Now we would like to find out what most of the students think about using technology and where emerging tech trends might lead us.  Your ideas, opinions and feelings on the following topics are VERY IMPORTANT.  Please choose one of the scenarios below, explore it and present your input through the post’s comments link.

• Personal Learning

• The New WWW

• Big Brother or Big Mother?

A Vision of Students Today (YouTube Link)

Maybe the era of big lecture rooms is over?  Many people see a new “personal” way of learning as better. Look through the links below.  In each, people either focus on personal learning or how technology  allows students to take the “middleman” out of their learning. Of course the “middleman” means “classroom teachers.”

• One of 14 “Grand Challenges” for engineers for our era: Advance personal learning
• Online Mentors: Tutor.com, Online tutoring pays off at home, abroad, YAHOO Directory
• Open Source Knowledge: MIT OpenCourseware for Students, Stanford on iTunes U, Wikipedia
• Learning the iPod way: The iPod widens its audience in school & Are iPod-banning schools cheating our kids?

Please answer the following question:

How should Oxley College respond to technology’s ability
to promote each individual’s personal learning?

As technology puts the potential for learning in every student’s hands, how can schools still be sure students learn “what’s important.”  In answering the question, you might want to describe “what’s important.”

Technologies seem to be advancing daily.  Below are links to information and videos that show how various groups make use of your “digital trail” or “electronic breadcrumbs.”

• Global companies seem to have access to a lot of information on where you go and what you do: Google profiles & Google Street View
• So can national governments: Intelligent roads & government mobile phone tracking
• Your parents can have the same: GPS tracking, whrrl & Spyware
• And you might want your friends to know what you’re up to all the time: loopt & twitter

So much can be learned about what students do, where they go, what they buy and what interests them, how should schools use this power?

Given that everyone else seems to use your “digital trail,”
how should Oxley College use your  online “breadcrumbs” to help you?

Describe what you think would be good.  Your answer must include the interests of the following groups:

• Your parents
• The School
• Yourself
• Your country

It might help to consider your answer on a continuum that goes from:

complete freedom ————> ————-> to complete surveillance

Or it it….?

What happens when World of WarCraft become World of WarCrack?  Or people play games to death and aren’t good enough to fight.

Do you know people addicted to Facebook, Bebo or MySpace?

What Is Facebook Addiction?

Is Virtual Reality Really What we Want?

Your job is to answer this question:

How should Oxley College care for its students in a world where technology
lets them access “Whatever they want, Whenever and Wherever?”

The College is interested in students’ physical, intellectual and spiritual development.  What should we be doing?

On June the 19th and 20th, over 70 Year 8 and 9 students answered “The CALL: The Celebration of Achievement, Learning and Leadership.” Held in the library, the two-day incursion served as an extension and enrichment opportunity, challenging students to address the question: “What’s happening TODAY and what can we do for our TOMORROW?“

Eager students immersed themselves in a subject of personal interest related to this question.  Some of the diverse topics were sustainability, nanotechnology, dyslexia and life on other planets.  Friday’s task saw students develop creative responses such as slide presentations, animations, videos and even a song.  More important than what the students studied, however, was the self-management of their learning.  An experiment using colour-coded silicone wristbands was trialled to encourage self-direction and seemed to be a success with both students and teachers.

The CALL was prepared by Mrs. Watson and Mr. March, but they had enthusiastic support from Mrs. Fishburn, Miss Rintoul, Mrs. Connor, Mr. Royds and Mr. Fisher who all shared their time and expertise in support of the students’ learning.  A follow-up survey and de-briefings will help teachers learn from the CALL experience and inform how we might provide similar offerings to other groups of students.

Here are links to just a few of the students’ creative responses:

• Cloning - right or wrong? - a flash animation by Harry and Lachlan
• Dyslexia Song - by Jess and Belinda
• Green Energy - a video clip from the EALS
• Sustainable Resources - a multimedia slideshow from Elliot and Stefan

]]> http://oxleylearning.org/cms/2008/07/call08/feed/ http://oxleylearning.org/cms/2008/06/oxley-group-off-to-borneo/ http://oxleylearning.org/cms/2008/06/oxley-group-off-to-borneo/#comments Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:40:12 +0000 TomMarch http://oxleylearning.org/cms/?p=130

This able and energetic group of students will spend the beginning of their holidays trekking and working in the rainforests of Borneo. Organised by the Oxley College Geography Department, the group sets out on a journey that will take then to Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan and points in between. Mr. Freeman will use Oxley’s Borneo Blog to post some communications for parents and then when students return, they can upload their best photos to a group collection. You can access the Borneo Blog directly by going to http://oxleylearning.org/borneo.

Study well and good luck!

Year 8 French students in Mesdames Hurth & Hamilton’s classes have done an excellent job presenting what can be done during five days in glorious Paris. Please come to the entrance of the library to take a closer look.

The students are using photos from their excursion, historic scans, PowerPoint templates and timeline software to present what they learn.