Carolyn Marino, Principal of Westmere School, reflects here on the impact of e-learning upon the school and students as a whole in 2010. In this discussion she raises some interesting points that will need to be un-packed in the weeks and terms to come.
These two videos represent the final two interviews of 2010. Jenny and Vashti have been integrating e-learning into their classrooms in 2010 and you an see and hear their reflections in these two videos. Vashti has also recorded student reflections and once she has posted that video I will link to it here.
I have been working with staff from Westmere School since late 2009. Melissa is a Year 1/2 teacher and is in charge of e-learning integration at Westmere. In this video she shares how e-learning has impacted upon her pedagogy, classroom management and student attainment this year.
I was working at Westmere School today it is a school where e-learning has really taken off in the last year. I have been working with the team for about 18 months now and in this school you do not just see isolated pockets of e-learning passion, it is rapidly seeping its tendrils into every aspect of teacher planning and into every class of the school, even the SMT are experimenting with social media as an effective communication tool. The school vision for e-learning states that:
“By 2012 Westmere School will project a philosophy and school culture of e-learning from the front door to the back gate.”
They want you to know from the moment you cross the threshold, something special is happening in school. Today a great leap was made towards that goal. I have been working with Mel all the time that I have been associated with the school and I have highlighted her great work before, you can see her e-learning innovations on her class wiki http://room14discovery.wikispaces.com Today Mel invited parents and grandparents into her year 1-2 class. Nothing unusual here, parents in class is normal. The difference here is that they were coming to learn. The students were going to teach their parents and grandparents how to use wikis, customise their computers, use Pivot Stick figure animator, Photostory3 and more. It was very powerful to watch and it was very empowering for the children. They were witnessing life long learning, the parents were engaged wanting to know about these tools and where to get them from. The students wanted the parents to know particularly about how to add content to the wiki as this has become a central plank of the student’s learning environment and they want their parents to be part of it, to engage with it. The embeded video shows the students in action, the audio quality is not good, the video was taken on my iPhone and the student voices were not strong, but the visuals tell the storyeloquently enough. These students are in charge of their computers and software and are empowered by it, empowered enough to be effective teachers. Long may this role reversal continue to be valued at Westmere, it was powerful stuff.
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To follow on from yesterday’s post I have been working in Wakaaranga School today and one teacher shared how she is managing the e-learning experts in her class. She has not created an experts wall, rather she has made the display the students themselves! With a collection of lanyards lying around from old conference registrations, she has got the students to make their own experts badges in the vein of the image below. This is a brilliant idea. The more expert you are the more lanyards you wear. Which one of the students in her class will be the first to resemble the 80’s A-Team icon “Mr T”?
I have already shared how Mel at Westmere has taken my suggested idea of class experts and has created her own experts wall. She even went to the trouble of creating and sharing a template for others to use. I have been promoting the great progress and innovation that Mel has been achieving at Westmere and it is obviously paying dividends. I was in Buckland School yesterday working with their lead teachers from the cluster and they took me to one of the rooms that is powering ahead with e-learning. To my surprise and delight, there was Mel’s experts wall template and my experts idea thriving on a class wall that neither of us have had input into. Proving that great ideas need spreading. The slide show above shows the images from Buckland.
It is really gratifying walking into a school and to see your suggestions, visions and ideas in action. It has happened to me a couple of times in the last week. The first was at Westmere School where I work on alternate Thursdays. I have been working with Mel all year and she has been making great progress on a number of fronts, infact she is leading the e-learning drive in school. Perhaps it would be better to say that she is driving the e-learning! She has been using a number of tools that I introduced her to, she has been experimenting with a range of them until she found what she considered a best fit for her and her students. The tool of the moment and probably for a while to come is http://vocaroo.com I love this tool. It is so instant, so easy. The mean time for PD and Vocaroo mastery is about 30 seconds. Don’t believe me? Try it for yourself. If you can copy and paste you already have the required skills! It is the potential of this simple tool that gives it its educational power and Mel has put it to good use on her classwiki. She is currently using http://vocaroo.com as a reading running record. In addition she has got students to reflect on work they have created. Mel’s site is well worth spending some time on as she has also got the students to reflect on their individual e-learning progress this year. This class and this teacher and eventually this school are only going to go from strength to strength with their e-learning.
You can visit room 14 here: