The biggest EdTech event in Australia is held each June in Sydney with over 8000 people attending. The vendor floor is a sight to behold with hundreds of displays, designs and demonstrations.
Some big ideas:
Transformation is about people - how do we transform the way staff feel about and use technology?
There is a real sense that transformation is about culture and a tipping point has arrived where the engines of the future are reaching critical mass.
The plural of anecdote is not data
We have IQ EQ and now DQ (the digital quotient)
Digital citizenship- Relevance is key for students, needs to be embedded across the curriculum
Kids are not addicted to the device or the internet but the social connection
Carolyn Taylor https://www.walkingthetalk.com/ gave a fantastic talk about aligning culture with strategy
Culture - patterns of behaviour that are encouraged, discouraged or tolerated by people and systems over time
What culture do you want? Curiosity? Collaboration? Courage? Kindness? Excellence?
What behaviours are most important to building the culture you want? Choose only one at a time!
Sir Ken Robinson is amazing. Although the message has not changed, there is hope that things are changing
Where are students in our org chart?
You have to fix the right problem! Education is a complex adaptive system. Everyone has agency!
Play is important - the system creates the problems not the kids
Our current systems are based on the industrial - linear, standardised and focus on output
We have degraded the culture of learning
Pasi Sahlberg
Let the children play!
Student voice should not just be the top students - how do we capture every student's voice?
Feedback walls?
Trips to other schools
Ask them to design spaces
I saw some nice uses of Minecraft - developing student literacy through creating and storyboarding stories in Minecraft
Here is a good case for passphrases
The hacking session I did by Martha McKeen was great - clear, practical advice on cyber security
This challenge would be excellent for students to engage with:
A school in Bali (opening soon in NZ) based on environmental entrepreneurship https://www.greenschool.org/about/
Clare Amos gave an insightful keynote on preparing for a future that is rapidly arriving and the danger of doing nothing and accepting status-quo.
The so called "21st Century skills" have actually been around for a while! But I think they are more valued than ever before in the modern workplace
