Principal of Opunake Primary
A group of four rural schools in the South Taranaki region have made a commitment to explore new technologies and how to best implement them in their schools. The MOA Kluster, as they call the group, attended the 2016 International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Conference to learn new technologies and forms of collaboration that will impact what and how their students learn. Read about their experience of attending the ISTE Conference, and how they have implemented changes since, as written by Lorraine Williamson, Principal of Opunake Primary. In 2014, we formed a group called the MOA Kluster, comprised of four rural South Taranaki schools – Matapu School, Opunake Primary, Auroa School and Kaponga Primary. Since this time, all four of our schools have been on a journey led by the principals to implement e-learning in our schools effectively. During 2016, our cluster was fortunate to receive $8,000 in funding from InternetNZ’s community grants scheme, for each
of the four principals to attend the ISTE Conference in Denver USA. We were astounded and extremely excited to be amongst 16,000 educators from over 50 different countries at this amazing conference. With digital technology becoming such an integral part of the New Zealand curriculum it was important to us that we kept up with best practice, not only for our own professional development but also for the benefit of our students. With the information technology sector as one of the fastest growing sectors in New Zealand, and with such a high demand for skilled graduates, we needed to ensure we were on track to provide our students with the necessary dispositions they require to succeed in this world. The ISTE Conference and Expo is recognised globally as the most comprehensive educational technology conference in the world. For more than three decades, educators and education
MOA Kluster teachers attending the conference. (l to r) Kelly Ogle – Senior Teacher Opunake, Jarad Chittenden – Principal Auroa, Lorraine Williamson – Principal Opunake, Shane Downs – Principal of Kaponga, Heath Chittenden – Principal Ashhurst, Kerry Nancarrow – Principal Matapu
leaders have gathered at the ISTE conference to engage in handson learning, exchange ideas and network with like-minded thinkers seeking to transform learning and teaching. We attended an enormous array of workshops over the four days. What I found stunning was the level of expertise and the availability of the presenters. I attended a workshop with Aaron Sams and Jonathan Bergman, on ‘Flipping Your Classroom’ which is a new model reversing classroom and homework elements. Short video lectures are watched at home before class, with classroom time devoted to exercises, projects, or discussions. This presentation got me thinking – this is a highly effective strategy for immersing students in their learning. It allows students to access a lesson several times to clarify their
begun to be immersed in. The bulk of the workshops, playgrounds, participating and sharing forums, lectures, and ignite sessions that I attended, grew my knowledge and understanding of STEM, computational thinking, flipped classrooms, coding and robotics, makerspaces and Google classroom. Attending this conference has enabled myself and the other principals to further develop many initiatives in our schools. As a cluster we have been focussing on moving our schools forward using a digital platform. Until we attended this conference, “we didn’t know what we didn’t know,” but after spending several days listening to amazing speakers and attending useful workshops, we were literally mind blown. Since attending this conference, my thoughts about the
Ozobots with Cayless and Jazzhara
Code Osmo with Nikau and Essina
learning. Some of my colleagues have decided to follow up on this teaching technique, and we are taking 9 teachers and 2 principals to Wellington later on this year to consolidate our learning. We have started to “flip” our classrooms and now we want to build greater capability in our teaching staff. We attended workshops on robotics, computer science, and using Google tools effectively in the classroom to name a few. As a result, we now have a systematic plan where we start introducing these skills and knowledge to our students when they first join us at five years old and continue to grow this knowledge through their whole journey with us. Our plan also looks at how we involve our parents in a meaningful way and provide them with the knowledge and skills so that they can support their child’s learning process. We gained valuable insight into the future direction of STEM, digital literacy, and technology. We have since purchased resources such as “DOT and Dash” and “Ozobots” to enable our students to learn through doing. We have also begun to investigate code.org after meeting Hadi Partovi, the launcher of the programme, during his presentation at the conference. Meeting and listening to Hadi confirmed that this is an amazing resource which we will use quite widely in our school. When we returned from ISTE, I asked my teachers to complete code.org’s The Hour of Code – an introduction to computer science and computer programming. Today teachers at my school undertake self-paced professional development based on teaching the Hour of Code effectively. The most powerful aspect of the conference was that it reinforced and extended on the pedagogies that we had already
strategic direction of our school have changed dramatically. With technology and digital literacy developing at such a rapid rate, it’s important that as a school we remain relevant and at the leading edge. We have now developed an overview of where we were at and where we wanted to be heading in light of our new learning. We have since introduced many new technologies into the school on a trial basis. We have tinkered (a computational thinking skill) and we have pushed some students to see what they are capable of achieving and teaching others. We have invested in employing a staff member whose role is to support teachers when they are trying a new approach to technology and help to troubleshoot any issues while scaffolding new learning. An example of something we are working on is teaching students how to use Tinkercad for 3D printing. We are currently building our own version of a home base on Mars. Students have been watching videos, reading articles, and conducting their own research about the planet. They then have to plan what they think they would need to survive on Mars. They are given a template of the planet and they design their buildings to fit. As an unplugged activity, they have been provided with a motor, some ping pong balls, a battery holder and some batteries to design a Mars Rover. They had to use engineering processes to design, test and modify their Rovers. The activity resulted in some fantastic designs, and the children really embraced and enjoyed the concept. I could spend hours going through the awesome projects we have started on as a result of the learning opportunities that ISTE provided. I would urge readers to find out about the
conference for yourself by visiting the About the author ISTE website. The 2017 conference I am currently Principal at Opunake will be held in San Antonio Texas. This Primary School and have been the principal would singularly be one of the best of this school for over 12 years. I have professional development opportunities been a principal for 22 years and have been teaching for over 40 years. This is I have attended in my time as principal. singularly one of the most interesting It was made even more powerful by and exciting times to be an educator. I being able to attend with my colleagues regularly work with students, particularly and interact and build ongoing working in the area of STEM, and I am constantly relationships with a number of ISTE wowed by the wealth of opportunities to presenters and other attendees from make learning authentic, challenging and all around the world, all facing similar engaging through the variety of material technology based challenges in their and support for teachers. The technology schools. available in schools, also makes this a very I would like to sincerely thank exciting time to be a teacher. I am part of the Internet New Zealand for enabling MOA Kluster. This an absolutely amazing cluster that enables me to work alongside the MOA Kluster to attend the ISTE my colleagues. This is a hugely progressive Conference. This has definitely changed cluster which both challenges and supports my pedagogy and, as a result, changed me to stay abreast of the rapid changes the learning opportunities for teachers in learning and teaching. To be provided and students at Opunake Primary with opportunities to work alongside the School. most innovative and inspiring teachers InternetNZ offers a range of community and principals, has enabled me to continue grants to help maintain or extend the to grow my pedagogy in a way that I have A better world through a better Internet. use and accessibility of the Internet for 3D Printing with Rylan never done in any other time in my career. I New Zealanders. Grant rounds include am also fortunate to be employed by a Board community projects, conference attendance, and Internet research. of Trustee that are willing to embrace and support change that supports For more information on funding visit internetnz.nz/community- student learning and engagement in school. grants.
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