Try this quick quiz, dead easy it is.

To date, which scenario has had more impact on DET NSW connected learning? 

a) “Extrinsically imposed employer/political pressure because web2.0 connected learning is coming via massive and never seen before financial investment, “ready, fire, aim” style.”

OR

b) “Intrinsically lets engage because I actually want to personally take deep individual ownership and walk the walk in my learning and leadership life?”

I am seriously curious as to the main motivations and attitudes behind the current positive DET shift we are seeing. 

The answer will have an enduring impact on the up take and embed rate of any transformational change DET expects.

If teachers understand why? with real purpose, learning will stick bottom up b) style but if its DET mandated and imposed from above, learning will be reduced to box ticking a) style.

ICT has been in schools since before I arrived in 1985 so it sure isn’t new. With this massive injection of edrev largesse we need to do something fundamentally different this time so we see transformation for kid’s futures. If I was cynical, web2.0 tools are not new or difficult skills to learn, I’d be leaning to a) above. Luckily I’m not.

There is a palpable sense of major urgency within DET, almost panicky misalignment, amongst higher up DET bureaucrats charged with specific fields of the wide gambit of connected learning responsibilties.

Elements of ICT rollouts still have elements of “left hand/right hand” as different DET departments push their connected learning project barrows as if riding the carnival dodgems at side show alley.

Whoops, sorry L4L, didn’t see you coming so soon, you must have got some real super polly fuel to get here so quick.

Hey CCP get outa my way you old timer, I’ve got a modern web2.0 tool suite to deliver but L4L has just cut me off, again!

Oy! shut up down the back there and stop running off course, none of you will have anything if we don’t get my paradoxically improved bandwidth and restrictive filters in place” 

As Sharon Strzelecki says, “Play noicer, please, guys”.

 

 

If leaders themselves have no metacognition of or deep personal engagement with the changes they are pushing, then teachers will quickly sense the superficial lip service. 

Can’t blame them, but hey guys this web2.0 stuff is NOT new and maybe we should have been playing the web2.0 game a tad longer than just now?

 Playing connected learning catch up may lead to enduring pain if all the components do not align. We don’t want our dodgems spinning wildy in circles as DET jumps on the back to spin our wheel and get us going again.

Idealistically scenario two is my personal carrot response.

It’s the one I’m trying to promote at my place through DIDOW. Trying hard to create the individual need of why transformative participative learning (web2.0 if we must!) is stronger by raising awareness and changing attitudes, in baby incremental steps.

Early days but so far I think its working. I’d rather teachers know the why and build their own PLNs so they can feel the networked learning difference themselves.

This is what all school leaders at all levels should be doing now. PLN’s only take a technical day or less to set up. Even our most tech shy participant was heard to comment “RSS feeds of my delicious links into netvibes was really easy” Language unheard of only weeks ago. They also understand how their own PLN will organically grow if they contribute, share and teach others.

No one wants another DET mandated brick in the wall on connected learning initiatives. Groans heard at previous School Development Days (SDDs) has been loud as top down mandated attitude adjustments wrapped as “policy” has been force fed on the troops. It is so obviously just DET ticking DET boxes for DET motives and no real professional learning ever occurs.

Stop it DET and start trusting us to professionally learn for ourselves, just give us some time to engage. A place to authentically share our professional learning via eportfolios will be welcome too. Carrot or the stick? It’s your call DET NSW. I know which way my kids respond.

L4L are planning teacher think tanks, the blinkers are off and learning barriers are coming down. Laptops for Learning (L4L) bulletin 3 was again informative clbulletin03 and may answer more questions. At least I found it more easily than edition 2 in the DET NSW intranet, someone must be listening at DET HQ?

Now if only the counter intuitive web1.0 portal, excessive DET filters and lack of RSS feeds can be sorted, I’d be a happy camper indeed. 

There is critical infrastructure work to be tackled on these issues if DET is to be taken seriously as a web2.0 player. That’s what worries me in the longer term about transforming our Public Schools ICT and connected learning initiatives. I still can’t sense the bigger picture alignment as earnest project managers furiously micro manage their little boxes of a far larger picture.

Wish you well in your local and/or general attitude adjustment missions.

Ours is on track and staff are asking, doing, engaging and experimenting with all that we’ve been given so far. Some of the tools we are learning are posted below.

  RSS in Plain English via Commoncraft

  Social Bookmarking eg Del.icio.us in Plain English via Commoncraft.

Independent learners may prefer this online Time4 module. It is one of the best and simplest self tutorials and covers all the topics you need to establish your own Personal Learning Network (PLN).

Sue Waters, the edublogger, also has PLN starter advice with great links to all the basic tools.

The paperless conference, “Technology Enhancing Quality Teaching” to launch NSW DET Interactive Classrooms was held on June 24th. CCP Bulletins update us on the progress of the CCP, a succinct read.

Trevor Fletcher, Deputy Director General DET NSW, said teachers who integrate ICT effectively are “mindful of their knowledge of pedagogy, content and technology”. Onya Trev.

My belief is a sound knowledge and appropriate application of current learning research in the digital age is a significant factor in the successful integration of ICT. If we explicitly know how today’s younguns learn best, then we should have even more successful lightbulb moments. How cool is that?

Steven Wilson, DET Chief Info officer, also announced gmail as the new DET student email and that school staff email will move into corporate email later in 2008. Hang on for a few bumpy rides in the DC3 of DET NSW as the turbulance of change descends rapidly on those who just got their heads around the current 6 year old email system. Yeeha me thinks, ‘your emergency exits are here, here and here’

I am glad the boffins said regional training for CCP will meet local needs and develop key competencies in Activstudio. But I’m really really really disappointed this free shareware cannot be installed more easily at work. I guess a month of waiting will all be worth it. Just hope its not 2 months waiting for a simple install.

Hopefully these installation issues can be resolved next week. It is extremely frustrating to want to learn and apply new ideas, then be told by our DET leaders that these free programs are available to download and then not be able to install them due to whatever issues.  How do I get my voice heard? 

A very happy teacher this morning. I was sent a link to the TaLe Share site this morning. Thanks Maree.

Many excellent resources for the implementation of the CCP at DET site as well.

The DET powerpoint will be useful for staff information.

DET NSW Connected Classrooms Program – An Introduction

Most links shown on the PP will be also useful as Public Schools introduce these technologies.

I even found the brouchure for the CCP conference at Brighton on 24th June 2008. I’m hoping this conference will be repeated (or web posted) as more schools get connected. Looks to be a comprehensive and worthwhile program.

NSW DET CCP FAQ\’s If you need to know more.

Elaine sent me this draft DET policy for blog and wiki use. Blogs and wikis are allowed in DET classrooms after a filter/unblock request is sent (and all relevant policies followed of course). Laborious but I can see why it has to be this way. (band width, appropriatness, follow all web safety policies etc etc)

I found it to be enligtening as well. draft_guidelines_blog_and_wiki_sites1

Thank you to all the helpful people at DET, TaLe and North Coast Regional ICT who have responded to my requests for more information. You help is much appreciated Maree, Elaine and Phillip.

I feel my winter holidays have been well spent on something I am enthusiatic about. More questions have been answered that will now lead to the next ones. Great stuff.

(footnote: I sort of still wish DET was open apps without the need for a Portal, but at least now I can now start to see what their philospohy is, “Build it and they will come” and ”Not let the inmates run the asylum”.

connected_classes_bb1 

2006 CLI Trial – Have a look at the video to get an idea of what an interactive classroom looks, feels and sounds like.  

The Interactive Classrooms project will:

• Equip every NSW public school with an Interactive Classroom (interactive whiteboard, video conferencing facility and data collaboration).
• Enable direct video links to allow online field trips to places such as the State Library, The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and the National Museum of Australia.
• Allow university and industry experts to be connected into classrooms to deliver lectures and take questions.
• Support increased use of ICT within Quality Teaching.
• Support teachers to personalise learning.
• Enhance opportunities for collaboration between students, teachers, classes and schools across DET.
• Provide necessary infrastructure to facilitate collegial support networks for teachers.

The NSW DET Learning Tools project will provide tools that support the ability to

• create
• store
• edit
• reuse
• manage
• view and
• deliver digital learning content from collections and repositories to staff and students across NSW.

It will deliver an adaptable and scalable system that will provide the latest Web 2.0 technologies to staff and students as required to enable and enrich teaching and learning practices.

Specifically it will provide:

• a secure individual online working space for all students and teachers
• upgraded student email
• online access to student reports for parents/caregivers
• a collaborative environment for the discovery and sharing of digital learning content.

I’d like to know more about the ability for DET students to share across networks and school systems using these new tools.

Isn’t the point of web2.0 to break down the classroom barriers and create open collaboration? I just hope these tools when launched allow NSW DET students to do this.

All these “web2.0digitalkidsCCPwirelesslaptopsIWBs” changes will converge into the most significant shift in education in my career. I want to be on board and use what is helpful for QTL and discard the rest.

I can see how my own kids are responding positively to the digital age in their own lives, so why should school education be immune?

I know stage 4/5 students ARE very different learners to those I taught just a few years ago. Their brains seem different, what motivates them is certainly different, how they use technology is becoming more foreign to me and most importantly how they best learn or get motivated in my classroom is VERY different. How influential is their digital life becoming?

Good teachers are good teachers in any era so that won’t change. Its just that good teachers may need to change more rapidly to remain the good teachers they have been for the last 20 years.

So next I ask, “What is so different now?”

• Is this NSW Connected Classroom Project REALLY going to change classrooms in the next 5 years?
• Will students be more motivated to learn in a connected classroom?
• What engages my own children’s learning at home?
• Is this digital connected age the big deal we are lead to believe?

I’m saying yes, but I don’t really know why, yet.

Having seen many “next big things” turn out to be fizzers over the last 20 years in education I must admit I remain sceptical. I’m concerned especially about real ongoing government funding, not just empty promises as political sweeteners prior to the next election. Public Education deserves more, all the time.

Is all this CCP and IWB etal just another flavour of the month ICT innovation that will not shift education or prepare kids or motivate learners or worse,  leave us where we have been with over 20 years of computer ICT already behind us?

I remember the first PC in my school, the first internet use, the first computer co-ordinator job, the first network and yet QTL didn’t change that much because ICT is still not integrated as much as it should be. Literacy is EVERY teacher’s responsibility, just as ICT should be EVERY teacher’s responsibilty.

Maybe with a fully funded fair dinkum 3 to 5 year ICT plan of having all classrooms connected in all schools we will see a more fundamental shift, and more importantly improved learning outcomes.

Sure today’s learners (thats kids and teachers) have sound “functional computer skills”, but digital web2.0 is so much different to what we have had. Web2.0 should be integrated far wider, into all aspects of learning, across all subjects, than previous ICT rollouts.

GLC has an IWB, whats wrong with it?

Lots I think. It’s hard to set up, it requires room changes to use it, the software is hidden, it’s not used very often, we have had NO staff training in its use and no TIME was given for any of this to take place, or none that I’m aware of. No wonder I see white elephant not white board.

It got me thinking then “How is the NSW CCP supposed to be a major step foward, and not just a white elephant of state wide dimensions? A few major differences I see in the early days.

The CCP uses the same uniform hardware and software in all DET schools, it is only installed into NON ICT spaces, it is “fixed permanently” in the classroom, easy to boot up and use (I hope), it connects learners directly in a collaborative learning atmosphere, NOT an individual one like PC’s, it achieves critical mass because all DET schools will be on the same page and my main HOPE is it will be properly funded, especially for teacher training.

Combine this with the 4 year DELL fleet contract, Kevin07’s laptop promise, bandwidth speed increases to 10mb, tools for use with the IWB’s and other associated state wide ICT changes (even the uniform DET Schools Homepages will help) and fundamental learning change in NSW could be an outcome. 

Notice there is NO mention made by ANYONE about ongoing staff training or time to ensure these changes are implemented as well as they should be. I’m getting the kids to learn with me, let go and have some fun learning together.

I like the fact some big picture thinking is behind this latest ICT incarnation, so maybe the adhocracy of the past 20years of ICT is behind DET.

So yes, I believe the 3 parts of the NSW DET CCP will be a major change, and yes all three sections are critical to its success.

Will it change public school education fundamentally?

I think it has to or DET schools will fall behind those school systems that do go digital and connected by 2011.

Rant over, you may now resume normal breathing patterns.

Attached is a short article about IWB use in the classroom.

To me, the need for high quality and sustained professional development for teachers  is the most telling.

We can only hope that this is going to happen and be paid for by governments.

View the video of how IWB’s were used in Connected CLassroom Trials in 2006. This was the trial which convinced the NSW government that all NSW DET schools should be connected. Schools will pay for more CC’s out of their own budgets.

(If above blog link won’t work, go to my wiki instead.)