Ed Review Article - Challenge to Innovate or Stagnate

If you are an ACE Member or subscribe to Education Review you would have seen the article by Mark Sparvel “ The challenge is innovate or stagnate”  where he classifies school conditions as ‘Lost in cyberspace;  ‘Land of Opportunity’ or  ‘Field of dreams’ and then articulates solutions that follow a DISCOVER; ANALYSE; PREPARE AND ENGAGE.  The article lends tremendous support for the need of a ICT strategic plan that links to School wide planning.

If you haven’t seen it, I really recommend spending five minutes to read and 15 minutes to think about the information in the context of your school and your practice as leaders in motivating staff to embed technology in their learning and teaching practices.  It may be worth sharing with members of your ICT Committee/Executive Team or beyond.

The article can be found at:  http://www.educationreview.com.au/pages/section/article.php?s=Technology&idArticle=22601

I love this last comment:

“So, in summary, good planning blends active leadership with transparent and inclusive processes across the school community. The planning should integrate ICT with the broader strategic and operational plans which deliver the core business of the school. Planning processes, if managed well actually built capacity and secure commitment from all stakeholders.”

Get Your Game On: How to Build Curriculum Units Using the Video Game Model

Video games are something this generation of students are completely native to.  I saw an 18 month old grab hold of her mother's smartphone, flick the pages and start to play a video in a restaurant not long ago...what will this child be like in 3.5 years when she begins Kindergarden?

This short but interesting blog post by Andrew Miller  on Edutopia talks about creating teaching units of work based on the 'quest' formula of video games. 
Major headings include:
- Start with the end in mind
- Brainstrom a rigorous scenario - it doesn't need to be reality based!
- Design the quest - collect, share, puzzle, conquest, drama, spy or scout style
- Don't forget - you need to allow students to fail and get back up again


Read the full post at:
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/gamification-game-based-learning-unit-andrew-miller

Digital Learning - Contemporary Learning - 21st C Learning

Andrew Churches recently  posted a blog about Digital Learning where he has summarised his take.  Links to the full blog are below should you wish to follow, but his graphic is lovely...it captures much of what we need to consider when analysing, planning and implementing contemporary learning empowers students, uses their creativity and authentically intergrates technology in a meaningful and purposeful way!

Take a look ...powerful stuff.


Image taken from http://edorigami.edublogs.org/ where you can read the full blog post
Digital Learning

andrewch Oct 29th, 2011

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".....So when you bring all of this together, the tools, the mind set, the curriculum and the processes, then you can have effective learning. These are not separate elements but intrinsically linked together. The emphasis is not on the technology, but what the technology allows you to do!"

 

What Priority is the money you spend on Technology?

It's that time of year...we're all looking at budgets, plans, organisation for 2012.  One of the common catchcries that I hear is that 'we don't have the money' to spend on technology.  This article explores the role of digital media in learning for youth at risk but it is easily translated to rural and regional school students.  Can we say that they can't have access to the digital world because we think it is more important to spend on [insert here....new readers; photocopy paper; lawn-mower; new desks etc).

This Mindshift article makes some interesting points, and prompts some interesting questions:

For At-Risk Youth, is Learning Digital Media a Luxury?

“We need to build a more compelling narrative that digital literacy is no longer a luxury but a necessity.”

“The educational environments that will thrive, the ones that will be the most innovative, and the ones that have most impact will be the ones that create opportunities for kids to create digital media literacies that we all recognize as important and that have social implications, educational implications and civic implications, as well,” he says. “So we have to equip kids with skills that help them not just to consume, but to become architects of their information environment and that requires different skills in using mobile devices and using the Internet.”

Read the full article at:
http://mindshift.kqed.org/2011/07/beyond-facebook-teaching-at-risk-youth-to-create-digital-media/#more-13953