Microsoft Innovative Schools Conference Report

I mentioned in a previous post that I had attended this conference. For my University studies I needed to write a more detailed report, so I thought I would share that with you here as well...

The Microsoft Innovative Schools Conference was held at the University of the Sunshine Coast on 4-7 May. Educators from Australia and the Asia/Pacific were in attendance. Given that it was a Microsoft Conference, we were able to connect to the Wireless Network during the Forums, and many people brought along their laptops. I’ve been wanting to try backchanneling for myself prior to trying it with my students, so I got a few other people on board and we had chats going in Skype and Twitter throughout the sessions. I also tried using Webspiration to record my notes to reflect on later.

Day 1

In his keynote “The Compelling Case” Bruce Dixon outlined three phases of globalisation, and described the current phase as being about people collaborating – “Communication as a leveller, collaboration as the glue”. He spoke about sharing our planes, humanity and rulebook, and using creative problem solving as collaborators communicating across the world. Bruce then went on to explain how technology has led to rapid knowledge growth, which has increased too rapidly for the current model of learning. He stated that innovation in a technology-rich learning environment can: provide greater opportunity for meeting the diverse needs of learners; promote new dimensions for pedagogical innovation; give us a platform to better understand teaching effectiveness and leverage what personalisation offers learners; challenge us to look for more appropriate and effective means of assessment; and allow us to re-imagine the curriculum.

Professor Sohail Inayatullah spoke about Transformational Learning and the role of visioning and design. He helped us to consider the various options for the future including the default future – were nothing to change, and our preferred future. He led us through a meditative process to visualise the future. I found this process really helpful as prior to this session I hadn’t really pinned down my vision for education in the future. I had been heading along my own little path in a general direction rather than making purposeful strides toward a goal.

Laurie Campbell then took us through the components of Transformational Learning and how this model can be used to implement change in school environments. The components are: strategic plan, workforce capacity, innovation/entrepreneurship, curriculum, pedagogy, enabling learning environments and networks and partnerships. He shared a mapping tool that schools can use to determine their current position and consider future direction.

Sean Tierney and Bruce Dixon ran us through the steps to using a 1-to-1 laptop program to personalise learning. They explained the reasons for adopting such a program and the factors required for successful implementation. As my school is on the brink of purchasing laptops for classroom use, this session was particularly helpful. I will be guiding staff through the process using the 21 Steps to 21st Century 1-to-1 Success. You can also see the presentation here.

In the afternoon Kristine Kopelke spoke on the topic Addicted to Learning. Kristine dedicated time to doing what we all know we should, but don’t often get around to – she found out what children were already using ICT for. Her list of 21 Tools for the 21st Century was the conglomeration of her findings. You can see her presentation here.

Day 2

On the second day we learnt about Enabling Environments. Sean Tierney described some new designs for learning spaces that are being trialled in schools around Australia. He provided further guidance on how to create a library space that functions effectively to meet the needs of learners in the 21st Century. Laurie Campbell spoke about Virtual Environments and the use of The Learning Place in Queensland. Through the backchannel, our regional director gave us some insight into what we hope to be able to achieve with the new Virtual Learning Environment that has been put to tender for our Department of Education.

We then visited Chancellor State College, a P-Graduation school. They have been recognised by Microsoft for their innovative approaches to teaching and learning. They are a young school and have focused a lot of their resource budget on computer technologies, however they don’t appear to be using much more than other schools I've seen. One of the things that Chancellor State College does well is communicate what they do. They have a great logo that encapsulates their vision and values and their promotional video is very appealing.

After lunch we had a series of ‘unconferences’ – these are presentations given by the attendees that people can select and leave if they discover it isn’t helping them. I presented about connecting with parents through the use of email, blogging, podcasting and My Classes. I visited two other sessions: one about a 1-to1 laptop program being used in a Queensland school; and the other about a primary school that uses recording equipment for media studies.

To finish up on the second day, Adrian Greig presented about new and emerging technologies. This was a lot of fun and gave us some insight into where the technology is headed. You can see his presentation here.

Day 3

On the final day they ran us through the Microsoft Innovative Schools projects and explained how we can apply to move to the next level to receive additional support from Microsoft. The regional representatives attended meetings to find out how much money Microsoft will be providing to schools this year through its new budget. We had some planning time to consider how we will use all the things that we learnt over the conference.

I’d also like to mention that a significant part of the conference for me was networking with other educators and hearing what they are doing and how they have made it successful. It was a very valuable learning experience that gave me a lot of information to digest about the future of our schools. I’m looking forward to going back over the video presentations to learn from them again.

New Gold Mountain #1

This week my literacy class started reading New Gold Mountain: The Diary of Shu Cheong by Christopher W. Cheng. This is an historical fiction which is part of the "My Australian Story" series. It tells the story of life on the goldfields at Lambing Flat, NSW in 1860-1861. Shu Cheong, a fictitious character travels to Australia to find gold to take back to his village. On the journey both his father and third uncle die, leaving Shu Cheong alone in a foreign country. The local Chinese Society arrange a foster parent (Uncle) for Shu Cheong and it is at this point that we pick up the story.

Summary of Pages 1-30
The first thirty pages introduce us to Shu Cheong and life on the goldfields. As time passes, more people arrive, and tension begins to develop between the Chinese and the Europeans. Shu Cheong learns how to swim and longs for the day when he can begin earning gold to pay his way home to his village.

Activities
Code Breaker: Begin a vocabulary chart with the class. Add to it vocabulary from the text along with definitions. This can continue to be built up throughout the term.

Text User: Explain about the historical fiction genre. Explain the meaning and purpose of a 'preface'.

Text Participant: Look at a map of the area where this story takes place. Students begin a chart to show the historical facts in the story, the fictional elements, and the parts they're unsure of.

Tech Tips Tuesday

This Week's Tip: Let them touch the tools

This week I've been thinking a lot about the magic students can do when you give them the tools. I think that often we're too scared to give kids tools to work with. We may be worried that they will break them or that they'll lose them or even that they might hurt themselves with them. We spend so much time focusing on the negatives that we may not even consider the potential of allowing students to use them.

When I was away on camp, I handed around my camera and the class' flip camera. It was really enjoyable to see how each student approached movie making. It made me realise that some students are great interviewers, others have excellent camera presence and still others are budding documentary makers!

We've also been testing out some tools from yesteryear. Descendents of Tom Lester (who found the gold that started the Australian gold rush) presented a workshop on gold for students yesterday, and they got to find 'gold' amongst the gravel using a cradle.

Later in the day, we had the opportunity to go up the Ridge again and do some weeding. Students worked in pairs with specially made hoes to dig out the verbascum up there. It is amazing the impact 60 students can have when they all work together to pull weeds for half an hour.

So, moral of the story? Whatever you're doing and whichever technologies you're using, put it into the hands of the kids. It's worth it. You'll be amazed.

Friday Fun - 22/5/09

Wow! What a whirlwind week! This week was jam packed with all sorts of fun learning and not much in the way of sitting in the classroom.

Camp
On Tuesday and Wednesday we had our Year 4 camp which was a lot of fun. I even had a go at the archery and took on the instructor. Students picked who they wanted to back. (I won!) You can watch the video below. On their return to school, students used Debono's Six Thinking Hats to reflect on their experiences.



Time Travel in Australia's History
On Monday we had the first in a series of visits from "Captain Lister" who is taking us back in time to learn about Australia's history from colonisation through to 1900. Students powered the time machine, with static electricity, by rubbing their heads. The multimedia presentation showed us going back in time... before High School Musical...before iPods...before computers...before telephones...etcThis week Captain Lister took us back to 1770, when Captain James Cook explored and mapped much of the eastern coast of Australia. Students got dressed up in costumes as Captain Cook, botanist Joseph Banks and William Hicks. They learnt about this journey and life aboard a ship.
Joseph Banks had a go at drawing a kangaroo and we saw a copy of the original picture he drew. We then hopped back into the time machine and returned to the current day.

Lucky Phewa - Zulu Celebration
Lucky Phewa, a performer from Durban in South Africa engaged students with his "Zulu Celebration". Students really enjoyed the music he shared with them and had the music bug for the rest of the day. They really got a great feel for the rhythm.

A New Song
Mr Tucker taught us all a new song called Down River by the Wilcannia Mob. This Australian hip hop song was created and recorded by five boys aged 8-12 in 2002. The boys share their own story through rap and the backing sounds of the digeridoo. You can find out more about their project at Down River.

Australian History Projects
Students have been continuing with their work on the culture and lifestyle of different Aboriginal clans prior to colonisation. We had some more time to work on the computers for research and publication. Many students are creating PowerPoint presentations...
Some are creating Museum Boxes...And others are recording audio files with the Snowball...We are trying to get as many opportunities to use the computers as possible in order to complete these projects. Students are learning a lot about ICT as they use it for real purposes in connection with their classroom learning.

Year 4 Camp 2009

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, we took students on the Year 4 Camp. The camp was located about 30 minutes drive from the city, and it was nice to get out and explore nature. Students had the opportunity to explore a range of activities they don't usually get the opportunity to try including archery, orienteering, frisbee golf and initiatives (team problem solving challenges).

We went for a bushwalk on the first day, and after a steep climb, we enjoyed the view from the top (photo by RE). We had a short skit night, with students creating their own skits and performing in front of their peers. I was impressed by the courage students showed when performing their songs acapella. Later that night we had a campfire where we sang songs and toasted marshmallows.

On the second day we learnt about the wool industry and visited a wool shed to see a sheep being shorn. Students then got to pat a lamb that is about 6 - 8 months old. They got a sheep ear tag and some wool as souvenirs.

The kids had lots of free time in between meals and activities and as always, there were dramas of 'trashed rooms' and imaginative tales of murders that took place during the night! A couple of boys worked out how to create face paint with rocks and painted their faces on the last day. (Parents weren't so impressed!)

I took along the flipcam and a camera, and a couple of students brought along their digital cameras with video capacity as well. We passed the flipcam around for students to interview one another throughout the camp and on the trip back on the bus. The trip was well-recorded on film and now students can play around with the images to create photostories or movies with the recordings.

I experimented with updates to parents using our My Classes page, but I found the video files had to be quite small and they took a long time to upload. On the positive side, we set up a collaborative journal for parents to leave a message for their child, and when a new message came in, I showed it to the student on my iPhone and they could respond by adding a comment to the message.