Many years ago, when daughter number two was in either year two or three, I went to pick her up for an appointment. She wasn’t sitting at her desk writing like most of the rest of the class. She was under the teacher’s desk with her best friend. But she was writing. I asked why she was under there and was firmly told that this was her writing place. Who was I to argue?

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This afternoon I installed a computer for a family that I have known for several years. Mum and Dad are good Kiwis who work very hard to give their kids what they consider to be the best. We have kept their aging computer going for quite a while but earlier this week the whole thing came to a grinding halt. It was crunch time. They pay for their family to have a decent broadband connection and consider it important to have printer cartridges so that the kids can print out their ‘projects’. Today we put in a brand new entry level computer. Rather than a chainstore piece of rubbish we put in a custom built entry level computer that can easily be upgraded over the next couple of years

It’s really easy to forget this part of the educational jigsaw puzzle. These are the people who want the absolute best for their kids. Their kids play netball and rugby and are part of kapa haka and choir. They scrimp and save to send their kids on trips to Kelly Tarletons, MOTAT and the Zoo. They grumble about camp fees but then work really hard to help out the families who can’t afford to send their kids away. These are the parents who always help on school trips and at galas and fundraising events. They are also the families who are first in line at parent interviews.

I would recommend that every ICT facilitator, every instructional technologist, every district superintendant to go in and set up a computer for a real life family.

Go in and talk about what concerns them about ICTs in classrooms and in schools. Sit down and have a chat about the kind of assignments that their kids are being set and the sort of resources that they are being asked to use. Have a chat about the computers that families are using and the issues that they are facing. Talk about the assessment criteria and the rubrics that comes home in the bottom of a school bag.The amazing thing about setting up a computer is that there is time to chew the fat, to talk about the stuff that really matters.

It’s interesting. And even though I am a parent of an intermediate (13 years old next week) school age child, I am continually levelled by the discussions that I have with other Mums and Dads. We all want the best for our kids. Some of us don’t know what is best and so we are guided by what our noisiest child says or by the next deadline. The only people that we can discuss this with are our neighbours or the parents of our kids’ friends. Many of us are quite computer savvy but we inhabit a very different world to that of our children so our knowledge is rendered useless.

I’m not sure what the answer is. But I do think we need to start talking to ALL of the stakeholders.

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NZ Herald story

DigiOps Website

There has been lots to say about this project and about some of the dollars that are being spent on increasing connectivity and capability for New Zealand teachers and schools. Computerworld journalist Stephen Bell provided an interesting analysis of the press release information. He notes that the initiative could be a useful little earner for HP as it is one of the few vendors still selling tablet PCs.” Not quite true. There are several big name vendors selling Tablets , it’s just that many of the vendors are not well known here in New Zealand. Motion Computing? NEC? Fujitsu? And Lenovo or IBM? Toshiba? Off the top of my head …

Overall the article is a positive report about the value of putting tablets into the hands of kids and the importance of the government putting some dollars into ICT in schools in general.

Stephen Bell’s last paragraph is worthy of comment:

The children say the tablets provide for a quicker method of recording data in real-time, but say they would prefer a simple spreadsheet rather than the specially set up, but perhaps inadequately explained, database entry form provided. (italics mine)

In this case it’s not the tablet that is the issue, it’s the activity that is the problem. The kids can use the Tablet PC but are not quite sure about the activity they are doing. Surely the same issue would occur if they had been using a regular laptop or desktop computer – or even a pen and paper. So in this case it’s the design of the activity that is the problem.

Apparently there was a bit of controversy about this story:

There is little need for computers in day-to-day education. It may be nice to use Google Earth to see where you live, but Google this (or that) is not going to teach you the basic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic.

and this:

Kids doing this kind of survey should stand outside with clipboards and pencils, and make marks on sheets of paper. They should then transfer the results to the white/blackboard. After that, they should draw, on paper, their own little bar chart showing the results and then colour it in.

And on the discussion goes.

What is being ignored here is the reason why we put kids in front of computers (on in this case, computers in front of kids). It’s to allow access to other ideas. It’s to allow data and ideas to be manipulated and shared and focussed upon. Yes, children need to do the old tally charts and construct graphs by hand. But, they don’t need to stop there. They need to be able to look at those tally charts and elegantly constructed bar graphs (and pie charts and line graphs) and identify what the data is telling them. Once a child has made a few graphs in their maths book do they need to go on forever making pretty colourful graphs? Or does it then become more important to analyse the data and develop some ideas or conclusions? And then maybe find ways to appropriately share their conclusions.
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As a new tableteer, I am interested in how they are being used in education. One of the huge advantages of a Tablet PC over a traditional desktop or even a ‘normal’ laptop is the smaller form factor and the way that it combines the best of paper with the best of digital. Sometimes a screen becomes a barrier in a discussion; the tablet, because it resembles a diary or notepad, is far less intrusive. I quite enjoy entering information using the stylus pen and it’s an amazing way to work on digital art. A lot of the time (like right now), it’s easier to type but if I am in a meeting, then I prefer to go into slate (tablet) mode and draw on my screen.

The DigiOps website says:

Brooklyn School is part of the Digital Opportunities Project, a joint initiative between the Ministry of Education and technology partners and is looking at how emerging technologies can help improve student learning. The school’s three-year project named CHaOS (Children Having Ownership of Schooling), is investigating whether pen-based technologies such as the Tablets, help increase student engagement levels and contribute towards enhancing student learning.

I am interested in the Tablet Classroom project. I hope that we continue to discuss what is happening in all of these inovative projects and actually get some hard data about whether “whether pen-based technologies such as the Tablets, help increase student engagement levels and contribute towards enhancing student learning.“

Related posts:

1. Tablet Apostasy
2. TabletWiki
3. Tablet PC Webinar

From the website:

ArtRage 2 has 12 painting tools, each one designed to work like its real world counterpart (minus the smell of paint thinners, the dirty fingers, and that bit of glitter that you just can’t get out of the carpet). ArtRage 2 tools have properties that can be adjusted to get different effects. Add thinners to your oils, make your felt pens wet tipped, or soften your crayons up before use.

Download the free version here.

Another cool feature is the ability to load a photograph or image and use the differnt tools to paint or draw the image. You can get some amazing effects!

ArtRage is available for both Macs and PCs and the interface is exactly the same on b oth platforms. You can get a free version or pay $19.95 (US) and get the full version.

One of the grooviest things about ArtRage is the fact that it’s made by Kiwis. Better than that it’s made by Westies. What could be better? Only the fact that they are willing to allow schools to play just $1 (+GST) for each licence. This means that schools have access to top quality software at a totally affordable price. Check out the details at this link.

Related posts:

1. Action Time
2. Motivation

Did they see him as a potential entreprenuer? Or did they view him as a pain the backside?

And do they have rosey coloured glasses on now?

EDIT: There is a link to an 8:11 Close-Up piece about the sale that includes an interview with Gareth Morgan, father of Sam Morgan (and economist). I think there are a few clues in the interview.

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We had a bit of an all sorts day yesterday. We went back to our cluster philosophy and looked at our mission statement and also at our key vision:

Footprints into the future

Our vision statement encompasses so much of the essence of our ICT_PD cluster. We want learning to stick like the black sand out at Muriwai; we want to develop our leaders and chart a course through the tides; we want to feel the sands of ideas between our toes; and we want to have fun in the sandpit.

Our lead teachers are a crazy bunch of people. They sat around in silence getting their heads around Centre4, our online environment. Then they let rip in the chatroom and blogs. We are going to have an excellent year with some very out-side-the-box-people.

Related posts:

1. Lead Teacher Programme
2. TUANZ
3. Celebrate!

Every week I bought so many toilet rolls, so much washing powder, a bar of soap and all of the stuff necessary to maintain a young couple in a small flat. After a few weeks I realised that I had a lot of toilet rolls in the cupboard. I had several extra boxes of washing powder and enough soap to start a bathhouse (if we had a bath – it was a small flat so we only had a shower).

I realised that the list had a two way purpose. It served for a reminder for me to check what I was running low on and needed to replace as well as a reminder when I got to the supermarket.

This week in New Zealand, teachers will be having Teacher Only Days. They will get cautiously opening the doors of classrooms to see if the cleaner has done the carpets. Some people will be hauling out the curriculum documents and the school’s schemes and doing their planning – because their senior teacher needs it next week, or ERO are coming this term, this year or because that’s what they do at their place.

That’s why the Artichoke‘s latest post The Edublogger and Matthew Arnold is so important for teachers who are returning to work this week. The curriculum, the scheme, the planning is only as important as it is made to be. What is important is the teaching and learning, the thinking and doing.

Back to my shopping list. If you get stuck on the relevant documents you’re in danger of having too much soap and too many toilet rolls. Of kids ‘doing’ space every second year of their primary school lives. Of Auckland kids learning about volcanoes without ever setting foot on Mount Eden or picking up a lump of pumice at Takapuna with Rangitoto in the background.

Artichoke says,

“I think it means that what is authentic in you is the desire to learn.”

She talks about teachers being keen to think and learn in the own time – to even (shock horror) talk about it in their own time. Imagine that. Imagine if it caught on and the kids did it too?

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