Eposide 1: Learning for Life
Here it is, our first episode!
Anne Baird from Wedderburn K-12 school in Victoria talks about her technology support role in the school, and explains how she tries to assist classroom teachers make effective use of technology to promote higher order thinking.
Links mentioned in this episode include:
Hope you enjoy this first episode, and special thanks go to Anne for offering to be our first contributor. If you enjoy the show, your feedback is always welcome in the comments section below.
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October 1st, 2006 at 2:27 pm
Thanks Anne for jumping in and being the first. Yes, I agree there will always be the need for the kids to “come together.” I’ve found that they do participate at home in varying degrees, and to some extent I encourage it, and at other levels pull back and say, “whoa, don’t become a ‘workaholic’; keep learning, but have fun too.” I work with 12-14 year olds; thought it was an interesting comment made by one of them as a few were discussng video games. He said, ‘at our age you should be out doing sports, any kind of sports, not sitting around with video games. Learn to live.’
I think that’s a very sophisticated comment coming from a 13 year old! I hope I remember it as I pressure the kids to ‘check things’ from home.
October 1st, 2006 at 3:27 pm
Congratulations! It’s early Monday morning here, and a public holiday. A very pleasant surprise to find this podcast ready to go. It was an interesting conversation to listen to while I was working … the only way I have time at the moment to do such things.
I agree with everything you both said, but working in an isolated country school, I felt a bit sick when Anne talked down online learning. The only way we can provide many courses is with distance education. It is so important to develop these, but, as you would agree, make them as personal as possible. Around the world there are so many people who are not fortunate enough to live near a meaningful educational institution. I’ve been studying online at uni because it’s the only way I can. Believe me, there is a lot of work yet to be done in this area of online learning.
Thanks again for this intiative, it’s brought me a lot closer to some far flung colleagues!
October 3rd, 2006 at 3:31 am
Thanks Chris and Anne for the first episode! It’s inspired me to check the various blogs and resources mentioned, and I too am already planning to use Tom March’s ‘Intro to the Web for Year 5′ with my Year 7’s this coming term.
There are some really great ideas there that will obviously motivate the students to participate and, as a beginning teacher, it’s ideas like these that I really benefit from!
Great stuff - thanks again!
October 8th, 2006 at 5:20 pm
Very interesting and I’m looking forward to the next one.
November 20th, 2006 at 2:54 pm
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and giving practical ideas.I feel I can take away ideas and make better sense of the changes in technology use in the learning environment.