KGS-ELH09
Thoughts on ELH09 from Knox Grammar Staff
Interesting conversation with a teacher in training
Mike Israel RT @Steve_Collis: @mikejisrael @nathanburgess try http://ustre.am/3C70 for #elh09 keynote
Mike Israel
IT Manager
Knox Grammar School
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P 02 9473 9773
F 02 9473 9759
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ELH 09 Conference
Dear Mike,
My thoughts on ELH 09: Very beneficial. It has helped me get my computer skills up to date and think about what programs would suit my faculty. I am going to try and master podcasting, vodcasting for my subject areas and then as Andrew Douch has done, update it on itunes (assuming that this is possible) for my students to make good use of the dead time that all students have. This should help to concentrate on building practical and deep knowledge about the subject areas of HSIE.
Well worth the time for any teacher!
James Campbell-Bruce
Assistant Year Master Year 10
Knox Grammar School
campbell-brucej@knox.nsw.edu.au
Phone: (02) 9487 0163
Post ELH post tag: elh reflections
If there comes a day when we are able to plug a USB into our brains and download all that we have encountered over a period of time (a bit like Dumbledore’s pensieve) the experiences, conversations and ideas from the past couple of days at ELH would certainly be pushing any download limits.
For me personally, the conference was not only about gaining new ideas and seeing how other teachers are experiencing ICT in schools but also about strengthening the online connections that I have made in recent times. Meeting people face to face that I have ‘tweeted’ with on twitter and strengthening that connection through conversations has been invaluable and has again inspired me to pick up the pace and to try and inspire other staff members within my department and beyond it.
A tweet from Jenny Luca this morning has further inspired me to try and encourage more people within our school to see beyond our school and the potential for extending learning that connecting and collaborating (beyond the school walls) will bring. Not only student learning but also, and perhaps more importantly, professional learning. Professional learning that can be done in classrooms, in the staffroom or at home. You don’t need to travel far or be taken off class to do it.
I attended a variety of sessions at ELH and was aware of many of the tools that presenters were discussing but it is always important to see how others are using those tools (like prezi
) and being inspired to use them in different ways. However, I was not only interested in the content of the sessions but also in the way the presenters were presenting (i.e. teaching) the information. I felt I could learn a lot from my teaching peers by simply watching them and seeing how they presented the information, the tools they used to do that and the manner in which they did it. And, I did – I learnt a heaps. I was also inspired by their passion, their knowledge and the tools that they used to get their message across. I learnt a lot through the presenters’ use of ICT and am sure that my students can benefit from ICT if used for the right reasons and in the right situations. ‘Tech for techs sake’ will not add value to the classroom and… The question now is how do we spread ‘the message’? How do we get teachers using technology effectively? We perhaps need to try to get more teachers into each others classrooms as part of their professional development. Team teaching, mentoring and sharing in the classroom. There is no simple solution but this surely is part of the process. The next image needs to be read from the bottom tweet up.
More thoughts to come…
First Post
ELH09 Attendees
James Campbell Bruce - ESE Teacher
Andrew Jeppesen - Languages Teacher
Mike Israel - IT Manager
Andrew Cullen - Network Manager
Paul Brown - Deputy - Professional Learning and Compliance
Kath Morelli - Y6 Teacher
Paul Rheinberger - Y4 Teacher
Thoughts/reflections
- for PD to be effective, staff need feedback and ongoing input to their teaching practice
- Web 2.0 tools continue to evolve and proliferate. Not all of them work very well, and most seem to have been put together very rapidly, but they have their place
- IT Managers (of which I am one) seem to have dropped the ball. They still seem to have their heads in the server rack, rather than getting out into the classroom and seeing what's going on. The SchoolTech stream was incredibly boring with very little innovation. "We" still havent gotten over the blocking debate. Surely there has been enough talk about that one. As one learned teacher quipped to "just do what you have to do and get on with the job of providing a dynamic learning environment".
- On a similar strain, some IT Managers still seem to hold onto the keys very tightly. There needs to be more cooperation and empathy between IT Manager's and IT Integrators. IT Manager's are not there to drive the learning process, they are their to SERVE it.
- The IT Manager needs to be COMMITTED to the learning environment not just involved. Eg. If you are making Bacon and Eggs, the Chicken is involved but the Pig is COMMITTED!
