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.