Tuesday, May 29, 2012

#ICTEV12 (Extended Version) Part II

Ok so admittedly, having never been to the ICTEV Conference and not knowing what to expect, as well as being a little run down, I wasn't looking forward to going. Waking up early (on a weekend no less) & driving into Melbourne Grammar on a wet and rainy Melbourne morning...it certainly wasn't helping.

Got there, registered my attendance & mingled with old & current collegues, as well as some new friends. Got my seat next to @_tarrynkennedy in the Assembly Hall, and was waiting for the keynote speaker, Alan November (@globalearner). Not being familiar with any of Alan's work, nor having had time during the week to read up on any of his work, I had no idea what to expect. Within two to three minutes, I think I could have listened to him all day.

As he was speaking, I tweeted my thoughts and some quotes from his keynote:
  • "We need to get rid of the word 'technology' because 'technology' isn't the end game. Information & communication is"
  • "Children see technology through a different perspective than we do"
    • These quotes begged to ask myself the question, "Why do I ask students to put their devices away?"
  • "Everything in Alan November's life seems to be an accident..." - @jimmygunner
    • Alan told a number of "accidental" stories that influenced his view of education and this led into a discussion about the need to shift control in the classroom.
  • "We need to break the boundaries of space, time, information & relationships to break the current idea of schooling" - 
    • Alan's ideas of shifting control from the teacher to the students in the sense that "children need to help other children in the classroom" was a breath of fresh air.
    • I've always liked the idea of this but never been brave enough to do it....listening to the great man speak has given me the inspiration to allow this shift in pedagogy.
  • "Most people do not publish student work for the world to see"
  • "The boundary of the calendar is that at the start of every year we start over...Why?"
  • "Students need to take responsibility for the quality of their work"
    • I think that if more students did this, we'd have better outcomes for a number of our students.
    • The question now lies..."How do we make them take more responsibility for their work?"
    • Interestingly enough, a colleague of mine @digital_lingua has been drumming his ideas for self-evaluation of student work to improve quality of their work all year...maybe he and @globalearner have been in kahootz for a while...or maybe its just a coincidence...
  • "Continue to grade the regurgitation. If its creative, dont grade" - @_tarrynkennedy
EDUCATIONAL TOOL (via @globalearner):
MathTrain.TV - Alan demonstrated a way of helping shift control from the teacher to the students. MathTrain is a website that has had a number of basic maths tutorials created BY students FOR students on a number of different maths topics. It was created by a teacher in the US to enable his students to help each other when they have difficulty with maths problems at home. I'm planning on introducing this site to my students this week so I'll keep you updated with feedback from the kids.

It was a great address that I feel was well received. Comments about @globallearner's talk welcome below...

So onto @MarkPleasance's "Who is the Expert?" session & @MarkOMeara's Present to Connect...but that's in the next post...

Until next time...May the Tech Be With You

Jimmy V

Sunday, May 27, 2012

#ICTEV2012 @MelbourneGrammar Pt I

So yesterday I went to Melbourne Grammar (first time, and impressed) for the 2012 ICTEV Conference (also a first for me, & quite impressed.

Some of the tips & tools will get posts later on, after I've looked at them in closer detail but thanks to all presenters at #ICTEV12 for the inspiration, excitement and insight that they gave to all of us on the day.

Highlights for the day (in no particular order):

  • Alan November's keynote to start the day about accidental happenings in education that influenced him as an educator, and breaking some of the conventional boundaries that we currently have in education
    • I think everyone would agree that they could have heard him talk all day
  • Jarrod Robinson's (@mrrobbo) session on building your own apps for your classroom
  • Mark O'Meara's (@markomeara) session on how to build presentations that engage our students, not bore them to death
  • Mark Pleasance's (@MarkPleasance) session on making students the tech experts (MacBook Experts) in his school
Unsurprisingly, met up with old & current colleagues, as well as new friends, of whom we shared our opinions on a number of ICT topics, and good discussion was had. The buzz around the place was truly inspirational!

True Story
Over the past few weeks, @_TarrynKennedy & myself have been talking about making an app to create our own iPod/iPhone/iPad apps to help manage our mutual class, 8 Maroon.

Thanks to @mrrobbo's session yesterday, this morning, I woke up and decided to create an app for myself and @_tarrynkennedy's classes where we could set homework tasks that could be accessed by students. Within a half hour, and after some very quick troubleshooting from @mrrobbo, myself and @_TarrynKennedy had a functional test app.

The ideas since have kept flowing this arvo and it'g going to be an exciting next few months for the both of us in regards to App Development

If you want to check out the app, feel free to do so at http://ibuildapp.com/web-MacK8M_Test_App. It's not much but it's a start :)

Feel free to add your views of #ICTEV12 below

May the Tech Be With You

Jimmy V

The first post is always the hardest...

So here I am blogging on a cold Sunday afternoon in Melbourne, Australia finally getting into this Edu-Tech-Blogging craze.

Yesterday, I went to the #ICTEV12 conference in Melbourne Grammar, and have come out inspired to do my thing, share resources and make the education of the next generation better through the use of different pedagogies & ICT tools.

Ok so who I am...I'm Jimmy V. A twenty-something, 2nd year educator from one suburb in the outer west of Melbourne, teaching at a Catholic Secondary School in another suburb of the outer west. My subject areas currently are Junior Maths, Intermediate IT, Intermediate Personal Development & VCE IT. I'm passionate about tech in the classroom, and making life easier for teachers wanting good ideas for using tech.

You can follow me on Twitter at @jimmygunner...do be mindful that it isn't always "Edu-Tech" tweets that appear there, there's the occasional #qanda tweets on a Monday night and the even more occasional footy or random tweet.

Thanks to @_TarrynKennedy for recommending I get into the "Edu-Tech-Blogging" thing & thanks to the awesome people at #ICTEV12 that inspired me to keep working hard to bring tech effectively into the classroom. I'll be talking about #ICTEV12 and the buzz generated in my next post.

My aim will be to post at least twice or three times a week, sharing these resources, ideas and ramblings with you all. Feel free to compliment, criticise or comment on any post as it is welcome. If you have any ideas that you

May The Tech Be With You...

Jimmy V