TUANZ Education Conference 2004 in association with Toshiba
Nine years, seven venues, including four new destinations, and hundreds of teachers — it was part of the formula for success at the 2004 TUANZ Education Conference. For almost a decade, TUANZ has delivered a premier education conference the length and breadth of the country. TUANZ co-ordinates its activities closely with the Ministry of Education, to promote technology and access to technology throughout New Zealand. The focus for the 2004 TUANZ Education Conference featured two outstanding keynote speakers:
Glenn Searle, Manager, Learning Solution Planning and Design, Open Learning Institute, Queensland, Australia and Margaret McLeod, Principal, Wellington Girls College - ABSTRACTS BELOW
Plus, dozens of workshops where local secondary and primary teachers demonstrated innovative ways to use new educational technologies, ICT leadership strategies, technical support.
KEYNOTE ABSTRACTS:
GLENN SEARLE: "Virtual Schooling — a journey to sustained and innovative student learning".
The rapid adoption of new technologies in the education sector has created new opportunities for the way traditional schooling is delivered. Virtual schooling is a new model of schooling that opens up the classroom, as we know it, ignores geography and provides enhanced curriculum options in a technologically savvy learning environment.The potential for increased levels and quality of interaction that online technologies can enable are tantalising and appealing to those who struggle with teaching and learning where interaction is limited, for example traditional distance education.
The role of the Virtual Schooling Service (VSS) in Queensland was to develop a model that harnessed the potential afforded by ICTs to students and teachers in a disparate learning environment.The VSS uses both synchronous and asynchronous technology to enable teachers and students to connect and communicate with each other on a number of levels and has led to the strengthening of relationships between them.This supports the notion that using distance learning technology in a people-oriented way is possible and desirable (Kimball, 2001).
The VSS journey has provided the opportunity to move beyond integrating ICTs within the classroom setting and continues to investigate the use of ICTs to link students with learning opportunities outside the traditional classroom.Investigating a range of technologies in the teaching and learning environment has been the cornerstone to building a successful learning platform for students in the online world. This presentation explores the critical success factors for engaging students in an ICT-rich learning environment and highlights some key initiatives of the education of students including:
* blending delivery technologies to maximise learning outcomes
* using technology to link with students at risk of disengaging from traditional learning
* leveraging off local expertise to benefit schools in geographical clusters
* delivery of subjects with practical components
* the value of a systemic gateway to a range of online learning communities and resources.
MARGARET McLEOD: "It's not about achieving your goals, it's about achieving your potential!"
Margaret McLeod is Principal of Wellington Girl's College and has been in that position for 6 years. As a school leader her vision is to empower learning with and through ICT. McLeod has encouraged the development of Wellington Girl's through a passion toward ICT - her partnership with the Board of Trustees enabled the school to be cabled early and from there move through to its present position, which focuses on maximising opportunity for students and teachers within teaching and learning. The school is currently using a growing intranet and creating reusable learning objects, which include original web resources by teachers and students and multimedia digital video.
McLeods involvement in ICT stems from the early 1980s when she researched the impact of word processing on student writing.In the 1990s she was a facilitator of an early professional development contract moving ICT across the curriculum in both primary and secondary schools.
In 2003 the school became the lead school in the Hands Across the Water Cluster and is in the process of developing a new focus on pedagogy around the innovations that ICT has brought to the school in the last two years.
McLeod will take her audience through change with all its bumps and twists, to ultimately to use the potential of ICT - which may completely reshape the interactions between student and teachers. www.wellington-girls.school.nz
Check out the 2004 Schedules and Abstract Summaries:
Auckland Primary Schedule 2004 and Auckland Primary Abstracts Summary
Auckland Secondary Schedule 2004 and Auckland Secondary Abstracts Summary
Greymouth Schedule 2004 and Greymouth Abstracts Summary
Nelson Schedule 2004 and Nelson Abstracts Summary
Hawkes Bay Schedule 2004 and Hawkes Bay Abstracts Summary
Taranaki Schedule 2004 and Taranaki Abstracts Summary
Waikato Schedule 2004 and Waikato Abstracts Summary