The TEDxGympie event is next week. I have been watching various TED Talks to understand what makes these events different to other events (“talkfests” my husband calls them, in the nicest way).
I’ve presented at various industry events, TAFE events, staff forums, classrooms, even family Christmases 🙂
But this one will be different. personable. meaningful to me. a goal.
I intend to use the language equation as presented by Melissa Marshall in ‘Talk nerdy to me” I’ve read up on “Is there such a things as a good Power Point?” and converted my Prezi for this event into a Power Point for ease of timing on the day for the techno guy (backward technology, but you go with what works for the user on the day)
sisters
The theme for this event is ‘innovation in rural communities’.
I’ve lived in rural communities for most of my life; where connectivity to the rest of the world can be filtered through the journalist at the local newspaper; and more recently the bandwidth of the ADSL internet. Rural folk are hardy; they survive drought, flood, poverty and loneliness. They are innovative by nature, adapting through a need of sustainability.
My presentation is grouped under a series of speakers in the topic ‘Closer than you think’, and I am going to relate distance education with technology.
Fred
The age of the internet has enabled innovation where none would have been conceived in my childhood, and has changed the face of teaching and learning. My Father-in-law, Fred, said ‘You don’t realise how old you are until your entire school has been relocated to a museum’ – the one room primary state school he attended at Sunny Creek, Victoria, in the 1930’s is now at http://www.gippslandheritagepark.com.au/. At 94 yrs old, he is the last surviving pupil in his class. He is not technophobic though, can use a Kindle to read, and talk via Skype with my daughter, who lives in Moranbah, QLD. One day we took him to watch the kite-surfers off Elliott Heads, and he said in awe “When did they invent THAT?!” 🙂
Until recently (and still the case for some courses), when you enrolled in distance learning you were posted a workbook. You followed the instructions, completed the paperwork and sent it back to the teacher. When the vocational education moved to competency based outcomes, teachers wouldn’t accept you were competent unless they could actually see you perform the task. The geographic distances in Australia meant some learners never graduated as they couldn’t get to the teacher.
video glasses for assessment
The internet evolution has moved teachers and students closer together. One of my first Prezis is on remote assessment and the use of personal video glasses. Not only has it improved access to education, but it also strengthens teaching via social networks, collaboration, open source sharing, and good feedback. I now ask teachers “If you are not on LinkedIn, where are you?” (I’ll blog about this topic another time).
As technology is integrated into our lives until it is invisible and expected, so will learning and teaching change. The Sydney Morning Herald recently reported on where a certain High School has made iPads compulsory.
Future classes may even be paperless, and handwriting a specialist skill. Will we have future adults who sign their name with a ‘X’ as they can’t write? Perhaps this won’t even be considered the future illiteracy of society.
E-teaching 