Selling an idea – Akaroa Area School October 23, 2008
Posted by mrsuds in School Visits, eprincipals.add a comment
It’s been a busy week and I’ve got a lot of blog posting to catch up, but that might be a job for next week. Most of this week has been taken up with school visits, with the first at Akaroa Area School on Monday.
I had a discussion with two teachers who had been playing around with Moodle. I’m definitely finding it difficult to get traction with the junior teachers on this one. They seem to think it is more applicable to a secondary setting, but I don’t agree. While it may initially seem text heavy, Moodle has so much flexbility that you could approach course design however you wanted. If you want to make it visual, then it’s easy enough to do that. I think some teachers are struggling with the blank slate that it gives you at the beginning. To me, that is one of Moodle’s biggest strengths. It’s just a matter of thinking about how you will put things together. You can’t just zap things onto the page and expect it to make sense. Anyway, I have decided to investigate how some primary schools are using Moodle. Here are two interesting examples. David Street School and Sunnybrae. I really like the visual take on the David Street site.
I also discussed how things have gone this year with the site supervisor. We discussed the pros and cons of having two video conference lessons during the week as opposed to one. I favour one, and I have already discussed this with teachers. While I see the advantages of more teacher contact with two, there is a real teacher led approach in these lessons which concerns me. It’s important that what we do in our distance programme reflects the direction pedagogy is heading in secondary schools. Slowly, but surely a student centred approach is beginning to take hold. It’s great having this technology to enable students to take whatever course they want, but we can’t let the experience reflect 20th century teaching practise. There is something ironic about technology like this being used with traditional teaching approaches. I’m not sure our teachers are quite ready for this yet though, so I will give them the option for next year. I think a year’s PD with Moodle will enable teachers to start to use VC as just a another tool in their arsenal, rather than the dominant one.
The presentation went well, although I felt a bit flat this time. It certainly sparked off some vibrant discussion amongst the Akaroa staff. The key discussions were on social networking and, interestingly, blogging. One teacher made the point that there were all these ideas going round and round the blogesphere (is that a word?) with no real outcome. I think he has a point in some ways – there is a lot of talk around 21st century learning, but not enough action for me. This discussion has to take place though, and personally, I have found the blogs I read daily as enourmously enriching. I get new ideas, knowledge and feel more connected than ever before. Two other ePrincipals, Conor and Rachel, have their own blogs and I find reading them a very reflective experience. We all have similar challenges, frustrations and breakthroughs. By sharing them I’m sure we all feel a bit less like Lone Rangers riding off into the horizon ready to do battle…who Tonto is I don’t know…maybe Eddie!
The Professionals? June 5, 2008
Posted by mrsuds in Uncategorized, eprincipals.add a comment
We had our monthly eprincipal meeting today and another interesting one it was too. There were a number of things on the agenda, but the focus was on a paper put together by two of us. This proposed that we as a group, investigate the idea of forming our own professional association. It was no great surprise to me as Trevor had mentioned it to me some time ago. It has certainly brought some strong responses from a couple of the eprincipals who are worried about isolating ourself and moving too fast. It has been the first time that any real disagreement has arisen amongst us as a group and I was interested in how we would resolve it. Very productively I must say. A forum has been created on the VLN where everyone has been asked to put their views on the matter and from there we can move forward.
Personally I think the idea is a step in the right direction. We as a group need to take ownership of what we are doing, rather than relying on the Ministry to direct us. That doesn’t mean we will completely break from them, but it would change the nature of the relationship. I think in a very positive way, but there is no doubt it needs thorough investigation and discussion
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.
