Do they still use pencils and paper?

Our current age is one of the most exciting the human race has faced.  We struggle with the issues of pollution and climate change, and we also face a future of unprecedented change, innovation and creation.  Our challenge is to prepare our children for an ever-changing future, with career paths looking very different from ours.

Frequently we hear parents comment on the use of technology in the classroom. They say they didn’t have it as children and they ‘turned out okay?’. However, we are now aware that comparing our childhoods and lives we are living to that of our children, is like comparing apples and pineapples - similar to our grandparents comparing forms of transport or telecommunications to the advancements and access we currently know.

Jan Owen AM, the CEO of the Foundation for Young Australians, in one of the largest surveys ever undertaken, collected data from large companies around the country and world, to see what it is they are looking for in prospective employees.  The message was employers are ‘Recruiting for mindset, and training for skills’.  Larger companies are employing undergraduates straight from high school, and offering them training and education purposefully designed for their company with their specific needs in mind. They are looking for presentation skills, creativity and critical thinking with digital literacy being the number one skill (and self-regulation being the number one attribute). 

 

At Peregian Springs, we are intentionally developing these skills with our learners, and no better program does this for us than our mLearningprogram.  From Prep our children have the opportunity to develop and build their 21^st Century Skills, as they build independence to problem solve, creatively discover and present their learning, whilst becoming a digitally literate learner.

Every year parents ask about pencils and paper, fine motor skills, screen time and face to face interactivity and how the use of a device impacts this.  Each of these elements have never been replaced within our classrooms, yet enhanced with the use of technology. 

Fine Motor Skills - our Early Years classrooms are resplendent in artwork hanging throughout the spaces to know that fine motor skills of cutting, drawing, painting etc. are still very much alive and valued.  And with the use of devices, our students can record, digitally collect, share and bring to life the drawings or paintings that were once static.

Screen Time – Screen Time as a negative impact is referred to when a person is sitting with their brain in idle mode watching a movie, video or simple game.  At school this rarely if ever happens.  When students are using devices they are creating, making, interacting or adapting content.

Interacting with others – devices are often used to collaborate on tasks with others. Students FaceTime experts around the world, or interacting with blogs and written content. And, in the classroom, students are creating with another student alongside.  Their conversations lead to deeper learning and greater challenges.

Your children are not missing out in this new age - in fact the reverse is probably true.

And some questions parents could ask instead are

·      How will they use the device to create?

·      How can we interact with what our child is doing to help them deepen their learning?

·      What questions should we be asking our child at the end of a day to hear their learning or extend their understanding?

(This blog post is a collaboration between Clair Allan and the Gwen Sands using the latest technology and our digital literacy skills ☺️ )

A licence to be creative

I love it when teachers send kids to see me with their 'best' work. It's a chance to celebrate learning, have a chat and ask children about their activities. It's also an opportunity to indiscriminately hand out stickers - I always ask 'are you too old for stickers?'. They never are...

The other day a group of Year 5s appeared at my door asking me if I wanted to see their movies. I don't need any other invitation to down tools and take a break. They proudly explained that their teacher had been to a conference and had returned and implemented a session once a week where they could be 'creative'. (It's always funny the ways in which kids see things - I'm pretty sure the teacher would be horrified if she knew they thought they could only be creative once a week!) They had made some movies about Queensland Day and as they pressed play up came a stream of photos of underwater scenes, the Queensland outback and other iconic Queensland images.

'Lovely', I said. 'Did you take those photos?'

'Oh, no', said one of them. 'They're from Creative Commons'. And so began a conversation on intellectual property, stealing the work of others from the Internet, and how many people make their living from their work online and should be paid for it. I was so impressed that 10 year olds already understand that you can't simply just copy and paste whatever you feel like using and pass it off as your own work. I was so impressed they knew about Creative Commons, what it means and how to find images they could use which didn't infringe on the rights of others.

This, of course, is a key outcome of our mLearning Program. Students are learning how to navigate the online world safely and ethically. They are learning to be creators of knowledge, and not just merely consumers. If we can pull this off, and at the same time maintain their innate curiosity and creativity, then we have done our jobs well.

(For those of you wondering, Creative Commons is a non-profit organisation devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share.)

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   From http://creativecommons.org.au/

   
   

What do they need a computer for? ... Digital Literacies for the information age

I remember when I was in Year 5 going home with a note from the teacher requesting that my parents supply a calculator for use at school. My Dad went off! I remember the ranting - it was all about the cost, and aren't your teachers teaching maths any more, and this is the end of kids being able to add up, and no one will get a job - the end of the world was coming it seemed. However, he bought me a calculator (and one for himself too) and I was so proud of it. I kept it in it's vinyl case and was amazed at what it could do. I had it for years (and wish I had it now as it would be an absolute relic!).

These days kids carry around a plethora of devices - iPods, iPads, phones, and lap tops - and the majority of these have the power to tap into and create more information than has ever been possible in the history of the human race. Being digitally literate is an absolute necessity in today's world - we are no longer talking about the future - in the words of William Gibson 'the future is already here'.

From  Educational Technology

So what are digital literacies? This info graphic sums it up beautifully.

Actually come to think of it - we've always needed these skills. I'm pretty sure my Year 5 teacher told my Dad I'd learn some of these skills using a calculator!

What is different about today is that kids need to be able to engage with these literacies using all the information at hand. In today's world, it's nigh on impossible to demonstrate initiative and entrepreneurialism or to collaborate across networks (for example) without a device in your hand. People without these skills may still be able to live happy and productive lives but the extent to which this is possible will be extremely hampered.

Today's modern classrooms encourage students to learn and demonstrate their progress by engaging in these literacies - and usually through the use of technology, the Internet, and information and idea sharing and construction. Teacher's work changes every day and it's a special teacher who can keep up with how kids are learning. I'm thankful to work with the best of these at Peregian Springs - teachers who truly believe in the power of technology, information and thinking; teachers who are not scared to set the boundaries and let kids go; teachers who can say 'I don't know the answer to that and let's find out together'.

Technology in classrooms has enriched all our lives; in many ways our jobs have never been more difficult but none of us care about that when we see kids developing vision, global stewardship and optimism through the practice of self-regulation, agility and pure grit. Technology brings the world into our students' hands and we have an imperative to ensure they have the skills and dispositions to harness the power and privilege that it brings.