e-wot?

More pearls of wisdom from Jakob Nielsen about intranet Info Architecture:

Only three topics attained top-level navigation status on the majority of the intranets:

• human resources (HR) information (66%)
• company information, (63%)
• news (59%)

Read More…

Here are my notes from Keith Kruger’s excellent and thought provoking workshop.

Keith is the CEO of CoSN, the US’s premier voice in education tech leadership. click for CoSN site

Outline of the workshop:

1. what has been the impact of technology on education around the world?
2. What are the skills that ict leaders need?
3. Self assessment

Three major conclusions:

• Competitiveness is a global concern/Developing 21st century skills is necessary
• Leadership & vision matters
• Rethinking pedagogy is essential

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Interesting to see what Canberra Primary School teachers are doing with audio recordings with their learners. Some good stuff.

They’re using an application called profcast

They make two kinds of audio recording:

1. Teacher created podcasts – they call these enhanced podcasts. Teachers make them to help teach key concepts in maths or to model language. They see this as a form of communication for the parents to use with their kids. The benefit is that it’s easy to use and provides a consistent message about what’s been taught in class.
2. Learner created podcasts – Learners record what they read aloud, record interviews and record their oral reflections about a topic. The presenters gave one example of an interview recorded by two learners saying that their teacher use the recording to reflect on and evaluate their learners’ speaking skills.

Why podcasts? Read More…

Newsmaker is a video editing tool that Yu Neng Primary school have been using with their learners.

The normal process they follow with a class is

1. P5 & P6 students form a group.
2. Brainstorm a topic.
3. Research. Collate information.
4. Write a news script.
5. Rehearse the script working on reading, text tone and facial expression.
6. Then they decide on the format.
7. Then they make a newsmaker clip.

Benefits? Through newsmaker students have integrated writing, reading and listening skills. It has helped improve their confidence too. Read More…

Derek Roberston showed us what can be done with existing game console and handheld technologies in a learning context. He talked about affecting positive change in the classroom through using games.

The most striking thing about what Derek is doing is it’s relevance. He’s using simple technology that kids are already familiar with, but in a learning context. It has currency. He showed lots of video clips. The one that really hit me was of a young lad totally absorbed in a timed game on the Nintendo DS. He was doing sums. Doing them faster than I could. He was clearly engaged, clearly achieving, clearly aware that he was doing well. Apparently up to that point he had been considered a ‘problem child’.

He also showed some impressive statistics, anecdotal accounts and testimonials to show the effectiveness of games on speed and accuracy in test results using brain gym. Learners also felt better about themselves: improved confidence and self esteem. Read More…

I’m biased, I know, but Angeline Khoo from NIE gave a great presentation on World of Warcraft and it’s relevance to learning. It was a shame we couldn’t read her slides, but she more than made up for it with her passion for the game and its educational value. And the live in-game conversations and action in World of Warcraft was very helpful in clarifying what gaming involves and how it might have practical value for learning.

She started by citing many examples of learning events from young kids who learnt to read, to social and cultural learning, to maths and economics… etc…

Then she logged into WoW to chat with some of her guild members. All this in front of an audience of 1200 conference attendees – very brave of her. She engaged her guildies in a conversation about Thanksgiving. She asked, “What are you giving thanks for?” and got a variety of answers, religious, social, historical – showing how the game can help to engage people in cultural conversations, adding “You see we don’t play the game to fight all the time. We have interesting chats.” Read More…

CET chair Prof Phillip Wong kicked off the conference with a nice analogy, comparing technology with antibiotics. Cavemen are given antibiotics and told the little pills will save their lives. Some of these cavemen will put the pills on a pedestal and worship them, others will try one pill and leave the rest, others will mix the pills with water and rub the mixture all over their bodies, and others will take the whole lot in one go. If the pills don’t work they’ll dismiss the claim that they’ll save their lives. If the pills make them sick they’ll say they’re dangerous. The challenge is to help them understand how and when to use the pills. The same is true for technology. Prof Wong said he’d borrowed that analogy from Chris Dede (see below).

RAdm Ronnie Tay the new CEO of IDA gave us some interesting figures about IT use in Singapore, focusing on IT use among the digitally literate and those in education. Up-to-date stuff with a clear vision. Read More…