Day 2 of the CEGSA Conference.
Keynote Speaker Dr Alec Couros
These are the notes and links provided by Alec Couros today. Worth a visit:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Hfjq_ksBpJ8mSyHRruOSE5oVrPztHhgvl5HmuhA2SfU/edit
These were my tweets during the keynote presentation:
- Don’t limit a child to your own learning as he was born in a different time. Love this! @courosa #EdTechSA
- @courosa How are you living and learning in a connected community? #EdTechSA
- How are you contributing to the learning of others? This is the question we should ask our students and fellow teachers. #EdTechSA
- A real learner in the wild: rube goldberg video http://m.firecold.com/videos/audris-rube-goldberg-monster-trap … #EdTechSA @courosa awesome! (I loved this clip and want to share it with my students)
- @courosa Network Literacies: how we learn in the digital age http://emedia.rmit.edu.au/edjournal/node/44 … #EdTechSA (a good read, something I’d like to explore further)
- We don’t just enjoy now, we participate! Interaction online, making meaningful connections is important #EdTechSA
- Wait to be curious, we google answers to questions without wondering and problem solving ourselves first. Good point @courosa#EdTechSA
- Kids don’t need their teacher in the classroom 1:1, there are teachers all over the Internet! #EdTechSA
- EdTechSA @EdTechSA12h 365 Photo a Day Challenge as shared by @courosa http://bit.ly/4wSHiL #CEGSA #EdTechSA (Love this idea too)
I found Alec’s presentation refreshing and motivational. I am eager to attend his Spotlight session: Teaching and Learning in a Connected World (15th August 2013) & Masterclass: Developing Key Literacies in a Connected World (17th August 2013).
If you want to register for these visit these websites:
Workshop Notes: Session 1
The New Matrix for Education by Leo Marsden
You Tube: www.lmarsden.com
These were my notes from this session with some of my own reflections:
Why aren’t we engaging/allowing student to utilise phones within the classroom?
BYODevice
BYOTechnology
Don’t limit students by telling them which tech to use.
BYOManageDevice: This gives teachers starting points to know what resources will be used.
BYOOD (Bring your own other device)
Internet monitoring not Internet filtering. Using Facebook with Yr 12 kids, is this okay? What is the difference between Edmodo and Facebook? Why are we saying no to Facebook? What are the rules of conduct using Facebook in education? (This point isn’t relevant in the primary school setting as students are too young to have accounts, however, lots of students have FB regardless)
Google Hangouts: look into this. Limited to 9 people chat, if you register as a school you can have 15 students.
We discussed Blooms revised taxonomy: Creating being the focus and where we want our students to aim for on the pyramid.
Let students have choices in how they present and direct their inquiry. I feel that I do this already within the classroom. I would like to work on being even more flexible and allow extra time for passion-based projects such as Genius Hour.
If your students are engaged they will not misuse technology.
If you can Google the answer you are asking the wrong question?
Process for successful technology implementation:
Supply the equipment. Have the right equipment to suit the learner.
Support the usage of that technology.
Initiate the learning.
Thoughts: Where does this fear of tech come from? If you break it, you can get it fixed, if you don’t know how to use it you can ask for help or find the answers yourself, play with it, learn from it, be a lifelong learner.
Find technology mentors to help you climb the education matrix. This is where Digital Leaders can play a role within the school context. I also agreed with the notion that we should be learning from and with our students. We (teachers) are learners, this should be modelled to our students.
Session 2:
Educational Podcasting with Passion
by the Ed Tech Crew: Darryl and Tony edtechcrew.net
At this point of the EdTechSA (CEGSA) conference we were experiencing technical difficulties and had a power blackout. We did not have access to our online resources and my laptop and phone battery were dead. I went back to basics and took some handwritten notes:
Here is a summary of my learning from this session:
Some people like to blog, these people are writers. Some people like to talk, these people are podcasters. Podcasts should be between 5-15 minutes long for beginners, but some podcasts can go for hours. If you are someone who has difficulty speaking publicly, have a script ready before you podcast.
If you are going to start your own educational podcast, keep these things in mind:
- Do podcasts with a partner, keeps you motivated and lightens the workload.
- Make connections with people
- Use podcasts for professional development
- To maintain a podcast keep it up to date and spend 2-3 hours working on it per week. Research time is not included in this process (keep that in mind).
- You don’t need the most high tech tools, get a good mic for sound quality.
- Here were some pics from the whiteboard. They explain the processes involved in podcasting:
Podcasts are available for you and your students to access to assist in learning. A range of different podcast streams were recommended. I have also worked with students using Garageband and iMovie to create Podcasts. I do not have much knowledge about podcasting so this session was useful in learning about different podcasts available. The presenters also promised to email me with links (resources for podcasting) after the presentation. Here are just a few of their suggestions:
- Skype
- Call Recorder (on Mac only)
- Skype in Education (look this up, you can do a conference call with up to 10 people for free)
- Google +, Google Hangouts
- YouTube has great editing features to edit movies
- podbean.com & podomatic (used for hosting and subscriptions)
- mathstrain.tv- kids generated podcasts
- The Digital Human
- TWIT (This Week in Tech)
- Stuff You Should Know
- Future Tense
- 60 Second Science.
Last but not least…
Session 3
Technology Integration in the classroom: By Paul Huebl
Why do we need to integrate?
There are so many opportunities for us to be connected educators who can connect our students with the world.
Technologies allow students, teachers, parents, the community (everyone) to connect. Learning is a social function, you learn from being social.
How are we going to deliver the digital technologies curriculum? Teacher training will be required to support this process.
AITSL: Standards (2.6, 3.4 & 4.5) require that we teach using digital technologies as part of our teacher registration standards. This is motivation enough to get on board if you aren’t already.
How to integrate:
SAMR Model:
If you are engaging with substation tasks too often think about level of engagement and how this benefits the learner.
TP(A)CK Model
T Technology
C Content Knowledge
P Pedagogical Knowledge
Rich engaging learning using the TPACK model.
How Paul Huebl Integrates:
How are you going to use tech in your teaching?
If you plan it well it will work well.
Improvisation: Google Doc
Lino, Pinboard
Experimentation: giving things a go.
Get involved in the learning experiences
Sharing Session:
Virtual Excursion idea using iPads
Shadow theatre, School’s got Talent. Passion based learning.
http://goo.gl/kkGMA Slide share of Paul’s presentation.
I work with Paul and found his presentation engaging and informative. I particularly enjoyed learning about the TPACK and SMAR models to effectively integrate technology into learning. I think I am good at doing this but require more focus to recognise opportunities for integration. Developing my knowledge base on the different types of tech available and being creative with my implementation will assist me here.
What a day! I thoroughly enjoyed the CEGSA/ EdTechSA Conference. I am looking forward to future EdTechSA events and plan on attending committee meetings to see if I can volunteer or be of assistance at the next conference. I would love to discover an area where I may present at a conference in the future too.