Murray

Murray

As there do not appear to be any guiding questions I guess I will just ramble.

I found the conference interesting. The workshops I attended were predominantly around the use of 'i-devices" in the classroom. I was encouraged at the quality of learning tools available to students via these devices.

The main messages I got were:
 * that a few applications of excellent quality are of more value than many apps with questionable educational benifit.
 * that if a school is to consider implementing the use of devices in the classroom that there are several factors to consider first, such as community consultation, school philosophy, where money is spent in the school (paper vs wireless network and projectors etc), professional development, how do you introduce them (e.g. new year 9 first etc), who is in charge of monitoring the program, how do you approach student misuse.

While there are many other factors, the main message seemed to be spend time planning (1-3 years if necessary).

I will be interested to read any reports that come out of Orewa College and other learning institutions that have implemented compulsory i-devices this year.

I am personally in favour of running an idevice program within our school, as I believe that if it is managed well it can have an extremely positive effect on the teaching and learning within our school.

Murray