Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Pupils to Study Twitter and Blogs

I found an interesting article from the guardian.co.uk called "Pupils to study Twitter and blogs in primary schools shake-up."

Children will no longer have to study the Victorians or the second world war under proposals to overhaul the primary school curriculum, the Guardian has learned.

However, the draft plans will require children to master Twitter and Wikipedia and give teachers far more freedom to decide what youngsters should be concentrating on in classes.

I think the idea is great, because all these Web 2.0 technologies like twitter, wikipedia, facebook and blogs are being used by industry in many feilds. Nearly all, of my friends, work, on a computer, and this includes the outdoors and physical labout tradesmen, who use their computers, iphones, and PDA's to quote, and promote their businesses. I don't think students and teachers get enough time, in computer labs, to experience ecurriculum and this will be at the detremeant to the Australian education system and eventually the Australiain workforce.I do however applaud all schools, principals, and management that are given it the best shot they can. The next few years are going to be really interesting. However, I don't think the content of bristish system, ie the Victorians or World War II necessarily needs to be purged.

Tuesday, 31 March, 2009

So far, I have met with IT department every Friday for the whole of the year. They discuss their concerns and issues with the network. I am trying to understand their hardware issues. Most of them make sense, but I can't help to think that some of the "faults" or "issues" with the network could be fixed if some harder decisions were made. I guess that's easier to say, because I don't know much about IT infrastructure, and to be honest I don't really want to! The Prinicapal has asked to me to organize an external audit, and now that I know a little about the way things work, I am going to organize this.

I understand nearly all of their concerns with staff, as the staff do not often think hard about the solution before calling to IT for support. However IT can be somewhat short if the answer is obvious. Managing expectations of Staff and IT support has been a role, that's probably not written into the job description.

I have been dealing with many emails from parents and their access to the Parent Portal and Studywiz. The Parent Portal contains the online student reporting system. The system is outsourced to someone and we have no control over it at school. Parents are getting this confused with Studywiz itself. The parent access to Studywiz merely shows them what their son/daughter is doing on Studywiz. I have distrubted Parents of new students and year 7 passwords for Studywiz.

Some issues lie within Studywiz. I find the current way it's setup really awkwards and clunky. Next year, I'd like it if we could start the whole thing over again. That's the only way I can think to make it work better overall.

Student ILP's are being workjed on electronically and being saved to the Students Studywiz ELocker. This seems to be working well.

I guess I'm writing this because we are nearing the end of term. I feel like I have done the best, with the limited knowledge that was passed on to me, and working between to different learning environments, however at the end of Term 1, I do feel very tired and strected. I do feel that the students of PIC may have missed out on the more one on one consultation I am usually able to deliver, and uniqueness and individualised learning that PIC has to offer.

I am looking forward to Term 2 and exploring more e curriculum ideas.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Monday 2nd - Thursday 4th March

Tried to fix computer that would not burn.

Fixed Cara and Helen's computer to enable them access to the HSC network. Network setttings were off.

Drafter letter to staff about student Studywiz passwords. Distributed letters.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Monday 2nd, March 2009

PIC meeting.

Sent of emails looking for new data projectors.

Spoke to Steven about some VET issues.

Got computer off Anthony and David, to update for them so students can use Pro Tools.

Spoke to Rhonda about E potential and fixed her Studywiz account.

Emailed Lynton about E potential about deligation of principal rights.

Rang Dean about Donna not having access to E Potential. Emailed him and he is going to chase up.

Had lunch.