Reading Writing Responding

'Your Association Needs You' by Aaron Davis (Flickr) While attending the recent Teachmeet at Lt Markov , +Roland Gesthuizen  posed the question, what do you expect from +Digital Learning and Teaching Victoria ? It is a part of a bigger question that I don't believe we ask very often, what we actually expect from an educational association? It got me thinking about how these expectations have changed in the last few years. I remember when I started teaching over ten years ago, the association was the first place you went to for information and resources. However, in the last few years this pride of place has gradually been dissolved with the development of various sites and spaces. So here then are my thoughts about the place of associations today. I remember as a graduate being inundated by my subject association with an array of sessions for this and that, I thought that every event was worth going to, probably because that was all that was on offer. The p...

A few weeks ago, I had the great opportunity to be a part of Google Hangout for +Ed Tech Crew Episode 238 . The big question being addressed was: If you were only able to give one piece of advice to a new ICT Co-ordinator in a school, what advice would you give them. Although I have had a go at outlining my thoughts elsewhere , here are the gems offered by the wider team ... +Ashley Proud - Be relentless with whatever you do. +Mick Prest - Make sure that you are connected to a wider community. +Mel Cashen - Have both short and long term goals, don't just think about right here, right now. +Lois Smethurst - Narrow your field of focus to something that you believe is going to make a difference with. +Darren Murphy - Go and listen to people, get teachers and leadership on board +Aaron Davis  - Create a team and develop a collaborative plan. +Roland Gesthuizen - Coach the kind of learning that you want to be happening and be disruptive, facilitate t...

In a post I wrote a few months ago I spoke about what I called the ' hidden professional development '. That informal learning that occurs unplanned and on the fly, whether it be at lunchtime, while photocopying or even when swapping over on yard duty. Basically anywhere, anytime, simply where two or more passionate learners meet. The big question then and the question now is how do we encourage this? What structured opportunities do we provide for this? Tinkering Teachers In a fantastic discussion as a part of +Ed Tech Crew Episode 240 focusing on what it takes to be an IT co-ordinator, +Ashley Proud spoke about the demise in tinkering amongst students. Although +Mel Cashen and +Roland Gesthuizen mentioned about taking things a part, giving the conversation a more mechanical theme, I feel that tinkering is best understood as a wider curiosity into the way things work.  I believe that one of the reasons for such a drop-off belongs with teachers. Althou...