Well today our ICT committee meet to review our 5 year strategic plan for ICT across the college. It has been a year since we developed the plan and I cannot believe the incredible learning curve that I have been on. The college too has seen some great changes we have Interactive Whiteboards, teachers and students using a variety of blogs, staff increasing their ICT skills, Photo story being used, teachers who had never used technology starting to use technology and think about it, we have networked the college and have a very high uptake on staff laptops. It has been great. But there is still some areas that I would like to see change in. Number one is staff looking at teaching and learning in a 21st century context, and a movement from such a didactic model of teaching and learning to a more project based way of teaching or a constructivist approach where appropriate. The other area is the skill development of students. I am currently working on my thinking in this area. What is the best way for students to learn ICT? Is it by integrating it into the curriculum solely or do we still need specific, directed, targeted skills development? Or do we need a mix of the two? At this moment I am leaning towards having a mix of the two. I liken it to my ability to play basketball. I love playing the game but I took it up as an adult (therefore I am a basketball immigrant) so I missed out on all the skill development that I would’ve recieved as a child learning the game. I played netball as a child and therefore some of the skills are quite transferable however I find that my dribbling is well below average as are some of my understanding about the strategies of the game. I really need some serious skill development if I am ever going to play the game well. I suspect that is the same with ICT it is good to intgrate the skill developlement into projects and lessons but I wonder how much more effective student would be in their ICT use with periods of concentrated  skill development. SO we do we achieve this without teachers then falling back into old ways by saying ‘well the kids are getting their ICT in that subject so I don’t have to bother with it?’ How do we develop skills and change thinking. Most importantly how do we paln for this? So what I am looking for is students who have a great foundation of transferable ICT skills that arfe further enhanced and developed by what they are doing in their individual subjects. not asking much really! Hope my ICT committee has the answers!

So call me crazy, call me a plebe but I don’t get all the fuss that is being made about Second Life! Don’t get me wrong I can see how it can be used as a good way to meet online and run professional development, I can see how could be used in education for some powerful learning activities (MaggieMarat’s presentation at NECC about students and body image was a great example) but I am not sure that I get why you would want to do more than that? Why do you want to spend your real life living in an online, virtual world? It is hard enough as a Christian to be not of this world, but in it John 17:14-16 but then to be not of this world but be in it in a virtual world, it does my head in! Also wonder about why it is exciting to ‘do’ things in world when really you are just sitting at a computer operating a keyboard and mouse. I think it is more exciting to do real things, see people and talk to them in the real world. I know, I know that makes me not a real ICT purist and with that I am very happy. I do like to meet (or at least see) people that I have an online relationship with. I think it enriches the online relationship greatly. I also wonder about the loss on inhibitions that can happen in a virtual environment. I have seen students gain incredible amounts of confidence when online and for some it gives them a voice that was previously unheard which is great, however when people feel like they can throw away normal moral boundaries, be a bit flirty, be a bit of a bully or generally behave in manner that they would never do in real life what happens then? Is that OK? Are you still answerable for your actions in Second Life or is it amoral because you don’t know the real person? I think as tools such as Second Life are embraced in education serious discussion needs to take place about educating students about appropriate online behaviors and moral consequences.

Enough confused ramblings now onto the task of Learning Management Systems and a ICT resource wiki!

Well here I am in week two of the MIICT course.  I have completed my first 5 pretests in Word, I thiought I was reasonably competant in Word, that is until I failed my first 5 tests.  Ahhhhhhhhhh!  So much work to do.  However thus far I am very much enjoying the training and improving my skills. I am hoping to be able to really learn what it is to ‘integrate ICT into the curriculum’.  I find it is one of those educational buzz phrases that is being bandied around at the moment but teachers at my school don’t really know what that looks like.  I am hoping to be able to clear up some of the mysterys of this and be able to clearly show my staff ideas that they can use straight away in the classroom and do some serious demystifying……(that’s correct taking a class of students to the computer room to type up an essay is NOT integrating ICT into the curriculum!!).  I get to be concerned about this for my school as I am the Head of ICT with a focus on staff training (Business Manager and techie look after all the hardware and software purchasing) so I guess it is my job to make sure ICT is being used in a relevant and meaningful way.  Not such an easy job I am discovering! Any hints and advice would be great!

This is my second blog.  I use a blog extensively with my year 11 Business Management class as I team teach the class with another teacher and find that it is the best way to keep myself and my students organised.  If you would like to check it out the link to it is in the blogroll.