Proposal for online learning welcomed
Earlier this week the Education Minister, Hekia Parata, introduced to Parliament the Education (Update) Amendment Bill which includes proposals to legislate for the provision of Communities of online learning (COOLs). As the charitable company that organises many online NCEA courses for learners in schools across New Zealand, NetNZ welcomes this proposal. NetNZ is funded entirely […]
State of the Nation
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The Asian Language Imperative
Last year I attended (with Ken) the Chinese in Secondary Schools Conference in Auckland. It was a rather large and impressive event, with an excellent turnout from principals especially. While the day was perhaps a little too presentation focused it did raise the issue of why the study of Chinese, and more broadly Asian languages, […]
Industry Partnerships
On Friday we had our first face to face day for our L3 Datacom Computer Science and Programming students. We were able to gather together ¾ of them in Christchurch, no mean feat considering some came from Otago, Motueka and Dannevirke. Held at Datacom South Island’s Central Offices and wonderfully hosted by their Head of […]
Interface Article: Crafting History
If you have the recent Interface Magazine you will see a major feature on Minecraft. This is the article about our Crafting History project that is part of that Inspired by the Gallipoli Minecraft collaboration between Alfriston College and the Auckland museum, I considered how such an approach could work in a fully online context […]
Connecting Learners
As mentioned in an earlier post, we are taking a slightly different approach to our Scholarship Mentoring programme this year. We have introduced a second tier of mentoring that involves connecting students through online subject communities. These largely sit as a focal point for learning in their own right, rather than as an addition to […]
The Future of Video Conferencing: Part Two
If there is one thing about technology that is indisputable it is how quickly it is advancing. So it was interesting to consider this when listening to a discussion on video conferencing technology in the monthly VLNC meeting yesterday. Someone in one of the clusters raised the issue of whether schools with old Polycom gear should […]
What’s in a name?
I found Steve Wheeler’s discussion on the concept of “Distance Education” in this blog post rather timely. Without answering himself, he raises the question of whether the term “distance education” is rather anachronistic in a modern world in which connectivity is so prevalent. We have seen distance education walk hand in hand with the development […]
Future Focused Practice: Knowledge Building
Knowledge Building: Why? For the past three years I have been part of a project on knowledge building – an emerging approach to learning in a 21st century context. I don’t often use that term, but the reality is there are complex problems modern society faces, and children coming through the education system need to […]
Tales from the front line: eDean
I’m an eDean in a large rural secondary school and this year I have 31 eStudents in 14 different online classes. I am also a Teacher Librarian and I’m lucky that my students study in a special space in our library so I get to see a lot of them. One of the things that […]
