centre's website, called iTouch Learning to share these findings, and of course would be very pleased to receive any links to other relevant web apps, resources, etc that could be added to the lists.

iTouch Learning

05 May 2008 at 08:11 AM in 

Gaming - Oh NO!

I think it would be fair to say that most people (parents) see gaming and learning as opposites. This premise is probably based on 2 main factors: 1) For most adults learning and playing/having fun is not (and based on their own school experiences) and cannot happen at the same time, and 2) games are bad for you - waste of time, encourages violence, make you anti-social, etc.

I am no expert in this field (I don't actually know exactly where I stand on this), but I have learnt a few things about it:
1) The main reason why people love it so much is the fact that they get to make so many decisions in these games,
2) People know a game is fantasy and don't easily confuse games with reality (the confusion is created by TV)
3) I have seen a few good examples of learning motivated and facilitated by gaming.

What do you think?

To read more - go to: http://www.marcprensky.com/

We are getting there

Our new block of Learning Spaces is just about completed (the last few bits always take forever) and ready for the official opening on Friday 24th August. The Minister of Education will be our guest and will unveil a plaque.

The new block consists of four main learning spaces (call the classrooms if you want), 2 student work rooms and a big internal space that serves as an extention to 7 classrooms. This new facility has been designed to help support 21st century learning and break down some of the barriers to learning that traditional designs impose on students. They are L shaped, very flexible, no "front" and have a mixture of student desks.

I am very excited about this development and it was just amasing to see how the students started using in exactly the way we hoped.

Technorati Tags: Design Education NZ Schools

would - yes, like fish to water.

Lucky Lucky Lucky

I have been very fortunate to go on the USA Educational Experience earlier this Term. The tour focused on visiting schools that are on the 1:1 initiative. We talked to distinguished educators and visited classrooms to look at the impact of having a laptop per student is having on their learning.

We met some wonderful teachers and some delightful kids in Florida and in California. The last two days were spent at Apple's Campus in Silicon Valley where different members of the Apple team briefed us on various aspects of software and hardware development.

Technorati Tags: Education NZ Schools Apple USA

School Governance

We are currently having Board of Trustee elections in New Zealand. From what I've heard it is quite a unique system where the central government has delegated a large part of the governance roll to the Board of Trustees of each school. The BoT consists out of parent representatives, the Principal and a staff representative (high schools have a student representative as well).

In this system the Board is responsible for the governance role and the Principal (and management team) for the management of the school. A little bit like the directors of a company and the CEO. In general schools in NZ have quite a lot fo freedom in terms of self management and how they deal with the curriculum.

Generally speaking I believe the system works quite well, but there are some pitfalls:

1. 
   
   There are some grey areas between governance and management. As long as the Board and the Principal get on fine it is not a problem, but when they disagree a lot the seperation of roles can be an issue.


2. 
   
   Some communities strugle to find enough suitable and quilified people to take on this role and this can disadvantage some schools.


3. 
   
   Some decissions of the central government can make it hard for the Boards to fulfil their role.

I would be very interested to know how govrnance and management is handles in other systems.