Registration Information:
Registration Items
Greg Cave Super Special Registration Fee – register and pay before 20 December 2011
Sessions
Greg Cave Registration (continued) and Arrival Tea and Coffee 15-Jun-2012 8:00 AM
Greg Cave Welcome and Keynote Address 1: Laurie Lawrence 15-Jun-2012 9:00 AM
Greg Cave Morning Tea and Exhibition 15-Jun-2012 10:00 AM
Greg Cave Cohort 6: What Students Want – Let Them Tell You 15-Jun-2012 10:30 AM
Greg Cave Collaborative Problem Based Learning with the Internet 15-Jun-2012 12:00 PM
Greg Cave Lunch and Exhibition 15-Jun-2012 1:00 PM
Greg Cave Cohort 6: What Students Want – Let Them Tell You 15-Jun-2012 2:00 PM
Greg Cave Chat session 5 – Social Learning 15-Jun-2012 3:30 PM
Greg Cave Yes, I will attend the Welcome Reception 15-Jun-2012 4:30 PM
Greg Cave Keynote Address 2: Greg Gebhart 16-Jun-2012 9:00 AM
Greg Cave Morning Tea and Exhibition 16-Jun-2012 10:00 AM
Greg Cave Cohort 6: What Students Want – Let Them Tell You 16-Jun-2012 10:30 AM
Greg Cave Wordwalls: Involving all of your students, all of the time 16-Jun-2012 11:45 AM
Greg Cave Lunch and Exhibition 16-Jun-2012 12:45 PM
Greg Cave Chat session 10 – Let Go of Outcomes and Move into Content Descriptors and Achievement Standards 16-Jun-2012 1:45 PM
Greg Cave Cohort 6: What Students Want – Let Them Tell You 16-Jun-2012 2:45 PM
Greg Cave Session Cohorts’ Final Products and Wrap Up. Thank-You and Conference Close 16-Jun-2012 4:00 PM
blogs, ipads and e-learning challenge
Today I was informed that I am leading the way with conference blogging!
iPad Conference
I’ve been fortunate to have had the opportunity today to attend a conference on the use of iPads and the associated apps in the classroom for teaching and learning. The group of people ive spent this day with are very innovative and are on the cusp of doing some phenomenal things in their classrooms and schools with technology.
One of the comments that hit hard today was, “We need to prepare students for their future not our pasts!!”
As educators, we always need to be mindful of whatever best works for the student should be utilized. Therefore if technologies are going to bring about more engaged learning then we should be using them to whatever extent.
My teaching world was opened to a whole range of diverse iPad apps that could be used in my teaching. Some fantasatic apps for use in the humanities, arts and sciences….and no doubt plenty of others.
Here is some food for thought from the conference:
Be an experimenter and an innovator. This will require self-education, sustained professional development, risk takers (those who will go above and beyond), ambassadors, be involvedd in evaluation and reflection.
Learning Spaces are imperative to 21st century learning .
Constraints on the traditional classroom set up it the 21st century:
1. Can reduce the ability for collaboration and movement around the room
2. Can reduce creativity and inclusion of technology
3. (Guriah 2010) biys need more physical space to move as part of their learning.
4. Very different to work places in the future that students will work in
Steve Wheeler (2011) mobile technologies as a platform to link traditional formal learning with informal learning styles.
20th century traditional learning – content driven
21st century informal learning – skills driven
Transforming classrooms from lecture halls to learning spaces and workshops.
Let’s take the next step in our teaching and learning whatever that may be for each one of us!!!!
Remember, technologies will never replace quality teachers!!!!
Finding the right app
Here are some sites/ apps that will help you find the best apps for your us in your personal life and in the classroom.
Discovr Apps – you write an app that you liek or a idea – mindmapping etc and then you get a diagram that floats and you click on the sub topics and drill down until you find the one you like. Available from the app store.
Appsfire deals – this is the app version of the hot deals we sign onto through email. It lists “hot deals for the say ” ie the ones that a free for the day. You can download apps for free try them out and see how you go. Have been told that when you update them – this is also free. One way of trying out apps without cost. They are not all education of course. Available on the App store
Appitic Website – want to find educational ipad apps that are listed either via blooms taxonomy, NETS students standards, themes etc GO to this gem of a site. http://www.appitic.com/
Scooptit – Recommended ipad apps curated site giving you ipads apps…
Who’s watching WHO
Came across a firefox plugin on the weekend that is a bit scary. An plug in is a little app that joins with your browser in this case Firefox and does things – easy way to tag photos for sites like flickr, record information, click and search etc. In this case Collusion is a plug in that tracks who is following your activity on the web.
We know that when we search for Turkey and flights on the web – suddenly you get adds in facebook or your searches. Many times this is great – I like that it sometimes know what I want. Sharing information when you know it is being given then that is okay – the background bots can suggest books, movies for me . BUT come Behavioural tracking.
Watch this 6 minute TED talks which will give you some insight. NOT that we can really do much about it – but make you think about what information you are giving away either voluntarily or involuntarily.
My collusion map after about 2 hours on net looked like this…and I only went to about 1/3 of these sites. ( blue ones I went to – others – no idea they were tracking me)
Collusion mapping
mylearn Conference
Have been lucky enough to be part of this conference – not that we are going to mobile devices such as a tablet or ipad but we need to stay abreast of the thinking and what is happening so that we can make informed decisions about the future use of technology in the schools.
Having an opportunity to explore the ipad/tablet technology and philosophies, tips and tricks with teaching these devices as well as the thinking that goes behind as to why people would want to go ipad/tablet. Yes getting caught up in the hype…I want one ( actually bought one very early). They are a very enticing and exciting technological experience. and I do mean experience one of the very early ipad reviews when ipad1 came around was that it is no longer a tool but it is n experience the “relationship” with the technology is very different to that of those using a laptop or desktop computer. People get REALLY excited when they acquire one. Ipad is clearly the forerunner in education circles. The idea that any app must meet apple’s requirements means that you KNOW it is going to work. I asked at the conference to those who had done their own investigations and the answer was that ipad was their choice was mainly because of this experience and that it was idiot proof.
There are downside such as no usb connection, no flash (but people do say this IS being replaced by html5), and how it fits in with current infrastructure in a school. WHICH IS A BIG ISSUE and cannot be discounted. BUT ultimately any decisions on whether what platform to purchase, MUST be made on what you WANT to DO with the device. This is where the real dilemma comes in. Most of the time, in secondary schools, students are gathering information either from the web or in class – so ideally a tablet/ipad solution is the way to go . But what about the growing interest in podcasts, videos etc. AGAIN an ipad and to a lesser degree a tablet have hundreds of apps that can do the job. Here it becomes a situation where the teacher says I want a video on this topic. NOT I want you do it in a particular application. Each student could ultimately choose their own app to develop the evidence of their learning and the focus IS on the learning. But then you have specialist areas or topics where the teacher does want the student to show HOW they use a particular piece of software – hence the dilemma.
Ultimately I think schools will support the “BYOT or BYOD” bring your own device/technology. It makes economic and learning sense. We replicate what is happening in real life – you have the iphone or android – do a quick email, check an answer on the net, check your calendar, then you have the ipad next to your couch and check things out quickly – write that letter ( or ins school’s case – notes, searching, summaries etc) and then when you want to do heavy number crunching or digital creation you use your laptop. It is how the world works.
Second dilemma – this idealistic goal does not take into account what must be a logistical nightmare for all involved from a technical point of view. Most schools I suspect primarily from a technical need encourage a one size fits all – be it desktop, laptop or ipad/tablet. From a technical perspective THIS way does make perfect sense – the work done by ICT divisions all over the country is often thankless and very very stressful so going one way or limiting the mix in a school makes sense also.
Masterclass in June
Swatting for the challenge of tweeting and blogging to use at the conference… these are the sessions I have chosen for The IWB Masterclass Conference.
Martine's program
off to the Master Class conference
This conference looks really exciting. Looking forward to finding out about ibooks. Is this the way of the future.
No need to cut down trees for the papaer. We can constantly update new information with the ibook.
Do we need editors? Do we need publishers?
Are we transitioning to a time when the individual can publish their ideas, thoughts and theories and receive acknowledgement for it?
The use of ibooks will revolutionise education in the 21st C. easy to access, immediate access and updated constantly
Back Channelling in the Classroom
This has to be one of the “wow” moments in my teaching. It is when you give students the tools to comment, discuss and enriched the classroom encvironment by making short comments while the class is going on.
It gives them a voice, the teacher KNOWS what they are thinking so can guide any misunderstandings. encourages them to stay focussed and they enjoy it..Win on all counts.
Check out this Powerpoint to see all about it: backchanneling
tools include:
Todaysmeet – http://todaysmeet.com/
Twiducate: http://www.twiducate.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/
as well as many others…
Student feedback
This morning was an eye-opener, as a student panel let us in on their private world. I will pull all the statements from the conference back channel later and upload them on this site. I was going to provide a summary here but what was said needs to be seen in all its glory.