Introduction

In the last week of the holidays I attended the uLearn conference in Christchurch. I have created this blog as way to share information and resources from the conference.

You will find links to the uLearn website, the uLearn blog and the twitter network on the right hand side of this blog.
The conference this year had three themes
1. Collaborate: Connecting and developing relationships
2. Innovate: Innovation and sustainability
3. Educate: Learning

The highlights of the conference for me were; an inspirational presentation from Tony Ryan who spoke positively about what is to be a teacher and two presentations of a practical nature: Toni Twiss - using cell phones in the classroom and Brad Milne on Physical Education assessment through ICT. You will find a post for each of the sessions I attended which has resources and links attached.

If you would like to any more information about any of the presentations I am happy to chat with you or you could post a comment or question on the blog. Your feedback is welcomed :0)

Physical Education Assessment through ICT

Brad Milne is a teacher from Whangaparaoa College which is a brand new year 7 to 13 school. He spoke about three ways in which the school is using ICT in assessment.

1. ePortfolio in year 9 and 10 Health and PE.
2. An Anatomy quiz using Excel.
3. Using Silicon coach to analyse movement

I was particularly impressed with the discussion about ePortfolios which the school plans to introduce next year. The ePortfolio is seen to have the potential to develop self assessment and self reflection skills. Fitness test results and graphs are planned to be included and students can discussion reasons for change in their performance. Photos and videos of performance can be included again providing opportunities for self reflection.

Hard Fun. Programming with Logo and scratch

Rod Hampton of Wellesley College profiled the use of Scratch and Logo software to offer opportunities to practice thinking and problem solving skills. The software provides simple programming language modules which can be used by the learner to move an object (cat, basketball etc) around the page. The movement of the object creates a drawing or diagram. He showed examples of how students had used the software to draw bikes, robots and geometric patterns.

Scratch is available free.
If you have your own children or grandchildren you might like to provide them with a copy as an alterative to play station and computer games.

Links
Scratch
Ross's Blog

Strategies for using mobile phones in classrooms

Toni Twiss one of this years eFellows gave this presentation. She is sponsored by Vodafone and has a class set of cell phones which we had the opportunity to play with. The focus of the presentation was: The potential of the cell phone in the classroom. She compared the cell phone to a Swiss army knife as a useful tool.

She discussed several uses of the cell phone in the classroom.

1. Calculator software can be downloaded from this website to turn a cell phone into a graphics calculator. maths 4 mobile
2. Use of the calendar and organiser functions (potential here for TCS students?)
3. Running class polls and games. Poll everywhere
4. Images – for use with photos, videos and slide presentations. Contexts – fieldtrips, anytime a student is required to document a process or event.
5. Access websites like TKI’s StudyIt
6. Sound recording sound. She suggested that the best browser to use of a cell phone can be downloaded from Opera Mini

Toni’ blog

Assessment issues associated with the implementation of the New Zealand Curriculum

Rose Hipkins from New Zealand Council of Educational Research spoke about assessment issues associated with the implementation of the New Zealand Curriculum. I have a copy of her PowerPoint presentation which I can email to you if you would like it. Two things which I found interesting were her discussion about the use Bristol University’s Effective Lifelong Learning Inventory (ELLI) to assess key competencies and the discussion about assessing ULST in the learning activities of "learning to read" and "representing the structure of the atom". Check out the PowerPoint, email me if you would like a copy :0)

Thinking Learning Teaching: So if thinking comes first then where should we start?

Mark Treadwell is a Director of Dataview, a high-tech company which focuses on developing technology solutions for companies as well as for education authorities and schools.

Mark's presentation was hindered by a technology problem which had ruined his presentation material. He spoke at length about recent changes in understandings of how the brain works. His company has developed frameworks for teaching key competencies at all levels and all learning areas of the NZ Curriculum which are available for sale...

Skoolaborate: A global initiative - Emerging technogies and virtual worlds

Westley Field is the Director of the ‘Skoolaborate’ Initiative. He is also Director of Online Learning and Manager of IT at MLC School in Sydney. Westley presents around the world on topics such as Education in Virtual Worlds, Making 1 to 1 work, Heuristics of implementing elearning, Educational Technology, Connecting Students in a Web 2.0 world and Leading in a Flat World.

Check this web site which provides video and useful information about what Skoolaborate is. Basically it is an area in Secondlife in which students and teachers from around the world can work on projects together. Christ College in Christchurch is involved in the project. In this presentation Westley spoke about how student have to build in Secondlife anything they might want to use for example buildings. This is how students can be involved in problem solving.

As a Health teacher I was interested to hear him speak about a discuss students from several countries had about under age drinking using an area in Skoolaborate as a forum.

Transforming teachers - Tony Ryan

This was an interesting and thought provoking presentation about the role of the teachers.

The key question is not: What do we need to teach?
The key question is: Who do we need to be?

Tony spoke about the next eight years as being the most crucial in human history, the need for people who are solution-focused and the need for people who believe they can make a difference. Hence the use of the term transformational teaching.
Tony's four roles for the transformational teacher, all starting with "E":

• The Energiser
• The Ethicist
• The Entrepreneur
• The Environmentalist.

What follows is a snapshot of some of his ideas and questions.

The Energiser

• Your thinking is a critical influence on your physical / emotional / spiritual energy.
• Teaching is a mirror – your attitude is reflected back to you.
• How and when do you get ‘energy’ from in teaching?
• What are your reasons for being involved in teaching?

The Ethicist

• Factors that have created an ethics focus in education: -
• increased focus on emotional intelligence,
• virtual environments that test the limits of human values,
• societal / political responses to some Net gen children.

The Entrepreneur

• The rise and rise of creativity
• Educational Intrapreneurs?? (Working from within the system)
• New thinking on learning delivery e.g. innovators who provide online and off line learning to a community / business groups
• The promotion of innovative classroom practice!!
  

The Environmentalist.

• Implement the 3R (reduce, reuse and recycle).
• Live a carbon-neutral life
• Become a carbon neutral school
• Include an enviro-focus in every study
  
  
  Links
  His blog
  His Webpage

Share Connect Collaborate Community

The conference kicked off with a double act presentation from keynote speakers Will Richardson and Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach. Their message was about how to develop an online community. They described how the process starts with being online and sharing. This enables you to first connect with others and then begin to collaborate and eventually be part of a community of like minded people, part of a community of practice. It starts with the individual, you decide to share, to be online and then connect with others.

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach is an interesting person and is passionate about teaching and learning. She was interviewed by Kim Hill on Radio New Zealand. There is a podcast of her interview on the Radio New Zealand website. Direct link to this file is here

Links
http://k12onlineconference.org/

Introduction

You will find a link to the ULearn website on the right hand side of this blog. The confererence this year has three themes

1. Collaborate: Connecting and developing relationships
2. Innovate: Innovation and sustainability
3. Educate: Learning