Professor Stephen Heppell discusses the change from factory schools to schools which will cater to the needs of the 21st century. He believes that ten years from now our schools will have grown up and become a place where learning is as much a part of your life as health is. Schools are creating a lost generation and my problem is my youngest son is one of these children. What will become of him and by extension all students if schools are not taking responsibility to educate these students for their future? Teachers are (or are not) adopting new technologies in a variety of ways and there are many analogies to explain where they are at.

My friend and colleague explains her view of the types of  teachers involved in change  in her post Hanging about in Whine Bars.

As I read this, it was easy to identify changes in my teaching along my journey to today and beyond. Maybe we weave in and out depending on the technologies and our circumstances at the time. Where are you on your journey and how do we encourage our colleagues towards teaching for the 21st century?

So what needs to change for the 21st century? Taking a measure of ICT Integration talks about three factors, resources, skills and curriculum needed for effective change. While we aware of the characteristics of 21st C learners what skills do our 21st C teachers need. In a related post, 21st C Teachers, says teachers need to have many characteristics for today’s students and need to be learners as well as now about learning.

To ensure effective change in our schools, we need to ensure that all the factors are in place. Where does your school fit and how do we encourage our colleagues to meet the needs of their students? What is the difference you are making?

We all love our mums and we love being a mum. But remember when we were growing up and we listened to our mothers going on and on. We all said I’m never going to say that to my children. Well, I did anyway. Now, I hear myself saying those same words. If this sounds like you, you might enjoy this video called Mum’s Song, everything a mum says in a day, sung in two minutes to the William tell Overture by Anita Renfroe.

This is going to be a steep learning curve for me. It will also make me pay attention to my blog and post more often. I have a real collection of drafts that need more thought and work.

Question 1. How often do I respond to other blogs? Well, it was part of my New Year’s resolution to comment on blogs and respond more to twitter and stop lurking. So in a week I try to comment on 2 other blogs. No I haven’t tracked my comments before. Sometimes I click in the box that sends you follow up comments. I commented on one of Will Richardson’s posts and got so many follow up comments it was hard to keep up but it was great conversation and I learnt a lot. I don’t always comment on the same blogs. I usually follow twitter links and comment on those that interest me.

Gina Trapani’s Guide to Blog Comments

I do try to stay on the topic. Quite often I find others have made many relevant and pertinent comments and I can’t think of anything to add. Maybe that’s what I need to improve on.

OK Here goes. Let the fun begin

And this just made me laugh

Not long ago a colleague stated that “I now believe that the time has passed when they could make a choice. It’s too late for that - they must change or leave”

Reminds me of the analogy about doctors. Would you go to a Dr who hasn’t updated his practice in the last 10, 20, 30 years.  And now Mathew Needleman has made a little video to illustrate this point.
See what you think?

Al Upton is a teacher in South Australia who has had his class blog shut
down by the local government after one parent complained about his
programme where he was getting other edubloggers from around the world to mentor his class as writers. Here are some links by more knowledgeable people as this is being debated around the world in a variety of networks.

Vicki Davis Explains
The students in the class have been devastated and this is evident in their comments following the closure of their blogs. Listen to the words of the students

The power of blogs is in the collaboration by sharing ideas and helping each other in online communities.

Here you can listen to a UStream discussion by Alex Couros and Sue Waters. You may need to join Ustream to view this.

“It’s especially ridiculous because while all this was happening here in Australia, the TED conference was taking place in Monterey, California, where one of the speakers was Dave Eggers.  Eggers presented a talk about an amazing project where he has been connecting school kids with professional writers who volunteer their services for free to help kids with tutoring.  The project, called Once Upon a School, is absolutely awe inspiring and has spread to a number of other states now wanting to develop similar grassroots programs.” Chris Betcher

It’s Easter time and I have spent all day on twitter and following links. The people I tweet with are very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about using technology to enhance teaching and learning. This gives me the opportunity to learn from them and keep up to date with what other teachers and schools are doing with ICTs. I can then share this new learning with my cluster teachers and show them ways to integrate ICTs into classroom programmes. I have now installed twitterific which shows instant updates with a little tweet. It’s also useful when you want to find or know something, you just have to ask and a variety of replies will follow. So thanks twitterverse for all your help and support. And if you’re not a member, why not give it a try and build your own personal learning network

And now we are into team games which sounds like heaps of fun if I could decide what colour I would be

Welcome to my brand new blog at Edublogs.

I see this as my place to post my thoughts and ideas as I learn in my role as ICT facilitator. I encourage my teachers and students to keep blogs, share and collaborate online within their class and around the world.

Here I can share my new learning in ways that may encourage others to participate and collaborate.

So welcome to my place. Join in and share.

“School should be the best party in town.”