I can't believe that the last entry was in August - where has the time gone?After the success of my North Island Renaissance Education Bus Tour at the start of the year, I was looking forward to the South Island tour in October.
Unfortunately, this was cancelled. With air-flights already booked I decided to organise my own tour. I am thankful to those schools that kindly welcomed me for a day on such short notice .
It was interesting to visit schools teaching the age range of my own school.
Ashburton Intermediate's principal, Gavin Cooper, has recently had interactive whiteboards installed in every room. I was particularly impressed to see the use of such a board in the hard materials technology classes. Such a tactile and concrete resource greatly enhances student engagement in learning activities.
At Christ's College I met with Robyn Sutton, Paul Rodley, Karl Summerfield and Warren Lidstone. As a past teacher of history I had a pang of remorse that I was no longer in that field when I saw how Warren is using digital technologies to bring history to life. This wee 'freebie' tickled my fancy -'Crazytalk' lets you animate and add audio to still images. Windows platform and a free trial available. Warren has all his resources online with interactive notes and assignments. He has students using iweb to publish assignments in simple web pages. Students write and critique wikis - simple yet more interesting than reading someone else's essay or definition on paper!
Simon Williams at St Andrew's in Christchurch, gave me a grand tour of their beautiful campus - ranging from pre-school to Year 13s. St Andrews has a TV Production Studio. The equipment is impressive and Simon has every right to be proud of the calibre of productions and learning of his students. The students are keen to learn by doing - camera and sound operators, stage managers, entertainers, directors, producers, editors, and announcers in the making!
Through out the year I have seen some exciting, endearing and simple uses of digital technologies to enhance learning activities. Check out my quicktime video (made with imovie) to see examples of kiwi students engaged in learning. It is important to always remember, that these technologies are only tools. Their value is only as good as the practitioner - the teacher. Their use must always be based on sound pedagogies, clear learning outcomes and integrated into existing curriculum.
