Martin Pluss

Hi all,

Personal

The day of a conference is always exciting.  

This time around it was added to as I am organising committee, did a presentation and it is the school that my father -in-law taught at for 35 years.  In fact a House is named after him as well, part of the room at the Northbridge Oval is dedicated to his school and international  sporting career as a Wallaby.  I had not met the current Head Master and I went into the office to introduce myself – he was at lunch.  It was worth a try.

The Conference

1. The skill level of teachers has increase a heap in the last few years.  For example, this time around there was no need to guide teachers on how to login to a Web 2.0 tool.

2.  No one was complaining that there is not enough time to be involved in learning new things.  I was pleased about that.

3.  Teachers are starting to understand and put in practice the idea that you don’t have to do everything – you can specialise in something that interests you and become a leader in that area. 

4.  Teachers are thinking more seriously about sharing.  This is a credit  to an increasing number of presenters who are prepared to share what they know and have  without be scared to do so.

5.  Finally I was pleased that people were prepared to consider Twitter and in fact a few joined up. Here is a summary of those who tweeted using #ais08. Please use #ais08 for the Conference tweets.

Really looking  forward to day two – just finished writing the introductory address for tomorrow’s Keynote Speaker Professor John Hedberg. 

cheers  Martin

Hi all,

The next part of my summary and thoughts on The World is Flat.  This follows from Part A, Part B, Part C and Part D.

The World Flat: Part E

It has taken me five parts and finally I can see where Freidman brings in  his educational thinking.

Right Stuff – education

I have extracted three pojts that caught my attention.

• Curisity CQ and Passion PQ is greater than IQ (Intelligence Quotient).  Survey students for the their favourite teachers and do those courses – the content does not matter. It was a bit like this when I was at university – I am not sure you can get away with this for the “core” of what we need to do but  learning how to learn is made a lot easier by learning from those with passion and intellectual curiosity.
• In China today Bill Gates is Britney Spears.  In America today Britney Spears is Britney Spears – that is our problem. On this point often I see great teachers in their  own school have to sit listening toexperts from outside to do  what they can do or even do for other schools
• Remember, in, China when you are one in a million there are 1300 people just like you. This was just a sobering thought.  I remember reading this  on a plane coming back from Wagga Wagga after some presentations.  Does not matter what the odds are have a go. 

Okay  the World is Flat

This expression has been around for a while now.  We all have heard it in different contextx no longer are Bangalore Call Centres somehting we hear about they are something we deal with around dinner time.  They are the places we/I can call in the evening to fix up Optus or my PDA.  This is much easier than doing during workhurs. 

This sort of stuff has freed me up The playing field is flattened – we can all be an expert now. I feel we have to specialise in our expertise.  I am abreast a lot of information now and peole ask me how I keep onto of things.  For me it is made possible by blogging, Twitter, when it works  and Google Reader – for me it is all viral professional development. 

These two summary statements  are useful for me to reflect upon.

Columbus looked for India  and found USA and the world is round.

 

Now America has found  India and the world is flat

The World is Flat:Part F  will be about how schools can cope. 

Now I am off to the Gold Coast  for the Marathon weekend.   with  my family and Cool Running friends

Catch you all later.

cheers  MArtin  

Hi all,

The 1st round of the Digital Education Revolution offers have been made.

http://www.digitaleducationrevolution.gov.au/computer_fund/round_one/

Gee there are a lot of computers being given out.

It will be interesting to see if there is a corresponding cultural/pedagogical change with the outlay. I have found when people have a computer that is the first step in breaking down the digital divide in relation to hardware . Giving teachers laptops and showing them how to use them for teaching and learning is a big positive step – not that these computers will do this.

The next step is breaking down the digital divide in terms of the skill set of the users – students and teachers.

Interesting times.

cheers MArtin

Hi all,
In amongst teaching today I met Sarah, Reggie and Cameron from Melbourne University to get things rolling for the lesson they filmed today. The gear that have is really compact and the technology has three cameras in the room on me , two students and the rest of the class.

At the end of the lesson they put me in front of a computer and let me look at the lesson. The screen has three frames on it where they can see me the the two students and the rest fo the class. So I can actually see what the rest of the class was doing when I was working with the students in another part of the room.

Generally I felt it went well and it will provide some useful fodder for the focus groups that analyse it for teaching standards (with ten other filmed teachers I was told). For me personally it was and is ( more tomorrow) a great professional development experience for me on how I could do things better. The lesson took 45 minutes then they spent an hour recording me and my comments on different parts of my lesson as I watched it on the screen.

As for tomorrow there are 4 student interviews another lesson and a post lesson interview for me. Maybe later I will post up the actual lesson material.

In the meantime I raced to Sydney University this evening for a meeting though managed to have a light meal at Ottos in Glebe which I was pleased to note now has free wireless access. – beauty.

HI all,

I have followed with interest a debate started by the CEO Jason of Malaho when he posted about life in a start up and his view of what is necessary for success. Michael Specht,whom I follow on Twitter, gave us a neat post to follow the replies and thoughts of others.

I cannot comment on start ups but all I know having worked in two schools which were new schools (one was 1 year old and the other 7 years old) you have to work harder than normal to enable things to work. Maybe I could have worked harder- definitely smarter (I was a new teacher) but my commitment to the school(s) was unquestionable. I worked really long hours, taught a whole range of subjects, did things on the smell of an oily rag and was one of the pioneers.

It was a great experience and when I read about those schools and how they are going now I look at them with pride because I was there at the beginning or very close to the beginning.

cheers Martin

Edit:  A bit more