Reflections from the PPTA ICT meeting Nov 2017

On Monday was the last ICT meeting for 2017. As usual it was a full on day, although to be honest I did not leave feeling as hopefully as I usually do – hopefully it is just that it is the wrong end of the year. As usual, this was my interpretation of what was said, and I am happy to be corrected, or if you have a question or an issue for the committee, I am happy to take it to them 🙂

Up for discussion was

1.  Round robin – we have introduced a google doc for round robin discussions from regions and representatives. 2 points of interest came up this time

a) Learn Coach flipped learning – 2 members from regions expressed concern about the ‘credit’ farm feeling of this course. As they are a PTE (private training establishment) there is very little that the PPTA can do. Other than express concerns (that are shared by other organisations if I got the drift of the conversation correct) that this model is privatisation of education, and has no pastoral care provided. Due to the pastoral care issue, there is not an option for this to be incorporated into a ‘COOL’ (if indeed the COOLS continue under the new government)

This did spark an interesting conversation (a highlight of the meeting from my point of view) on the future of education. The rate of teachers leaving the profession, the lack of new ones coming in, the changing technological landscape and the changing purpose of assessments are all tied into this type of venture. Predictions are that this will be the tip of the iceberg, and more online learning ‘portals’ will become available – perhaps simply because there are not enough teachers to teach in all schools…..

A report that was commissioned by the government (conducted by cognition) into research of online learning is due of the first of December, looking into the dispositions and competencies of online learners and teachers, pastoral care, data security etc. This report may shed some light on how the government will move forward. But to some around the table, it is clear that education is at a kind of cross roads, and Education 2.0 (to quote John Crieghton) might look quite different. Are we ready for it?

b) An ongoing theme around teacher safety and workload around being ‘contactable’ 24 hours a day. What are the lines for teachers around keeping themselves and their students safe? Is it ok to reply to emails from students after 10pm? Is it ok for students to have cell numbers, or instagram/twitter/facebook? Horses for courses, or do we need a blanket policy? All it takes is one false step… are teacher adequately aware of the risks. This is a hard one, I had an example of a student texting me at 5:45 am the morning of their exam. What is the expectation around this? Some teachers would ignore, others reply? But by replying (I did, but at 6:30 when I woke up) am I setting an unrealistic expectations for my colleagues?

2) TELA update

Was very brief, there was not much to update. The consultation process I was part of was not overly informative and was confidential. I can say (I hope) there will be a wide range of devices available. There was then debate around how do we ensure teachers and school USE the variety effectively – I got ‘kicked’ around for saying I worried ‘gatekeepers’ would just choose the cheapest devices and for ease of network management keep everyone on the same device. The gatekeepers around the table said there is never adequate resourcing for device management in schools, which segwayed into funding issues in general. So while I am pleased there will be more devices options available, I do worry that teachers will not be aware they can have a choice, or schools will take this choice away due to funding issues or network managing issues. Sigh

3) Digital Technology Curriculum update

I really feel for the team that has been putting this together, they have been getting slammed from all sides and seemingly pleasing no-one. Everything is a little on hold after the releases of the reports from the consultation process – comments where made the survey was potentially skewed due to its length and overly complicated structure – and while the new government finds its feet. Comments were made that while digitech can’t be compulsory, it is strongly encouraged for years 1-10. The NCEA level one standards will be available on December 12th, which means planning will be in the holidays (it probably would have been anyways, but it is still a late date). Other comments where around ‘digital championships’ which had drawn criticism for being too competitive and using lots of $$ for no real purpose, and the digital equity project, looking to support 12,500 kids who have limited access to technology (I feel 12,500 is a drop in a very big ocean. There was also some discussion around where are all these teachers going to come from???

There was also some discussion around subject silos (again, another hightlight) in that digitech should not be stand alone. And perhaps if schools do it this way they will find it harder, or it will be pigeon holed as something you do for an hour a week. So my take was if we can integrate these ideas into the broader curriculum, it will work much better (she says after being super excited to get a yr 7 module digitech module to teach next year….)

4) Auckland STEM project.

Graeme Aitken (along with Tony and Kate, sorry I didn’t get there last names) came to talk us through the Auckland University STEM project. I was really impressed – their ‘mission’ was to support non specialist teachers who are teaching STEM subjects, especially physics. They want to be more successful at making maths and physics graduates from Auckland Univeristy., as they realised they weren’t getting as many as they wanted (between 2005 and 2011 they only had 11 physics teachers graduate from their teaching program). So they decided to think about it differently consulted with different groups (who wisely told them to start at Level 1, not level 3) and have set up a site to support students and teachers. They were ADAMANT the whole way through it was meant to be used as a support, not a replacement, and they really didn’t want it to be seen as a ‘baby sitting’ tool. (Again, another wee side conversation about guide to the side rather than up the front delivery of knowledge). They are funded for maths and physics, and want to get into Chemistry as well. It is free for ALL schools. So check it out http://www.stemonline.auckland.ac.nz/

5) N4L update

The lovely Paula Hay came along to update us on what N4L has been doing. Again (it was a common theme) they are waiting a little bit to see what the new Government will bring to their roll. It is also easy to forget just how big the N4L job is – there are over 800,000 users on their network. They had blocked over 120,000 viruses (and acknowledged some got through….). There was discussion around kids setting up their own networks to get round blocks. A nice update was they have a new support hub, where any teacher from a school can log in and ask for help, or read some FAQS to get help. And then a great wee discussion on digital assessment and how it might work – my question was why are we bothering to invest so much into digital exam infrastucture when exams are possibly a lost cause anyways (again thinking education 2.0). Most of the points were around logistics, devices etc. Although with the idea of any where, any time learning came some questions around teacher workload, and of course classroom management and timetabling – any time anywhere assessment would come at a cost of the timetable (which is not a bad thing in my view). N4L is also working with Chorus to look at wireless extensions for schools – a polite is being run at Haeta – so that the school wireless reaches into the community and students can use it at home.

6) Creative Commons

We had a skype presentation from Mandy Henk about creative commons, who is more than happy to help any schools wanting to adopt this. It was a good reminder about how many teachers openly (and unwittingly) flout copyright laws when sharing resources and/or taking resources when they move from school to school – it is the property of the BoT of your school as you were working for them when you made them.

7) Other bits and pieces

There was a brief update about COOLS – again, waiting to see what the government will do and the government does not want private providers- but it would need to change the education act as it was amended (I wasn’t super sure of the legal aspect, it sounded complicated…..). There was a little more information on SISI (student information sharing initiative) which sounds like it might not have much impact on the ‘front’ end of systems teachers use, just the back end around getting SMS systems to talk to each other more efficiently. And then safety around who can get what information.

And I think that was it. So a full on day, and reading over this, there was a lot of discussion and information. I have a nagging worry about teacher supply and that this, rather than sound practice, will push digital schools into being, but if we don’t have the teachers on the ground, perhaps it will be better than nothing.

Have fun