Spotlight on the Professional Learning Program

One of the many exciting Professional Learning Projects is the “Blogs in Maths” project run at Lalor North Secondary College.  Lalor North SC is currently involved in an AGQTP Partneship with MAV ‘Mathematics for al students” and Dajarra Golding has identified blogging as a suitable platform to record, document and reflecting upon student learning.

Dajarra has identified global teacher site has suitable for hosting the class and student blogs.

Expected Project Outcomes

• Improved student numeracy and literacy outcomes (PATMath and TORCH results).
• Students adapt new learning to further current knowledge and are enthusiastic and self motivated by using emerging technologies.
• Parents will take an interest in student learning and the impact of Web 2.0 and emergent technologies in the classroom will become clear. Improved community (parents) engagement with school.

Dajarra says, “The project will aim to produce student blogs that document learning using rich hands on activities. These examples will show maths teachers how blogs can be a powerful tool for assessing Working Mathematically, as well as meaningfully incorporating literacy-teaching strategies and ICT into the classroom. This project will also demonstrate that live, web-based blogs can be used effectively within a legally compliant framework within schools, with appropriate school level and policy and administrative support.”

The students began by setting up their blogs and then going over the rules when using blogging. As part of his project planning Dajarra has identified possible risks asssociate with blogging and how they can be planned for and minimised. These include developing a school level plan covering student blogging and Web 2.0 use and communicating with parents.

Listen to short podcast where Dajarra speaks about his Professional Learning Project.

 

 Dajarra's PLP Project [2:44m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We’ll keep you posted on the developments at Lalor North SC as well as the other Knowledge Bank Next Generation Professional Learning Plan Projects.

On day 1 of PLP Induction Program, Heather Blakey shared her  thoughts on blogging and showcased Global Teacher blogs.

There are a lot of things you can do using ICT but at the top of the pile is blogging.

There are lots of uses for blogs. Global teacher is a blog, it is not a diary and it is not a journal. A blog is a container, it is a showcase, it is a place where your work goes when you have created it. Blogs potentially have a massive audience.

Value your audience.
Showcase the best of your work.
Never lose sight of the fun.

Global teacher blogs comments are all moderated. Blogs require management.

Heather then showcased ejourney with technokids drawing attention to the links to podcasts in the sidebar of the blog.

Andrew Hiskens from the State Library of Victoria shared about the Mirror of the World exhibition, the story of how we write things down and how we symbols to communicate, during Day 1 of the PLP Induction Program.

Andrew charted the evolution of written communication from scroll to books and from audio tape to CDRoms and digital recordings. Books and digital recordings allow the consumer to “dip into the information” in ways that scrolls and audio tape do not. Hypertext offers more. Hypertext allows additional connections to made. Blogs are not one-many publishing (as books are) but rather a broader community engaging in learning. The world has become the classroom.

Andrew shared How to talk about books you haven’t read - Pierre Bayard
There is too much read and too much too know, the libraries are full to the rafters, so focus on the connections instead. The relationships between ideas are far more important than the ideas themselves.

Andrew then demonstrated Wikimindmap which takes the information from wikipedia and structures it as mind map. From networks you can find the information you need and then come out again.

So where to now? Face to face still matters, although the technology is getting better at bridging the gap.

Souce: http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2007/03/sxsw_interactiv.html

In closing, Andrew shared what makes the best learning experiences:

- actually doing something
- doing it with others
- having support from a teacher/coach/parent
- having an audience for the learning
- a sense of having learn
- a sense that the task was toug
- having some sense of personal progression
- some passion about the whole activity

Footnote: The State Library of Victoria is a partner with the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, please contact the Innovation and Next Practice Division about opportunities for collaborative projects with the State Library of Victoria.