Policy Education Nz

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. ...

Paul Brislen asked me to write a little piece for the TUANZ blog, and I’m grateful to him for offering to host my writing. I sent him this piece, and he was kind enough to let me run well over his normal word limit. I’ve made a few revisions and now post it here in two parts. Please comment and hold me to account. ==================================================================== If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster ...

In New Zealand education policy, the failure of Talent2 and the Ministry of Education to build and deliver the Novopay payroll system has been widely covered in the media. This failure occurred for a number of technical and contractual reasons, many of which have been laid out in reviews. The recently released Ministerial inquiry lays the blame for failure in a range of places. But in reading some of the timeline details, and the technical review I got the sense that during the process, failure was not tolerated or accepted. ...

Or Dell. Or Yahoo. Or Facebook. Or Google. I wrote most of this post last November, but I was reminded of it today, after reading this article The Future of Education? First ‘Samsung School’ in Canada Opens. I joked about opening a Yates school, but maybe it’s not a joke anymore. How long before the naming rights of schools determine how a school operates and how students are taught. I had the privilege of attending the NZOS Awards this week. Hosted by the erudite and engagingly droll Toby Manhire, and brought to you mainly by the word “bats hit”. I was there as part of the group eqnz group, who were nominated in two categories: People’s Choice and Open Source in Social Services. The award in Social Services went to the SoupHub and WCC’s Housing Computer Hubs, both worthy winners. ...

Buried deep within the Ministry’s website are these pages. If you’re at all interested in the future of NZ education - please take the time to peruse them and consider what they mean for the shape and feel of schools and learning. Public Achievement Information page Flyer for parents on PAI Timeline for PAI - 2012 - 2017 PAI - The Case for system-wide improvement PAI - Use of Data - Expected Outcomes ...

But schools are doing this already. At the very least the one’s I’ve taught in are doing it. The teachers I work with are passionate about what they do and constantly evaluating how we can be doing our jobs better and more effectively. We’re well aware of the students that are failing, in our own classes, in our schools and across the country. It’s not as if Anne Tolley has somehow uncovered some amazing fact of life in her briefing papers. ...