Derek's Blog

Have just spent the first day here in Austin, Texas, seeing the city by night and by day, and preparing for the first real day of the IMS Global Learning Impact Summit which begins in the morning. I'm here with Remo, one of the eXe developers, to present eXe to the Learning Impact Awards judges tomorrow. With such a great line-up of finalists it will be interesting to see what the outcome will be - but I'm confident that we can at least use the opportunity to demonstrate just what eXe can do, and the extent to which it can demonstrate compliance with the international interoperability standards such as SCORM 2 and Common Cartridge. Our three key messages for the presentation will be:

• eXe is an easy to use desktop application
  
• With it you can build pedagogically sound education resources
  
• It allows you to export what you've created in standard packaging formats.

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I had the opportunity to bring an XO computer home from work - it belongs to Jim, one of the software engineers we have working at CORE. Apart from my personal fascination with finally getting my hands on one of these machines to play with, I was keen to see what my youngest kids would do when I let them loose on it. They were (predictably) intrigued, and intuitively began exploring the different things they could do with it. My son became very engaged with eToys, using his experience with Scratch to quickly work out how to programme a simple object to behave in various ways, while my daughter quickly mastered a number of the simple maths and language activities. I was impressed with just how quickly and easily they found their way around the interface and were able to work out how to access the different programmes and dimensions the XO has to offer.

The thing that impressed me the most was how easily the XO could identify and 'map' the various wireless access points it found in any particular location in a visual 'mesh' network neighbourhood. I simply located our home wireless access point on the mesh, clicked on it and entered the password and "hey presto" - I was connected to the internet! The other thing that had me really impressed was something that isn't a part of the regular install of and XO - Jim has managed to install a copy of eXe on his XO and get it working! Now that's impressive.

Like all good things, however, this comes to an end - I've had to give it back as Jim travels back to Gisborne tomorrow.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 11:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Today I had the privilege of participating in the official launch of an exciting new company in New Zealand called NextSpace, founded as a partnership between Right Hemisphere and the NZ Ministry of Economic Development.. NextSpace is described as "a think tank, catalyst and mentoring organisation charged with facilitating the growth of 3D graphical communications technology software through education, demonstration and research."

The focus of the day was on the role that 3D graphics will have as a key content creation, communication and collaboration medium in the future. It was very exciting to see examples of 3D graphics technologies applied in a range of commercial contexts (not just for gaming!). Right Hemisphere presented work they are doing with Boeing, using 3D technologies to provide a complete set of manuals for those involved in the maintenance of the planes, while HIT Lab, another NZ company that has pioneered developments in this area, demonstrated some of their augmented reality products.

This is all ground-breaking stuff, and illustrated to me the challenge for schools and education in general that will come as a result of these developments. Much of what we heard from various speakers focused on key attributes of workers in these industries - not just those producing the 3D technologies, but those who are using the products as a part of their everyday work - like the Boeing maintenance engineers who no longer work from paper manuals. The importance of collaboration came through strongly from several speakers, as did the emerging role of mobile technologies. The conversations soon turned to 'how can we prepare our young people for a future where the use of 3D technologies such as this will form a major part of how they communicate ideas and collaborate with each other?'.

I had a speaking slot in the day to focus on this issue (my presentation is included at the end of this post). I started by focusing on the fact that our view of literacy must change - to incorporate these new ways of communicating and presenting ideas/content/information etc. I then focused on the role of schools, and in particular, the need for some serious support for the professional development of teachers in this area, before briefly referring to a collaboration between CORE Education, CWA-New Media and NextSpace that we are working on as a way of addressing this. A part of our plan is to put some of these powerful 3D modelling and construction tools in the hands of school students and let them explore, create and express themselves with them - and find out just how far these creative and uninhibited young people might be able to stretch things!

You can be sure we're going to see a lot more developing in this new dimension!

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Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 11:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Welcome to the world Ari and Flyn, twins born on Saturday 16 February at Wellington Public Hospital. These are my first grandchildren, and I was privileged to be able to be present within an hour of the birth to share in the delight of these two young lives as they adjusted to life outside the womb. My wife and three of our other children were also there - together with our daughter and her husband, the proud parents. It was one of those moments packed with emotions of all kinds, from the sheer exhaustion of the labour to the wonderings about what the world will be like for these two boys.

I did my own reflecting on the Monday following when I presented a keynote to the Western Bays cluster in Auckland. The topic was "Visioning The Future of Schooling", and as I prepared for it i couldn't help but think of the future time-line for Ari and Flynn:

2008 - born
2013 - start primary school
2021 - start secondary school
2023 - first year NCEA
2026 - leave school... further study?? employment??

Well, this is the very future Ari and Flynn will be walking into when they hit our secondary schools - so what progress are we making in achieving these goals?

Mason Durie, one of the Secondary Futures Guardians comments:

"We seldom have the opportunity to think long term about the future, because we are all locked into the urgency of the day. For many of us, the most we can think about is tomorrow... If you look far enough into the future, it's possible that you might be able to anticipate the change and make the shift in direction before it is forced upon you."

• Abounding in intellectual curiosity
  
• Confidently using ICT to access and provide information and to communicate with others
  
• Knowing when to lead, when to follow, and when and how to act independently.
  
• Able to listen actively, recognise different points of view, negotiate, and share ideas.
  
• Contributing appropriately as a group member, to make connections with others, and to create opportunities for others in the group.

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I've just arrived home from a couple of days in Albany on the North Shore. Today I presented a keynote to the 120 teachers who were gathered at the North Shore Stadium for a two day conference to share their achievements in their journey as an ICT cluster over the past two years. My topic was ICT and the future of education, in which I endeavoured to provoke some thinking about education in the future, and education for the future, with an emphasis on how ICT might shape and enable what we do in each scenario. My slideshow is available below.

Something that impressed me at the conference was the level of participation on the part of the teachers present. During the two days there were a number of workshops run by teachers for teachers, covering a range of topics from podcasting to robotics. The teachers taking these workshops were sharing from the perspective of what they themselves had learned over the past two years. Their workshops were well prepared, engaging and very participatory. It demonstrated to me yet again the very positive impact of these ICT clusters on the development of professional learning communities among these groups of schools, growing within a climate of 'high trust' and with permission to 'make mistakes'.

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Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 11:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

New Zealanders and many others from around the world are today mourning the death of Sir Edmund Hillary, an icon of New Zealand, and a hero in the truest sense of the word. He was certainly an inspiration in my life, as a role model in terms of his tramping and climbing, and, perhaps more significantly, in terms of the sentiments expressed in his book "Nothing Venture, Nothing Win".

The thing that impressed me most about Sir Ed is that he is a man who made a difference. A couple of years back I had the privilege of trekking in the Himilayas, and visited Khumjung secondary school on the way back down from Everest Base Camp. This was the first of the nearly 30 schools that Hillary helped build in Nepal after his summit of Everest in 1953. Sir Ed spent decades working to improve Nepal through the Himalayan Trust, which helped build hospitals, clinics, bridges, airstrips and schools. He was made an honorary Nepalese citizen in 2003.

In the grounds of Khumjung High school is a statue of Hillary (see image) - and when I told the principal there that I was from New Zealand I was enthusiastically taken to see it and told all about this great man, such is the way they revere him there.

Hillary's passion for the people of Nepal, and his commitment to helping them in very practical ways stems from a very fundamental belief he had.

"Nepalese did not ask for poverty while New Zealanders lived in affluence. The fact that we do is a blessing, and with it comes responsibilities."

Kua hinga te totara nui o te wao tapu. Moe mai rā, Sir Ed.

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"Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love". - Hamilton Wright Mabie

Thus the reason for the quote above. We truly live in an age of paradox, where here in NZ the big news of the evening is that we've broken all records for spending this Christmas, while in other parts of the world there are those who are starving or victims of war and disease. It can all seem a bit depressing and overwhelming - yet there is evidence also that this season, despite its crass consumerism, evokes, for many, a strong feeling of concern for others which is exhibited in a variety of ways.

I really like the notion of a conspiracy of love. At our Christmas Eve church service this evening we took a special offering for the TEAR fund project in Darfur, where over 2.5 million people are caught up in the most devastating humanitarian crisis of the century so far. I found myself thinking about the work I do with eLearning, and what a distant thought this must be for those involved at the heart of such tragedies. Sure, education must be a part of the restorative journey for these people - but only after they've been fed, clothed and housed. And then only after the causes of the wars and famines are addressed in the first place. Imagine what could be achieved there through a conspiracy of love?

I began thinking how easy it is to become excited about the fact that Twitter now has a new feature called "TwitThis", or that Google has added new features to its Google Reader, or that Google has added 23 language translation 'bots'... but at the end of the day, what are these things really worth to us unless we are able to use them in ways that contribute to the development of a decent society, and the spreading of this conspiracy of love?

I believe that eLearning and ICT does have a role to play - particularly in educating our 21st century learners about what is happening in the world around them, and engaging them in ways of finding solutions and taking action. There are, of course, the obvious things we could do, like make greater use of online activist games in our classrooms, engaging in Global Classroom projects such as Taking IT Global or using e-media as a catalyst for dialogue and social change.

Perhaps there's a challenge that I can make for the year ahead - to take these wonderful tools and resources that we have access to in the eLearning world, and use them in ways that may profoundly alter the ways in which our students think about the world, their part in it and the things they might do to help spread a conspiracy of love within it.

Merry Christmas to you all!

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 5:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

We all know that having a basic fibre infrastructure available throughout the country is essential to enabling everyone to have access to a high speed digital network. One of the issues facing the various groups around the country that are working to install fibre networks in towns and cities is knowing exactly where the potential users of this service are located. Knowing this is important as it helps with the planning of routes for where the fibre will be laid etc. - known as aggregating demand.

At the Digital Summit 2.0 we saw the launch of an on-line map as a first step towards providing a more comprehensive view of broadband demand, by geographically mapping state sector locations. In web 2.0, this map is looking to start an open interaction with users. The initial launch of the on-line map, based on local technology from ProjextX, is a Beta version delivering an initial level of information and functionality which can then be enhanced based on user feedback.

It's great to play with - if you're used to using Google Maps you'll immediately know how it works. Simply navigate to the area of NZ you want to see by typing in the address (name of city/town/street etc) in the bar at the top, then zoom in to the level you want to view. Use the checkboxes on the right hand side to see location of schools, businesses, health services and government departments etc.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 11:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Seems I may have passed judgement on our government departments a little hastily in my previous blog entry where I referred to a general risk aversion for using Web2.0 technologies. At the Digital Summit we heard from the Deputy State Services Commissioner ICT, Laurence Millar, who outlined a range of policy guidelines and recommendations that the SSC are developing for government departments that actually promote the use of blogs, wikis and other Web2.0 technologies.

He gave as an example the New Zealand Police who used a wiki recently to engage with the public in consultation about the review of the Police Act. The wiki, begun in September this year received over 8000 contributions in just eight days. It is now closed for entries, but resulting wiki Act, as at 1 October 2007, is accessible online as a document of record.

Mr Millar commented that the experience of the NZ Police has highlighted the value of such initiatives, and reinforced the need for government agencies to become more active in their use of Web2.0 technologies in this way. Further to this, Mr Millar announced that the next version of the Digital Strategy will be launched as a wiki in March 2008!

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Congratulations to Allanah King, teacher at Appleby School near Nelson, whose Appleby Showcase Podcast (on Pod-o-matic) has been nominated and is a finalist for the 2007 Edublog Awards- best educational use of audio.

Allanah's Appleby Showcase podcast is an excellent example of the use of this technology to showcase or celebrate the everyday learning and events of the classroom, allowing parents, grandparents, friends etc to keep up with what is happening, providing an authentic audience for students as they share their efforts.

Please vote for the Appleby Showcase at http://edublogawards.com/2007/best-educational-use-of-audio-2007/
I'm sure Allanah would appreciate the support - as would her pupils (including my nieces who attend Appleby School!)

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 11:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Congratulations to my colleagues Hemi, Daph, Kathe and Naketa who have just created a new blog called Kaupapa M??ori which they plan to use as a central point to highlight Kaupapa M??ori or M??ori projects within CORE or that CORE staff are contracted to work on.

This is an awesome group that we have within CORE, and I congratulate them on this initiative. I look forward to visiting this blog regularly to keep up with the news of what's happening in this area.

Kia ora Hemi, Daph, Naketa and Kathe

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Back in 2004 I was a part of a series of workshops at the Commonwealth of Learning's Pan Pacific Forum in Dunedin where we focused our thoughts on the way education could contribute to achieving the UN's Millennium Development Goals. Saturday's auspcious date - 070707 - marked the halfway point to the 2015 deadline for achieving these goals, and a progress report by the United Nations to mark the occasion has found that while there has been clear progress, their overall success is still far from assured, and will depend in large part on whether developed countries make good on their aid commitments.

I was interested to read the summary of the report and thought of the dozens of teachers around the country who could be tapping into this very useful data as a part of their social sciences programmes. Of particular interest was the chart that summarises the state of play in each of the eight goals, and differentiated across the ten main regions of the world.

The Chart shows progress as of June 2007, based on data for selected indicators in each of the eight Goals. More detailed information relating to specific countries in each region can be found by visiting the UN's Millennium Development Goals Indicators website which presents the official data, definitions, methodologies and sources for the 48 indicators to measure progress towards the Millennium Development Goals.

I'm about to start teaching my Global Classroom course again from next week, and the availability of this level of data provides a really authentic reason for engaging in Global Classroom programmes on sites such as:

• The UN CyberSchoolBus
  
• I*EARN'
  
• SOF_web Global Classroom Projects
  
• Wide Angle Global Classroom Projects
  
• Global Classroom.net
  
• Global Classrooms.org
  
• TakingITglobal.org

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 5:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

I often enjoy listening to the "Sunday Group" interviews on National Radio on Sunday mornings - and this morning was no exception. Chris Laidlaw's Sunday Group this morning consisted of Paul Reynolds, a well known technology commentator; Tom Chignall, head of regulatory affairs for Vodafone; Jo Tinall, director of the digital broadcasting strategy for the Ministry of Culture and Heritage; and Ernie Newman, CEO of the Telecommunications Association of NZ (TUANZ).

Their topic was the state of telecommunications in NZ, and Chris began by referring to a recent news report that states that there are now more mobile phones in New Zealand than there are people (they'll soon be competing with sheep!) - and asks:

- what is happening with telecommunications in NZ?
- are we getting good service?
- where is broadband going?
- what will happen to landlines?

it's not about technology, it's about a cultural change that we can drive and change!

A great discussion - and if you missed it, a podcast of the interview can be downloaded here.

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Just back from my trip to Malaysia, this week I begin work on the final report - and in mys "spare" moments will be participating in two online events:


SCoPE online seminar - Personal Learning Environments

Derek Chirnside (from University of Canterbury) and I will be leading a three week discussion on the topic of Personal Learning Environments - referred to the tools and processes that enable us to take greater control over our learning experiences. We'll be leading discussions on how our understandings of PLEs may change the way we teach and learn.

I'm presenting the third keynote in the Time4Online conference, titled "Educators as Professional Learners" beginning this week. Will be a hard act to follow after the amazing job done by Sheryl Nassbaum-Beach (keynote one) and the student leaders who led last week's discussion - but it's a topic dear to my heart, and with the experience of working with teachers in the Malaysian context still fresh in my mind I'm looking forward to it.

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I've been reflecting a bit on my experiences here in Malaysia this morning - particularly in terms of what it has meant for me in terms of working away from my home and family for extended periods of time, and have realised just important a number of the technologies that I now take for granted are to me.

For instance, on my computer my Skype and iChat windows automatically open when my computer is switched on, thus I have to make a conscious decision NOT to work with them running rather than the other way around. This provides me with a "virtual presence" whenever I am online, and the ability to see which of my friends and colleagues are online. There's seldom been a time when I've opened my computer during my time here that I haven't been "interrupted" by someone wanting to connect for a variety of reasons - from friends simply inquiring how things are going through to colleagues with specific questions etc. This has allowed me to remain connected to and involved in the range of things I have on my programme back in NZ.

In our project here in Malaysia, we have used these same tools to provide synchronous opportunities for teachers and students in Malaysia to connect with peers in New Zealand, and it has been interesting to see how these first time users have adapted and adopted these new technologies very quickly - such that I now have an ever growing list of names on my contact list!

Another thing I've come to rely on is the ability to simply open my computer up wherever I am and be able to connect to the internet - whether by wireless (which is being implemented in a big way here in Perak) or by plugging into a cable in a school or hotel room. This relative 'portablility' allows me to remain connected and involved regardless of my physical location.

The combination then of the communications software that provides me with this sense of presence, the laptop I carry and the wireless access that allows for portability, and the fact that I can so easily personalise these tools provides me with an increasing sense of what a Personal Learning Environment (PLE) is and can be.

It was of interest to read this morning news that Sony and British Telecom have joined forces to integrate the PSP with BT Broadband's video and voice softphone VoIP software, meaning that calls will be free, with the customer only having to pay for the BT broadband subscription! This will certainly introduce a more mobile connectivity tool into the mix, and must certainly be a sign of things to come as we become more mobile!

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Having survived the excitement of the KPEC project celebration day in Ipoh on Monday (see previous entry) we were asked to participate with a stand at the annual Teachers Day in Ipoh on Thursday. An illustrious event attended by 4,500 teachers from across the state of Perak, the Teachers Day provides an occasion to celebrate the things that are good about teachers and teaching in the schools here - and provides the opportunity for the State officials to bestow honours on a select group of teachers who have contributed in significant ways to the profession. Teachers Day is taken very seriously over here, as this report and this blog illustrate.

It was a privilege to be a part of this event - and to see the way in which both students and peers participated in giving special recognition to the six or so teachers singled out for this year's awards. The announcement of each recipient was preceded by the showing of specially prepared video clip that protrayed the significance of that particular teacher's achievements - all very inspiring.

The experience left me reflecting on just how much more we all could do to focus on the good, the effective and the inspirational efforts of teachers in our schools!

Of course, the KPEC stand received a lot of attention - featuring in pride of place near the entrance to the whole event - and providing the Chief Minister with the opportunity to use skype to video conference with a teacher in New Zealand (as did some of the students who were there).

This brings to an end the pilot programme we have been running in Perak over the past three months. I'll be spending most of next week in Kuala Lumpur with other members of the iNZed group, talking with Malaysian Ministry of Education officials about ways in which the programme may be extended and rolled out to other schools.

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I've been back in Malaysia this week, assisting with the final phase of the KPEC pilot that we've been running in the state of Perak. Monday saw the "celebration day" which where teachers and students from the five participating schools set up booths to demonstrate what they have been doing over the past three months.

It was a magical day, attended by more than 100 invited guests, including officials from the State Department of Education. We saw demonstations of all sorts of ICT use, including powerpoint and website collections of photographs and stories from field trips and classroom investigations, through to podcasts, blogs and video conferencing activities.

The picture above shows Dato' Dr. Zambry, the Minister of Education for Perak State who, after visiting each of the booths and interacting with the teachers and students, settled himself for a few moments to enjoy a Skype video chat with Paul Rodley of Christ's College in Christchurch, NZ. Some of Paul's students had earlier participated in an exchange of research findings with a class in a local secondary school in Matang.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 6:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Time4Online is an online conference for educators, posing the question "How can we prepare students for the 21st Century?", aiming to explore examples of collaborative online learning and the application of Web 2.0 technologies in teaching and learning.

Presenters include educators and students from NZ and overseas (including Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, international guest and keynote speaker at the recent TUANZ tour of New Zealand).

I'm pleased to be associated with this conference, and will be presenting a session titled "Educators as Professional Learners" in which we'll be discussing the need for educators to be reflective and life-long learners, engaging in professional discourse etc. - and how technology, in particular, Web2.0 technologies, can create opportunities for this to happen.

I've prepared this introductory slide-show that I've uploaded to SlideShare:

A pre-conference preview available now at http://www.time4online.org.nz.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 4:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

CORE has recently moved premises, and in making such a move one is confronted with decisions about all the "stuff" that one accumulates over time, and the things we can do without etc. Also, the new premises offer something that the old ones didn't - a shower, which means that biking to work is now more appealing as I have the option of freshening up after an energetic ride. All of this brings me to the subject of sustainability, and ideas about the carbon footprint - another issue for CORE as we do so much travel as a part of our job.

Which brings me to this nifty online carbon footprint calculator for kids from a group called ZeroFootPrint, described on their website as a not-for-profit that combines the best financial engineering, environmental engineering, social networking tools and business intelligence to create products and services that help large corporations, organizations and individuals significantly reduce their environmental footprint.

Their KidsCalculator is a fun way of engaging with the very serious issues associated with the way we are consuming the earth's resources:

First launched at the Kitchener-Waterloo Children???s Museum, and available on the web at www.zerofootprintkids.com, our interactive calculator is a free educational tool, offered to teachers, organizations, and families who want to teach their kids that the choices we all make are important not only today, but for many years down the road, and not only for us, but for people and ecosystems around the world.

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I had the pleasure this evening of attending a meeting hosted by Gillian Heald, one of the guardians of the NZ Secondary Futures project. Around 30 secondary teachers, student teachers and others interested in secondary education gathered for an update on where things have developed to with the project, and to consider the two main themes that have emerged and are being focused on as a priority, Students First and Inspiring Teachers.

This project has been running for four years now, and it was interesting to get a first hand update on how things are going and what is emerging. Many things rang true for me in terms of what was presented, and the discussions reinforced what a multi-faceted job we have to do if we're to succeed in reforming the way we provide a secondary education for our you.

I was very interested to be introduced to the work of Valerie Hannon, the Director of Strategy in The Innovations Unit (a UK organisation tasked with promoting innovation to improve education) and her work on Next Practice in System Leadership - I can see I'll be doing some more reading in this area.

Gillian's comment about NZers being "change wary and change weary" also rang bells with me - she reinforced the fact that the SFP isn't looking at promoting another "Tomorrow's Schools" scale of change to our school system, but is seeking to bring about widespread change that is neither "top down" nor "bottom up" - but is achieved through engaging all stakeholders - parents, students, teachers, Ministry of Education, ERO, teacher unions, employers etc - in the dialogue around change leading to the implementation of various ideas and initiatives that will build an understanding of what the future of secondary schooling will be. Judging from the case studies on the SFP website, it would appear that there are already a number of schools and communities doing just that!

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 10:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Just as I was beginning to think that I'm getting used to the Internet and the various ways that I've found to integrate it into the things I do in my life I read that researchers at several universities are working to design a new internet to replace the current global network.

The argument goes that the originally designed internet is well past it's used-by date, with all sorts of "tack-ons' having been added over the past couple of decades to address things such as security, performance, mobility etc., and that these things are now making the current internet cumbersome and in danger of falling over, particularly as we move towards much faster internet speeds and a more mobile internet.

In the article on eSchoolNews, Larry Peterson, chairman of computer science at Princeton and head of the planning group for the NSF's GENI is quoted as saying, "Rather than create workarounds each time, clean-slate researchers want to redesign the system to easily accommodate any future technologies."

Wow - I guess we'll have to wait and see where this one goes, although indications are that it won't be something that happens in a hurry - with those involved recognising that the internet has now become mission critical to so many in business, government, education etc - it would create mahem to do anything too suddenly.

The article did start me thinking however. What do you do when a system, designed and built to meet the requirements of a previous era, becomes so burdened through the repeated addition of "tack-ons" designed to make it cope with the emerging demands of the changing environment it operates in? Is a clean slate indeed the best solution?

The whole scenario sounds familiar - take for instance our education system. Trouble is, we're up against the same things this group of internet researchers will find - entrenched sets of beliefs and behaviours, all sorts of established use and dependencies, and a general relectance to change from something that is familiar.

Seems we inevitably get back to the "evolution" vs "revolution" arguments. Meantime, another generation of young people get poorly served by what we offer.....

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 4:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

More from Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak at the launch of the International Smart School Conference 2007 being held in Kuala Lumpur as I write.

In his opening address to the conference the Deputy PM has called for a review of non-ICT promoting curriculum, saying

"We can equip our schools and train teachers with ICT. But at the end of the day, if the curriculum is still examination focused, and geared towards memorisation and reproduction of facts and figures, our objectives will not be met

Gone are the days for rote learning or spoon feeding in classrooms, of regurgitating textbook chapters to fill up pages of examination answer books.

The emphasis in today's learning culture must be on thinking, the use of the mind to find solutions to emerging problems. Students must be taught the means through which they can maximise their creativity and capacity for innovation,"

(Story from The Star Online

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I spent the day today in a school here in Perak, Malaysia, interviewing a teacher about his experiences in using ICT with his senior physics class. Until just a few weeks ago this teacher had not used ICT at all with his class, and was very skeptical about whether ICT had any contribution at all to make to the subject of Physics. After a little coaxing from his in-school ICT facilitator, he decided to try using the internet to access resources to support his work with his senior physics class.

This resulted in him finding a site with short video clips of crash impact tests on cars, that he was able to use (along with some other sites) with his students. The impact of this on him and his students (I also interviewed two of them) was profound. He is now a convert to the idea that ICT may indeed have something to offer the area of physics, and is now exploring the use of computer-based simulations to bring the static images in his physics text books to life!

Quite a turnaround in just two weeks. Now his challenge will be to get enough access to the school's two computer labs for his students, and to ensure that he doesn't get distracted from meeting the school and department of education's requirements in terms of curriculum coverage and examination preparation for his students.

The work I've been involved with in Malaysia in the past couple of weeks has made me very aware that we must be focusing on change at two levels in order to achieve a truly "Smart School". These are:

1. Teacher beliefs and behaviours - as exemplified by the physics teacher above. This experience has shifted both his pre-conceived ideas about ICT and his subject area, and has changed (albeit in a small way) some of his behaviours as a teacher. Because such beliefs and behaviours take a long time to develop and embed, they will also take a long time to change!
   
2. System and infrastructure issues, including curriculum, assessment, ICT access, timetables, class size etc.

An effective professional development, and change management process must embrace and address both of these dimensions.

While I have been working here in Perak, some of my New Zealand colleagues have been attending the International Smart Schools Conference in Kuala Lumpur. In his opening address at the conference the Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, addressed this very issue in a rather hard hitting speech in which he made calls for massive change to the school system in Malaysia. In particular, he emphasised the need to do better in relation to the use of ICT, saying "They are called smart schools. But, apart from computers, there is little that is smart about them."- and calling for a massive change in the "processes and procedures" entrenched in the school system.

Of course Najib is not alone with these concerns. Around the globe education and political leaders are expressing concern at the lack of any real change in terms of how ICT is being used (or not as the case may be) in schools. Many are questioning whether the vast amounts of money being spent are worth it, while others are suggesting punitive approaches for schools and teachers who aren't (in their opinion) moving fast enough.

I'm sure we haven't heard the last of the Smart School reform ideas here in Malaysia, and I can imagine we must be due for some similar posturing soon in New Zealand, given that there's a general election coming up. I do remain optimistic, however, as I reflect on the experience today with my physics teaching friend, and his two students, that change is achievable provided the two dimensions I referred to earlier are addressed equally in any professional development effort.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 3:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)