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EARCOS Admin '08

eac2008 A great conference held in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, with Alan November opening the first day.
The notes of the Tech Directors job-a-like have been saved on this Google Doc

21st Century Learning in Hong Kong

Great conference in Hong Kong including both International Schools and local schools.

On the Right is Peter Woodhead, the retiring ICT Adviser at English Schools Foundation in Hong Kong and myself with the new title of Learning Technologies Adviser.


Visit 21CLearningHongKong

I have included a video of one of the presentations that I gave at the conference

One-to-One Computing: Anytime, anyplace technology for every student

Multi-touch Tablet

You may be aware of Multi-touch technology like this video below



We are looking at a Multi-touch Tablet from Dell for next year.

EARCOS Teachers' Conference 2008

I will be offering four workshops at the EARCOS Teachers' Conference in K.L.


Workshop 1
Title: Teaching with Tablets: The Development and Use of a One to One Tablet Laptop Program

Description:
This workshop will look at some of the pitfalls and tips for piloting a laptop program. It will consider the total cost of ownership and how such programs can be funded. How laptops can be used to enhance teaching and learning and the special benefits of tablets and digital ink. Notes for the workshop Teaching with Tablets

Workshop 2
Title: Taking Learning Online: Developing an Online Curriculum to Support Teaching and Learning

Description:
This workshop will look at how to developing an online curriculum and use it effectively to support teaching and independent learning, both in and outside the classroom. Notes for the workshop Taking learning online

Workshop 3
Title: Using Multimedia to Enhance Teaching and Learning

Description:
Students of the digital generation respond much better to multimedia than simple text based resources. The research has shown that because of multimedia stimulation, young people's brains are literally wired differently. This session will look at first why and then how to produce multimedia resources incorporating video and sound to enhance teaching and learning. Notes for the workshop Using Multimedia to Enhance Teaching and Learning

Workshop 4
Title: Creating Wonder and not Wander: Giving Focus to Technology Lessons

Description:
Students can waste a great deal of time searching for information and Googling. This workshop will look at strategies and structures to get students thinking more in technology lessons. Notes for the workshop Creating Wonder and not Wander

Teaching Mathematics with a Tablet Laptop

One of the things I have noticed observing mathematics lessons, is that at some point the teacher does a worked example on the board. The students don’t watch and listen, but automatically pick up their pens and try to copy down the example and the workings. As the teacher is blocking the view of the board and their handwriting may need some deciphering; the students fall further and further behind in their copying. At some point they start to filter out the sound of the teacher talking, because it is a distraction from the task of copying. The teacher is in fact talking to themselves. Would be so much better to have the students watch the worked example as many times as they need; rewind or even fast forward!. “On demand learning” means that a student should not be forced to listen to a problem being explained if they already understand it. Below is an example of a problem being solved by a teacher at my school using their tablet laptop. Video capture is used with audio narration. The students watch the problem solved before the lesson and use the quality face to face time in the class to unpack the problem. – I don’t know about you, but I would have to watch the example several times!

Teaching Languages on a Tablet PC

One of the teaching areas that benefits most from having a Tablet PC is language teaching. Paper based resources just do not communicate effectively. Take Chinese for instance, where stroke order is important.

What is needed is a easy way for teachers to create resources on their tablet and students to access them on theirs. The video below was created in seconds on a tablet by one of our Chinese teachers.

Ultra-Mobile Computing

I often get asked where technology is going in education? Where will we be in ten years time? At the moment one-to-one laptop schools are quite rare, but that is bound to change as more and more schools get the message that the world is changing and education is changing with it.

A computer is just a tool - a very powerful tool, but it will soon be common place in schools, like calulators are today. One of the trends that will continue is that machines will continue to get smaller the so called Ultra-Mobile PC or UMPC. At the moment they are trying to compete with full size laptops and are being found wanting, but as bandwidth increases to grow, we will see a move to thin client devices, where movie files are moved online for editing.

One-to-One Laptop Programs

There was a real buzz at the EARCOS Admin Conference about One-to-One Laptop Programs, many schools are either going that way or thinking of going that way. Also heard mentioned in many discussions was "Tablets". Quite a change from last year, Tablets now seem to have become accepted as having many advantages for schools.

One of the highlights of the conference was the informal panel discussion/forum "What's Happening Now in Educational Technology?" This is were administrators got to quiz Tech experts about where technology in education was going. The common response was: One-to-One

This is a video of my tablet presentation:



One of the videos I used in my presentation was a Toshiba video, which showed how one school had piloted a one-to-one tablet program.


Technorati Tags: [Tablet PC], [One-to-One Laptop],

EARCOS Administrators' Conference 2007 in K.L.

I will be offering two workshops at EARCOS Administrators' Conference


1) Teaching with Tablets: the development and use of a one to one tablet laptop program. Notes are available here: Teaching with Tablets

2) Taking learning online: developing an online curriculum to support teaching and learning. Notes are available here: Taking learning online

Target Audience:
Teachers or Administrators interested in developing technology in schools or using it to enhance teaching and learning.

Description of Workshop:
· Teaching with Tablets:

This workshop will look at some of the pitfalls and tips for piloting a laptop program. It will consider the total cost of ownership and how such programs can be funded. How laptops can be used to enhance teaching and learning and the special benefits of tablets and digital ink.

· Taking learning online:

This workshop will look at how to developing an online curriculum and use it effectively to support teaching and independent learning, both in and outside the classroom.

Technorati Tags: [Tablet PC], [EARCOSadmin07],

Learning 2.0 Shanghai

Great Technology Conference - and a big thanks to Jeff Utecht for getting us all Twittering and Ninging; before; during and after the conference. This technology is so great for creating community, that I have decided to use it to support ISTEC - the International Schools Technology group in Thailand. NIST is hosting our next meeting on 8th October and I am pleased that Chris Smith will be joining us.







Visit IntSchTech


Technorati Tags:[Education], [learn2cn], [Technology], [Learning 2.0 Shanghai],

Technology at NIST 3 Years on; time to move on

This is the NIST Server room 3 years ago, when I joined NIST as Tech Director. The three main storage "servers" (desktops) for secondary staff; elementary staff and students each with 40Gb of space!

The NIST Server room today - note the IBM Blade Centre and over 7 Terabytes of storage

Wireless network and one-to-one Tablet laptop program

Wireless projectors in every classroom

Online Curriculum using class wikis on windows sharepoint

With the exception of the tablets themselves; which were build into the school fees ; all this technology was financed out of existing budgets.

So at the end of this academic year; the tablet program will be full rolled out and I will be looking for another school to start the process all over again!

The International year of the wiki

"The International year of the wiki" was written on a 07-08 planning calendar in our staff room last June. We are not sure by whom, but my suspicion is that it was Malcolm Nicolson, the MYP Coordinator, a guy with a great sense of humor. He has since moved to become head of the MYP in Cardiff, which is a great loss to the school. But why was it so funny? Well at the beginning of last year none of the staff had even heard of wikis, yet over the next 12 months the whole of the secondary school curriculum was moved online on to wikis. People had spent so much time wikiing, that many actually believed 07-08 was the International year of the wiki “Is it really?”; “so everybody’s wikiing are they?”

These are two training videos I did; which are available from our network in high definition and on Google videos, out of school.

Marketing your school as a Technology School

The start of another school year and I see that another article has been published about Technology at NIST, this time in Education Living NIST has been the subject of a number of Newspaper and Magazine articles, including PC WORLD; EWorld; Winmag; and The Bangkok Post. I also have presented at a number of conferences: ISAT Teaching Conference; The World Teacher Congress; Tech Ex 2005; IBO SEA technology conference in Singapore; EARCOS ADMIN and EARCOS Teacher Conferences 2006-7 in Bangkok and I will be presenting also workshops at EARCOS ADMIN and EARCOS Teacher Conferences 2007-8 in Jakarta. All this helps to brand the school as a technology school. See the IT in NiSt. http://www.nist.ac.th/Technology/

Blogs in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

NIST is using Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 for staff to develop an online learning platform. One of the features of WSS3.0 is the built in Blog feature. This is a great way to supervise students doing a project the I.B. like the Personal Project or Extended Essay. The students need to keep a process journal – this can now be done online in their Blog and teachers can continue to monitor students’ progress and comment on their work, even during the holidays.

Schools collaborating to get bulk discounts

Traditionally schools make purchase decisions on their own, but if enough of them get together, then vendors sit up and take notice. At NIST we are planning to purchase 250 tablets but with other schools also buying, it gives everybody good discounts and we can share our experiences about demo machines. I recently got this email from a tech director in Bangkok, which was sent to several other schools.

Subject: RE: tablet reduced price

It would be good for us to have a chat about Tablets, where we are all up to, quotes, security and anything else. Effectively, I think that this means that we pick Paul's brains!!

See you on Friday.

Cheers

Some would say "why share", but in the end, everybody gains.

Laptop Bags

There is some debate about the best kind of bag for a student laptop. If you give students a big bag, they will stuff it with other things that could damage the laptop



such as
The other issue is one of fashion. Whatever bag you buy them, they won't want to use it. A laptop carried without a bag will be dropped and they don't bounce well.

Damage done by dropping is cosmetic, but the plastic assemblies are expensive.

We have decided to give the students a slip case, that they can slip inside the bag of choice (this week).

Tablet PC Selection

We are currently in the process of choosing a Tablet PC for next year - we will be buying 200 more for students use in our 1:1 program and more carts for elementary, as well as additional staff machines. A number of International Schools in Thailand and the Asia Pacific region are looking at starting a 1:1 Tablet PC program.

This is the spec we went for:
I feel that 2Gb of Ram is the minimum spec for VISTA - 2 batteries for whole day use.

This is the email we sent to vendors:

The purpose of this email is to formally invite you, to be a tablet vendor candidate.
For your information, NIST is expecting to buy 200-250 new tablet computers for next academic year.

We would like to the request specifications of your recommended tablet computers and a test machine for testing such as battery life, Windows XP and Vista drivers, checking performance and actual specification.

We will shortlist the tablet companies that we want to invite to a meeting to discuss in detail our new tablet computer requirements at NIST.

In closing, please see our additional requirements to help on your preparation as below;
- Model and Price
- Must be able to deliver in June 2007
- XP and Vista drivers
- Roadmap for the product offered – e.g. When will it be replaces?
- Delivery time for initial order and any additional orders – e.g. replacements
- Warranty - how long - what covered - onsite or not
- What offers – standby machines – free accessories etc
- Cost of replacement/spare parts – chargers – batteries - pens – most usually broken parts – e.g. plastic casing
- What support offered - technical - problem solving –Marketing etc

Technorati Tags:[Education], [Tablet PCs], [Technology], [Teaching], [International Schools],

Google Videos

............. Google Video is a good way of uploading videos for use in the class. This is a video I uploaded - a clip from one of Bill's webcasts - "Bill Gates Unveils Technology Breakthroughs in Education at Microsoft Government Leaders Forum Europe January 2007" Bill and Tablets A nice feature is "Unlisted" - your video will not be included in search results - just add the URL o your Blog or Wiki

Technorati Tags:[Education], [Google Videos], [Technology], [Teaching],

IBAP Teachers' Convention 2007 continued

The final dinner at the presenters' table. Left to Right: Ed Lawless, Professional Development Manager ; Ian Jukes; Peter Woodhead; , ICT Advisor, English Schools Foundation; Judith Guy, Regional Director IBAP; and myself.

Missing from the table was Stephen Heppell who showed us how he is getting students and teachers to learn collaboratively using technology.