Sliced Bread

After last weekends Federal COAG ICT largesse, its reassuring embattled Premier Rees has wasted no time in calling for new DET NSW technology supply tenders.

As part of the Federal edrev, DET NSW have on their wish list the lure of a sub $500 “compact learning devices (CLD’s)” for all 197,000 Year 9 to 12 students and wireless connectivity for 571 DET schools to be installed by February 2010. Tick, good. Very.

Guess the other 1500 DET sites, mainly primary schools, with students K to 8 don’t yet qualify for CLD’s or wireless connectivity and will fall further behind other systems, for a while longer. Cross, very. Maybe DET Primary Schools should just apply for an XO ala OLPC. Seems about how valued they are by DET NSW, currently.

The $1245 per student increase is also welcome news and may indicate Rudd is genuine in his bid for transparency in his new style of federalism. Lets hope so because Australians were promised a new approach to the passe blame game during the last election campaign.

Hopefully this rapid tender announcement reflects a state government committed to delivering the long promised technology improvements for Public Education students in NSW. But as Simon Job said, lets hope Netbook specs don’t fill the tender, we’d be better off with these, or similiar. 

Celebratory restraint me thinks, until we see the actual laptop specs and roll out begin, the wireless functionality and most importantly the vital TPL to support teachers. Will teachers as learners receive one? I wonder?

Almost makes me want to celebrate and yell “Yippee-kay-yea”, almost. But Hans has still not left the building. John McClane has work to do yet.

picture credit: DoctorWho’s at flickr

Well ’scuse my newbieness, but these Eddies are now half a decade old and no one told me …. ppiff I say.

Anyway here are my 2 bobs worth for the 2008 edublog awards

Best class blog 2MGems To Mrs M and her 2M Gems, you guys rock. Love your site, love to see kids learning and loving it while they do. As Al Upton requested (16/11/08) and edublogs obliged, THIS category is THE most important Eddie. Well said Al. Mrs M must be behind their website quote, “nearly all classes in the school are blogging” How good is that? Don’t worry about the current traffic jam kids, Uncle Kevin has promised to fix it.

Best individual blog  Watershed  John Larkins work is inspirational. Generous in his shared resources, deep thinking in his eclectic well travelled narratives and my students have deserted my rough and ready wiki to flock to his student friendly links. Top site, easily. Plus he’s a history nut like me.

Most influential blog post My f*#!%ing goosebump story Tomaz Lasic’s honesty is to be applauded, loudly. I just loved this post and need to meet the said Perth beermeister to confirm my suspicians. Hope he’s not a Corona and lemon sucker. 70:20:10 is another TL gem, he dug up for me. Ta WA Moodle Boy.

Best educational tech support blog Tim’s Blog de Blog  Tim and his team work wonders at TaLe and here he shares his personal insights from the other side of the fence. Thought provoking, topical, stops the echo chamber somewhat and adds perspective when I get cheesed off. Like it, lots.

Best teacher blog  Darcy’s Blog is what DET NSW needs installed in every school. If we did, we would have no issue with vaulting the yawning digital chasm that is rapidly emerging. Darcy “gets it”, big time. Thanks for your wonderful insights Darcy, even if you don’t imbide the smell of burning methanol in the morning, it takes all comers to make the nuthouse crackle.

Well thats my bit, drum roll please…… and the winners are …. learners, lets hope.

picture credit: Creating Passionate Users

Now that DET’s CCP rollout is gathering momentum and is now goût du mois for the mainstreamers, I’m thinking how can teachers best utilise this flattening ICT to best effect for PD?

Darcy suggested sharing ideas on Year 7 teaming. Troy and Tony replied, “Yep, why not?”

What other action research would schools like to collaborate on via VC?

DET schools already connected have a data base of other DET VC contacts, but lets broaden the base of potential learning via VC sharing, to lets say, the rest of the world. Now that sounds web two oh 21st century to me.

Stephen Heppell presented the trend chart below over 2 years ago and it still raises many reflective questions on how learning is rapidly changing. His RSA speech is also equally valid for those yet to hear his 2016 vision.

What are the trends that we can see around the world in learning as we move further into the 21st century?

The changes below are all easily observed, but for different schools, communities, countries and cultures the movement may be more or less pronounced and the rate of progress slight or may be rather greater.

I recently asked “What did you learn at work today?”. I’m curious as to how we can better reflect on current QTL practices so they become more meaningful, not because there are dire problems. Learners should strive to integrate improvements lest we get left behind in our exponential times.

I’m up for sharing, not only through static blog pages, tweets and skypes, but via our newest toys the CCP’s.

Heppell states

Today teachers want, and seek, a place to exchange their insights as to what constitutes effective practice. As they move to become more reflective they also need a place to archive their action research.

The video conference component of DET NSW CCP will assist in the archiving and transference of such collective knowledge beyond the traditional school districts we work within. Modelling VC PD collaboration, that should also involve the student voice, can now happen.

Which NSW DET schools with CCP are up for it? I know Darcy and Troy will, why not join us?

I enjoyed Jeffrey Cole’s National Press Club address this morning on ABC TV. 

Jeffrey, probably best known for his work with the Digital Future Project, has also spoken regularly at NPC and to other Australian media. 

Topics discussed this morning included impacts of social networking like Facebook and My Space, carbon offsets, paper media vs online media, future trends, teen brand awareness, parents role in net safety and implications of mobile learning and degrees of connectivity. As usual, he raised a range of important issues that will continue to impact on our lives.

Catch the replays next week, well worth a look for what he has to say about the digital age we live in.

image photogamer on flickr

All students reflect as part of our college Reflection, Organisation And Reading programs. ROAR not only involves using a learning log (diary) to plan, record homework and organise assessments, it also encourages students to consciously record how they best learn. With fine tuning and more realistic goals, I think ROAR, a 4 year old program, will improve further in 2009.

My question however is, how do staff reflect on their profession? I assume they do, I’m just not sure how. Maybe we could introduce a staff learning log and model this reflective practice?                                                           

Jeff Cobb’s thought provoking question What have I learned at work? on Mission to Learn keeps resonating. I especially like these questions

Does what I am doing right now (i.e., having a conversation, participating in a meeting, completing a routine task, etc.) increase my knowledge or skill level in any significant way? How?

What might turn this activity into more of a learning experience? What do I need to do to make that happen? What could my employer do?

What could I add into my activities for today that would provide for a learning experience?

What could I take out of my activities that does not contribute to learning and would not really be missed?

An interesting set of questions which I have answered sporadically since April. Some answers alarmed me. Talk about “stuck on the wheel” and in the massive “same old same old rut.” I needed to change, hence the toe dipping web2.0 experiment before me.

I see future positives, but still question the change rate of the massive edubureaucracy I sometimes feel stuck in. It is responsive, but at a glacial pace. DET NSW really needs a dose of Usain’s speed, to gain  momentum for the hurdles ahead. 

In“Leading A Digital School” , Mal Lee, said,

Only when the vast majority of Australia’s teachers are using the appropriate digital tools as a normal part of their everyday teaching, and are provided all the requisite development and support from the school and system leaders can Australian education begin to assist enhanced national productivity

The key words, in red, need to have bipartisan, enequivical political support across all tiers of government if Australia as a nation is to be fair dinkum about advancing 21st century learning in schools.

In amongst the questionable tangents of the blogeratti there is a growing alignment of dedicated learning professionals striving to  deblinker administrators, policy makers and governments. Those that do not listen, change and innovate do so at their systems, and learners, peril and decline. 

I’ll leave the last word for Jeff as he says it so well;

I’d go so far as to suggest that:

1. Individuals who become conscious of their learning at work and take charge of their learning at work will be by far the most successful in today’s economy.
2. The primary focus of learning professionals should be helping individuals become conscious of their learning and take charge of it.

…if you undertake the exercise above and discover that you really are not learning much on the job, it may be time to look for a better job. The second is that, if you are counting on your employer to understand the new dynamics of workplace learning and help you out, you may be waiting quite a while.