May 14 2008
Students@the Centre
A conversation Im currently having about ICT & learning….see this ning to take part in the discussion and learning http://ultranettalk.ning.com/
Having got some of that off my liver, i have high hopes for the concept of an ultranet. To me it is an opportunity to bring all stake holders on board as contributors to a childs education. It is all about communication and efficiency. What will it look like? When will it arrive? To be successful teachers need to see that it helps them improve the performance of their students!!!! the curriculum and its deleivery must be turned on its head. Where are we going to find the teachers with the required skill and belief to make this happen.This is the real challenge.
My respronse…thanks for your comments I think your points about student learning are very important and worth discussing further. I agree we must make decisions in education based on improved student learning and engagement in our schools. Currently our system has many funny ways of supporting schools, teachers and students in that process of learning.
Yes our buildings are old, our classrooms unequipped but at the heart of any learning organisation (community) are teachers/groups of teachers who are innovative and inspirational to each other and who make do by putting students at the centre of all learning decisions …..…..I see online learning environments such as nings, wikis, blogs as ways to open up the old tired classroom walls and go beyond, connecting, collaborating, sharing and learning outside ones community.
I rather like this quote from Greg Whitby’s article (Pedagogies for the 21st Century-having the courage to see differently) a must read.
http://gbwhitby.parra.catholic.edu.au/presentations.htm
Our narrative reminds us that, at the centre of the process of education, is the individual student. Peters (2003) says, ‘Teaching is about one and only one thing: Getting to know the child,’ and Caldwell (2006) echoes this in his first theme in imagining the selfmanaging school: ‘The student is the most important unit of organisation – not the classroom, not the school, not the school system.’
I think if we as educators can engage our communities in discussions about how we best prepare our students for a world of Digital Literacy and Knowledge Production we can start to move towards a more personalised learning framework for all.
This challenge According to David Warner (2006), for instance, the emergence of information communication technologies (ICT) and the development of Web 2.0 (e.g. YouTube, Flickr, MySpace, del.icio.us) have transformed the social and economic landscape. These changes have a profound impact on schooling as educators prepare students for life beyond the classroom – a transition which should be seamless and familiar.
As Hargreaves (2004) explains: We are only at the beginning of this transformation,
which will not be simply about ICT in classrooms but about a new relationship between what happens in formal education and what happens in the home, the workplace and the community.
Quotes are from Greg Whitbys article: Pedagogies for the 21st Century-having the courage to see differently (2007)
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