Keynote 2

Nothing groundbreaking here. I enjoyed what Sylvia M. had to say. She was emphasising the importance of getting the kids to do real work. Help out with tech, build websites and resources etc. All the sort of thing that I 've been trying to do but get distracted. It was good to re-invigorate me at the start of the year. I hope it lasts, I know it's all going to be hectic when I get back to school and I'll never have the time to do all the stuff I want :-(

Notes follow...

Marg Mcleod (Min Ed)

A lot of talk about how we are the people who can motivate change and work for a better future etc. Showed a clip from the McKinsey global group about improving education. It was a reference to performance pay for teachers carefully phrased. Marg also pointed out that a big issue for us in NZ is the huge tail. 20% failing is bad.

References:
www.McKinsey.com
All Systems Go (Michael Fullan) Collective collaborative capacity,

Sylvia Martinez (from the Games breakout)

Utilise students. Get them to do something real. Find a practical, useful thing that they can do. I can see problems finding enough to keep 30-60 kids with real authentic projects year on end. If a way can be found it would be good... Eg: Tech angels. This will work in well with getting Vince's programing kids to build resources for PCS.

Find the big prob;ems you have in school and find ways to get students to help out with them. Project based learning. Use Peer assessment and mentoring. Student mentors asses then time is given to fix issues.

Idea:
When doing programing in class take a group to be mentors. They just help out and evaluate. Same for Robotics.

So many producers of content, who will consume it. Maybe it will be that because creating content takes longer than consumption a class can work by having each student spend a week creating part of a course each then spend the next week consuming all the other work.