[Oz-teachers] Laptop schools

[Paul McMahon]

Hi Marg and others,

 

I really feel compelled to reply to this, partly because I am in the office
in Hong Kong and it is a No. 8 Storm signal and so nothing is open in the
city, and partly because I have been working with schools trying to use
technology effectively for learning for what seems like a long lifetime.
(Let's just say my working life in school spans over 25 years and leave it
at that :-))

 

I know that for a lot of us reading these posts, this is just a repeat of
the same statement that has been said a million times before but "it is not
about the technology, it is about the leadership". 

 

I am about to attend another conference in Shanghai which will have upwards
of 500 international educators meeting, sharing and discussing about 21st
Century Learning. Unless the planets have changed alignment bringing about
world change since the last of these I organized in May in Hong Kong, it
will be the same demographic at the conference. IT teachers/coordinators,
generalist teachers eager to use Web tools with kids in the classrooms, the
very lucky few who have "technology integration" roles in schools and very,
very few members of senior management teams in Schools. We will all preach
to the converted and pat ourselves on the back and say that we are doing a
good job and then return to schools who are happy to spend money on a couple
of IWBs or class sets of laptops and ask us how to use them effectively. If
lucky we can score a job as one of these "tech integration gurus" and try
and support others in their quest to find appropriate uses in our classrooms
(read this to mean use ICT with the minimum of disruption to what we already
do).

 

I really thought that 25 years after we introduced the first 1:1 programmes
to the world that the Aussies would be world leaders in the next step, that
of turning the lens right around and asking "where does
maths/science/English/social studies fit into ICT?"

 

I live and work in an international city where EVERYTHING in business is
done via a terminal of some sort. My guess is that, unless you are looking
to educate Aussie kids to drive Haulpacs in the hope that the mining boom
will last forever, the kids you have in front of you today are most likely
to doing their work via a connected terminal. This does not mean that
everything gets done on the terminal, it just means that often it is the
most appropriate tool for the job. As a result, there are some very
innovative school programmes in this part of the world. I have to say that
too few of them are as radical as might be possible in Oz, due to the
cultural reliance on the textbook and the status of the written examination
result in Asia. There are, however, some great examples. The best of these
is Hsinchu International School. http://www.hdis.hc.edu.tw/ You can gain a
lot from the blog of the "Director of Curriculum and Innovation" (how many
of those are there in Oz?) Brent Loken, http://brentloken.edublogs.org/ or
from his website which is linked from the blog.

 

Now I don't know and haven't met Brent, but I have heard him speak, read his
articles and know of other staff who work in the school and what they tell
me is that the school is really, really different. Brent and other
forward-thinking leaders in schools reference another US principal, Chris
Lehmann, who goes to the extent of organizing a conference at his school in
Philadelphia. (That has to ensure that at least Principal attends that one!)
Chris's school is another one that, apparently, gets teachers to justify why
what they have been doing in the past with teaching and learning is more
effective than something that can be done with ICT.

 

OK, I'll get down from the soapbox. (See what this balmy tropical weather
does to one!) I just had to have my say in this thread as I am at the stage
of my career where I want to hear a lot more stories from Australia where
school leadership has been brave enough to say "let's follow our hearts into
some exciting, connected, globally reaching 21st century learning with kids
and trust that the marks, grades and uni places follow". I really want to go
to Shanghai and hear about that leadership from Aussie schools rather than
listen to Yanks and Poms (lovely people though they may be). It is poignant
that for my conference in May I managed to fly over the Australian Council
for Education Leadership (ACEL) Traveling Scholar for 2008, who turn out to
be New Zealander, Mark Treadwell! Great guy, who you all should hear, but
where are the Aussie Principals talking about new curricula and turning
schools around on the back of having the world's most mature 1:1 programmes?

 

If they are out there, tell them to get some search engine optimization and
get known so that they can spread the word in Asia and get their
counterparts at conferences about ICT for learning!

 

Cheers

 

Paul

 

 

Paul McMahon

Learning Solutions Asia

HONG KONG

  _____  

From: Margaret Lloyd [mailto:mm.lloyd at qut.edu.au] 
Sent: Wednesday, 6 August 2008 7:08 AM
To: Professional community for teachers
Subject: Re: [Oz-teachers] Laptop schools

 

Thanks for this Graham.

I visited a school in FNQ which had gone for the EE-PCs - the conversation
needs to extend to other mobile devices. The size of them alone is critical
in school settings where older buildings often are not particularly friendly
towards standard computing equipment, even laptop.s

Marg



On 6/08/08 8:40 AM, "Graham Van Heerde" <gvanheerde at rostrevor.sa.edu.au>
wrote:

Hi All
On a slightly different tangent but somewhat linked, my school is exploring
IWB and tablets. At present we have a small number of smartboards through
the school but are exploring the use of mobile IWB devices such as the
Onfinity CM2 MAX and possibly Mimio. The good, bad and the ugly of using
these devices would be appreciated. The majority of teachers have a laptop
and we are considering the value of the mobile IWB option. For under $1000
it is financially attractive and provides portability and the opportunity
for a greater number of staff to experiment with and use in their
classrooms, meetings etc.

Teachers if you are using this technology let me know what you think!

Regards

Graham van Heerde 
Junior School ICT Coordinator
Rostrevor College
Phone 8364 8333
Fax 8364 8397
Email gvanheerde at rostrevor.sa.edu.au
 
 

  _____  

From: oz-teachers-bounces at rite.ed.qut.edu.au on behalf of margo at iwb.net.au
Sent: Tue 8/5/2008 9:20 PM
To: Australian Teachers' Community; 'OZTL_NET'
Subject: [Oz-teachers] Laptop schools

Hi everyone

I have had the request below sent to me. I have a few schools in mind but
wondered if anyone on the list can send some new ideas through please.

If you can send directly to me I will collate them for Steve.

Regards
Margo


From: Steven McLean
To: info at iwb.net.au
Subject: Laptop schools

 
Both myself and a colleague are attending the Leading a Digital School
conference in early September. We are going to be in Sydney the day before
the conference starts and would like the opportunity to visit a school that
operates a laptop program. 

Would you be able to help me with identifying a suitable school to visit?
Are you aware of any schools that operate a quality laptop program or can
you put me in touch with someone who might be able to help??

Any assistance you can offer would be most appreciated.

regards

Steve McLean

Assistant Director of Curriculum
Matthew Flinders Anglican College
Stringybark Rd Buderim
Qld 4556, Australia
+61754773280 (office)

 



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