Ka Kite PPTA ICT Taskforce

Unfortunately i have decided to resign from the taskforce as i will no longer be working full time in Secondary Schools. It has been interesting to be part of this group and to coordinate their discussions back to teachers in my area through our TaraNet Lead Teacher Group. Hopefully someone from this group will put up their hand to take my place in the PPTA.

In reference to an earlier post about Connected Secondary Schools here are recommendations from that report:

1. That the report be received; and
2. That PPTA call on the Ministry of Education to undertake a consultative review of funding, staffing and IT support to better support collaborative practices in secondary schools; and
3. That PPTA urge the government to recognise the innovative work of the Virtual Learning Network (VLN) by restoring funding for e-learning principals; and
4. That PPTA urge the Ministry of Education to extend its present range of central purchasing to include multimedia copyright licenses; and
5. That PPTA develop a campaign that places the expectation on all secondary school boards to pay for teacher laptops; and
6. That PPTA develop a Code of Practice and safe working practices for the use of digital technologies.
7. That PPTA support central purchasing and funding of a range of software and hardware for schools by the Ministry of Education.
8. That PPTA call on the Ministry of Education to develop a plan to ensure that all students have access to appropriate hardware and software in their communities and/or homes.
9. That PPTA urges the Ministry of Education to fund secondary and area schools for appropriate full-time digital technology support.

Just for Fun

Thanks Inka for sharing this one with us today :-) Very clever.

Made by Alan Becker His comments on this animation:

“ An animator faces his own animation in deadly combat. The battlefield? The Flash interface itself.
A stick figure is created by an animator with the intent to torture. The stick figure drawn by the animator will be using everything he can find - the brush tool, the eraser tool - to get back at his tormentor. It's resourcefulness versus power. Who will win? You can find out yourself.
-- This took three long months.. i think it's worth it.”

TaraNet Top eLearner 2010

Congratulations to Tama from Waitara High School who was top TaraNet eLearner this year. He is in his second year as an elearning student, this year studying L2 History with Rangiora New Life College in the South Island. Tama loves learning online and is always positive, enthusiastic and hardworking. Congratulations too Tama, Deputy Head Boy next year! :-) He receives a notebook computer from our generous sponsors Gen-i Taranaki.

Central North Island VLNC - Professional Development Days

TaraNet teachers joined with teachers from the Volcanics & CoroNet schools for two days of  very focussed professional learning at Stratford High School. There was such a range of experience, from those yet to begin to a few of the first original eteachers. The continuum of confidence & capability in elearning technologies was also very broad from the ‘old school’ not too sure of any of the technology but willing to give it a try, to the very technically savvy. All had something to share and conversations between eteachers was very important to those who spend much of their year in elearning isolation. We had  3 Spanish teachers so there was a lot of conversation happening there, as well as an ebaby, Sonia’s baby Amelia who was very happy for two whole days … thank goodness ;-)

A big thank you to all who contributed to our day – Lynda Walsh-Pasco (OtagoNet), Trevor Storr (AorakiNet), Derek Wenmoth & Jason Reid (SILC). Also to the staff at Stratford High who made the organisation of this day much easier with the allocation of classrooms, technical support and catering.

You can see our programme and resources here.

Desktop VC to H323

View Full Album

This morning i joined with Craig from GCI in Alaska, Janine from Michigan, & Janet my ePrincipal colleague from Baylink cluster to have a conversation about desktop video conferencing and integrating webconferencing (think Adobe, Elluminate) with H323 connections (what we know as ‘VC’).

Firstly we looked at the lower cost hardware options of webcam & echo cancelling microphone running through the desktop compared to an integrated H323 VC unit. Craig demonstrated the difference by switching between the two during our call. There was no noticeable difference at all. With USB extension cables attached to the camera set back from the laptop you can have a wider view (potentially including more people) than the close up view (compare my & Craig’s pictures). The only drawback is that the webcam (currently) doesn’t have the same functionality as a polycom camera of zoom, pan & tilt.

We then went onto discuss the Vidyo platform we were meeting in. Craig & Janine were both coming into the VC with their regular VC IP connections, Janet & I were coming through the open internet using our webcams from home. The beauty of this is that you don’t need expensive hardware or even a connection with Qos – Quality of Service (such as we currently have to use with SchoolZone to be able to VC). You can bring people in from just about anywhere providing they have sufficient bandwidth (I have nearly 2mb download & 512kps upload) & you can bring in users on a standard vc connection as well.

The possibilities here are being able to open up our online classes that are currently only VC to any school with web access or vice-versa. Those schools such as in SILC cluster with only web conferencing would be able to bring in VC connections also. Schools, particularly primary schools who want to join virtual fieldtrips won’t have to pay crippling internet service prices for a video connection or traipse down to a VC room at the local high school but be able to connect from their own classrooms.

This sort of solution to current VC constraints will really open up accessibility for the Virtual Learning Network and is something that our VLNC community needs to investigate further & put to the MOE to provide the support we need. The VLC has an infrastructure working party that has been looking at EVO which is being used by users on the KAREN network – very similar i believe. Hopefully something will come of this as we move into the high speed network era.

LEARNZ Antarctica Field Trip

Today i supported St Joseph’s Stratford students make a VC connection to Scott Base in Antarctica for a conversation with Scott Base staff about the Wind Farm they are developing there. It is great that St Josephs have been able to link into our local secondary school & use the resources & expertise available to reach out beyond the walls of the classroom. I would really encourage Primary Schools to foster those links with their local schools to enable these VC opportunities for our students. Secondary Schools also should be reaching back to their feeder schools and invite them in to share their facilities.

The field trip itself was great with a view out of the window (I didn’t know Polar Bears lived that far south ;-) and lots of questions and answers from the students, ably assisted by the presenters penguin bringing up pictures and video on the laptop to share. LEARNZ fieldtrips are now supported by the MOE and free of charge to schools wishing to participate. They are not just one off VC or audio conversations but are part of a whole unit of study.

View Full Album

MOE VLN-IS Lead Teacher Meeting

Eddie Reisch from the MOE joined our TaraNet Lead Teacher meeting this afternoon. Although we didn’t have many Lead Teachers attend this meeting, those that did attend heard from Eddie about an overview of the VLN Internet Services, the roles of people involved, what Internet Services are being provided for schools behind the scenes (such as Adobe, Tandberg etc), how it is managed, and how through their cluster they can tap into these services. Eddie also spoke about how is Moodle is being supported by MOE for clusters and future developments with that. It is good to have our teachers engage directly with people like Eddie to be able to discuss their needs, concerns & give feedback to the MOE.

eTeacher Professional Learning.

I have spent some time with eteachers over the last few weeks reviewing their professional learning goals from the year. Joel has now put his L3 Statistics and Modelling class into Facebook. I am looking forward to following this in 2010. One of the areas that our eteachers have sometimes struggled with is engaging their students with communication & interaction online. This was also identified by our students as something they felt they needed more of in their VLN classes – more opportunities to interact. This is one way to produce an Open Educational Resource and to engage our students in interactive environments.

 

I have been collaborating with Conor & Jan from the Volcanics & CoroNet cluster to provide 2 face to face days of professional development for our eteachers & possibly also could include others in our schools who are interested in any of our workshop sessions. So far we have planned out the programme. Now to spend some time on developing the workshops so they are ready to run. I am really looking forward to hearing from Derek and also from Lynda with feedback from the NZCER research.

Inspiring our School Leavers

Last week i had the privilege of attending Senior Prizegivings at two of our TaraNet Schools. Apart from recognising the achievements of our students in the awards that are given, this is also a time to farewell them in their journey into the wider world beyond the school gates. (As one student put it ‘the real world’ – though we should be bringing  more of the ‘real world’ into school but that’s another story). Speakers at both of these events talked about the rapidly changing world our young people are moving into, the skills, values & dispositions they will need to develop to thrive there, and what changes schools will need to make to enable  young people to develop as life long learners. Both speakers specifically focussed on the power of web 2.0/3.0 to enable students to collaborate, connect, innovate & become global citizens.

Kelvin spoke at Stratford High School and shared this video to illustrate his point of being connected, collaborative global citizens:

 

Marg spoke at Inglewood High School and the video she used to illustrate her speech was this one: