Edu Tech Congress Reflections

Earlier this month, I was fortunate enough to attend the Edu Tech Conference at Darling Harbour.  I came back from the two days with my mind spinning. It was affirming as I could see that much of what was being discussed was already happening in my classroom. However at other times I was boggled as to how I could make these changes happen. However it was reassuring  to know  that my vision was being  backed up by the research and data provided by others.

Allan November highlighted that the revolution that we are experiencing is not  in technology. The revolution is a fundamental change in pedagogy. He allowed me to reflect on who owns the learning in my classroom, my students or I ?  He made me feel more confident in my ability to let go of control and allow a shift in who takes responsibility for the learning. 

November discussed the flipped classroom. He challenged us to consider ways to reengineer homework. I loved his phrase “Practice doesn’t make perfect, practice makes permanent.”  He reminded us that students want choice and need immediate feedback. He encouraged us to teach our students to be reflective learners.

Stephen Heppell too, highlighted the need to make students reflective learners, moving them away from being content based learners. He encouraged us as teachers to learn about how we are learning. He told us that we can’t build better learning for students, but we can learn better with students.

I loved Sir Ken Robinson’s idea that in education we are dealing with vast rich resources of talent and capacity and as a teacher, we need to go looking for it. Ken Robinson inspired us with his concept of creativity being a function of intelligence. He challenged me to think about how creativity is intertwined with critical judgement. We need to teach the power of evaluating ideas. He also encouraged us to have greater conversation while providing open-ended collaborative task. Sir Ken highlighted the fact that the new digital technologies have given us the tools but tools are neutral - it is the task that is performed by the creator is that is creative. The technology is only as powerful as the creative capacity available by the operator.  Once again, we hear of a change in pedagogy being more critical than the technology.

Greg Whitby highlighted the importance of making school relevant to a child’s life. He challenged us to ask questions about what we are doing and why? He encouraged schools to go from an ‘ I know” environment, to a “We learn” collaborative community.Greg wants us to reflect on how structures, processes and environments either support or hinder authentic learning. What we do is not an experiment but should be founded on contemporary research and data.

Dan Haesler’s talk was engaging! It did what he wants our students to do.. be engaged. He defined engaged as a sense of interest, curiosity, and absorption. An engaged individual is able to pursue goals with determination and vitality. He made me think about how I can encourage my students become intrinsically motivated. Through autonomy - giving them choice, through mastery -  encouraging them to strive to improve and through a sense of purpose - showing them that what they do has relevance in their world.

However the thing that I think that all teachers can do without even thinking, as suggested by Dan, is not to answer the students questions. Ask them another question to get them to find the solution! This is so easily done if they come armed with an ipad!

One of the workshop I attended was about tablet technology in the classroom.  Yes the session was sponsored by an android based company, however the same message was coming across no matter what device was being used. Mobile devices are the way of the future. (Despite this,  a quite vocal congress attendee walked out on the presentation because it wasn't pushing the ipad as the recommended mobile device) I just wish the ipads were compatible with Flash! The issue of bring your own device was also the talk of the congress. But I think that the emphasis should be on what is done with the tool, rather than the tool itself. That's what i am enjoying about the past modules - it's what i can put into place!