Great day

Saw this quote on David Warlick
"Today’s exams are deadly. They test on a very narrow sampling of the skills that are crucial to the future. There are good exams out there. But they are expensive, by four or five times. We need fewer exams and much better ones."

That makes real sense. why do we worry so much about assessment? What is important is teaching and learning. Assessment can drive, develop, critique and support teaching and learning but on its on it is meaningless. Where is the value of assessment only?

Spent a lot of today thinking about what makes a difference in our school. Where is our point of difference? Did really good thinking with my senior team about where we are and where we want to be. Are we going to build on our strengths or weaknesses? Really good action around leadership in schools.

Went to a debate tonight about "Is the media strangling leadership in New Zealand?" form the excelerator institute. Good stuff but really where is the technology taking the media and what does this mean for our interpretation and understanding of information is the big issue. this is not touched.
Do RSS feeds and readers make traditional media obsolete? in my view yes as my knowledge now comes via that and a little from the radio while in Auckland traffic. I control what I want not some gatekeeper newspaper editor!

More reading

I find I am reading more and more as I get ideas sorted out around the impact on teaching and learning that technology is forming. I have started reading Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. Like David Weinberger's work we have to rethink our idea of what is knowledge and its impact on schooling.

This seems to be at the crux of 21st century learning in schools.

Just also finished reading a couple of blogs. Bruce Hammond's blog on why we need some urgency. Why are things so slow?

Also David Warlick's blog on First Year teachers and the wonderful comment trail that follows. This does really make you think! Is this Web 2.0 stuff important or are we just playing around?

An interesting news report (from one of my teachers) states that New Zealand youth are the highest use of mobile phones in the world but our social networking is not as good.

lots happening and lots of thinking

Couple of things

Found an interesting article from Times online about how the Chinese are failing in their attempts to censor the internet. It seems as though the power of the technology is greater than even the largest totalitarian government's ability to manage it.

Have just enrolled in twitter. So if you want to tell me what you are doing just use my email in my profile.

Spent the day on finances, writing reports and trying to understand my property developments. Nothing on learning.

Have got our confirmed ERO (Education Review Office) report and it should be on their website next week. It is really good and I have to think twice if it is my school.

Back at School

Well arrived back at school with 500 emails in my inbox to be sorted and all those questions about staffing and money and property and furniture. ie nothing really important like learning.

It was exciting to be back at school around teachers who I admire and working with really great learners.
I shared with staff my reflections on my trip especially my thoughts around the conference. The thinking conference was great with some inspiring stuff and many great starters for me and the school. Frustrations around IT and the links that it has to thinking. Shared some of James Nottingham's presentation about modes of learning.

The most prevalent modes of learning used in schools (listening, reading) are those that have lowest retention rates, while those with the highest retention rates (explaining to others, practicing, discussing) are not done often. My challenge to the staff at Whangaparaoa college is that they do more of the high retention strategies and less of the low retention. A quiet classroom no discussing or explaining to others is a low retention learning environment.

I expect the noise to increase if nothing else.

Knowledge

Finished David Weinberger's new book Everything is Miscellaneous while doing the ten hour journey home from Kuala Lumpur. This is a great read about how we need to rethink knowledge now that technology allows us to access it differently. The sequential way of viewing knowledge previously no longer fits with the way knowledge can be viewed via the internet especially through latest Web 2.0 technologies.

If our view of knowledge needs to change then it fits in with my thoughts about how we need to change the teaching of knowledge away from the standard sequential learning processes relevant for the industrial age. These views have great importance to schools and have been talked about for decades but still have had little traction. The miscellaneous nature of knowledge which technology now demands may be the driver to push schooling forward.

Now reading The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. this again challenges our thoughts about the predictability and causality of knowledge and our intrpretation of events.

If we were to be doing our job as educators we would be teaching about 'Black Swans' and Miscellaneous knowledge as these ides seem to really where it is at.

Homeward

Have been out of internet contact or have had to pay for access which usually annoys me so I don't bother. Lots of stuff to read now though. Sittong in Kuala Lumpur airport where they have free wireless so can fill in some time before I need to catch my plane.

Enjoyed KL though very hot and dirty. Nice people and interesting sights. Good shopping which should keep my children happy when I get home. Don't know if the cat will be happy though.

Interesting time in London Heathrow leaving. Computers went down!!! All check in was done manually so meant that there was huge delays. Three hours in queue to check in and a rusth to get to the plane to find it could not get a leaving slot on the runway so we sat waiting for a time. So left 3 hours late. Massive delays. Recommend Malaysian Airlines though.

Lets us be aware of how technology is so crucial. The manual process was extraordinary in the work required. Many mistakes made which meant multiple checking.

Some thoughts on the trip overall.
* Conference was enlightening on the way that thinking can enlighten the curriculum.
* David Perkins outstanding as was De Bono on what he said.
* Disappointing how technology in schooling is still not occurring even in important areas regarding thinking. There was nothing on how IT and thinking work could together to create a modern education curriculum.
* Some really old fashioned stuff occurring and being trotted out as new.
* Everyone in Europe thinks, talks and cares about green issues especially global warming. They do talk about in the most unusual occassions. New Zealand has no discourse in comparison.
* Sustainability I think is becoming the key of the issues. Nothing happening much in education though.

Enjoyed things and lots to think about.

Next blog is from New Zealand. More stuff on thinking, IT and sustainibility to consider on the flight.