Also at our professional learning today, we had the opportunity to re-visit a video a few of us attending had already seen.  The TED Conference held each year brings together some of the world’s greatest minds to share ideas on a range of topics.

Sir Ken Robinson considers the question Are Schools Killing Creativity?

All I can say is… just watch it.

At the professional learning a group of us attended today, statistics from a 2006 report came to our attention.

The Conference Board, in 2006, produced Are They Really Ready for Work? Employers’ Perspectives on the Basic Knowledge and Applied Skills of New Entrants to the 21st Century U.S. Workforce.  You can still download the report.

I just want to share with you today one part of the 64-page report:

To determine future skill needs, employer respondents were asked to indicate how the importance of the basic knowledge and applied skill areas would change over the next five years…

1. Critical thinking/Problem solving
2. Information Technology application
3. Teamwork/Collaboration
4. Creativity/Innovation
5. Diversity
6. Leadership
7. Oral communications
8. Professionalism/Work ethic
9. Ethics/Social responsibility
10. Written communications

(pp. 48, 49)

How well do you think our classrooms meet this need?

Why have you changed Technoblog to Think :: Learn :: Do?

1. Because it was time
2. Because I wanted to broaden the conversation
3. Because technology is just one part of the conversation around 21st Century learning

Why do we need to have a conversation around 21st Century learning

1. Because we live in the 21st Century
2. Because our students are now children of the 21st Century
3. Because last century’s learning “won’t cut it” anymore

Why won’t last century’s learning “cut it” anymore?

1. Because children have changed
2. Because the world has changed
3. Because it is fast becoming disconnected to those children and their world

I hate paper.

Well, that’s a very strong statement, and probably not 100% true, but when I do start to hate it is when there is more around than what is really necessary.  When you consider how much paper goes through my pigeon hole in the staff room, the notes that leave the office, and the sheets that come across my desk, it’s a lot of paper.  If I don’t need to have it printed on paper, I’d rather have it some other way.  So there’s my problem.

Then I know there’s a problem many of us have at school.  The photocopier.  It’s a frustrating mechnical animal.  Especially the older machine that seems to have been deliberately engineered to cause trouble after the service contract has expired, what with all its jams and misfeeds.

There’s a simple solution to our problems.  Stop photocopying.

There may be some times when it’s useful or even necessary, but are there ways that are more efficient in terms of cost, time, eco-friendliness and learning benefit?

Holy Family at Luddenham is obviously asking a similar question, so when I saw that somewhere there was thinking what I was secretly thinking here (ok, the office staff would say my thinking was not so secret to them), I thought it might be good to blog about it to get it out of my system.

Just don’t expect me to produce and photocopy a survey for people to complete about the topic.  Yes, I can see the irony.  I might email you if I feel so inclined…

Photo credit: Day in the Life by zebble

Like all of us at the moment, I’m in the middle of a process of assessing students and preparing reporting documents for them and their parents.

This has left me thinking for a while now about the massive amount of data we gather on students. Just some of the information we collect about their schooling includes:

• Work samples and their assessment for portfolios
• Term 1 standardised testing
• DIBELS testing results
• Basic Skills Test results (Years 3 and 5)
• Semester report grades
• Special education-related assessment
• Participation and performance in tests conducted by Educational Assessment Australia (UNSW Competitions)
• Behaviour records
• Referral to student services (counselling, special education, literacy support, etc.)

Our feeder high schools often report back to us with information regarding our former Year 6 students’ performance in the SNAP and ELLA tests. Next year we add to our list the Diocesan-wide assessment in literacy for Kindergarten and Year 1.

So what do we do with all this data? And how well do we use it? We all believe that assessment is integral to the teaching and learning cycle, and we all believe in using assessment data to inform future learning. But how effectively can we access and use the data when it’s spread across several different locations, and some of it is locked away in filing cabinets?

One challenge I’d like to pursue is harnessing the computer-based technologies at our disposal to collate and analyse this data more effectively through a single access point. Hopefully we can draw some support from the CEO for this idea, and make a lot of this data far more useful; rather than us looking at it once in the yearly cycle, then putting it away.

Photo credit: file cabinets

I found my way to this video a short time ago and found it to be very interesting.  What makes it so “real” is that it’s the result of asking students about how they learn.  Despite its tertiary origins, it still provides food for thought across all levels of education.

Parramatta Marist High at Westmead is looking to engage its students in project-based learning.  Above is a YouTube video shared by our Executive Director, Greg Whitby, of the conversation he had with PMH staff about their plans.

I’ve chosen to share with this because I believe what the staff say, especially principal Br Patrick Howlett fms, is something that would resonate with most teachers today.  Notice too, how their conversation reflects a similar one we’ve been having about learning - that acquiring/consuming/absorbing content is pointless without the skills to not only do it themselves in the future, but also to do something with it.

There’s no mention of technology, but imagine how they could use technology to help them achieve the results they want to see with the students.