On Wednesday I gave two presentations about by ACCE/NECC journey.

The first was to the ICT Management Committee and the second was to the Junior School Management Team.

Each presentation was quite different but talked about similar things.

For the ICTMC, I went through in chronological order the events of the ACCE Tour, stressing how important and valuable it was to be able to travel with a large group and have time to bond and discuss ICT before, during and after the conference sessions and visits.

The aspects and themes I highlighted were:

• the Auckland primary schools (eg Marina View) that were running TV studios
• the notion of collaborating on global projects to actually make a difference (eg Think.com - Oracle Foundation, iEARN)
• the sense that the use of portable computing and handheld devices were on the increase
• the notion of ‘cloud computing’ where on-line, predominantly free software was leading the innovation of web tools (eg flowgram, xtimeline, befunky)
• combined with on-line tools is the development of off-site file storage and shared documents (egGoogle Docs)
• social networking sites (Web 2.0) are a valuable way for students to collaborate, learn and share; and a great way for teachers to discuss and find examples of best and innovative practice (eg Edublogs, Wikispaces, Ning, Twitter)

In subsequent meetings I will take the ICTMT through examples of cutting edge learning tasks and Web2 technologies.

For the JSMT, I walked them through my first Flowgram (but without the sound). We then discussed some associated issues (eg how do we adopt these things?) and the possibility of taking them through a Web2 unit of inquiry.

The response in both sessions was very positive and I believe that there was the start of a shared vision of where ICT in our school could go.

The following day I was reading a new post on ‘The Thinking Stick’ blog, and I thought that this quote was very timely:

Our Principal, Susan Phillips, then presented on Web 2.0 and School 2.0. She reiterated that the web has changed. It has gone from software based to web based from individual to collaborative from offline to online from costly to free and from copyrighted to shared. We, as educators, must move swiftly as this shift happens in order to reach and engage all kids. We must focus on project based learning that is rich, real, and relevant. We must have engagement that precedes the content. We must encourage risk taking, ask for help, search for answers. We must embrace the web as participatory, and have students as designers for learning. To be successful we can no longer be digital immigrants teaching to digital natives

FOCUS QUESTIONS

1. What are the cutting edge teachers currently doing with ICTs?

a. What hardware does this require?

b. What software is needed?

c. How are handheld devices being used? Eg iPods, PDAs, Mobile Phones

2. How are IWBs being used in mainstream classrooms?

a. Junior Primary

b. Upper Primary

c. Secondary

3. Open source software allows schools to use quality programs at no cost, what is out there?

4. How are Web 2 technologies being used to enhance student learning?

a. Junior Primary

b. Upper Primary

c. Secondary

5. How are ICT Leaders getting their staff to engage and use ICT as a normal and frequent part of the curriculum?

a. What are schools doing to provide for this?

b. What are key staff doing?

c. What seems to work?

6. What roles do other ICT Leaders perform in the course of their work?