“A hundred years from now, it will not matter what kind of car I drove, what kind of house I lived in, how much money I had in the bank…but the world may be a better place because I made a difference in the life of a child.” — Forest Witcraft
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Working with various schools trying to implement ICT throughout the school, or just trying to get started thinking outside the box with ICT, I think it is important to understand that what matters is that you just started. Start somewhere. As long as you ensure the student’s safety and their well-being are accounted for just do it.
On another topic, We worry about students knowing more about computers than we do.
You will be amazed at how little some students know when you what them to create something even as simple as a table using Microsoft Word or enter data into Microsoft Excel and using a formula, add the columns to get a total. Try it sometimes, ask them to create a table in Microsoft Word, format the table and then add some content to the odd or even cells or create a Excel spreadsheet and calculate the total for a range of cells.
I was surprise when visiting a school and I asked the students to carry out this task most of them had not a clue. Year 9 students.
My point is that I think in my opinion, yes if you ask students to play games they (most of them) have skills that are out of this world. But in terms of skills required for some jobs and what job doesn’t required that you track expenses (who doesn’t want to get paid), some students do not know how to carry out these tasks. I’m talking about real world skills to help them succeed in life.
So I think I think as teacher it is our job to teach these students how to carryout real world tasks that will help prepare them for the real world. Example, instead of just giving them random numbers to calculate, why not ask them to bring in their parents or guardian’s shopping list, or have them go through their kitchens and find out how much some of the ingredients cost, bring the information in to school and then create a list to help their parents or guardian that could be updated each week once set up if necessary (using Microsoft Excel).
(they could even use the Internet in class to navigate to the site where their parents or guardian shop and find the prices to add to their spreadsheet. While they are they why not get an image of the product to make it easy for the user to understand what the product is they are purchasing.)
If student(s) don’t have a computer at home, think outside the box and let them use their mobile phone. There are plenty of applications now or just free spreadsheet application students can use.
i guess my point is that now we need to more than ever try and give out students an advantage to get ahead in life. Jobs are hard to find and keep. The more skills our students have the more opportunity I think they have of getting a job and keeping that job.
It starts with helping students not only develop skills but it is so important to help them gain confidence in themselves, soooooooooo important.
Just a thought……
One of the most important things I feel we can do , with our students, is to try and make sure that they feel as confident as they can. I think we should try and help them develop the right skills to talk and present themselves in a positive manner. It is essential to me and just as important that I work on personal skills with my students as the ICT skills I am trying to help them develop. I found this article that I thought was interesting and wanted to share. http://bit.ly/eX7P0E
Another article that I found to be useful is at http://bit.ly/fXw8iT.
This BETT show has been one of the best shows I have had the opportunity to attend and work at. I spend most of my time at the Adobe stand where I watched some of the fantastic presentation given by some outstanding Adobe Educational Leaders. From Colin Maxwell and his 3D work in Photoshop (along with bringing the 3D glasses for the audience) to Ross Wallis.
Liz Wilkins and her team at Adobe did a marvelous job of making sure people were both entertained and informed about the great products that Adobe produces. The level of detail they went to to make sure customers and visitors were happy was a thing of beauty to behold. I saw a lot of happy faces from customers and visitors to the stand.
Ross Wallis and the work he is doing with his students. The way he explains how to use Photoshop is amazing and I wish I could take his classes.
One of the great things Adobe has done is manage to get prime position at the show. The stand was packed all during the day and for each of the sessions. There is a big push towards Creativity in the Classroom and Adobe has positioned itself to be a continual leader in that field. The stand was great and allowed both those who were seated or standing to get a real good look at the presentations.
Other outstanding presentations I saw were from Saiqa Liaqat who is doing some fantastic work at her school. She was amazing and her use of Photoshop and the other Adobe tools were eye opening to me. I learn’t a lot just watching her demonstrations.
Another really great learning experience I had was watching the masterful Ian Usher speak about his use of Adobe Connect and the use of it in schools that he supports. I found it amazing how he has now acquired the knowledge to give concrete support to the staff and students. His ability to identify areas where you could struggle with the technology really saved me a lot of trouble in the future. Great job Ian and thanks buddy.
I also had the opportunity to speak with Stephen Heppell about the work he is doing and the outstanding progress he is making with students from a variety of schools. I was really impressed with his vision and how approachable a person he was.
One of my other favorite people I had the chance to hangout with is John Davitt. He has really help the thinking around teacher development (follow John here) and learning. Always great to hear his views on education and technology.
Well another year and as far as I’m concern another very successful year for BETT.
Wow, one of the fantastic things I love about working with Ani Magill, our Headteacher is that the bottom line is that it is all about the students. Making sure that those students are prepared for the real world and that they have the tools and the skills to make it in the real world. Case in point, the new block fully equipped with 4 mac rooms, a green screen studio and a audio studio. Getting the education they deserve with the equipment, teaching and software (Adobe Master suite 5 and the Apple ILife 11 suite) the students can only be prepared to compete in the world they will eventually go into. Nice that there are also interactive whiteboard in each of the rooms. Also great that we have interactive computers and an interactive whiteboard in each of the teaching rooms in school. Nice.
OK guys, don’t forget to have the assignment ready for me to grade or in the box for me to grade. Again here is the video for you to listen to the instructions. Good luck and remember this is about you and the choices you make to create a better world for yourself. Part of that start is getting the grades you deserve.
What I wish is that I could make every child understand the value of the wonderful technology age they are in.
But hey, for the little we had, I didn’t understand then that it was that important and can understand why they act the way they do! At least until I figured out how it could help me in the real world. Now that is a concept, applying classroom teaching to the real world.
My job? To pester the hell out of them so at least they will think about it. Hopefully!! O’yea and to make sure it is allllllllll fun!!!!
By the way if you want a fantastic tool for creating content try here. Also go to the bottom of the page and listen to how I’m using to Suite to enhance student’s learning at St. John the Baptist School in Woking, Surrey, England.
If you are working on Unit 1 or any of the other units that required knowing about different technologies, please check out the following sites,. (BBC Click and the mobile version). I have listed the normal site and the mobile site.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006m9ry
Mobile site – http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/ukfs_news/mobile/programmes/click_online/default.stm
Just got through creating and delivering my assignment for student to finish before they come back to school. Wanted to make sure that the students had every way of accessing the content and not just the normal website way. Created a ipad application, mobile website for any mobile device and blog for them to access their school assignment for the rest of the year.
One of the ways I have been able to allow my students to have the information they require (no Internet access required and regardless of the platform they are on) and that has been a tremendous assets, is the ability to create Air applications for my student to install at home. (Air link here)
This is important to me because they have to understand whats required, what they need to complete and the best way of accomplishing those goals. The best way for my students to learn is anyway they want to learn. It is my job as a teacher to provide the stimulus, methods and applications that will allow them to be successful. But then to be open for their ideas and more important to listen to their suggestions.
Mobile site – http://unit10.ubik.net/
Personal website – http://www.rllearning.com
This is one of the videos that has made the most impact on how I view education. I feel that we need to make major changes in how we deliver content to our students and we need to make sure we are using the technologies they use to better reach them. Be that mobile learning, regardless of the device, regardless of the type of phone, blogs, computers, and regardless of the delivery methods. We just need to educate our kids.
If we don’t we will loose them. I dont know about you but I want a real positive world where students (future adults, WILL MAKE THE right choices and changes). Because at the moment, it ain’t happening.
