Hi all,
AIS ICT Conference Reflections Day 2
- Don’t try and joke during presentations – it does not work
- It is a myth that Digital Natives have the skills and Teachers are illiterate. Idea been around for a while but I guess others have not thought about it this way. One suggestion digital natives just skim the surface and don’t go in too far if it is too hard. As for the teachers many teachers have the skills but don’t realise they have the skills.
- It is all in the name. The Conference used to be called ICT Integrators now it is called ICT Integration. Subtle point but true and has implications. Integrators are starting to have done their job and it is time to redefine their positions. After all the position did not exist when I started school.
- Three overlapping concepts are they different or is it just semantics?: Personal Learning Network (PLN), Personal Learning Environment (PLE), and Google’s Personal Information System (PIS) or Space? This is the key thing I have taken from the conference and want to work on- it was not really covered that much in it but I kept hearing things that made me think of it.
- I enjoyed the second day in a different way as I was able to be a participant, talk, watch, listen and take notes. Here are some random quotes:
“ICT is a silver bullet or an agent of change.” ie: will it fix everything?
“That’s the way we have always done it - TTWWHADI”
“You only learn when you teach” – hmmm
“We were taught facts and not how to think” – not my experience.
“Be experts in learning and I encourage you to swim in the other direction” – zOMG – not all of us
“There is a rush of information when two cultures collide”
“Concentrate on one thing that interests you.”
“ Do things well or do things quickly” – for me it is both.
“An issue with change and an issue with what we are trying to do…we can change and do the same ..the core stays”
A great two days- loved the networking.
I am fully inspired but now have to prepare worksheets to show teachers how to back up their work on CDs and DVDs. Ahh the reality of my job 
Cheers Martin
September 23, 2008 at 6:35 pm |
1. You are learning always but you understand more when you teach. I realised this when I was 16. While revising for exams with classmates, I always insisted that I ask the questions and provide the answers / explanations. My classmate unwittingly got the short end of the stick. Students still do.
2. ICT is neither a silver bullet or an agent of change – it is context. “Context, noun, the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood and assessed.”
3. We can change and be the same – the core stays. I don’t recall this reference but am reminded when Martin L referred to a study that shows that ‘teaching’ is the major determinant of learning success. The logic is: if students have changed and classrooms haven’t (Martin L reminded us that classrooms haven’t for a century) but learning flourishes, then the difference is ‘teaching’. In this equation [learning = student + teaching +context], teaching is a variable but we use the term ‘teaching’ as if it were a constant. It’’s time to originate a new term for what successful teachers do today that differentiates it from the ‘teaching’ of yesteryear.