Yes, I chose it because it was one of the smaller text but also because I am also reading "Pressing the Right Buttons" by Allison Mooney and "The Book Whisperer" by Donalyn Miller.
Out came the highlighter pens and coloured post-it notes so at the end my book looked like a squashed hedgehog!
This is an easy read text that was full of stories that illustrated "that teaching our Ss to fully leverage 21st century skills in information and communication technologies extends well beyond introducing them to new tools." (pg 89) Points raised struck a cord with me in terms of the path we are on as a learning community here at Ngatea Primary School.
What stood out for me:
- Ss designing and publishing their own tutorials/workshops. We have identified this as our next step in Whetu - encouraging Ss to lead the way as this improves their learning outcomes and learner agency
- There needs to be a shift in who 'controls' the learning! (S voice, learner agency, powerful learning)
- "Anyone who can send an email can use technologies necessary to launch a class blog, wiki, and student scribe program." pg 45 NO EXCUSES!
- Darren Kuropatwa's professional blog (adifference.blogspot.com) provides a wealth of resources, musings and thought provoking articles.
- from Darren "As long as you're asking what's next, you'll get there. But never be content with where you're at." pg 47
- Even being on Twitter, or reading the odd article - that's a start! It just might get you thinking about what could be next, then you give it a go and see what happens!!
- Educating our Ss to think critically, not just accept verbatim what is presented on the internet.
- Enabling Ss to find, use and communicate information as part of a collaborative learning environment.
- Ss should blog their learning experiences - helps with reflection (successes/weaknesses), organise thinking, receive feedback from a global community, sparks interactions that can benefit more than just the blogger. pg 55
- Global Empathy! Developing Ss ability to understand and appreciate other points of view. pg 66
- Authentic audiences are paramount for Ss to participate in. One example of this is www.fanfiction.net giving Ss a worldwide audience for creative work.
- "We improve both our own understanding and our ability to work with others when we gain insight into the what, why, and how of other perspectives - and learn to value them." pg 72
- Importance and power of reflective conversations with ourselves, Ss, colleagues, and wider community.
I am excited about developing some of these points further with the Whetu team and exploring Garth Holman and Michael Pennington's blog - teachersfortomorrow where they talk about their experiences in guiding Ss to build their online learning.
