Sunday, November 30, 2008

Cognitive Rehearsal -

Hey; is this web tool Flowgram the death of powerpoint? I think so.
Well with a half decent internet connection this program is very flexible and powerful.
Of course best practise always needs to be established and finally I have a tip for recording voice.

  • Use a script!!
I am now sitting at the dining table eating fruit and crumble and able to add to this.
  • Use a script and provide time for cognitive rehearsal.
I feel we should do this when asking students for opinions, thoughts and solutions. Without the preparation of thinking and pre-planning even a hot jam session will struggle to impress.
Finally am I learning to learn?
Here is a flowgram created for the unconference the Journey Cluster held last week.
It is easy peasy.




Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Change change change

This Literacy time line I made for a recent workshop pointed out that a couple of things have changed recently. What does this mean for teaching and learning.
Have added some new literacies below to add to this list

  • Do we need to rethink every thing?
  • Maybe not but we certainly need to question it?
New literacies? or literacies on the rise?
  • oral literacy
  • media literacy
  • visual literacy
  • cultural literacy
  • informational literacy
  • environmental literacy
  • operacy (see edward de bono)

add a quick comment if there is any thing feel would add to the timeline.







Friday, November 14, 2008

Movember

I guess we are all entitled to one off task post.
I am growing a mo for mens' health.
Here it is day 15.
Donations go to great cause will post pic again later.
















Using xbox camera and skype for video snapshot.



Monday, November 10, 2008

Five minutes on economic impact

This is intended to be a five minute post on one to one computing and price point.
While not the only issue things have to be affordable for parents and schools.
The price of the same Acer Aspire one netbook as gone up 20 percent in the past month.
Ouch !!!
So the contenders are

  • The classmate pc
  • The acer Aspire one
  • The eeepc approx
Not sure if they have all gone up but:
What we would need to see is: offsetting this against other costs such as stationary
but also an improvement in student learning.
This is notoriously hard to measure.

Here is hoping the parent jury value and believe that a good teacher will see
students learning to learn and showing exciting outcomes and understandings
from a 1 to 1 experience.













By the way the classmate is my favorite because of the price/performance

And oops took 10 mins of time for post looks like price of time has also gone up








Sunday, November 2, 2008

What matters matters

The things changing in education should be carefully considered.
If you read/view any post on this blog make it this one.

  • Why change?
  • What is the purpose?
Two years ago our school moved a learning plan system that included
student voice and presence at parent interviews.

It made the learner central to this. At the time we had student interview some teachers and students who had been through the process.
  • It was change!
  • It had purpose!
  • It worked!
The above clip shows a teacher who carefully considers why he does things.
With the introduction of the learning plan he considered what would take the learner further.
He considered the purpose for the learner and what might effect them in the process.

I feel we need to this more. Engage learners and give them purpose and it will work too.