Four weeks on and thoughts of NECC 2009 keep percolating through my head. What has stayed with me? What will I be acting upon? What will be the next move into the classroom? Who will be enlisted to try new stuff? What characteristics do they need to   . . .  just give it a go in an educationally sound context!

What has stuck?

Think as far ahead as you can. I am limited by what I don’t know. The more I know the more I know I don’t know!

I know we need to be engaging our students and I know technology can support that. Things are moving so fast as soon as I imagine things they are passe.

We have the opportunity to create powerful and meaningful learning environments. Environments where;

• Feedback is timely, targeted and valued;
• Adversity is used to grow learning;
• Exploration and experimentation are the norm; and
• Learning is recognised as being non-linear.

It’s not the where of learning that matters it is the how.

• Every student should have a computing device in their pocket and be taught how to use it effectively and responsibly. (APPs be they for google or ipod/iphone are powerful and a growing number have amazing educational potential.)
• Mobile devices provide opportunities for students to be online and to have access to information and be learning anytime, anyplace, anywhere.
• Are schools and classrooms as we know them appropriate learning spaces for today’s students?

Knowledge needs to be deep rather than broad and once you have explored a concept in depth only then do you realise fully how little you really know.

Being able to do a Boolean Search is an amazing thing and the Google advanced search capability makes it so easy to fine tune the information being gathered.

Digital text is challenging because:

• Potentially overwhelming with amount of content available.
• Where do we start?
• How do we determine what is relevant?
• Forces us to look for significance by using primary sources as much as possible.
• Analyse and hypothesise about  . . . Am I being manipulated?
• What’s worth reading?
• Read deeply and develop the skill of synthesis

Realise and understand that originality is NOT derivative.

Web 2.0 tools are powerful motivators and provide novel opportunities for student learning, constructing and creating knowledge as well as making available effective and exciting self assessment tools.

Teachers need to let go of their need to control students and student learning, they need to use their understanding of pedagogy and knowledge of curriculum outcomes to become co-learners, co-constructors and co-creators of knowledge along with their students. They need to develop with their students a purpose for learning; authentic tasks, problem or project based learning opportunities where they see what they are doing is relevant and worthwhile.

Parents in the digital age should be in their kids’ faces and in their spaces.

What I learned . . .

• kids want to be online all the time and given the choice of an ordinary handheld and an iphone or ipod the majority will choose the iproduct

• many apps can be used for educational purposes, by end of July Classroom 2.0 will publish a list of about 300 Apps they’ve reviewed.
• educators are now writing Apps specifically for educational purposes
• qr code is really powerful and has exciting potential in the educational context

Gladwell’s keynote addressed THREE BIG IDEAS he wanted all attending NECC 2009 to understand it is important for students and teachers to understand them.

1.  WORK HARD

Put in the effort and success will come your way.

2. RESILIENCE / PERSEVERANCE

It’s okay to make mistakes so long as you learn from them.

Trying harder brings greater reward and develops in the individual a respect for things that are difficult and require perseverance to achieve.

3.  EXPERIMENTATION / EXPLORATION

Learning is not linear. There are many paths to the same place. Gladwell quoted Gayleson who believes there are two kinds of visionaries / innnovators / geniuses.

a.  Conceptual – those who have bold ideas and change the world view quickly eg Picasso.

b.  Experimental – The innovator who explores through trial and error, makes mistakes and through perseverance finds a way to genius and innovation, eg Cezanne

Key to learning from mistakes is the quality of feedback given. The feedback MUST be

- Timely

- Targetted

Technoogy is a wonderful facilitator for feedback eg. twitter, facebook, SMS etc.

It’s not the “where ” of learning it is the “how”. Students need teachers who are energetic, enthusiastic, and creative. Teachers who promote learning and make it meaningful.

The video clip is from an excerpt where Gladwell is saying the American Education System is great for the top and the bottom.