Sir Ken Robinson puts forward the uncomfortable argument that we are educating students out of their creativity.
Linda keeps everyone up to date with senior biology and junior science on her blog. The lab looked like a set for the Texas Chainsaw Massacre after a recent practical.
William digs in!
The 21st century secondary teacher has still to emerge. The demands on time made by NCEA marking and moderation make it very difficult to adequately reflect on exciting new developments in education.
It is easy to understand why we have missed a revolution.
Mark Treadwell has been banging on at primary and intermediate teachers with a lot of success about dramatic changes to the education paradigm. The so called book paradigm is dead, the “upper limit hypothesis” has been validated.
Wait a minute, if there has been a revolution, who is in control now? Well actually the students are and they are quite polite about it, just ask them to get your projector working or download youtube videos onto your desktop.
Yep all that 2.0 malarkey is here. Ewen McIntosh was very interesting at Ulearn but we probably need some professional development from students. Read the Bass Players tale on the Base Player’s Blog before the next staff meeting or PD.
We are an aging profession but we have the experience and passion………we just need the technology and time to sit down and reflect with each other.
After a rather inauspicious start when the school had a single data projector that resided in The DP’s office and three laboratories needed a makeover from a demolition squad (one remains and is now our temporary staffroom) substantial progress has been made. We have developed the use of ICT in our teaching practice and are currently incorporating web 2 philosophies with blogs, podcasts multimedia etc to assist student learning. We have state of the art laboratories in the new Arts/Science block.
It hasn’t been a giant leap for Green Bay but rather a series of steady improvements including:
Supplying teaching areas with projectors.
Developing the use of computers in the classroom primarily through using a professional presentation tool such as Powerpoint. Building up digital resources.
Early in 2007 we occupied custom built laboratories. Three architecturally superb classrooms with fixed projectors and interactive boards are attached to a dedicated practical area with none of the design compromises present in a bog standard laboratory a time traveller from the nineteenth century would have recognised.
Interactive boards placed in all science teaching areas
This term we have begun to adopt the very latest educational philosophies outlined at the Ulearn conference held in Auckland recently.
We are currently developing:
With professional development and time we might need to rebrand ourselves as the Green Bay High School Science Department and Centre of Web Based Learning!!
Learn about evolution through art poetry and music without a text book in sight. Frans Lanting a world famous photographer offers a lyrical interpretation of life on this planet.
Sim City was one of the first simulation programmes. In the game you are the mayor and chief architect of a city you are responsible for building and manufacturing. You attract SIMs, simulated citizens who build houses, stores factories – generate a tax base that funds the cities finances and allows further development. Perhaps John Banks needs to play the game as he struggles with the problem of funding developments at Eden Park.
In learning terms the game is interactive and student centred using realistic contexts. Don’t forget that pilots play games as they learn the complexities of flying a large passenger plane, they use flight simulators. Chemists also play with simulation games at university as they design molecules with particular geometries and polarities. Sixth form chemists use pen and pencil to do the same thing in exams using theory that is over 30 years out of date. Listen to the designer of Sim City as he describes his latest game Spore. Hard to imagine learning about evolution without playing this game