Investigate further the implementation of a 1:1 programme
Look into the use of forums across the curriculum
Try out Blogster
Try out Google Sketchup
Continue links with collected who attended trip
Prepare Presentation for fellow subject leaders
Look into plausibility of implementing real life business scenarios in the classroom
Look into the suitability of using ePortfolioa within the tutor programme
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
Sunday, 27 February 2011
Day 7 - the long journey home.
Well, the end has finally arrived and as I sip my final cup of tea in the sunshine on the balcony of my apartment, I'm looking forward to getting home, but going to miss the warm weather and welcoming people!
I'm really glad we had this adventure and am sad that this was the last ever TDIP, as I think teachers get a lot out of trips like this:)
I'm really glad we had this adventure and am sad that this was the last ever TDIP, as I think teachers get a lot out of trips like this:)
Day 6 - Urrbrae Agricultural High School
So, our final school visit today, the week has flown by. Another warm day today, but not quite as sunny as yesterday. It seems the mosquitos have taken a liking to me and I can count more than 10 bites! The rest of this entry are my notes from today.
Urrbrae is a fairly unique high school, they are selective, but not towards academic, more attitude. They are situated in the south eastern suburbs approximately 5 miles from the city.
We were next given a tour of the very impressive site. There is a fully functional farm, winery and the uses of computers is embedded throughout, including robots to help with the farm! There is certainly an underpinning culture of learning through doing - the cars in the fully functional workshop are an ideal example of this.
ICT at Urrbrae
There is a strong e-strategy at Urrbrae, they are on the way to having digital technologies embedded and are close to having 1:1 digital technologies. The whole campus is fully wireless. Every teacher has their own laptop. Where applications are ran that require high processing power, computer suites are available. For video and audio work, there is a stand alone Mac suite.
IT and computing are no longer taught as discrete subjects. the e-strategy is to increasingly embed digital technology into all teaching and learning activities across the curriculum. There is an expectation that all teachers will adopt digital technologies into their every day practice.
Need to look at ClickView - www.clickview.com.au - this is a facility designed to assist learning in the classroom by providing a solution for watching digital videos and other digital media within the school.
This is the second school that have mentioned deep learning, they employ a teacher librarian who is responsible not only for the library, but to assist teachers with research tasks, often digital, and to run the research project (sounds similar to our extended project). The library has a lot of 'traditional' books, but they also have access to a lot of online resources and ebook readers.
Finally, we got a ride on the back of a tractor to the wetlands where the students study the many environmental aspects of the area - what a fantastic resource!
Each school we have visited has had unique aspects that have been really thought provoking and interesting. What a great opportunity.
Urrbrae is a fairly unique high school, they are selective, but not towards academic, more attitude. They are situated in the south eastern suburbs approximately 5 miles from the city.
We were next given a tour of the very impressive site. There is a fully functional farm, winery and the uses of computers is embedded throughout, including robots to help with the farm! There is certainly an underpinning culture of learning through doing - the cars in the fully functional workshop are an ideal example of this.
ICT at Urrbrae
There is a strong e-strategy at Urrbrae, they are on the way to having digital technologies embedded and are close to having 1:1 digital technologies. The whole campus is fully wireless. Every teacher has their own laptop. Where applications are ran that require high processing power, computer suites are available. For video and audio work, there is a stand alone Mac suite.
IT and computing are no longer taught as discrete subjects. the e-strategy is to increasingly embed digital technology into all teaching and learning activities across the curriculum. There is an expectation that all teachers will adopt digital technologies into their every day practice.
Need to look at ClickView - www.clickview.com.au - this is a facility designed to assist learning in the classroom by providing a solution for watching digital videos and other digital media within the school.
This is the second school that have mentioned deep learning, they employ a teacher librarian who is responsible not only for the library, but to assist teachers with research tasks, often digital, and to run the research project (sounds similar to our extended project). The library has a lot of 'traditional' books, but they also have access to a lot of online resources and ebook readers.
Finally, we got a ride on the back of a tractor to the wetlands where the students study the many environmental aspects of the area - what a fantastic resource!
Each school we have visited has had unique aspects that have been really thought provoking and interesting. What a great opportunity.
Day 5 Evening - the Adelaide Fringe Festival
We took a wander down to check out the Fringe Festival this evening. Loving this as it's like a mini Glastonbury!
Wednesday, 23 February 2011
The rest of the team
There are several of us on this trip, here are some of the other blogs -
Http://www.Hobart.Norfolk.sch.uk/blog
https://sites.google.com/site/fhsaustralia2011/home
https://sites.google.com/site/tipdaus/
http://saidinal.wordpress.com/
Http://www.Hobart.Norfolk.sch.uk/blog
https://sites.google.com/site/fhsaustralia2011/home
https://sites.google.com/site/tipdaus/
http://saidinal.wordpress.com/
Day 5 - Australian Science and Mathematics School
Another beautiful sunny day and were off out for another school visit. Below are my notes from the day.
A specialist public school that caters for the three final years of schooling (year 10-12) before entry in to higher education. Established in 2002 the purpose built facility on the grounds of Flinders University is designed to promote and support highly collaborative, interactive student-directed learning with an innovate curriculum.
Whilst ICT as a subject is not taught, the use of ICT assists learning throughout all the subject areas. Students compile eportfolios to demonstrate their work for university, they are fully online, all resources are available to students online.
Check out www.21centuryschool.com
The learning environment is designed to be open, interactive collaborative and ICT rich. There are very large learning areas that allow several classes to be working at the same time along with various points for collaborative and individual working. There is less teaching at the front of the class, students are guided in small groups and the students are encouraged to be self motivated learners. There is a strong belief that students can be taught to be self-directed, megacognitive learners. They have developed a comprehensive framework that values deep learning.
A lot is put into professional development to ensure that teachers, curriculum and environment are equipped for this style of learning. Through the professional development delivered at the school, teachers can gain credits towards further qualifications, such as masters or doctorates. Time is allocated to teachers to allow for professional development within their timetables. All development is done as a team, when an new initiative is put forward, a team is put together and each are given 100 minutes off timetable to develop the idea.
Rather than explicit subjects as we know them, subjects are more broad and enquiry would cover many different subject areas. Tutor groups have around 14 students and at most a teaching class would be 26.
Personalised Learning and Personal Learning Plans
Vertical tutor groups who meet for 40 minutes a day with their tutor. The relationship between tutor and student is seen as key to their learning. Students create personal learning plans constructed as an electronic portfolio. "the heart and soul of the portfolio is reflection". Students are given a template for their eportfolios.
We were shown around a template for an eportfolio (got a copy to bring back), it would be an excellent thing to integrate into our tutorial program - of course, as ever, access to computers would be a problem!
AHMS Online
This is the first school we have visited where they have a fully embedded Online Learning Environment. The first thing that impressed me is that it seems to be fully integrated with their MIS system, so for example, the register can be marked on there. Looking at the design of the learning pages, it seems fairly similar to how we do it in Frog. When the student logs in, the opening page shows their due assignments, which would be a nice addition to ours. Teachers happily take on board that they are responsible for their learning areas, this is part of the induction training for new staff - it is expected that all staff will do this.
The whole platform seems very similar to Frog in many ways, the assignment page seems almost identical, the way that the lesson pages are put together seems very similar and the file structure and calendar seems to work in a similar way. It's quite reassuring that this is working well across the globe!
It seems that part of the reason this Deep Learning concept works so well in this school is because every teacher takes it on board, they continue to revisit the principles and use the same terms throughout their learning exercises. Again, we hear the importance of the staff being given time to develop these theories, develop their online content and continue with their own professional development.
One difference that I have noticed about the staff in schools here, is that staff seem much more supportive of each other and far more likely to offer their help to each other - less competitive? - perhaps this is partly because of a lack of league tables? Perhaps because they are given the time to work more collaboratively and share their ideas?
Students with SEN sometimes have support from extra staff, but the structure of the lessons allow the opportunity for more one on one support, of course staff are expected to be fully aware of the needs of all the student in their class. By using only the MIS!! There are detailed student notes on there including things like conversations that have been had with parents, events that have happened in class and anything that may be useful for other teachers of the student to know. I am fairly sure that I haven't been shown anything that could not be done using eportal/facility, but this seems much less clunky and far more friendlily displayed.
To end the day we went on a learning walk around the learning spaces. Despite the apparently unstructured lessons, it was clear that most students were making good progress, were engaged, and had responsibility for their own learning. I asked a member of staff if they were worried about letting the students go off and work in another area and she said no, they have a deadline and they would be silly not to complete the work now! It would be really great to trial one of these styes of learning spaces with our students, I think that, whilst it would be difficult at first for the teacher, the students would step up to the new environment.
A specialist public school that caters for the three final years of schooling (year 10-12) before entry in to higher education. Established in 2002 the purpose built facility on the grounds of Flinders University is designed to promote and support highly collaborative, interactive student-directed learning with an innovate curriculum.
Whilst ICT as a subject is not taught, the use of ICT assists learning throughout all the subject areas. Students compile eportfolios to demonstrate their work for university, they are fully online, all resources are available to students online.
Check out www.21centuryschool.com
The learning environment is designed to be open, interactive collaborative and ICT rich. There are very large learning areas that allow several classes to be working at the same time along with various points for collaborative and individual working. There is less teaching at the front of the class, students are guided in small groups and the students are encouraged to be self motivated learners. There is a strong belief that students can be taught to be self-directed, megacognitive learners. They have developed a comprehensive framework that values deep learning.
A lot is put into professional development to ensure that teachers, curriculum and environment are equipped for this style of learning. Through the professional development delivered at the school, teachers can gain credits towards further qualifications, such as masters or doctorates. Time is allocated to teachers to allow for professional development within their timetables. All development is done as a team, when an new initiative is put forward, a team is put together and each are given 100 minutes off timetable to develop the idea.
Rather than explicit subjects as we know them, subjects are more broad and enquiry would cover many different subject areas. Tutor groups have around 14 students and at most a teaching class would be 26.
Personalised Learning and Personal Learning Plans
Vertical tutor groups who meet for 40 minutes a day with their tutor. The relationship between tutor and student is seen as key to their learning. Students create personal learning plans constructed as an electronic portfolio. "the heart and soul of the portfolio is reflection". Students are given a template for their eportfolios.
We were shown around a template for an eportfolio (got a copy to bring back), it would be an excellent thing to integrate into our tutorial program - of course, as ever, access to computers would be a problem!
AHMS Online
This is the first school we have visited where they have a fully embedded Online Learning Environment. The first thing that impressed me is that it seems to be fully integrated with their MIS system, so for example, the register can be marked on there. Looking at the design of the learning pages, it seems fairly similar to how we do it in Frog. When the student logs in, the opening page shows their due assignments, which would be a nice addition to ours. Teachers happily take on board that they are responsible for their learning areas, this is part of the induction training for new staff - it is expected that all staff will do this.
The whole platform seems very similar to Frog in many ways, the assignment page seems almost identical, the way that the lesson pages are put together seems very similar and the file structure and calendar seems to work in a similar way. It's quite reassuring that this is working well across the globe!
It seems that part of the reason this Deep Learning concept works so well in this school is because every teacher takes it on board, they continue to revisit the principles and use the same terms throughout their learning exercises. Again, we hear the importance of the staff being given time to develop these theories, develop their online content and continue with their own professional development.
One difference that I have noticed about the staff in schools here, is that staff seem much more supportive of each other and far more likely to offer their help to each other - less competitive? - perhaps this is partly because of a lack of league tables? Perhaps because they are given the time to work more collaboratively and share their ideas?
Students with SEN sometimes have support from extra staff, but the structure of the lessons allow the opportunity for more one on one support, of course staff are expected to be fully aware of the needs of all the student in their class. By using only the MIS!! There are detailed student notes on there including things like conversations that have been had with parents, events that have happened in class and anything that may be useful for other teachers of the student to know. I am fairly sure that I haven't been shown anything that could not be done using eportal/facility, but this seems much less clunky and far more friendlily displayed.
To end the day we went on a learning walk around the learning spaces. Despite the apparently unstructured lessons, it was clear that most students were making good progress, were engaged, and had responsibility for their own learning. I asked a member of staff if they were worried about letting the students go off and work in another area and she said no, they have a deadline and they would be silly not to complete the work now! It would be really great to trial one of these styes of learning spaces with our students, I think that, whilst it would be difficult at first for the teacher, the students would step up to the new environment.
Day 4 Evening - taking in some rays!
As it was scorchio! we decided to head straight to the beach to take in some more sunshine and check out the warm sea:) my tan is starting to take real shape now, dispute being at work until 4 each day!
Day 4 - Banksia Park International High School
A beautiful day today, sun is shining and we're expecting high temperatures.
We were greeted by a red carpet and the Union Jack was flying! The general feeling was that the school was relaxed and friendly towards visitors and we were told to make ourselves at home.
The school has lovely grounds, a nice amount of green, open space and loads of plans and trees. It was interesting to see that there was no fencing around the site, despite there being a main road on one side!
After welcomes, we were introduced to David Couche, the ICT coordinator. He talked us through the ICT facilities and courses in the school. Like the other schools they are starting to move towards the 1:1 digital devices program, but are slightly earlier in the process than some of the other schools. There are 640 students on role.
All staff are supplied with a HP laptop that is considered as their own. All year 9 and 10 students have been supplied with their own Acer laptops that they take home with them. There are 7 ICT suites, with 160 desktops in total. There is also an on site media centre.
They are the only school who deliver 3D animation through to Y12. They deliver Multimedia in Y10 and eMedia in Y9. CAD in Y11 and in Y8 as part of tech. There is a strong emphasis on ICT across the curriculum.
With the advent of the student net books and all staff having a laptop, the staff are now really beginning to see the possibilities for redirect the learning of their students. The staff see this year as a year of growth and a change of direction in teaching pedagogies for many of them, many of them entering what has been up to now, an unknown and scary realm.
After only 2 and a half weeks of having netbooks for students, staff are already noticing that Y9 and Y10 students are more engaged and producing more work willingly since they have had their own devices. Site licences mean that students have access to all the software that they have in school. Of course there are a couple of intensive programs that won't run on netbooks.
They seem to see the importance of keeping students from becoming completely reliant on computers - they still have to write for 3 hours in their english exams!!
Rules include policy that students must bring their laptops to school every day and they must come fully charged.
3D Animation
There are strong industry links within the school, with some leading businesses in the 3D animation industry locally. There are also links with the technical colleges where the students can go on for further study. Uses Autodesk Maya.
We went to see a Y10 class who were an option group for 3D animation, the classroom was set up with 30 machines around the outside of the classroom and the objects that the students were trying to recreate in 3D were displayed in the middle of the room. It was nice to so much space in the classroom and the students seemed quite relaxed, but very engaged.
Graphics Calculators
Bronwyn Eglinton, a maths teacher showed us how she users graphics calculators in maths lessons. They do a lot more than a typical scientific calculator, they can draw graphs, be programmed and connected to a computer.
Some students in maths now only have an electronic copy of the maths text book and read it on screen in lessons rather than using the paper based book. Tis could potentially save a lot of storage space and save money on replacing lost and damaged text books.
Overview from the Principal
There are 2 schools in South Australia that have international 'status'. There are currently only 20 international students on role, but often it has been more like 60. There are approximately 24 countries represented.
It is expected the international student take extra English lessons, the department for education had mentioned on Monday that they had made it compulsory that none english speaking students pay for additional English lessons.
There are a large number of transition programs and open days for primary school children and parents.
Interestingly, the Principal and VP's are only employed for 5 years, then they would have to reapply for their job. The Principal is not chosen by the governors, but DCS.
Another interesting day, the most shocking thing for me was the amount of free rooms around when we were taking a tour of the school, and yet, they are over subscribed...
We were greeted by a red carpet and the Union Jack was flying! The general feeling was that the school was relaxed and friendly towards visitors and we were told to make ourselves at home.
The school has lovely grounds, a nice amount of green, open space and loads of plans and trees. It was interesting to see that there was no fencing around the site, despite there being a main road on one side!
After welcomes, we were introduced to David Couche, the ICT coordinator. He talked us through the ICT facilities and courses in the school. Like the other schools they are starting to move towards the 1:1 digital devices program, but are slightly earlier in the process than some of the other schools. There are 640 students on role.
All staff are supplied with a HP laptop that is considered as their own. All year 9 and 10 students have been supplied with their own Acer laptops that they take home with them. There are 7 ICT suites, with 160 desktops in total. There is also an on site media centre.
They are the only school who deliver 3D animation through to Y12. They deliver Multimedia in Y10 and eMedia in Y9. CAD in Y11 and in Y8 as part of tech. There is a strong emphasis on ICT across the curriculum.
With the advent of the student net books and all staff having a laptop, the staff are now really beginning to see the possibilities for redirect the learning of their students. The staff see this year as a year of growth and a change of direction in teaching pedagogies for many of them, many of them entering what has been up to now, an unknown and scary realm.
After only 2 and a half weeks of having netbooks for students, staff are already noticing that Y9 and Y10 students are more engaged and producing more work willingly since they have had their own devices. Site licences mean that students have access to all the software that they have in school. Of course there are a couple of intensive programs that won't run on netbooks.
They seem to see the importance of keeping students from becoming completely reliant on computers - they still have to write for 3 hours in their english exams!!
Rules include policy that students must bring their laptops to school every day and they must come fully charged.
3D Animation
There are strong industry links within the school, with some leading businesses in the 3D animation industry locally. There are also links with the technical colleges where the students can go on for further study. Uses Autodesk Maya.
We went to see a Y10 class who were an option group for 3D animation, the classroom was set up with 30 machines around the outside of the classroom and the objects that the students were trying to recreate in 3D were displayed in the middle of the room. It was nice to so much space in the classroom and the students seemed quite relaxed, but very engaged.
Graphics Calculators
Bronwyn Eglinton, a maths teacher showed us how she users graphics calculators in maths lessons. They do a lot more than a typical scientific calculator, they can draw graphs, be programmed and connected to a computer.
Some students in maths now only have an electronic copy of the maths text book and read it on screen in lessons rather than using the paper based book. Tis could potentially save a lot of storage space and save money on replacing lost and damaged text books.
Overview from the Principal
There are 2 schools in South Australia that have international 'status'. There are currently only 20 international students on role, but often it has been more like 60. There are approximately 24 countries represented.
It is expected the international student take extra English lessons, the department for education had mentioned on Monday that they had made it compulsory that none english speaking students pay for additional English lessons.
There are a large number of transition programs and open days for primary school children and parents.
Interestingly, the Principal and VP's are only employed for 5 years, then they would have to reapply for their job. The Principal is not chosen by the governors, but DCS.
Another interesting day, the most shocking thing for me was the amount of free rooms around when we were taking a tour of the school, and yet, they are over subscribed...
Day 3 Evening - A trip around the market
On the way back from school, we got dropped off in the centre and went to check out the market, which was full of wonderful local foods. We then took a walk back through the park about 30 mins to the hotel and in to recover from a busy day.
Tuesday, 22 February 2011
Day 3 - Thebarton Senior College
Visited our second school today, I will be taking loads of intereresting ideas back to the classroom with me on my return:). Below are my notes....
Mostly adult education, but a number of 16-18 year olds are also on role. Students tend to be re-entries, having already completed their statutory education elsewhere. There are also a large number of migrants and refugees. This is similar to our colleges in that the are a range of qualifications that can be taken from low level for those who have not completed high school with satisfactory grades, to the highest level courses that allow students to go onto work or university.
5 main programs - new arrivals (none english), study skills (basic level qualifications, designed to prepare for the SACE), SACE (normally completed at the end of compulsory schooling), adult education (for university entry) and vocational education.
There has been a drive in recent years to promote more vocational education to encourage more students to stay in school. Schools that cannot offer certain vocational qualifications to their students will send their students to the college one day a week.
Wherever possible, students are given opportunities to get real experience of the work place. Several of the classrooms are set up to mimic real life work environments, including a technical support centre, a green screen studio and music studio.
Success for the college is judged on whether students finish with the qualifications that they need to progress in to the profession they want.
Every subject area is expected to to have an area of the VLE to aid learning. Students are expected to hand in their work typed and electronically. Each classroom has a cabinet of Mac Books for the students to use, because of the diversity of the student backgrounds, this seemed the more sensible option than supplying them directly to the students.
The school has a subscription to Atomic Learning, which includes tutorials to pretty much all the software you would need.
We were then shown round some classes that were taking place, we got to see some excellent uses of iMacs to deliver IT multimedia and a class working with computer hardware and building networks. It was also very interesting to see a class of lower ability students who were developing their literacy skills using games, writing about their experiences of playing the game and accessing the literacy assessment criteria.
Mostly adult education, but a number of 16-18 year olds are also on role. Students tend to be re-entries, having already completed their statutory education elsewhere. There are also a large number of migrants and refugees. This is similar to our colleges in that the are a range of qualifications that can be taken from low level for those who have not completed high school with satisfactory grades, to the highest level courses that allow students to go onto work or university.
5 main programs - new arrivals (none english), study skills (basic level qualifications, designed to prepare for the SACE), SACE (normally completed at the end of compulsory schooling), adult education (for university entry) and vocational education.
There has been a drive in recent years to promote more vocational education to encourage more students to stay in school. Schools that cannot offer certain vocational qualifications to their students will send their students to the college one day a week.
Wherever possible, students are given opportunities to get real experience of the work place. Several of the classrooms are set up to mimic real life work environments, including a technical support centre, a green screen studio and music studio.
Success for the college is judged on whether students finish with the qualifications that they need to progress in to the profession they want.
Every subject area is expected to to have an area of the VLE to aid learning. Students are expected to hand in their work typed and electronically. Each classroom has a cabinet of Mac Books for the students to use, because of the diversity of the student backgrounds, this seemed the more sensible option than supplying them directly to the students.
The school has a subscription to Atomic Learning, which includes tutorials to pretty much all the software you would need.
We were then shown round some classes that were taking place, we got to see some excellent uses of iMacs to deliver IT multimedia and a class working with computer hardware and building networks. It was also very interesting to see a class of lower ability students who were developing their literacy skills using games, writing about their experiences of playing the game and accessing the literacy assessment criteria.
Day 2 Evening
We were invited to eat out at Sammy's sea food restaurant with the trip organisers, a great restaurant looking out over the sea at the Adelaide Coast. Mmmmmm
Monday, 21 February 2011
Day 2 Afternoon - Adelaide High
Visit Adelaide High School - 'not only for school, but for life'
This blog is basically my notes from the day, was a really interesting visit:)
Working towards 1:1 devices - currently 800 laptops for 1250 students, heading for 90% by June. Every teacher has a laptop. Part of the school vision includes mention of the use of ict throughout the school
About 80% of students go on to university.
Ensuring wireless network covered the whole school was outsourced to HP.
Brought a slightly cheeper netbook (11.5 inch) to allow for a 4 year warranty to be purchased along side it.
98% of y9 students said they liked the program and that it genuinely improved their learning.
Computer use agreement forms are signed by student and parents before they are given a laptop. There is also a detailed (27 page) booklet/user guide explaining what students can and can't do.
Students are given administrative rights to the laptops. So far this has been successful. Internet within school is still filtered. If there's is a problem technicians will re-image the laptop, so students need to take responsibility for their data.
Staff were given time to undertake ICT training. Over 50 staff have completed the Intel Teach Training Program. Focused staff meetings for ICT support, similar to the carousel we tried last CPD day.
Check out the anytime, anywhere learning federation website (aalf).
Each department completes an audit to outline their use of ICT in lessons. Linked to higher level thinking skills.
Charge 300 dollars for a school laptop or 30 dollars to have own laptop connected to the program. This is a charge for them to join the program (not 'buy' the laptop). Ability to pay issues can be overcome by pay in instalments, or they can apply for disadvantaged funding. Helps to pay for help desk costs, infrastructure. Teachers are expected to 'police' what the students are doing in their classes on the laptop! Comes under the behaviour management policy.
There are still traditional ICT suites for subjects that need high end PC's.
This blog is basically my notes from the day, was a really interesting visit:)
Working towards 1:1 devices - currently 800 laptops for 1250 students, heading for 90% by June. Every teacher has a laptop. Part of the school vision includes mention of the use of ict throughout the school
About 80% of students go on to university.
Ensuring wireless network covered the whole school was outsourced to HP.
Brought a slightly cheeper netbook (11.5 inch) to allow for a 4 year warranty to be purchased along side it.
98% of y9 students said they liked the program and that it genuinely improved their learning.
Computer use agreement forms are signed by student and parents before they are given a laptop. There is also a detailed (27 page) booklet/user guide explaining what students can and can't do.
Students are given administrative rights to the laptops. So far this has been successful. Internet within school is still filtered. If there's is a problem technicians will re-image the laptop, so students need to take responsibility for their data.
Staff were given time to undertake ICT training. Over 50 staff have completed the Intel Teach Training Program. Focused staff meetings for ICT support, similar to the carousel we tried last CPD day.
Check out the anytime, anywhere learning federation website (aalf).
Each department completes an audit to outline their use of ICT in lessons. Linked to higher level thinking skills.
Charge 300 dollars for a school laptop or 30 dollars to have own laptop connected to the program. This is a charge for them to join the program (not 'buy' the laptop). Ability to pay issues can be overcome by pay in instalments, or they can apply for disadvantaged funding. Helps to pay for help desk costs, infrastructure. Teachers are expected to 'police' what the students are doing in their classes on the laptop! Comes under the behaviour management policy.
There are still traditional ICT suites for subjects that need high end PC's.
Day 2 - Department of Children's Services
The next blog is about what i found out today about ICT education in South Australia, you might want to skip past this part!
The day started with an introduction to the state education system by the Director - Marilyn Sleath.
Gawain Duncan, the Program Manager for New Media and Virtual Environments, then talked us through how ICT fits into the curriculum and how it assists teaching and learning throughout schools.
- Hub and Spokes method for networking. Predominantly Windows, but a healthy relationship with Apple, particularly with recent developments in hand held technologies. Whilst majority of devices (65%) are still desk top PC's, this is reducing at a steady rate.
- Y9 to 12 will have their own personal devices (one to one policy). Infrastructure needs to allow for this - wireless has been greatly increased. All schools have the same, state wide wireless Internet provision for students to use. Currently, most devices are state funded, but these will gradually become funded by parents - make use of devices that students own anyway. system is robust enough to handle a range of different devices and manufacturers.
Moodle provides the main learning management system. Content Management provided by Scootle.
Looking towards Microsoft Sky Drive (similar to Google Docs) when it become available.
Schools tend to have technicians on site, but most have relationships with external companies to help with maintenance. Students are expected to take responsibility for their own data!!!! Whilst a device can be 're-imaged' quickly, it is the responsibility of the student to have their data to return to the device. Students are issued with a USB to help with this.
ICT is not delivered discretely at the equivalent to KS3, instead it is carefully embedded into every other subject. As expected, it works OK in some classes (with some teachers!) and not so well in others. Planning to put ICT Mentors in every school to support learning, these would be on site to advise and assist with the delivery of ICT within subject ares. It becomes a desecrate, optional, subject from Y11 where students work towards qualifications, in IT Studies, IT Systems and IT (vocational).
In the new curriculum, ICT will continue to be delivered within other subjects, but may also be taught discretely again to cover the new framework as there is a feeling that some of it is too specialist to be taught within other subject areas.
eStategy Framework - http://secs.sa.gov.au/learningtechnologies/pages/leaders/30742
Next we met Don Priest, Project Officer, Digital Education Revolution. Main responsibility was to over see the implementation of the 1:1 computing environment for year 9 to 11 students.
Schools were given 1000dolars per student to spend on a digital divide for each student, they could then spend the left over as they wish to develop their IT further.
Used Becta guidance as a starting point for developing schools strategic plans.
The day started with an introduction to the state education system by the Director - Marilyn Sleath.
Gawain Duncan, the Program Manager for New Media and Virtual Environments, then talked us through how ICT fits into the curriculum and how it assists teaching and learning throughout schools.
- Hub and Spokes method for networking. Predominantly Windows, but a healthy relationship with Apple, particularly with recent developments in hand held technologies. Whilst majority of devices (65%) are still desk top PC's, this is reducing at a steady rate.
- Y9 to 12 will have their own personal devices (one to one policy). Infrastructure needs to allow for this - wireless has been greatly increased. All schools have the same, state wide wireless Internet provision for students to use. Currently, most devices are state funded, but these will gradually become funded by parents - make use of devices that students own anyway. system is robust enough to handle a range of different devices and manufacturers.
Moodle provides the main learning management system. Content Management provided by Scootle.
Looking towards Microsoft Sky Drive (similar to Google Docs) when it become available.
Schools tend to have technicians on site, but most have relationships with external companies to help with maintenance. Students are expected to take responsibility for their own data!!!! Whilst a device can be 're-imaged' quickly, it is the responsibility of the student to have their data to return to the device. Students are issued with a USB to help with this.
ICT is not delivered discretely at the equivalent to KS3, instead it is carefully embedded into every other subject. As expected, it works OK in some classes (with some teachers!) and not so well in others. Planning to put ICT Mentors in every school to support learning, these would be on site to advise and assist with the delivery of ICT within subject ares. It becomes a desecrate, optional, subject from Y11 where students work towards qualifications, in IT Studies, IT Systems and IT (vocational).
In the new curriculum, ICT will continue to be delivered within other subjects, but may also be taught discretely again to cover the new framework as there is a feeling that some of it is too specialist to be taught within other subject areas.
eStategy Framework - http://secs.sa.gov.au/learningtechnologies/pages/leaders/30742
Next we met Don Priest, Project Officer, Digital Education Revolution. Main responsibility was to over see the implementation of the 1:1 computing environment for year 9 to 11 students.
Schools were given 1000dolars per student to spend on a digital divide for each student, they could then spend the left over as they wish to develop their IT further.
Used Becta guidance as a starting point for developing schools strategic plans.
Sunday, 20 February 2011
We Made It!!
Following a 12 and a half hour flight, we landed at Singapore airport and enjoyed a much needed walk around the huge terminal 3! It was a nice change from Heathrow, very tranquil and with several gardens and outside areas to take in the heat, including a butterfly garden. There was a woman playing a grand piano in the centre of the airport. A long 5 hours passed and we were back on the plane headed for Adelaide.Another 6 and a half hours on the plane and we were in Adelaide. Spending that much time on a plane is never going to be fun, but i must commend Singapore Airlines for making it as good as it could have been with out upgrading to first class! I am a bit upset about the ridiculously fat ankles I seem to have grown whilst in transit!
So Adelaide, here we are and whilst it is a bit cloudy it's still nice and warm, so no complaints from me! We are bussed to Adelaide Grand Apartment's, which will keep a roof over our heads while we are here.
Saturday, 29 January 2011
Mrs Williams is off to Australia!
From 18th February, Mrs Williams and 10 other ICT teachers from Norfolk will be spending a week visiting schools in Adelaide to see how they teach ICT.
To find out more about the Teachers International Development Program - http://www.britishcouncil.org/learning-tipd.htm
To learn more about Adelaide - http://www.southaustralia.com/Adelaide.aspx
Mrs Williams is Head of ICT at Wymondham College, to find out more about the school, visit - http://www.wymondhamcollege.org/
Mrs Williams is Head of ICT at Wymondham College, to find out more about the school, visit - http://www.wymondhamcollege.org/
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