So from what I can gather we can pick and choose who we are looking through the lens as, and what our school may be characterised as. This isn't any reflection of the current role I am in now, I am purely relating it to the reading I based my scenario on.
I chose the reading Teacher Networks. Today's and Tomorrows Challenges and Opportunities for the teaching profession. I chose this because I come from a rural school and we are quite isolated, and I am the only Year 6,7,8 Teacher so it takes effort to network and communicate with other Teachers outside of our walls.If I was an Area Leader for ICT then it would be absoloutely mandatory for Teacher to share knowledge and ideas around ICT for those Teachers in that area to gain new skills and have confidence in their own. This is also meaningful to me too as I have started 'etwinning' through this course with my twitter, blog and WE profile.
| Vuorikari, R. Garoia, V. Punie,Y. Cachia. R, Redecker, C. Cao, Y. Klamma, R. Cuong Pham,M. Rajagopal, K. Fetter, S. Sloep, P.(2012). Teacher Networks Today's and tomorrow's challenges and opportunities for the teaching profession. Brussels, Belgium: European Schoolnet. |
My decision-making context:
I am reviewing the scenario through the lens of a highly motivated Area Leader in ICT (e.g North Shore, Mid Canterbury, etc) who wants teachers to share their learning and skills to motivate others. My School is characterised by having lots of relevant, working ICT resources, but not a lot of communication between staff.
Overview of the scenario:
"The teachers Lifelong Learning networks (Tellnet) project used eTwinning as a case study example of a Teacher network. The aim was to identify the main structures and mechanisms that are effective in sharing practices and encouraging innovation and creativity among teachers"
Vuorikari, R. Garoia, V. Punie,Y. Cachia. R, Redecker, C. Cao, Y. Klamma, R. Cuong Pham,M. Rajagopal, K. Fetter, S. Sloep, P.(2012). Teacher Networks Today's and tomorrow's challenges and opportunities for the teaching profession. Brussels, Belgium: European Schoolnet.
The authors proposed the 5 scenarios below.
Scenario 1 eNet: European Education Network - Expansion of eTwinning as centralised network
Scenario 2 MyNetwork - User-centred social network approach
Scenario 3 Intelligent Agents - Technology-focused approach
Scenario 2 MyNetwork - User-centred social network approach
Scenario 3 Intelligent Agents - Technology-focused approach
Scenario 4 Diversified Teaching Career - Autonomous learning and teachers as mentors
Scenario 5 Informal Learning Camps - Bottom-up peer learning
Scenario 4 Diversified Teaching Career - Autonomous learning and teachers as mentors
In relation to this scenario there are many factors which would be drivers for change there are the Teachers role, significance of networking, having the resources, time, funding, student involvement, 21st century schools and support from local communities and people in leadership roles.
Brainstorm list of recommended decisions:
Scenario 4 Diversified Teaching Career - Autonomous learning and teachers as mentors
Time is a very interesting one for me and if I was driving this scenario it is something I would take into consideration. Teachers are very busy and although we all like to think that whatever we are passionate about is the key element of teaching, we all have different ideas. I have recently been involved in some PD around ICT through the Mid Canterbury Fibre Connected Schools and whenever we have something to do they offer a release day in return. I think this is a great idea and it motivates me to want to be involved because I feel as though they take my time as seriously as I do. Time is precious, and if you can value that for Teachers I think they would put more into what you are trying to achieve. In this case I would give Teacher release time to be involved in this scenario, assuming I had funding for it (in a perfect world).
This scenario would need someone timetabling the networking initially so I would set up meetings so Teachers could get to know each other face to face (if in a district) and then start to see the benefits of sharing and briefly catching up online. This would also show them how time can be saved e.g. no traveling, at your own pace, and you choose the time of day.
In order to make the networking significant there would need to be an initial brainstorm of what Teachers wanted to network about. We would need a set of guidelines to start off with e.g. Great online Maths tools, Story Starters, etc. It would then expand from there once teachers were comfortable eTwinning their ideas.
Devices - I have started to feel as though there is a huge emphasis on what we are 'using' as oppose to what we are 'doing' as educators in the 21st century. For me it is about how we use the device and that we actually use it. Networking would be based around curriculum areas as oppose to devices. I have found that if someone has a great idea on an iPad, it can be tweaked to match another wireless device. Therefore I will encourage Teachers to network around what they are doing and how they are doing it as oppose to what they are using.
Teachers need to be accountable to be involved so I would ask for feedback and reflections on the proposed scenarios.
I am sure I could write all day about this, but as Wayne has implied so often, skim read and make main points.
Two most important strategic decisions:
Devices -I think this is very important. There is such a strong emphasis on what we are using. It is constantly talked about in staff rooms, in local papers and when networking. I feel as though Teachers need to be reminded that any ICT resource can be used to support learning and it is not a competition of who has what in the Teaching world. We are away from the 1 size fits all model, so we should be able to taylor any device to what we need. It is so important for Teachers to network about the 'things they are doing' because I come across Teachers doing great things everyday that say, but I don't have an ........ so I am not doing as well as ...... I just feel as though you can give 1 teacher a digital camera and with networking they can achieve so much more and become so much more confident than a teacher with an ipad who tries to go at it alone.
Reflecting - This is a really important part of scenario planning and because my scenario has so many drivers of change I think it would be a great tool. Teachers and the students can use assessment techniques, video, photos, conversations, tweets, blogs or whatever they want to to share their successes and their challenges. In the long run if we are sharing these stories it will start to save each other time as we can see "They have tried that, didn't work" or "I like that if I tweak it I can use it"
Transferability of recommended decisions for the scenarios alternatives:
I think that my decisions are important in any teaching/ classroom context. They are relevant to the 21st century classroom and would work equally well for alternative scenarios. In order for these scenarios to be successful there definitely needs to be drive in every school. There is no point in trying to establish a networking group if teachers decide to opt out. It would be pretty hard to network with the same few networkers every time. I also think that as the Leader I would need to initiate networking online and ask questions. It would be great to establish a wiki or blog or open website where the networks could share all their ideas and have an aggregated feed from their Tweets and Labels. I feel as though in order to keep Teachers motivated the extra work outside of teaching needs to be made easy and accessible. If a webpage was established where it was quick and easy to add links and videos and successes or ask questions I think it would be more meaningful and have a higher success rate.
Scenario 5 Informal Learning Camps - Bottom-up peer learning
Scenario 4 Diversified Teaching Career - Autonomous learning and teachers as mentors
In relation to this scenario there are many factors which would be drivers for change there are the Teachers role, significance of networking, having the resources, time, funding, student involvement, 21st century schools and support from local communities and people in leadership roles.
Brainstorm list of recommended decisions:
Scenario 4 Diversified Teaching Career - Autonomous learning and teachers as mentors
Time is a very interesting one for me and if I was driving this scenario it is something I would take into consideration. Teachers are very busy and although we all like to think that whatever we are passionate about is the key element of teaching, we all have different ideas. I have recently been involved in some PD around ICT through the Mid Canterbury Fibre Connected Schools and whenever we have something to do they offer a release day in return. I think this is a great idea and it motivates me to want to be involved because I feel as though they take my time as seriously as I do. Time is precious, and if you can value that for Teachers I think they would put more into what you are trying to achieve. In this case I would give Teacher release time to be involved in this scenario, assuming I had funding for it (in a perfect world).
This scenario would need someone timetabling the networking initially so I would set up meetings so Teachers could get to know each other face to face (if in a district) and then start to see the benefits of sharing and briefly catching up online. This would also show them how time can be saved e.g. no traveling, at your own pace, and you choose the time of day.
In order to make the networking significant there would need to be an initial brainstorm of what Teachers wanted to network about. We would need a set of guidelines to start off with e.g. Great online Maths tools, Story Starters, etc. It would then expand from there once teachers were comfortable eTwinning their ideas.
Devices - I have started to feel as though there is a huge emphasis on what we are 'using' as oppose to what we are 'doing' as educators in the 21st century. For me it is about how we use the device and that we actually use it. Networking would be based around curriculum areas as oppose to devices. I have found that if someone has a great idea on an iPad, it can be tweaked to match another wireless device. Therefore I will encourage Teachers to network around what they are doing and how they are doing it as oppose to what they are using.
Teachers need to be accountable to be involved so I would ask for feedback and reflections on the proposed scenarios.
I am sure I could write all day about this, but as Wayne has implied so often, skim read and make main points.
Two most important strategic decisions:
Devices -I think this is very important. There is such a strong emphasis on what we are using. It is constantly talked about in staff rooms, in local papers and when networking. I feel as though Teachers need to be reminded that any ICT resource can be used to support learning and it is not a competition of who has what in the Teaching world. We are away from the 1 size fits all model, so we should be able to taylor any device to what we need. It is so important for Teachers to network about the 'things they are doing' because I come across Teachers doing great things everyday that say, but I don't have an ........ so I am not doing as well as ...... I just feel as though you can give 1 teacher a digital camera and with networking they can achieve so much more and become so much more confident than a teacher with an ipad who tries to go at it alone.
Reflecting - This is a really important part of scenario planning and because my scenario has so many drivers of change I think it would be a great tool. Teachers and the students can use assessment techniques, video, photos, conversations, tweets, blogs or whatever they want to to share their successes and their challenges. In the long run if we are sharing these stories it will start to save each other time as we can see "They have tried that, didn't work" or "I like that if I tweak it I can use it"
Transferability of recommended decisions for the scenarios alternatives:
I think that my decisions are important in any teaching/ classroom context. They are relevant to the 21st century classroom and would work equally well for alternative scenarios. In order for these scenarios to be successful there definitely needs to be drive in every school. There is no point in trying to establish a networking group if teachers decide to opt out. It would be pretty hard to network with the same few networkers every time. I also think that as the Leader I would need to initiate networking online and ask questions. It would be great to establish a wiki or blog or open website where the networks could share all their ideas and have an aggregated feed from their Tweets and Labels. I feel as though in order to keep Teachers motivated the extra work outside of teaching needs to be made easy and accessible. If a webpage was established where it was quick and easy to add links and videos and successes or ask questions I think it would be more meaningful and have a higher success rate.
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