StudentLearning2

=Technology Planning Sub-Committee: Student Learning=

Software
//Current Reality:// a variety of applications on three different platforms are in use across the school division
 * Vision Questions:**
 * Should productivity, communication, collaboration and multimedia applications be standardized across the school division? If so, what applications do you believe are most important for our students' learning needs?

All Desktop Machines: An office suite (word processing, presentation, spreadsheet, draw), commercial and/or division blogging, wiki, photosharing, mindmapping, Google Earth, typing tutor, Multimedia: video editing, audio editing, photo editing and sharing, PAA/CPT: Special Learning Programs: Donna
 * What role should Open Source Apps play in our application deployment? Should school divisions be paying for software licensing costs? What suggestions would you have for Open Source Software? What are the pros and cons of Open Source Software?
 * How have new ways of putting content (blogs, wikis, etc) on the web changed our need for complex web authoring and graphics programs? In which of our programs are these tools still necessary?
 * Web 2.0 tools are changing how we interact with information on the web … we are no longer only consumers but creators. To what extent should these tools be available to our students? Should we rely only on ‘walled gardens’. That is, local installations of Content Management Systems (e.g. Drupal, Joomla) or have a mixture of applications which would include the use of commercial web-based tools such as wikispaces, delicious, the suite of google applications and tools, pbwiki, blogger, wordpress, classblogmeister)
 * //I tend to think of the walled garden more as information that is accessible to only those within the system. WebCT is a good example of a walled garden course management system. Moodle allows for a walled garden or open access. What you describe, and maybe I'm getting into a meaningless semantic difference here, is a choice between locally hosted web services or externally hosted web services. Locally hosted provides the benefit of greater control and customization, with the downside being cost of maintenance and technical support. Externally hosted apps outsource the maintenance and technical support, and many of the apps are free (for now? forever?). Risks of the externally hosted apps can be risks to information privacy (So what does google do with all that information?) and the service disappearing along with all our data. I think that some externally hosted apps may be a viable options - the [|Google application suite] is an example. Sorry if that was off track, or if I've totally mistaken the use of the term walled garden - if that is the case, just delete this. - **rjw**//
 * Rob - your interpretation is exactly what I meant... There are some school divisions that only allow students to use locally hosted web services; others that do not provide them and others that allow both - for example, Regina Public provides Drupal, OpenTap, MediaWiki, and others but teachers can also choose to use externally hosted services as well. Do we need to make a statement one way or the other? **//Donna//**
 * **//We probably should - - I know that students have used blogger here as part of InfoPro. Also, I use it to do the division career guidance site. It's been really stable and easy to use - - Ruth//**

Division-based Resources
//Current Reality//: there are no division-based resources provided //Suggested procedure:// • Establish an online learning resources budget • Solicit teacher requests • Selection is done by a reviewing/selection committee • Access to online resources is available from each school’s website
 * I didn't put a vision question on this point but as I reread I wondered if we should discuss if the division should purchase online resources or should it be left to the school? I believe that we need to provide quality online resources to our students as an alternative to just the free stuff on the web. However, the costs are quite high and probably prohibative for most schools. Donna ||

Student Learning: Information literacy
Current Reality: There are no division-based information literacy benchmarks. Both former LandsWest and the Battlefords School Division have technology checklist in place. //Suggested procedure// For contemplation: //“Are computer applications something that should be taught in a class, or something that should be learned by the students, independent of a class curriculum?“ I guess what keeps tugging at my thoughts is the idea that anyone who can figure out how to play World of Warcraft or The SIMS can probably figure out how to use a word processor. They probably will not learn all of the features that they might be taught in a class, but if you can figure out the basics, then any other specific feature is only as far away as a little time at figuring it out.// David Warlik (2Cents Worth)
 * Broad information literacy benchmarks (based on the newly revised ISTE [|NETS]) are established by a division-based information literacy committee
 * Division teachers create exemplars of instructional technology used within all grade levels and subject areas which are then shared within the school division
 * Division mandates that the Provincial Technology Curriculum (being written) be utilized by all teachers. A monitoring process would include: **When will this be released? What do we do in the mean time? - Brian.**
 * A walk-through of randomly selected classrooms to observe the effective use of technology
 * Supervision lesson plans which include the instructional use of technology
 * Internet Safety (safe, responsible and ethical use) becomes a mandated series of grade- appropriate lessons taught across the K – 9 curriculum)
 * Each school’s annual goal submission document would include a strong information literacy component
 * Vision Questions**:
 * Should ‘technology literacy’ classes be phased out?
 * If technology/information literacy skills were an integral part of all course content would this eliminate the need for full class instruction in computer labs at the elementary level?

Just wanted to update David's comment with another posting, [|More About Computer Applications], from his blog where he summarizes some of the comments from the conversation that generated from the post above and an accompanying poll he had placed on his blog. > I don't think the missing component in most of our schools is word processing or document sharing, the areas we currently lack at the elementary level are multimedia tools (photo, video, and audio editing are completly absent with the exception of an early version of the GIMP). The solution to this software problem is completely hardware dependant. -Mark
 * I do think that at the elementary level, technology/information literacy skills are best embedded as part of course content. This does not preclude the need for a continuum of benchmarks in this area, but would help to avoid a "disembodied" approach. After all, most of us learn to use a particular application or skill because we have a need or because it makes sense to us in a real-life situation. I guess that I favour a constructivist approach where students are allowed to make some choices and to bring the skills that the have already obtained elsewhere to their lives in the classroom.
 * Even at the secondary level where it is necessary to teach specific applications on a whole-class basis, there is still a lot of room for constructivst, real-life application of these skills. I know in our school, students have done projects such as designing flyers and business cards for non-profit groups and businesses within the community; teaching senior citizens (during class time as well as after school) to use various applications and designing websites for the local museum. There should definitely be a formum to share such ideas and to mentor one another on a division basis. - - Ruth

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