Edtech

Last Friday the 21st Century Learning Reference Group here in NZ released their “Future-focused learning in connected communities” report. The document is worth a read, but if you’re busy, read the summary. RadioNZ has already picked up the story, and reported these key points: ".. the ministry should recognise digital competencies as essential foundation skills. Defining and refining what “digital competencies” actually are, and deciding how to measure them will be problematic. The NZ curriculum, as far as I’m aware does not contain any standards or frameworks for what this ‘digital competence’ may look like. ...

In my role as IT/e-learning lead teacher I get lots of queries and requests for help. But two questions put to me this week got me thinking. Q1: “I am getting a lot of can’t send undeliverable messages-have been for over a week. On my class computer under outlook I have a whole lot of unsent because they won’t go. Could you have a look at some stage as my parent emails are not making it at times-even when reply to sender.” ...

Technology drives South Korean ‘smart’ schools. Not much mention of learning in this video. Instead it’s all about the technology. Because that’s what makes a school “smart”. Apparently. I know it’s the job of the media to focus on the shiny. I’m not even that bothered about the hints of ‘Big Brother", or the counting of calories in school lunches. But I was a little worried. Because if you look closely and pay attention to the model of learning, and imagine that the shiny tablets are just a normal tablet made out of paper, and that the large MS Windows powered touchscreen is just a black board, it demonstrates the model of learning that exists in behind all of the hi-tech, ‘smart’ shiny on display. A model that’s largely untouched over the last 100 years. In which a person stands up the front and tells a bunch of other folk what’s important. ...