Learning@schools’09 – my slots and Wes
Having rushed from one of my passions to another, this week has been hectic. The week started for me on School camp. I am a huge fan of Education outside the classroom. I do not believe that the outcomes, learning and experiences students gain on outdoor education experiences can ever be measured. I believe they are undervalued and increasingly becoming a rare experience for so many of our students.
I raced from camp to here at Learning@school ‘09. I had two sessions:
- learning styles and learning tools
- Bloom’s digital taxonomy
While my sessions are technology based, they were about teaching and learning, they were about passion, engagement, learning and fun. Our students love technology, they find it engaging and as soon as they are engaged they are learning. If for no other reason than engagement we should be using technology in our classrooms. But there is so much more.
As I am listening to Wes Fryer doing the final keynote, he is talking about the power of connectivity and how connected our students are. This is another reason for us to adopt technology. I believe that for our students to achieve higher order thinking they must be challenged and questioned, the collaborative mediums of technology allow the student to comment, review, network, discuss, explain, moderate and collaborate. Our students are doing this already. They spend their leisure time networking and collaborating.
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/2738406410/sizes/o/in/set-72157604490685881/
This is a quote from Wes “The predominent learning tool defines the predominent learning task in the classroom.” What is the predomiment tool in your classroom? If we were toi ask our students what is the predominant tool in their Rooms, homes or spaces what would it be?
Source: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3246/2698490258_fa3b59df33.jpg?v=1216898364
I suspect that for many of our students mobile technologies, particularly the ubiquitious cell phones, are their learning tools of choice, but they are probably the least used tools in schools.
This quote from Author William Gibson (I am a fan and love Neuromancer).
Source: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3064/2597608152_128a20b1dd.jpg?v=0
This statement is so true, there are masses out there who can not enabled because of their economic circumstance, geographical location and unfortunately in some case because of their religion, sex or ethinicity. But there is also a divide even amongst the enabled, are there tools enabled at school? Do they have the same level of access at school as they do at home? Are our students allowed to create, collaborate, analyse and review at the same level at school as they are able to do a home?
