[Year 12 IPM] Computer Lab usage
Stephen Digby
digby.stephen.p at edumail.vic.gov.au
Wed Sep 6 19:45:47 EST 2006
Such certainty !! Such passionate extremes !! Who are you ?
6 sessions a "nightmare". Some have the same description of 4, 3, 2, 1 (I
even remember 8 session days !!!)
The appropriateness of session length is a function of teaching goals,
teaching methods and student characteristics. As so many say these days
"there is no one right answer". It depends. Increasing proportion of
students come from families without a "learning culture" i.e. little
experience of success through persistence; a feedback cycle of shortening
attention and commitment fed by a belief that lowered expectations are
preferable to experiences of failure; etc; etc etc. These students do not
thrive in school settings which are designed for self-motivated students who
are used to success through perseverance. They actually do far better with
short sessions of highly directed learning which gradually expands the scope
for autonomy within careful limits.
The "one size fits all" confidence is what often amazes me.
Chairs in rows - "so wrong". The subconscious inference that there is a
moral failure in not adopting the latest teaching fad. Flexible tables
would not do, "we are now looking at that furniture that can't be set up in
rows". A rather immature response, I would suggest.
I would suggest that the most flexible classroom arrangements have all
tables the same (i.e. no teacher's table), this means that there is no
presumption that the teacher will be apart from the students or "out the
front" - but without prohibiting this arrangement.
School plant, equipment and staff should be built for maximum flexibility,
variety, creativity and responsiveness. Let's not move from one
straitjacket into another - even if it is more fashionable !
============================================================================
==========
Stephen Digby, Learning Technology Manager
mailto:admin at cheltsec.vic.edu.au
Cheltenham Secondary College www.cheltsec.vic.edu.au Ph: 613 955 55 955 Fx:
9555 8617
============================================================================
==========
The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard
-----Original Message-----
From: ipm-bounces at edulists.com.au [mailto:ipm-bounces at edulists.com.au] On
Behalf Of Bell, Cameron P
Sent: 06 September 2006 02:46 PM
To: Year 12 Information Technology Processing and Management
Teachers'MailingList
Subject: RE: [Year 12 IPM] Computer Lab usage
Yep! We are moving to a 4 period day next year. My last two schools were
4 period days and moving back to 6 was a nightmare! Can't wait for that.
We do battle with the make-up of the rooms. We are now looking at that
furniture that can't be set up in rows. I can't stand walking into a room
where all the desks are in rows facing the teacher, it is so wrong.
Needless to say any attempts to create a more group orientated layout
quickly gets set back into rows. :(
We still need a teacher's desk to put the teacher's laptop on though.
(We do our rolls via the laptops. That change went very smoothly! :)
)
We would not be able to support a student owned laptop program just yet.
School demographics are against that.
I agree with a lot of what you suggest but I need a whiteboard. I prefer a
whiteboard that I can project stuff onto and be able to write on at the same
time. Can't do that with screens.
Spare a though for my next issue. A school-wide switch over to Open Source
Software. That will be a fun one!
-----Original Message-----
From: ipm-bounces at edulists.com.au [mailto:ipm-bounces at edulists.com.au]
On Behalf Of Mark Scott
Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 1:26 PM
To: Year 12 Information Technology Processing and Management
Teachers'MailingList
Subject: RE: [Year 12 IPM] Computer Lab usage
Cameron
Some strategies:
1. Introduce a four period day. Most teachers when faced with longer periods
will adapt to the new circumstances. They will find very quickly that they
cannot chalk and talk their way through an 80 minute lesson.
2. Introduce a student owned laptop program. Give teachers a laptop each but
ban their use within classrooms.
3. Make technology a part of every report that goes home to parents.
4. Remove the whiteboards from all the classrooms. I have never been able to
convince a Principal of the validity of this but just imagine...
5. Remove the teachers' desks from all of the classrooms. Make them get up
and wander around the classroom.
6. Stop making square classrooms designed to fit 25 students into a box.
Mark Scott
-----Original Message-----
From: ipm-bounces at edulists.com.au [mailto:ipm-bounces at edulists.com.au]
On Behalf Of Bell, Cameron P
Sent: Wednesday, 6 September 2006 12:44 PM
To: Year 12 Information Technology Processing and Management
Teachers'MailingList
Subject: RE: [Year 12 IPM] Computer Lab usage
*snipped*
So that change can happen, how do you encourage "recalcitrant" (for want of
a better word) teachers to accept that we must constantly change and adapt
to new circumstances so that it is not seen as a burden, but an opportunity?
Would love any additional strategies people can suggest.
Cameron
-----Original Message-----
From: ipm-bounces at edulists.com.au [mailto:ipm-bounces at edulists.com.au]
On Behalf Of Murray O.
Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 11:17 AM
To: Year 12 Information Technology Processing and Management
Teachers'MailingList
Subject: RE: [Year 12 IPM] Computer Lab usage
Mark
I disagree with you.
Based on my experience, I think teachers are highly adaptable to change be
planned or unplanned. That being said I too get frustrated at trying to
facilitate change in schools.
Can you tell of other professions or groups of adults that change quickly?
Regards,
Oliver Murray
Web Developer
Westbourne Grammar School
www.westbournegrammar.com
-----Original Message-----
From: ipm-bounces at edulists.com.au [mailto:ipm-bounces at edulists.com.au]
On Behalf Of Mark Scott
Sent: Wednesday, 6 September 2006 10:30 AM
To: Year 12 Information Technology Processing and Management
Teachers'MailingList
Subject: RE: [Year 12 IPM] Computer Lab usage
We are talking teachers.
This is a species renown for not changing quickly.
Mark
-----Original Message-----
From: ipm-bounces at edulists.com.au [mailto:ipm-bounces at edulists.com.au]
On Behalf Of jturner
Sent: Wednesday, 6 September 2006 10:11 AM
To: Year 12 Information Technology Processing and Management
Teachers'Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Year 12 IPM] Computer Lab usage
The big mistake people continue to make is seeing technology as the catalyst
for sustainable change in education when it should be people.
Technology is invaluable whatever its peculiarities but learner centered
means people at the center.
John
On 05/09/2006, at 3:41 PM, Mark Scott wrote:
> I have said it before and no doubt I will say it again.
>
> The biggest advantage in introducing student owned laptops into a
> school is that it can be used as a catalyst for change.
>
> You can start to talk about learner centred classrooms instead of
> teacher centred ones.
>
> ... and of course this is not the only strategy you try, just one of
> several.
>
> Mark Scott
> Luther College
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ipm-bounces at edulists.com.au [mailto:ipm-bounces at edulists.com.au]
> On Behalf Of Michael Walker
> Sent: Tuesday, 5 September 2006 3:06 PM
> To: Year 12 Information Technology Processing and Management
> Teachers'Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [Year 12 IPM] Computer Lab usage
>
>>>> Laurie Savage<sav at pvgc.vic.edu.au> 09/05/06 12:07pm >>>
>>> And now we have a generation of people who cannot do the simplest
> calculation in their head.
>
> Laurie
>
>>>> Mark Scott wrote:
>> They said the same thing about calculators back in the early
> seventies.
>
> Ah generalisations, you've got to love them... 8^)
>
> I would argue that with the use of calculators, you don't need to do
> the simplest calculation in your head. However, it requires a
> different skill set to check that your calculator is giving you an
> accurate answer rather than no skill set at all, hence the higher
> emphasis on estimation that occurs in teaching maths now than when I
> was at school. Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis...
>
> I would also argue that those kids I know of who have trouble
> performing the simplest calculation aren't all that flash on using the
> calculator either. I would suggest that a greater cause is lack of
> interest for whatever reason from boring teaching methods in previous
> years showing the kids how irrelevant maths is to lack of support at
> home for doing homework and school in general. Now there's a can of
> worms or three...
>
> Although I don't think laptops are a cure for all ills, I suspect that
> under some circumstances they can be a useful tool in the hands of the
> right practitioner, and in others are a complete waste of time when
the
> circumstances of the school and students are taken into account. To
> give some examples, I am sure that in some laptop schools, the laptops
> are an expensive pseudo notebook / electronic textbook whose primary
advantage
> is larger capacity, neater handwriting (typing vs scribble) and better
> searchability. Obviously Mark's school is not one of them based on his
> response. That's not to say schools with poor use of laptops don't
> exist, and anecdotal evidence would suggest that they do. On the other
> hand, the same applies to schools who have changed their teaching to
> make good use of new teaching methods available from every student
> having the tool and having been taught a proficiency with it.
>
> On the other hand, I would suspect that there would be scenarios where
> a
> $2000 laptop would be a poor use of family or school resources for the
> perceived benefits compared to alternatives. Would a struggling
western
> suburbs secondary school be able to justify making every student buy a
> laptop, even on finance? Would alternative approaches such as good use
> of Moodle with external access be more appropriate in terms of bang
for
> buck?
>
> I would suggest that neither black nor white are correct and that
> although there is a place for laptops in schools, it would be silly to
> try and suggest that it would be desirable for every school in the
> state and every student in the state to have a laptop and be in a
> laptop program. Or to suggest that every maths student in the state
> can't do simple calculations in their head...
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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> _______________________________________________
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> IPM Mailing List kindly supported by http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au -
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>
Dr J Turner
Head of Information Technology / VCE Coordinator Presbyterian Ladies'
College BURWOOD Victoria 3125
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