Would you like to Contribute to our Cluster Professional Learning?

Maungaraki School is part of a cluster of full primary schools in our area who are working together in a "Learning and Change Network."  Leaders from within this network are currently putting together a plan to support each other in our professional learning.  Throughout this year, Janet Evans has been consulting with a group of students, teachers and parents to identify priority areas for our future development as a school and as a cluster.

The context that we are currently working in relates to creating "Innovative Learning Environments."  In a few weeks, a group of school leaders from the wider Wellington area will be getting together to discuss their learning and change initiatives.  As part of this, a blog has been created to gather views on what our students, parents, educators and wider community members think an Innovative Learning Environment might look like in New Zealand schools.  We would love to include the views of the Maungaraki community in this blog, if you would like to contribute you will find the link here:

Central South Learning and Change Network ILE

If you would like to research some of the international thinking about innovative Learning Environments you might want to visit these sites:

http://www.oecd.org/edu/ceri/innovativelearningenvironments.htm

http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_shows_how_kids_teach_themselves.html http://www.ted.com/talks/adora_svitak.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U http://www.oecd.org/edu/ceri/The%20ILE%20project.pdf http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Technologies/Learning-spaces http://www.minedu.govt.nz/NZEducation/EducationPolicies/Schools/PropertyToolBox/StateSchools/Design/ModernLearningEnvironment.aspx http://www.core-ed.org/thought-leadership/white-papers/modern-learning-environments

ICT & Digital Citizenship Evening

At the end of Term 3 we held an ICT & Digital Citizenship evening to share the results of our community consultation and to discuss our future use of technology.  Here is the slide show we used for the evening:

…  and the link to the video clip shred at the beginning of the evening:

The reality for all schools is that our world has fundamentally changed.  The things that we adults think of as 'new technology' is simply part of day-to-day life for young learners.  The increase in connectedness of our world means that the collective wisdom of the human race is with us everywhere we go.  There is no longer a question of  'if' we become a digital learning environment, but how can we gear ourselves so that our learners are not at a disadvantage.

At the end of the evening we discussed the crossroads we currently find ourselves at, as we plan for how we can provide greater access to the tools necessary for effective learning in a modern world.   One of the questions we were asked by the parents was "How can we help?"  - there are several ways you can help us:

• Take an interest in the technology your child is currently using at school - add relevant school blogs to your reading lists, check out updates on this blog, talk to your child and their teacher about the things they are currently doing in technology.
• Pay your school donation - we currently only receive about 60% of school donations from parents.  While we are a public school, the reality is that Ministry funding only covers the bare basics needed to run the school infrastructure.  
• Support our Home and School committee - the Home and School committee has funded a significant number of the mobile devices (laptops and iPads) that we currently have in the school, and is currently allocating funds from current fundraisers to technology based projects... support these fundraising initiatives and you will be supporting our vision for innovative learning contexts!
• Join our "Innovative Learning Committee" - this is a group of like minded parents working alongside the Board of Trustees and teachers to exploring the options available to us to achieve 1-1 devices in the Year 5 - 8 area of our school, and as we work to increase accessibility of mobile devices for those in the junior area of the school.  Our first meeting is on Thursday 31st October at 6:00pm in the staffroom.  Contact me at school if you are interested in being part of this group.
• Learn about concepts of "Digital Citizenship" - talk with your children about what it means to be a responsible digital citizen.  Discuss their responsible use agreement with them when they come home at the beginning of next year.  Reinforce these messages at home.

Some resource links that you may find helpful:

Digital Citizenship in New Zealand Schools

Netsafe
—
The Manaiakalani Trust
——
Common Sense Media
—
—www.digitalcitizenship.net

Welcome Back!

Welcome back to my blog!  Thanks for joining me.

It's been a while since I posted on the blog, but we have some exciting times ahead, and I'm hoping that this will be an easy way to share our journey with friends and family.  Over the past few months we have been conducting a fairly extensive review of our use of Information and Communication Technologies within the school.  This review has included consultation with learners, parents and teachers, lots of research, discussion with other schools and professional learning for staff.  In the months ahead I hope to share with you the findings of our community consultation and share information about modern learning environments that will form part of our journey as we prepare our learners for their futures in a world where our relationship with knowledge has been turned on it's head by technology...

I welcome and look forward to your comments and suggestions.