Rotorua February 18, 2008
Posted by mrsuds in elearning, eprincipals.add a comment
Early on the year all the eprincipals (the common name for this position) gathered together for the Learning at Schools Conference in Rotorua. To read an excellent summary of the day we had together go to this link at Rachel’s blog.
The only things I have to add is that as a newbie it was all rather daunting, but also very exciting. I hadn’t realised how long this had been going on (The Virtual Learning Network). In the beginning I felt very much like a new member of some exclusive club, but the whole group are great people and have been very welcoming. I gained so many ideas from the day which enabled me to go back to my schools with a new found clarity and sense of purpose.
The Learning at School conference was wonderful. The theme of ‘change’ was very prevalent in all the keynote speeches. The idea that schools (especially secondary) need to change has been around for sometime, but there was a new sense of urgency to it this time and I felt that change was actually going to occur – much needed it is as well. Much of this change is embodied in the new New Zealand curriculum which is a wonderful document and a blueprint for a major shift to 21st century learning. Although I don’t think some secondary teachers and parents quite realise how major that change is going to be.
My first Video Conference (VC) lesson February 12, 2008
Posted by mrsuds in VC, pedagogy.add a comment
My first VC lesson was some time ago now, but I feel it is worth sharing the experience.
I must say I did feel some trepidation leading into the first lesson. I had spent some time practising and getting familiar with the equipment, but that was a bit like practising for a game of football – it doesn’t quite capture the challenges of the real thing. One good thing as far as I was concerened was that the students were as inexperienced as me.
I am teaching Level 2 Classical Studies to three students (now become four), two of whom were actually year 11’s. This is a subject I am very experienced in and had developed a lot of online stuff in the past, which I think has helped the transition to online learning.
I only teach one VC a week, while most of the other teachers here have two. To me the VC is only a small part of the whole elearning experience and I wanted to avoid the trap of using two VC lessons to get through a lot of content. My plan was to use the VC lesson as a chance for discussion on the work that had gone on during the week, use of mulitmedia to enhance the learning, or to to do things to keep the students enaged (roleplays etc.). I have prettty much stuck to that formula so far and thing have gone reasonably well.
Anyway the first lesson was not the most inspired I have ever given. Much of the time was spent getting used to using all the different equipment, especially the document camera. I had met the students at orientation day, but I think it took them sometime to get used to me in a TV. The rest of the lesson was a hotch potch of introductory material so I dominated proceedings rather than it being very student centred (which I was very keen on happening). Since that time the students have really come into their own and are more than happy to participate. I just haven’t had an opportunity for them to interact a lot with each other, but we are only 5 lessons in and the opportunity hasn’t really arisen. The next unit will definitely allow for a lot of that.
Anyway I am enjoying the VC side of things while still on a learning curve. The rest of the learning is supported by a class blog which has worked exceptionally well and I LOVE doing.
Enrolments, telephones and cars! February 11, 2008
Posted by mrsuds in Term One.add a comment
Much of my time in the second week was completing, changing, adding enrolments. At times I felt I was permanently chained to my laptop as email after email came rolling in. But there was something rather fun about it all and I finally felt I was beginning to do my job and not just reading about it!
When I wasn’t on my emails I was in town searching out cellphone plans. I finally managed to sort one out, but it did surprise me how long it took.
Then I drove out Methven way to sort out a car which I have already clocked some miles on!
Orientation Day February 9, 2008
Posted by mrsuds in School Visits.add a comment
Our Orientation day was already organised by Jude and was held at Mt Hutt College. This was a great day and good chance to meet all the VC teachers for the first time. I gave a wee spiel at the beginning which was rather strange considering I only had the beginnings of a sense for the way everything worked.
On the way I had a good chat to Peter the Physics VC teacher at Darfield. We had an interesting chat about the cluster and VC teaching. Peter is keen to develop online tools to help with his VC teaching. In the past he has used Mindspring, but found students didn’t really use it. This year he is using a Wiki and looking to get students participating by putting up some Physics demonstrations related to things they are interested in (like the guitar for instance). I love this sort of use of web 2 tools. Many teachers use the internet or their OLE (Online learning Environment) as merely a repository of resources. This is fine as a beginning, but it is getting the students working with these tools that is the key. I think that Primary School teachers are well ahead of the Secondary counterparts in terms of web 2 tools.
Anyway back to the Orientation Day. While I enjoyed the day looking back now I can’t help but feel I missed out on an opportunity to connect with students and teacher because…well I didn’t really know what I was doing yet!
Getting Familiar February 8, 2008
Posted by mrsuds in Term One.add a comment
The first week was somewhat surreal. I had to step in to this job cold with little real preparation as I had to continue at my previous school until the end of the first week of 2008. This meant that much of the enrolment process was set up by my predessor Jude (wonderful person that she is). So much of the first week was getting familiar with things, especially enrolments. It was all rather information overload, but also reinforced to me how innovative this all is.
I also found out I would be teaching Classical Studies to some students in Twizel and Mt Hutt. This prospect was extremely exciting. I am a Social Scientist by trade, with History and Classical Studies as my senior subjects. I have used online tools to add to my courses for quite some time, but I was looking forward to taking to the next level – which this was definitely going to require. At this stag the cluster doesn’t really have an online environment / learning management system so I decided I would use a blog to deliver the course to my students. It has worked really well and I like how the students are starting to contribute.
Who am I? February 4, 2008
Posted by mrsuds in Introductions.add a comment
Well…after using blogs with my students for a wee while I have finally decided to take the plunge and create my own educational blog. This one is about my role as elearning leader for the Cantatech elearning Cluster in Canterbury, New Zealand. The Ministry of Education has funded the creation of these positions across the country and it is an exciting opportunity for our cluster.
The purpose of this blog will be to detail the progress of the cluster over 2008 and 2009. For me this is a far more reflective and effective way for me to report on how things are going. It would certainly take it over writing Milestone Reports any day…did my fair share of those last year.
Anyway – when I find time over the next few days I will detail the journey so far. It’s going to be an interesting one…
