Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Learning @ School day one


Well here I am again, my fourth Learning @ School. It is still just as exciting. Seeing over 1100 people in one place who all have a passion for leading learning and implementing ICT is great. I have heard two keynotes so far and it seems there is a focus on the new curriculum this year. Jeremy Kedian, during his keynote, made mention of the difference between managers and leaders which I liked. He said that managers know how to keep schools moving, leaders know how to keep schools moving somewhere.  Listening to his keynote made me think of a few things. Firstly he asked the question "what do you know about learning?" that is quite a difficult question to answer! I thought this would be a good question to use in a workshop and then have participants think about what type of learner they are in line with the new curriculum, key competencies, principals, values, vision and maybe with other thinking tools such as habits of mind. Jeremy Kedian asked "What makes a teacher?" and the answer was "They know about learning" (notice it's not teaching). 
Anyway that's the end of my notes for today. Will try to write some more. This is a very busy L@S for me as I'm attending in two different capacities and feeling rather split down the middle.

4 comments:

Teaching Sagittarian said...

I think you should start a meme, based on Jeremy's keynote, for What do you know about Learning? It would be interesting to compare the differences between comments from all over the world.
I am really missing all of you .... feeling disconnected in a virtually connected kinda way. Enjoy Learning@Schools 08, hopefully I'll see you all next time!

Simon said...

Hey Jane,

I know how you're feeling, that split kinda thing. I saw you wondering a few times when I was too and thought that really we were supposed to be 'somewhere else.... somewhere where learning was happening?'

ps. Sorry I couldn't come up with an amusing L@S podcast for you like Uloin. Not feeling particularly inspired at mo.

Jane Nicholls said...

Thanks guys, Chrissy will we see you at Ulearn? I want to change the blogger's cafe and call it the blogger/twitter cafe :). I think this conference really made me think about "what do you know about learning?" as I think it did for you too Simon. I realised that my focus had changed and the type of learning I was looking for had changed to suit my new circumstances. I also had a sense of mourning for the old learning that I had gathered and not been able to use yet. So to start things of, I think that learning is something you must use, a bit like friendship - you gotta give to get.

Mr Lietze said...

Fantastic question Jane "What makes a Teacher? They know about learning."
I love it when sentences are short but hit the nail on the head.
I wonder if we should go further and say "They (the Teacher) knows about learning and about the learner." Eg: their learning styles, weaknesses and "next steps" to success.