What to teach a child about how to be successful

This TED presentation is a condensed three minutes of a talk that Richard St. John gives to high school students that usually lasts for two hours.  He does do a fairly good job of getting his point across in the limited time, going over the eight steps to become successful:

Passion - Be driven by passion.  Do it for love, not money.  The money will come anyway!
Work - It's all hard work.  Nothing comes easily.
Focus - Focus on one thing.
Persist - The number one reason for our success!  Persist through failure.
Ideas - Listen, observe, be curious, ask questions, problem solve, make connections.
Good - To be successful put your nose down in something and get good at it! 
Push - Push yourself physically and mentally.  Push through shyness and self-doubt.
Serve - Serve others something of value.

To see what Richard St. John means, watch the presentation.

Rupert Murdoch's views on education

Rupert Murdoch might not be flavor of the month right now, and deservedly so.  However, this doesn't mean that he hasn't a useful thing or two to say,  This is certainly the case with his speech on education at the G8 Forum in Paris.  Murdoch makes a lot of interesting and valid points that you can read by clicking here.

One point that he does make that I have often read is the following:

'Think about that. In every other part of life, someone who woke up after a fifty-year nap would not recognize the world around him.

In medicine, doctors who once diagnosed patients with tools they could fit in their leather bags would be astonished to find their 21st century counterparts using CAT-scans and MRIs.

In finance, brokers who once issued old-fashioned share certificates have been replaced by online brokerages allowing people to trade across the world at any hour of the day.

In my industry, editors who put out newspapers the night before now marvel at the sight of readers getting news delivered to cellphones and tablets.

But not in education. Our schools remain the last holdout from the digital revolution. The person who woke up from that fifty-year nap would find that today’s classroom looks almost exactly the same as it did in the Victorian age: a teacher standing in front of a roomful of kids with only a textbook, a blackboard, and a piece of chalk.'

Anyone who reads this blog will know that I am a big fan of the use of technology to support education.  However, when I read what Rupert Murdoch highlights in the above excerpt I think to myself that all of the advancements that he gives in the fields of medicine, finance and news (interesting to see where advancements with the last two have led to lately!), have come about and been developed by those who have been through an 'old fashioned' education system.  This is certainly something to ponder before significant changes are made to the way in which we teach and expect our students to learn.

Schools logging on to online learning

The Sunday Star Times today featured an article (which, ironically, I can't find on the online version) about small New Zealand schools taking advantage of online learning opportunities.  The gist of the story is that small rural schools that aren't able to physically provide the teachers for a broad range of subjects, are able to provide online courses in these subject areas.

The upside, according to parents and students, is that it is more motivating to learn through an online environment.  This coincides with a feature article from the other New Zealand Sunday paper, The New Zealand Herald.  Deborah Coddington highlights the underachievement of many New Zealand students.  She suggests that underachievers should be provided with a broader range of strategies to motivate them, one of which being online learning.

At my own school we support class programmes with online strategies, two of which being for Te Reo Maori and French.  The sites are an excellent way to reinforce class content and to prepare for upcoming units of work.

Replacing textbooks with digital media

With the current debate about Orewa College adding the iPad to the stationery list for Year 9 students in 2012, it's interesting to see what is happening in other countries, particularly South Korea, as outlined in this article from the Associated Press that appeared on the Stuff news website this morning.  The article starts:

'Outside the classroom a hot summer day beckons, but fourth-grade teacher Yeon Eun-jung's students are glued to their tablet PCs as they watch an animated boy and a girl squabble about whether water becomes heavier when frozen'.

Click here to read the article in full.

Google Sites v Wikispaces

I attended a course today in which I ran a training session on Google Sites.  My presentation followed an earlier one on Wikispaces, with both presentations aimed at introducing teachers to a means of having an online presence.

Having experimented with both I have a strong preference for Google Sites.  I find the whole interface more user friendly and intuitive.  My preference is reflected in the fact that during the Wikipedia presentation I found that I had already set up a long forgotten Wikispace for my school, before moving onto Sites, which is the platform that I use for our school website and student portfolios.

Another factor that influences my preference is the whole Google package, with Sites tied up with Google Docs, Gmail, Calendar, and so much more.

However, I do acknowledge that there are schools that are doing fantastic things with Wikispaces, one in particular being Apiti School.  Whatever your preference is, it is important that something is used, as an online presence is a great way to share what is going on in your school.

For anyone interested in using sites, I have set up a number of lesson plans to help you get started.  The lessons are specific to my school's Google Apps accounts, but from about step 6 for each lesson plan you will find that they are applicable to any Google Account.

Why we should use mobile devices in the classroom

The Pew Internet@American Life Project has completed research that has found that American consumers are adopting smartphones - faster than just about any hi-tech product in history.  The research has found that many households are now using smartphones instead of computers for Internet access.

In my own useage I have found that I am now using my iPod touch as my main means of checking emails and surfing the Net.  I have also found that creating content on the smaller devices gets easier the more I do it; thumb typing isn't as difficult as I though it would be on small touch screens.  Additionally, apps that have traditionally been available only for laptops and PCs are now available for smartphones and mobile devices; three examples being iMovies, Pages (for Macs) and Google Docs.

To me this sends a clear message that schools who want to be seen as game changes need to move away from the big expensive devices and lead the way with mobile technology.  There are two key advantages in doing so: buying power - more devices per child (three iPod touches for the price of one cheap laptop), and the fact that children exposed to the mobile way of thinking and working are being better prepared for ICT usage in the future.

Brainrule # 4: How to keep children's attention

This brain rule is particularly relevant to teachers.  The way to keep a child's attention is to understand that they will only pay attention for 10 minutes.  The same applies to adults; I recall many occasions in which I have drifted off in meetings or during powerpoint presentations.  According to Brain Rule # 4 I needed to be refocussed every 10 minutes.

The secret to refoccusing your class or audience is to do so in a way that stays with the topic or theme of what is being taught.  A good example of this for me was when I was on a Web 2 course for principals.  The presenter broke the presentation up with the fantastic You Tube clip, 'The Book' (a great choice, as most in attendance were ICT strugglers)

 

Without being aware of the rule I have applied it myself in a presentation that I did on the always enthralling topic of assessment triangulation / overall teacher judgement.  Checking through the presentation you will see that I have added clips that are related to the topic in an attempt to keep the attention of those I was presenting to.