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One of the discussion topics that often made its way around our group of Learning Technology Support Teachers/Coordinators was the matter of students being competent in technology skills and the skill level that was required of teachers to allow them to use technology in their classrooms.  A few years ago too we had the additional focus (which has disappeared now in primary schools) of the Computing Skills Assessment for Year 6 and its implications for classrooms.

While this conversation took place, the evolution of using technology for learning continued.  We’ve developed clearer understandings of why we use computer-based technologies in our classrooms in the first place, and the technology skills are increasingly becoming an intrinsic part of the bigger picture of learning.

So what skills do teachers still need to possess and develop?  Do they need to be competent in word processing, spreadsheets, Web 2.0, etc., or do we expect more?

The Department of Education in Victoria offers an epotential Continuum that allows teachers to assess their technology use for teaching and learning across several key areas, and offers ideas and resources for improvement.  Unfortunately most of it is locked away under passwords, but it still could be useful for identifying needs for professional learning.  I like how it provides a “bigger picture” approach rather than “pigeon-holing” skill development into types of software (e.g. database, email) or specific tools (e.g. digital cameras, data projectors).

After the start we’ve made with our simple Maths task this week (see the previous post), we drew more people into the net today.

One of our teachers’ aides, supporting children with their Maths lesson in my class today had her first experience with an interactive whiteboard.  A simple demonstration from me to the students (and her) reminding them what to do, and I left her to it; she kept them on task and was able to set the students back on track if they clicked the wrong button or couldn’t work out what had gone wrong.  Another exciting step forward, and a little more professional development for our fantastic staff.

Well, today I had some more success, despite the multiple interruptions to the usual classroom routine over the past seven days (a third of the day gone three times isn’t always easy to work through).

The simple task involved using the Activstudio software that came with our interactive whiteboard to drop shapes onto the flipchart pages and use the line tools to mark the lines of symmetry.  Some other features of the software also got tested by the students – the bucket fill was used on shapes and backgrounds.   I intended in a way to be a simple diagnostic assessment to see if children could already identify axes of symmetry and how much work would be needed, if any (the recent interruptions have meant there’s less time to properly address our learning in 2D space).

So one maths group got the task done, and quite well.  Yet the mind was still ticking.  “Let’s get this up on the blog”, I thought.  “There must be some kind of export function.”  Sure enough, I found I could export the flipcharts to flash.  A bit more fiddling (needed to get a host for the flash files as they won’t upload to learnerblogs), and we’ve embedded the students’ work into posts on our class blog (post 1, post 2).

So, what have we achieved today?

• We’ve integrated technology into our mathematics lesson
• My students have used our interactive whiteboard for learning
• We have work samples
• We’ve been able to assess what the children know about axes of symmetry
• Our parents can see what their children can do – simple reporting in less than 24 hours!

Now tomorrow, I’ll have to get some of the children to visit the principal to share their work with him and how they’ve used our new interactive whiteboard.  He’s just going to love it!

Our school’s undergoing a process of revisiting how we learn in our different Key Learning Areas (Human Society and Its Environment is the first focus).  We engaged in the second of a series of very worthwhile staff meetings examining more closely the principles that underpin the HSIE curriculum, the mandatory content and skills outlined in the curriculum foundation statements and the information skills process.  Today we then progressed further to look more closely at how we plan for learning.  The conversation has been exciting and challening; and I’ve made one of my many contributions to the discussion through the medium of Technoblog.

So, after much discussion today, it’s become a lot clearer on what we’re going to expect on paper to guide teachers through the process of leading student learning through a unit of work, and I’ve sought tonight to “tidy up” and re-present the fruits of that conversation for further reflection and sharing.  Part of that involved revising the program unit template, which subsequently prompted me to produce a sample so people could get a sense of what it would look like in action…

… and boy, was I challenged.  In ten minutes, try to rewrite this term’s HSIE unit to incorporate cooperative learning strategies, higher order thinking skills, the information skills process, key assessment tasks and student work samples, and a balance between enough detail to guide teachers, while not so much as to restrict them in their teaching.  I now know why there’s money to be made in writing learning programs for a living and selling them to teachers.  If you can do all that, you’re doing well.  The worrying thing is that not all the “commercially available” programs do all that.  There is something to be said for putting in the effort and drawing on your professional learning community.

We’ve been working in my class this term on a goal of each student being involved in recording a podcast.  Today, we recorded the first tracks – two pairs of students recorded audio that they will need to edit a little before uploading (just been subscribing the class to podomatic tonight).

I’ll blog more about it at another time when it’s not so late (after all, it’s a school night!), but they’re really starting to get engaged now the recording’s going and they can see the exciting end in sight.  I played the first recordings to the class this afternoon and they absolutely loved them – spontaneous applause burst out after playing each track.

And I’ve discovered a fantastic side-effect – I told the class today they had to work in total silence while the recordings took place, and they did – for a full 25 minutes!  My class never does that!