I'm looking forward to catching you all on Friday. It should be a great day to finally meet and
continue the conversation.
My top tip for this week - JOIN TWITTER IMMEDIATELY and find
and follow @dk2_econfidence and @mattforrest22 Search up the #MilduraLSDA
hashtag
The reading material for this week
This week the links to the reading material will only be
"tweeted" out by Nikki, you will need to sign on to twitter if you
haven't already done so and follow @dk2_econfidence and @mattforrest22 . Once you're on twitter use the search
function to search @dk2_econfidence (probably easiest) or search #MilduraLSDA
(there is a little more "clutter" when you search this hashtag) to
find all of the tweets Nikki has sent out.
Scroll down until you find the correct tweet and click the link. Do this
as early in the week as you can.
Work on your ARP
Make any changes to your BIG questions in Stage 1 of your
ARP, following feedback and discussion with our Mentor group - there has been a
bit of discussion by a few of our group members BIG questions online so far. If you haven't been a part of this discussion
I urge you to go back and look through the "Week 3 Discussion" there
are some great examples of how an on-line discussion board can support our
leadership.
Record any feedback you may have received, either on-line
feedback or face to face, on your ARP template.
Complete Stage 2 - Act: Commence the Plan of Action (plan for implementation
for the next 6 weeks).
Meet with you course partner
Try to have a catch up with your course partner to talk
about how you are both going in the course, and share any questions, ideas and
thoughts you might have. A great time
for this might be over lunch at Bastow.
We all know how hard it can be to find time to actually think and
reflect while we're in our busy schools so make the most of the time you have
out together on Tuesday.
eJournal Entry
In this weeks eJournal reflect on:
Your reactions to Eric Sheninger’s keynote and questions and
answer session - what did he make you think about?
Your current feelings and reactions to your experience in
this course.
What you are learning and what have been the most powerful
learning experience for you so far?
A significant event for you this week and how you felt and
reacted.
Any issues or questions?
Our Discussion Prompt this week
This week we're asking you to link some of the ideas
explored in the Melbourne Declaration and anything that you may have read in
the suggested leadership blog posts (see below).
Before you respond in the comments section below aim to have
read the Melbourn Declaration and reflect on the statement outlined below.
Reflections: Respond to the following paragraph and excerpt
from the Melbourne Declaration (2008)
Students entering our schools today are experiencing a world
with rapid and constant social, cultural and technological change that
continues to transform lives. Schools
need to provide the stimulus for learners to acquire, develop and practice 21st
century skills so they can build new knowledge. Achieving this requires
authentic and engaging activities; opportunities to create, collaborate,
communicate and share with others, seek expert support and gain knowledge from
many diverse sources. There is a need to re-imagine and re-engineer learning
and teaching. Yet, one of the challenges described in the Melbourne Declaration
(2008) is the varying degrees of technology adoption across our settings:
“Rapid and continuing advances in information and
communication technologies (ICT) are changing the ways people share, use,
develop and process information and technology.
In this digital age, young people need to be highly skilled in the use
of ICT. While schools already employ
these technologies in learning, there is a need to increase their effectiveness
significantly over the next decade.”
Once you've done that and scan through at least 3-4 of the
blogs from the list below and read some blog posts from each to get a flavour
of the blog.
Visit some leadership blogs and professional learning
networks (PLNs) such as:
· Connected
Principals - http://connectedprincipals.com/
· Leadership
3.0 http://www.edweb.net/leadership
· Dangerously
Irrelevant - http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/
· #etMOOC -
http://fryed.wordpress.com/
· Australian
Graduate School of Leadership – Leadership Blog - http://imia.edu.au/blog
· Edutopia –
Teacher Leadership - http://www.edutopia.org/blogs/beat/teacher-leadership
· Open
Thinking – http://educationaltechnology.ca/couros/
· The
Principal of Change - http://georgecouros.ca/blog/
Once you've done that chime in here with your thoughts. Just like in previous weeks, post a comment
below in the comment section. Nothing
too lengthy initially and post some questions at the end of your comment,
challenge some ideas or ask someone to clarify their point of view if you think
it needs it.
To get the conversation started, respond to any of the
following questions:
Although it’s been 7 years since the Melbourne Declaration
was released, have you heard about it before?
How far has education moved over this time to achieve the goals set out in the Declaration?
How far has education moved over this time to achieve the goals set out in the Declaration?
What interesting points arose in any blog entries you read
that have made you think about how you might further unlock the potential of
the teachers and students in your school?
What links can you
draw between the messages in the Melbourne Declaration, the blog entries you
read and the film you created with your course partner?
See you Friday!
Matt
7 Years since the Melbourne Declaration was released and this was my first read. There are some important things to think about - "While schools already employ these technologies in learning, there is a need to increase their effectiveness significantly over the next decade.” 7 years into this decade that is referred to and we need to question that effectiveness.
ReplyDeleteSomething that stands out for me is the following sentence "Achieving this requires authentic and engaging activities; opportunities to create, collaborate, communicate and share with others, seek expert support and gain knowledge from many diverse sources." I think this is really starting to happen for me now. This course is definitely providing opportunities and for this to happen - now we need to provide opportunities for the students to develop these skills.
I agree with you Joe, I think that the key skills to focus on are to "create, collaborate, communicate and share with others" and it doesn't particularly matter which technology or platform is used as long as this is happening. Like you, I am recognising the skills that blogs, twitter etc can provide.
ReplyDeleteIs there anyway we can start to help others in our schools to realise the same or do you think You already have a culture of open communication and sharing within your school?
DeleteMarty, I agree completely with you. Embedding this into everyday practice is probably to biggest challenge or change we are looking for. To bring all of the key stakeholders together - teachers, students, parents and the broader community.
DeleteGlad you are starting to feel like you are engaged in your learning Joe. How would you rate your ability to collaborate, create and share practice as an educator? Have you had any wins in creating this kind of environment for students?
ReplyDeleteI have had a few little wins along the way, using Polycom for PD purposes and connecting with other schools, but haven't had great success with doing this consistently. By this I mean the creating and sharing is often isolated and not regular.
DeleteWhat would be some of the steps to get toward consistent online communication/collaboration? How do we support staff to see enough value in it to do the hard yards and learn how to work like this?
DeleteIt needs to be seen in practice. Staff will have better buy in if they can see how it works effectively and is not another add on that creates more work. I think it is about the redesign in how we plan and work.
DeleteGetting parents to get excited about technology and collaboration is another challenge especially with some having negative experiences with the Ultranet a few years ago.
Tim I have to agree with Negative experiences of the Ultranet - we did a fair bit of work with it with little success.
DeleteIn sayig that, there are som many things where you can have success, and we need to provide opportunities for staff to engage with this and see the benefits.
I think working closely with a couple of our classroom teachers participating in this course to have some success and celebrate the benefits with the staff will help us create momentum and celebrate achievements. We need to Plan so that it happens and regularly, and look at how we can review/use data to see how effective it is.
Just for everyone's info I really enjoy reading George Curous' blog. I found this one on the course last year and have followed it since. It's a great example of the sharing of practice online that I think we can all learn from.
ReplyDeleteMatt - I keep getting side-tracked...boy - Storify is fun!....don't ask me how I ended up there - but I did!
ReplyDeleteSo now I am hunting for the Week 3 ARP discussions I appear to have missed.
Did you find the chat Cheryl? You need to scroll through the pages
DeleteOh - and as for the Melbourne Declaration - I have had the old poster on my wall since I adopted principalship...sadly, I am feeling we [royal we] are losing some momentum. As I accidentally Tweeted instead of Blogging - I am disappointed that the world-class curriculum and assessment goal has been waylaid by political interferences and the Chinese economic redirections....I can't believe that we still don't have a complete National Curriculum - that our state has to 'patch up the gaps', that political motivated reviews retard progress - when I felt we were gaining some good momentum until 2013!
ReplyDeleteoops - the Chinese was a flippant reference to why we have exaggerated economic cut-backs....plausible possibility....GFC? Don't know for sure but I know I was promised great, new assessment and curriculum tools - now I have to find another grand to pay for a reporting package! That's a lot of money for 20 kids - I am drawing my own spots next year:)
ReplyDeleteThe money always helps Cheryl and the political nature in which education is 'used' annoys me to no end, but I really feel like we have the opportunity to drive from within if we get enough people onboard with the 21C cause. The more I experience working in 'the system' the more I just think, letS just makes this ours. We still have the autonomy enough to make things great, brilliant in fact. If we waited for our political leaders to make these changes well... We all know where that would get us... I'd like to see you're hand drawn dots too :)
ReplyDeleteThat was my first read of the Melbourne Decleration on Educational Goals for Young Australians (and I'm wondering why it is as isn't it a document that ALL teachers should have read...?) I hadn't not read it before now because I couldn't be bothered, I had actually just never seen it!
ReplyDeleteAs I have said before, I do think schools are moving in the right direction, but we still have a long way to go. I also had a read of George Couros' blog - The Principal of Change - and could really link his blog about innovation with the ideas in the Declarationa and our ideal school vision film. It really all comes back to making sure that the changes we make are to make things BETTER not just different. A school can look like they are doing different things and going great guns at integrating technology and making home-school links using technology, but has the new way of doing things made things better? or are they just different? It's made me really take a step back and think about the reasons behind why I want my school to take greater steps into the digital world, and the Declaration definetly defines some of those reasons.
Do others think that there have been changes in regards to ICT that they have seen that haven't necessarily made things better, but on reflection, have just been different? I think I need to work backwards - think about the changes I/my school think need to be made and WHY (not just change things because we want to be different) and then work out the steps I/my school need to take to make our vision a reality.
Brooke, I feel I am in the exact same boat as you. 7 years since the declaration was released and this is the first I have seen or heard of it.
DeleteI have been following George Couros on Twitter now for about a year and enjoy reading his posts. Always makes you think about the direction your school is heading.
Can you define 'better' Brooke? What are We striving toward when we make these changes?
DeleteTo me 'better' is improved. May be very different or just a little different, but it is an improvement on what was there beforehand. Changing things doesn't always improve things is what I have taken from this. We need to be careful we aren't changing things just for the sake of it and to tick a box, but to make a goal (improvement) a reality - eg. my school needs to improve on our link between home and school and we can defintely use technology in this way BUT a lot of our parents dont have access to desktop computers so we need to make sure the changes we make will be viewable on mobile devices ( no point changing things and then they still can't access it properly because they dont have access to the tools we used!)
ReplyDeleteTotally agree! I have never heard of the declaration until now! This week’s reading was very clear in outlining educational goals for young Australians. Goal 1: Australian schooling promotes equity and excellence Goal 2: All young Australians become: – successful learners – confident and creative individuals – active and informed citizens I agree with Goal 1 in theory, that Australian schooling promotes equity and excellence however in reality from my experience as a teacher at a school with a high number of Indigenous Australians and low socioeconomic students, I find the use of the word equity interesting as equity means that those with greatest need are entitled to extra support. This is quite challenging in relation to ICT particularly in relation to expensive hardware and access to internet. In the reading it states there are three areas in which Australian schools have to improve in relation to equity and excellence, two are most relevant to my school- indigenous students educational outcomes and low socioeconomic students being under-represented among high achievers and over- represented among low achievers In relation to the ICT situation in our school, there are many challenges such as has patchy (dropping out) and slow internet in peak times which I is very frustrating for us all including the student! Obviously as Cheryl said budget cuts and changes political priorities have led to technology infrastructure diminishing over time with no money to fix and upgrade devices.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone here adopted a BYOD program at all. We are trying to find a solution to our large budget constraints, and thought that this could be one way of redirecting funds in a more effective manner. As I said above we have a large cohort of Indigenous and low socio-economic students, has anyone here ever heard of or experienced a BYOD model that has been successful in supporting and including these students?
ReplyDeleteHi Peter,
DeleteWe've got an BYOD program, we don't have the same issue that you have but have tried to make things equitable for all. Iwe can chat about in the next weekly discussion.
LOVING this wonderful interaction everyone - you guys can model this for all future courses methinks!!!!!!
ReplyDelete