Research and Professional Experience.

The two subjects that I am enrolled in this semester could not be more different. EER500 "Introduction to Educational Research" is all about reading academic literature, posing research questions, and designing research projects. In contrast, ETL507 "Professional Experience and Portfolio" incorporates a study visit, a professional placement, and the making of a professional portfolio.

One subject is all about thinking, the other all about doing!

I've made good progress with both subjects today.

For EER500, I'm looking at the role of the teacher librarian in facilitating the implementation of ICT into teaching and learning. Today I've read and summarised a research article:

Schibeci, R., MacCallum, J., Cumming-Potvin, W., Durrant, C., Kissane, B,, & Miller, E. (2008). Teachers’ journeys towards critical use of ICT. Learning, Media and Technology, 33(4), 313-327.

This artlcle is about a research project involving 200 teachers in 12 Australian primary schools. It followed the teachers' progress from anxiety to confidence as they learn how to make the technology work, how to create classroom lessons with ICT that work, evaluate the effectiveness of learning and teaching with ICT, and investigate broader curriculum reforms.

For ETL507, I've tentatively organised a professional placement (read 'work experience') at a TAFE library near my home. More paperwork and solidifying of dates to come, but it looks good! It will be a great place to experience working in a library, and interacting with students, without having to be in a school, dealing with classroom management and the like. I'm excited!

Autumn's Coming, and that means Uni.

Autumn, and first semester, officially begin on March 1st, only a few short days away.

I am celebrating the start of the season a little bit early by beginning to use my new handbag. I received it as a Christmas present, but set it aside to start using in the cooler months.

What's that pinned on it? Why it's the handmade brooch that Maria K. (A mind lively and at ease) sent me!

I think that it matches perfectly, and gets me in the mood for Autumn!

I'm also posting here the first draft of the first part of my first assessment for EER500. Lucky you! You get to read it and critique it for me! It's a short summary of an education department report. If you're Australian, you would have heard of the Digital Education Revolution, synonymous in many people's minds with the government pledge to provide all high school students with their very own laptop. In fact, there's a bit more to it than that, and the strategic plan outlines the government's plan to ensure a technology-rich enviroment in all schools.

XXX

Success through partnership: Achieving a national vision for ICT in schools. Strategic Plan to guide the implementation of the Digital Education Revolution initiative and related initiatives. 5 August 2008. Retrieved from http://www.deewr.gov.au/Schooling/DigitalEducationRevolution/Pages/default.aspx

This strategic plan is the document that the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) has agreed will direct the implementation of the Digital Education Revolution (DER). All policy and program decisions related to information and communication technology (ICT) in schooling will be directed by this plan.



Currently, the availability and use of ICT is highly variable from state to state and school to school. Many students have limited access to computers and online information due to computers being located in labs rather than classrooms, and broadband connections being inadequate. Access to and quality of digital learning resources is also highly variable.



The DER provides a vision for students to achieve high outcomes in a technology enriched environment. The aspirational goals of this vision are that:

• Students have unlimited access to information.

• Teaching and learning is student centric, innovative and stimulating, while being rigorous and addressing curriculum standards. Contemporary learning resources and activities meet students’ individual needs.

• Courses, resources and communication between teachers, students and parents are accessible without limits.

• Web 2.0 is used for collaboration and knowledge sharing.

• School leaders plan for ongoing improvement.



The DER commits to:

• Supporting infrastructure by providing devices (e.g. laptops), high speed affordable networks, technical support and “learning portals”.

• Providing digital learning resources and software appropriate to national curricula, including tools for safe online collaboration (web 2.0 tools) and a model for content supply, including copyright issues.

• Improving teacher capability by promoting models of teaching and learning that incorporate digital resources, applying ICT standards to pre-service training and professional development, and transferring effective practice between different agencies.

• Supporting leadership by providing training for school leaders in the development of system and school level planning for implementation of ICT.



The first guiding principle of the DER is coordination, which requires a commitment across governments and sectors to collaboration, communication and consultation; leading to coherence. The other guiding principles of the DER are sustainability and flexibility.



The strategic plan includes all the school’s systems for the use of ICT, including:

• Selection, creation, storage, retrieval and use of digital teaching and learning resources.

• Development of ICT infrastructure to meet all needs of the school, including use of ICT to support and improve its business processes, and to facilitate improved communication with the wider school community.

• Use of ICT to assess student learning, including ICT capability, communicate the data, and manage student information.

• Planning for and implementation of professional learning in regard to the implementation of ICT.

• Capacity to use ICT to extend and differentiate student learning opportunities.

XXX

 

If you are familiar with the report, I'd love to hear if you think I've captured the essence of it.

 

If you are not Australian, I'd love to hear your take on how ICT is incorporated into schools in your part of the world.

Maccas comes to the rescue!

My internet connection is down at home. We are upgrading to ADSL2, which has just become available in our area, and apparently there is a three to four day turn-around period when upgrading. Which of course our internet provider didn't mention to us until we rang them to find out why our internet connection had been unavailable for several hours!

But never fear, dear readers. My local McDonalds has a McCafe and free WiFi connection, so I've set up my "office" and settled in!

Mmmmm... caramel latte and banana bread a la Maccas!

So, I'm sure you're dying to know what's been happening in my world lately.

Alana had her first dose of HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccination at school yesterday. This fabulous Australian innovation protects girls from infection with this virus which is implicated in almost all cases of cervical cancer. Of course, anything that involves almost 100 eleven-to-thirteen-year-old girls lining up to have injections cannot be without drama! Two of Alana's friends were unfortunate enough to faint after receiving their injections, one of them falling off the chair and onto the floor. Poor things! They have been sternly told by the nurse to make sure they have their needles lying down next time (gotta love the compassion of the nurses!). Alana even overheard one nurse say to another, "We should just make all the red-heads lie down, it's always the redheads that faint." Nice.

In more disturbing news, two of the boys in Josh's class have been suspended from school for fighting. I was shocked to hear this, and a little worried considering that Josh has been friendly with both these boys in the past. I gently suggested to him that though I didn't want to tell him who he could and couldn't be friends with, I didn't think it was really a good idea to hang out with boys that would cause physical harm to another (a third boy was hurt in the scuffle but was not to blame). Every day new stories of school bullying come to light. There is verbal bullying, physical bullying and cyber bullying to worry about. In my experience, the social world of school is something that each child must navigate for his or herself, with support from teachers and parents if there are any problems. I know that when Alana was this age, her friendship groups underwent a lot of upheaval, with sometimes almost daily changes in who was friends with who. For boys, full of testosterone and perhaps less able to talk about how they feel, it's easy for them to "get physical". It's a worry for me, because Josh is a sensitive soul who can get upset easily.

going...

As for me, I've been trying to get a bit ahead on my uni work before the semester officially begins on March 1.

I've been focussing my attention on EER500 - Introduction to Education Research. Unfortunately, I've been hampered by the fact that the subject forum is not yet available. The subject forum is how we students communicate with one another and with our subject coordinator. It's a great tool for asking questions, discussing issues, or simply "thinking out loud". I'm having trouble moving forward, because without the subject forum I feel very isolated and unsure whether or not I'm on the right track. I have emailed my subject coordinator directly with a couple of questions, but I haven't heard back from her yet.

My other subject, ETL507 - Professional Experience/Professional Portfolio,  has a list of readings and questions to consider (to be discussed on the as-yet-unavailable subject forum), but as yet no study guide to indicate what the assessment schedule or requirements of the subject are. So while I can get reading, and start to formulate some thoughts, that's about all I can do so far.

gone!

EER500 Up and Running

I study via distance education, which means that all my study materials and all my communication with teaching staff and other students is online. This semester, one of my subjects is EER500 "Introducation to Educational Research"; and though the semester doesn't begin until March 1st, the subject coordinator already has things up and running on the website. Bless you Beverley Moriarty!

I've been able to read through the subject outline, which goes into great detail about the study schedule for the subject, as well as the requirements for the assessment items. I've even been able to make a start! Hooray for enthusiastic subject coordinators that prepare early! The earlier I make a start, the less stressful the deadlines will be.

The main thrust of the subject is to prepare us to undertake our own educational research, from the point of view of both "how to" design a research question, and bigger research issues such as ethical issues and paradigms of research. It sounds fascinating to me, and I'm very eager to get started.

Our beginning point is to find a recent media release, government report, or similar, relating to an area of interest for us. Students studying this subject have many different areas of specialisation. Mine is librarianship, so I'll be looking for a report that relates to libraries in schools. I've got the idea that I'd like to focus on the implications of the Federal Government's Digital Education Revolution for school libraries and the teacher librarian's role. Wish me luck!