The 21st Century Connected School

 

This is the on-line handout from my presentation at today’s SCSSA, The Twenty First Century Connected School Presentation. I had been asked to speak about some of my work connecting to local education partners.

Below is a slideshare presentation of the key slides from the presentations and also the links to notes and  a number key points.

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21^st Century Connected Schools rely on 21^st Century Connected Teachers and Leaders.

How do you connect? For a 21^st Century teacher or leader information is important.

So, how do you get information? Talk, collaborate, read, watch, browse, steal, the Internet?

How do you search the internet? Google Advanced Search, Quintura (the visual search), Google Scholar, Google News, there are lots of others. To find out more information about Searching the Internet click here.

 

What new tools are available for teaching, leading, learning and connecting?

 

1. Alerts / Internet Catching

Why search when you can get information sent to you as it is posted on line. Have you tried Google Alerts?

2. RSS

Would you rather walk to the shop everyday to get your paper or get it delivered to your door, for free? Have you heard of RSS or a feed reader such as Google Reader? This will help you bring useful websites into one place and could save you hours.

This video makes RSS easy to understand (You Tube Video Below):

3. Social Bookmarking

Constantly loosing things on your desk? Does the IT department wipe all your bookmarks each summer? Do you forget where you stored your bookmarks? Was it on your work PC? Your Laptop or your home desktop? Did you find the link in a cyber café? Have you hear or used social book marking such as del.ico.us or Google Bookmarks? If not this little video makes it easy to understand (You Tube Video Below):

4. Personalisation

Why would you want to have to visit your email, your RSS feed reader or your bookmarks each day? That’s a waste of time and teachers always complain about a lack of time! Why don’t you just set up your own home page and have everything appear there? Have you heard of iGoogle or Pageflakes?

 

5. Mobile

Still not convinced that this will save you time? Start using Google Mobile for any of the above and check your personalised home page in the dinner cue or during a management meeting!

 

6. How do you connect with parents?

One way to connect with families is to find an initiative that interests them, helps educate young people and supports the learning and teaching philosophy of the school. In the Musselburgh Cluster we have piloted a successful Internet Safety Initiative. For more information on this initiative click here.

 

7. How do you connect with children?

Teachers are experts at connecting with children. But can all teachers connect with ‘modern day’ children? Is there such a thing as ‘modern day’ or are children the same as they were 5, 10, 20 years ago?

One way to connect with children is through the use of play. This has been used in education systems for 100’s of years. Computer games are one form of modern play and now have the potential to accompany traditional play within schools.

The LTS Consolarium provides some excellent links for using computer games in education.

 

8. How do you connect with staff?

This is how we have done it in East Lothian – have a look at eduBuzz.

 

 

Comments

[Alan Parkinson]

Some excellent ideas here Ollie, as always. Once I start my new job (if not before...) I'll be in touch to pick your brains...

[OllieBray]

Any time Mr Parkinson - I didn't know that you had a new job. I must have missed that. What will you be up to? OB

[David Gilmour]

Thanks for the plug! ;)