Sunday, August 27, 2006
Computelec Conference
Last week over a three day period from Sunday through to Tuesday, Computelec held a conference down at the Erskine Hotel in Lorne. The conference was hosted by companies including Toshiba, Wacom and Adobe and encompassed broad themes and ideas.
Singapore
A few of the more interesting themes to emerge from the conference was the work originating from Singapore, both in their schools and their educational research facilities. Quite broadly, the presenters spoke about digital natives (those born into a world of computers and mobile phones) and digital immigrants (the rest of us who are over 21). They argued that there is now evidence that the brain structure of digital natives is different from digital immigrants. That's right - the brain structure! Now that's a pretty amazing bit of research. The implications though are more serious. Basically:
- We need to develop new pedagogies to cater for rewired brains
- throw out the textbooks
- create new ways of student/teacher interaction
- use games, blogs, wikis, mobile phones and anything else remotely resembling a handheld to teach this new generation of digitally wired students.
- Accept the fact that you are an old fogey and probably will never understand the digital natives no matter how hard you try - you're brain just isn't in the same league!
While the above statement might sound a bit harsh it can also help explain some of the frustration of trying to get kids to stay focused and on task. We all mutter, "I don't understand, these kids just don't work in school like they used too." The answer to this is get used to it. Evolve or retire - it will only get worse.
There's no need to get depressed though, in fact it came as a sort of relief to me because I've been arguing for a while to various colleagues/friends/family members who will listen (and they usually switch off when I start with the line, "schools don't work anymore"). Now I feel vindicated because these researchers in Singapore, along with several schools, have been trialing mobile devices and tablet PC's with software called virtual classroom to discover a more effective way of delivering material because the old way, of teacher in front of classes regurgitating information, is no longer working. Singapore is really forging ahead with education and technology programs. The government spends buckets of money on their greatest resource - the people. Quite the opposite of what our government wants to do.
It was all very exciting and made me want to pack my bags and head for Singapore. Anyway, you can read more about their research following this link: http://www.nie.edu.sg/nieweb/index.do
WACOM
Apart from the Singapore people there were quite a few workshops presented by people all over Australia. None of these workshops were of any particular note except perhaps for the Wacom tablet with Bluetooth. Wacom technology is constantly improving and I was impressed by the new tablet and how smooth it was working in Illustrator and Photoshop. I also trialed a toshiba tablet with a dual core processor which was very smooth too. I've been using a Fujitsu supplied by my school but without a dual core processor it lags and is quite irritating.
ADOBE
There was also a speaker from Adobe who showed some student work submitted by teachers in America. I told her later though that she should speak at a Multimedia conference because most of what she showed the IT contingent fell on deaf ears. She kept saying, does anyone here use Flash or Dreamweaver. Only myself and a couple of others did and I felt that if Adobe wants to get serious about student work then they need to talk to teachers who actually use their software (which is generally anyone teaching Multimedia). I pulled her aside later and said I had some student work that I'd like to show her. She was very keen and I've sent off a CD. If there is anyone else out there who would like to send Adobe their student work then let me know and I'll give you the address.
All in all, it was a well run conference but apart from the demonstrated work from Singapore there was nothing too new. Just a bunch of teachers telling others the benefits of using particular technology. I think conferences are much better if they are hands on and you come away inspired with a set of lesson plans. It was a nice break from work though.
Singapore
A few of the more interesting themes to emerge from the conference was the work originating from Singapore, both in their schools and their educational research facilities. Quite broadly, the presenters spoke about digital natives (those born into a world of computers and mobile phones) and digital immigrants (the rest of us who are over 21). They argued that there is now evidence that the brain structure of digital natives is different from digital immigrants. That's right - the brain structure! Now that's a pretty amazing bit of research. The implications though are more serious. Basically:
- We need to develop new pedagogies to cater for rewired brains
- throw out the textbooks
- create new ways of student/teacher interaction
- use games, blogs, wikis, mobile phones and anything else remotely resembling a handheld to teach this new generation of digitally wired students.
- Accept the fact that you are an old fogey and probably will never understand the digital natives no matter how hard you try - you're brain just isn't in the same league!
While the above statement might sound a bit harsh it can also help explain some of the frustration of trying to get kids to stay focused and on task. We all mutter, "I don't understand, these kids just don't work in school like they used too." The answer to this is get used to it. Evolve or retire - it will only get worse.
There's no need to get depressed though, in fact it came as a sort of relief to me because I've been arguing for a while to various colleagues/friends/family members who will listen (and they usually switch off when I start with the line, "schools don't work anymore"). Now I feel vindicated because these researchers in Singapore, along with several schools, have been trialing mobile devices and tablet PC's with software called virtual classroom to discover a more effective way of delivering material because the old way, of teacher in front of classes regurgitating information, is no longer working. Singapore is really forging ahead with education and technology programs. The government spends buckets of money on their greatest resource - the people. Quite the opposite of what our government wants to do.
It was all very exciting and made me want to pack my bags and head for Singapore. Anyway, you can read more about their research following this link: http://www.nie.edu.sg/nieweb/index.do
WACOM
Apart from the Singapore people there were quite a few workshops presented by people all over Australia. None of these workshops were of any particular note except perhaps for the Wacom tablet with Bluetooth. Wacom technology is constantly improving and I was impressed by the new tablet and how smooth it was working in Illustrator and Photoshop. I also trialed a toshiba tablet with a dual core processor which was very smooth too. I've been using a Fujitsu supplied by my school but without a dual core processor it lags and is quite irritating.
ADOBE
There was also a speaker from Adobe who showed some student work submitted by teachers in America. I told her later though that she should speak at a Multimedia conference because most of what she showed the IT contingent fell on deaf ears. She kept saying, does anyone here use Flash or Dreamweaver. Only myself and a couple of others did and I felt that if Adobe wants to get serious about student work then they need to talk to teachers who actually use their software (which is generally anyone teaching Multimedia). I pulled her aside later and said I had some student work that I'd like to show her. She was very keen and I've sent off a CD. If there is anyone else out there who would like to send Adobe their student work then let me know and I'll give you the address.
All in all, it was a well run conference but apart from the demonstrated work from Singapore there was nothing too new. Just a bunch of teachers telling others the benefits of using particular technology. I think conferences are much better if they are hands on and you come away inspired with a set of lesson plans. It was a nice break from work though.
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