Tuesday, May 29, 2012

#ICTEV12 (Extended Version) Part II

Ok so admittedly, having never been to the ICTEV Conference and not knowing what to expect, as well as being a little run down, I wasn't looking forward to going. Waking up early (on a weekend no less) & driving into Melbourne Grammar on a wet and rainy Melbourne morning...it certainly wasn't helping.

Got there, registered my attendance & mingled with old & current collegues, as well as some new friends. Got my seat next to @_tarrynkennedy in the Assembly Hall, and was waiting for the keynote speaker, Alan November (@globalearner). Not being familiar with any of Alan's work, nor having had time during the week to read up on any of his work, I had no idea what to expect. Within two to three minutes, I think I could have listened to him all day.

As he was speaking, I tweeted my thoughts and some quotes from his keynote:
  • "We need to get rid of the word 'technology' because 'technology' isn't the end game. Information & communication is"
  • "Children see technology through a different perspective than we do"
    • These quotes begged to ask myself the question, "Why do I ask students to put their devices away?"
  • "Everything in Alan November's life seems to be an accident..." - @jimmygunner
    • Alan told a number of "accidental" stories that influenced his view of education and this led into a discussion about the need to shift control in the classroom.
  • "We need to break the boundaries of space, time, information & relationships to break the current idea of schooling" - 
    • Alan's ideas of shifting control from the teacher to the students in the sense that "children need to help other children in the classroom" was a breath of fresh air.
    • I've always liked the idea of this but never been brave enough to do it....listening to the great man speak has given me the inspiration to allow this shift in pedagogy.
  • "Most people do not publish student work for the world to see"
  • "The boundary of the calendar is that at the start of every year we start over...Why?"
  • "Students need to take responsibility for the quality of their work"
    • I think that if more students did this, we'd have better outcomes for a number of our students.
    • The question now lies..."How do we make them take more responsibility for their work?"
    • Interestingly enough, a colleague of mine @digital_lingua has been drumming his ideas for self-evaluation of student work to improve quality of their work all year...maybe he and @globalearner have been in kahootz for a while...or maybe its just a coincidence...
  • "Continue to grade the regurgitation. If its creative, dont grade" - @_tarrynkennedy
EDUCATIONAL TOOL (via @globalearner):
MathTrain.TV - Alan demonstrated a way of helping shift control from the teacher to the students. MathTrain is a website that has had a number of basic maths tutorials created BY students FOR students on a number of different maths topics. It was created by a teacher in the US to enable his students to help each other when they have difficulty with maths problems at home. I'm planning on introducing this site to my students this week so I'll keep you updated with feedback from the kids.

It was a great address that I feel was well received. Comments about @globallearner's talk welcome below...

So onto @MarkPleasance's "Who is the Expert?" session & @MarkOMeara's Present to Connect...but that's in the next post...

Until next time...May the Tech Be With You

Jimmy V

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